The Voice of Thunder

And I heard, as it were, the voice of thunder.

One of the four beasts saying come and see,

and I saw, and behold: A white horse.

Before the Hebrew Language took modern script form, it existed as a hieroglyphic-style pictogram alphabet.  The Modern Hebrew letters take their names and meanings from the pictograms which prefigured them.   These meanings have made it into Kabbalah and Golden Dawn Western Magical Symbolism.  In order to study the Hebrew Language more deeply, more visually, I am trying to learn these pictograms.  I am also teaching myself the names and sounds or pronunciations of the modern letters.  Learning the two side-by-sides is a pleasant and intuitive process.  The reference material I am using is called The Ancient Hebrew Language Alphabet, by Jeff A Benner.

Interestingly, Benner chose to end this aforementioned book with a dictionary, or compilation of two-letter combinations of the pictograms, and his interpretation of the meaning of these “words.”   The Ancient Hebrews thought in very physical terms, as in it-is what-it-does.  Modern people think more visually, as in it-is what-it-looks-like.  This is important when making metaphor or analogy. (which is all a language is)   A physical thinker would classify things together under their purpose or nature, whereas a visual thinker would put things that look alike in the same category.  This also brings to mind the adage against not taking something as what it appears to be, but to understand its true purpose.

One of the most important ancient Kabbalistic works is the Sefir Yetzirah.  One way of reading the Sefer Yetzira is as a descriptive narrative of the creation, from scratch, of the Hebrew language.  Language was seen as a Holy thing, a tool of Priests, a key to reveal the mind of god.  Language was still new, elite, and revered.   Just like modern physicists with string theory or geneticists with the human genome, written language was a world changer.

If you pair off the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet two-by-two, and assume that that each two letter combination means something, you have a 484 (22x22) word dictionary.  (Benner’s list of words has 483.)

Sefer Yetzirah takes a similar approach.   It advises the reader to make a ring or circle of the 22 Hebrew letters, and draw a line from each letter, one at a time, to all of the other letters.  These lines form what are called the “gates,” or two-letter word permutations/possibilities.  This gives you your 231 “words.”  This number assumes also that neither symbol points to itself, which it cannot do in a circle.  For example, a the two letter word Aleph-Aleph is eliminated as a possibility.  It also assumes that a two letter combo means the same reversed therefore is not counted.  For example: Aleph-Bet means the same or is a redundant form of Bet-Aleph.  This brings the number of words down from 484 to 231.

In my copy of Sefer Yetzirah, by Aryeh Kaplan, all the charts showing the gates are in Modern Hebrew script.  My chart below shows the pictographic form of letters, and for the most part, Benner has meanings for all these combinations in his book. 

This other chart is organized as instructed by the Sefer Yetzirah.  It has doubles and obverses removed.  These 231 combinations are what the Sefir Yetzirah names “gates.”  I can’t even stress enough how important the original symbols are.  I can, however, show how they help understand some basic Kabbalistic concepts. 

Thinking in Symbols

In my last post I discussed The Universe/The World Tarot card and the “four beast” symbolism.  The chart below shows the pictograms I used to symbolize the four beasts, I tried to make these associations based on the pictographic meanings of the letters, using Crowley’s 777 as a guide as well.

I used the letter Taw or Tau for Mark/Lion because of the meaning of Mark being the same as that of the verb form of the word mark, as in to signify/label/imprint.  When this Resh/Tau/Aleph/Quoph combination is used, it presents some interesting Gematria values.

Tau is not to be confused with Tet, which is a cross with a circle around it.   Benner states that Tau looks like a basket as seen from above and I’ve also discussed the connection between Tammuz, the God of the seed and winnowing or grain baskets.  Tau also looks like a round loaf of bread seen from above, or a “hot crossed bun.”  Salvador Dali is famous for his use of bread as a phallic symbol in his paintings. 

Matthew Human Hebrew Letter:  Resh Pictogram/Proto-Hebrew: The head of a man Meaning: 1st , beginning, top A head reversed The Human form is the Kerub of Air Gematria:  200	Mark Lion Hebrew Letter:  Taw Pictogram/Proto-Hebrew: a cross Meaning: Mark or Signature The Lion is the Kerub of Fire Gematria: 400
Luke Ox Hebrew Letter:  Aleph Meaning: Strong Leader, Power Kerub of Earth Gematria: 1	John Eagle Hebrew Letter:  Quoph Meaning: Horizon, Sun, needle(?) The back of the head Crowley states that Eagle-Snake-Scorpion is the trinity of the Kerub of Water Gematria:100

I could have, just as easily, used Zain/Sword for Air/Gemini, Mem for Water, Shin for Fire and one of many others to signify earth (perhaps even Tau.)  The above chart is by no means the only or best interpretation.

I would like also to discuss some other four-score-symbolism, though, while we’re at it.

The Four Horses of the Apocalypse

These horses differentiated by their color:  white, black, red and green (often called pale.)  The last horse, whose rider is “death” is commonly called the “pale horse” but the original word describing the color of this horse is the Greek word Khloros which means green.

The horses represent four common evils of society.  The first horse, white in color, is usually associated with conquest, which may be interpreted as “false nobility” or simply “righteous war.”   The second, the red horse, carries a sword, and is associated with civil war, or perhaps even oppression or tyranny within one’s own country.  The third horse, the black horse, is associated with famine, the rider of this horse is said to carry weighing scales.  A more modern interpretation of this black horse might be market manipulation which results in unfair trade, and often famine.  The last horse, according to my own opinion, is nature and/or natural death which represent nature’s power to take back what she has put forth.

David Lynch uses a white horse as a representation of the presence of evil in Twin Peaks.  This symbol is also seen in a Blade Runner dream/vision sequences where Deckard is experiencing memories which are ambiguously real.  How does the brain tell dream memories from real ones?  I think it’s amazing that we remember the past at all.  It’s not any more likely that we should remember the past than the future, if you think about it.  Neither exists in real time, they only exist as ideas in our mind.   The past may have never existed and the future may never come into existence.

Sefir Yetzirah discusses the importance of the three mothers and assigns one to each of the three columns of the tree of life.  The three mothers are mem/water, aleph/air, and shin fire.  I found another interesting parallel between the symbolism of the three mothers and another symbol which I have discussed before on this blog, on my post titled “The Great Reconciler.”  That symbol is a snake with a bee at its mouth.  I have previously stated that the bee represents collective, right brain consciousness and the snake represents left brain, ego-driven, individualism consciousness.

According to Sepher Yetzirah, “Mem hums, Shin hisses.”  Shin can be seen as the hissing snake, representing Binah Consciousness and the humming bee represents Chokmah Consciousness.  Aleph is said to be a balance on a scale deciding between the two.  Also indicative of these concepts is the fact that water “gurgles” or hums while fire hisses, and air is silent.

In Castenada’s system these ideas are called Tonal and Nagual.  The words shin and mem spell the word shem which means name.  Therefore a name is a combination of what something is called and what it does.

“The tonal and the nagual are two different worlds, in one you talk, in the other you act.”
–Castaneda

Sources:

www.hebrew4christians.com 

777 –Aleister Crowley

The Ancient Hebrew Language and Alphabet-  Jeff A Benner

Sefer Yetzirah- Aryeh Kaplan
Teach Yourself to Read Hebrew- Simon and Anderson