Trainee Golem Builder

Golem Building: Sources Part 1

2012-02-24T11:37:00.001Z

For someone who claims to be a Trainee Golem Builder, I spend a remarkably small amount of time talking about how to create Golems. Trying to excuse it by saying that in a similar way “to become a neuroscience you have to know a lot about medicine” – so becoming a golem builder requires a lot of knowledge of Jewish mysticism and magic… is well a bit of a cop out.

To rectify that I’ve located my notes written 3 years ago on golem building and will over the next couple of months start updating and posting some of that information. If there is an interest in an audio lecture on this topic, that can be arranged. However, since people tend not to value things that are free as much as those they have to pay for – the lecture would be available for a small fee.

Anyway, here is a list of sources used for the lecture:

Bibliography

“Golem: Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid (SUNY Series in Judaica)” - Professor Moshe Idel
“The Idea of the Golem” by Professor Gershom Scholem (see “On the Kabbalah and its Symbolism (Mysticism & Kabbalah)”)
“Sefer Yetsirah” translation and commentary by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
“Jewish Meditation” by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan
“Jewish Magic/Myth and Superstition” by Trachtenburg
“Jewish Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism” by Rabbi Geoffrey W. Dennis
Mendy & the Golem comics
“Mind, Body and Soul: Kabbalah on Human Physiology, Disease and Healing” by Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburg

Plus a couple of extracts from the Talmud (Jewish oral law, recorded in final form in 450-550 common era) that mention golems:

Talmud Sanhedrin 38b
Rabbi Yochanan the son of Chanina said, The day’s length is twelve hours, The first hour, dust was gathered. The second hours it [Adam] was kneaded into a shapeless form (Golem). The third hour, his limbs were stretched out. The fourth hour a soul was cast into him. The fifth hour he stood on his feet…

Talmud Sanhedrin 65b
Rava said: “If the righteous wished, they could create a world, for it is written: ‘Your inequities are a barrier between you and your G-d.” For Rava created a man and sent him to Rabbi Zeira. The rabbi spoke to him [the man] but he did not answer. Then he [Zeira] said: “You were created by one of my colleagues; Return to your dust.”

Rashi (commentary on above Sanhedrin 65b)
Created a Man: Through Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) that you learn to join letters of G-d’s name.

Follow your Passion

2012-02-21T14:44:00.000Z

Passion in mundane pursuits

There is a lot of discussion in the online Project Management community around “being passionate about Project Management.” At first I thought the idea a curious one, how can one be passionate about a risk register or a budget?

Then I started coming across the idea of joy, passion and bliss in other sources such as these quotes:

“Follow your bliss.” Jon Bentley, author of Programming Pearls

“I believe that I just work better if I enjoy what I’m doing. I suspect that if anybody wants to be ‘the best’ at whatever they do, they have to realize that it takes decades of hard work. And the main way to actually keep doing decades of hard work is to simply enjoy it so much that you don’t want to stop.” Linus Torvalds, original author of GNU/Linux

As well as this advert by BMW The Story of Joy (1 minute advert).

Linus’s quote is particularly apt when it comes to magical practice. It takes a long time, you have to work at it and there are many occasions on which it seems that it’s too much of a struggle for too little reward. So how do you find the motivation to go on?

Joy in magical and mystical paths
Some people find external motivating factors such as commitments to their community, financial or other rewards. But to me the biggest motivator is that my studies and practice give me joy. Not all the time, in fact only on a few occasions. Those few instances are enough to remind me why I spend so many hours of my life in the pursuit of experiential knowledge – its joy.

So coming full circle I can now see why passion is so important. The question that remains is: what gives you joy and are you doing something that is a burden or a passion?

[New Year, New You]: Wheel of Morality Turn, Turn, Turn, Tell Us the Lesson that We Must Learn

2012-02-14T17:05:00.000Z

Here are the things that I learned from each of the [NewYear, New you] prompts:

Space, Time and Rocks: You have to know and be realisticwhere you are starting from.

Goals: projects are a great way for me to structure mystudies and meditation, sometimes though I bite off more than I can chew. Ithappened on this project, but that too is a learning experience.

Relax, Don't Do It: Mmmm, chocolate pudding. I’ve becomerather addicted lately.

Some Enchanted Evening: impressing others is a form ofenchantment requiring no magic words.

Maps: taught me a meditation exercise in being brutallyhonest with myself

Glamour: helped me to recognize that people spend a lot less time thinkingabout you less than you might realize. On the other hand how you present yourselfplays a large part in how they judge you.

Shoulder to the Wheel: When the going gets tough, it’s timeto see what needs to change in order to achieve one’s goals.

Asking for Help: is a good thing! This is especially when itcomes to studying ancient and hard-to-penetrate texts.

In Summary:

Take a deep long look at yourself and chose oneor two things to change
In knowing yourself, plan the best route to makingthat happen
Give yourself a break once in awhile, just nottoo often
The world is not how we want it to be, thismeans we need to adapt and for example dress better for success
It’s easier to carry on going through the toughtimes when you have friends. It’s even easier when they're going throughsimilar changes as sharing experiences can be a great source of inspiration.
You are an agent of change, now go charm theworld!

An artists impression of my Muse

Last but not least, the [New Year, New You] project encouraged me to continue to practice meditation and magic when I was tempted to take a break due to fear. Not from fear of failure, but rather afraid of how powerful and successful the results can be.

Half-Completed Thoughts on Energy and Spirits

2012-02-13T16:24:00.000Z

This post is really just for my benefit, but since blogspot does not appear to have a “me only” option I will share it with the world. Please note that it reflects partially completed thoughts and I take no responsibilities for any flame wars, existential crisis, or mass paradigm shifts that it may cause.

Read this Post firstBasically, a recent post by blogger Ananael Qaa called: Head Sizes and Reality Selection got me thinking about energy and spirits. Before you read the next bit of this post, please follow the link to Head Sizes and Reality Selection, it really is an excellent post. Rather than reality tunnels I think of it in terms of potential waveforms that diverge from or and collapse in to each other. We’re all tuned in to the dominant band of waveforms we call ‘reality’.

3 School of Kabbalah
You may be familiar with the 3 “schools” of study in Kabbalah:1. Theoretical2. Meditative3. Practical

This logical decomposition of Kabbalistic study & practice is pretty modern. An older classification that goes back at least to the days when the Talmud was being edited and recorded (450-550 common era) are:

Sitrei Arayot
Ma’aseh Merkavah
Ma’aseh Bereishit

Sitrei Arayot literally means laws of forbidden relationships, which teaches what human couplings are forbidden. Viewed as a whole they describe the natural order of the world. Siblings mating for example goes against that order and never really ends well.

Ma’aseh Merkavah means Work of the Chariot, Action of the Chariot. It refers to the school of mysticism based on the visions of the heavenly spheres and angels as recorded by the prophets Ezekiel and Isaiah. Calling it a school of mysticism is a bit of a misnomer as the texts for this school of Kabbalah describe how to perform heavenly ascents, and how to adjure angels to earth for a variety of purposes.

Ma’aseh Bereishit means Work of Creation, Actions of Creation. This school is focused on the use of the 10 sefirot and 22 Hebrew letters to channel the forces of Creation using the names of God. The main text for this school is Sefer Yetzirah, the Book of Creation, which in the past has been used to create humanoid clay figures, called golems, as well as create animals. Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan wrote a fairly recent translation and commentary in which he states that using this book of practical meditation gives the practitioner skill at clairvoyance and telekinesis. This is the reason I’m studying the book at the moment.

The Half-Completed Thought
Now we get to the point of the blogpost and thanks for reading up until this point… There appears to me to be a split in the paths of magical practice between those who predominantly work with spirits to those who work with energy. (Please note that I am purposefully not defining those terms).

Perhaps my understanding is flawed (and I hope that it is), but the fact that the schools of Ma’aseh Merkavah focus on working with angels and the school of Ma’aseh Bereishit works with Divine energies gives weight to the argument that practitioners lean towards one or the other and rarely, if ever, master both.

Jewish texts on metaphysics describe how the Hebrew letters as both channels of Divine flow (energy) and angels (spirits). As a practitioner though, I cannot seem to relate to them in both their spirit form and energy form at the same time.

Waves and Particles
In this Wikipedia article: Wave-Particle duality is described how light can travel as both a wave and particle (at least I hope that what it means, the physics is way beyond my feeble grasp of physics). Perhaps light travels as not quite a wave and not quite a particle.

Anyway, the reason why I am throwing this in to the mix is that I think that the Universe is built this way, both for light (frequently used as a metaphor in Kabbalistic texts) and magical practice.

What are your thoughts on this idea?

Jethro Rant

2012-02-11T21:40:00.001Z

This rant is inspired by some advice I heard today. If you are already active in helping people in your community on a regular basis then please feel free to skip this post.

Jethro – A Man for the People
Today my local Rabbi spoke about the Torah portion that we read titled “Yitro / Jethro”. The text describes the receiving of the 10 commandments but before that talks about Moses welcoming his father-in-law Jethro. After Moses describes all the miracles that God has done during the plagues in Egypt and the splitting of the Sea of Reed, Jethro responds with:

“Jethro rejoiced over all the good that God had done for Israel, that He had rescued it from the land of Egypt” (Exodus 18:9)

Note that Jethro make his praise linked to the people rather than just focused on God. At the splitting of the Sea of Reeds, the heavens also parted and the Midrash states that a lowly maidservant had a greater vision of the heavenly realms – angels and all - than the prophet Ezekiel. The Israelites sang praises to God as they were all about the relationship that they had between man and God.

Jethro on the other hand was much more concerned about the relationship between man and man. Jethro criticized Moses for the way that he interacts with the people, arguing that he should set-up a system of judges and adjudicators for the people rather than trying to solve all their problems and disputes himself. This is what Moses did and the people were a lot happier.

Forget Social Justice, Just for a Short While
So what does this incident teach us? Whilst it is cause for celebration that so many people are involved in fights for social justice and help promote human rights around the world – it's easy to forget the small picture when being bombarded by news, social media and other sources of the big picture all the time.

It kind of reminds me of an article in the newspapers after the hysteria around Princess Diana's death had died down of a girl who lost her mother in a car accident around the same time. All her friends went to London to lay flowers and wept openly at the loss of a woman they had never met before but who had touched their lives. However, none of them thought to bring flowers or visit their grieving friend whose mother had fed them, hugged them, been there fore them and had an immediate impact on their lives.

Practice Small Acts of Kindness Before Trying to Fix Society
How many witches, wizards and other practitioners die alone and forgotten because no one offers to be there for them? Don't wait for someone to be asked for help, offer it now. All the “likes” and postings on Facebook in the world don't add up to a single smile of the person who is brought soup when they are too ill to cook. Or the mother who has just given birth and is given meals every day for 2 weeks. Just being in regular contact is enough to lift someone else's spirits when they're feeling low, have SAD, or just having a bad day.

Stop and look at the small picture, the here and now of the people you care about and in your local environs. Help save each other and we have a chance of a better future. Here endeth my rant.

[New Year, New You]: 3 in 1 update

2012-02-08T22:45:00.002Z

Deb's been busy with [New Year, New you] writing prompts and I am 3 behind. Hence this post addresses all three prompts in order: Glamour in the Year of Hustle, Shoulder to the Wheel, Asking for Help.

Glamour:
I'm going to buy a new suit, possibly two and some new shirts, I just need to make the time to do it. If I can get a good recommendation for a tailor who will do a suit for around £300 in London, then I'll consider getting it tailored. Whilst I used to feel like a bit of an impostor wearing a suit, I now recognize that it is great for social and corporate camouflage.

Shoulder to the Wheel:
To be honest I'm struggling at the moment. Not due to the almost daily organizational changes in my company, not due to the lack of sleep, not due to job insecurities; but because I got stuck trying to make sense of the Sefer Yetzirah commentaries that I've translated from Hebrew to English.

For the first time since I was at University I feel stupid. Back then it was due to the fact that some of the people on my course were incredibly intelligent.

My translation effort of Abulafia's Gan Naul has stalled on page 7. I've ploughed onwards to page 15, but my comprehension of the text got left behind around pages 4-5. Which makes the next prompt from Deb rather timely.

Asking for Help
To increase my chances of understanding Sefer Yetzirah and its commentaries I've started getting together with a friend to read, practice and discuss the text and a select number of commentaries. Fisdel's book the "Practice of Kabbalah" has some good meditation exercises that will help us to get an experiential understanding of the book to go theory-based commentaries. It's early days yet and this could take several years. However, Sefer Yetzirah is meant to be studied with a partner rather than alone so at least it gets me moving in the right direction.

On the work front, I've got over my inhibitions and started doing a bit of networking. Asking for help in terms of mentoring and career's advice from friends and colleagues is proving to be easier and less daunting that I thought.

So far I have multiple avenues of opportunities opening up. I'll be adding in some prayers for support, some meditation exercises and all being well my career should be back on track with all pistons firing in the next 6 months or so. My only concern is ending up with a role that makes me travel too far and too frequently from my family.

SYRC, Sefer Yetizrah Readers Club

2012-01-31T09:00:00.000Z

Having only in the past 5 years or so become serious about a structured self-directed course of study in Kabbalah and Early Jewish mysticism; and only put that knowledge in to practice in the past 6 months – I’ve decide to find some study partners to help me on my journey.

Fortunately, due to amazing places such as Treadwells bookshop, there are opportunities to meet like minded individuals in a neutral place. Treadwells is a place of commerce, lectures and making connections for the South-East of UK and beyond. It is a shining beacon in London; a hub where witches, academics, ceremonial magicians, shamans, kabbalists, etc all rub shoulders.

This is the dawn of the Third Age of Mankind, when space exploration and the explosion of magical practice around the world collide. The world that is ever more connected and ever more fragmented.

SYRC member required reading

In order to navigate my way through these rapidly changing and challenging times I’ve turned to the wisdom of the oldest surviving kabbalistic manuscript, Sefer Yetzirah. Having got to level 1 as a Trainee Golem Builder I’ll be linking up one by one with others to form a Sefer Yetzirah Readers Club for people who want to study, practice and master this enigmatic and powerful little book.

At the moment the SYRC consists of just two people, a fellow blogger in London and I. Once we’ve been through chapter 1 of Sefer Yetzirah - with a number of commentaries (such as Ramban, Abulafia, Kaplan and Elazar of Germizah) to guide us in our journey - then we’ll send out an invite for others to join the club.

Monday 30 January 2012 Project Update

2012-01-30T15:53:00.000Z

One of the great things about blogging is that it allows you to easily look back over a period of time and reflect on how one’s knowledge, experiences and practice have changed.

Currently there are 3 projects active:

Projects: 1. Hebrew Immersion – a 3-year project to translate and read through the 24 books of the Tanach (5 Books of Moses, Prophets and Writings). In a couple of weeks time I will have made it through all of Torah (5 Books of Moses) with Rashi’s commentary. It has taken on average 20-40 minutes of study each working day for a year to get this far. Unfortunately the Nach (Prophets and Writings) part of the study stalled in the Book of Samuel and I need to do a “mini-rescue project” to get that back on track.

Projects: 2. and 3. are much shorter duration from Dec 2011 to Feb 2012. They cover 2. Listening to 4 audio lectures (each approx. 1 hour) on Sefer Yetzirah, Book of Creation, the oldest Kabbalistic text that as well as introducing the 10 Sefirot is THE manual for creation of Golems.

Project 3 is to translate 30 pages from a book by Abraham Abulafia. I’ve chosen to translate the first part of Gan Naul (Sealed Garden) which is a commentary on Sefer Yetzirah. A year ago when I tried it the project was an abject failure. This year, despite a challenging start, my knowledge of Hebrew is sufficient to get to page 15 so far. This is entirely due to my daily Hebrew study as part of the Hebrew Immersion study.

It goes to show, the long slow path does yield results if you have the patience and courage to walk it.

[New Year New You]: Maps, Meditation on Self-Honesty

2012-01-26T11:54:00.000Z

Deb’s post about Maps inspired me to come up with a new internally focused semi-structured meditation. Here is what you need to do:

Sit with your back straight on a comfortable chair.
Close your eyes
Focus on your breathing, guide it to a regular pattern such as for example "breath in for count of 4, hold for 2, breath out for count of 4 and hold for count of 2. Repeat: 4,2,4,2."
Once your breathing is relaxed and regular, become aware of your body as a whole
In your imagination, visualize yourself sitting on the chair
Now mentally – whilst keeping your physical eyes closed – stand up and step back from your body
You should now be looking at the back of your body sitting on a chair
Take a mental walk around your body, noting that its eyes are still shut.
Visualize pulling up a chair and sit down opposite your body.
Wait for your body to open its eyes.

You will now have a one to one with your unconscious mind, the part of you that remains active in your body. The “you” that is sitting opposite your body is your conscious mind.

Your unconscious mind may not speak in words, it may use imagery, sounds, feelings and the initial “dialogue” may be more of an assault on the sense that requires some processing afterwards. This is your opportunity for your unconscious mind to be brutally honest with your conscious mind in a place that you’ve imaged and is safe for such an exchange.

I’ve done this meditation twice. The first time was shortly after watching the film Inception. I learned two things. Firstly that my unconscious mind was militarizing itself using Tyranids as a source of inspiration. The other thing was that I was suppressing certain messages that the unconscious was shouting loud and clean and my unconscious was not happy about the way I’d dismissed its suggestions. In the second meditation my unconscious mind guided me to finding a way to overcome an emotional block.

That’s it for now. Good luck if you try this meditation. Feel free to pass it on and modify it as you see fit.

Material Components

2012-01-13T14:20:00.002Z

Back in the day I used to play Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, not wishing to blow my own trumpet too much, I was a pretty good Dungeon Master. But one of the things that I disliked as both a player and DM was material components. Sure they could be fun to role-play gathering now and then. However, it gets less fun when each time you need a pearl the party spends a week tracking one down for an Identify spell.

Anyway, my dislike of material components for spells in a role-playing game in fictional worlds carried over to the real world. When reading about preparations for rituals that involve wands, incense, candles, etc, my mind immediately rebelled and asked: WHY? WHY? WHY?

The answer that I most frequently came across is that when you start out your mind is weak and the material components and props are like crutches that help a person achieve success in rituals. Once the person progresses theyhave less need for material components.

However, I found that answer less than satisfactory. Perhaps that is the case that the mind is weak and I just needed to get over my cognitive dissonance.

Then I came across the following section in “World Mask” by Akiva Tatz: pp.40-41

“…This matter is very deep, and it has many layers. The fact is that physical actions are the key to the spiritual world. The Nefesh Hachaim explains in detail how changes in higher worlds are brought about by your actions in this material world. Physical actions are necessary to produce changes n the non-physical; that is part of the secret of the very existence of the physical, and it is the reason that the human has been given a body. We cause the spiritual world to move. The physical world is like the keys of the piano – the music is not produced by the keys, it is produces in the strings hidden deep within the mechanism behind the facade; but the keys are necessary. Without those keys here is no access to the inner mechanism, and although the keys are dumb, when they are struck there is music.
Even when the result is out of all proportions to the magnitude of the physical action, there must be an action. When Pharaoh’s daughter stretches out her arm to save the infant Moshe from the Nile although he is out of reach, her arm miraculously elongates. Her effort, her attempt, is the key; when we make a sincere effort we may merit to see it amplified beyond expectation, but without some attempt there is nothing to amplify. We must act; if we are sufficiently spiritually developed we may be granted a view behind the mask to see that the result is really not dependent on the action at all. But act we must. We are never passive passengers….”

The piano analogy really struck a chord with me (terribly sorry for the pun). It highlighted the idea that repeats again and again in Kabblistic writing that for a change to happen in the higher realms, it must first be initiated in the lower realms.

For example, Moses turned to look at the burning bush. Pharaoh’s daughter stretched out her arm to the basket carrying Moses when he was an infant. In both cases something miraculous happened because those people did something in the physical world. The arm of Pharaoh’s daughter elongated to reach the basket. Moses reached a state of prophecy and was commanded to set in motion the events that led to the Exodus of Israelite slaves from Egypt.

The answer that the mind is weak and needs prompts may have some merit, perhaps it’s 100% true. But the extract quoted above also reinforces the idea that like a piano, the material world needs to be changed by human agents in order to affect cosmic resonance that leads to physical repercussions.

[New Year, New You] Some Enchanted Evening

2012-01-12T12:27:00.000Z

This week’s prompt from the Charmed I’m Sure blog is as follows:

So, when we broke down your goals, part of the question was what are you going to do magically to make sure that your goals happened. This is the week to really focus on that. If you have a ritual you've been wanting to do to shore things up, do it. If you need to check in with your spirits on where you're heading, get going. If you've hit a road block, break out your runes or tarot deck or whatever you use. If you've been meaning to meditate, go with Gaia.

Enchantment… it’s a tough one as I don’t really do spells, at least that’s not how I define my practice. Then again I struggle to define what I do sometimes. When I read Deb’s post I thought: “Damn it Jim, I’m a project manager, not an enchanter!”

Anyway, Wikipedia’s definition of Enchantment rides to the rescue with the following definition:

Enchantment is a popular Business / Psychology book written by Guy Kawasaki . Enchantment, as defined by the writer, is the process of delighting people with a product, service, organization or idea. The outcome of enchantment is voluntary and long-lasting support that is mutually beneficial.

So now I’ve got a choice of people to enchant, my wife or myself. My wife – to delight her – in order to make time & space to do the Abraham Abulafia Hebrew manuscript translation work. Or myself – to bring delight through some service or product.

Since I’m already trying to do the former as much as I’m able (in my current sleep deprived state), it will have to be the latter. So what this means is that I’m focusing on writing some “Introduction to Project Management” articles for another blog. This will help bring more rigour and discipline in to my day to day planning - with the end result of being more disciplined in getting the translation work done.

A Lion has Roared: Wild Card Weekend

2012-01-08T04:00:00.000Z

Today is the first match of the play-offs, called wild card weekend. Unfortunately I erred on two occasions in my preparations this week which means that my capacity to pray and meditate on behalf of the Detroit Lions is limited. Hence I studied, donated some funds to charity and did some simple meditation.

EDIT: Final score: Loss. Detroit Lions 28 - New Orleans Saints 48
It's disappointing that the Lions did not get further in the play-offs. However, I'm looking forward to next season and watching the Lions grow from strength to strength in the coming years.

NYNY 3: Relax, Don't Do It

2012-01-04T12:23:00.000Z

This week's assignment from Charmed I'm Sure blog is.. indulge yourself. Well, what better way to do so than to eat the breakfast of choice from my childhood. In English it is called Chocolate Pudding, but we called it Vla (pronounced: fla).

Vla (pronounced: fla)

After hunting around I found some in shop nearby and the funny thing is the name of the manufacturer.Shefa is the Hebrew word that means Divine abudance or flow. The 13th century Abraham Abulafia uses the word in his writings to the extent that it features in the book & film "Bee Season" that is heavily influences by Abulafia.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 16

2012-01-01T19:00:00.000Z

Happy New Year! It's finally 2012 and the last game of this NFL season before the play-offs to the Super Bowl. This season the Detroit Lions have made it to the play-offs for the first time since 1999.

Today's match is against the Green Bay Packers. This is a tough team to beat as they've won all but one of their games this season. However, here at Trainee Golem Builders central we like nothing better than a near improbably challenge.

Amos 3:8

So in preparation for this match the following meditation exercises were done:

Tuning and toning, pore breathing of Ruchniyut (spirit)
Simple Abulafian meditation of Aleph-Bet
Use of Divine Name: Emesh to request from the Almighty that the natural order of things be shifted to allow the Lions to overcome the Packers

Win or lose, it's been one amazing season and I applaud each of the Lions players, staff and fans on doing a phenomenal job this season to achieve so many wins. By the time the next season comes along my studies of Sefer Yetzirah should have advanced to boost my abilities in praying for the teams success in the 2012-13 season.

Edit: Final score: Detroit Lions 41 - Green Bay Packers 45. It was a nail-biting match with each team taking the lead in the final quarter. This brings to a close the official scope of the project, supporting the Lions through the play-offs is the stretch goal that could only be dreamed off when this season started.

My closing remarks on this project of supporting the Detroit Lions is that the way I see it - any and all meditation exercises, prayers and techniques were used to boost the Lions and not the cause of their victories. My prayers may have helped but G-d is the boss and in charge of everything.

Edit 2: Wikipedia link to 2011 Detroit Lions season

Goals, Goals, Goals... Looking for Distractions

2011-12-30T14:12:00.000Z

The New year, New You project has just got under way and already I'm struggling. However, the ace up my sleeve to help get over the fact that I'm trying to do everything except this project is that I've already done a bit of reading up on the topic of motivation.

Here is the link again to a GREAT video on drive & motivation.

As the video explains, paying someone more money will actually reduce their effectiveness (unless they're doing repetitive “algorithmic” tasks and do not require conceptual thinking). So unless you work in a factory, being paid more money beyond what a person feels is a decent salary is not going to get better results.

Basically what it comes down to is understanding your intrinsically motivates you. Achieving mastery? A feeling of a sense of purpose? Is it intellectual puzzles? The feeling of overcoming seemingly impossible challenges? Physical pleasure? Boosting your ego?

If you understand what internal drives you have – you can think and start to plan on how to channel those. And hey, since you're a witch/wizard/sorcerer/etc you can weave this insight in to your magic to get better results.

For me the following are options on how to channel my drive to make this project a success:

Treat it like a second job. I'm motivated to be good at the (few) things I chose to focus on such as a career. To achieve mastery in a chosen field, the more obscure the better.
Treat it like its a reward. Rather than think of it like a chore, switch around my perception of what is a reward and a chore for a limited time. This requires some re-wiring of established behaviour but that should not be too hard, right?
Just do it! (bulldozer style). This approach means clearing my calendar of any other interests, hobbies, social engagements, sleep, reading projects, etc. It's do-able but it does lead to burn-out.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 15

2011-12-24T21:20:00.002Z

Today's game is the the San Diego Chargers against the Detroit Lions. If the Lions win this, I believe they are through to the play-offs - what ever that may be. If I understand the game correctly it means that the Lions have a chance of winning the Super Bowl which is rather exciting.

What started off as a project that was meant to be a bit of fun has turned me in to a bit of a Detroit Lions fan. For the first time in my life I've bought sports clothing in support of a team. And in preparation for the possibility of winning the Super Bowl, I've created my own version of "ticket" to support the team. In the photo below is my new Detroit Lions sports top and amulet.

The preparations for this match were a bit rushed, but they included the following meditations:

Tuning and Toning
Basic Abulafia technique
Divine Name
Blessing on new clothing (Lions top)
Reading part of Amos (ending in Amos 3:8)
Bibliomancy**

** - The bibliomancy was about Naomi sending Ruth to get close to Boaz. That incident is a vital chain that led to the birth of King David, hence a very promising sign indeed.

At the time of the writing of this entry, the Lions are leading 7-0 in the first quarter.

EDIT: Final score Detroit Lions vs San Diego Chargers: 38 - 10

New Year, New You: Prompt 2: Goals as New Projects!

2011-12-22T12:47:00.000Z

Another prompt from Charmed I’m sure Blog for the ongoing magical transformation experiment. This post comes with 4 questions and recommendations.

1. How are you going to accomplish these large goals in your daily life? You need to start breaking it up into bite sized pieces. Our particular Experiment goes until Valentine's Day. What can you reasonably expect to accomplish by then? How will you do it?

Projectize, if such a word exists. I’ve discovered that unless I package up a piece of work as a project and publish it on this blog - it just does not get done. Here are the two project summaries based off goals from the response to the original Charmed I’m Sure prompt:

New Project 1:
Scope: Study 4 audio lectures on Sefer Yetzirah and do 2 practical exercises Time: 1st Jan 2012 to 14th Feb 2012
Cost: None, audio lectures on Sefer Yetzirah already paid for.
Quality: The aim of this mini-project is to gain experiential knowledge of Sefer Yetzirah. In other words - to transform my current theoretical knowledge of the book in to practical knowledge that results in new meditative and practical Kabbalah techniques.
Risks: Don’t have a lot of spare time at the moment. Other risk is that in the past I’ve burnt out after lecture 2 or 3 and got sidetracked by other shiny projects.

New Project 2:
Scope: Translate 30 pages of Abraham Abulafia’s writing from Hebrew to English.
Time: 1st Jan 2012 to 14th Feb 2012
Cost: None. 3 books already purchased and numerous manuscripts available free online in Hebrew.
Quality: The aim of this project is to get into the practice of translating and comprehending Abulafia’s writing. The challenge comes in choosing which book and how quickly that knowledge can be turned in to exercises (which Abulafia is remarkably good at spelling out himself)
Risks: Hebrew translation skills are quite poor. Also, did I mention my lack of time due to job hunting and having very young children?

2. What magical acts (rituals, spellwork, whatever it is you do) can you do to help you accomplish this goal?

I love theory, reading, thinking and coming up with clever connections between ideas. The hard part is taking that theory and putting it in to practice. Hence the purpose of the two study projects above is to come up with at least 1 new meditation exercise or practical Kabbalah and make use of them during the projects. The act of doing the magic is generated by the projects is what will help make sure that the projects are a success.

3. Use your preferred method of divination to figure out both what you can do to make sure these goals will happen and also to figure out what road blocks keep you from this.

Bibliomancy is about the only method of divination that I use. The other method of divination is watching birds in flight. With bibliomancy I can usually work out what the general gist of the hint is, which sometimes feels like being whacked over the head by whichever tome I’m using for bibliomancy. The use of birds in flight as a divinatory technique… well, let’s just say that I’ve yet to come up with anything useful from this approach apart from admiring the beauty of nature.

4. Consult whatever inner or outer spirits you may work with as to what's blocking you from achieving your goals.

Ah, inner guides! Internal dialogue is my forte, especially during lengthy walks around town. If that does not work, I get an angry phone call from Rabbi Bar-zel Aryeh Tzion who’s criticism is so cutting I have to wear Kevlar and chainmail when we have our infrequent chats.

Outer spirits that I favour are Smirnoff and single Malts from the Scottish Highlands.

Ibbur: Soul Impregnation Mini-Series 5

2011-12-21T22:15:00.000Z

This is the final installment for the Ibbur mini-series taking a look at the concept of impregnation by a foreign soul for a temporary duration with non-malevolent intent and results. This post draws it's quotes and inspiration from the book: “Between Worlds: Dybbuks, Exorcists, and Early Modern Judaism” by J.H. Chajes. It's a fantastic book, well researched and hopefully I'll review when I've finished reading it.

Extract #1: pp.18

“...Just as certain practices might nullify evil 'ibburim, other practices were designed by Spanish rabbis to cultivate propitious contact with the dead. These venerable practices were designed to bind the practitioner to lowest portion of the tripartite soul of a departed saint, the nefesh. The nefesh was thought to remain in contact with its former body and was thus accessible at the grave...”

Extract #2: pp.19

”...How is it that an embodied soul can communicate and commingle with the disembodied souls of the deal? And embodiment is indeed taken to be the heart of the problem; course flesh suffices to obscure the refined spiritual form of the dead from the eyes of the living. A metamorphosis of this fleshy garment of the soul is indispensable. So writes Cordovero: “This matter will be apprehended and discovered in the secret of the Garment [levush] prior to Adam and the rest of the worldly existence, before Adam's sin, the secret 'Garment of Light.' For after the sin of the corporealization [of the Garment] as matter, it was said to him, 'you are dust, and shall return to dust.'” The garment of light ('or) fashioned by God for Adam (Gen. 3:21) was created first as light (or). Sin resulted in its corporealization, and with the physicality came opacity and, tragically, perishability. In other words, when Adam was first created, like the dead, he too was formed of a fine, diaphanous body of light, partaking of immortality...”

Extract #3: pp.21-22

“...In this mystical circle, necromantic techniques such as graveside protestation were not always required to bring about impregnation of the soul of a departed saint into the body of a living counterpart. Elsewhere in his mystical diary, Vital relates that there were times when h heard voices speaking to him, which he did not know with certainty to those of visiting transmigrants. He even suspected the voices to be his own. In doubt, he consulted with a Damascene sorcerer, who in turn summoned a demonic spirit to appear in a looking glass, in order to respond to Vital's query. “He answered me,” writes Vital, “He [the 'ibbur] is the speaker, and not me. For his soul enclothes itself in my heart, and from there he raises the sound of his words to my mouth and he speaks with my mouth, then I hear...”

These to me are amazing insights in to what an ibbur is and why impregnation and communication is possible. Extract 1 shows that the connection is only at a nefesh level and not at the levels of ruah or neshamah. Extract 2 explains nicely how Adam pre-sin was not in the coarse coporeal form that we inhabit now. Rather he had a body of light and the practitioner seeking to achieve a soul impregnation or communication needs to sensitize their body of light with that of the dead. Finally extract 3 blows my mind on the simple basis that Rabbi Chaim Vital collaborated with a sorcerer in Damascus.

Finally in closing my interest in Ibbur has in the past been driven by a desire to be able to communicate with the departed soul of Rabbi Abraham Abulafia. However, since his grave site is unknown it is currently not possible to try the practise of grave protestation as described in this series. None the less the soul of Abulafia was apparently successful in impregnating Philip K. Dick as noted in this blog post by Avi Solomon.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 14

2011-12-18T21:10:00.001Z

This post was started near the beginning of the match between the Detroit Lions and the Oakland Raiders. It will be completed after the match as I've got some things to do. None the less I wanted to record that although earlier on today I did not have a good feeling about the match - that has since reversed. Hence I hope and pray for a solid win today for the Lions.

Final score: Detroit Lions 28 - Oakland Raiders 27

Edit (Monday 19 December 2011): Here is the post-match write-up of the preparations done in the run up to the game. Unfortunately time was in very short supply, hence the place-holder update above.

How Not to Do Research
Having read a bit about some injuries in the line-up for the Detroit Lions, I decided that it was time to actually become a bit more familiar with the game of American Football. Hence I rented a film called “The Replacements” and although it did not teach me a whole lot about football, it did make me laugh a lot and reinforced how important it is to win every game between now and the play-offs.

As mentioned in a previous post my bag of tricks is pretty much replenished in terms of using techniques to help the Lions. Since previous experience has shown that going back to previous methods does not always work, I used a bit of bibliomancy and came across a technique described by Rabbi Kaplan in his “Meditation and Kabbalah”.

You Are What You Meditate
The technique in Meditation and Kabbalah described as used by Rabbi Joseph Tzayach (1505-73) looked pretty straightforward… assume the prophetic position (place head between knees) and meditate on Divine Names of power as described on pp.165-166 of Meditation & Kabbalah.

There were two things that I learned from this experience.

To able to bend my body enough to actually assume the prophetic position - I really need to lose weight!
Something during the procedure made me very uncomfortable and it was not my poor stomach.

Spiritual Opposition
I felt the presence of something unfriendly and when spider imagery entered my mind, tried to reconcile it by thinking about how Charlie from Fringe survives just fine with spiders in him. Anyway, although the imagery was unpleasant it was not too bad although it did make me quite worried about the game. It also reminded me of having seen an ambulance parked in my street on two occasions in the previous week; adding to my general sense of unease.

Later on I’d planned to give some money to charity and study Jewish law in order to help create a receptacle to channel the blessing from God to help the team. Unfortunately my newborn decided to spill out of her nappies on to my trousers and hence my plans for study were foiled as we were away from home. Then when we got back I realized that my books were left behind on our day trip. Things were looking quite gloomy to me. Not being one to look for or read much in to omens - I none the less felt as though there was some force opposing my efforts and needed to take positive action.

Saved by the Cheque
An hour and a half later, having driven across part of London and back, I got my books and was on my way home to finally do some studying. I took an amulet for success with me for the journey just to be on the safe side, which was fortunate as I had a couple of narrow escapes on the way there. The journey back was thankfully both safe and boring.

Just then I get a call from a man who comes regularly to collect charity for a Kollel (a learning institution for married men). We arranged a time for him to come around and things were beginning to look up.Later that night the man came around. He blessed our newborn, we gave funds for charity and I finally got to do a little bit of studying. It was not much, but perhaps just enough to steal the game with a single point.

Quick summary:

Football research – fun but of questionable use.
Use of Divine Names – not sure this worked until I made…
Making room for blessings – perseverance led to study and charity giving happening resulting in success.

In closing, here is a link to the song from “The Replacements” (watch from 0:55-2:55) that made me smile most of this week and believe that the Lions could once again pull victory out of the teeth of almost certain defeat. It’s the fourth time this season The Detroit Lions won after trailing 13 points and that makes it an NFL history record.

New Year, New You: Prompt 1

2011-12-15T16:36:00.001Z

This post is in response to Prompt 1 of New Year, New You.

Space:

In my home we are fortunate enough to afford a clearner who comes on a weekly basis. She’s very good and the only part that I am personally responsible for is my computer desk. Last night I tidied it up of the stacks of books piled high and I will tidy my snail mail inbox tonight.

Time:

This it a tricky one at the moment especially as we have a recent arrival in my family. I’m going to be more rigorous from today onwards and dedicate Tuesday and Wednesday nights to doing at least some (even just 5 minutes) of esoteric practice in addition to my usual daily prayers and meditation.

Rocks:

The big rock weighing me down is that I want to do too many things, go in too many directions and only have time for a few of those to invest enough time to have a decent level of success. So I need to park some of my currently planned projects and put them off by either 6 months or a year.

As well as cleaning my space, calendar and some negative thoughts… I’m taking a holistic approach and also cleaning my Body, Mind, and Soul:

Body:

This is simply making sure that I’m clean-shaven each working day, something I’ve not managed to do as often as I’d like this year.

Mind:

There are a couple of patterns of thinking that I fall into when stressed, I need to channel these in to more positive avenues and use the energy to do something practical right away instead of procrastinating.

Soul:

I’ll be doing a 1-day fast at the start of each lunar month, doing a bit of teshiva (return to the Source) and buying my wife flowers.

Interview, Amulet and Taxi Fare Evasion

2011-12-14T21:13:00.000Z

Today I went for an interview, whichwas arranged at very short notice. Normally I'd do more preparationbut this time that was not possible. Here is what my check-list wouldhave been:

Plan:

Do in-depth background reading about position, part of the company, person doing the interview. Prepare questions about the role that show background information gathering has been done.
Practice answering likely questions, do some educated guesswork about what the focus of the interview will be about. Think of examples of previous work that demonstrates competence, skill and abilities.

Create amulet for prosperity
Turn up to the interview on time, smile, be funny without being overly funny, be enthusiastic, ask intelligent questions and don't stress about any mistakes until after the interview.

Check

Ask for feedback
Check the amulet in two more similar scenarios to see if its success is repeatable or not.

Adapt. Take the feedback, lessons learnt and experience and do something different and better the next time around!

As it turned out, I had next to no timeto prepare for the interview so most of the Planning phase above wasskipped. I did manage to quickly scrawl an amulet based off a post byJacobus Swart's blog that he titled: “Amulet for Success” whichI carried in my pocket but had almost no opportunity to meditateover.

Kamea for Success" from the Sefer Razi'el

The other thing that I failed to do wasturn up on time. I miscalculated the time it would take to get to theoffice and ended up running for about a mile. Part way through Ijumped in to a taxi, found out that I could only pay by cash and thenconvinced the taxi driver to let me out without paying a fare aftergetting stuck in traffic for a minute (turns out there was a trafficjam). After the interview I gave some money to a charity that thetaxi services favour. Perhaps the amulet helped me to avoid payingthe fare...

Anyway, I called up HR on the way tolet them know I was (literally) running 10 minutes late and it seemedthat the interviewer was not too put off by this. The interview wentpretty well. I don't expect to hear what the outcome is until the NewYear. So this post is really just a reminder of the events and what Ihave to do yo improve on my performance next time.

“Ibbur: Soul Impregnation” Mini-Series 4

2011-12-13T01:00:00.000Z

The past couple of posts about this concept of “soul impregnation” - whereby the soul of a departed righteous person joins temporarily with the soul of a living person in order to aid them or fulfil a commandment together – has contained a numerous quotes.

The reason why this blog has been quoting from various books rather than summarizing the various opinions is to enable you to see the mosaic of ideas and opinions around the idea of departed souls (or parts of souls) attaching themselves to the living.

To add to the mosaic of ideas, here is an extract from “The Tree of Souls: The Mythology of Judaism” by Howard Schwartz. This is an anthology of Jewish myths and hence should not be taken literally. The quote below is from pp.333 “The Myth of Abraham” and is about the change of the Patriarch's name from Abram to Abraham (the addition of the Hebrew letter Heh to his name).

430. Abraham's Name

“...The tradition that Abraham was an astrologer was likely inspired by God's promise to Abraham: “Look toward heaven and count the stars, if you are able to count them.” And He added, “So shall your offspring be” (Gen. 15:1-5). Abraham's role as an astrologer is also affirmed by the talmudic tradition that Abraham wore a glowing stone around his neck that he used as an astrolabe to study the stars. See “Abraham's Glowing Stone,” pp.332.

The letter that Abraham receives as a crown to his his soul functions much like an ibbur, the spirit of a departed sage that fuses with the soul of a living person. Here God give Abraham the letter heh, taken from beneath the Throne of Glory, and fuses it with his soul, not only changing his name, but also his soul. Thus the change in his soul is a gift from God, which transforms him into the Patriarch Abraham.

Note that the linkage of this myth with the nullification of the power of astrological forces over a person. This grows out of the tradition that when God gave the Torah to Israel, He removed control of the starts and constellations over them, since the Torah transcends the world. This demonstrates the rabbi's recognition of the widespread belief in astrological forces and their concern that people would put their faith in these forces rather than in the Torah.

Sources:

B. Bava Batra 16b; Aggadat Bereishit p. 73; Zohar 3:216a, 3:216b, Midrash ha-Ne'elam, Zohar Hadash 24d-25a...”

New Year, New You: Sharpening Magical Focus

2011-12-12T21:36:00.000Z

Deb has started a thread which has been pretty successful in going viral. It's a call to action, a kick up the backside to get us all out of our armchairs more often and step up our game.

For me 2011 was largely focused on study, presenting one lecture and for the first time in my very new magical career – carrying out a project to do some practical magic on a weekly basis (to support the Detroit Lions American football team).

Next year my plan is to narrow my focus of study to three topics:

Sefer Yetzirah – the Book of Creation. This is the oldest text of Kabbalah. It's an enigmatic text on which many, many commentaries have been written. It's also a practical text used for meditation that as Rabbi Kaplan puts it: “When properly understood, the Sefer Yetzirah becomes the instruction manual for a very special type of meditation meant to strengthen concentration, and to aid the development of telekinetic and telepathic powers.”
Abraham Abulafia – an awesome 13th century Jewish Mystic. He wrote in detail about how to do Jewish meditation and I'm pinning my hopes on translating some of his works so that I can unlock how to use Sefer Yetzirah and at a future date Sefer Raziel.
Developing the Hacker Mentality – Putting my growing magical toolbox of techniques in to practice in the workplace, in my life in general and the world at large. I'm still pondering what this category means in terms of practical steps.

Since variety is the spice of life, I expect to have numerous digressions in to other topics. However, the three topics above are where my passions lies and they are the fuel that will drive my magical growth for the coming year.

Slander, Sefer Yetzirah and Indulgence

2011-12-12T21:00:00.001Z

In this week's Torah portion (of the Five books of Moses, “Vayeishev” Genesis 37:1 to 40:23) the story is told of Joseph bringing an “evil report” about his brothers to his father Jacob. This takes place in the Biblical narrative in Genesis when Jacob has returned with his 12 sons and 3 wives (Rachel has dies giving birth to Benjamin on the way) to the land of Canaan. This is before Joseph has his dreams and is sold by his brothers in to slavery.

Genesis 37:1-3 (translation and commentary from Sapirstein edition of Artscroll chumash):

“...(1) Jacob settled in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan. (2) These are the offspring of Jacob: Joseph, at the age of seventeen years, was a shepherd with his brothers by the flock, and he was a youth with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives; and Joseph would bring evil reports of them to their father. (3) Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons since he was a child of his old age, and he made him a fine woolen tunic...”

The famous Bible commentator Rashi asks the question... how is it possible that the brothers were doing something evil that Joseph could bring a report to their father that slandered them? Also, what was it that they did?

Here is an extract of Rashi's translation about 37:2:

“...EVIL REPORT OF THEM. Any evil which he would see in his brothers the sons of Leah, he would tell to his father, that they would eat a limb which was detached from a living animal, and that they would belittle the sons of the secondary wives – by calling them servants, and that they were suspect of immorality...”

Rashi then goes on to state that Joseph was punished by for each of the three things he gave a bad report about.

The commentary to Rashi, the Sapirstein edition has notes that clarify further what the nature of the animal was that the sons ate without properly slaughtering it and the nature of the female that the sons were supposedly sporting with.

Note 7. pp 413: “...Alternatively, the sons of Leah, by virtue of their states as the sons of the first wife, were privy to the Kabbalistic secrets of Sefer Yetzirah by which they were able to create an animal by supernatural means (see Sanhedrin 56b where amoraim create an animal by such means, and eat it). The prohibition against eating meat detached from a live animal does not apply to such an animal. Joseph saw them eating from it and did not realize that the animal was created supernaturally (Shnei Luchot HaBris, Part 2, Torah SheBiKesav, Parashas Vayeishev)...”

Note 2. pp 414: “...According to Shnei Luchos HaBris cited in the previous two notes, the brothers created a being in the form of a human female through the kabbalistic secrets of Sefer Yetzirah and were walking with it. Joseph thought it was an actual woman...”

Please note that “walking with it” could be a euphemism for having sexual relations. So we can see from the above quote from Genesis, the commentary by Rashi and then further explanation of Rashi - that it appears that the sons of Jacob had created two beings using Sefer Yetzirah. One for eating and the other for sexual relations - and that the normal laws for interacting with an animal or woman do not apply to those created by supernatural means.

I guess that this means that the guys in Weird Science were not breaking any rules.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 13

2011-12-11T21:34:00.001Z

Today's match is against the Minnesota Vikings (again). Over the past couple of weeks I've been doing quite a bit of reflecting and deep thinking about why I'm supporting the Lions and what techniques to use.

I support the Lions because they've had a bad track record and I want to help them, that's it. Period. For the past couple of matches I've been trying to send blessings to all of Detroit as well, but I feel as though that is spreading my efforts too thin. If I can help the team a little and the people of the city benefit – that's just great.

As for techniques... I started off using Bible verses and some simple warm up exercises. Kabbalists believe that Divine Names have power and that the whole of the Torah is one long Divine Name. Contained within it are other Divine names, but it is essentially a cryptogram for Kabbalists to figure out how to access the Names that will allow them to experience the Divine in the most immediate way possible.

So rather than use only specific Divine Names, as I've done recently – today's meditation consisted of study of the Torah laws, some Hebrew letter meditation and a Divine Name. I finished off with a simple bit of Bibliomancy by opening the Tanach at a random page and line. It was in Haggai 2:18, part of a paragraph on hope and new beginnings. So hopefully this is a new beginning for the Lions to get back on the right foot from their recent defeats and a new start for me in my understanding of how the world works and my part in it.

Reading the first chapter of “World Mask” by Rabbi Tatz has also helped firm up how I view the world and how I believe that my efforts are potentially having an effect.

The final score of the match was: Detroit Lions 34 - Minnesota Vikings 28

EDIT: by curious coincidence whilst thinking about the strategies to help the Lions during my daily commute - the same beggar has asked for money on two separate occasions. Actually I've seen him more twice but the last two times I gave him some money and shared a smile. Each time the Lions won their next match. Who knows... perhaps it the act of charity that is having all the effect? The sad part is that each time I see him the beggar looks worse for wear.

“Ibbur: Soul Impregnation” Mini-Series 3

2011-12-07T22:31:00.000Z

This section is taken from “The Mystical Experience in Abraham Abulafia” by Prof. Moshe Idel. The extract below is from pages 192-193 in the section “4. The Secret of Impregnation”, part of chapter 4 “Erotic Images for the Ecstatic Experience”.

“...

The secret of impregnation depends upon movements and the Zodiac; for behold, when your soul becomes wise it is impregnated with knowledge and gives rise to insights and wisdom in its thoughts, and the active intellect is her husband, and his name is ishim (i.e., the “people”), and he is her husband. And the vessels prepared for her are letters, which are material, and they fulfill the place of the womb of the woman [in relation to] the soul.

Abulafia attempts to relate the original Talmudic meaning of the term sod-ha-'ibbur (here translated as the “secret of impregnation”) - that is, the calculations necessary in order to determine the additional amount of time to be added to a leap year – to the meaning which he gives the same term. The intercalation of the year is dependent upon calculations pertaining to the movements of the constellations, for which reason sod ha-'ibbur in its literal sense pertains to the realms of time and space. Abulafia adds the soul to these two dimensions, so that we shall arrive at the well-known triad of Sefer Yetzirah, “soul [i.e. man], world and year”(nefesh, olam, shanah).” The connection between the impregnation of the soul and the intercalation of the year and the world lies in the fact that both are connected to calculations: The soul becomes impregnated when it calculates gematriot and combinations, so that it becomes wise and gives birth to “understandings” under the influence of the Active Intellect. It is worth noting that, like calculations of gematriot, the calendrical calculations are performed in Hebrew with the help of letters. The triad mentioned in connection with the intercalation also appears in Ner Elohim:

He who knows the secret of intercalation, which is the secret of year, will [also] know the secret of impregnation ['ibbur] of the world and of the impregnation of the soul. For this reason all the letters are twenty-two [in number], and there is the divine Name there: on one side YHWH and on the other side Ehyeh The names YHWH and Ehyeh add up to gematria to 47, which is the sum of the number of years in the “great cycle” of the sun, 28, and in the lunar cycle, 19.

...”

A Lion Has Roared: Match 12

2011-12-05T01:20:00.003Z

It's week 13 of the official 2011 NFL Regular Season, today's match is against the New Orleans Saints. Since this match had something of a feel of a spiritual battle to it, I decided not to focus on any links to lions and saints in the Book of Daniel and instead called a contact for help.

“Tet, aleph, aleph,” the strongly accented voice answered once my call had finally connected. “Nu? Please state the nature of your tzoress?”

“Uh, it's me Simon Tomasi.” Although the voice sounded right, I was not sure whom I was talking to or whether he would help. “With whom am I speaking?”

“This is Reb Bar-zel Arieh Tzion speaking. Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Did you say Shimon Tomski? You're dat... what's it you call yourself?”

“A Trainee Golem Builder.”

“Oh yeah,” Rabbi Tzion's laughter was deep and throaty. “How's dat working for you? Build any Golems yet?”

“No,” I took a deep breath to summon up more courage. “Listen Rabbi Bar-zel, I need to ask a favour.”

“Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Are you the shmuck who's just turned my life upside down? Der's a bunch of nefashot bouncing around here all saying dey want to 'play ball' and go the gantze 'nine yards'.”

Now it was turn to be surprised. “Are you saying Rabbi that there are soul sparks by you at the moment. You see I've been doing research on the topic of ibburs and had this idea to invite the souls of departed players from the Hall of Fame...”

“Hey, Shimonele,” Reb Bar-zel said cutting me off with little patience in his tone. “On a scale of genius to stoopid, dis idea much more the latter than the former. Get it?”

“Uh,” I tried to think of some way to salvage my idea without success. “Does this mean that you will not help me with this idea to help the Detroit Lions win against the New Orleans Saints?”

“No!”

“So what should I do?”

“Meditation and Kabbalah, pages 90 to 91.” He paused as if considering what to say next. Then he hung up.

Final score: Detroit Lions vs. New Orleans Saints: Loss 17 - 31

“Ibbur: Soul Impregnation” Mini-Series 2

2011-12-01T23:07:00.000Z

This post on the subject of Ibbur is based on Prof. Gershom Scholem's “On the Mystical Shape of the Godhead: Basic Concepts in the Kabbalah”.

Note: If you're looking for a quick answer to the question: what is the difference between a gilgul and an ibbur – the answer is that a gilgul is a reincarnated soul that enters the body at conception and an ibbur is a soul (of a righteous person) that enters after birth and may not stay until death.

Chapter 5 entitled: “Gilgul: The Transmigration of Souls” traces the history of the ideas surrounding reincarnation in esoteric Jewish thought. The chapter begins with the following excerpt:

“The Kabbalists believed in the doctrine of transmigration of souls through various bodies and forms of existence. Was this teaching developed independently, by means of spiritual experiences and states similar to those that produced it in other religions? Or should we assume that the initial impulse toward this teaching originated in an older tradition amongst other groups – although, of course, subsequently developed by Kabbalists in its own way?...”

Scholem then starts by outlining how reincarnation first is hinted at in Sefer Ha-Bahir in south France around 1180. A book called Razza Rabbah (The Great Mystery) has the original text that is later included in the Bahir but it does not refer to transmigration. Nachmanides wrote a commentary on the Book of Job that is entirely based on the idea of transmigration of souls eve though it does not name or explain in detail how it works.

So all in all it remains a mystery to me where the idea first originated. As well as covering such topics as how many new souls are born in each generation, the metaphor of the soul having to be reborn if it was in 'soiled garments' and the idea of chains of incarnations; Scholem then confronts the question about what the difference is between a gilgul and an ibbur:

“...In the original usage of the early Kabbalists, the terms gilgul and ibbur overlapped; diverse explanations were offered as to why the doctrine of transmigration was attached to the concept of “pregnancy” or “impregnation”. Toward the end of the thirteenth century the two terms began to be differentiated, with a special meaning given to the concept of ibbur. Not all migrating souls enter the body at the moment of conception or of birth; sometimes, at special moments during the course of his life, a person receives a second soul that is, so to speak, impregnated within his own soul. This additional soul is not linked to his psychophysical organism from birth nor does it partake in its development, but it can accompany him until his death or may leave him earlier...”

“Only later did they speak of a “bad ibbur” as well, in which the soul of a wicked person entered a living person, who had allowed I to enter by committing some serious transgression...”

“The Kabbalists explained the phenomenon of possession in this way: a wondering soul that has not yet found a body takes control of a person and disrupts or even shatters him. This phenomenon was known thereafter as a dibbuk – a term, incidentally, that never occurs in Kabbalistic literature, but owes its existence to Yiddish fol usage from seventeenth century on, where is appears as a contraction for “an attachment (dibbuk) from the outside forces,” i.e., the evil spirits...”

“...Rabbi David ibn Abi Zimra explains:

I asked on of the sages of the Kabbalah what the difference was between gilgul and ibbur. He replied that the term ibbur (“impregnation”) implies a mystery: just as a woman becomes pregnant and gives birth without lacking anything [of her own being], so too the souls of the righteous and the pious become pregnant and give birth and emanate sparks into this world, to protect the generation or for some other reasons, like one who lights one candle from another, where the first candle is not diminished....”

It's worth reading the whole essay by Scholem if you want to find out more. In particular which parts of the soul (nefesh, ruach, neshama) reincarnate and how the interplay of a person's energy field or supernal aura of soul parts both inside and hovering over the body can attract certain souls that are part of its 'soul family tree'.

Actress Kyra Sedgwick ("The Closer") will join Jeffrey Dean Morgan ("Watchmen") in director Ole Bornedal's Ghost House Pictures feature "Dibbuk Box", set to start in Vancouver, January 31, shooting until March 20.

“Ibbur: Soul Impregnation” Mini-Series 1

2011-11-28T14:02:00.000Z

Jow recently made a comment on this blog that made me to take a slightly deeper look in to what an Ibbur is. Whilst ancestor prayer and offerings are not permitted within Judaism, some do perform rituals to attempt to impregnate their souls with a shard of the soul of a righteous person.

This is the first of four brief posts on this topic looking at a variety of sources.

Here is a link to the Wikipedia entry for Ibbur.

Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis in Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic and Mysticism has the following entry to Ibbur:

Ibbur or Devekut: “Impregnation/Cleaving.” These are generic terms for spiritual possession, usually beneficent, but not always. Also called a maggid, it is related to, but not to be confused with dybbuk. An ibbur coexists inside a living body, which already has a resident soul, usually for a short period of time (Sefer ha-Hezyonot 46; Sha'ar ha-Gilgulim). Some souls of righteous saints are able to do this for the benefit of mankind, either to perform a special task through, or to reveal a vital teaching to, the possessed individual. Sometimes the ibbur does on its own initiative, but more often a worthy mystical seeker deliberately induces possession. To achieve this, a period of purification and preparation is necessary. In some ibbur tales, wearing a “sign of the covenant,” such as tefillin, is a prerequisite to such possession. Usually, there is some kind of ecstatic practice involved. Isaac Luria preferred using an incubation ritual. A few Safed mystics wrote down testimonies of their ibbur possessions. It also marked early Chasidism*.

Goldish, “Spirit Possession in Judaism,” 101-19, 257-304, 404

The term “incubation ritual” is not something that I'm familiar with. Fortunately Rabbi Dennis has an entry for this too in his book:

Incubation: The practice of sleeping, usually in a sacred location, in order to induce divinatory or veridical dream, or for the purpose of communing with a numinous entity... In ancient times, Israelites would sleep in the Tabernacle compound in order to experience a dream revelation from God (1 Samuel 3). Zechariah experienced dream visions, but it is unclear whether he elicited them (Zechariah 4). Apparently some Israelites also used incubation for the purposes of necromancy by sleeping on or at graves. The prophet Isaiah roundly condemns this practice (Isaiah 8:19-22, 19:3)... By the high Middle Ages incubation techniques included the previously illicit practice of sleeping on or about the graves of meritorious dead... Preparatory techniques for incubation include fasting and immersion, the recitation of prayers and psalms, summoning angels, and incantations.

Here is a link to Rabbi Dennis' blog on Dybbuks and another link about Reincarnation.

Film about Dybbuk,
Female lead spends a lot of time in her underwear

A Lion Has Roared: Match 11

2011-11-26T21:35:00.000Z

I appear to have lots track of the time in the past week or so and hence did not notice that the Detroit Lions were due to play the Green Bay Packers. Even if I had noticed, at the moment my spare time is almost non-existent due to the very recent birth of our daughter. Anyway, the final score was: Detroit Lions 15 - Green Bay Packers 27.

Dangers of the Mystic Experience

2011-11-25T14:10:00.000Z

This is another extract from a recent talk on Early Jewish mysticism. This particlar extract is based on Chapter 6 of “The Ancient Jewish Mysticism” by Joseph Dan.

The story (in Babylonian Talmud Hagigah 14b, Jerusalem Talmud Hagigah 2:1) speaks of the four rabbis who entered PARDES (Persian for Orchard). The story is about the heavenly ascent of four leading Rabbis and their fates. Rabbi Akiva ascended, descended and survived. Ben Azzai looked and died, Ben Zoma looked and went mad, and Acher (previously known as Elisha Ben Abuya looked and became a heretic.

Harm Caused by Angelic Songs
Let's look at an example of a warning in Hekhalot Rabbati (Greater Palaces):

“The bearers of His glory – the Cherubs and Ofanim and the Holy Hayot – sing before Him in six voices, each voice better than the other and different from the one preceding it. With the first voice – whoever hears it immediately becomes insane. With the second voice – whoever hears it immediately becomes lost and never returns. With the third voice – whoever hears it is seized by convulsions and dies immediately. With the fourth voice – whoever hears it his skull is broken immediately and most of his ribs uprooted. With the fifth voice – whoever hears it is immediately spilled like a flagon, and turns entirely into blood. With the sixth voice – whoever hears it is immediatelyseized by a stabbing in the heart; his heart makes a noise and turns his bowels upside down, turning his innards in to water, as it states “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts,” etc. Rabbi Ishmael said: “All these songs are heard by Rabbi Akiva when he descended to the Chariot and he seized and learned them before the Throne of Glory, where His servants would sing to Him” (Schafer 'Synopse Zur Hekhalot', sections 103-104)”

This is linked to the Talmud story about the Pardes in the following way (according to Joseph Dan):

Rabbi Akiva went in and came out unharmed, he was able to incorporate his experiences both physciall and mentally.
Ben Zoma looked and went mad→ this is reference to "With the first voice – whoever hears it immediately becomes insane". He was unable to mentally reconcile what he had experienced and the psychic shock left him mentally unbalanced.
Acher looked and became a heretic → this is reference to "With the second voice – whoever hears it immediately becomes lost and never returns". He was also unable to reconcile his experiences came to the conclusion that there were two Powers, that the angel Metatron and God were of equal standing.
Ben Azzai looked and died → this in reference to "With the third voice – whoever hears it is seized by convulsions and dies immediately." He was unable to reconcile his experiences either physically or mentally. Although he had achieved a phenomenal level, he died without having a family of his own and some comment that he did not have enough of a reason to return from his Heavenly ascent back down to Earth. This is one of the reasons why some Jewish mystics make an oath that they will return.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 10

2011-11-20T19:21:00.001Z

Despite having planned to make use of a lengthy Kabbalistic Divine Name of Power - instead I've found myself awake for the past 37 hours and ecstatic about the new addition to my family.

Instead of going through every vowel and letter permutation of the name YHVH as planned - I did a brief "tuning and toning" exercise followed by a heartfelt please to the Almighty that the Lions be victorious in this match against the Panthers.

Sometimes the answer is "no", but unless you ask - you're not going to get a "yes". I'll check tomorrow what the outcome of my request was.

Edit: The answer was "yes". Final score: Detroit Lions 49 - Carolina Panthers 35. A panther may be able to take on a lion, but when a lion pack works together they make a powerful force indeed.

Focus Board To Discard or Not To Discard?

2011-11-16T13:51:00.000Z

Inspired by a recent post from Jow at A Mage’s blog, I decided to draft up a list of characters who inspire me and which do not quite make the grade.

At first I was struggling just with what the definition of a focus board would be, until I settled on the following test… Would I ever ask the question: “What would [insert name] do in this situation?”

For example, “What would the Dread Pirate Roberts do in this situation?”. Anyway, here is the focus board. I’m still in the process of voting a few off and replacing them with those who can help provide me with a sharper focus.

1. Hellboy

He’s a kick-ass hero with a lot of will and raw potential. He’s loyal to his friends and willing to enter the land of the dead to bring them back. Hellboy is also a great example (albeit of a fictional variety) that it is possible to overcome one’s nature.

Then again he acts too often on impulse and is able to get through due to his demonic attributes of resilience and a almost unbreakable arm. So whilst he’s a fun hero to emulate, he’s difficult to copy or emulate. Hence Hellboy ends up on the Discard pile.

2. The Maharal of Prague

Rabbi Judah Loew was great scholar and leader of his generation. He’s remembered for creating a golem although it is questionable whether he actually did so or not. His commentaries on Jewish law are still studied today and his influence lives on.

Assuming that the Prague golems legens are true… The reason for building the golem was to protect the Jewish community against blood libels. The Maharal created it out of necessity. Whilst I admire his achievements, I don’t believe that I can ever get near his abilities as a leader, scholar, or golem builder. The Maharal for the moment moves to the discard pile, as I need to study his works to better copy his example.

3. Graham Marshal

This is a character from the film “A Shock to the System” about a man who is overlooked for promotion and resorts to murder to advance himself in the company. I admire his desire to move up the corporate ladder, something that I’ve not put enough time or energy in to and hence have remained a relatively low level project manager. However, murder is not the way in which I believe it is right to achieve career progression. Graham Marshall ends up the discard pile because he is a murderous bastard, but the film was entertaining enough to get me to think about what I can do within my moral/ethical framework to advance in corporate life.

4. Professor James Moriarty

I had thought to include Sherlock Holmes due to his incredible ability to notice details, spot patterns, and his genius. But he got rejected quickly due to his obsessive-compulsiveness and heroin addiction. Instead I settled on Moriarty for two reasons: 1. he is the Napoleon of Crime, brilliant at planning and execution, 2. He’s good enough at this to give Sherlock Holmes a run for his money.

On the other hand, the whole criminal genius does mean that his moral outlook is questionable to say the least. This means that ultimately Moriarty has to be discarded as he’s just too evil.

5. Abraham Abulafia

Born in 1240 and died (approx) 1291, Abraham Abulafia was an iterant scholar and Kabbalist who travelled around Spain, Italy, and Sicily. He taught a method of meditation referred to as Ecstatic or Prophetic Kabbalah and wrote down in detil the techniques that he used.

However, he ‘rocked the boat’ so to speak and was excommunicated by the leading rabbi in Spain. His writing survived the centuries and was brought back in to prominence in Safed schools as well as in modern day.

Abulafia did have a bit of a Messiah complex though, although I do not quite believe that he thought he was THE Messiah. Rather he was trying to get everyone to achieve their innate potential of living with Divine consciousness as it was in the Garden of Eden. In his travels he tried to convert the Pope and was saved from being burnt at the stake when the Pope died suddenly.

Abulafia should be on the discard pile due to his Messianism, but I can’t quite bring myself to move him off the list. Abulafia stays simply because he wrote so much down and has been an inspiration ever since I find came across him in a book by Prof. Gershom Scholem.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 9

2011-11-14T16:33:00.000Z

For match 8 I decide to change my approach to helping the Detroit Lions win their matches. Instead of various meditation techniques, prayers and studying – I used a single method.

This method was using the 216-letter Name. It’s also known as the 72 letter name although it’s actually made up of 72 triplets of letters. Abraham Abulafia describes how the name should be used and Avi Solomon has translated the relevant texts in his succinct book.

For match 8 it worked. For match 9 it did not, in part because I was very tired when I tried to use it and hence may have made an error.

Last weekend I spent over a day with a loved one in hospital in what turned out not to be a serious issue. However, the experience made me question the use of this Divine Name for helping to win a football match. Hence in the future I will be relaying on other techniques.

Final Score: Detroit Lions 13 – Chicago Bears 37

Prayer as Ascent through the Four Worlds

2011-11-11T10:29:00.003Z

Here are some of my scribb notes notes from the lecture on Heavenly ascent and angel adjuration in (early) Jewish ritual practice. This particular part refers to how the concepts are used in prayer to this day and are taken in part from "Walking in the Fire" by Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzadok:

Daily prayer is structured to reflect the ascent of the practitioner through four “worlds”.
Staring off in “Assiyah” the realm of action. The prayers in this part are mainly about blessings for physical things and reciting sections of Oral Law related to sacrifices in the temple.
The next world is “Yetzirah” - the realm of emotion. These prayers are focused around selected Psalms. Yetzirah means creation of something from something.
Then the practitioner ascends to “Beriah” - the world of mind. Here the prayer is all about the declaration of faith “Listen Israel, G-d your Lord, G-d is One”. Beriah is the word meaning creation of something from nothing.
Finally the practitioner reaches “Atzilut” - the realm of spirit. This is a realm of emanation and not considered to be separated from the Ayn Sof or Ohr Ayn Sof in the way that Tzimtzum (Divine contractions) separate the lower worlds.
Prayer is meant to be reflective rather than a give-me, give-me exercise. It's supposed to motivate us to change our actions, feelings and thoughts.
At each level or world in prayer we elevate the fallen sparks of that world. Visualization of specific Divine names is the way in which a person elevates those sparks

If you are unfamiliar with the concept of 4 worlds in Kabbalistic thought and would like an introduction, I recommend reading "The Thirteen Petaled Rose" by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz.

Project Update: Path of Dots, Fireflies and Galaxies

2011-11-07T14:37:00.000Z

It’s been awhile since my last project update post. This is in part due there not being many ongoing projects and in part to moving away from posting about Project Management. I’ve set-up another blog in which Project Management as a life skill is discussed. This blog will remain focused on Jewish magic, mysticism, rituals and esoteric research & practice in general.

Fireflies
Gordon over at Rune Soup recently posted about “Anatomy of A Firefly” and one bit in particular struck a chord with me:

“This is why I put practical enchantment on equal -and oftentimes higher- footing than classical theurgy. Because every time you demonstrate to yourself that magic works in the world your universe gets bigger. A new oddly-shaped puzzle piece materialises above the box and clatters down onto the others.

Each time your silly little luck spell increases your good fortune, each time your card reading shows up the family member that is turning toxic behind your back, each time the money spell gets you promoted it’s like discovering that Giza’s coordinates are just fucking weird.”

Practice vs. Study
A year ago my practice time compared to research time was about 10% to 90%. The practice was a bit of daily meditation to get used to certain techniques but not to influence the world around me. Perhaps heeding the cautions a little too strongly, I was starting to take some baby steps.

Recently I started a project to support the Detroit Lions and it’s provided a great opportunity for trying out some new techniques. Last week I tried a single technique, rather than a combination. It worked much better than expected. My understanding of the use of Divine names jumped as well and as Gordon describes in his post “my universe got bigger, much bigger”.

Dots and Galaxies
Looking back at last year, my Project Management career was entering a stormy phase with job cuts looming. I went for a couple of job interviews and thought I’d got one, but it fell through last minute hence I had to take the offer from my existing company.

Fast forward a year and I’m working at the company that I interviewed for and got rejected from. I prayed to get a job in that company but the way in which it manifest was that my entire business unit was moved across. Over 2000 staff all transferred to the new company, with impacts to the wider industry.

On the one hand I could read in to that it was just a happy coincidence. On the other hand I could read it as: “my prayers worked better than expected, just not in the way that I expected”. Only by looking back on this now can I see the pattern and again my universe got bigger, much bigger.

By plotting a course for my Project Management career and linking that up with my magical career, I can now see how to transform the path of dots to a path in which every dot is a galaxy. Each one is an opportunity to experiment, grow, practice and reflect.

Perhaps this post should be re-labeled to: “The Birth of a Corporate Wizard”...

Lecture Handout 02 November 2011

2011-11-04T12:35:00.001Z

Here is the (mostly) spell-checked and updated lecture hand-out from 2nd November 2011 on “Early Jewish Mysticism: Descent to the Chariot and Angelic Adjuration” at Treadwells Bookshop.

The questions at the end of the lecture were fantastic, which makes presenting the lecture so much fun. I think of it less of cross-examining my knowledge - than an opportunity for helping me connect dots I would not have otherwise, exchanging ideas and a test to see how well/badly I’ve managed to summarize my research of 2000 pages of academic works and books on Kabbalah.

Based on the review by Medieval Mystics blog, I think that the lecture on “Early Jewish Mysticism: Descent to the Chariot and Angelic Adjuration” went pretty well.

Next public lecture will have to wait until at least later in 2012. I’ve got a ton of research and project lined up that I’d like to do next.

This is not a Review: Wellcome Exhibitions: Charmed Life and Henry Wellcome

2011-11-02T11:59:00.001Z

Inspired by a recent posting by Ananael Qaa over at his Augoeis blog, I decided to take a slightly extended lunch break and visit the Wellcome trust exhibitions for the first time.

The first exhibition that I visited was about Amulets and Talismans. The formal title of which is: “Charmed Life: The Solace of Objects” by Felicity Powell (6th October 2011-26 February 2012)

Although there were some interesting bits and pieces, nothing really caught my attention for long.

So figuring that I’d spent a fair bit of time travelling to Euston, I should at least visit another exhibition and decided to look at the permanent exhibition: Medicine Man. I’m struggling to put in to words just how eclectic and strange the collection was, so instead I’ll quote the official blurb:

“Henry Wellcome was a man of many parts: entrepreneur, philanthropist, patron of science and pioneer of aerial photography. He also created one of the world’s great museums: a vast stockpile of evidence about our universal interest in health and the body.

More than 150 years after his birth in 1853, this exhibition reunites a cross-section of extraordinary objects from his collection, ranging from diagnostic dolls to Japanese sex aids, and from Napoleon’s toothbrush to George III’s hair. It also provides a very different perspective on some of our own obsessions with medicine and health…”

After coming across an early dentistry chair and an actual torture chair (there were more blades on the latter) I then came across Florence Nightingale’s shoes. Then turning the corner I was confronted by this:

The inscription with the exhibit was as follows:

Mummified male body

Chimu people, Peru, c. 1200-1400

This naturally preserved mummy is from the north coast of Peru, where Chimu culture buried their dead in ‘mummy bundles’. The body would have been seated in an upright position (with the knees at the face). The body was then wrapped in layer of fabric and a false head attached to the bundle. It was then buried with personal possessions, ritual objects and food offerings, revealing a strong belief in a continuing existence after death.

It seemed to me that he was not to happy with being put on display- but mummys don’t always get what they want in the afterlife. Just as I was about to go I found what had drawn me the exhibit, a Hebrew inscription artifact.

Unfortunately this was the best photo I managed to take, as my lurking around this one exhibit for a long period of time was beginning to attract the attention of the staff. I once had a guard follow me around half the British Museum, so perhaps there’s something about my behaviour that sets of mental alarms in museum staff.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 8

2011-10-30T20:39:00.003Z

The Detroit Lions are playing the Devner Broncos. Since the Lions lost their previous two games I realised that the approach used until now is no longer working.

So instead of refining it, I tried something different. It's a risky procedure and will either do really well or go the other way. If it works, I'll detail it in a couple of weeks.

My apologies for the lack of explanation of technique(s) used. As indicated by the earlier post about First Light, Second light; the first few victories of the Lions were a gift - now the hard work starts to recreate such victories in the future. I want to give it the best chance of success by trying the new technique without a big fanfare, sound and lights.

Edit: Final score Detroit Lions 45 - Denver Broncos 10.

Noah's Ark passanger list

2011-10-27T00:12:00.001+01:00

Whilst doing daily study for my Hebrew Immersion project, I came across the following commentary by Rashi on whom Noah took into the Ark:

In case you cannot read it, this verse in Genesis (6:19) reads:

"And from every living thing, from all flesh, you must bring two of everything into the ark, to keep alive with you; they must be male and female."

Rashi comments on verse 19:

"And from every living thing" - Even demons (Bereishit Rabbah 31:13)

The commentary in The Sapirstein Edition of Genesis has the following comment on Rashi's statement:

Bereishis Rabbah 31:13. The verse could have said "and from all flesh" without mentioning "all that lives," and we would have understood that God commanded Noah to bring all species of animals to the ark. "And from all that lives, of all flesh" indicates that God commanded Noah to bring to the ark something that lived which was not of flesh, as well. This refers to demon, who have life, but no body (Mizrachi; Sifrei Chachamim).

For some further reading on demons, I recommend the following blog postings by Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis and his excellent book: The Encyclopedia of Jewish Myth, Magic, and Mysticism.

One thing that I would like to highlight is that there is a spectrum of opinion about whether demons (and angels) are real or not. On the extreme of the rationalist camp is Maimonides (who states that demons are not real) and on the other extreme is Nahmanides (who says that they are).

First Light, Second Light

2011-10-25T12:17:00.000+01:00

A couple of years ago I attended a talk by Rabbi Tatz in which he mentioned the concept of first light versus second light.

He talked about the light on the first day of Creation and then the creation of the sun, moon and stars on the fourth day. He talked about the first tablets given to Moses and the second he had to carve for himself.

The theme being that the first light is stronger and is a gift from G-d. The second light is weaker and one that we have to work for ourselves.

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan explains the idea further in Inner Space, pp208 note 26.

“The light with which one can see from one end of the universe to the other is also the light that Adam saw in the Garden of Eden and which will be made available to the righteous in the World to Come; Chagigah 12a; Zohar 1:45b, 2:148b; cf. Rashi on Genesis 1:4; Berakhoth 17a; Likutey Halakhoth, Tefilling 5:1”.

By experiencing something the first time without much effort, you can’t then say “I’ll never achieve that” because you have already done it once. Sure the second and further times require a lot more effort but that is the way that the world is structured. Understanding the patterns in Creation is the first step to improving your life and the world around you.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 7

2011-10-23T19:16:00.001+01:00

This week the game is against the Atlanta Falcons. Last match was not great, hence I did a lessons learned exercise. Two things that I forgot to mention were:

Although I mentioned giving charity in the past, I failed to do so after that posting. This has not been rectified.
I came close to breaking a vow that could have affected my meditation and influence on the Lions. I've strengthened my resolve and will channel energies away from activities that weaken my resolve concerning the vow.

Anyway, rather than do an elaborate analysis of the name of the opposing - this week I stuck to what worked previously:

Preparation meditation followed by Toning and Tuning from Book of Self Creation
Two simple meditation techniques using Hebrew aleph-bet
Angel Meditation (Creating harmony between the four elements) from Eye to the Infinite
Psalms and selected verses from Scripture about lions

Final score: Atlanta Falcons 23 - Detroit Lions 16

Fear of Thoughtforms

2011-10-19T13:32:00.000+01:00

I’m posting 3 posts today as it is the last part of the Sukkoth Festival starts tonight. This post should be taken with a pinch of salt, tongue in cheek, in other words not entirely seriously. Some of the content is very serious – you decide.

Crocodiles

When asked recently what I’m afraid of I answered: “Crocodiles… oh and thought forms”

“Thoughtforms”, came the puzzled response. “What are those?”

Well… rather than explain what a thoughform is, here is the Wikipedia version:

A thoughtform is a manifestation of mental energy, also known as a tulpa in Tibetan mysticism.[1] Its concept is related to the Western philosophy and practice of magic.[2]

I recommend this book (as one of the few books I’ve read in this area):

“Creating Magickal Entities: A Complete Guide to Entity Creation” by David Michael Cunningham, Taylor Ellwood, T. Amanda R. Wagener.

Vampiric thoughforms

A few years ago I tried creating a thoughtform. I gave it a form, a name and a purpose. The purpose of the thoughtform was to enhance healing rates. It then proceeded to make me ill very quickly to the extent that I spent the next couple of days systematically taking it apart.

After that experience I decided not to create any more thoughtforms. The other effect of this experience was that I stopped writing fiction.

Which brings me around to the initial conversation in which I mentioned fear of thoughtforms; it was only at that point that I made the connection between my fear and lack of creative output in terms of fiction.

Fiction
Digging into it a bit further I found that in the past I’ve often thought of situations to build a story around. Think of it like setting up a stage for a show with propos, scenes and a general context within which the story will unfold. Then as I write the story the character come to life and often the story takes turns that I had not anticipated at the start.

Sounds great? Well when it works I have found the results very entertaining (as have some of the few people I’ve shared my fiction with). But now I realize that although characters in fiction are (probably) not thoughtforms, I’ve unconsciously shied away from writing more fiction for fear that they’ll come alive in some way and interact with my life in a negative manner.

To overcome this fear I’ve decided that after two major upcoming events (lecture and addition to the family) I should get back in to writing. Perhaps I’ll write about thoughtforms and crocodiles! If you are inclined to have me waste more of your life by publishing a story or two, please be patient until the start f next year.

Lessons Learnt from Detroit Lions match versus San Francisco 49ers

2011-10-19T12:43:00.000+01:00

This is a brief lessons learned about what I may / may not have done wrong to affect the Detroit Lions game against the San Francisco 49ers last Sunday 16th October 2011. See: A Lion Has Roared: Match 6

Ignored a warning about use of Water
Tried to influence one over the other of things from same source
Uncertainty about how good a match the Biblical verse was
Too specific about desire for outcome of results

1. Last week a washing machine which a friend is using and that I own broke down. It’s now being replaced, but it should have given me pause before deciding to use the verse about one of the rivers from Eden. The message to me was “a flow of water has been stopped, take note!”

2. Trying to promote the river Pishon over the river Gichon in hindsight may not have been such a great idea. They have the same source and although everything ultimately comes from the same source, these concepts of Edenic Rivers may have been too tightly coupled. Also, affecting Edenic rivers may be a little beyond my current abilities.

3. Re-reading the Biblical verse from Genesis chapter 2 verse 11 about the river Pishon…. It mentions gold in the same sentence as the river. I should have thought more about this as it could be interpreted that by promoting the river Pishon I was also promoting the gold, i.e. the 49ers.

4. By describing the Lions as encircling the 49ers as the river Pishon does the gold in Genesis 2:11 I may have been too specific about how the outcome might manifest.

In future I will limit myself to promoting the Lions and possibly looking in to weaknesses of opposing teams based on their names and histories. However, I will not be describing how the success will manifest (unless I have a really good insight and am feeling like gambling on not having a list for results).

“Occupy” and the Tree as a Pendulum

2011-10-19T12:24:00.000+01:00

I’ve put off posting about this for awhile as I dislike politics. However sometimes it’s difficult to get away from politics. So here are a few of my thoughts on the currently ongoing movements such as Occupy Wall Street and the Ocupy movement in London outside St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Poles on the Tree

If we look at the Sefirot (Divine Emanations) as modeled on the Tree, see diagram below – then there are three columns. The left side containing Binah, Gevurah, and Hod. The right side containing Chokhma, Chesed and Netzach. The middle column with Keter, Tiferet, Yesod and Malchut.

Tree of Life (from Wikipedia)

The Kabbalists refer to manifestations of G-d’s interaction with the world when interacting via the Sefirot of the left side as displaying His Attributes of Justice. When manifesting via the Sefirot of the right side He is displaying his Attributes of Mercy.

For example, when the name Elohim is used – this means that the Attribute of (strict) Justice applies. When the name Y-H-V-H (Tetragrammaton) is used it means the Attribute of Mercy. When both are used in combination: YHVH Elohim – this means the middle column and a harmonious interaction between the two sides of the Tree.

Pendulum, Or We Don’t Live in a Static Universe

A Pendulum, Foucault's

The thing about looking at the tree in such a static manner is that it’s a bit of an illusion. We don’t live in a stationary Universe. Galaxies, Stars, Planets, Molecules, Atoms, etc are in constant motion.

Using the rule of thumb: As Above, So Below, we can read in to this that just as the physical world is undergoing constant changes so too are the spiritual realms changing. However, from what I understand the laws of physics, etc cannot be meaningfully applied to the spiritual realms. Instead we need to use symbolism of the Tree to understand how what is happening Below is reflected Above.

From my limited view of history, I have seen that there are trends of political movements rising and falling. Some rise and & fall fast, others rise and fall slowly. But why is that?

The theory that I’d like to put forward is one of the “Pendulum on the Tree”. Basically it means that when a movement swings too far to the right or left of the tree – eventually it will correct itself thought one means or another.

Please note that the left and right on the Tree do not correspond to the left and right of political movements. At the extremes of the left and right – the desire to control, constrain and apply limitations are as strong all of which are representative of the left side of the Kabalistic Tree. The desire to expand, share, overflow and potentially obliterate everything in its path is representative of the right side of the Tree.

The Sun

Taking the sun as an example… on the one hand it’s very expansive in terms of giving off light, heat and radiation. On the other hand the sun is limited in terms of its size. Gravity constrains the sun to remain a certain overall size.

If a star expands too far, from what I understand, it will eventually collapse and lead to a final very large expansion. This is what I understand what happens when a star goes super nova. (Please excuse this gross simplification as I have a childlike understanding of physics).

In the run up to the super nova, the expansion and contraction reach the extremes of the pendulum swinging between Chesed (expansion) to Din (contraction, limitations). The results are pretty spectacular.

Occupy Movements

OK, this is running in to a very lengthy post so I’ll try to be brief.

The occupy movement to my understanding are going through a period of expansion. Trying to work out new ways of living, changes that can happen without engaging with the current existing political systems of Din (constraints, limitations).

Eventually the movements will need to move more to the middle ground in order to come to some kind of point of balance to integrate opposing ideologies. The other option is to continue to expand outwards, obliterating what lies in its path – in other words a revolution that overthrows the existing power political structures entirely.

However, if you look at history the communists revolutions left in place as controlling systems (if not more so) than those that came before. The same can be said for political coups and revolutions driven by ideologies from the right of the political spectrum.

What bothers me is that the movement has included “Occupy” in its name. This to me implies a root of constraint, limitation and very much points to the left side of the Tree. To strict severity and justice. Perhaps the movement will result in increase in justice to balance the expansive power of the super-rich. On the other hand, it could just turn in to a more controlling power system than previously.

Daat - Knowledge
One last thing I’d like to mention. The way that the two sides can interact is via dialogue (verbal intercourse) and action (physical). “Adam knew Eve” (the word used in Hebrew is from the root Daat) and they had kids. Let’s all keep talking!

A Lion Has Roared: Match 6

2011-10-16T18:49:00.003+01:00

This week the Detroit Lions are playing the San Francisco 49ers. Putting the name of the San Francisco in produced: סן פרנסיסקו

The interesting thing about this for me is that part of the name Francisco is: פרנס

This means "earnings, maintain, support". Which ties in nicely with the name for the city's football team which is according to Wikipedia is due to the 1849 gold rush:

The name "49ers" comes from the name given to the gold prospectors who arrived in Northern California around 1849 during the California Gold Rush. The name was suggested to reflect the voyagers who had rushed the West for gold. It is the only name the team has ever been affiliated with and San Francisco is the only city in which it has resided.^[4]

The idea of San Francisco being associated with gold linked up with two thoughts that I came across recently:

"And a river went out of Eden" - Part 1 post at Jacobus Swart's blog
It's currently the Festival of Sukkot, the time of year when Water (rainfall) is judged

Taking from the 1st thought - the message that each river coming out of Eden is associated with a particular set of attributes. The river Pishon with the Lion and the river Gichon with Gold.

Using this idea of Edenic rivers and combining it with this being a time of year when amount of water to be received is allocated by G-d... made me formulate the following variation on my weekly pre-match meditation:

Preparation meditation followed by Toning and Tuning from Book of Self Creation
Two simple meditation techniques using Hebrew aleph-bet
Angel Meditation (Creating harmony between the four elements) from Eye to the Infinite
Meditation on the verses in Genesis about the river Pishon, using the head letters in the verse to create a mantra meditation**
Studying Mishna Sukkot

** - Genesis chapter 2 verse 11:

"The name of the first is Pishon, the one that encircles the whole land of Havilah, where the gold is".

My reading in to this verse is that the Detroit Lions (represented by the river Pishon) will encircle the San Francisco 49ers (represented by Gold). May the mighty Lions surge like a river, encircle the opposition and sweep them away.

Edit: Something I forgot to mention was that meditating in the sukkah felt quite different. I shall look in to meditating outside my house in future. Also, the feeling of being submerged in the Tuning and Toning exercise was stronger than usual.

Edit: Final score Detroit Lions 19 - San Francisco 49ers 25. I need to do a lessons learned exercise to work out how to improve next time.

Horns, Angel Suits and Ancestors in the Back Yard

2011-10-12T12:09:00.000+01:00

It’s a funny time of year in the Jewish calendar. The festivals of Rosh Hashanah (New Year) has just passed in which the ‘big events’ are decided by the Almighty. This festival is followed by 10 days of repentance in which we continue to do an audit of our lives and work to return to the Source of All.

That to my understanding is the purpose of atonement – not to flagellate ourselves about past sins – but to look back and see what we can do better to strive to be close to G-d. To reach that stage of being one with the purpose of creation – in other words at-one-ment.

The ten days culminate in the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur, which is a 25 hour fast (no food or drink) and almost the whole day in prayer. During Rosh Hashanah a ram’s horn is blown, as a reminder of the ultimate sacrifice the Abraham almost made and to counter the cries of Sissera’s mother (amongst a whole list of other reasons).

During Yom Kippur people try to be like the angels, dressing in angel costumes, standing with their feet together (as described in Ezekiel) and pouring out our hearts to be sealed in the book of life.

Then as soon as the fast is over and everyone’s had a bite to eat and something to drink, people start going outside to build temporary structures. And when I say temporary, I really mean that as mine has almost blown away twice now.

Here is an article by Rabbi Geoffrey Dennis about how this temporary structure (sukkah – to commemorate the 40 years in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt) enables certain ancestors to visit. It blew me away the first time that I read it.

A Sukkah

This year is the first time in ages that I’ve built a sukkah. On the first night I hope to be entertaining the spirit of Abraham the Patriarch. When my wife asked what we should have for dinner, rather than choose something that we normally have on Friday night like chicken soup, meat and vegetables – I asked for pizza.

“Pizza?” she asked. “Any particular reason why?”

I decided it was best not to go in to a lengthy explanation about how I link pizza and spirits from having read the fictional novels by Jim Butcher about the Chicago based wizard Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden.

“So that we can have pizza in the hut”, I replied. Again I declined to explain further how this was inspired by a character from the film Space Balls.

The other things that struck me about the sukkah is that it’s one of the few commandments that surrounds a person from all sides and for some reason here in the UK, putting up a temporary structure is one of THE best ways to summon rain. Lots and lots of rain.

Perhaps if the sukkah acts as a luminal zone, as a threshold between the physical world and spiritual worlds, the rain is needed to act as a universal lubricant to ease the passage of spirits. On the other hand, perhaps the sylphs, sprites and other things that call these isles home take delight in playing with the booths that pop up for one week every year since the time of Cromwell and for a century or two before 1290.

A Lion has Roared: Match 5

2011-10-10T21:00:00.001+01:00

It's week 05 and the Lions face the Chicago Bears. Following the pattern from previous games, my preparations involved doing a little research on the name of the opposing team.

Having chosen not to focus on the name Chicago, I instead looked up the word for Bear in The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hewbrew and English Lexicon. On pp. 179 the entry listed the places in Scripture where the word Dov (daled-bet) appears. Bear in Hebrew means soft or gliding motion.

Having looked up the first few references: Amos 5:19, 1 Samuel 17:34, 2 Kings 2:24 and Isaiah 59:11 – I was at first dismayed to discover that the word Bear and Lion both appear in the same sentence on each occasion (apart from II Kings 2:24 that only mentions bears). However, then I spotted that the Lion references always occur earlier in the sentence.

But then I got a bit carried away and looked up the other mentions of the word bear:

2 Samuel 17:8- mention made of a bereaved bear
Proverbs 17:12. - another mention made of a bereaved bear
Hosea 13:8,- mentions bereaved bear and then devour them like a lion
Isaiah 11:7 - bear mentioned first and then lion
Proverbs 28:15 - lion first, then bear and
Lamentations 3:10 – bear and then lion.

However, I'd like to point out that Isaiah 11:7 is part of a piece talking about messianic times when nature will not follow the course that it does currently.

So it appears that in Scripture the natural order of things is for the Lion to precede the Bear. So I decided as part of the match preparation to study the first Chapter of Genesis which only mentioned one Divine Name – the one that refers to G-d acting within the confines of nature.

Also looking back at previous match preparation postings, it appears that the following techniques generate positive results:

Preparation meditation followed by Toning and Tuning from Book of Self Creation
Two simple meditation techniques using Hebrew aleph-bet
Angel Meditation (Creating harmony between the four elements) from Eye to the Infinite
Study Genesis chapter 1wih Rashi commentary**

The other thing that I did at the weekend during Yom Kippur was include all the people of Detroit in my prayers. As the sages teach the gate of tears is never closed. Just make sure they are real tears!

If you like to help the people of Detroit (as Kid Rock did in May), here are a couple of listings (1, 2)of local charities. As with all giving to charity my rule of thumb is research them well and then give generously. The Rabbis teach that giving charity is like salting meat in that it helps to preserve your earnings.

** - This is the next portion to be studied in my Hebrew Immersion project, so that works out nicely.

Edit: final score Lions 24 - Bears 13. Thank G-d the natural order was maintained in this instance with the Lions leading and the Bears left bereft.

Chosen Path and Art

2011-10-06T22:47:00.001+01:00

The latest meme in the blogosphere (at least of blogs that I read) is about a chosen path, labels, titles and names.

Gordon inadvertently started it by writing about how Chaos magic is enough for him. His article was about also about 'big versus small magic', about re-discovering how weaving magic in to everyday life can lead to some amazing moments of realization. Gordon has in my opinion done some amazing things with chaos magic, I still re-read on occasions his articles on shoaling (see link, link, link). Using the 'making art' metaphor, he can do things with crayons that can make you smile like an idiot or move you to tears.

Jason, at strategic sorcery, followed it up by picking out the part of Gordon's article that focuses on the successes with a chosen path. His gift is seeing the underlying patterns behind different techniques and he's woven them together in such a successful way that he's for the moment managed to turn it in to a career. For an example of the range of styles of Art that he can teach – see this post.

Jow joined the discussion with this post about Names, Titles and Labels. Having a think about his blog posting made me come up with the metaphor of Art and artists. Some artists focus on one way of channeling their creativity, for example becoming masters of light in schools for painters. Other can do things with clay that defy belief, whilst others still pour out their creative talents in to multiple art forms such as pop art, sculpture, scrimshaw, etc.

Rufus Opus at Head for the Red responded by pointing out that during his travels in his spiritual development - he has taken a number of different routes. His use of different techniques made me question whether it is meaningful to call someone a painter if in addition to working on canvas they also work with for example sculpt clay, carve wood and etch on stone? Then again, is label of worker of Art or artists just too broad?

Over at the Lions Den is yet another blog post about picking a path. It reminds me of what my martial arts instructor said about "there being many paths up the mountain". After a certain point you have to start to climb using the techqnieu that bests suits you. Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Creation) starts by describing 32 mystcial paths, the Hebrew word for path used is Netivot rather than Derech. As Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan explains in his commentary it means a personal route rather than a public route.

Whilst I've read bits and pieces on Druidism, Shamanism, Witchcraft, Golden Dawn, Grimoire magic and Tarot/Divination – I decided after some deep thought to pursue a magical career in Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism. Legends of the Golem had fascinated me since childhood and I wanted to “try to understand the technical specifications of the blueprints of Creation/Reality”. To understand how the metaphysics of creation fit together and how can I experience that?

As I returned to the practice of the religion/faith of my people I decided that even though this would be a narrow path with numerous limitations on what should and should not be practiced – it would hopefully in time give me a practical understanding and experience of being a Kabbalah technician (so to speak). After some consideration the name “Trainee Golem Builder” came to mind and it sounded more tongue in cheek, but behind that is a desire to develop into a technician of metaphysics in the field of Kabbalah and Jewish mysticism.

Finally returning to the Art and artists metaphors, in my opinion it does not matter so much what the label is for the maker of the art or the type of art. What interests me is how the art is made.

Level up!

2011-10-05T14:19:00.000+01:00

It’s been almost a week since this blog got started. I’ve just had a quick browse through the postings in the past year and it’s making my head spin a bit. Rather than do an in-depth lessons learnt review, I’ll use a diagram from a previous post about “Navigating Your Magical Career” to highlight was has changed.

Last year:

Now:

Hermetic Kabbalah – no change. I’ve got a bunch of books to read but have yet to prioritize those on the to-read list.
Merkava Mysticism Theory – 2 point increase. 1 point due to this Project: Understanding the Merkava User Manual in 2000 pages or less.
Jewish Kabbalah Theory – no change. Perhaps when I finish and internalize the information in Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s “Inner Space” this could go up by 1 point.
Jewish Meditation Theory – 1 point increased. Increased due to books read, lectures attended and face to face meetings with other aspiring Kabbalists.
Jewish Meditation Practice – 1 point increase. The project to support the Detroit Lions via meditation and prayer is my first practical application of knowledge gained for non-friend or family members.
Hebrew Amulet Writing Ability – 1 point increase. The success of My first amulet writing attempt has yet to be proven. The amulet has been in my travel bag for awhile, but so far I’ve not had call to use it in pressing danger. I'm going to try to create another amulet soon.
Golem Building Ability – no change. I’ll admit that I’ve got rather distracted with my studies in Merkava / Chariot / Hekhalot / Heavenly Palaces mysticism. After December I intend to get back to golem building and apply some of my knowledge.
Sefer Yetzirah Theory – no change. See golem building ability above.
Abulafia meditation in Practice – this is a new category. It encapsulates my desire to translate and make use of the 13th century Kabbalist Abraham Abulafia’s ecstatic / prophetic meditation techniques.

Final note and advert…

I’m giving a talk at the Treadwells bookshop on the 2nd of November 2011 at 7:30pm. The topic of the talk is: “Ritual in Early Jewish Mysticism: Descent to the Chariot and Angelic Adjuration”.

If you’ve never been to Treadwells before and are considering going, here is a handy guide to Treadwells lecture attendance that I wrote earlier.

Treadwells: 33 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS

This is a culmination of the following Project: Understanding the Merkava User Manual in 2000 pages or less.

The outline of the talk is as follows:
1. Setting the Context

Chapter 1 of Book of Ezekiel, Outline of different Hekhalot (Heavenly Palaces) texts, Historical period in which this literature arose.

2. Inside the Hekhalot Texts

Status of current academic research, focus of each text, preparation techniques for heavenly ascent or angelic adjuration, comparison to shamanistic techniques

3. Deciphering Ezekiel

Focus on ritual practice rather than literary constructs, how the 7 heavens fit in to the 10 Sefirot and what the sign-posts are on spiritual ascent

A Lion Had Roared: Match 4

2011-10-02T14:34:00.003+01:00

This is a post that has been pre-scheduled as I’m busy at the moment with the Jewish New Year – Rosh Hashanah and the upcoming Day of Atonement – Yom Kippur.

Today’s game is between my new all-time favourite team (since a few weeks ago) the Detroit Lions and the Dallas Cowboys. The last match that the Lions played was against the Vikings and it was a close call. This time I decided to get prepared earlier in the week and do some more research on the opposing side.

Breaking Down a Name
So… what meaning can be read in to the name of the Dallas Cowboys?

Well the word Dallas in Hebrew can be broken in to two parts:

Da – meaning “know” and
Las – being the root of the word ‘lu-ee-yu-sah’ (Lamed-ayin-yud-heh)

According to the Klein etymological dictionary the word ‘lu-ee-yu-sah’ (Lamed-ayin-yud-heh) is post-Biblical Hebrew for chewing and mastication.

Taken in combination with the word Cowboy, this deconstruction of the word Dallas makes sense. I understand it to mean: to know (the land), to chew (tobacco?) and to herd cattle from on top of a horse.

Herding Bringing Out the Best and the Worst
Herding and tending cattle, especially sheep, is a common theme in the Torah (scriptures). In particular there are examples such as the Patriarch Joseph, the Prophet Moses and King David.

However, there are is also one example of a shepherd who is cast in a very negative light – namely Lavan (Laban). Not only did he initially cheat Jacob of his bride Rachel by tricking him in to marrying Leah. When it came to leaving Lavan’s household and returning to his home, Jacob and his family was pursued by Lavan and armed me. The commentators state that Lavan’s intention was to wipe out Jacob and his entire family, something worse than the Egyptians tried who only drowned the male children.

So we can see from the above that on the one hand a person who tends sheep can grow to be great leaders of their generation, they can also degenerate to the worst of humanity. Another thing to consider it that riding a horse can be viewed in a negative light, in particular Psalm 147:

"Not in the strength of the horse does He desire, and not in the legs of man does He favor. HASHEM favors those who fear Him, those who hope for His kindness"

Meditations:
These are the meditations that I intend to do:
- Tuning and Toning, from Book of Self Creation by Jacobus Swart
- Two simple Hebrew letter meditation techniques based on Abulafia and Sefer Yetzira
- Use the first letters of the verse from Psalm 147 mentioned above as a mantra meditation
- Study the text about Lavan’s pursuit of Jacob
- Bibliomancy to see what other texts make themselves available for study and interpretation

Edit: The score for the game has come in finally at Lions 34 - Cowboys 30. The Cowboys led for the first part of the game and when I logged on to see that the score was Cowboys 20- Lions 3 my heart sank. Today was a fast day and with it being 29 centigrade (the vast majority of UK homes do not have air conditioning), I had to have a drink part way through the day. Anyway despite the score I prayed, studied and worked at mending the harmony in my household. Whilst I was ready to write off the match as a loss, the lesson that I take from this is that G-d always leaves the gates of teshuva (repetence/at-one-ment) open.

Unpacking Text, Context and Translation

2011-09-27T13:10:00.000+01:00

This is a post that follows on from my previous post about Unpackaging ideas. The two points that I would like to make are:

Unpacking ideas is done via context, the context of the text, the author(s) and your context
Unpacking ideas that have been translated add to them the context of the translator(s)

When studying a text, it is very important to understand the context of that text. A word only has a specific meaning in relation to the rest of the sentence, paragraph or text. The word by itself can have multiple meanings. Changing context of a meaning is often a means to generate humour.

For example, an American and an English farmer are talking about driving around their fields. The English farmer says:

“I get in my car, drive 5 minutes and reach the end of my field.”

The American farmer says:

“That's nothing! I get in my car, drive along my field… And drive… And drive some more. Eventually after an hour I get to the end of my field”.

To which the English farmer replies:

“I used to have a car like that too!”

My apologies in advance for explaining the joke but… you might at first think that the American farmer is describing how large his field it, that it takes an hour to get from one end to the other. The English farmer misunderstands and thinks that the car is just really rubbish, that it does a 5 minute journey in 1 hour.

The important things to take away from this example are two things:

The words field, car, American, English, farmer all make sense within the context, in a different context they could have a very different meaning.
You interpreted what the text was describing in a specific way.

There is also a third context in the joke that of the joke’s author.

As explained in The Comic Toolbox: How to Be Funny Even If You're Not by John Vorhaus, humour relies on Truth and Pain. If you cannot comprehend the truth of a situation or the source of pain, then you are unlikely to find the joke funny. Next time you encounter a joke that you don’t laugh at, consider what part of the truth or pain that the joke derives from is something that you do not agree with.

Anyway, getting back to the main topic. The important thing when studying a text is to (1) consider the context of the text, (2) consider the context of the author(s) and (3) consider yourself.

Ask these questions:

What age did the author(s) live in? What were their circumstances? What influenced their ways of thinking? What political, religious, etc ideologies did they ascribe to and which might they have opposed?
Now ask the same question as in 1. Above but apply it to yourself.

By being able to take a step back and look at the context of the text, author and your self – you can get a better understanding of what messages the text is trying to convey.

If on the other hand you ignore one or more of these contexts, you run the risk of misinterpreting the messages within the text and in the worst case scenario coming to a conclusion that is either opposite to the intended or one that is nonsensical.

Final thought… Having considered the argument above about taking note of the context of a text, the author(s) and the reader (i.e. you)… What do you think are the impacts of this on the context when you read a translated text?

New Year Challenge – Bold Ideas

2011-09-27T12:36:00.000+01:00

My wife sent me this amazing article from the Cardozo Academy New Year message. What New Year you may ask? It’s almost Rosh Hashanah; one of a number of new year’s celebrated in the Jewish calendar.

Here is an excerpt from the article that I believe applies not only to education within mainstream Judaism but to spiritual development paths in general:

What today’s Judaism is desperately in need of is great critics who could fructify and energize its great message. It needs spiritual Einsteins, Freuds and Pasteurs who could show its untapped possibilities and still undeveloped grandeur.

Judaism should be challenged by new Spinozas and Nietzsches; by remorseless atheists who would scare the hell out of our rabbis who would then be forced into thinking bold ideas.

The time has come to deal with the real issues and not hide behind excuses which ultimately will turn Judaism into a sham. Our thinking is behind the times, and that is something that we can no longer afford. This is the great challenge with which Rosh Hashanah confronts us. Judaism is about bold ideas. Its goal is not to find the truth, but to inspire us to honestly search for it. Torah study is not only the greatest undertaking there is, but also the most dangerous, since it can so easily lead to self-satisfaction and spiritual conceit. The leashing of our souls is easier than the building of our spirit.

The article does not advocate throwing away the baby with the bathwater, but rather to step out of what has become constrained ways of thinking. There is a trend that I have observed at a local and global level to increase conformity of thought in religious groups and non-religious groups. For example, it seems that bail-outs are the only approved method of dealing with the debt crisis and no one is willing to make bold moves to get the Euro crisis out of the intensive care unit and back to the recovery rooms.

As a child I was taught to question, question and question some more. In my late teens this led me on my first journey in to the deeper spiritual side of my faith but at the time I did not have the maturity to properly integrate and make use of those ideas. Fast forward some time to the present and my circumstances are such that I can now integrate that knowledge. That desire to question, question and question some more is something that I’ve never let go off. Hence why the article linked above has so much appeal to me.

I think that the same idea can be carried over in to the world of esoteric research and practice. In other words, it’s time for some bold ideas that challenge the status quo. So much time is wasted arguing over how to interpret grimoires or whether transmission from Hidden Masters is ongoing or not – that great opportunities to advance our understanding through practical application of techniques are being lost.

Not sure why I added this except that I like the picture

Pheonix Angel recently posted about trying to figure out what role an engineer has in the esoteric community. I put forward my view that her role is a vital one, that being to advocate bold new ideas, test them and enrich the community.

Will we pass on group of traditions to the next generations that have grown in this time? Or will it be a group of traditions that have been carefully categorized, analyzed, curated and preserved in Formaldehyde?

A Lion Has Roared: Match 3

2011-09-25T20:11:00.002+01:00

It's been a buy week and I've not had much time to think about and prepare for the match between the Detroit Lions (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit_Lions) and the Minnesota Vikings (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minnesota_Vikings).

On Thursday something happened that made me feel quite fearful for the outcome of the match. So I fasted for over half a day and tried to find a different interpretation to the name of the Minnesota Vikings to the one that I'd come up with earlier in the week.

You see, I took the name Minnesota Vikings and tried to break it down to see what it might mean in Hebrew. The word “Sota” refers to a woman who is suspected of being a wayward wife (see Numbers 5: 11-31). In the Torah it refers to a woman who has been warned by her husband and then been secluded with another man (during which extra-marital relations may have taken place).

What happens is that the woman is taken to the Kohen (priest) and asked to confess, if she refuses her hair is cut. If she refuses to confess again she is made to drink water mixed with soil from the Temple ground combined with a curse from a scroll: (Numbers 5:23) “The Kohen shall inscribe these curses on a scroll and erase it into bitter waters.”

If she is guilty... (Numbers 5:27) “He shall cause her to drink the water, and it shall be that had become defiled and had committed treachery against her husband, the waters cause curse shall come into her for bitterness, and her stomach shall be distended and her thigh shall collapse, and the woman shall become a curse amidst her people”.

In other words, this is a supernatural (outside the normal laws of nature and only such lethal punishment in Scripture) that causes her and the man she committed adultery with to both have their private parts swell up and kill them.

If on the other hand she is innocent, then she is blessed and will conceive a child. (Numbers 5:28) “But if the woman has not become defiled, and she is pure, then she shall be proven innocent and she shall bear seed.”

Now back to the name of the team Minnesota Vikings. As explained above, “sota” refers to a woman who is suspected of having an extramarital affair. “Min” means 'from'.

For Vikings I was a bit stuck. They struck me as the kind of people who might not be so civil if they were secluded with a person's wife. So I thought that perhaps the name could be twisted to mean: “wayward woman secluded with randy Norse-man”.

Anyway, the pre-match meditation that I did to support the Detroit Lions was as follows:

Simple letter meditation (based on Abulafia technique)
Followed by other simple Hebrew letters meditation
Angel Meditation (Creating harmony between the four elements) from “Eye to the Infinite”
Studied Numbers 5:11-31
I thought to recite some Psalms next. When I opened the Tanach to the Book of Daniel 3:13-30 which relates the miraculous survival of Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego in the furnace having been thrown in there by the command of Nebuchadnezzar; I studied that instead.

At the time of writing this blog entry, the Detroit Lions are 20-0 down. Perhaps they will be saved from the fire of a shameful defeat. Then again, perhaps the Norse-men have not been wayward and will be blessed with success.

There is one more thing I'm going to do to try to save the day, elevating joy in my home.

Edit: Final score Lions 26 - Vikings 23 (http://www.nfl.com/scores/2011/REG3). Which to me shows the power of joy, that the Vikings are far from wayward and that one should not rely on miracles to be saved from the fire - but to be immensely grateful when it does happen.

Unpackaging Ideas, Context and Lectures

2011-09-21T13:38:00.000+01:00

Unpackaging Scripture
Last weekend I attended a lecture on scripture (Tanach). The lecture was specifically on the story of King David and his relationship with Batsheva. The Rabbi giving the lecture talked about the different levels of interpretation from Talmudic, medieval to modern day commentators.

The point that the Rabbi was trying to make the in the lecture was that as well as the written tradition (Tanach), there is also an oral tradition (Talmud and later commentators) that are needed to “unpackage” the ideas and context in which they took place.

For example, various commentators have pointed out that in biblical times it was understood that ‘a thousand men’ means ‘many people’ and ‘ten generations’ means ‘forever’.

Physics Example
Rather than trying to recreate the lecture, I’ll re-use the example from the lecture that was used to illustrate the point about “unpackaging of ideas”.

E = MC²

Hopefully you recognize this formula. It's Albert Einstein’s Mass–energy equivalence. Now I’m not an expert in the area of Physics. My teacher refused to teach me A-level physics and there ended my dreams of working in the field of robotics.

Contained within Mass–energy equivalence formula are a lot of ideas and concepts. For example, it has been used to explain the origin of energy in nuclear processes but actually what it allows you to do is measure how much mass is lost in such reactions.

However, when you dig a little deeper you learn that only a very small amount of mass is converted in to energy:

“In nuclear reactions, typically only a small fraction of the total mass–energy of the bomb is converted into heat, light, radiation and motion, which are "active" forms which can be used. When an atom fissions, it loses only about 0.1% of its mass (which escapes from the system and does not disappear), and in a bomb or reactor not all the atoms can fission. In a fission based atomic bomb, the efficiency is only 40%, so only 40% of the fissionable atoms actually fission, and only 0.04% of the total mass appears as energy in the end.”

So starting with the relatively simple formula we’ve (hopefully) come to an understanding that when applied to nuclear reactions, the idea unpackages to explain that mass-energy converted to heat, light, radiation and motion can be measured and that only a very small percentage of mass is converted.

Kabbalistic Symbolism
Now we come on to the bit that I’ve been struggling with recently. First of all I’ve been reading about the concepts of Partzuf, Tzimtzim and Adam Kadmon in Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan’s brilliant book: “Inner Space”.

Whilst skim reading would give me a cursory understanding of these concepts, actually unpackaging the ideas and internalizing their meaning is proving to be a very challenging task. Meditation on concepts allows a person to understand them at both a rational and psychic-intuitive level. But figuring out how these ideas can overlay my perception of reality is a whole other step.

The second issue that I’ve been struggling with is how to write a lecture on Merkavah mysticism - such that the context, concepts and research are unpackaged in the most appropriate way for the target audience.

Conenctions to other recent Blog posts
Gordon recently posted about going on a museum tour and reminded me why I get frustrated by tour guides unwillingness or inability to unpackage the context and ideas in historical objects. Yes, you guessed it I’m one of those people who asks the annoying questions that make guides either give an impromptu lecture in great detail or get annoyed and hurry the tour along even quicker.

Rufus Opus is giving a giving a lecture at the Crucible. It’ll be interesting to see in his post-lecture write-up how he dealt with unpackaging the concepts in his lecture for the target audience. Also how much time he spent on clarifying terminology.

Jason at Strategic Sorcery has been discussing the uses and meaning of the words Magic which I’ve been reading through the lens of unpackaging of terminology. Like the E = MC² formula the word Magic on the surface is quite simple, but when you start to unpackage it and refer to it in specific context, historical time/location, schools of thought etc it suddenly becomes an Aladdin’s cave of meanings.

Claim token

2011-09-21T13:02:00.001+01:00

This is a claim token: DJWJP4G7TT96.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 2

2011-09-18T20:34:00.002+01:00

Here is a brief summary of my meditation in preparation of the Detroit Lions match versus the Kansas City Chiefs.

Couldn't find anything useful to do with the name of Kansas City Chiefs when it was translated in to Hebrew. Chose not to weaken the opposing team.
Instead decided to focus on strengthening the Lions during this home match.
Meditation involved:

Preparation meditation followed by Toning and Tuning from Book of Self Creation
Two simple meditation techniques using Hebrew aleph-bet
Angel Meditation (Creating harmony between the four elements) from Eye to the Infinite
Studied scripture that made reference to the word lion (אריה) , used The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon

Got interrupted towards the end of scripture studying. Finished with a walking meditation that involved a bit of unstructured visual meditation (lions rampaging to victory).

~~I'll edit this post when the match is finished.~~ EDIT: Final score Lions 48 - Chiefs 3.

Depression, Joy and Dancing

2011-09-14T01:00:00.000+01:00

In one of the places where I pray on a fairly regular basis, dancing during the service happens about once a week. This normally happens at a specific part of the prayer service and in the past I've had difficulty joining in as I find just getting up and leaping on the dance floor (so to speak) is not something that comes easily.

Anyway, whilst re-reading a part of “Meditation and Kabbalah” by Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan (pp.226) on the writings from the Ari – I came across the following quote about depression:

“...(These are the qualities that a person must cultivate in order to attain enlightenment.)
When a person prays, studies Torah, or observes a Commandment, he must be happy and joyful, He must have more pleasure than if he had reaped a great profit or had found a thousand gold coins...
The trait of sadness is a very bad quality, especially for one who wishes to attain Ruach HaKodesh. There is nothing that can prevent enlightenment more than depression, even for those who are worthy. We find evidence for this from the verse: 'And now bring a minstrel, and when the minstrel played, the hand of God came upon him' (2 Kings 3:15). [The music was needed to dispel his sadness]. The same is true of anger, which can prevent enlightenment completely...
The sages thus teach, 'If a person becomes angry, if he is a prophet, his prophecy is taken away'...”

Reading that left me with the question: what happens if I'm not in the mood to be joyful? How do I deal with such a situation? I know that anger can often be countered by feelings of pity, however what is useful to turn sadness in to joy?

I found the answer to these questions in "Strife of the Spirit" by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

“The festival of Sukkot (Tabernacles) is referred to by a number of names in the Jewish sources, but no epithet seems to reflect its essence as much as the that given in the prayerbook: 'The time of our rejoicing'... How can a specific date in the calendar be set aside for rejoicing? How can one obey an injunction to rejoice on a certain day, irrespective of one's mood or condition?...
The commandment to rejoice on Sukkot is in fact just one of a number of obligations that concern one's mood. The Jewish calendar designates days of contemplation, of mourning, and of joy...
The ability to rejoice on a preassigned day derives from self-discipline, which is an integral part of the religious life and an essential characteristic of the religious Jew... “

Rabbi Steinsaltz goes in to more detail about internalization of values and demands, that a person cannot rely on being spontaneous and finishes with the following:

“...Many Jewish sages have noted that the two Hebrew words emunah (faith) and emun (training) are derived from the same root, and they have interpreted this as showing that the soul must train itself in order to be capable of achieving meaningful religious experience. This need for training, however, does not mean that there is no place for spontaneous religious experience, but rather that such spontaneous experience by itself cannot server as the basis for religious life...”

In short, as Rufus Opus posted recently the main this is to practice again and again. "It takes practice to get good at it."

Besides, I figure that dancing involves physical exercise which I've found is always good for lifting my mood. So the simple way that I plan to practice feeling joy in the coming weeks (in preparation for Sukkot) is to dance once a week during prayers.

A Lion Has Roared: Match 1

2011-09-12T16:40:00.001+01:00

Yesterday was the first game of the NFL season with my new favourite team the Detroit Lions playing away against Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Using Google Translate to come up with the Hebrew for Tampa Bay Buccaneers, it came up with the following:טמפה ביי שודדים (Letters are: tet-mem-peh-heh bet-yud-yud shin-dalet-vav-dalet yud-mem)

According to Klein’s dictionary the word Shoded (Shin-dalet-vav-dalet) means:

Adj. 1 devastated, destroyed, ruined, 2 slain 3 MH broken, depressed

MH stands for Medieval Hebrew. The word shin-dalet-vav-dalet is used in Psalm 137.

Looking at the name “Buccaneer” in Hebrew - I saw that contained the seeds of the team’s undoing. In other words the same word that gave the team an identity and strength also could be turned to mean that the team’s spirit be broken. I aware that this reasoning is probably not coming across well, but this was an intuitive connection that I made rather than one on cold logic.

So here is what I did in preparation for the match (approximately 1 hour):

Preparatory meditation from Book of Self Creation
Toning and tuning the body meditation from Book of Self Creation
Simple Abulafia letter meditation as described in Abraham Abulafia: Meditations on the Divine Name
Studied scripture (Tanach – Samuel 1 chapters 7-9)
Recited prayer: Psalms 138-128, (chose 138 as starter since 137 contains word “Sh-du-dah”, same root as word shin-dalet-dalet), reversing order of Psalms connected to next step
On paper and in imagination removed letters of the name of Tampa Bay Buccaneers in Hebrew, taking away one letter each time. This was connected to breaking the team’s strength so that even if the Lions were behind in the first part of the match – they would gain momentum and win the match (as long as they did not mess up towards the end).
Studied Jewish law: Kitzur Shulchan Aruch (laws of blessings on food, no special significance)

I had a painful headache later in the evening. Not sure if it was related to this or lack of sleep.

Anyway, if you ask me whether the above had any influence or effect in the outcome of the match my honest answer is “I have no idea”. Studying scripture, law and reciting Psalms all have merit. If praying and studying before a match becomes part of my business as usual this is certainly a good thing in my opinion.

I looked up the result on Sunday night. The outcome of the match was Detroit Lions 27 – Tampa Bay Buccaneers 20.

Strife: A Motivator for Change

2011-09-08T17:27:00.000+01:00

Frater Serpentis et Aquila of The Hermit’s Lantern recently posted on the topic of Magic is Sacrifice.

This is a rather timely post for me since it’s now the Hebrew month of Ellul. That means that the run-up to the festival Rosh Hashanah (New Year) has started in earnest. It’s not a time of wild celebration but rather one of introspection and making peace with one’s fellow mankind and Creator.

It’s at this time of year that I dust off my copy of “Strife of the Spirit” by Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz and re-read his excellent essays in that book, examine how my life has changed in the past year and apply what I have learned and internalize what changes I need to make for the coming year. In particular his opening essay, that has the same name as the book, resonates strongly. Its message in tweet form is: Peace of mind is not the end goal; strife of the spirit is what makes us strive to better ourselves.

Here is an extract about peace of mind (“Strife of the Spirit”, A Steinsaltz pp4):

“…Here is a truth with with applicability, be it in the international or interpersonal realm, or in the life of the individual soul. Peace with no content, meaningless tranquility, rest without sanctity – all are empty vessels. At best, the emptiness is soon filled with positive content. In all too many cases, however, the empty vessel becomes a repository for whatever comes along. In the absence of anything else, rubbish and abomination can fill the void. It is the same with empty peace of mind: tension and pressure seem to be gone, but nothing positive comes to take their place. A vacuum results, an existence devoid of effort or thought, which is in no sense better than what preceded it…”

Rabi Steinsaltz asks later on in his essay whether there is an alternative to strife of the spirit and his answer is that for most of us there is no alternative. Some fortunate souls are able to bring opposing forces in their soul in to harmony due to natural talent but those people do not have the potential to achieve the great heights of those who have to genuinely struggle with all their being at whatever circumstance and level they start off at.

Rabbi Steinsaltz finished his essay with (“Strife of the Spirit”, A Steinsaltz pp8):

“…At whatever level man struggles, there will his consciousness be involved. What differentiates the saint from the lowly creature of instinct, cunning, and cruelty is not the life-tension within him but the level at which his conscious being joins the struggle he must wage for survival. The choice between good and evil is preceded by an even more fundamental choice: whether to give spiritual or moral expression to the contradiction inherent in one’s humanness or try to ignore that contradiction. Difficulty, tension, bitterness and pain, are to be found as much in the ash heap as in the heavens. Each human being must decide where to take his stand and fight his battle…”

Having spent many years in the pursuit of peace of mind, I finally had to admit that it was worthless when I read this essay for the first time. However, putting aside the last vestiges of that quest for peace of mind has not been easy. At least I’ve moved on beyond the first step of recognizing that strife of the spirit necessitates changes in where my effort and will are focused in my day to day life.

Link to online resources for the study of Jewish magic

2011-09-06T21:52:00.001+01:00

Rebecca Macy Lesses** at Mystical Politics has posted some online resources for the study of Jewish magic and information about her course on Jewish magic this semester. Of particular interest to me was that Joshua Trachtenberg's "Jewish Magic and Superstition" is now available online (See second link above).

** - Author of Ritual Practices to Gain Power: Angels, Incantations, and Revelation in Early Jewish Mysticis. Probably the most 'practically focused' of sources in English on how Merkavah and Hechalot rituals work.

Spirits, HGA, Fevers, Stomach Ache and Who Is For Real?

2011-09-02T16:48:00.000+01:00

As mentioned in a previous post, there’s been some discussion in the blogosphere about HGA and other entities. Mostly it’s been very educational. Since I know about as much about spirits as I do about molecular biology, please take anything I say on this subject with a big pinch of salt.

Having qualified my level f ignorance, I’d like to bring up an interesting synchronicity in some other blogs that I read. The question that the blogger asked was; how can you tell the difference between a Torah sage and a Kabbalist?

A Torah sage is someone learned in esoteric Jewish texts and commentaries. This includes the Torah (Five Books of Moses), Nach (Prophets and Writings), Talmud (Oral law consisting of Mishnah and Gemarra), Halachah (Jewish Law).

A Kabbalist is someone learned in esoteric Jewish knowledge. Often the interest in Kabbalah is mainly from a theoretical point of view, but there are plenty of people today claiming to have certain powers based from their knowledge and practice of Kabbalah.

Which brings us back to the original question and ties in to the question: “How do you know if someone has K&C of HGA?”

A couple of blog posters have mentioned this interesting analogy that crystallizes my view on: “How do you test what is going on in someone’s spiritual endeavours?”

The story goes that a learned man once said that a Torah scholar is like a fever, and a Kabbalist is like a stomachache. A fever can be tested using a thermometer, but it’s much more difficult to tell whether someone who claims to have a stomach ache actually has one or not.

In the same way as it’s possible to test if someone’s is a Torah scholar, it’s not possible to test if someone is a Kabbalist or not. I believe that this principle can be applied to practitioners of all paths and traditions.

I’m not denying that people have powers and that they can demonstrate those. What I am saying though is that seeing a display of power and knowing how that has come about and through what means is a different matter altogether.

So if someone tells you they have K&C with their HGA or other entity, can you say with 100% certainty if they are lying or not?

If your answer is YES, do you by any chance also know what the cure for IBS is?

Balancing of Netzach and Hod

2011-08-31T21:55:00.000+01:00

I was going to jump on the bandwagon and add my two coppers to the amazing discussion on HGA that has been ongoing lately. Here is an excellent post by MC called “Holy Guardian Angels, Helpful Spirits, S.A.'s and The Genius” that links to some of the other blog posts. However, seeing as I've not done the HGA rites it's probably best to avoid proving my vast ignorance on this topic.

Anyway, on to the reason for this post. Rob over at Doing Magic blog recently posted about feelings of Malaise. In one of my two comments I mentioned ensuring that Netzach and Hod were in balance and when he replied asking for clarification... well I once again proved my vast ignorance. So to make up for it, here is a (hopefully) very enlightening extract from Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's excellent book “Inner Space” on Netzach, Hod and Yesod (pp65-66):

“...Let us examine how this relationship relates to Netzach-Dominance and Hod-Empathy. Netzach-Dominance is on the right side, under Chesed-Love, whereas Hod-Empathy in on the left. Hence Netzach-Dominance is a derivative of Chesed-Love, and Hod-Empathy is right beneath Gevurah-Restraint. If I am dealing with another person, it is not just a question of giving or holding back, because essentially, the more I give (Chesed), the more I am changing this person, the more I am overwhelming him (Netzach). The more I restrain myself (Gevurah), the more I give way to the needs of another, the more I allow him to assert his own individuality (Hod). What is required is a harmonious balance between Netzach-Dominance and Hod-Empathy, and it is this that leads to a perfect Yesod relationship.

The word Netzach (Nun-Tzaddi-Chet) comes from Menatzeach (Mem-Nun-Tzaddi-Chet), meaning to “conquer” or “overcome”. One can see this implication in a male-female relationship. Some men in a relationship feel that they must totally overwhelm the woman, who is not left with much personality of her own. Some woman also have a Netzach relationship with their husbands, where they have to dominate them in every way.

Hod-Empathy is just the opposite. It is a relationship where I totally give in to the other person. In Hod-Empathy, I essentially annul myself, and lose all account of myself. For instance, if a person allows himself to become totally passive to the point of being seduced, this would be the ultimate Hod relationsip. It is for this reason that the Hebrew word for Splendour, Hod, also has the connotation of Hoda'ah, which means submission. As we shall see, Hod-Empathy is submissive in the sense that it allows evil to exist.

The idea of Netzach and Hod is a question of asserting your identity on the one hand, or total compliance with the other person's identity on the other. The perfect Yesod-Foundation relationship is of course the balance between the two. What is important to emphasize here is that this rule holds true both in relationship between man and God as well as between man and woman. Yesod-Foundation represents the most powerful bond that can exist between two individuals. At the same time it is the ultimate attachment of man to the Divine. In fact, the Ball Shem Tov explains that marital intimacy is the paradigm of man's relationship with God. The motions of the sexual act represent the balancing back and forth between Netzach and Hod, while the final cessation of motion is Yesod. Yesod-Foundation is this the perfect mean between Netzach-Dominance and Hod-Empathy, the blending of two people in love. It is not only the physical blending, but a psychological and emotional blending which is the perfect balance between maintaining our identity, yet surrendering it...”

Some concluding thoughts for all (28 of) my readers... consider where the balance lies in your relationships in terms of Netzach-Dominance and Hod-Empathy with your partner, loved ones, friends and God. Also, consider that it is a dynamic system and every instance of thought, speech or action affects it.

For example, my recent interest in learning to do any kind of food preparation started with bread making and threatened to expand in to other areas. That had a subtle and significant effect on my household, hence I made the conscious decision to limit myself to bread making so as not to adversely affect the Netzach – Hod balance between my wife and I.

New Project: A Lion Has Roared

2011-08-30T22:11:00.014+01:00

My last project Noten Kavod finished on Monday this week. In summary it was a partial success**, it worked to some extent in Nefesh attunement and having a more positive interaction with people, animals, plants and minerals.

However, having chosen to interact with everything in my environment it became a bit much and I found that I was unable to maintain the meditative focus. In the second and third week I was only able to manage bursts of Noten Kavod meditation, mainly when on a journey from one place to the next. Building up to keeping a mental focus 100% of my waking hours is something beyond my skill level at the moment and will take an unknown amount of time to develop.

Anyway, Ananael Qaa posted recently about Taking the "Wizard" Out Of "Triwizard" on his blog. It gave me the idea for another project that would address one of the lessons learnt from the Noten Kavod project – namely to restrict the time and focus of meditation to specified periods of time rather than attempting to do it continuously.

Instead of going for something meaningful such as world peace, an end to poverty or other worthy and very difficult to measure effect; I've chosen something less serious and arguably still quite difficult to measure effect. Namely to provide spiritual support for an American football team.

For this project I've chosen The Detroit Lions. I've got no connection to this team (that I'm aware of) and have picked it solely on the basis of the following two factors:

1. The wikipedia entry for Detroit Lions states that...

The Lions have won four NFL Championships, the last in 1957, giving the club the second-longest NFL championship drought behind the Arizona Cardinals. The Lions are one of four current NFL teams that have yet to qualify for the Super Bowl. The 2008 Detroit Lions became the only team in NFL history to lose all 16 regular season games.

2. “Put Your Hands Up For Detroit” by Fedde Le Grand (music video link not work safe). This song is used in a dance workout DVD that is frequently played in my home.

Amos 3:8

Here are the project details:

Scope: Use spiritual influence to support Detroit Lions Time: Regular Season starting September 2011
Cost: 1 hour of prayer, theurgy, trainee Golem builder techniques per game Quality: The success criterion for this project is a significant improvement performance of the Detroit Lions during the Regular Season of 2011. The stretch goal is to qualify for the Super Bowl. The super stretch goal is to win the Super Bowl.
Risks:
1. The simple success / failure metrics are whether each game is lost or won. However, it is more meaningful to measure trend information. The risk is that the analysis of improvement in performance or lack thereof may be too complicated or time-consuming to be monitored on a frequent basis.
2. The recent track record of the Detroit Lions has not been stellar. The risk is that improvements in the team's performance may not be due to my input and entirely due to other factors. Which makes measuring effect on the team's performance even harder.
3. My not being used to the NFL play schedule or having any understanding of how American football is played means that another risk is that my efforts may be misdirected or have a negative effect. However, it also means that this as an opportunity to learn more about the game and not make the requests for success in too specific a manner.

** - technically the project failed to meet it's objectives.

Edit: Adding link to post by RO to remind me of results from previous 13 years by Detroit Lions
Edit: Adding match results.

Win / Loss ratio: 10 - 6

Detroit Lions vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers: Win! 27-20
Detroit Lions vs Kansas City Chiefs: Win! 48-3
Detroit Lions vs Minnesota Vikings: Win! 26-23
Detroit Lions vs Dallas Cowboys: Win! 34-30
Detroit Lions vs Chicago Bears: Win! 24-13
Detroit Lions vs San Francisco 49ers: Loss. 19-25
Detroit Lions vs. Atlanta Falcons: Loss 16-23
Detroit Lions vs. Denver Broncos: Win! 45-10
Detroit Lions vs. Chicago Bears: Loss. 13-37
Detroit Lions vs. Carolina Panthers: Win! 49-35
Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers: Loss 15 - 27
Detroit Lions vs. New Orleans Saints: Loss 17 - 31
Detroit Lions vs. Minnesota Vikings: Win! 34 - 28
Detroit Lions vs. Oakland Raiders: Win! 28-27
Detroit Lions vs. San Diego Chargers: Win! 38-10
Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers: Loss 41-45

Side project: Investigations into Islamic magic and Djin

2011-08-26T16:12:00.000+01:00

Every so often a headline pops up that catches my attention about a subject that I’m very curious but know very little – that being Islamic magic and Djins. Here are a few sample headlines:

The Wikipedia article on the subject of Magic (Paranormal) in Islam was fairly informative, although it left me with a load more questions. As part of my new year’s resolution to become more informed about others faiths I’d intended to read their holy books, hence my bookshelf labeled “to be read this year” has had the Penguin Classics translation of “The Qur’an” added to it.

This should hopefully provide some more context and background to this fascinating field about which I know next to nothing. Conjure Man Ali is someone who appears to be very knowledgeable in the area of Djins, you can find his web site here and his excellent blog here. If he ever does a book or course on it I’d seriously consider signing up (circumstances permitting, there’s a fair number of changes in my life at the moment).

Anyway, if you have any book, blog, mailing list or other online resource recommendations the please let me know!

Reworking of Gnostic or Christian text - You Decide

2011-08-24T21:55:00.000+01:00

One of the reasons I read so many academic works is to broaden my knowledge, but also to challenge my world view and see if it can be turned on its head.

Whilst reading “The Ancient Jewish Mysticism” by Joseph Dan recently, one such a moment of “oh wow!” occurred. If you don't want to read the whole extract, just skip to the third paragraph.

“The Ancient Jewish Mysticism” by Joseph Dan
pp.53-55

“...The study of the Nag-Hammadi library has brought about a series of changes in the conception of the spiritual world of the Gnostics. It became clear, for example, that the extreme dualistic view, which opposes the good, concealed of with the wicked god who created the world, is not shared by all Gnostic sects. In many of the works this conception is totally absent. The divine world of the Gnostics, it has become clear, is much more complex and varied than one might have assumed from the polemic works of the Church Fathers. The Gnostic literature is one with many shades and different literary forms, to an extent not imagined before the discovery of the library.

However, the most important discovery in this library, as far as we are concerned, is evidently the fact that not all of the Gnostic literature is Christian. There is no doubt that all of the Nag-Hammadi writings which we have were written centuries after the emergence of Christianity- evidently in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Yet a number of striking occurrences in this library show that not all these Gnostic writings were composed under Christian influence or in the Christian domain.

The most striking example relates to two works in this library. One is known as The Sophia (i.e. the supreme wisdom) of Jesus Christ, and the second as Eugnostos, The name of the second work is derived from the name of the author of the epistle which is the major part of the work, and has no special theological significance, The first work, as its name indicates, is clearly a Christian/Gnostic work, which quotes various sayings in the name of Jesus. In the second work there is no hint of Christianity or its views (studies which have tried to prove a Christian influence on Eugnostos have only proved the opposite – their authors have had to resort to marginal and insignificant points, which have reinforced the view that this work is far removed from Christianity.) However, the most surprising thing to emerge from the study of these two texts is that they are but a single work. The Sophia of Jesus Christ is nothing but a reworking of Eugnostos to make it Christian, by addition at the beginning and end of a number of clearly Christian elements.

We therefore have the choice of deciding whether a certain editor deleted the Christian parts of The Sophia of Jesus Christ or the reverse: that a certain editor took a non-Christian gnostic work and added an external veneer to it in order to give the work a certain Christian character. As it would be more logical to assume that in the 3rd or 4th century an editor would attempt to impart a Christian character to a non-Christian work than the reverse, it is very likely that here we have clear proof that the Christian Gnostics used non-Christian works that preceded them, and imparted a Christian character to these works. This implies that a non-Christian gnostic literature existed, which to a certain extent served as a source and basis for the literature of the Gnostic Christians. This is enough to undermine to a large extent the belief in the conception held of the Gnostics by the Church Fathers, namely that they were a heretical movement which grew out of Christianity. Eugnostos is not a work that denies Christianity, but one which belongs to a religious movement which did not know of the existence of Christian scriptures, and the Christian doctrine was simply not within the spiritual purview of its creators...”

Cursing: Proof in sharing a little of the misfortune

2011-08-23T21:32:00.000+01:00

Last week an incident happened that affected some of my extended family in a place very dear to my heart. It barely made the news however there was significant loss of life. When I found out my immediate response was one of fiery anger, an emotion that thankfully I do not experience very often.

Anyway, in that moment of anger the idea of a curse popped in to my head and I spoke it. My late mother would not have been proud - she believed in fighting fear with courage.

I know very little about cursing; but what I did was combine two Hebrew words. One word to encompass the people who supported the murderers with logistics, weapons and passage. The other word encompassing ill fortune.

The intended time frame for the curse to come in to effect is this winter. However this left me wondering if it would be effective or not. Not long afterwards some strange things happened which reminded me of something a woman told me when I was younger, namely that when she cast the evil eye something bad (to a lesser degree) would also happen to her – that's how she knew it was working.

So the strange things that happened in my life within a day of the curse were: standing outside of work in the rain due to a fire, bleeding unexpectedly, a loved one getting a high fever which did not break for several days (she rarely gets ill) and my house getting struck by lightning. All in all a curious series of events, but the proof as they say is in the pudding. Hopefully the people involved will mend their ways and avoid the curse, if not it will be a most unpleasant winter.

Rising Magic Writer: Stephen Grasso

2011-08-18T11:35:00.000+01:00

Last night I went to a talk at Treadwells bookshop in London and heard a talk by Stephen Grasso called: “Smoke and Mirrors: London's Voodoo Psychogeography”.

He read a piece of writing called “Wanton Green” that will soon be published in the annual journal Strange Attractor. I’ve been to a couple of talks by him before and each time he leaves me feeling transformed in my ability to see the world around me, this time all the more so due to my ongoing Project Noten Kavod.

Stephen Grasso is as expressed by more than one member of the audience (me included) a brilliant writer.

His words shatter the veil that clings to the city and drags in to the light of day the magic and mythic landscape that hides just out of sight. The flow of words as he read his talk grabbed me and made me pass through the gateways and crossroads of London, wrenching me through each era of history. Wizards, witches, root doctors and practitioners of all ilk’s bubbled up in various locales, whether by the heart of the city or by the South marshy banks where the disposed and deviants were forced after fires, riots and upheaval.

Stephen describes his Voodoo practice and learning as organic rather than traditional. His essays and writing can be found in Generation Hex, Dreamflesh and Disinfo in 2005.

Here are some interesting links to what I see as a rising writer who I believe will one day be famous:

"The Drift" By Stephen Grasso - in which he describes shamanic-style journeying around London, guided by spirits of the cross-roads
Stephen Grasso: Haunted Soundsystem - TheWire.co.uk article on Voodoo, Mardi Gras and funk
Hoodoo: A presentation for "The Moot with No Name" by Stephen Grasso, 4th August 2004
Barbelith thread mention
Scarlet Imprint author list
Strange Attractor link
And last but not least, Stephen Grasso’s blog: Clean living in difficult circumstance

Dr. John Dee and Arguing with Angels

2011-08-17T11:09:00.000+01:00

Over at PaleoJudaica a blog entry caught my attention regarding a new book on Dr. John Dee that some of the readers of this blog may or may not be interested in. The release date is May 2012 and cost for hardback and electronic copy is $75.

A 16th-century portrait of Dr John Dee by
an unknown artist.

Here is the SUNY PRESS link and a copy of the summary:

An exploration of John Dee’s Enochian magic of angel contact, its reinterpretation over the years, and its endurance to the present day.
This fascinating work explores John Dee’s Enochian magic and the history of its reception. Dee (1527–1608/9), an accomplished natural philosopher and member of Queen Elizabeth I’s court, was also an esoteric researcher whose diaries detail years of conversations with angels achieved with the aid of crystal-gazer Edward Kelley. His Enochian magic offers a method for contacting angels and demons based on secrets found in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

Examining this magical system from its Renaissance origins to present day occultism, Egil Asprem shows how the reception of Dee’s magic is replete with struggles to construct and negotiate authoritative interpretational frameworks for doing magic. Arguing with Angels offers a novel, nuanced approach to questions about how ritual magic has survived the advent of modernity and demonstrates the ways in which modern culture has recreated magical discourse.

Egil Asprem is a Research Fellow at the Center for History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Project update: Food, Respect and Learning

2011-08-16T21:07:00.001+01:00

This is a quick update how my currently active projects are going. The projects are:

1. Hebrew Immersion Study Course
The scope for Hebrew Immersion Study Course is to read and translate all of the 24 books of the Tanach. So far I've been able to keep up with reading the daily portion of the Torah with commentary from Rashi. However I'm falling behind with studying the later books, having completed the book of Joshua and Judges but getting stuck at the start of the book of Samuel.

2. FAD (Food Attitude aDjustment)
Project FAD (Food Attitude aDjustment) is going pretty well and is almost over. The objective was to change my attitude towards food by eating less comfort food and being more mindful when eating.

Using a strategic approach of combining techniques from Paul McKenna's “I can make you Thin”, Rabbi Bar Tzadok's “Walking in the Fire” and a technique that worked partially last time of keeping a food diary – I'm quite pleased with the results.

As well as going down from 208 pounds (94kg) to 199 pounds (90kg), the thing that really astonished me was how often I was turning to comfort food. Being mindful of eating made me have to think about whether I was eating because my stomach was asking for food or whether it was my head demanding food.

3. Noten Kavod (Giving Respect)
The Noten Kavod project is now in its second week. In the first week the effect of giving respect, transferring some “energy” and smiling inwardly (as well as often outwardly) meant that my interaction was improved with my colleagues, family and friends. It's made me more aware of my surroundings and pay more attention to detail. This week the focus is on giving and returning “energy”. All in all I can begin to understand the effects of this Nefesh attunement exercise but I'll hold off on a complete report until the 3 weeks is up.

I haz the Powr!

2011-08-12T13:36:00.001+01:00

I've got the power!

OK, perhaps not yet but a recent rather expensive acquisition should help me on my way. The trick to acquiring this book was to decide on a maximum budget, set that amount aside and then to check on a regular basis to see if a copy was available that either matched or was below the set-aside budget. It took 5-6 months and below is the result:

Transcription of the ancient Jewish Hekhalot/Merkabah literature

The next step is being able to translate what is contained in this book. However this is where things get a little more complicated.

Data, Information, Knowledge and Power
Let’s start with the basics about how I define data, information, knowledge and power. Here is a Wikipedia entry on this topic. My definition is similar:

Data – letters, numbers, and symbols
Information – Data arranged in a meaningful manner for specific reader(s)
Knowledge – Internalization of information for meaningful purpose for the reader(s)
Power – Application of knowledge for practical purpose(s)

Transforming Knowledge in to Power
Fortunately a lot of research has been done recently in to Merkabah (Chariot) mysticism in the academic community. This makes the translation of the Merkabah texts a little easier. Don Karr has provided a handy PDF on his web site that indicates where translation of specific sections of the Merkabah texts can be found in which books.

Using Don Kar’s information together with my growing skill at translating Hebrew to English, it should be possible for me to translate some key sections over the next few years. Yes, I did say years and not weeks or months. The main reason for this is limitations on my time from family and work.

Coming back to the previous definition of data, information, knowledge and power…

Data – Got a hard copy of the book with Merkabah texts
Information – Schafer has collated the information in the Synopse document. Current research which I’ve read recently will help to make sense of the data
Knowledge – Translating specific parts should help internalize the information to make it more meaningful

Power
This leaves the last part - the transformation of knowledge through practical use in to applied knowledge, also known as experiential knowledge, also known as Power. Which for me is a step in to an undiscovered country so to speak. I’m currently not aware of anyone who makes use of the Merkabah rituals and practices. If you are or know someone who is, please get in touch!

Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan warns against the use of Ma’aseh Merkabah in his book Meditaion and Kabbalah stating that in this day and age we lack the means of proper ritual purification. The texts themselves state what the criteria are for use (although they vary somewhat on who is eligible) and spell out the risks of what can go wrong when using heavenly ascension techniques.

It is my firm belief that knowledge is not power unless that knowledge is acted upon. However it’s not my intent to exert power in to my external environment, but rather to focus inwardly and use it to draw ever closer to the Ayn Sof, the Source that continuously emanates all that was, is and will be.

New Project: Noten Kavod (Giving Respect)

2011-08-10T16:46:00.001+01:00

Pirkei Avot: (Ethics of the Fathers) 4:1

Ben Zoma said: “…Who is honorable? One who honors his fellows. As is stated (I Samuel 2:30): "For to those who honor me, I accord honor; those who scorn me shall be demeaned."…”

Responses to Riots
With the recent riots, scenes of looting, in the UK it seems to me that one of the things that people are lacking is respect. Not just respect from others but also respect for themselves.

There are strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) to a number of the responses taken by people in affected communities. Some have formed broom squads to clear up the mess left by looters and others are standing on the streets at night to chase off looters. Unfortunately some have paid the ultimate price to defend their homes and businesses.

I’m fortunate that in the area that I live people do on the whole respect each other and treat their neighbours well. On the weekend people even greet each other warmly with a smile.

Crown of Respect

Counter Strategies
Anyway, as well as reading the wikiHow guide on how to survive in a riot, I’m also starting a meditation to greet others with respect that is taken from Jacobus Swart’s “The Book of Self Creation” (First in the Shadow Tree Series). See pages 186 to 188 for the details of the Rite of Noten Kavod (Giving Respect).

In summary it has 3 stages, each of which is done on a consecutive week.

Stage 1 is greeting everyone and everything that you interact with an exhalation whilst mentally saying Noten Kavod. Your whole mind, body and soul smiles and you image your smile flowing outwards to the thing that you are interacting with. Whether this is a friend, stranger, tree or other thing that is honoured.
Stage 2 follows the same procedure as stage 1 except that you imagine giving and receiving from the object or person that you are interacting with. The flow in the second week is bi-directional.
Stage 3 is the same as the previous two stages except that it focuses on a specific colour, element or quality (such as love, health, communication).

Here is the project summary:

Scope: Noten Kavod (Give Respect/Honour) to people and things for next 3 weeks.
Time: 3 weeks.
Cost: None.
Quality: The success criterion for this project is based on whether other people and things reciprocate the respect and honour given to them. If this goes viral and shows of respect spread across the length and breadth of this fair and green land, that’s a bonus.
Risks: The main risk is that I forget to do it repeatedly. Also that respect is not reciprocated and the unrest could get worse. This risk would be mitigated by helping promote local safety by going out on to the streets, backed up with the use of Tehillim (Psalms).

If You Watch Enough Crap

2011-08-05T15:50:00.001+01:00

A Wide Range of... Interests
Amongst my many interests such as Project Management, Magic, and Mysticism there are also some items that I’m less excited about publicizing.

One of those is watching what some people refer to as B-movies. Well, OK perhaps some could be referred to as Z-movies but I take great enjoyment in any film that includes space pirates, explosions, helicopters, cheesy one-liners and general mayhem.

As one of my colleagues who became a recent unintended stakeholder in my hobbies put it: “Simon you’re interested a small range of high brow areas and well… a wide range of utter crap”.

A Hidden Gem
However, with the chance of find a hidden gem or two I continue on my ongoing quest to boldly explore strange new B-movies. One of the recent gems was a film called: “In the Name of the King”

If we ignore for the moment the plot, script, some of the acting and certainly the way that the Krugs were portrayed in the film…. The plus side of the film is that it included the always entertaining (in my opinion) Jason Statham and the gorgeous Claire Forlani.

Anyway, if you’re still reading this then please bear with me for a moment longer as this post does contain a gem of interest from a Jewish magic point of view.

Glimpse of Magical Text
In the film the character called Muriella (played by Leelee Sobieski) who is learning magic. During one scene there is a brief glimpse of the book that she is studying which is shown in the image below:

My first impression was: “Ah, they’ve done that thing of including Hebrew characters to make it look magical”. And then it struck me, the text is from the Torah portion Ha’azinu! (Marked within red box in image below showing right hand column of text, the left side if missing from the picture).

The film researchers must surely have done their job well to pick this section since the Rabbis believe that this Torah portion contains the letter combinations for everyone’s name as illustrated by this story of Ramban (Nahmanides) and his student. (Links here and here)

Haazinu Text linked from Wikipedia

In short the Ramban’s student becomes an apostate, summons his old teacher after gaining a position of worldly power and challenges Ramban to find the former student’s name in the portion of Ha'azinu. The Ramban does so - the ex-student realizes the error of his ways and goes on walk-about to seek forgiveness for his wrongdoings.

Conclusion
I’m impressed by the research done by the makers of “In the Name of the King”. The brief glimpse of the portion of Ha’azinu shows that they understood its message and this is reflected in the teacher versus ex-student plot that plays a significant part in the film.

Elijah meditation by Fisdel

2011-08-03T15:49:00.000+01:00

“The Practice of Kabbalah: Meditation in Judaism” by Steven A. Fisdel is one of those rare (in my experience) books that spells out the techniques of Jewish meditation step-by-step. Recently a friend put an update on social media that she's facing a small crisis of lack of direction.

It happens to me more often than I care to admit, often on a Monday morning coming out of the train station on my way in to work. To me it's a sign that I need to do some active world view deconstruction. My favourite meditation that deal with facing one's fears, going through the pain of watching one's illusions crumble and then passing through barriers of self-imposed fears is the Elijah meditation described in Fisdel's book.

High Priest Bell Discovered (Not Verified Yet)

2011-07-28T16:41:00.000+01:00

Jim Davila of Paleojudaica has posted about the discovery of a golden bell which may have been worn by the High Priest in the second Temple during the first century common era.

Using Paleojudaica's links, here is the the youtube video of the sound of the bell. Plus some other interesting background information.

Difference between Meditative and Practical Kabbalah

2011-07-28T15:19:00.000+01:00

Recently Jacobus Swart posted on his blog and via an email group about what he considered to be practical Kabbalah. I responded with the following argument for what I believe is the difference between Meditative and Practical Kabbalah.

Jacobus posted that the practical application of Kabbalistic doctrines should be labelled "Practical Kabbalah". However, I'd like to ask whether you distinguish between "Meditative Kabbalah" and "Practical Kabbalah"? If so, what is the distinctive characteristics of each?

In Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan's "Meditation and Kabbalah" he describes them as follows on pp2. (after introducing theoretical Kabbalah):

"The practical Kabbalah, on the other hand, was a kind of white magic, dealing with the use of techniques that could evoke supernatural powers. It involved the use of divine names and incantations, amulets and talismans, as well as chiromancy, physiognomy and astrology...."

"The meditative Kabbalah stands between these two extremes. Some of the earliest meditative methods border on the practical Kabbalah, and their use is discouraged by the latter masters, especially those of the Ari's school..."

As someone who considers himself to practice Meditative Kabbalah, my current small amount of knowledge and experience leads me to believe that the transition from meditative to practical is the use of Divine names. Now you could argue that any prayer in Hebrew which has in it Divine names is Practical Kabbalah and this argument would be backed by the following quote from the Overview section of the Artscroll siddur (prayer book), 2nd edition published by Mesorah Publications Ltd, pp XVI:

"...By referring to the primal sanctity of the Aleph-Beis, Chida answers a perplexing question. Why is it necessary to articulate the prescribed text of the prayers - doesn't God know what is in our hearts? Wouldn't it be a greater sanctification of His Name if He were to fulfill unspoken human desire? Chida explains that the combinations of letters - as formulated by the masters who composed the prayers - have the power to arouse forces beyond our imagination. Thereby new spiritual lights can be created through the agency of human beings. To accomplish this, we must articulate the prayers. This causes the sacred letters to arouse their spiritual roots; it brings about a totally unprecedented combination: The interaction of the Aleph-Beis is combined in the respective prayer and the particular set of circumstances prevailing on earth at the instant the words are uttered (Shem HaGedolim, entry on R' Yitchak of Acco)..."

However, the prayers of a simple and unlearned person can be as powerful as those of a learned person - at least according to numerous tales by the Chassidim (followers of the Baal Shem Tov). Which means that the new spiritual lights can be created even if the person praying is not aware of this information.

Hence I'd like to put forward the argument that Practical Kabbalah in prayer occurs when the person praying has (or are attempting to achieve) knowledge and experience of the spiritual realities that their use of the Divine names and Aleph-Beis are having.

By the way, I'm more than happy to be corrected in my current understanding. I'm just trying to feel for where the line is between Meditative and Practical Kabbalah if such a line is meaningful. Perhaps that distinction only exists in going from the main section to the last part of Shaarei Kedushah: The Gates of Holiness by Rabbi Chaim Vital...

In the end we agreed that the distinction between Meditative and Practical Kabbalah is not one that is easy to define, since use of Divine Names is done in both Meditative and Practical Kabbalah. Which means I need to go back to the drawing board and see if a meaningful distinction can be made or if this is a wild goose chase.

This is Not a Review: The Hidden and Manifest God

2011-07-25T21:40:00.000+01:00

This post is inspired by and draws its information from the excellent book: “The Hidden and Manifest God: Some Major Themes in Early Jewish Mysticism” by Peter Schafer (Translated by Aubrey Pomerance).

In the book the author describes each of the major works in early Jewish mysticism. This is the Hekhalot, also known as Ma'aseh Merkavah mysticism, which focuses on the mystical lore and practices by Jewish mystics in the centuries following the destruction of the second Temple by the Romans. Merkavah mysticism is based on the visions of Ezekiel and Isaiah. The works in Merkavah mysticism focus on Heavenly ascent and angelic adjuration.

The Merkavah works include what the author refers to as macro-forms and micro-forms. There are numerous versions of the manuscript. Those that are similar and can be described as defined “works” are referred to as macro-forms. The individual instances of each text are referred to as micro-forms.

The list of macro-forms includes:

Hekhalot Rabbati (“The Greater Palaces”)
Hekhalot Zutarti (“The Lesser Palaces”)
Ma'aseh Merkavah (“the Working of the Chariot”)
Ma'aseh Rabbah (“the Great Chariot”)
third book of Enoch

There is a significant difference in emphasis in each of the works, depending on whether the main focus of the work is on Heavenly ascent or angelic adjuration. This has also led to different interpretations and comments on the works by various academics, but that will not be discussed in this post.

What is interesting to me is how diverse the works (macro-forms) are. .

Here is a brief description that shows the differences in emphasis between the works with regards to God:

Hekhalot Rabbati (“The Greater Palaces”) - God is central and angels play an important role, particular attention is paid to Sar HaTorah (Prince of the Torah)
Hekhalot Zutarti (“The Lesser Palaces”) - God is central and focus is on Divine names. It also asks the question 'Can one see God?'
Ma'aseh Merkavah (“the Working of the Chariot”) - Marginal focus on God, mainly on Divine names and Shi'ur Komah.
Ma'aseh Rabbah (“the Great Chariot”) - Marginal focus on God, mainly on Divine names, the essence of God consists of names.
third book of Enoch – God is of great importance in this text, although it substitutes the Shekhinah on the throne.

Here is a brief description that shows the differences in emphasis between the works with regards to angels:

Hekhalot Rabbati (“The Greater Palaces”) - Very important, in particular Sar HaTorah.
Hekhalot Zutarti (“The Lesser Palaces”) - Refers to two sets,Hayot (living ones) that sing praises and guardian angels.
Ma'aseh Merkavah (“the Working of the Chariot”) - Only angels that sing praises, no guardian angels mentioned. Angels transmit revelation of the Torah.
Ma'aseh Rabbah (“the Great Chariot”) - Only angels that sing praises, no guardian angels mentioned. Angels transmit revelation of the Torah.
third book of Enoch – Central role and has a systematized angelology

From the Books: What the Kabbalists Assume You Know and Do

2011-07-20T13:53:00.000+01:00

Following on from my previous post on morality, I’d like to mention a bit more assumed knowledge and practice.

This is something that came out of a post Treadwells event chat with Frater Acher. He highlighted to me the following: that in the Hermetic and Western Esoteric traditions there are gaps in knowledge about what that the Jewish Kabbalists assumed their readers would know and practice.

For example, the Jewish prayer said three times per day was instituted by the men of the Great Assembly so that Jews in whatever part of the world would pray the same in Hebrew, previously when the Temple stood aside from the sacrifices people would pray when they wanted and in the language that they knew best.

To these prayers (18 blessings) others were added and such as the Shema, the declaration of faith in the Torah, the psalms, laws of the sacrifices and other prayers. In fact the order of prayer is structured in such a way that the person goes up and up in levels of consciousness according to the four “worlds” Asiyah, Yetzirah, Beriyha and Atzilut.

Never Assume

In a nutshell the Kabbalists assumed that their readers:

Were thoroughly familiar with Hebrew
Had studied all of the Tanach (5 Books of Moses, Prophets & Writings)
Had studied of the Talmud (Oral law in Mishnah and Gemmara)
Had studied Midrash (Homiletical tales meant to teach a deeper meaning)
Had studied all of Halachah (Jewish laws and customs)

Then there are also specific Kabbalistic techniques such as Gemmatria, Notarikon, etc.

The reason that I am pointing this out is not to make you feel ignorant. Of the above list I only know bits and pieces. My point is that without this assumed knowledge, if you’re trying to make use of the techniques and information in these books then you are pretty much guaranteed to lose something in translation.

The techniques will work but you should bear in mind that you're using them based in incomplete understanding. As a project manager I need to point out this risk, personally speaking I’m mitigating it by slowly learning all of the assumed knowledge.

Beyond Morality: Please Send Me a Post Card

2011-07-20T13:37:00.001+01:00

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of meeting Frater Acher in person after a talk at Treadwell bookshop in London. During our chat Frater Acher and I touched upon the difference in approach to morality between mystics and magicians. Unfortunately I cannot remember the exact wording, but if I remember correctly it was that mystics seek to refine their sense of morality and magicians seek transcend their morality.

OK, that’s a bit of a sweeping statement and does not apply to all mystics and magicians by a long shot. However, it’s a trend that I’ve noticed from what little I’ve read up in books and online.

One example of a blogger discussing the possibility of transcending concepts of morality and social mores is Robert in his post: “Gods are perfect can be we as well” . Another example of someone arguing in the different direction is the Dionysian Atavism blogger in his post: “Give a Shit: It’s Important”.

Awhile ago on a mailing list about Kabbalah that I’m on a discussion arose about whether Kabbalah and morality are linked. From my understanding in the area of esoteric Judaism they are very tightly linked.

For example, the book “Sefer HaSidim” (Book of the Pious) by Samuel the Ḥasid, Judah the Ḥasid of Regensburg (his son), and Eleazar ben Judah of Worms – is a book about mysticism, magical techniques, asceticism, humility, serenity, altruism, and strict ethical behavior.

Although you may find other works on Kabbalah that don’t touch in any great depth about morality and ethics – the authors of these works of esoteric Judaism, Kabbalah, Jewish mysticism assume that their readers are grounded in the practice and understanding of ethical behavior as outlined in Jewish Law (such as for example: Ethics of the Fathers).

Bless Your Children

2011-07-14T12:00:00.001+01:00

In a recent posting was described some of the reasoning for why it is important to pray. It’s supposed to be a daily activity to take stock of one’s life and judge what the things we need as opposed to the things that we want. Are we on the path of spiritual growth and if the way is becoming unclear, what choices can we make to steer us back on course?

The next question that sprung to my mind was, can one human being bless another or does it all come from the Divine?

The simple answer is yes.

There are many channels of blessing and sustenance through spiritual and then physical means. However, as people through our free choice we can influence the flow of that blessing whether to channel it for good of creation or for selfish ends.

Theurgy, according to my understanding, is the means by which humans take more direct action in order to influence that Divine flow of blessing and sustenance. However, we don’t all need to be theurgists knowledgeable in how the spiritual worlds link us back to the source to give a blessing. Anyone can give a blessing.

Here is the Wikipedia link to the main Jewish blessing that the families of priestly descent give, which is the same blessing that parents give to their children. This is that same blessing sung to a slightly larger audience.

How priests (and Vulcans) hold their hands during the priestly blessing

If you love your children and you love your spiritual practices, then please bless your children** at least each week. I grew up with this and the weekly blessing is amongst my fondest memories.

** - of course feel free to bless other family members and loved ones too.

Prayer's Function

2011-07-12T21:14:00.000+01:00

For a theurgist, prayer is one of the main tools of the trade. Here is an extract from a prayer book that describes the basics of prayer's function. In later posts I'll cover the origins of why Jews pray three times per day and the four levels of ascent in prayer.

A new translation and anthologised commentary by Rabbi Nosson Scherman
Published by Mesorah Publications, Ltd, Second edition (first impression February 1987)

Its Hebrew name is tefillah, a word that gives us an insight into the Torah's concept of prayer. The root of tefillah is [the letters] Peh-Lamed-Lamed, to judge, to differentiate, to clarify, to decide. In life, we constantly sort out evidence from rumour, valid options from wild speculations, fact from fancy.

The exercise of such judgement is called Puhliah. Indeed the word Pehlilim (from Peh-Lamed-Lamed) is used for a court of law (Exodus 21:22), and what is the function of a court if not to sift evidence and make a decision?

A logical extension of Peh-Lamed-Lamed is the related root Peh-Lamed-Heh, meaning a clear separation between two things. Thus, prayer is the soul's yearning to define what truly matters and to ignore the trivialities that often masquerade as essential (Siddur Avodas HaLev).

People always question the need for prayer – does not God know our requirements without being reminded? Of course He does, He knows them better than we do. If prayer was intended only to inform God of our desires and deficiencies, it would be unnecessary. Its true purpose is to raise the level of supplicants by helping them develop their true perceptions of life so that they can become worthy of His blessing.

This is the function of the evaluation, decision-making process of Tefillah, prayer. The Hebrew verb for prayer is mitpahlel; it is a reflexive word, meaning that the subject acts upon himself. Prayer is a process of self-evaluation, self-judgement; a process of removing oneself from the tumult of life to a little corner of truth and refastening the bonds that tie one to the purpose of life.

Treadwell Lecture Attendance Guide

2011-07-08T10:47:00.001+01:00

Welcome to Treadwells, this guide has been put together by a Treadwells lecture regular to explain the ins and outs of what to expect at a lecture for anyone thinking of attending for the first time.

Here are the steps involved in Treadwells lecture attendance:

Decide on what lecture to attend
Book a ticket for the event & directions to Treadwells bookshop
Going inside
Browsing and other pre-lecture socializing
Listening to the Lecture and Questions & Answers
Post-lecture chat
Treadwells mailing list

Treadwells: 33 Store Street, London WC1E 7BS

1. Decide on what lecture to attend
The up to date Treadwells lecture list can be found here: http://www.treadwells-london.com/lectures_and_launches.html. The available courses list can be found here.

2. Book a ticket for the event & directions to Treadwells bookshop
To book a ticket, simply call the shop and ask if a place is available on the lecture(s) that you are interested in attending. The earlier you book the better your chances of getting a seat.

You’ll need to provide a Visa or Electron credit or debit card to make a payment as well as a contact telephone number. The shop details can be found here.

Opening Times: 12 noon to 7pm daily, including Sundays

Phone: 020 7419 8507 (new number!)
Address: 33 Store Street
Bloomsbury
London WC1E 7BS
Map and Directions
Email: info@treadwells-london.com

3. Going inside
The big day has arrived and it’s time to go in to the shop listen to the lecture. It’s recommended that you turn up around 7pm and if you arrive after the lecture starts at 7:30pm you will not be allowed inside.

The lecture registration desk is on the right as you come in to the shop. The people who work in the shop are very friendly and welcoming so feel free to ask any questions.

4. Browsing and other pre-lecture socializing
Before the lecture people generally browse, chat with other attendees, and buy a glass of wine (£2 per glass) although not necessarily in that order.

5. Listening to the Lecture and Questions & Answers
The lecture starts at 7:30pm. Christina introduces the speaker, point out where the facilities are and requests that questions be saved for the end of the lecture. The talks usually last until 8:30pm followed by up to 30 minutes of questions and answers. Just raise your hand to ask a question and wait to get the go ahead to speak.

From personal experience the Q&A sessions are often the highlight of the lecture. The background, knowledge and experience of the people attending lectures is very eclectic ranging from academics, practitioners of magic, to people who turned up purely out of a sense of curiosity. “You’ll find some of the most interesting people in London at Treadwells lectures,” is how one mainstream newspaper described Treadwells talks.

6. Post-lecture chat
After the lecture more wine and nibbles are available. Some people head off after the lecture but if you’re not in a rush to leave - I recommend staying and striking up or joining in some of the stimulating post-lecture conversations.

7. Treadwells mailing list
To sign up to future Treadwells lectures, courses, book launches and other events – you can subscribe using this link: Treadwells mailing list