The island of Biga played a vital part in religious life at neighbouring Philae. It contained part of the dismembered body of Osiris, and the source of the Nile was celebrated as springing from his left leg buried under the rocks.
– Lise Manniche
For the Egyptians pursue a philosophy of their own. This is principally shown by their sacred ceremonial. For first advances the Singer, bearing some one of the symbols of music. . . . And behind all walks the Prophet, with the water-vase carried openly in his arms . . . He, as being the governor of the temple, learns the ten books called “Hieratic” [ἱερατικά “priestly”]; and they contain all about the laws, and the gods, and the whole of the training of the priests.
– Clement of Alexandria (c. 150 – c. 215 AD), Stromateis Book VI
And they came to Capernaum. And when he was in the house he asked them, “What were you discussing on the way?”
But they kept silent, for on the way they had argued with one another about who was the greatest.
And he sat down and called the twelve. And he said to them, “If anyone would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”
– Gospel of Mark
REFERENCES
N. de Garis Davies (1943), The Tomb of Rekh-mi-Rēat Thebes, Vol. 1, Pl. V, Burial Rites (detail from the scenes on Pls. LXXXIII, LXXXIX)
Papyrus of Shemaynefer (17, OIM E2538972017), in Foy Scalf ed. (2017), The Book of the Dead: Becoming a God in Ancient Egypt
Lise Manniche (2012), Biga, Papyrus 32/2 (Ægyptologisk Tidsskrift)
J. Gwyn Griffiths ed. (1970), Plutarch’s De Iside et Osiride
Lucie Lamy (1981), Egyptian Mysteries: New light on ancient knowledge, p. 5
James P. Allen (2014), Middle Egyptian: An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, pp. 70, 474
Raymond O. Faulkner (1981 ed.), A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian, pp. 57, 77
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’”
Now this [Jesus] said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive . . .
You are not the fool, no
You’re a beautiful one
You are like the sun
Cause this one river flows in you
You are not the no one
You just look for more here
Who does care because you are the one with it inside
Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? . . .
The Woman of Samaria, Church of the Saviour on the Spilled Blood, Saint-Petersburg, Russia
Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”
****
You will say in that day: . . .
“Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and will not be afraid; for the LordGod is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.
****
“Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
And He said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.
****
How To Read Dostoevsky (video) — Rowan Williams, 104th Archbishop of Canterbury
Heart mine which is that of my Mother, Whole Heart mine which is that of my birth, Let there be no estoppel[1]against me through evidence, let no hindrance be made to me by the divine Circle; fall thou not against me in presence of him who is at the Balance . Thou art my Genius, who art by me, the Artistwho givest soundness to my limbs. Come forth to the bliss towards which we are bound; Let not those Ministrantswho deal with a man according to the course of his lifegive a bad odour to my name.[2]Pleasant for us, pleasant for the listener, is the joy of the Weighing 𓍝 of the Words. Let not lies be uttered in presence of the great god. Lord of the Amenta.* Lo! how great art thou as the Triumphant one.
* amenta: the Duat or Underworld, hieroglyph 𓇽 ; in Neapolitan (Kingdom of Naples) dialect: “mint” (coins). Plural of āmentum: a sandal-strap (Egyptian 𓋹 “Life”), band or thong, especially on a missile weapon.
Compare the Pentalpha “star” (Egyptian 𓇼 dawn sun) engraved stone ring in the Testament of Solomon, for command over “male and female” demons.[4]
An alternate form of capital Omega Ω resembles an underlined superscript omicron: 24th and final Greek letter =Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew 15th letter ayin “eye”; Egyptian “eye” 𓁹 jr (ḏ+r), mA (m + 3); rs; mAj; schp or some forms of Latin Q (17th letter; =Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew pē, “mouth”, Egyptian 𓂋 “r” p(kh)ar).
A trader* who uses false balances, Who loves to overreach.†
* כְּנַעַן Canaan: “lowland”. 1. progenitor of the Phœnicians.
2. land west of Jordan river conquered by Israelites. 3. merchant, trader[5]
† wrong, violate, defraud, extort, oppress, get deceitfully[6]
* means weighed or shekel [7] †חַסִּיר (Chaldean): of weight, too light, deficient[8]
Today, the fourteenth (14) day of May in the year 2020 anno Domini (“In the year of (our) Lord”), is the seventy-second (72) anniversary of the Declaration of Independence of the nation state of Israel.[9]
An alternate form of capital Omega Ω resembles an underlined superscript omicron (15th Greek letter; =Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew Ayin “eye”; Egyptian “eye” jr (ḏ+r), mA (m + 3); rs; mAj; schp) or some forms of Latin Q (17th letter; =Phoenician/Paleo-Hebrew Pē, “mouth”, Egyptian 𓁹 “r”).
On 14 May 1948, the thirty-third (33) President of the United States, thirty-three (33°) degree freemason Harry S. Truman, was the first world leader to officially recognise the rebirth of “the Jewish State,” eleven (da’at: ‘intimate’ ✡ “knowledge”) minutes later.[10]
On the midnight close of that day, the British Mandate for Palestine formally ended. Thus began the 1948 (or First) Israeli-Arab War.
If we see that Germany is winning the war we ought to help Russia and if Russia is winning we ought to help Germany and that way let them kill as many as possible… [11]
New York Times, June 24, 1941
Those with training in first aid will know the telltale signs that a living soul has deceased, or “passed on.” In absence of catastrophic damage or spilled lifeblood evidencing an act of violence, or fixed and dilated pupils suggesting that the “light of the eyes” has gone out, the most obvious is that their breast no longer rises and falls.
Yet another sign that their vital air ♦ or the “breath of life” has ceased “to go in and to go out” freely from the body’s “inner world” may be seen in the failure of their nostrils to “fog a mirror.”
“beautiful,” “good,” “perfect,” “fine,”
zero (0) in accounting, architecture, construction
In the Hebrew tongue, the word for this vital air ♦ is a feminine noun, נְשָׁמָהnᵉshâmâh, meaning breath, spirit, wind, the puff or pant of those who are angry; also intellect. It is derived from a primitive verb נָשַׁםnâsham, to puff or pant, used of a woman in labour; properly, to blow away, destroy.[12]
The Hebrew word for “living” and “life” is חַי ḥay, pronounced “chai.” It is derived from a root verb חָיָהchâyâh meaning to live; causatively, to sustain, preserve, restore, revive.[13] The letter hēה is a mater lectionis (“Mother of reading”); used as a suffix (as here) it denotes the feminine, the object to which men are directed. In Aramaic, the first alphabetical letter (אālap) is used to denote the feminine instead.
Chai (ḥay, “living”) in Ktav Ashurit (“Assyrian”) sacred script
There is another spelling for the Hebrew verb “to live” (חָיָה châyâh). Its letter forms and pronunciation differ only slightly. Indeed, the sole difference is a small vertical stroke downward, transforming the letter yod י into a vav ו. The word châvâh (חָוָה) means to breath, to live; properly, to breath out, to declare, to show, to make known.[14]
Stated another way, in the snake oiled salesman’s English tongue of ‘New Age’ gurus and Judeo-‘Christian’ televangelists, it means to ‘manifest’ … in particular, your ‘words of power.’
verb (transitive)
To show or demonstrateplainly;reveal
a. To record in a ship’s manifest.
b. To display or present a manifest of (cargo).
In Aramaic, the spoken tongue of common Judeans in antiquity—biblical ‘Hebrew’ being a sacred writing language reserved for the literate elite (c. 3%)[15]—this word is spelled חֲוָאchăvâʼ : the Mother letter hē ה replaced with an alephא. Its primary meaning is to show, interpret, explain, inform, tell, declare.[16]
An observant reader may notice that the Hebrew root חיהchayah (“to live, sustain, restore”) appears to contain the name of the biblical deity “Yah”,[17] prefixed by the eighth letter ḥet or chetח (“courtyard”). It is derived from the Egyptian hwt-(ḥut) 𓉗 (palace, temple or tomb), possibly via the Canaanite word ḥasir.
The deity’s name “Yah” is composed of the fifth (and Mother) letter hēה and the tenth letter yodי . It is derived from a Canaanite glyph for the word yad “hand”. This derives from an Egyptian hieroglyph for the uniliteral sign ayinꜥ “eye” (whence ancient Greek ninth letter iota, Latin and English “i”), depicting a forearm with palm facing up 𓂝 .[18]
The broad, broad realms of Lycurgus . . . where stretches icy Rhodope to Haemus with its shades, and sacred Hebrus drives his headlong waters forth.
— Ovid, Heroides 2. 111 ff.
Hebros (Hebrus), you flow, the most beautiful of rivers, past Ainos (Aenus) into the turbid sea, surging through the land of Thrake (Thrace)* . . .
— Alcaeus, Fragment 45a
* From Latin Thrācia, from Ancient Greek Θρᾴκη(Thrā́ikē), from Θρᾷξ(Thrâix, “Thracian”), from base of θράσσω(thrássō, “to trouble, stir”) and -ιξ(-ix), compare Φοῖνιξ(Phoînix, “Phoenician”).
In ancient Egyptian culture, there developed over three thousand years a highly sophisticated system of funeral rites. The renowned English Egyptologist, Orientalist, philologist and British Museum curator, Sir E.A. Wallis Budge, described these as consisting of “spells and incantations, hymns and litanies, magical formulae and names, words of power and prayers, and they are found cut or painted on walls of pyramids and tombs, and painted on coffins and sarcophagi and rolls of papyri.”[20]
No small injustice is done these by our lamentably brief summary. Time set aside for their study is commended as time well spent, and this not only for the appreciation of a culture whose extraordinary achievements have enthralled and—as we will see—shaped and influenced humankind for millennia. For in addition, the knowledge gained is sure to re-cast the brazenly deceitful claims of some to a divinely ordained “chosen”-ness, exclusivity, originality, superiority, a “promised” inheritance of “eternal” Levantine land rights, and a global ‘utopian’ slave theocracy ruled from Uru-šalim*, in a revelatory new light.
* from West Semitic yrw, “to found, to lay a cornerstone”, and Shalim, a Canaanite god of the setting sun and the Underworld. He is one half of a pair of deities—Dioskouroi, a la the Greco-Roman twins Castor and Pollux—named šḥr w šlm (Shahar and Shalim). Known as ‘the Devourers’ for their having insatiable appetites, “(one) lip to the earth and (one) lip to the heaven,” they represent the liminal (ambiguous, transformative) horned planet Venus ♀ in its opposite pair, dawn and twilight aspects: the Beginning and End of the life-light of day (ym ים “yôm”)†, the Morning and Evening Star. The name Š-L-M is the triconsonantal root of many semitic words and names, including Solomon, the biblical paragon of wisdom, and ruler of demons. It has a base meaning of “completion” (in the sense of death), sunset, well-being, safe, and wholeness, whence the greetings in Hebrew (“shālôm”) and Arabic (“salām”) — peace.[21]
† ymים “day”: Canaanite pictograph of the hand (yad) representing work, and another of rippling (troubled, stirred) water (מים mayim). It means “working water”.[22]
“Ten million” (yod ) plus “five more” (Mother letterhē ,
and Egyptian godḤeḥ 𓁨 “million”=“infinity”, “flood”)
=“Yah”, proper name of Canaanite copper ♀ serpent deity[17]
=Fifteen (samekh ): serpent spine, the Devil &/or Lust
In gematria, no. 15 is written with the ninth and sixth letters
(ṭēt + vav, 9+6) to avoid spelling the ‘ineffable name’
“Vesper. I do hope you gave your parents hell for that.”
Sorry for our length.
Also, for our volume and weight. Hopefully we are still able to command your attention.
We may have neglected to mention that the Egyptian royal cubit (meh niswt), a unit of length measurement, was represented using the same glyph as that adopted by the Canaanites for yad (“hand”), but with the palm turned down 𓂣 . Each ‘rod’ was seven (7) palms (20.61 to 20.83 in) long.[23]
In order to reach the Kingdom of Osiris, ruler of the Underworld in one’s afterlife, the Egyptian petitioner trusted in the cleverness of the moon-god, Thoth (later, Greek Hermes ☿ Roman Mercury), ruler of wisdom, writing, measurement, arts, sciences, philosophy, magic and trickery; an aggressive, overtly virile dog-faced baboon or ibis-headed deity, with the power of divine boundary-crossing.
Book I, XIV, Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, tr. Alexander Turner Cory, (1840)
To denote the moon, or the habitable world, or letters, or a priest, or anger, or swimming, they pourtray a CYNOCEPHALUS. And they symbolise the moon by it, because the animal has a kind of sympathy with it at its conjunction with the god. For at the exact instant of the conjunction of the moon with the sun, when the moon becomes unillumined, then the male Cynocephalus neither sees, nor eats, but is bowed down to the earth with grief, as if lamenting the ravishment of the moon: and the female also, in addition to its being unable to see, and being afflicted in the same manner as the male, ex genitalibus sanguinem emittit [Latin: “emits blood from the genital organ”]: hence even to this day cynocephali are brought up in the temples, in order that from them may be ascertained the exact instant of the conjunction* of the sun and moon.
The animal is moreover consecrated to Hermes [Thoth], the patron of all letters. And they denote by it a priest, because by nature the cynocephalus does not eat fish, nor even any food that is fishy, like the priests. And it is born circumcised, which circumcision the priests also adopt. And they denote by it anger, because this animal is both exceedingly passionate and choleric beyond others:—and swimming, because other animals by swimming appear dirty, but this alone swims to whatever spot it intends to reach, and is in no respect affected with dirt.[24]
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Before we continue, a digression, for words of caution.
This essayis written with a conscious intention. As indeed will others that, for considerations of length, weight, and volume[25] (pointed puns intended),must, God willing, necessarily follow. Our aim is to shatter the tempered glass foundational ceiling of main-streamed theologico-historical beliefs. Cryptic, pointed, paradoxical, mixed metaphors intended. Many have been promoted for millennia as truths beyond question.
There is a white irony in this.
Our intention is analogous to that of the reviled dukhifat or shamir, the “rock-splitter” of ancient mythology, and Jewish demonology: trying to reach its children, trapped under a plane of translucence by a cunning thief. Indeed, this very subject is one of many on which we will have reason to learn rather a lot more in future.
Solomon said to him: I need nothing from you. I want to build the Temple and I need the shamir for this. Ashmedai [Prince of demons] said to him: The shamir was not given to me, but it was given to the angelic minister of the sea. And he gives it only to the wild rooster, also known as the dukhifat or the hoopoe, whom he trusts by the force of his oath to return it.[26]
The shamir was the seventh of the ten marvels created in the evening twilight of the first Friday, and it was followed, significantly enough, by the creation of writing, the stylus, and the two tables of stone.[27]
Hearts, Chalices or Cups ♥ Spades, Swords or Athamés ♠
Clubs, Rods, Staves or Wands ♣
Diamonds, Pentacles, Coins, Discs or Rings ♦
“You Know My Name” sung seven (7 zayin) times in finale,
eight (8 ḥet, chet) times in total.
And while [Jesus] yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords ♠ and staves* ♣, from the chief priests and elders of the people.
* Ancient Greek ξύλον xýlon: ‘wood’; a cudgel or club; a beam or cross to which a prisoner is bound with bands or thongs 𓋹 ; fetters (‘bonds’, ‘stocks’) made from ‘wood’; bench, table, espec. a money-changer’s table.[29]
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“undercurrent of sarcasm in her voice,” “Her beauty’s a problem,”
“any woman with half a brain,” “overcompensates by wearing
slightly masculine clothing,” “a somewhat prickly demeanour.”
Tarot (“rō′tāt”) Major Arcana traditional trump no.
8. Justice variable with 11. Strength
(pun intended) since late 19th century due ‘British’ influence:
Rider-Waite-Smith and Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn
But not today.
In earnest and empathetic awareness of the risk of causing offence with informing criticism, our hope is that the reader will be drawn to carefully and prayerfully contemplate the material presented, with this thought held in front of mind.
However troubling you may find the content following, know this. There is a silver chord of pure, inspirational, joyous, divine truth, deeply buried, it must be said, and yet running still, through a truly colossal mountain of malodorous lies.
In seeking to shatter the frosted glass pane of word magicians—the thieves and concealers of truth—it is our intention to liberate the truth, in the bright light of day. It is hoped that others will find these and latterly elaborated discoveries to be faith affirming, rather than the opposite.
In the longue durée, despite our often ignore-ant, foolish, and yes, evil ideas and actions, it is evident that God exists. A Supreme, knowable power who, with a readily perceptible character of infinite Patience, softly and silently laboursto re-form, or re-shape, good outcomes (unity, harmony, order, peace, joy) from our self-created evil ones (division, disharmony, disorder, war, grief). And in this comprehension, we will perceive that the doctrine of an afterlife—of regeneration, or rebirth—rings true.
This we will also see in the progressive revelation of pathologically obsessive, narcissistic efforts to muddy our waters—puns intended—and so obscure this truth; stealing and hiding the keys to eternal life.
The concept of rebirth has appeared in many permutations and glosses throughout human history. The secret of its fruition is in a clear recognition, an understanding, and a humble acceptance, of whose power, judgement, wisdom, and free will choice it is that makes an individual’s regeneration, or re-form-ation possible.
A further re-cognition too, is necessary. In the long run, liars and cheats never prosper.
Contrary to all the sophistication and complexity of ancient Egyptian through Jewish Cabalist letter, “name” and number magic formulae—and notwithstanding aid sought from ‘good’ demons—no human intellect can outwit a Supreme Intellect. It is perhaps the ultimate manifestation of egotistical and foolhardy self-delusion to think oneself smart enough to deceive the Ultimate Judge with ‘magic’ wordplay. Especially when the destiny of one’s soul hangs in the balance.
For both Yeshua [Jesus], who sets people apart for God, and the ones being set apart have a common origin — this is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers when he says,
“I will proclaim your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.”[a]
“Here I am, along with the children God has given me.”[c]
Therefore, since the children share a common physical nature as human beings, he became like them and shared that same human nature; so that by his death he might render ineffective the one who had power over death (that is, the Adversary) and thus set free those who had been in bondage all their lives because of their fear of death.
Alas, the religion of “God’s chosen people” has progressed not one whit—nor iota (but I repeat myself)—from ancient Egyptian hubris.
Let us consider the words of an exemplary case in point: the Kabbalist Who Would Be King of a New Jewish Monarchy in Israel. A rabbi described by a former student as a paradox: “On the one hand he is a brilliant thinker, an innovator, has a great sense of humor, wide knowledge of Kabbalah as well as the sciences. On the other hand, this person disseminates racist and violent preaching.” This ‘brilliant’ mind has yielded such pearls of wisdom and holiness as “the best goy is a dead one,” and “There is something infinitely more holy and unique about Jewish life than non-Jewish life”:[31]
The unknowable, superconscious head [Hebrew letter reish ר “head”, from the Egyptian hieroglyph 𓁶 ] of the first day of Rosh HaShanah is the secret of “‘for My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,’ says G-d, ‘for as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.’” These two verses precede the verse: “Seek G-d while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near…”
This is the secret of “lift up the head of the Children of Israel.” The root to lift up in Hebrew, נָשָׂ֣א *, means the power to bearthe opposites, the divine paradox of the unknowable head.[32]
This is the first of many examples of “The Power of Ambiguity”[33]—to wit, multiple meanings, often diametrically opposed—that is all-pervasive in the Jewish peoples’ supposedly ‘holy’ tongue; a brazen lie which, we will discover, lies at root of more lies than the Edomite and Israelite copper serpent deity’s “sand of the sea” promise.
* נָשָׂ֣א nâsâʼ he lifted, raised, carried, carried off, married, swept away, destroyed, forgave, pardoned; also he claimed a debt, and (Hiphil) he deceived, beguiled[34]
cf. נָסָהnâśâ’, nâsâh to lift up, bear up; Arabic (to occur, esp. to arise in the mind) نشا to smell, to try by the smell, to try, to prove anyone. 1 Kings 10:1, “the queen of Sheba came, לְנַסֹּתוֹ בְּחִידוֹת to prove him with hard questions;” to examine the wisdom of Solomon, 2 Chronicles 9:1.[35]
The letters “n” (נ nun) and “s” (סsamekh,alternates with שׂ shin) derive from Egyptian hieroglyphs of a resting snake (cobra), and the spinal column of the supreme deity.[36] In Jewish esotericism, these are associated with the reversal or inversion of nature’s laws. In occult sex magic ritual, and bank credebt ‘lending’ by double entry bookkeeping, they are associated with the ‘art’ of stealing the seed of the woman.
“As to the serpent cobra, it is the color of sand. If it bites someone, he will feel pain in one half [of his body] where he has not been bitten and will not feel pain in the half that has been wounded. [..] This is a manifestation of Sēth. The bitten does not die.[37]
Set on a late New Kingdom relief from Karnak
Set spears Apep, the dark chaos deity
In early Egyptian mythology, Set was a god seen in a positive light: lord of the red desert land, accompanying Rā (the Sun-god) on his nightly journey through the Underworld to repel the dark chaos serpent, Apep. Due to his adoption as the supreme god of the Hyksos or Shepherd-Kings—“asiatic” invaders who ruled lower Egypt in the Second Intermediate period—following the expulsion of the “asiatics” into Judea the Egyptians recast Set (pun intended) in a wholly negative light. He became the desert storm god of envy, trickery, chaos, destruction, disorder, who had killed his own brother Osiris, hoping to usurp the throne. Osiris’ death was avenged in combat with Horus, the son of Osiris. Thanks to the ‘cleverness’ of Thoth in the Judgement Hall of the Gods, Osiris became lord of the Underworld. Significantly, and worthy of note for viewers of Casino Royale, Set was defeated only after blinding Horus in one eye.
Endless volumes have been written on the nature and identity of “Jewishness”. In express context of the rebirth of “the Jewish State”, it is inarguable—by any person having even a distant relationship with honesty and objectivity—that the Jewish religion has played, and continues to play, directly and/or indirectly, a fundamental, essential role in the history, psychology, and behaviour, of all persons self-identifying as “Jews,” whether overtly or covertly, with good intention or ill.
To speak plainly and simply: in absence of the Jewish religion, with its claims to a ‘divine’ historicity, and a messianic ‘utopian’ futurity, there would be no Jewish identity.
As we will discover, the supposedly ‘divine’ history of Judaism is a colossal mountain of lies. From its Genesis onward.
The Hebrew bible is a classic example of history being written and re-written by the ‘winners’. The line “And I will replace you” in the Casino Royale title track could not be more apt.
Seen in holistic view, the entire biblical narrative pivots around the tales of brothers—often twins—in lineages purportedly tracing back to the first human parents. In the signature examples, one brother is clearly portrayed as envious, lying, cheating, deceiving, thieving, murdering; stopping at nothing in the quest to gain an exclusive monopoly on ‘divine’, and more specifically, hereditary preference. Revealingly, the most famous example depicts a younger twin conniving with his similarly dishonest Mother to trick their old Blind Father, and cheat the heir of his inheritance rights.
“And I will replace you.”
These fraternal conflicts, and the no conscience, amoral depravities portrayed, are arbitrarily disregarded, or worse, given ‘divine’ sanction by the alleged “blessings” of a deity clearly projected in its authors’ own image, and after their likeness. Indeed, the titular patriarchal hero and namesake of the “Jewish State” features as the exemplar of a demon prince masqueraded as an angel of light: Jacob (יַעֲקֹב “heel-catcher”, i.e., usurper, layer of snares), renamed Israel (יִשְׂרָאֵל “contender”).
So let us not mince words.
Judaism is the religion of the obsessive compulsive. The psychotic. The Cluster B and C personality disorder. The histrionic. The borderline psychotic. The narcissist. The psychopath.
It is the religion of the “homoerotic,” “misogynistic,” sexuality-obsessed, paedophilic ‘sage’.[38][39]
It is a religion that equates the Jewish penis and the tongue: the ‘divine’ organs of ‘creation’.[40]
Judaism is the religion of doublethink. In the words of George Orwell, a “vast system of mental cheating.”[41]
The God of Judaism is an “oxymoronic ‘male androgyne'”: a male form of supposedly formless deity, possessing all characteristics of, and having dominion over, both the female and male genders.[42]
For Judaism, all knowable and unknowable reality is divided into a binary: male and female, good and evil. This, an essentially gnostictheosophical worldview is contradicted by another non falsifiable abstraction—otherwise known as a fantasy or delusion—and a fundamental predilection of Judaism: the paradoxical insistence that all manifestations of reality, all forces, good and evil, originate in the one source, the Divine Intellect.
It would seem that the (little “d”) ‘divine’ intellects of the ‘Sages’ are unable—or perhaps, simply un-willing—to recognise, understand, and accept, that darkness and light, good and evil are not equal opposite forces, or ‘powers’. They are not +1 | -1 numbers on a double entry bookkeeping ledger.
Dark is the result of an absence, obstruction, or rejection of Light.
Evil is the result of an absence, obstruction, or rejection of Good.
The aspiration of Judaism is to become “like God”: to wit, the kind of “God” that its ‘Sages’ say is “God”. A ‘pure’ intellect. A “superconscious” Creator of all paradoxes. All ‘opposites’. All unreason, and illogic. All circularity. All stupidity. All chaos, and confusion. All conflict, disorder, anger, anomie, nihilism, and death.
In other words, the purpose of Judaism is to become as its ‘Sages’ imagine God to be: a ‘divine’ doublethink-er.
But not in the next world. In “the World to Come” right here.
Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world; only to serve the People of Israel. Why are gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat.
— Chief Sephardi Rabbi of Israel, Ovadia Yosef [43]
[The] Kabbalists in Spain cultivated a violent, demonic form of magical Kabbalah intended to destroy the prevailing historical and religious order, including [especially – CM] Christianity, for the sake of bringing the Messiah.
As Rabbi Ginzburg, The Kabbalist Who Would Be King explains:
In Torah, both reward and punishment have the same ultimate aim—the rectification of the soul to merit to receive G-d’s light to the fullest extent.
Reward and punishment imply that a man is free to choose between good and evil. [..] The Rambam (Maimonides), in particular, places great stress upon free choice as being fundamental to Jewish faith. According to the Rambam, the World to Come, the time of reward, is a completely spiritual world, one of souls without bodies. On this point the Ramban (Nachmanides) disagrees and argues that since complete freedom of choice exists only in our physical world, the ultimate rectification of reality—the reward of the World to Come—will also be on the physical plane. Kabbalah and Chassidut support the opinion of the Ramban.[45]
The Egyptians believed Thoth, the lord of the Balance, to be not only the heart and mind of the Creator, but his clever tongue as well:
…he at all times voiced the will of the great god, and spoke the words which commanded every being and thing in heaven and in earth to come into existence. His words were almighty and once uttered, never remained without effect. He framed the laws by which heaven, earth and all the heavenly bodies are maintained; he ordered the courses of the sun, moon, and stars; he invented drawing, design and the arts; the letters of the alphabet and the art of writing; and the science of mathematics. At a very early period he was called the “scribe (or secretary) of the Great Company of the Gods,” and as he kept the celestial register of the words and deeds of men, he was regarded by many generations of Egyptians as the “Recording Angel.” He was the inventor of physical and moral Law and became the personification of JUSTICE; and as the Companies of the Gods of Heaven, and Earth, and the Other World appointed him to “weigh the words and deeds” of men. His verdicts were unalterable, and he became more powerful in the Other World than Osiris himself. Osiris owed his triumph over Set in the Great Judgment Hall of the Gods entirely to the skill of Thoth of the “wise mouth” as an Advocate, and to his influence with the gods in heaven. And every follower of Osiris relied upon the advocacy of Thoth to secure his acquittal on the Day of Judgment, and to procure for him an everlasting habitation in the Kingdom of Osiris.[46]
Spells and other magical texts written by Thoth for the benefit of the deceased were called “Chapters of the Coming Forth by (or, into) the Day.” These compositions were greatly reverenced, as they would “make a man victorious upon earth and in the Other World; it would ensure him a safe and free passage through the Tuat (Underworld); it would allow him to go in and to go out, and to take at any time any form he pleased; it would make his soul to flourish, and would prevent him from dying the [second] death.”[47]
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In great papyri of the Book of the Dead such as those of Nebseni, Nu, Ani, Hunefer, etc., the Last Judgment, or the “Great Reckoning,” is made the most prominent scene in the whole work… The most complete form of it is given in the Papyrus of Ani… Since the heart was considered to be the seat of all will, emotion, feeling, reason and intelligence, Ani’s heart is seen in one pan of the Balance, and in the other is the feather 𓆄 , symbolic of truth and righteousness.
While his heart lies in the Balance, Ani repeats the words from the Book of the Dead quoted at top this essay.
Then Thoth, the Judge of Truth, of the Great Company of the Gods who are in the presence of Osiris, saith to the gods, “Hearken ye to this word: In very truth the heart of Osiris hath been weighed, and his soul hath borne testimony concerning him; according to the Great Balance his case is truth (i.e., just). No wickedness hath been found in him. He did not filch offerings from the temples. He did not act crookedly, and he did not vilify folk when he was on earth.”
And the Great Company of the Gods say to Thoth:
“This that cometh forth from thy mouth of truth is confirmed (?) The Osiris, the scribe Ani, true of voice, hath testified. He hath not sinned and [his name] doth not stink before us; Amemit (i.e., the Eater of the Dead) shall not have the mastery over him. Let there be given unto him offerings of food and an appearance before Osiris, and an abiding homestead in the Field of Offerings as unto the Followers of Horus.”
In all the copies of the Book of the Dead the deceased is always called “Osiris,” and as it was always assumed that those for whom they were written would be found innocent when weighed in the Great Balance, the words “true of voice,” which were equivalent in meaning to “innocent and acquitted,” were always written after their names. It may be noted in passing that when Ani’s heart was weighed against Truth, the beam of the Great Balance remained perfectly horizontal. This suggests that the gods did not expect the heart of the deceased to “kick the beam,” but were quite satisfied if it exactly counterbalanced Truth. They demanded the fulfilment of the Law and nothing more, and were content to bestow immortality upon the man on whom Thoth’s verdict was “he hath done no evil.”[48]
The Last Judgment or “Great Reckoning” (Papyri of Ani)
On successfully passing the Weighing of the Scales, and presentation before Osiris, the deceased “comes forth by day” as a living god in the Underworld (dwꜣtDuat); the abode of the sun that has set:
𓇽
Rā sets as Osiris with all the splendour of the Glorified and of the gods of the Amentafor he is the one, the marvellous in the Tuat, the exalted soul in the Netherworld, Unneferu who exists for ever and eternally.
Amenta: the Underworld, horizon where the sun sets, west bank of the Nile, place of the dead.
Look at me, ye blessed ones, divine guides in the Tuat; grant that I may receive thy glory, that I may shine like the god of mysteries [..]I am the heirof Osiris, I receive the nemmes in the Tuat.
Look at me, I shine like one who proceeds from you, I become like him who (praises) his father, and who extols him.
Look at me, rejoice in me, grant that I may be exalted, that I may become like him who destroys his forms; open the way to my soul, set me on your pedestals; grant that I may rest in the good Amenta, show me my dwelling in the midst of you, open for me your ways, unfasten the bolts.
I am the favouriteof Ra; I am the mysterious Bennu who enters in peace in the Tuat and goes out of Nut in peace.
I am the lord of the thrones above, traversing the horizon in the train of Ra; the offerings for me are in the sky in the field of Ra, and my portion on earth in the garden of Aarru; I journey in the Tuat like Ra; I weigh the words like Thoth, I march as I will, I hasten in my course like Sahu the mysterious one, and I am born as the twogods.[49]
“I”.
“I” “i” “i” “i” “i”.
Mmmm .
Good luck with that, moonshine
You may not get any more sympathisers if you draw a crook hand.
******************
REFERENCES
Omega/ˈoʊmɪɡə,oʊˈmɛɡə/ (capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the 24th and last letter of the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/Isopsephy (Gematria), it has a value of 800. The word literally means “great O” (ō mega, mega meaning “great”), as opposed to Ο ο omicron, which means “little O” (o mikron, micron meaning “little”).
[1] Estoppel is a judicial device in common law legal systems to prevent or “estop” a person from making assertions or from going back on their word. Estoppel may prevent someone from bringing a particular claim. The Legal Dictionary describes estoppel as “a legal principle that bars a party from denying or alleging a certain fact owing to that party’s own previous conduct, allegation, or denial.”
The verb estop comes from Middle English estoppen, borrowed from Old French estop(p)er, estouper, presumably from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre ‘to stop up with caulk, tow’ [coarse broken flax, Middle English, possibly from Old English tow-, spinning (in towcræft, spinning craft, spinning)], from Latin stuppa, ‘broken flax’, from Ancient Greek stuppē, ‘broken flax’.
Compare Matthew 12:20, cit. Isaiah 42:3:
A bruised reed [by impl. a pen] shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench: he shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
[2] See (e.g.) Book of Tobit (chapters 6-8), “13” secret ingredients of Temple incense. See Gideon Bohak, Ancient Jewish Magic: A History (New York: Cambridge University Press 2008), p.89 on story in Book of Tobit, “probably written in the fourth or third century bce, perhaps by a Babylonian Jew”:
The technique itself consists of fumigating the heart and liver of a certain fish from the Tigris river (the fish’s gall also serves to heal Tobit’s eyes, but not by way of exorcism),* and Raphael promises the young Tobias that this will drive away any demon or evil spirit and keep them away forever (6.8, 16–17). Before the consummation of his marriage with Sarah, Tobias indeed places the fish’s liver and heart on an incense burner, and the resulting odors drive the evil Ashmedai all the way from Persian Ecbatana to Upper Egypt, where Raphael quickly binds him up (8.2–3).
*For Babylonian precedents, see von Soden 1966
[3] Sir Peter Le Page Renouf and Prof. E. Naville, The Egyptian Book of the Dead: Translation and Commentary (London: Harrison and Sons 1904), p.75
[4] Maria Carmela Betrò, Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt (New York: Abbeville Press 1996), p. 179 Sandal –
𓋸 This hieroglyph represents a very simple form of sandal: a sole with two strips of leather or other material to keep the foot in place. They are present in tombs from as early as the First Dynasty at Abydos (the beginning of the third millennium B.C.). [..] The cosmetic palette of King Narmer, dating from the end of the fourth millennium B.C., shows a high functionary (perhaps even a vizier) immediately behind the king, carrying the king’s sandals. Shoes at this time were a status symbol: the wearing of sandals was an unequivocable indication of rank. In the Old Kingdom, sandals were still the prerogative of kings, priests, and high dignitiaries: everyone else walked unshod. [..] During the Middle Kingdom, sandals became quite common: for example, they were given to the members of expeditions about to cross the desert.
Narmer’s Palette from Hierakonpolis (end 4th millennium BC). Cairo, Egyptian Museum (source: M.C. Betrò, Hieroglyphics 1996)
p. 155 The Otherworld –
𓇽 A star (dwꜣt, morning, place where the sun is born) in a circle: this is the symbol for the otherworld. Initially in the Pyramid Texts, this sign stood for the place in the sky where the sun and the stars reappeared after having been invisible; then it began to represent the otherworld, whether celestial or subterranean. [..] When the destiny of the deceased began to be associated with the symbolic death of the god Osiris, the otherworld began to be envisioned as an underground space with an intricate and detailed geography. The dead moved through this subterranean otherworld with the help of funerary rites and the so-called “guides” to the otherworld… The circle of the Duat is a symbol of cyclical rebirth. Like other Egyptian metaphors for life in the afterworld, it is a closed internal space that is naturally associated with the image of the female womb, the point of departure and hoped-for destination.
For the Testament of Solomon (F.C. Conybeare transl.) see esotericarchives.com (online)
[5] Canaan (כְּנַעַן), Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) Hebrew and English Lexicon (online)
[6] ‛âshaq (עָשַׁק), Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) Hebrew and English Lexicon (online)
[7] Tekel (תְּקֵל), Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) Hebrew and English Lexicon (online)
[8] chassı̂yr (חַסִּיר), Brown-Driver-Briggs (BDB) Hebrew and English Lexicon (online)
[9] The Declaration of Independence, archives.gov.il (retrieved 10 May 2020)
[10] Recognition of Israel, Harry S. Truman Presidential Library and Museum, truman.gov (retrieved 10 May 2020)
[11] Harry S. Truman: Decisive President, New York Times archives, (retrieved 10 May 2020)
[15] M.O. Wise, Language and Literacy in Roman Judaea: A Study of the Bar Kokhba Documents (New York: Yale University Press, 2015). Meir Bar-Ilan speculated c. 3% Jewish literacy in antiquity.
[17] Yah, proper name of God, for biblical refs see Gesenius’ Hebrew-Chaldee Lexicon (online)
[18] Brian Colless (The Origin of the Alphabet, Antiguo Oriente, volumen 12, 2014, pp. 71–104, a critical review of Orly Goldwasser theory)
[19] Herodotus, The Histories Book V (A.D. Godley, Ed.), perseus.tufts.edu (retrieved 13 May 2020)
[20] E.A.W. Budge, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (New York: Quarto Publishing Group 2016), p.3
[21] Shalem (Deity), The Anchor Bible Dictionary (online, retrieved 13 May 2020). Compare Karel Van Der Toorn, Bob Becking, Pieter W. Van Der Horst, Dictionary of Deities and Demons in the Bible (xxx: 1999 Second Edition), pp. 100 and 109-11:—
ASHERAH: Apart from mention in sacrificial and pantheon lists, the goddess also appears in two theogonic texts, KTU 1.12 i and 1.23, the former describing the birth of ‘the Devourers‘ to the handmaids of Athirat and Yarihu, the latter describing two wives of EI (seemingly Athirat and perhaps Shapsh) who consummate their marriage with him, and give birth to →Shahar and →Shalem, the →Dioskouroi. These texts have a bearing on several biblical traditions, such as Gen 16, 19:30-38, Ps 8 etc. (WYAlT 1993). The goddess’ name appears in the longer title rbt aṯrt ym, meaning perhaps ‘the Great Lady who walks on the Sea‘ (the name therefore apparently understood as ‘Walker’) . . .
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ASTARTE: The divine name Astarte is found in the following forms: Ug ‘ṯtrt (‘Athtart[u]’); Phoen ‘štrt (‘Ashtart’); Heb ‘Aštoret (singular); Aštarot (generally construed as plural); Eg variously ‘sṯrt, ‘sṯrṯ, istrt; Gk Astarte. It is the feminine form of the masculine ‘ttr (‘Athtar’. ‘Ashlar’) and this in turn occurs, though as the name of a goddess. as Akkadian→Ishtar. The Akkadian Aš–tar-[tum?] is used of her (AGE 330). The etymology remains obscure. It is probably, in the masculine form, the name of the planet Venus, then extended to the feminine as well (cf. A.S. YAHUDA, JRAS 8 [1946] 174-178). [..] Both god and goddess are probably, but not certainly, to be seen as the deified Venus (HEIMPEL 1982: 13-14). This is indeed the case, since if the morning star is the male deity (cf. Isa 14: 12), then the goddess would be the evening star: as she is in Greek tradition. (The two appearances of Venus are also probably to be seen as deified, cf. →Shahar and →Shalem.)
Egypt. Astarte is mentioned a number of times in texts from Egypt. In one instance, her name is written ʼntrt. Even if this is simply a misspelling, as LECLANT (1960:6 n.2) suggests, it is still ‘revealing’ (but cf. ANET 201a n. 16). In the Contendings of Horus and Seth (iii 4), →Seth is given Anat and Astarte. the daughters of →Re, as wives. This is a mythologisation of the importing of Semitic deities into Egypt under the Hyksos and later, and the New Kingdom fashion for the goddesses in particular. Seth and Baal were identified. [..] Anat and Astarte are described in a New Kingdom text (Harris magical papyrus iii 5 in: PRITCHARD (1943:79]) as “the two great goddesses who were pregnant but did not bear“, on which basis ALBRIGHT (1956:75) concludes that they are “perennially fruitful without ever losing virginity”. He also asserts that “sex was their primary function”. Both assumptions are questionable, not to say mutually incompatible! As wives of Seth, who rapes rather than makes love to them, their fruitless conceptions are an extension of his symbolism as the god of disorder, rather than qualities of their own. In the fragmentary ‘Astarte papyrus’ (ANET 17-18; see HELCK 1983) the goddess is the daughter of →Ptah and is demanded by the →Sea in marriage.
[22] ym ים “day”, Ancient Hebrew Lexicon (online, retrieved 12 May 2020)
[23] Cubit#Ancient_Egyptian_royal_cubit, Wikipedia (online, retrieved 12 May 2020)
[24] Alexander Turner Cory, The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous (1840), (online, retrieved 13 May 2020)
[25] Sefer HaChinukh (“Book of Education”) 259 (Spain c.1255 – c.1285 AD):
The commandment of having just scales, weights and measures: To have just scales, weights and measures and to be very careful about them, as it is stated (Leviticus 19:36), “You shall have just scales, just weights, a just eiphah, and a just hin.” And the language of Sifra, Kedoshim, Chapter 8:7 [is] “‘Just weights’ – justify the scales precisely” – meaning to say, that the scales be righteous. And the matter is well-known regarding scales that there are important adjustments to make, as it is possible to do many types of falsehood with them. “‘Just weights’ – justify the weights precisely” – also with weights, it is also possible to do many types of falsehood, and similar to that which they, may their memory be blessed, said (Bava Metzia 61b), “I will repay in the future anyone who submersed his weights in salt.”
Rav Yeimar said to Rav Ashi: Why do I need the prohibition that the Merciful One wrote with regard to weights: “You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measure, in weight, or in volume” (Leviticus 19:35)? It is merely another form of robbery. Rav Ashi said to him: It is referring to a seller who buries his weights in salt, in order to lighten them.
The Sages taught: The verse states: “You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measure, in weight, or in volume [uvamesura]” (Leviticus 19:35). “In measure”; this is referring to the measurement of land, e.g., this means that in a case where two people are dividing their jointly owned field, one may not measure the land to be given to one during the summer and measure the land to be given to the other during the rainy season, because the length of the measuring cord is affected by the weather conditions. “In weight”; this is referring to the fact that he may not bury his measuring weights in salt. And “in volume”; this teaches that one may not froth the liquid one is selling, creating the impression that there is more liquid in the vessel than there actually is.
[26] Babylonian Talmud Gittin 68a, William Davidson translation (online, retrieved 8 May 2020)
[27] Shamir, Jewish Encyclopedia 1906, Wilhelm Blacher, Ludwig Blau (online, retrieved 11 May 2020) —
This last account is Babylonian in origin, and both language and content prove that it was a legend of the people rather than a tradition of the schools, as is the case with the stories mentioned above. There were, however, learned circles in Palestine which refused to credit the use of the shamir by Solomon (Mek., Yitro, end). Others, however, believed that Solomon employed it in the building of his palace, but not in the construction of the Temple, evidently taking exception to the magical element suggested by a leaden box as a place of concealment, for in magic brass is used to break enchantment and to drive away demons (Soṭah 48b; Yer. Soṭah 24b).
[28] Matthew 26:47, The Holy Bible King James transl., (online, retrieved 12 May 2020)
[29] xýlon, Liddell-Scott-Jones and Thayer’s Expanded Edition lexicons (online, retrieved 13 May 2020)
[30] Hebrews 2:11-15, The Holy Bible Complete Jewish Bible translation (online, retrieved 13 May 2020)
[31] Natan Odenheimer, The Kabbalist Who Would Be King of a New Jewish Monarchy in Israel, Jewish Forward October 14, 2016 (online, retrieved 13 May 2020)
[32] Yitsḥaḳ Ginzburg, Avraham Arieh Trugman, Moshe Yaakov Wisnefsky, The Alef-beit: Jewish Thought Revealed Through the Hebrew Letters (Oxford: Rowman & Littlefield 1991)
[33] Yehuda Shurpin, Why No Vowels In The Torah?, chabad.org (online, retrieved 12 May 2020)
[37] Maria Carmela Betrò, Hieroglyphics: The Writings of Ancient Egypt (New York: Abbeville Press 1996), p.113, cit. the Egyptian Treatise on Ophiology – “The strange observation about the pain of the bite finds no comparison in modern medical texts.
[38] Jay Michaelson, Kabbalah and Queer Theology: Resources and Reservations, Theology & Sexuality, Vol. 18 No. 1, January, 2013, cit. Elliot Wolfson, Circle In The Square: Studies in the Use of Gender in Kabbalistic Symbolism (New York: State University 1995)
[39] Elliot Wolfson, Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination (New York: Fordham University Press 2005)
[40] Aryeh Kaplan, Sefer Yetzirah, The Book of Creation (Revised Edition), p. 32
[41] George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (2003 Plume Centennial Edition), p. 218
[42] Jay Michaelson, Op. Cit.
[43] Marcy Oster, Sephardi leader Yosef: Non-Jews exist to serve Jews, The Forward, 18 October 2010 (online, retrieved 13 May 2020)
[44] Moshe Idel, Kabbalah in Italy (1280-1510): A Survey (New Haven: Yale University Press 2011), p.198 –
Although a proclivity toward magic was conspicuous in an important circle of Spanish Kabbalists during the 1470s,it took a totally different direction. Unlike the magia naturalis , accepted by Ficino, Pico, Alemanno, and to a lesser degree David Messer Leon, the group of Kabbalists in Spain cultivated a violent, demonic form of magical Kabbalah intended to destroy the prevailing historical and religious order, including Christianity, for the sake of bringing the Messiah. It was a redemptive rather than a natural magic, focused upon solving historical rather than personal problems
A senseless man has no knowledge, Nor does a stupid man understand this
The tsaddiq* will flourish like the palm tree, He will grow like a cedar in Lebanon.[1]
* “righteous man”
There’s a lady who’s sure all that glitters is gold
And she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
When she gets there she knows, if the stores are all closed Witha word she can get what she came for.
Ooh, ooh, and she’s buying a stairway to heaven.
There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
‘Cause you know sometimeswords have two meanings.
In the tree by the brook, there’s a songbird who sings,
Sometimes all of our thoughts are misgiven.
Ooh, it makes me wonder,
Ooh, it makes me wonder.
Palindrome ΝΙΨΟΝ ΑΝΟΜΗΜΑΤΑ ΜΗ ΜΟΝΑΝ ΟΨΙΝ
(Nipson anomemata me monan opsin, Wash your sins, not only your face)
inscribed in ancient Greek upon a holy water font outside the site of
Saint Hagia Sophia church in Constantinople. The phrase can be read
from left to right or from right to left.[2]
What is your favourite poem or song?
Imagine it being performed by two people. As in a duet.
Now, imagine that each performer begins with the verse at opposite ends – the first and the last – crossing over at the middle verse. Each performs one-half verse alternately, moving up and down, down and up the verses, like rungs on a ladder. Like Jacob’s angels, ascending and descending on their stairway to heaven.
Jacob’s Dream by William Blake (c. 1805, British Museum, London)
What do angels do? Sing psalms (תהילים tehilim, “praises”) to God.
The verses of the poem or song as performed would give birth to new, composite verses, quite different to those appearing in the text as written.
Now, unless the artist has deliberately constructed his poem or song to be performed in this way, these composite verses would likely be nonsensical gibberish.
Oh, say, can you see?
O’er the land of the free
By the dawn’s early light
and the home of the brave!
What so proudly we hailed
Oh, say, does that star
at the twilight’s last gleaming;
-spangled banner yet wave?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars,
Gave proof through the night
through the perilous fight,
that our flag was still there:
O’er the ramparts we watched
And the rocket’s red glare,
were so gallantly streaming.
the bombs bursting in air.
O’er the land of the free
Oh, say, can you see?
and the home of the brave!
By the dawn’s early light
Oh, say, does that star
What so proudly we hailed
-spangled banner yet wave?
at the twilight’s last gleaming;
Gave proof through the night
Whose broad stripes and bright stars,
that our flag was still there:
through the perilous fight,
And the rocket’s red glare,
O’er the ramparts we watched
the bombs bursting in air.
were so gallantly streaming.
A truly clever artist, however, could include hidden meanings within such a work. Sprinkle in a double entendre, a euphemism, a subtle wordplay or two, and he might even succeed in – oh let’s say – mocking his co-performer of the work, without their knowing it.
Psalm 92 is not considered one of the most difficult pieces of poetry in the Psalter. Its vocabulary and syntax are quite clear and its meaning is the subject of a general consensus. Apparently, the poet compares the temporary prosperity of the wicked with the durable experience of divine blessing reserved for the righteous.
Several elements, however, point to an additional and deeper level of meaning. The first is the elusive nature of both the conflict and the protagonists’ identity. The second is the lack of consensus concerning the genre of this song.
This vagueness originates in the singular mixing, in this psalm, of verses of praise (vv. 2-6, 9, 11, 13–16) and of condemnation of the wicked (vv. 7–8, 10, 12).[3]
But one half is cheating, with forked tongue double meanings, and cunningly attacking the other.
Ancient Greek: διάβολοςdiábolos: a slanderer, false accuser
from διαβάλλωdiabállō : “I throw over”, “I throw across”,
“I slander”, “I deceive by false accounts”, “I set at variance” or “I make a quarrel between” from διά (diá, “across”, “through”, “between”) and βάλλω(bállō, “I throw”)
Translation from Hebrew שָׂטָן satan: adversary, opponent
diá (two, double)
from *δισα(disa), from Proto-Indo-European*dwís (related to δίς(dís, “twice”) and δύο(dúo, “two”)) bólos (a throw with a casting net, or dice)
diábolos (devil): a double-thrower
Agent noun from διαβάλλειν diaballein “to slander, attack”
from diá (across, through, divide) and ballein (“to throw” a weapon, e.g. a stone or arrow [or word – CM])
This is exactly what happened in the newly monotheistic temple cult at Jerusalem during the Persian Empire (c. 538–330 BC). Yahweh-worshipping poet-singers from the southern Canaanite region of Edom were integrated into the temple elite by Ezra, the High Priest and Scribe. Their counterparts – or opposites – and the official cultic performers, were Asaphites. According to the book of Ezra, they were descendants of the Jerusalem elite who had been exiled to Babylon in the early sixth century BC.
It has been taught: R. Yosé says . . . “Even though the Torah was not given through [Ezra], through him was given the accepted form of writing and of speech.”
Rabbi says, “The Torah was given in Assyrian characters, and when they signed, it was turned into Raas* characters for them. But when, in the time of Ezra, they attained merit, it was turned into Assyrian characters for them.”
[“Return to your stronghold, O prisoners of hope;] today I declare that I will restore to you double” (Zech. 9:12).
“And when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself in a book a copy of this law, [from that which is in charge of the Levitical priests]” (Deut. 17:18). This will be in a form of writing [71c] which can be changed.
*Hebrew slang, from Arabic “bujaras” meaning “nuisance”. From Arabic وجع راس (waja3raas) meaning “headache”; cf. Hebrew רֹאשׁ rósh “head”; רָעַשׁ râ‛ash “to shake”, “to quake”.
Geographic distribution of Echis coloratus in Canaan and Sinai.
Unlike the ex-Babylon immigrants, the Edomites had retained their ancient liturgical and musical traditions.
A cult of YHWH in Edom is only elusively mentioned in the Bible.However, the origin of YHWH in Seir/Edom is stated outright (Seir: Deut 32,2; Judg 5,4; Teman/Paran: Hab 3,3), independently of Israelite Yahwism and even preceding it.
[T]his superiority of the musical traditions of the psalmist and his companions fits their identification as Ezrahites because the sons of Zerah were apparently reputed among the Israelites for their cleverness and wisdom (1 Kgs 5,11) [4:31]*and, consequently, for their ability to craft poetic riddles. Their musical tradition is also very ancient. According to Gen 4,19–22, poetry and music are rooted in the lineage of Cain, itself closely related to Edom/Seir. This is why the Ezrahite musicians and poets may deem themselves to be carriers / trustees of the musical and poetic traditions of Canaan.
* This is confirmed by the association of wisdom with Edom in Jer 49,7 and Obad 8.[6]
If there’s a bustle in your hedgerow, don’t be alarmed now,
It’s just a Spring clean* for the May queen.
Yes, there are two paths you can go by, but in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.
And it makes me wonder.
And as we wind on down the road
Our shadows taller than our soul.
There walks a lady we all know
Who shines white light and wants to show
How everything still turns to gold.
And if you listen very hard
The tune will come to you at last.
When all is one and one is all
To be a rock and not to roll.
Palestine/Arabian saw-scaled viper (Echis coloratus) has a characteristic threat display,
rubbing sections of their body together to produce a “sizzling” שׂ warning sound.
“Why is this script called Ashurit [אשורית A-shur-it]? Because it ascended with the Jewish people from Ashur when they returned from their exile in Babylonia.” (Sanhedrin 22a:2)
L-R: vav or waw (6th letter, value: 6) Shin or Šin (21st letter, value: 300)
Four-tooth Shin feat. on left side of tefillin
represents “the World to Come”
The allegory of the wise and “subtil” (עָרוּם ʻârûwm, shrewd, cunning; pun עָרוֹםʻârôwm,naked, Gen 2:25) serpent in the Garden of Eden, who tempted the first woman with “forbidden fruit”, that makes one ‘wise’ (שָׂכַל sâkal) “as gods” (אֱלֹהִיםʼĕlôhîym), a product of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil – in other words, a ‘fruit’ born of the knowledge of how to mix together opposite “voices”, a “sense” voice and an “anti-sense” voice, a Good one and an Evil one, a plus one (𓂻)* and a minus one (𓂽) – will be illuminated in later essays.
* Hieroglyph of feet walking forward 𓂻 : in Egyptian mathematics “make in going”; to square, double (i.e.) to multiplyby oneself … and, esoterically, one’s self. [7]
A History of Mathematical Notations (Florian Cajori)
Ezra’s assimilation of more skillful Edomite poet-singers into the Jerusalem temple cult resulted in intense rivalry with the returned Asaphites.[8] The biblical and later, the rabbinic narrative, insists that these distant descendants of patriarchal twin brothers, Jacob (יַעֲקֹב “heel-catcher”, i.e., usurper, layer of snares; renamed Israel יִשְׂרָאֵל “contender”) and Esau (עֵשָׂו “hairy”, renamed Edom אֱדֹם “red”; compare Adam אָדַם “to be red”, “ruddy”), have shared a long history of acrimonious relations.
[T]he Psalter of songs [reflects] violent conflicts surrounding the question of integrating foreign (Ezrahite) singers in the Jerusalem temple. In this retaliation, the most efficient weapon is probably the ability to compose songs that carry a concealed meaning too subtle to be understood by members of the opponents’ group. By this device, poets may express their superiority, articulate their closeness to YHWH, and mock their opponents.
Such a stratagem seems to be fully in action here. Psalm 92 is a conflictive poem disguised as a piece of liturgy composed for official worship in the temple.
Psalm 92 is not the only biblical poem in which the Ezrahites reference their enemies in the post-exilic community. Briefly expressed scorn by the Ezrahites against their opponents is already identified at the end of Psalm 112, the song which, together with Psalm 111, was apparently composed (again, in complex antiphonal fashion) for their new investiture as cultic singers at the Jerusalem temple…
The contrasting situation (Asaphite singers attacking the Ezrahites) is also identified in the Psalter. In Psalm 14, for example, the opponents (here, the Ezrahites) are called vile hypocrites (pōʿalêy ʾāwen)*, mainly because they are accused of exploiting their new status of cultic singers in the Jerusalem temple for the secret promotion of their own theology at the expense of the Israelite one while having been appointed and supported by the post-exilic community.
The multiple references to the psalmist’s foreign traditions and theology in Psalm 92 indicate that the accusation formulated in Psalm 14,4 is far from unfounded. The verbal violence in this conflict reaches its climax in Psalm 137, a song of Asaphite obedience that explains the reason for appointment of the foreign (Ezrahite) singers in the Jerusalem temple (the loss of musical tradition of the Israelite singers in exile, as noted in vv. 1-6) and immediately afterwards expresses their bitter detestation of the Edomite people, with whom these foreign singers are identified (vv. 7–9):
Remember, YHWH, the children of Edom [on] the day of Jerusalem,
How they said, “Lay it bare, lay it bare, down to its foundations!”
Vassal of Babylon [=Edom] doomed to be destroyed,
Blessed shall he be who repays you with what you have done to us!
Blessed shall he be who takes your little ones
And dashes them against the rock!
If the title of the psalm [92] dates from the time of its composition, we may assume that it represents an ultimate stratagem. Disguising this conflicting poem as a psalm devoted to the Sabbath liturgy is a subtle way of inducing its author’s opponents to perform it every week without understanding its genuine content and implications. Indeed, a situation of people devotedly singing a sentence such as “The brutish man cannot know; The stupid cannot understand this” (v. 7) without understanding that it refers specifically to them is a comic demonstration of the rightness of the psalmist who claims his art to be superior to that of his opponents and rivals. The insertion of this song into the Psalter, and even the preservation of the reference to the Sabbath liturgy in the title, reveals the repeated success of such a stratagem, generation after generation.[9]
“Complex antiphony” is the technical term for this mode of poetic or musical performance. It mixes two opposing voices, reciting or singing the same text, but in the inverse order of its verses.
[T]he text of the song divides in two parts, each one sung by another voice. The text of these two parts divides in small antiphonal units designed to be paired during the performance. [..] the homolog fragments from the two parts, once paired as composite verses, yield a coherent composite text displaying structural features characterizing biblical poetry.[10]
Antiphony is alternation between two choirs.This mode of performance is extensively attested in the ancient Near East, especially in cultic context.[..]It would appear from these [biblical] instances that antiphony was also a privileged mode of performance of the cultic songs in the Jerusalem temple—as it has been long argued by many scholars.
When the walls of Jerusalem are consecrated in Neh 12:27–41, singers and musicians form two distinct choirs designated as תּוֹדֹת (todah; “confession”, “thanksgiving”). They perform while walking on/near the city walls, each one in a different direction, finally meeting at the temple where they combine their voices in an apparently antiphonal fashion (vv. 31, 40, 42).[11]
By structuring a composition this way, a skilled creative artist causes his passive text to “give birth” or “bear fruit,” to flower in its active performance. Or, to borrow the ancient Egyptian way with words, to “make [square2] in going” 𓂻 ; to multiplyby oneself. The combined flow of two opposing voices reveals new information that otherwise remains hidden in a normal, linear recital of the verses by a single voice.
Concentric symmetry invests the text of a song with palindromic properties and, especially, the ability to read its verses in both ascendinganddescending order. From the perspective of complex antiphony, this property suggests that Psalm 92 was designed for dialogic performance between a “sense voice” (first choir), which sings the text in ascending order of verses, and an “antisense voice” (second choir) that responds by singing the same text in descending order. Such a pattern, already identified in biblical poetry, has been defined as cross responsa.[12]
Translation as proposed by Amzallag (2017).
“Tormentors” and “counterparts” used for
untranslatable double entendres.
In Psalm 92, the pairing of corresponding verses from the sense and antisense voices yields a series of composite verses (CVs) centering on an echo performance of verse 9 (identified above as the pivotal axis), after which both the ranking and the precedence of paired verses become inverted: 2//16 → 3//15 → 4//14 → 5//13 → 6//12 → 7//11 → 8//10 → 9//9 → 10//8 → 11//7 → 12//6 → 13//5 → 14//4 → 15//3 → 16//2. [..] The only monocolic verse in this song (v. 9) can be paired only with itself, exactly as observed here.
Cancer (Latin: crab): fourth sign of zodiac
Approx. June 22 to July 22 in classical antiquity July 17 +/- 2 days = Sirius’ heliacal rising, herald of Nile inundation Alchemists’ symbol for dissolution. Compare 🝢 in Basil Valentine, A Table of Mediaeval Alchemical Symbols, The Last Will and Testament (1670)
Scholars have identified verse 9, an expression of praise (“You, YHWH, are on high forever”), as the rhetorical center of Psalm 92—the pivotal verse that stresses YHWH’s supremacy and his indifference to the stratagems fomented by the psalmist’s enemies, evoked in the two verses that flank it (vv. 8, 10). This pivotal function of verse 9 is confirmed by its position at the exact numerical center of the song (52 words before and after) and by the central (fourth) mention among the seven mentions of the name YHWH.[13]
The selection of verse number 9 (Hebrew ninthletter ṭet ט “good”, from Phœnician/Paleo-Hebrew ⊗ “wheel”) as pivotal would seem to be of great significance. Observe that the first verse, “A psalm. A song; for the Sabbath day” is titular. Its four Hebrew words are not included in the 52 before/after verse 9. Meaning, the turning point verse 9 is really verse 8 (khet or ḥet ח , from Paleo-Hebrew , Phœnician , “courtyard”). This also means that there are only fifteen verses. Not sixteen.
The fifteenth Hebrew letter samekh ס derives from the Phœnician and Paleo-Hebrew “pillar”, “support”, “stability”; from the ancient Egyptian “djed”. Their symbol 𓊽 represents the spinal column of the demiurge creator god Ptah; later, the underworld and afterlife supreme god of the dead, Osiris.
But since in reality Big Brother is not omnipotent and the Party is not infallible, there is need for an unwearying, moment-to-moment flexibility in the treatment of facts. The key word here is blackwhite. Like so many Newspeak words, this word has two mutually contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it means the habit of impudently claiming that black is white, in contradiction of the plain facts. Applied to a Party member, it means a loyal willingness to say that black is white when Party discipline demands this. But it means also the ability to believe that black is white, and more, to know that black is white, and to forget that one has ever believed the contrary. This demands a continuous alteration of the past, made possible by the system of thought which really embraces all the rest, and which is known in Newspeak as doublethink.[14]
In gematria, the number 15 is written with Tet and Vav, (9+6) to avoid the normal construction Yud and Hei (10+5) which spells a name of God. Similarly, 16 is written with Tet and Zayin (9+7) instead of Yud and Vav (10+6) to avoid spelling part of the Tetragrammaton.
Tet is also one of the seven letters which receive special crowns (called tagin) when written in a Sefer Torah.[15]
Teth – Ktav Ashurit (“Assyrian”) script
In the Torah there are many applications to the “law of similars.” One of them is that in order to kill a snake you must be like a snake.
In gematria, Mashiach [“Messiah”, “Anointed”] (משיח ,358) equals snake (נחש). As extreme opposites they are in fact similar, numerically identical.
Mashiach is the one soul that is capable of killing the evil snake, the evil inclination in the heart of man.[16]
Now this rabbit hole is deep, dear Alice. It is one that takes us back 5500+ years, through many ancient cultures, and through the rise of astrotheology, metallurgy, sciences, arts, the development of speech, language, abstraction, writing, symbolism, mysticism and magic, to early pre-dynastic Egypt. So it needs be explored at another time. To whet the appetite, consider only this:
XXXII (32). When they would represent delight they depict the number 16*; for from this age men begin to hold commerce with women, and to procreate children.
XXXIII (33). To denote sexual intercourse they depict two numbers 16. Cum enim sedecim voluptatem esse diximus; congressus autem, duplici constet, maris ac fœminæ, voluptate, propterea alia sedecim adscribunt.
*From Pliny (Nat. Hist. V. 10.) we may infer that number 16 as a procreative symbol references the rising waters of the Nile:
While it is rising it has been pronounced criminal for kings or prefects even to sail upon its waters. The measure of its increase is ascertained by means of wells. … When the water rises to only twelve cubits, [Egypt] experiences the horrors of famine; when it attains thirteen, hunger is still the result; a rise of fourteen cubits is productive of gladness; a rise of fifteen sets all anxieties at rest; while an increase of sixteen is productive of unbounded transports of joy.[18]
Like the crest of a peacock, like the gem
on the head of a snake, so is mathematics
at the head of all knowledge.
The structure and vocabulary of Psalm 92 reveal the same under-lying principles as those found in Jewish esotericism (Cabala), and in double entry bookkeeping. These ancient gnostic principles are the foundation of modern accounting, banking, finance, equilibrium economic theories, and thus, of worldly power and control of others.
Jewish gnosticism unquestionably antedates Christianity, for Biblical exegesis had already reached an age of five hundred years by the first century C.E. Judaism had been in close contact with Babylonian-Persian ideas for at least that length of time, and for nearly as long a period with Hellenistic ideas. Magic, also, which … was a not unimportant part of the doctrines and manifestations of gnosticism, largely occupied Jewish thinkers. There is, in general, no circle of ideas to which elements of gnosticism have been traced, and with which the Jews were not acquainted. It is a noteworthy fact that heads of gnostic schools and founders of gnostic systems are designated as Jews by the Church Fathers.
Jewish Encyclopedia 1906
These principles are already found in the ‘magical’ art of extispicy and Šumma Izbu: ancient Mesopotamian divination, using sheep livers and malformed foetuses.[20]
We have previously referred to these principles (e.g., here, here) as the Union of Opposites and the Law of Inversion (or Reversal); and, as the Paradox of Opposite Perspectives.
With bank loans – ‘money’ created out of Nothingness by double entry bookkeeping – the ‘magic’ trick is hidden in the cunning wordplay used to describe what the bank owes (debt) to its customers (“Accounts Payable”). This debt owed to its customers is, simultaneously – and legally – the banks’ asset (‘unsecured’ “Client Deposits”).
In essence, all the ‘money’ in all the banks is owned by the banks, and by the customers. Simultaneously. Truth be told however, all the ‘money’ is merely bookkeeping entries: records of the banks’ promises to pay out the physical cash money (legal tender) that is owedby the banks to their customers.
In other words, it does not exist. All the ‘money’ in all the banks, is just an illusion. A word and number magic trick.
On its creation as a +1|-1 (= 0) double entry bookkeeping record, the new ‘loan’ instantly becomes a new ‘deposit’.
In the fulness of that unceasing reality we call the flow of Time, the true value of the one (1) Interest-bearing Liability record called the “Client Deposit”, is not equal to the true value of the same one (1) Earning Asset record called the “Loan”. This hidden-in-plain-sight, income-‘earning’ (i.e. extracting) inequality between the opposites is also embedded in the structure and vocabulary of Psalm 92.
The fundamental profits of banking come from the Net Interest Margin. This is the (usually) small, subtle difference between the rate of usury (“interest”) that a bank pays on ‘deposits’, and the rate of usury that it ‘earns’ on loans.
The primary business of a bank is managing the spread between deposits that it pays consumers and the rate it receives from their loans. In other words, when the interest that a bank earns from loans is greater than the interest it pays on deposits, it generates income from the interest rate spread.
Investopedia
In other words, banking is just a practical analogue of the mythical self-generation powers of Creator deities in ancient religion.
Recall our earlier observation that Psalm 92’s pivotal verse number 9 (“wheel”) is really verse number 8 (“courtyard”). This monocolic verse number 9 (i.e. 8) is performed in echo. The remaining verses are cola pairings (dicola) – four half-verses, performed alternately. However, the two verses immediately preceding and following the pivotal verse 9 (8) are the exceptions.
Scholars have identified verse 9 … [as] … the pivotal verse that stresses YHWH’s supremacy and his indifference to the stratagems fomented by the psalmist’s enemies, evoked in the two verses that flank it (vv. 8, 10).[21]
Verses number 8 (i.e. 7) and 10 (i.e. 9) are tricolic: each comprises six half-verses. These two verses, number 7 (ז zayin, from Proto-Sinaitic glyph zaynu “sword” or ḏiqqu “manacle”, slang “penis”) and 9 (“wheel”), bespeak the destruction of the Edomite psalmist’s opposition. The following quotation uses the scholar’s (incorrect) numbering, which considers Psalm 92’s title as verse 1.
After alluding to those who are unmindful of the subtleties of this art [CV6]* the poet now devotes the next composite verse to his opponents. The first pair designates them as evildoers (rešāʿîm, 8a) and, by so doing, summarily transforms them into enemies of YHWH (10a).
*Nb. the author’s composite verse numbering [CV] 1-15 could be viewed as supporting my assertion of error.
The expression pōʿalêy ʾāwen is generally translated as evildoers. In Psalm 141,9, it is associated with the setting of snares [cf. יַעֲקֹב Jacob, aka “Israel”: “layer of snares” – CM], a malicious furtive mode of action. The very same perfidy is attributed to pōʿalêy ʾāwen in Prov 30,20. In Psalm 14,4, the term pōʿalêy ʾāwen specifically evokes people who live in the Jerusalem temple and, while involved in the official cult of YHWH, are accused of corrupting it intentionally. Accordingly, if the opponent group refers to cultic singers working at the Jerusalem temple, it seems that pōʿalêy ʾāwen designates them as people of righteous and virtuous appearance who secretly do evil to their peers, the psalmist and his companions. It should therefore be translated as vile hypocrites.
The appellation as pōʿalêy ʾāwen in the second and third pairs (8b and 10c respectively) reveals the nature of their misconduct: they strive furtively to discredit the psalmist and his companions in the eyes of the Israelites.
The inversion of precedence between verses 8 and 10, in CV9 introduces a new element. Now, the perdition of the psalmist’s enemies (v. 10) is revealed through the vegetal metaphor (v. 8). Since this latter is closely related to the musical worship of YHWH in the temple, we may conclude that the poet considers the rival group’s poor musical and poetic performances the most blatant evidence of their perdition.[22]
There is more evidence that the ‘devilish’ trickery embedded in the complex antiphonal singing of the Jerusalem temple cult is a precise analogue of ‘modern’ bank credebt creation. It is found in the Hebrew words used to describe this ancient musical system.
The sacred singing of the opposites – of ascending and descending ‘voices’ of “praise” and “thanksgiving” – was believed to cause the theophany (literally “appearance”) of the Canaanite serpent deity, that is known by a ‘magic’ four-letter word having the same ‘hidden’ procreative connotation as a word that rhymes with “buck”.[23]
The spontaneous revelation of YHWH provoked by his musical worship is explicitly mentioned in I Sam 10,5–6.10–11, where the presence of a musical / choral procession stimulates spontaneously a ›spirit of prophecy‹ among the participants.[24]
A proverb from Egypt’s Middle Kingdom (c. 1938–1630 BC) says:
Ye shall offer to me with what is in your hands; if there chance to be nothing in your hands, ye shall say with your mouths.[25]
The implication is that you are commanded to make sacrifices – to the ruling elite, presumably, as earthly representatives of the deity/s – but if you have nothing of value to offer, then words of praise are an acceptable substitute. Exactly the same principle is hidden in the Hebrew bible. Particularly in the words of the psalmists.
As we have seen above, the Greek word diábolos (devil), meaning “slanderer”, “false accuser”, “I deceive by false accounts”, equivalent to Hebrew satan, derives from root words meaning double-thrower, to throw or cast a net, stones or arrows.
The Gemara asks: How could she possibly become pregnant in such a manner? Didn’t Shmuel say: Any semen that is not shot like an arrow cannot fertilize?
The Hebrew word lehōdôt (להודות), often mis-translated as “praise” or “thanksgiving”, is a Hifil (causative active voice) form of the Hebrew verb root ידה yâdâh – literally, to use (i.e. hold out) the hand. Yâdâh means to throw, shoot, cast; in (Qal) form, to shoot (arrows); (Piel) to cast, cast down, throw stones; (Hithpael) to confess (sin), or to give thanks. In other words, its primary (Qal) meaning and derivative conjugates convey identical concepts to the ancient Greek diábolos; including, most importantly, the possibility of double meanings.
The verb להודות (identified as hifil of ידה) is usually approached as a generalized expression of praise / thanksgiving to Yhwh.
A different semantic of להודות in the religious context is apparently expressed in a single instance, when the speaker turns to Yhwh to acknowledge his or her sins (Ps 32:5).
These meanings [praise, thanksgiving, confession or acknowledgement of sin] are not always easy to distinguish from one another in the biblical text. That is why most scholars have attempted to integrate them by assuming that the confessional and the musical dimensions of להודות are closely related to the act of praise, which is approached as the essential sense.However, this assumption is by no means indisputable, especially in light of the clear-cut distinction established in Egyptian and Akkadian between the notions of praise, confession, and thanksgiving.[26]
In a musical context, the verb להודות lehōdôt is translated as to sing antiphonally.[27]
[T]he verb להודות never designates the act of sacrifice.
The confessional context of להודות (Ps 32:5) corresponds to the “doxology in court” identified for תודה [“todah”] in Josh 7:19; Ps 26:7; Ezra 10:11.19.[28]
Ponder this in context of Psalm 92, and its analogous implications for bank credebt ‘loan’ creation by double entry bookkeeping. The “confessional” aspect of antiphonal ‘praising’ is – for one of the participants – really a covert public acknowledgment of sin before the divine judgment seat; and/or, a mocking (likely false) accusation made by the ‘superior’ party against their opponents.
According to L. C. Allen, “ידה” [yâdâh] in NIDOTTE, 2:406, “the thank-offering [= תודה-sacrifice] was accompanied by an individual song of thanksgiving, which was both a testimony to the congregation and a giving of thanks to God.”
Confirming as much is the use of תודה [todah] in a context of juxtaposition between music and animal sacrifice: “I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify Him with תּוֹדָּה. And it shall please Yhwh better than a bullock that has horns and hoofs” (Ps 69:31–32).The implication is that the musical performance was not approached as a mere ornament of the offering but rather as an essential feature.
This deduction is supported by G. Mayer, “יָדָה” [yâdâh] 5:437–438, who concludes that “without thanksgiving song there can be no thanksgiving offering. On the other hand, we hear of thanksgiving songs being sung without an associated sacrifice. A tôdâ can in fact take the place of sacrifice.”[29]
Likewise the banking system. It has been empirically proven, and openly admitted by central banks, that commercial banks do not lend from ‘reserves’. Nor do they lend out the savings of ‘depositors’.
There is no sacrifice by the bank. There is only a song of praise for “giving us your business”, and forked-tongue ‘confession’: that the magic numbers assigned to your “account” are real ‘money’, and that it is really your ‘money’.
Neither ‘confession’ is true.
It costs nothing to create new +1|-1 credebt entries, place a symbol in front of them, and then call those numbers by the magical name “dollar”, “euro”, or “pound”. And voila! on speaking (and writing) the magic name, the money god ‘appears’. Exactly like the theophany of the serpent deity in the psalms.
[There is] a relationship between the improvement of the knowledge (ידע) [yâdaʻ] of YHWH [in Ps 100:](3a) and the blessing [בָּרַךְbârak] of his name (4d). A similar relation is observed between the two parallel members of Ps 76,2: »Known (נודע) in Judah [is] Elohim, In Israel great is his name (שמו)«. This relation is confirmed by the association frequently encountered in the Psalter between the cultic mention of the name of YHWH and the ›revelation‹ of the god.[30]
Recall that earlier we saw the Hebrew word תודה todah expressly referred to two half-choirs performing the Jerusalem wall rebuilding inauguration ceremony (Neh 12:27–41).
In its narration, the singers and musicians convoked for the ceremony were divided in two groups called תודות (Neh 12,31.38.40). [..] The description of their singing משמר לעומת משמר (Neh 12,24) strongly suggests that they were two half-choirs performing together in antiphonal fashion. This is not the only source associating todah with antiphony. A similar feature is encountered in Ps 147,7 »Respond (ענו) to YHWH in todah, sing to our God with the lyre«. Allusions to antiphony may also be identified in the corresponding verb form (להודות, hif. yadah). This verb is explicitly associated in Neh 11,17 to a musical performance involving two distinct choirs (one conducted by Mattaniah and another conducted by Abda). Also in Ezr 3,11 and in II Chr 7,6, the responsorial claim כי לעולם חסדו is associated with the verb להודות [lehōdôt].*
*In this latter case, להודות is associated with a dialogue between the Levites singing כי לעולם חסדו and the priests answering with their trumpets. Also in psalms 118 and 136, the verb להודות encountered in the first claim of the opening voice, may be interpreted as an invitation to respond turned to the second voice.[31]
Obvious analogy? The banker’s siren song: an invitation to respond … by completing and signing a Credebt Application.
Your head is humming and it won’t go, in case you don’t know,
The piper’s calling you to join him,
Dear lady, can you hear the wind blow, and did you know
Your stairway lies on the whispering wind?
As with the magic of bank loans by double entry, the “fruit” or “yield” of this union of opposite ‘voices’ (i.e. claimants on the deity named ‘money’) benefits the ‘divine emissary’.[32] The alchemist who has, with skill and cunning, mixed together the opposites, to ensure that it is not his opponent but the ‘holy man’ who flowers.
CV4 (vv. 5//13)
5aFor You have made me glad, YHWH, by Your work
13aThe righteous, like a palm tree he flourishes
5bAt the works of Your hands I sing for joy
13bLike a cedar in Lebanon he grows up
The verb prḥ (13a) is generally interpreted as to grow / develop, exactly as in Ps 92,8a and according to the parallel meaning of śgy (= to increase) in 13b. It also, however, denotes to flower (e.g., Isa 35,1-2; Hos 14,6; Hab 3,17), and this meaning fits especially the 5a//13a pairing.
The date palm is a dioecious species, in which the two complementary reproductive organs (male and female) develop in distinct individuals.
In the context of musical worship, the image of the blossoming date palm metaphorizes complex antiphony, in which the complementary components of the song are carried by distinct choirs that bear fruit (= produce the composite meaning) only when the separate claims are mixed with the help of wind / breath (= the voices).
Following this metaphor, the divine “work” (5a) as the source of joy is none other than the spontaneous emergence of composite meanings in the course of the complex antiphonal performance.[33]
The tsaddiq’s like the date palm, how he flowers. He flowers! Usually only the female flowers. A tsaddiq – a holy man – is a master of his male and female properties.[34]
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The antiphonal singing of the sacred song of “praise” to the $erpent god in Psalm 92 cleverly conceals / reveals another ancient practice continued to this day – or rather, to this mid night – by cabalist adepts the world over.
One of the esoteric secrets to ‘earning’ the ‘blessing’ of YHWH is to be awake in the late evening, hard at work studying the sacred books, thereby praising the deity. In this way, the cabalist mystic ‘unites’ with (sexually arouses) the deity’s ‘glory’: his ‘bride’, ‘queen’ and ‘crown’, the female Divine Presence – called the Shekhinah – precisely at midnight. Arousal of the Queen of the Night is believed to provoke the arousal of Her divine spouse, causing Him to release “a shower of blessing”.
CV2(vv. 3//15)
3aTo declare your steadfast love in the morning
15aThey still bear fruit in old age
3bAnd your faithfulness by night
15bEver full of sap and green they are.
[T]he first pair affirms the musical worship of YHWH (3a) as the source of vitality for the psalmist and his peers even in their advanced age (15a). Through the combination with v. 3a, which evokes hymns of praise, the verb nwb (= to bear fruit, 15a) alludes to the composition of hymns and liturgical works. The second pair (3b//15b) reiterates the claims that the musical worship of YHWH (3b) maintains the singers’ vitality (15b). Here, however, a nuance is introduced. The first pair of colas (3a//15a) evokes diurnal performances, a probable reference to the official worship of YHWH at the temple, which justifies their appointment. The second pair of cola (3b//15b) is suggestive of nightly performances independent of the official cult of YHWH at Jerusalem. It is noteworthy that the vitality educed in 15b through the adjectives dešēn and raʿănanis, for the psalmist and his companions, associated with their nocturnalprivate performances (3b) rather than the official diurnal worship of YHWH.
Exactly as in the corresponding CV2, the dual activity of the psalmist group is specified here: their appointment for the diurnal (official) worship of YHWH in the temple (1a//3a) and their nocturnal adoration of YHWH, probably independent of it (15b//3b). After an extensive exposition on the difference vis-à-vis his opponents in musical skill and performances in the previous composite verses (CV9-CV13), the psalmist now reveals the nocturnal activity, of which the opponents are ignorant, as the source of vitality / talent.[35]
As I was saying.
The present findings, together with the identification of foreign singers in the Jerusalem temple and the conflicts they fomented, suggest that other songs in the Psalter that mention persecution, perfidy, and other torments may also reflect the conflict between the Ezrahites and their opponents over authority in the musical worship of YHWH at Jerusalem in the Persian era. In this struggle, poetic riddles and double-entendre claims misunderstood by the rivals are exploited as signs of superiority and, as a consequence, of closeness to YHWH. This feature urges us to reconsider our approach toward these songs of conflict if we wish to avoid being systematically identified with the group mocked by their authors.[36]
A final observation.
What we have discovered here, in the ancient texts of the psalms, aligns perfectly with Hollywood’s stratagem of “confessing sins” in plain sight, while mocking the participating opponent (the paying audience) in ways too subtle for them to understand.
Spoiler Alert: if you’ve not seen this brilliant film…
“Therefore he knoweth their works [maʻbâd / satanâs] and he overturneth them in the night, so that they are destroyed.” (Job 34:25)
Addendum:
I asked Angie Bowie why her ex was involved in magick. She recalled that he heard that Led Zeppelin were involved in the occult, and so he wanted to be even cooler and scare Jimmy Page.
By 1970 Page was obsessed with Aleister Crowley, had a growing collection of Crowleyana and that same year bought one of the most treasured Crowleyan artefacts of all: Boleskine House on the shore of Loch Ness in Scotland which was Crowley’s estate from 1899 to 1913.
All the letters are symmetrical vertically, with the N stylized Ͷ in the right part, as a result the sentence is not only a palindrome but also a mirror ambigram, that can be read the same way in either direction. The phrase was firstly written on the apex at the entrance of the church, and is attributed to Gregory of Nazianzus.
[3] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235
[4] K. Gersch Ph.D, The coniunctio (online, retrieved 27 April 2020)
[5] Jacob Neusner, Tzvee Zahavy, The Jerusalem Talmud: A Translation and Commentary (2010)
[6] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235
[7] Florian Cajori, A History of Mathematical Notions (1993 Courier Corporation), p.229 (online, retrieved 29 April 2020), op. cit. T. Eric Peet, The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, British Museum 10057 and 10058 (1923), p.20, 135 –
That the conception of squaring was familiar is known to us from the problem of the truncated pyramid from the Moscow Papyrus. Here the phrase used for “square 4” is ı͗r·ḫ·r·k 4 pnm 𓂽,* “You are to make this 4 in square.”No conjecture can be hazarded as to the reading of the sign here usedfor “square”: from the point of view of mathematical clarity it is unfortunate that the same sign should be used in Rhind No . 28 for addition.
No example of square root occurs in Rhind, but Pap. Berlin 6619, Pap. Kahun Pl. VIII, 1. 40 , and Pap. Moscow (unpublished) show that the idea of square root existed and that the technical term for it was ḳnbt, literally “corner” or “angle” the idea presumably being that the original number, say 16, represented the area. of a square, while the length of each of the two sides containing any corner of it was its square root, 4.
*Here facing as in the hieratic.
𓂻 “add,” 63 𓂻 “to square,” 20 𓂽 “to subtract,” 63
[8] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235; fn. 42 –
The integration of the Ezrahite singers (sons of Heman and of Jeduthun/Ethan of Seirite and Edomite origin respectively) into the Jerusalem clergy is reported in Nehemiah 7-11 (See Amzallag, Esau in Jerusalem, pp. 15-52, 121-144). It therefore occurred after the completion of the “house of YHWH” (Ezra 6,16).
The Babylonian Talmud (Kidd. 69b.2) raises questions as to the lineage of the returned exiles –
The Gemara answers that the wording of the mishna supports the opinion of Rabbi Elazar, as Rabbi Elazar says: Ezra did not ascend from Babylonia until he made it like fine flour, free of bran, i.e., he ensured that the lineage of those remaining was unsullied, and selected all of those in Babylonia who were of questionable lineage, and then he ascended with them to Eretz Yisrael.
[9] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235
[10] N. Amzallag (2014), The Meaning of todah in the title of Psalm 100, ZAW 2014; 126(4): pp. 535-545
[11] N. Amzallag (2015), Praise or Antiphonal Singing? The Meaning of לְהֹד֥וֹת Revisited, Hebrew Studies 56 (2015), pp. 115-128
[12] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235
[13] ibid.
[14] George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-Four (2003 Plume Centennial Edition), p. 218
[15] Teth#Significance, Wikipedia (online, retrieved 27 April 2020)
[16] Snake Spine, Gal Einai, (online, retrieved 28 April 2020)
[17] Alexander Turner Cory, The Hieroglyphics of Horapollo Nilous (1840), (online, retrieved 28 April 2020)
[18] Pliny the Elder, The Natural History, Book V, Chapter 10 – The River Nile, (online, retrieved 28 April 2020)
[19] George. G. Joseph, The Crest of the Peacock: Non-European Roots of Mathematics (2011 Princeton University Press, Third Edition)
[20] This author, On Banks, Usury, And Doublethink In The Roman Empire – Part 2
[21] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235
[22] ibid.
[23] The Tetragrammaton (YHWH) is strictly only three letters (yod, heh, vav), but is imagined as having as many as 72 letters.
[24] N. Amzallag (2014), “The Meaning of todah in the title of Psalm 100″, ZAW 2014; 126(4): pp. 535-545. cf. footnote 42 –
This point is confirmed by the first mention of the presence of YHWH in the inaugurated temple in the verse evoking the first occurrence of antiphonal performance in this place (II Chr 5,13– 14). For the musical nature of the theophany of YHWH in Chronicles, see Kleinig, The Lord’s Song, 165–66 and ref. therein.
cf. footnote 43 – The epidemic character of such a musical revelation is explicitly confirmed in I Sam 19,20–24.
[25] B. Lumpkin, Mathematics Used in Egyptian Construction and Bookkeeping (The Mathematical Intelligencer 24(2):20-25, 2002)
[26] N. Amzallag (2015), Praise or Antiphonal Singing? The Meaning of לְהֹד֥וֹת Revisited, Hebrew Studies 56 (2015), pp. 115-128
[27] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235, fn 3, cit. N. Amzallag, Praise or Antiphonal Singing? The Meaning of לְהֹד֥וֹת Revisited, Hebrew Studies 56 (2015), pp. 115-128
[28] N. Amzallag (2015), Praise or Antiphonal Singing? The Meaning of לְהֹד֥וֹת Revisited, Hebrew Studies 56 (2015), pp. 115-128
[29] ibid.
[30] N. Amzallag (2014), The Meaning of todah in the title of Psalm 100, ZAW 2014; 126(4): pp. 535-545
[31] ibid., and *fn 16.
[32] N. Amzallag (2012) The Identity of the Emissary of YHWH, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament: An International Journal of Nordic Theology, 26:1, 123-144
[33] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235
[34] Rabbi Yom Tov Glaser, TorahAnytime
[35] N. Amzallag (2017) Foreign Yahwistic Singers in the Jerusalem Temple? Evidence from Psalm 92, Scandinavian Journal of the Old Testament, 31:2, 213-235
[36] ibid.
Lithograph portrait from 1905, captioned Friedrich von Schiller in recognition of his 1802 ennoblement
There are three lessons I would write, —
Three words — as with a burning pen,
In tracings of eternal light
Upon the hearts of men.
Have Hope. Though clouds environ now,
And gladness hides her face in scorn,
Put thou the shadow from thy brow, —
No night but hath its morn.
Have Faith. Where’er thy bark is driven, —
The calm’s disport, the tempest’s mirth, —
Know this: God rules the hosts of heaven,
The habitants of earth.
Have Love. Not love alone for one,
But men, as man, thy brothers call;
And scatter, like the circling sun,
Thy charities on all.
Thus grave these lessons on thy soul, —
Hope, Faith, and Love, — and thou shalt find Strength when life’s surges rudest roll, Light when thou else wert blind.
J.C. Friedrich von Schiller, Hope, Faith, and Love (c. 1786);
also known as “The Words of Strength”
“If any one wishes to be rich, let him go north; if he wants to be wise, let him come south.” Such was the saying, by which Rabbinical pride distinguished between the material wealth of Galilee and the supremacy in traditional lore claimed for the academies of Judaea proper. Alas, it was not long before Judaea lost even this doubtful distinction, and its colleges wandered northwards, ending at last by the Lake of Gennesaret, and in that very city of Tiberias which at one time had been reputed unclean! Assuredly, the history of nations chronicles their judgment;1 and it is strangely significant that the authoritative collection of Jewish traditional law, known as the Mishnah, and the so-called Jerusalem Talmud, which is its Palestinian commentary,2 should finally have issued from what was originally a heathen city, built upon the site of old forsaken graves.
But so long as Jerusalem and Judaea were the centre of Jewish learning, no terms of contempt were too strong to express the supercilious hauteur, with which a regular Rabbinist regarded his northern co-religionists. The slighting speech of Nathanael (John 1:46), “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” reads quite like a common saying of the period; and the rebuke of the Pharisees to Nicodemus (John 7:52), “Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet,” was pointed by the mocking question, “Art thou also of Galilee?” It was not merely self-conscious superiority, such as the “towns-people,” as the inhabitants of Jerusalem used to be called throughout Palestine, were said to have commonly displayed toward their “country cousins” and everyone else, but offensive contempt, outspoken sometimes with almost incredible rudeness, want of delicacy and charity, but always with much pious self-assertion. The “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men” (Luke 18:11) seems like the natural breath of Rabbinism in the company of the unlettered, and of all who were deemed intellectual or religious inferiors; and the parabolic history of the Pharisee and the publican in the gospel is not told for the special condemnation of that one prayer, but as characteristic of the whole spirit of Pharisaism, even in its approaches to God. “This people who knoweth not the law (that is, the traditional law) are cursed,” was the curt summary of the Rabbinical estimate of popular opinion. To so terrible a length did it go that the Pharisees would fain have excluded them, not only from common intercourse, but from witness-bearing, and that they even applied to marriages with them such a passage as Deut. 27:21.3
But if these be regarded as extremes, two instances, chosen almost at random—one from religious, the other from ordinary life—will serve to illustrate their reality. A more complete parallel to the Pharisee’s prayer could scarcely be imagined than the following. We read in the Talmud (Jer. Ber. iv. 2) that a celebrated Rabbi was wont every day, on leaving the academy, to pray in these terms: “I thank Thee, O Lord my God and God of my fathers, that Thou has cast my lot among those who frequent the schools and synagogues, and not among those attend the theatre and the circus. For, both I and they work and watch—I to inherit eternal life, they for their destruction.”
The other illustration, also taken from a Rabbinical work, is, if possible, even more offensive. It appears that Rabbi Jannai, while travelling by the way, formed acquaintance with a man, who he thought his equal. Presently his new friend invited him to dinner, and liberally set before him meat and drink. But the suspicions of the Rabbi had been excited. He began to try his host successively by questions upon the text of Scripture, upon the Mishnah, allegorical illustrations, and lastly on Talmudical lore. Alas! on neither of these points could he satisfy the Rabbi. Dinner was over; and Rabbi Jannai, who by that time no doubt had displayed all the hauteur and contempt of a regular Rabbinist towards the unlettered, called upon his host, as customary, to take the cup of thanksgiving, and return thanks. But the latter was sufficiently humiliated to reply, with a mixture of Eastern deference and Jewish modesty, “Let Jannai himself give thanks in his own house.” “At any rate,” observed the Rabbi, “you can join with me,” and when the latter had agreed to this, Jannai said, “A dog has eaten of the bread of Jannai.”
Impartial history, however, must record a different judgment of the men of Galilee from that pronounced by the Rabbis, and that even wherein they were despised by those leaders of Israel. Some of their peculiarities, indeed, were due to territorial circumstances. The province of Galilee—of which the name might be rendered “circuit,” being derived from a verb meaning “to move in a circle”—covered the ancient possessions of four tribes: Issachar, Zebulon, Naphtali, and Asher. The name occurs already in the Old Testament (compare Josh. 20:7; 1 Kings 9:11; 2 Kings 15:29; 1 Chron. 6:76; and especially Isa. 9:1). In the time of Christ it stretched northwards to the possession of Tyre on the one side, and to Syria on the other; on the south it was bounded by Samaria—Mount Carmel on the western, and the district of Scythopolis (in the Decapolis) on the eastern side, being here landmarks; while the Jordan and the Lake of Gennesaret formed the general eastern boundary line. [..]
Sketches of Jewish Social Life (Edersheim, 1876)
The mountainous part in the north of Upper Galilee presented magnificent scenery, and with bracing air. Here the scene of the Song of Solomon is partly laid (Cant. 7:5). But its caves and fastnesses, as well as the marshy ground, covered with reeds, along Lake Merom, gave shelter to robbers, outlaws, and rebel chiefs. Some of the most dangerous characters came from the Galilean highlands. A little farther down, and the scenery changed. South of Lake Merom, where the so-called Jacob’s bridge crosses the Jordan, we come upon the great caravan road, which connected Damascus in the east with the great mart of Ptolemais, on the shore of the Mediterranean. What a busy life did this road constantly present in the days of our Lord, and how many trades and occupations did it call into existence! All day long they passed—files of camels, mules, and asses, laden with riches from the East, destined for the far West, or bringing the luxuries of the West to the far East. Travellers of every description—Jews, Greeks, Romans, dwellers in the East—were seen here. The constant intercourse with foreigners, and the settlement of so many strangers along one of the great highways of the world, must have rendered the narrow-minded bigotry of Judaea well-nigh impossible in Galilee.
We are now in Galilee proper, and a more fertile or beautiful region could scarcely be conceived. It was truly the land where Asher dipped his foot in oil (Deut. 33:24). The Rabbis speak of the oil as flowing like a river, and they say that it was easier in Galilee to rear a forest of olive trees than one child in Judaea! The wine, although not so plentiful as the oil, was generous and rich. Corn grew in abundance, especially in the neighbourhood of Capernaum; flax also was cultivated. The price of living was much lower than in Judaea, where one measure was said to cost as much as five in Galilee. Fruit also grew to perfection; and it was probably a piece of jealousy on the part of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that they would not allow it to be sold at the feasts in the city, lest people should forsooth say, “We have only come up in order to taste the fruit from Galilee.”7 Josephus speaks of the country in perfectly rapturous terms. [..]
Some one has compared Galilee to the manufacturing districts of [Belgium]. This comparison, of course, applies only to the fact of its busy life, although various industries were also carried out there—large potteries of different kinds, and dyeworks. From the heights of Galilee the eye would rest on harbours, filled with merchant ships, and on the sea, dotted with white sails. There, by the shore, and also inland, smoked furnaces, where glass was made; along the great road moved the caravans; in field, vineyard, and orchard all was activity. The great road quite traversed Galilee, entering it where the Jordan is crossed by the so-called bridge of Jacob, then touching Capernaum, going down to Nazareth, and passing on to the sea-coast. This was one advantage that Nazareth had—that it lay on the route of the world’s traffic and intercourse. Another peculiarity is strangely unknown to Christian writers. It appears from ancient Rabbinical writings8 that Nazareth was one of the stations of the priests. All the priests were divided into twenty-four courses, one of which was always on ministry in the Temple. Now, the priests of the course which was to be on duty always gathered in certain towns, whence they went up in company to the Temple; those who were unable to go spending the week in fasting and prayer for their brethren. Nazareth was one of these priestly centres; so that there, with symbolic significance, alike those passed who carried on the traffic of the world, and those who ministered in the Temple.
[..]
It can scarcely surprise us, however interesting it may prove, that such Jewish recollections of the early Christians as the Rabbis have preserved, should linger chiefly around Galilee. Thus we have, in quite the apostolic age, mention of miraculous cures made, in the name of Jesus, by one Jacob of Chefar Sechanja (in Galilee), one of the Rabbis violently opposing on one occasion an attempt of the kind, the patient meanwhile dying during the dispute; repeated records of discussions among learned Christians, and other indications of contact with Hebrew believers. Some have gone further,11 and found traces of the general spread of such views in the fact that a Galilean teacher is introduced in Babylon as propounding the science of the Merkabah, or the mystical doctrines connected with Ezekiel’s vision of the Divine chariot, which certainly contained elements closely approximating the Christian doctrines of the Logos, the Trinity, etc. [..] Finally, the Midrash applies the expression, “The sinner shall be taken by her” (Eccl. 7:26), either to the above-named Christian Rabbi Jacob, or to Christians generally, or even to Capernaum, with evident reference to the spread of Christianity there.
Indeed, what we know of the Galileans would quite prepare us for expecting, that the gospel should have received at least a ready hearing among many of them. It was not only, that Galilee was the great scene of our Lord’s working and teaching, and the home of His first disciples and apostles; nor yet that the frequent intercourse with strangers must have tended to remove narrow prejudices, while the contempt of the Rabbinists would loosen attachment to the strictest Pharisaism; but, as the character of the people is described to us by Josephus, and even by the Rabbis, they seem to have been a warm-hearted, impulsive, generous race—intensely national in the best sense, active, not given to idle speculations or wire-drawn logico-theological distinctions, but conscientious and earnest.
The Rabbis detail certain theological differences between Galilee and Judaea. Without here mentioning them, we have no hesitation in saying, that they show more earnest practical piety and strictness of life, and less adherence to those Pharisaical distinctions which so often made void the law. The Talmud, on the other hand, charges the Galileans with neglecting traditionalism; learning from one teacher, then from another (perhaps because they had only wandering Rabbis, not fixed academies); and with being accordingly unable to rise to the heights of Rabbinical distinctions and explanations. That their hot blood made them rather quarrelsome, and that they lived in a chronic state of rebellion against Rome, we gather not only from Josephus, but even from the New Testament (Luke 13:2; Acts 5:37).
“These two Galilees, of so great largeness, and encompassed with so many nations of foreigners, have been always able to make a strong resistance on all occasions of war; for the Galileans are inured to war from their infancy, and have been always very numerous; nor hath the country been ever destitute of men of courage, or wanted a numerous set of them”.
Their mal-pronunciation of Hebrew, or rather their inability to properly pronounce the gutturals, formed a constant subject of witticism and reproach, so current that even the servants in the High Priest’s palace could turn round upon Peter, and say, “Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech bewrayeth thee” (Matt. 26:73)—a remark this, by the way, which illustrates the fact that the language commonly used at the time of Christ in Palestine was Aramean, not Greek. Josephus describes the Galileans as hard-working, manly, and brave; and even the Talmud admits (Jer. Cheth. iv. 14) that they cared more for honour than for money.
Sketches of Jewish Social Life (1876: 1994 Hendrickson Publishers Inc. Updated Edition). Available free online.
Alfred Edersheim (1825-89) was a Vienna-born biblical scholar who converted from Judaism to Christianity. A veteran minister and missionary to the Jews of Romania, Edersheim left an enduring and priceless legacy to followers of Christ.
****
From Chapter 1, note 12 (1994 ed.): There can be no reasonable doubt, that colonies from some of these [Ten northern Hebrew] tribes are scattered far and wide. Thus descendants of them are traced in Crimea, where the dates on their gravestones are reckoned from “the era of the exile, in 696 B.C.; i.e., the exile of the ten tribes; not 586 B.C., when Jerusalem was taken by Nebuchadnezzar” (Dr. S. Davidson, in Kitto’s Cycl. of Bibl. Lit. iii. p. 1173). For notices of the wanderings of the ten tribes see my Hist. of the Jewish Nation, pp. 61-63; also the late Dr. Wolff’s researches in his journeys. How prone even learned Talmudical Jews are to credulity in the matter of the ten tribes may be gathered from the Appendix to Rabbi Schwartz’s (of Jerusalem) Holy Land (pp. 401-422 of the German ed.). The oldest Crimean inscriptions date from the years 6, 30, and 89 of our era (Chwolson, Mem. de l’Ac. de St Petersb. ix. 1866, No. 7).
“It’s frightening how free a Russian man’s spirit is, how strong is his will! No one has ever been so much torn away from his native soil, as he sometimes had to be; nobody ever took a turn so sharp, as he, following his own belief!”
1. “The history of nations is the Nemesis of nations” (“Die Weltgeschichte is das Weltgericht”), writes Schiller
2. There are two Talmuds—the Jerusalem and the Babylonian—to the text of the Mishnah. The Babylonian Talmud is considerably younger than that of Jerusalem, and its traditions far more deeply tinged with superstition and error of every kind. For historical purposes, also, the Jerusalem Talmud is of much greater value and authority than that of the Eastern Schools.
3. Every one who is curious to see the lengths to which Pharisaical pride could go in its contempt of the country people should read Pes. 49, a and b. (online)
11. See generally, the learned volume of M. Neubauer, La Géographie du Talmud, p. 186, etc. Compare also, Derenbourg, L’Histoire et la Palestine, pp. 347-365
Properly, upward, up, denoting motion from a lower place to a higher, rare in the N.[ew] T.[estament] and only with the accusative [case] (Thayer)
“the rarest [preposition] in NT” (Abbott-Smith); “ἀνά survives almost exclusively in the limited uses seen in NT” (Moulton-Milligan)
Prefixed to verbs ἀνά signifies
a.upward, up, up to (Latin ad, German auf) b. it corresponds to the Latin ad (German an), to (indicating the goal) c. it denotes repetition, renewal, equivalent to dēnuō, anew, over again d. it corresponds to the Latin re, retrō,†back, backward
† From re- + *-trō, probably taken from intrō (from intrā“within”: I enter, go into, penetrate; from earlier *interus (whence also interior), from Proto-Indo-European*h₁énteros “inner, what is inside”.)
When the Lamb broke the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.
σιγή : silence, “ready for sowing”; :
cf. P Oxy XIV. 1635.6 (B.C. 44–37) κατοικικῆς γῆς σπορίμου,
P Oxy I. 45.11 (A.D. 95) κατοικικῆς σειτοφόρου σπορίμου,
“allotment corn land ready for sowing,” (Moulton-Milligan)
†“souls” ψυχήpsychḗ (psoo-khay’): breath (Latin anima), i. e.
breath
the breath of life
the vital force which animates the body and shows itself in breathing
of animals
of men
life
that in which there is life
a living being, a living soul
the soul
the seat of the feelings, desires, affections, aversions (our heart, soul etc.)
the (human) soul in so far as it is constituted that by the right use of the aids offered it by God it can attain its highest end and secure eternal blessedness, the soul regarded as a moral being designed for everlasting life
the soul as an essence which differs from the body and is not dissolved by death (distinguished from other parts of the body)
For silence is not God, nor speaking is not God;
fasting is not God, nor eating is not God;
loneliness is not God, nor company is not God;
nor yet any of all the other two such contraries.
He is hid between them, and may not be found
by any work of thy soul,
but all only by love of thine heart.
He may not be known by reason,
He may not be gotten by thought,
nor concluded by understanding;
but He may be loved and chosen
with the true lovely will of thine heart … .
The signs on earth just as those in the sky give us signals.
Sky and earth both produce portents. Though appearing separately, they are not separate (becausesky and earth are related (.[1]
Babylonian Diviner’s Manual, c. 7th century BC
That wch is below is like that wch is above
& that wch is above is like yt wch is below
to do ye miracles of one only thing.
Hermetis Trismegisti (“Hermes the Thrice-Greatest”) Tabula Smaragdina (The Emerald Tablet) from كتاب سر الخليقة و صنعة الطبيعة أو كتاب العلل للحكيم بلنياس (Book of Balinas the Wise on the Causes), c. 8th century AD Sir Isaac Newton FRS PRS transl., c. 1680 AD (Keynes MS 28)
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(If you have not yet done so, I urge you to read Part 1 of this series, before continuing with this Part 2.)
Let us take a leap back to the future from our summary introduction to banks, usury, and doublethink in the Roman Empire, with a visit to the ancient Mesopotamian empires.
To fully appreciate the esoteric influences in our ‘modern’ systems of philosophy, politics, religion and economics (but I repeat myself), we must come to see that our long and winding roads all lead back to Bābili(m) (Babylon: “Gate of God”, “Gate of the Gods”). Built “between the two rivers” Tigris and Euphrates, descending from the Creator’s legendary Garden of Eden (“Paradise”, “heaven on earth”) – the Mother’s Womb where some say all life was first born – feeding the waters of life into the fertile valley delta Δ of the Fertile Crescent – the “Cradle of Civilisation”.
Babylon in Fertile Valley delta; Iraq (32°32′11″N 44°25′15″E)
“Good is on the right, evil on the left,
but the supreme excellence is above both…”[2]
We must also come to see that it is all about sex, and ‘gendered’ war. More sex than you can imagine. Most cleverly concealed in a vast matrix of metaphysical allegories, metaphors, puns, euphemisms, colours, numbers, and symbols.
MAN-kind has never gotten over his deep-seated fear of the unknown, the mysterious, the changing, that which is beyond HIS *control* … as embodied in the lunar, and human female menstrual cycles.
There you go. I just summarised the past 5+ millennia of human history.
In order to better understand the hidden forces at work during the Roman Empire, in this and in subsequent essays we will closely examine the early development of these ‘magic’ systems of abstraction, manipulation, and concealment of information, knowledge and understanding by those “in the know”, and their weaponisation as tools of control over the majority who were, and are, not“in the know”.
Perhaps the most important of these clever symbolic systems is hidden in plain sight. It is found in the very forms of the letters in our aleph-bets.
It is disguised in the combinations of those letters, and in the sounds that their forms re-present.
“Why is this script called Ashurit [A-shur-i]? Because it ascended with the Jewish people from Ashur when they returned from their exile in Babylonia.” (Sanhedrin 22a:2)
Its God-like power to create, to destroy, to transform reality, by manipulation and persuasion, is manifested by magicians in the art of evocative, enchanting, Mesmer-ising, spell-bindingly ‘sexy’ language (speech), and writing.
The supreme exemplar of this magic is he who attains the Philosopher’s ‘Stone’ – the alchemists’ Pow(d)er of Projection.
“Magick is the Science and Art of causing Change to occur
in conformity with Will.”
– Aleister Crowley, Magick in Theory and Practice
Know that all the souls come forth from supernal copulation [ziwwug elyon] from the drop of the five mercies and five strengths that are in the mind [da’at], as is known from the verse ‘And Adam knew his wife Eve’ (Gen. 4:1), for copulation is referred to as knowledge [yedi’ah] since the drop of the copulation [tippat ha-ziwwug] is drawn forth from the brain of the mind [moah ha-da’at].[3]
R. Ḥayyim Vital, Sha’ar ha-Pesuqim 3a (c. 1660 AD)
Source: Visualization of Colors, 1 – David ben Yehudah he-Ḥasid’s Kabbalistic Diagram (Moshe Idel, Ars Judaica 2015)
Source: Visualization of Colors, 1 – David ben Yehudah he-Ḥasid’s Kabbalistic Diagram (Moshe Idel, Ars Judaica 2015)
RABBI SIMEON answered and said: “The lower or passionate nature is always striving to imitate the actions of the higher, with this difference, that what is spiritual and pure it changes into the carnal and impure. The higher nature takes its origin from the right side of the sephirotic tree of life, but the lower from the left side, and is embodied in the female and becomes unified in it, as it is written, ‘His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me’ (Cant. ii. 6). Hitherto we have discoursed on a subject, exceedingly esoteric and unknown to ordinary minds, but now we will speak more clearly so that every one may comprehend and understand them.” On hearing this the student novitiates expressed their great desire to learn more of this mystery of sex.
Whether mainstream or alternative view, open or secret society, exoteric or esoteric doctrine, establishment or revolutionary power, beneath all it really is all about sex, and war. In one form or another.
“In the vigour of his age he married Gargamelle, daughter to the King of the Parpaillons, a jolly pug, and well-mouthed wench. These two did oftentimes do the two-backed beast together, joyfully rubbing and frotting their bacon ‘gainst one another.”
Rabelais, Gargantua and Pantagruel (c. 1532 AD)
Nothing has changed… in more than 5,000 years.
Or rather – if the carbon-dating of Palaeolithic cave paintings in Spain and France (that we will de-mystify in Part 3) is correct – in more than 40,000 years.
It really is time that humanity got over its adolescent obsessions, grew up, and started behaving like an independent, balanced adult. With a higher purpose in life than merely the maximisation of pleasuring our Self.
But we digress.
In recent years we have seen a leading accounting scholar identify the dualist (or “binary”) Input-Output principle of double-entry accounting in Mesopotamia’s clay token / bullae “envelope” record-keeping system of the 4th millennium BC:
[The] ancient people of the Middle East had record keeping systems, the basic logical structure of which was virtually identical to that of modern double entry.[4]
Schmandt-Besserat, “The Earliest Precursors of Writing” (Scientific American. June 1977, Vol. 238, No. 6, p. 50-58.)
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The prehistoric clay token accounting system gave birth, first to pictograms, and then, to cuneiform (“wedge”) writing:
SAG (“head”) sign
Stage 1: c. 3000 BC. Stage 2: c. 2800 BC. Stage 3: c. 2600 BC. Stage 4: contemporary to stage 3. Stage 5: late 3rd millennium. Stage 6: Old Assyrian, early 2nd millennium, as adopted into Hittite. Stage 7: as written by Assyrian scribes in the early 1st millennium, until the script’s extinction.
Cuneiform incorporated what later became known as the alchemists’ “Rebis”, or phonetic “rebus principle” (multivalency; multiple meanings or values for the same sign or sound, i.e., puns)…
…and eventually gave rise to the proto aleph–bets (alphabets) of our modern languages.
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It is also here, in Babylonia during the 19th–18th centuries BC, that we observe more evidence for the dualist gnōsis (esoteric, mystical “knowledge”) – the philosophical (or rather, theosophical) principle underpinning the dark arts of doublethink, double-entry accounting, and credebt-based usury intermediation.
(n.) secreting organ of the body, Old English lifer, from Proto-Germanic *librn.
Formerly believed to be the body’s blood-producing organ [Claudius Galen, c.129–200 AD]; in medieval times it rivaled the heart as the supposed seat of love and passion. Hence lily-livered, a white (that is, bloodless) liver being supposed a sign of cowardice…
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For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for yourselves; for it is the blood that makes atonement because of the life.
Leviticus 17:11 (Complete Jewish Bible)
–––––––– SIDEBAR ––––––––
As with many biblical quotes, it is unlikely that ‘God’ ever said this to an Egyptian royal family adoptee named ‘Moses’. Even if so, there is a double meaning – an occult (“hidden”) reference to the female gamete (ovum, egg cell), “washed” from her body in conclusion of each monthly cycle, unless fertilised by the male spermatozoon. It is this “life in the blood” that alchemical magicians of the East and West have devised “silver-tongued” philosophistic ‘tricks’ to steal, both literally and analogically, in their pursuit of an “Elixir” of immortality, and the power of wealth, for millennia. The ovum is noteworthy for its Sun-like corona radiata. We will return to this in future, when we examine the Cabalists’ identification of the glans penis corona (“crown”) with the skull’s brain membrane as being female;[5] and, the alchemical ‘magic’ reversal of the natural “flow” of the male’s white “water of life”, whilst simultaneously stealing the female’s red “river of death”, containing her “life in the blood”. A circumcised tip for those who cannot wait: analogically contemplate the form and colour of the royal crowns of Upper (south) and Lower (north) Egypt: hedjet (white) and deshret (red). After reading the next few essays in this series, you may never accuse one seeming to play the fool of being a “dick head” ever again.
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Les Vaisseaux d’Hermes: “The ‘Vessels’ / ‘Ships’ of Hermes”
–––––––– SIDEBAR ––––––––
Yes, seriously.
The theosophical, ‘magic’ operative principle of ‘modern’ double entry accounting-based financial credebt intermediation, as the means to make war, by deception, and the manipulation of desires (“La passion”), in order to extract ‘blood’ – life energy, life time; usury – from the many, for the gain of the few, is found in Old Babylonian divination of good or evil fortune, by the colour and position of liver defects.
Or, by the nature and position of foetal birth defects, known as Šumma Izbu.
Just coincidentally, this is also the true explanation for the ancient, purportedly biblical insistence of ‘Moses’ that only “unblemished”, “pure” creatures may be given to the priests at the Temple cult slaughtering yard of justice (Ḥēth ח, 8th Hebrew letter, from an Egyptian hieroglyph for “courtyard”).
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Modern Tarot divination card systems often reverse
#8 Justice (Hod, left ‘foot’ of Cabalist “Adam Kadmon”)
and #11 Strength (Da’at דעת “Knowledge”,
the “hidden” emanation).
The essential interchangeability of forms, including letters
and numbers, is fundamental to Cabalist philosophy and theurgy
since at least the first two centuries A.D. (e.g., Sefer Yetzirah)
We will learn more on this when we examine
Jewish gnosticism.
If a creature is clearly dis-eased on external inspection, then its entrails are unreliable as ‘divine’ prophetic reading tablets. The “blemished”, “unclean” animal is thus disqualified automatically from being acceptable for the Temple cultists’ blood ‘sacrifice’ ritual, to cancel / “wash away” the guilt of your endless list of heinous sins.
This is also the true explanation for why, under the Law that was, allegedly, personally written by The Finger of the All-Wise, All-Knowing, All-Understanding, All-Loving, All-Merciful God – twice – and handed down directly to ‘Moses’ – in the deshret, shortly after he magically divided the Red Sea with his priest brother’s magic alternating flaccid-stiff serpent-‘rod’ – your heinous sin of being born with a defect “in the stones”, or being “wounded in the stones” later in life, automatically disqualifies you from being a tzitzit-wearing, foreskin-deprived male (and thus, fully human) member of the pure and holy Chosen People.
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Should you be tempted to react with emotions of resistance, perhaps ranging from mirth to knee-jerk rejection, consider that elite-school experts still practice this today, if only out of scholarly curiosity; or possibly, to be uncharitable, out of passion for personal publicity –
Ancient Mesopotamian Sheep Liver Magic Predicted Trump’s Rise:
The army of the prince will go on a terrifying campaign. An army will attack the prince in battle. The god Adad will flood the enemy’s land, or there will be confusion amongst the enemy. Whatever his circumstances, the gods will protect him. The prince will not return from the campaign he embarked upon. The king’s son or brother will flee. His army will not reach its goal. The days of the prince will be long. Dogs will become rabid.
Although it’s tempting to read some of these lines as ominous reflections of the way the Trump campaign played out, these predictions seem vague and even contradictory. [Dr Selena] Wisnom [DPhil (Oxon), University of Cambridge] doubts that they were meant to be taken literally, though. Instead to get your yes-or-no answer, you were meant to tally the number of good or bad omens—and in this case, the numbers came up Trump.
It is no coincidence that the Hebrew bible (Tanakh) is replete with references to divination of the liver (lifer), practiced not only by Babylonian god-kings and other Mesopotamians (e.g., Philistines) but by the Hebrews as well:
Here is what Adonai says, your Redeemer, he who formed you in the womb: “I am Adonai, who makes all things, who stretched out the heavens all alone, who spread out the earth all by myself. I frustrate false prophets and their omens, I make fools of diviners, I drive back the sages and make their wisdom look silly.
“You, therefore, don’t listen to your prophets, diviners, dreamers, magicians or sorcerers, when they tell you that you won’t be subject to the king of [Babylon].”
And she bore him a stout-hearted son, Atlas: also she bore
very glorious Menoetius and clever Prometheus,
full of various wiles…
And ready-witted Prometheus he [“wise Zeus”] bound
with inextricable bonds, cruel chains,
and drove a shaft through his middle, and set on him
a long-winged eagle, which used to eat his immortal liver;
but by night the liver grew as much again everyway as
the long-winged bird devoured in the whole day.
Hesiod (c. 700BC), Theogony (“birth of the gods”) 507-525.
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Now I am alone. O, what a rogue and peasant slave am I!
But I am pigeon-liver’d and lack gall
To make oppression bitter, or ere this
I should have fatted all the region kites
With this slave’s offal: bloody, bawdy villain!
Shakespeare, Hamlet (2.2.520, 550-554)
Go pricke thy face, and over-red thy feare,
Thou Lilly-liver’d Boy.
Shakespeare (1564–1616AD), Macbeth (5.3.10)
Do not laugh. The principles are perfectly rational. Provided that you never stop to contemplate the core assumptions. Just like doublethink, double-entry accounting, state-endorsed and -enforced, exclusively-privileged, covertly above-all-law corporate credebt-based currency intermediation, and “geometric progression” (i.e., infinite $ growth) on finite planet, consumption-driven capital-ism:
Ivan Starr [The Rituals of the Diviner, 1983] found that in extispicy an anomalous feature on the right or the left is related to an auspicious or inauspicious prognostication according to objective principles. The system reflects a familiar symbolic pattern. The right side of the exta pertains to the inquirer and is positive; the left side pertains to his enemy and is negative. In other words, the right constitutes the pars familiaris and the left the pars hostilis.[6]
A heads-up for any reader not paying careful attention to the details.
Where formerly, the good God (“Le bon Dieu est dans le détail”)[7] – and latterly, the Devil – is inclined to hide.
In the following illustrations, when (e.g.) a bad omen for the Inquirer is demonstrated, I have maintained consistency with the divinatory ground rule Right = Positive + , Left = Negative – , by changing the COLOUR of the Right-Left +/– “field” signs.
The LOCATION of the +/– signs (i.e., Right-Left, for InquirerandEnemy) does not change.
In extispicy the right/left duality serves to polarize a single divinatory context, the exta, into a negative and positive divinatory field. The anomalous features observed were further classified in opposing pairs with positive and negative values. A favorable or unfavorable prognostication is the compounded product of two factors – the positive and negative aspect of the sign and the context against which it occurs. A light colored mark on the right was propitious. If it occurred on the left it represented a sign favourable to the enemy and the resulting omen was inauspicious.
Conversely, a dark colored mark on the right was inauspicious. A dark coloured mark on the left is a double negative. It is detrimental to the enemy and the resulting omen is favorable.[8]
The definitive interpretation attributed to the presence of a given mark in a given zone of a liver part can be obtained by the quasi-arithmetic combination of the positive/negative value of the mark and the positive/negative value of the zone where it occurs: a hole on the right side might portend death for the king, whereas a hole on the left might portend death for the king’s enemy.[9]
In this system we obviously find the reflection of a pervasive symbolic pattern and an orientation that lies at the core of much divinatory practice. When we observe the division of the body into right and left we observe the symmetry that divides the whole into equal halves and the asymmetry that gives one side the edge.[10]
A fundamental, artifice-ial, egoic asymmetry that modern financial and economic doctors of philosophistry refer to by an uninteresting, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!” euphemism.
Net Interest Margin.
The difference between the rate of interest paid, and the rate of interest ‘earned’, by the banking Lords of Time.
The stronger right hand and by extension the right side commonly attracts a wide array of positive associations. It is considered to be auspicious and it stands for a variety of positive moral and religious values such as justice, rectitude and purity. The left symbolizes antithetical values and stands for the inauspicious, the sinister, and the impure. The right often represents aspects of reality that can be clearly understood; it articulates what is unambiguous, certain and verifiable. The left can express perceptions more difficult to penetrate. It evokes the shady, the unstable, the mutable – the imaginative.[11]
We might note in passing that these ancient yet perennial associations of Right-Left dualism appear to be contradicted by modern scientific analysis, in one key area. Our brain activity. It is the left hemisphere that neurologists associate with logic, intellect, analytical thought (the ‘light’ of ‘reason’), and the right that is associated with the ‘shady’, ‘unstable’, ‘mutable’ aspects – emotion, imagination, intuition, creativity; the alleged ‘chaos’ of femininity.
In other words, it appears that, when it comes to R-L spatial attribution of the supposed ‘origins’ of human behaviour, the Babylonian dualist divination and philosophical system core assumptions are the exact opposite of scientifically measured reality.
Thus, they, and their philosophical descendants, also have the overarching binary classification categories – “dark” versus “light” – exactly inverted.
The Babylonian “I” – Mr. Intellect, Knowledge, Logic and Reason – assumed to be ‘Good’, is not on the right; he is on the left.
The assumed Evil ‘chaos’, and “enemy” of the Babylonian “I” – Mrs Intuition, Emotion, Holistic Thought, Imagination and Creativity – is not on the left; she is on the right.
In Šumma izbu the opposition right/left in the protasis is reflected in the apodosis as follows: opposition of subjects, opposition of verbal predicates, opposition “ego” vs “enemy”, opposition expressed by symmetrical inversion of syntactical structures, semantic opposition without syntactical symmetry.[12]
It hardly requires a rocket scientist then, to extrapolate the rather obvious conclusion, regarding which side’s characteristic behaviour or fundamental Strengths should represent the Good, and which should represent the Evil … if viewed purely in isolation, rather than holistically; (i.e.), a Balanced view.
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But we digress, from the ‘art’ of divining sheep livers.
This ‘magic’ duality system gets more complicated. At least, it appears to do so:
Does this system exist in any other form of Mesopotamian divination? Consistent patterns related to right and left also occur in Šumma Izbu [teratomancy: observation of malformed animal foetuses – CM], but at first glance the pattern appears to be reversed.[13]
Again, we note in passing the remarkable parallels with Roman-era rabbinic analyses of malformed human foetuses, miscarriage emissions, and menstrual blood. In the Babylonian Talmud (e.g., Niddah 19a through 26a), their shape (“form”), consistency, and colour – all corresponding to Old Babylonian divination and to the primary alchemical colours: red, white, black and (yellow-)green[14] – are the subject of detailed analysis and debate by Babylon-resident rabbinic “sages”.
The supposed purpose? In order to determine which of the binary categories “clean” (Good) or “unclean” (Evil) a woman should be classified as – and in consequence, subjected to or relieved from the punishments of ostracism, and economic penalty – by ‘reason’ of all that may emerge from her fertile delta.
Rabbi examined blood in the light of a lamp. R.[abbi] Ishmael son of R. Joseph examined it even on a cloudy day between the pillars. R. Ammi b. Samuel ruled: All kinds of blood must be examined only between the sunlight and the shade. R. Nahman citing Rabbah b. Abbuha ruled: The examination may be performed in the sunlight under the shadow of one’s hand.
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‘ONE LIKE DILUTED WINE’? TWO PARTS etc. A Tanna taught:
Sharon wine [diluted] is regarded as the Carmel wine in its natural undiluted state when it is new. R. Isaac b. Abudemi ruled: All these must be examined only in a plain Tiberian cup. What is the reason? — Abaye replied: Generally a cup that contains a log is made of a maneh {100 zuz} and one that contains two log is made of two hundred zuz, but the plain Tiberian cup, even if it contains two log, is made of one maneh, and since it is so thin [the colour of the wine can] be recognized better [than in any other kind of cup].
One hopes the significance of the card number is not lost on any fertile ladies reading. Gentlemen may have some catching up to do. Fear not, as Part 3 explains all. And offers some big surprises.
R. Johanan remarked: The wisdom of R. Hanina caused me not to examine any blood, for when I declared any unclean he declared it clean and when I declared it clean he declared it unclean. [..] R. Zera remarked: The Babylonian coinage was the cause of my refusing to examine blood; for I thought: If I do not understand the coinage system would I understand the nature of blood? This then implies that capability to examine blood depends on an understanding of the coinage; but did not Rabbah in fact understand the coinage system and yet did not understand the qualities of blood?
This great obsession of the rabbinic “sages” with female cycles, and their curious association of menstrual emissions with money, also sheds light on the story of Jesus (c.30–33 AD), and his healing of the woman suffering from an “issue” of blood, merely by virtue of her touching the tassles on the hem of his holy garment, with a heart full of faith:
And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, and though she had spent all her living on physicians,[a] she could not be healed by anyone.44 She came up behind him and touched the fringe of his garment, and immediately her discharge of blood ceased.45 And Jesus said, “Who was it that touched me?” When all denied it, Peter[b] said, “Master, the crowds surround you and are pressing in on you!”46 But Jesus said, “Someone touched me, for I perceive that power has gone out from me.”47 And when the woman saw that she was not hidden, she came trembling, and falling down before him declared in the presence of all the people why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately healed.48 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace.”
We can only presume that Jesus, the poverty-embracing, debt Jubilee-proclaiming activist who had “no place to lay his head,” nevertheless somehow obtained tzitzit dyed with the rabbinically-prescribed, rare, Roman elite-restricted, more expensive than gold, 6,6′-dibromoindigo magic light-transformed dye – turning Tyrian “Royal” Purple if processed in the dark, or as-above-so-below, night sea-and-sky[15] Cabalist coal-fired flame[16]indigo blue if processed in sun light – made from the foul fishy-smelling secretions of “unclean” predatory sea snails with shell forms remarkably reminiscent of human female genitalia, and did not take the intelligent and wise approach of using perfect colour copies made from inexpensive, rabbinically-forbidden indigo vegetable dye, or else the magic may not have worked.
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Rabbi Simeon said … Whoever wishes to understand the mystery of union with the Divine will do well to reflect and meditate upon the flame proceeding from a lighted candle or a burning coal, in which may be recognized two kinds of flame or light, one white and the other dark or bluish in color. The white flame ascends upwards in a straight line, the dark or blue part of the flame, being below it and forming its basis. Though these be conjoined together, the white flame is always seen clearly and distinctly, and of the two is the most valuable and precious. From these observations we may gather somewhat of the occult meaning of the thekheloth (blue fringes) mentioned in scripture. The dark or blue flame is connected and conjoined with that above it, namely, the white, and also below it with the candle or coal in a state of combustion. It becomes sometimes red, whilst the superior white flame never varies in color and remains invariably the same. Furthermore, it is noticeable that the dark or blue flame consumes and wastes the substance of the coal or candle whence it emanates, but the white pure light consumes nothing and never varies. Therefore, when Moses proclaimed the Lord to be a consuming fire [Deut. 4:24], he alludes to the astral fluid or flame that consumes everything similar to the dark flame that wastes and destroys the substance of the candle or coal.
On the other hand, maybe Jesus did use a cheap organic compound to counterfeit the rabbis’ (or rather, Rome’s) exclusive purple/blue dye, and so that is why the magic worked.
A profound metaphor there, regarding credebt, usury extraction, and exclusively-privileged, money and monthly time cycle ‘doctors’, for those with eyes to see. A touch of mystical in-sight helps.
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But again we digress from our main topic – divination of future fortunes, by ‘reading’ the entrails.
And the malformed abortions, or indeed, live births (Šumma Izbu: “If a malformed foetus”) :
A comprehensive analysis of the protases of Šumma Izbu and of their sequential arrangement reveals that in general the descriptions of the malformations fall into five categories:
A) Malformations resembling animal features
B) Absence of body parts
C) Deformed or incomplete body parts
D) Misplacement of body parts
E) Presence of excess body parts
For a given body part these types of malformations tend to be treated in sequence. [..] It should be emphasized that while it is known that malformed births were actually observed, the full range of malformations mentioned in the series .. includes physically impossible phenomena…
[T]he classification of malformations according to the binary opposition right/left is by the far most important and pervasive structuring feature in the series. [..] In addition to the dichotomy right/left, other common oppositions in the series include examples of spatial (above/below, front/rear, inside/outside) and qualitative (large/small, long/short) oppositions (as well as complementary pairs such as male/female, dead/alive, normal/abnormal), some of which can be combined with the opposition right/left in larger classification groups.. .
The corresponding apodoses fall into the opposing categories of favourable/unfavourable predictions, thus combining themselves with the protases to form pairs of omens based on a structure of symmetric oppositions. While this organizational principle is in evidence in all divinatory disciplines, in Šumma Izbu a malformation on the right side (normally the pars familiaris) is considered negative, a malformation on the left (normally the pars hostilis), positive. This is owed to the context of the observation: a malformation being eo ipso a negative sign, the normal meaning of the opposition right (“favourable”) / left (“unfavourable”) is inverted.[17]
Confused?
Cannot see how there is consistency of organising principle between Right = Good, Left = Evil (livers), and Right = Evil, Left = Good (foetuses)?
One must simply pay close attention to the difference in the details. The core assumptions, and the context:
It has been observed over and over that cultures express right/left symbolism consistently, although the values symbolized obviously vary [Hertz 1909, Needham 1973]. If one proposes the not so daring hypothesis that right/left symbolism is consistent in Mesopotamian divination and that a general system of interpretation is based on it, then the apparent discrepancy in Šumma Izbu must be resolved. [..] In a divinatory procedure which judges physical malformations to be either auspicious or inauspicious a defect on the right is bound to be considered threatening and conversely, a defect on the left, which leaves the right side unaffected, must be the auspicious component.
In the following omens one can see the standard right/left symbolic associations operating in spite of the superficial transposition:
“If an anomaly has no right ear – the reign of the king will come to an end; his palace will be scattered; overthrow of the elders of the city; the king will have no advisors; the mood of the land will change; the herds of the land will decrease; you will make a promise to the enemy.”
“If an anomaly has no left ear – the god has heard the prayer of the king, the king will take the land of his enemy, the palace of the enemy will be scattered, the enemy will have no advisors, you will decrease the herd of the enemy, he will make a promise to you.”[18]
It is interesting to observe that the act of making a promise is always considered a negative omen, for the person who is pre-destined to make it. Perfectly logical, really. It means that they are pre-destined to be in their enemy’s debt.
The system where double occurrences transform the prediction can also be explained. Double occurrences are based on additional features and augment the strength of the side on which they occur.[19]
Some examples:
“if a woman gives birth and (the foetus) has two ears on the right and none on the left – the gods (who were) angry will return to the land and the land will live in peace”
“if a woman gives birth and (the foetus) has two ears on the left and none on the right – the advice of the land will be unheeded”
“if a malformed foetus has a second ear inside its right ear – the prince will have advisers”
“if a malformed foetus has a second ear inside its left ear – the advisers of the prince will advise him badly”[20]
Thus a consistent principle of divinatory interpretation underlies both extispicy and Šumma Izbu. It is based on the analogical association of pairs of opposites, whose positive and negative values are well established. This consistent symbolic pattern reveals the binary nature of divination, in general, but does little by itself to elucidate the deeper imaginative patterns. The value of right/left symbolism lies neither in the validity nor consistency of its occurrence, but rather when the patterns are unexpectedly reversed.
In the omen series Šumma Alu, transposition of right/left occurs frequently. In general it is an auspicious omen when an animal crosses from the right to the left.
“If a snake crosses from the right of a man to the left of a man – he will have a good name.”
“If a snake crosses from the left of a man to the right of a man – he will have a bad name.”
“If a man starts out on an undertaking and a falcon crosses from the man’s right to the man’s left – his undertaking will be successful.”
However, when a man sees a crow on the right at the start of a journey, the journey will not achieve its goals. Because of this we are able to determine that the crow has a negative symbolic value as an ominous sign:
“If a man starts out on an undertaking and a crow hovers and caws on the man’s left – he will go where he is established, he will enjoy profit.”
“If a man starts a journey and a crow hovers on the right and caws – that man will not go where he is established, he will be unhappy.”
Reversals of right/left symbolism become an interpretive tool when they simply open our eyes to broader imaginative patterns. The sleep omens of Šumma Alu begin with omens based on the position of the sleeper. If he sleeps on his right side, it is inauspicious.
The unexpected reversal catches our attention and points to a larger pattern. Laughing in one’s sleep brings sadness. Muttering insults while asleep brings an outpouring of friendliness. If one speaks pleasant words, however, his days will be short. The whole tablet comes into focus: sleep is portrayed as the mirror world of waking.
The interpretation of sleep and the dream-world – the unconscious mind – as being the mirror (exact opposite) of waking, is depicted identically in the Babylonian Talmud (Berakhot), the Zohar (c. 1300 AD), and in Freud’s The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). It is not only double-entry bookkeeping, bank credebt creation, and ‘Orwellian’ doublethink; the fundamental principles of ‘modern’ psychoanalysis too, are identical to Old Babylonian divination, and to Jewish mysticism and magic (see here).
Significant information derives from the reversals, but only by first establishing a consistent system are we able to apprehend their internal logic. The system thus established provides a solid, stable context against which the imaginative patterns work. The mutations of this system show that in many ways divination is left-handed truth.”[21]
The fundamental ‘logic’ or operative principles of double entry bookkeeping – and thus, 97% of bookkeeping credebt entry-based ‘money’, so-called ‘modern’ ‘sophisticated’ finance, and economics – is also “left-handed truth.”
As we have seen in earlier essays (e.g., here, here, here, here, here), it functions in precisely the same way, in service of the same male Ego-driven, hedonistic (i.e., pleasure-maximising), selfish ends.
However, in order to really ram (pun intended) the point home that double-entry principles are identical to Old Babylonian divinatory ‘magic’, here is a further illustration, in express context of ‘divining’ sheep livers, malformed foetuses, and snakes/birds/beasts appearing beside or crossing over one’s path:
Incidentally, we note in passing that this illustration highlights again – at least for yours truly – the failure of most modern economists to (a) think for themselves, and (b) do their job thoroughly, with intellectual honesty. Rarely, if ever, do economists imagining themselves to be modelling economic actions – including those using double entry bookkeeping to do so – take into consideration that every action has more than one, often un-equal and opposite reaction. There are both internal, and external, asymmetric ‘mirror’ reflections of every economic act, by every human being. Impacting on an-Other/s, and on Mother Nature. That is reality. Whether recorded, at all (much less correctly, by and for all affected parties), or not.
The reason why economists have such limited success in predicting the future, is because their academic discipline is based on fundamental principles that are identical to, and thus no more intelligent and rational than the divination of sheep livers, in order to analyse a system (the financialised economy) that is itself based on fundamental principles that are identical to, and thus no more intelligent and rational than the divination of sheep livers.
In concluding our review of Old Babylonian divination as being the theosophical ‘magic’ organising principle that ‘modern’ accounting, finance, and all post-Middle Ages economic theories are based on – particularly neoclassical economic ‘equilibrium’ “Greed is Good” theory, the core ‘rational’-isation for the fiscal and social policies of neoliberalism and globalist “free markets” – there is one further topic of note.
It has profound relevance for our essay series’ titular subject – banks, usury, and doublethink in the Roman Empire. The context is the Cabalist ‘magic’ system of gnōsis. Mystical “knowing”, or “knowledge”.
Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, saying, “I have gotten[a] a man with the help of the Lord.”
The symbolic values attributed to animal-like features draws on culturally conditioned notions that can also be observed in other genres of cuneiform literature. Here we just give a few examples:
Lion → the king, royal power and military strength
“if a woman gives birth (and the foetus) has the ear of a lion – there will be a strong king in the land”
“if a malformed foetus has the head of a lion – the prince will seize universal kingship”
[if] a malformed foetus has the eyes of a lion – the prince will have no rival”
Wolf → pestilence, discord and strife
“if a woman gives birth and (the foetus) has the head of a wolf – there will be massacres in the land”
“if a ewe gives birth to a wolf – there will be a plague in the country; madness; catastrophe for the land; disease of the herds”[22]
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“if a goat gives birth to a wolf – pestilence (lit. “the god will consume”)”
Dog → pestilence, discord and strife
“if a woman gives birth to a dog – the owner of the house will die and his house will be scattered; the opinion of the land will change; pestilence (lit. “the god will consume”)”
“if a ewe gives birth to a lion and it has the face of a dog – (lit. “Nergal will consume”)”
“if a sow [pig] gives birth to a dog – there will be strife in the land”[23]
As we will discover in future parts to this series, “all Jewish spheres – the prayer book, the Talmud, and Jewish philosophy,” being rooted in “the official theology” of Cabala,[24] and derived from “old Chaldea” (Babylonia), are identically rational.
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Am reminded of hypothesis that leaped to mind recently, while reading an interdisciplinary academic study on several key cultures of antiquity, still having deep influence today. Rather interesting to contemplate, compare those which venerate(d) dogs, versus those vilifying them.
[2] Constant, A.L., Transcendental Magic: Its Doctrine and Ritual (A.E. Waite transl.), George Redway: London (1896), p.46
[3] Wolfson, E.R., Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination, Fordham University Press: New York (2005), p.549 fn. 58 cit. Ḥayyim Vital Sha’ar ha-Pesuqim, 3a (online, retrieved 22 Jan 2018)
cf. Kosher Torah School (online, archived from original, retrieved Feb 2, 2019) – “Sha’ar HaPesukim, Ezekiel, Secret of Cain Souls, Lesson 3 – Souls from the “head” of Cain, and those from the “feet.” Source of the souls of Hezekiah, King of Judah, and of Ezekiel the prophet, himself. Secret of the reversal of Gevurot and Hasidim, secret of the reversal of the Levites and the Kohanim. Secret of the rectification and the reversal to the true order in the days of the Third Temple. Secret of the Kohanim Levites, sons of Tzadok. Secrets of reincarnation and rectification. Summary of Rabbi Ḥayim Vital’s profound vision of the secret reality of human souls.”
[4] Mattessich, R., Accounting and the Input-Output Principle in the Prehistoric and Ancient World, ABACUS, Vol. 25, No. 2, 1989, p. 81 — “The significance of the input—output principle for double entry accounting is well recognized in the literature. For example; ‘The writer wishes to emphasize the merit that comes from understanding a double entry bookkeeping as an input-output system of data calculating the amount of capital charged’ (Kishi, 1984, p. 359).” (p. 77, fn 7)
[5] Wolfson, E.R., Language, Eros, Being: Kabbalistic Hermeneutics and Poetic Imagination, Fordham University Press: New York (2005), pp. 76, 133, 137, 184, 739 (online, retrieved 22 Jan 2018) –
To be more precise, the dimension of God that is, paradoxically, present in its absence is the corona of the phallus (ateret yesod). So prevalent is this idea, what I would call the ground concept of the tradition, that I could easily fill a chapter citing pertinent passages that illustrate the point.. . [..] Yesod itself is composed of male and female in the secret of the phallus [yesod] and the corona [atarah] that is in him. Yesod thus exemplifies a dual nature: it is disclosed as the locus of concealment, a disclosure, perforce, that preserves the concealment of what is disclosed.
The phallic gradation of the divine embodies what I have termed ‘hermeneutical duplicity’ – for the secret to be secretive, it must be hidden in its exposure, exposed in its being hidden. The duplicity is engendered by Kabbalists in a hierarchical way that we would expect from an andocentric and at times misogynistic culture: hiddenness, the more inward and consequently more valuable, is rendered as masculine, and exposure, the more outward and consequently less valuable, as feminine. But how is the phallus engendered as both male and female? The male is the shaft of the penis (yesod) and the female the corona (atarah). As Isaac of Acre articulates the matter, “You already know the secret of circumcison [sod ha-milah] alludes to Saddiq . . . and the corona that is revealed through the excision of the foreskin alludes to Atarah.” The identification of the corona .. as the locus of contemplative envisioning can be well expressed by the Lacanian dialectic of the signifier that is veiled in the unveiling of the veil, that is, the object of mystical vision is the phallic sign manifest in the exposure of its hiddenness. [my bold emphasis added – CM]
[6] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), p.5
[7] Bartlett, J., Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations: A Collection of Passages, Phrases, and Proverbs Traced to Their Sources in Ancient and Modern Literature, 17th ed. (2002)
[8] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), pp.6-7
[9] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), p.54
[10] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), p.7
[11] ibid.
[12] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), p.52, n.38 (cf. Starr 1983, 6.)
[13] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), p.6
[15] Sagiv, G., Dazzling Blue: Color Symbolism, Kabbalistic Myth, and the Evil Eye in Judaism (Numen 64 (2017) 183-208) –
The Talmud asserts that tekhelet is special among all colors, basing this opinion on a chain of homologies (Herzog 1987: 87–88; Scholem 1979: 90 n. 11), such as the following version of the Palestinian Talmud: “tekhelet is like the sea and the sea the grass, and the grass the firmament, and the firmament the throne of glory and the throne of glory is like the sapphire” (y. Berakhot I.2). This chain of homologies seems to be leading the worshipper from the tekhelet thread, through the sea, to the divine, thereby imbuing tekhelet with mystical significances. However, it should be noted that the word tekhelet can refer to various shades of blue. Just as tekhelet can be the color of a daylight sky, it can also be the color of the sky at night. In contradistinction to the spiritual promise of tekhelet, there are sources that introduce threatening aspects to this color. One characteristic of tekhelet, which has its origins inthe first centuries CE, associates the word tekhelet/ תכלת with the Hebrew roots klh/ כלה (denoting annihilation) and škl/ שׁכּל (denoting bereavement). Hence, tekhelet is an end, and sometimes even a divine power of destruction and death.7 In a similar vein, according to one Talmudic source, “all colors bode well in a dream except the color tekhelet” (b. Berakhot 57b).
(pp. 186-187; fn.7 “Sifre to Numbers associates tekhelet with the annihilation of the elder sons of the Egyptians and the sinking of the Egyptian soldiers in the sea (Neusner 1986: 178). The Onkelos translation of the Bible into Aramaic translates the Hebrew root of bereavement ( שכל ) as .תכל”)
[16] Blumenthal, D.R., Three is Not Enough: Jewish Reflections on Trinitarian Thinking (first published in Ethical Monotheism, Past and Present: Essays in Honor of Wendell S. Dietrich, ed. T. Vial and M. Hadley (Providence, RI, Brown Judaic Studies: 2001) 181-95), citing Zohar 1:50b-51b, modified from F. Lachower and I. Tishby, The Wisdom of the Zohar, transl. D. Goldstein (Oxford, The Littman Library and Oxford University Press: 1989) 1:319-20. (online, retrieved 12 December 2018) –
Rabbi Simeon began by saying: There are two verses [that contradict one another]. It is written, “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire” (Deuteronomy 4:24) and it is also written, “And you who cleave to the Lord your God are alive, all of you, to-day” (Deuteronomy 4:4). We have reconciled these verses in several places, but the [mystical] companions have a [deeper] understanding of them…. Whoever wishes to understand the wisdom of the holy unification, let him look at the flame that rises from a glowing coal, or from a burning lamp, for the flame rises only when it takes hold of some coarse matter.
Come and see. In the rising flame there are two lights: one is a radiant white light and one is a light that contains black or blue. The white light is above and it ascends in a direct line. Beneath it is the blue or black light and it is a throne for the white. The white light rests upon it and they are connected together, forming one whole. The black light, [that which has] blue color, is the throne of glory for the white. And this is the mystic significance of the blue.
This blue-black throne is joined to something else, below it, so that it can burn and this stimulates it to grasp the white light…. This [blue-black light] is connected on two sides. It is connected above to the white light and it is connected below to what is beneath it, to what has been prepared for it so that it might illuminate and grasp [that which is above it].
This [blue-black light] devours continuously and consumes whatever is placed beneath it; for the blue light consumes and devours whatever is attached to it below, whatever it rests upon, since it is its habit to consume and devour. Indeed, the destruction of all, the death of all, depends upon it and therefore it devours whatever is attached to it below. [But] the white light which rests upon it does not devour or consume at all, and its light does not change. Concerning this, Moses said, “For the Lord your God is a devouring fire,” really devouring, devouring and consuming whatever rests beneath it…
The Zohar begins this passage in classical midrashic style by showing a contradiction between two verses, one of which speaks of God as a consuming fire while the other advocates cleaving to God. It, then, goes on to draw an analogy to the common flame which is attached to a dark coal, which it must consume in order to burn. The flame itself is composed of two parts — a blue-black center, which is attached to the wick or coal, and a white periphery which encompasses and rises above the blue-black center.
In this passage, the Zohar depicts the central sefira which is Tiferet as the white part of the flame. It rests upon the sefira which is the point of contact with creation, Malkhut, here depicted as the blue-black part of the flame. At the end of this passage, the Zohar calls attention to the invisible part of the flame — the zone of invisible heat which surrounds every fire — and interprets it as Keter (God’s ultimate ineffability).
Finally, the Zohar notes that the blue-black part of the flame, Malkhut (God’s ruling ability), consumes the coal or wick to which it is attached. The coal and wick are material; they depict creation, particularly humanity.
Above the white light rests a concealed light which encompasses it. Here is a supernal mystery and you will find all in the ascending flame. The wisdom of the upper realms is in it.
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[17] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), pp.46-48, 52-53
[18] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), pp.7-8
[19] ibid., p.8
[20] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), p.53
[21] Guinan, A.K., Left/Right Symbolism in Mesopotamian Divination, SAAB 10 (1996, 5-10), pp.8-10
[22] De Zorzi, N., The Omen Series Šumma Izbu: Internal Structure and Hermeneutic Strategies, Rivista di storia, ambienta e culture del Vicino Oriente Antico Vol. 8 (2011), pp.61-62
[23] ibid., p.62
[24] Jewish Mysticism, Aleph Society Inc. (online, archived after original, retrieved 1 Feb 2019)
“hand”. This derives from an Egyptian hieroglyph for the uniliteral sign 
(מ
) plus “five more” (
,
): 
times in finale,
times in total.
, Phœnician 
, “
“pillar”, “support”, “stability”; from the ancient Egyptian “
With bank loans – ‘money’ created out of Nothingness by double entry bookkeeping – the ‘magic’ trick is hidden in the cunning wordplay used to describe what the bank owes (debt) to its customers (“Accounts Payable”). This debt owed to its customers is, simultaneously – and legally – the banks’ asset (‘unsecured’ “Client Deposits”).
“sword” or ḏiqqu “manacle”, 
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