Will, The Man In Black

ו' שבט תשס"ט
Imbolgen 6

Two divinations and two dreams.

First, erev shabbat I drew the pentacle card from my Well Worn Path deck. The pentacle card speaks to the ideas of stability, foundation, endurance, fortitude, manifestation within the physical world, and draws creative energy into active expression. Thus, kabbalistically the protective pentacle represents ateret hayesod, the foundation of malchut.

Then, to see what was 'in the air' (for which I drew the protective pentacle card), I drew three hebrew letter cards. They were עקו, a word from the root עקה meaning: 1) to enclose, 2) press in, and 3) fence in. Associated in my mind with these meanings were three ideas: 1) a witch's circle, 2) the midnight death of the firstborn as in this week's Torah portion (I am a firstborn individual), and 3) a fence for Torah.

I went to sleep and dreamt.

To press in.

It was night in my parents' [1] house where I am staying. The time was the present time. A white woman thug was trying break down the door, pressing to get in to kill us. I put my body against the frame of the door to block her entrance. It was a mighty struggle, the door popped off its hinges as she pressed in and I pressed out. Nevertheless, I managed to get the deadbolt locked against her. Somehow, in my pressing out against the door and throwing my weight against it, I threw her backwards - away from the door, off the large porch and into the yard. The white woman thug landed on her rearend on the ground.

The witch's circle.

I woke up, and got up out of bed. I smudged the house, particularly the door of the dream, with dragon's blood incense. Then, I cast a magic witch's circle around the home and all my family members, my place of employment and co-workers, and all our systems of support. After considering the hebrew letter card hei (ה), I instead put the hebrew letter card shin (ש) by my bedroom altar [2.a]. Though, according to midrash, the letter hei is the protective letter put on the doorposts of the Hebrews during the midnight massacre of the Exodus, I already had a protective pentacle [2] present. Moreover, the letter hei is a letter of receptive manifestion, and I had no intention of 'receiving' death. Thus, I instead chose the projective letter shin of the mezuzah. I also reinforced to my gargoyle to remain at his station, guarding the closet. Then, I went back to sleep and dreamt again.

A fence for Torah.

It was night. I was currently living in my aunt's [1] house with my three children when they were little (I have never lived in the house of my aunt - my father's sister, which is next door to my parents' house, in real life - and the house of the dream was actually a combination of her house and a house I used to live in when I was a young mother). Thus, this represents a mixture of time past and present.

I saw outside the kitchen window four black male thugs with knives making noise by the fence which runs between the house (of my aunt) and the house of my parents. (I have never had any problem with 'black male thugs' in real life and the only connection I can find to this detail is in this recent post of a video performance of Racheim linked to from DovBear.) They had walked on the fence and slid down it into the yard, and were preparing 'to rumble', to break into the house via the bedroom windows. They were going to storm the house and kill us all. There were too many of them - four of them against one of me. I couldn't use my body to block all the windows and doors against each of them. I was only one individual, while they were four individuals. So, while they were preparing to rumble, I packed up my children, and from another side of the house, I hurried us into my car and drove off. When they broke in to kill us, we wouldn't be there. We had already escaped as they danced in the dark with their knives in hand, in ritual preparation to slaughter us.

It was now daytime. We were driving the highways, moving from place to place across country to escape the male Green Hulk monster which was now trying to find and kill us, since we had escaped the four black male thugs. Every time I sensed the Green Hulk was getting close to finding us, we moved on in my car to another place.

We were on the highway when the Green Hulk finally spotted my car. It landed on the car as I drove. I had attached a flying 'shuttle craft' to the hood of my car, in preparation for just such an event as the Green Hulk finding us in our travels to escape it. The plan was to evacuate us from the car through the roof into the shuttle craft and fly away, leaving the Green Hulk to break into an empty car. But, the Green Hulk, not to be fooled that way again like the four male thugs at the house, had intuited that plan - I knew it - and he had broken stealthily into the shuttle craft to await and kill us when we evacuated the car as we had the house. He didn't know I knew he knew. We didn't evacuate into the shuttle craft. Instead, I drove under an low hanging overpass and cut the shuttle craft off the roof of the car. I drove on with my kids, and the shuttle craft lay splintered open on the road behind us. I saw a group of people standing there on the road, surrounding the broken vessel from which the Green Hulk emerged. One among them administered an injection to him and he morphed back into human form as he lay disoriented in the road. I saw a seam come together on his right arm as he temporarily morphed back into human form on account of the injection. Nevertheless, it wasn't over yet.

I was in a public place, among a group of people. It was again the present time (as opposed to when my children were little). Suddenly, a clearing formed, leaving me in the middle of the clearing. Again suddenly, a large crate-like box dropped down from the air as a 'gift' for me. It had dropped into the clearing near but behind me. I knew what was in the crate. The Green Hulk (the injected medicine having worn off) was in the crate - he was going to bust out and kill me in front of everybody. There was no escaping him this time. There was no vehicle of escape. I was surrounded by people. So, despite that I had not the brute strength to defend myself against him and would likely be killed, nevertheless, I turned to face the crate. I stood up straight and faced the crate, to meet him face to face when he busted out. I girded myself for the likely fatal encounter.

Suddenly, a Man dressed in all Black [2.b] dropped from the air between myself and the crate. He placed himself between the crate with the Green Hulk in it and me. The Man in Black was named Will. He was my Jewish ancestor Will Grunwald, and he had dark blonde hair like me (and like him, I too was dressed in all Black). With Will there and I behind him, the crate was sealed with the Green Hulk trapped in it unable to escape. Will had captured the Green Hulk and was going to reveal the Green Hulk's identity before the whole group of people who had gathered around to watch me be slain. With the group's attention focused on the revelation of the Green Hulk's identity, the 'woman behind him' (behind the Green Hulk) sought to sneak away from being also found out. But, I saw her. She tried to sneak out through the back of the crowd through a side door. But, I saw her. She did not escape unnoticed. And I had not been slain as the woman had anticipated I would be.

I woke up.

Footnotes:

[1] Yocheved was the aunt and wife of Amram. Yocheved and Amram are the parents of Moshe. In this dream, the two houses I live in are those of my parents and of my aunt (in combination with my own). Thus, in this dream, I am the Moses principle.

[2] A pentacle has six (שש - a/b) revealed elements - it is a intertwined five-pointed star encompassed by a circle. A pentagram has five revealed elements - an intertwined five-pointed star.

[3] In contrast to the blue dream of four sisters, the colors associated with this dream are white, black and green.

Protective 'Mistakes' Of The Tafsaret

כ'ז באייר תשס"ח
Mab 28

In follow-up to my previous entry (Video Vault On Fire At Universal Studios), I note that Reb Gutman Locks of Mystical Paths writes regarding mezuzot:

To understand, as least on a basic level, why it appears that G-d is smiting people because of their sofer’s mistakes, remember the principle “portion across from portion” (mida kenegid mida). Everything comes according to its measure and for a good reason. Certainly you know that there are no accidents in the world. We may not be able to always understand why any particular thing comes to us, but we do know that it all comes for a good reason.

Agreed.

When something happens to your hand, (seemingly good or bad), you have to ask, “Why did this come to my hand?” In order to be able to understand why that happened to you, remember that it had to come because of something that you did with your hand, not with your foot, or any other part of your body. Otherwise, what hope would there be of ever being able to guide your life? G-d runs the world by the principle of mida keneged mida for this very reason—so we will be able to understand the consequences of our actions. The consequences must reflect the actions.

Why did the man in our story choose that sofer (scribe)? Why did he get that particular mezuzah? All this came for a reason. To lose sight of this is to believe in a random, chaotic world with haphazard results flying down upon our heads.

Agreed.

As far as “magically” changing the mezuzahs, remember the story of Elisha, Master of Wings (Shabbos 49a)? He was caught by the Romans wearing his tefillin when there was a life threatening ban against wearing them. He quickly took off the head piece of his tefillin and tried to conceal it in his cupped hands. When the Roman soldier, threatening his life, asked him what was in his hands, he said that it was a dove. The soldier forced him to open his hands, and sure enough there was a live dove there. Did G-d magically change his tefillin into a living bird? Surely He changed it into the bird, but not with magic.

Clearly, disagreed.

From older entries on the tafsaret:

With a gematria of 358, tafsaret (טפסרט) is a rare type of sofer; tafsaret is a feminine scribal artisan described by a Hebrew word of Sumerian roots. From the language of ancient Sumer [1], sar means "write". Taf means "board". The Hebrew verb root סרט carries the meanings of "script", "a tool for designing" and "marking" [2].

The letters of tafsaret contain the root (ספר) of the word sofer (scribe סופר). Yet tafsaret also contains two letters ט in addition to the root letters of ha-sofer. These two letters ט have a combined gematria of 18 (חי) - thereby bestowing "life" into the scribal writing of tafsaret. Specifically, the two additional letters of חי represent the chayah and yechidah soul levels which pertain to actualizing messianic consciousness.

Footnotes:

[1] How The Hebrew Language Grew, Edward Horowitz
[2] Maskilon 1, Hebrew-English Dictionary based on Verb Roots, Abraham Solomonick and David Morrison

The Witch's Domain

Placement of a witch's mezuzot (athame and boline) would be like the nun m’zuneret and the nun hafucha as one might see them looking toward a transparent door from the inside. Bamidbar 10:35-36

י"ז בסיון תשס"ז

In past posts, I've described the parallel function shared between a Judaic mezuzah and a witch's athame (black-handled ritual knife). Without going into the details, in my dream last night it was actually my witch's boline (white-handled ritual knife) which functioned like a mezuzah.

In contrast to the athame which spiritually hangs just like a mezuzah as one enters a door on the upper right side, the boline hung in my dream on the inside, as one might exit a door on the lower right side (opposite and upside down from an athame-mezuzah on the same door like might be seen if the door was transparent).

An athame is not used for physical cutting, but for directing energy. A boline is more utilitarian, and is used for cutting and carving.

Thus, an athame is the tool a witch uses to redirect away unwanted energy before it enters into her domain.

Once an energy is allowed inside, honestly or through being deceived, the boline cuts and carves it into an acceptable form. Consequently, even should an uncalled but accepted energy make its way inside by deception, a true witch is not unprotected. The boline is available for use should she need to cut and carve the energy to fit a proper purpose. Once inside a witch's domain, the energy no longer has a life of it's own. It has the life the witch gives it.

Technorati tags: Torah Talmud Torah Judaism Kabbalah jewish mysticism mysticism jewish meditation meditation shamanism kabbalah iyunit kabbalah maasit witchcraft jewitchery jewitch witch sacred feminine divine feminine shechinah lilith spiritual development spirituality kosher spirituality boline mezuzah

Garlic - Eka Power & Spiritual Clarity

כ"ז בשבט תשס"ז

Garlic (שום) numbers among the many botanicals I have in my magickal herb drawer. Garlic is a masculine herb, bound to fire and Mars, and associated with the goddess Hekate, the goddess of eka power, the power of magickal speech and of unity.

Like a mezuzah is fixed on a doorpost, so too is the spirit of garlic fixed above and below the earth [1]. In other words, the protective spirit inhered within garlic surrounds the earth in its uber and mundane entirety, as above so below. The physical botanical is another link (creating the possibility of a circuit) into the Divine power inhered within it. So mote it be.

Garlic has also been used to guard against the plague, protect against shipwreck, repel thieves, and remove negative vibrations which might contaminate food. Importantly, garlic is also used to absorb disease and protect against hepatitis. [2]

Hepatitis is disease and inflammation of the liver. The liver is the primary organ of the body responsible for purifying and detoxifying the blood. Thus, garlic is an aid to ensure detoxified healthy blood - and by extention of blood's perfusion throughout body tissues - to health throughout the entire body. Blood is the physiological system corresponding to Binah (Understanding). Thus, garlic guards and maintains the purity of understanding, insight and mental-spiritual clarity.

Footnotes:

[1] שום is Hebrew for garlic. The root means "fixing a place", "arrange", "there", "toward a place", "setting a name", "heavens" and "space above and below earth". Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, R' Matityahu Clark, (p. 258)

[2] Encyclopedia Of Magickal Herbs, Scott Cunningham (p. 122-3)

Technorati tags: Torah Talmud Torah Judaism Kabbalah jewish mysticism mysticism jewish meditation meditation shamanism jewish shamanism kabbalah iyunit kabbalah maasit jewitchery jewitch jewish woman sacred feminine divine feminine shechinah lilith spiritual development spirituality kosher spirituality

Mishkan, Circle Of Protection

Ashnistrike commented regarding my entry Athame & Mezuzah (also posted on my blogs), writing:

I'll just say that as someone who uses both an athame and a mezuzah, I'm interested in the possible connections that can be drawn between them. Do you integrate this connection into any of your practices?

In practice, I only use the athame presently. My mezuzot are stored away in a chest. When I became a ba'alat teshuvah over a decade ago, my professional livelihood was deliberately destroyed. I've stayed with relatives for the past several years. I can't put up a mezuzah.

Of course, I'm sure my enemies are quite pleased with the fact that I can't put up a mezuzah. Nevertheless, I don't need it. It's like all the other rituals tools - the only real tool a witch needs is herself. I truly know this now.

A few days ago I had a vision of a metaphysical fist being flung toward me, and of it being deflected by an invisible shield around me. I was only able to "see" the shielding force by the "reverberations" in spacetime and shapeshifting coming off the dark light (which the shield was made of) as the striking fist impacted against the field which surrounded me. I never take my circle down. It goes with me wherever I go.

And every shabbat and with every ritual, I reinforce it.

Technorati tags: Torah Talmud Torah Judaism Kabbalah jewish mysticism mysticism jewish meditation meditation shamanism jewish shamanism kabbalah iyunit kabbalah maasit jewitchery jewitch jewish woman sacred feminine divine feminine shechinah lilith spiritual development spirituality kosher spirituality circlecasting

Mezuzah & Pentacle, Directing Divine Energy

Today I received my first silver pentacle. It looks like the one in the graphic on the left. Now I have both a gold magen David and a silver pentacle. Soon, I will receive the Jewitch star I purchased which combines them both.

Previously I described how the Jewish mezuzah and the Celtic witch's athame (ritual dagger) are both related to the "blood sign" of the exodus through the hebrew letters of mezuzah (מזוזה) and through the mythology of both. Interestingly, the witch's pentacle is even more directly related to mitzvah of mezuzah.

On the back of the parchment within a mezuzah is the esoteric inscription:

KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU
כוזו במוכסז כוזו

Moshe Idel (Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia) writes regarding this enigmatic phrase and its connection to the pentacle:

In many manuscripts we find a passage that contains a pentagram, and alongside it is written: ‘This is the Maaseh Merkavah KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU’, and under these letters is written: YHVH ELHYNU YHVH.

A pentagram is the star of five points with a five-sided geometrical shape in its center. A pentacle is a pentagram encircled [1]. As the pentagram clearly corresponds to KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU, the pentacle likewise corresponds to YHVH ELHYNU YHVH.

Given the connection of the witch's pentacle to Abulafian hebrew letter kabbalah (which I have uniquely practiced for nearly a decade), I can see now that my interest in Jewitchery is a very natural development of my kabbalistic learning. Moreover, in light of the fact that the witch's pentacle and athame are both connected to the mitzvah of mezuzah, when I acquire my athame later this week, I intend to inscribe upon its blade KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU, in hebrew letters (one side, with a pentacle also) and YHVH ELHYNU YHVH in letters of the celtic ogham (the other side, with a magen David also).

hebrew KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU
כוזו במוכסז כוזו

celtic ogham YHVH ELHYNU YHVH


Note the >-feather (eite) of the ogham line which denotes the "beginning" and direction of writing. This characteristic mark at the left end of an ogham line is like a mystical extention of the tip of the athame. In other words, the essential "energy" of YHVH ELHYNU YHVH is being directed beyond the tip of the blade when used in ritual. Thus, the athame inscribed as discussed above, which as an extention of the witch herself, is used not only to project and direct mystical kavanah, but to direct Divine Energy as well.

Footnote:

[1] The Craft, Dorothy Morrison (p. 84)

Technorati tags: Torah Talmud Torah Judaism Kabbalah jewish mysticism mysticism jewish meditation meditation shamanism jewish shamanism kabbalah iyunit kabbalah maasit jewitchery jewitch jewish woman sacred feminine divine feminine shechinah lilith spiritual development spirituality kosher spirituality pentacle mezuzah athame abulafia

Mezuzah & Athame

Rabbi Yosil Rosenzweig writes regarding the mitzvah of mezuzah and the oht (sign) of blood:

The Mitzvah of Mezuzah is actually commanded in Devarim 6:9. But in Shemot 12:3-15 the reason for the Mitzvah is explained: "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month each person shall take for themselves a lamb or a kid, for each household...[on] the fourteenth of this month, the entire congregation of the assembly of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon. They shall take some of its blood and place it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they will eat...I shall go through Egypt on this night, and I shall strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to beast; and against all gods of Egypt I shall mete out punishment. The blood shall be a SIGN for you upon the house where you are; when I see the blood I shall PASSOVER you; there shall not be a plague of destruction upon you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a remembrance for you and you shall celebrate it..."

An Oht (a sign) is significant because it is a reminder of an act that occurred before the eyes of the entire nation.

The mezuzah (מזוזה), representing the protective blood sign, is spelled with two letters zayin. The two letters zayin united together (זוז) within one word for the Jewish ritual item upon the doorpost is like "one dagger of double edges (זוז) of her (מה)." In other words, the "blood sign" on the doorpost which protects a Jew's home in mitzrayim is a woman's double-edged dagger. The contemplative power to "connect and interrelate all elements within creation", bringing down Divine Will into Understanding, is a function of the letter vav which forms the spine of the dagger of double-edges.

The witch's double-edged ritual dagger is called an athame (pronounced a-tham-ay). Silver Ravenwolf writes regarding the Celtic history of the athame [1]:

We know from Celtic history that, for a time, their weaponry through use of iron was far superior to their contemporaries, and that they were feared because of it. We also know that such folklore practices as hanging a knife above a door to cut any negativity that might enter the home (which means that the knives were not used to physically cut, but to defend on the astral plane) were highly popular in that culture.

A witch's athame is never ever used to draw blood. If it ever does, it becomes ritually unfit and can never be used again. It must be buried. Thus, in ancient Celtic culture the protecting blood sign upon the door was a double edged dagger which never draws blood. In other words, like the mezuzah, it is a protective blood sign which never draws blood.

Putting these ideas together, we can see that the Jewish ritual mezuzah and the Celtic ritual athame both refer to the same essence of spiritual protection - to guard the house from all negative influences that might attempt to enter it. Even the construct of the word mezuzah contains within it the idea of a woman's double-edged dagger as the protective device.

Footnote:

[1] Solitary Witchcraft, Silver Ravenwolf (p. 125)

Technorati tags: Torah Talmud Torah Judaism Kabbalah jewish mysticism mysticism jewish meditation meditation shamanism jewish shamanism kabbalah iyunit kabbalah maasit jewitchery jewitch jewish woman sacred feminine divine feminine shechinah lilith spiritual development spirituality kosher spirituality athame mezuzah exodus geulah