"The Turtle Talks Torah" Chapter 7 The Technology of the Hebrew Priesthood

Chapter Seven: The Technology of the Jewish Priesthood:

Depiction of the biblical ark of the covenant from the internet(live science)

            In this chapter we will follow the discovery as to what the “Kedoshim”, the sacred holy vessels/Kellim in the ancient Jewish tradition are and how these sacred items play a part in the grander scheme of how there is even life on the physical material Earth. Also with these materials and the knowledge about them we discover how all the wisdom traditions relate to the one initiatory tradition that is partly responsible for the very existence of the whole world. We will discuss the four specific forms of this technology referred to in the aggadot/legends and the Tanach, the Jewish scriptures. The first form we encounter being the special book made of sapphire stone given to the first human, Adam Rishon. The is a play on the Hebrew word for book/sepher which contains the same letters as the word for the jewel-sapphire. The second form we encounter is the jewel that it is said Noah hung up in his ark to give light. Then we find that Abraham is also said to have carried this same jewel around his neck. The third form is the Mateh/staff of Aaron and Moses which ends up in the ark of the covenant. The fourth and final form is the special signet ring of king Solomon we read about in the Sepher HaZohar, the aggadot about Solomon and in the psuedepigraphical literature about Solomon.

A point to begin here is that two specific uses of one of the vessels, the sacred tool known as the scepter of Aaron, are spoken of in the Sepher HaZohar. The one use when one end of the rod is held is the biblical account of the crossing of the Red Sea as the Israelites made their exodus out of slavery in Egypt. The Zohar says there is another secret use when the rod is held by the other end. This is not explained about however at this point in the Zohar. The rod or mateh/staff has a long tradition of descent and by tracing these legends we are actually following the tradition of the hidden Jewish wisdom throughout history. The Scepter holds a particular era of the wisdom lineage down to present times of the Kabbalah. We will begin with the legends regarding the hoary early beginning of this secret technology.  There are stories concerning a secret book given to the first human, Adam, by the angel Raziel, who knows all secrets and whose name means the secret/raz of the divine/El. This angel is said in the legends to have given Adam a book made of pure sapphire, which contains all the great mysteries of the world and with which Adam could become very wise. When Adam died the book was secured in a cave. Then Enoch had a dream about the cave and finds the book again. He then also secludes the book again in a cave. It is this very same book made of sapphire and set in gold that is discovered in a cave by a Rabbi named the Adam Baal Shem in the old Hasidic legend. The cave he discovers this book in is connected to the cave of Machpelah where the biblical Patriarchs and Matriarchs are said to be buried. The Rabbi Adam discovers the book and gains the knowledge of how to pronounce the sacred name of the Creator. This knowledge includes everything else. The legend relates how the secret sapphire book is passed on to the successor of Rabbi Adam, the very Baal Shem Tov, who is known as the founder of Hasidism. The use of the secret book in a legend from the 18th century explains how the technology of the Jewish mystery tradition is connected throughout history since the first appearance of an artifact that teaches a person the great mysteries, is first described as a holy book. This technology however goes through a metamorphosis of sorts as we follow the oral Torah and the legends that make up the writings of the oral Torah. The following is from the Sepher HaZohar folio I- on Bereshit/Genesis 55a-55b(page 176 the volume one of the Sperling translation): “ That when Adam was in the Garden of Eden, God sent down to him a book by the hand of Raziel, the angel in charge of the holy mysteries. In this book were supernal inscriptions containing the sacred wisdom, and seventy-two branches of wisdom expounded so as to show the formation of six hundred and seventy inscriptions of higher mysteries. In the middle of the book was a secret writing explaining the thousand and five hundred keys which were not revealed even to the holy angels, and all of which were locked up in this book until it came into the hands of Adam. When Adam obtained it, all the holy angels gathered around him to hear him read it, and when he began they exclaimed: “Be thou exalted Lord, above the heavens, let thy glory be above all the earth”(Ps. LVII,12). Thereupon the holy angel Hadarniel was secretly sent to say to him” “Adam, Adam, reveal not the glory of the Master, for to thee alone and not to the angels is the privilege given to know the glory of thy Master.” Therefore he kept it by him secretly until he left the Garden of Eden. While he was there he studied it diligently, and utilized constantly the gift of his Master until he discovered the sublime mysteries which were not known even to the celestial ministers. When however he transgressed the command of his Master, the book flew away from him. Adam then beat his breast and wept, and entered the river Gihon up to his neck, so that his body became all wrinkled and his face haggard. God thereupon made a sign to Raphael to return to him the book, which he then studied for the rest of his life. Adam left it to his son Seth, who transmitted it in turn to his posterity, and so on until it came to Abraham, who learnt from it how to discern the glory of his Master, as has been said. Similarly Enoch possessed a book through which he learnt to discern the divine glory.”

The oral Torah is the voluminous hallowed literature including the Talmud and Zohar that has come since the giving of the written Torah at Sinai or along with the written Torah as some believe. The first transformation we may perceive from the Sapphire book is to a glowing crystal carbuncle that lights up the ark of Noah during the flood. It is actually the Book of Raziel that Noah has received by the Angel Raphael who was sent to him by the Creator just before the flood. It is the information from the book that he uses to build the ark. The glowing crystal stone is found hinted at in the story from the Torah about the Tzohar or window that is mentioned in the ark. The commentators say that this is the stone of the legends. This glowing stone is closely related to the secret book of the angel Raziel itself. This Sapphire book is then given by Noah to Shem just before Noah dies and from Shem the book is passed on to Abraham. From Abraham the descent goes through Jacob, Levi, Moses, and Joshua to Solomon. This descent of inheritance of the secret book covers two more stages where the book as the technology of the hidden wisdom appears in two more forms at two different periods in the tradition.  With Moses we begin the saga of the great Scepter of Moses, which the Zohar tells us is the very same scepter called the Rod of Aaron. This mateh/staff was one of ten miraculous items created in the twilight of the first Sabbath according to the fifth chapter of the Pirke Avot/Sayings of the fathers.

“Ten things were created on the eve of Sabbath, between the suns. And these are they: The mouth of the earth, the mouth of the well, the mouth of the ass, the bow/keshet, the manna, the rod/hamateh, the shamir, the writing and the pen and the tables/haluchot….” From Pirke Aboth The Ethics of the Talmud: Sayings of the Fathers  Shocken Books.

This scepter tradition is openly written about in the book of Shemot/Exodus of the Hebrew bible. Everyone has heard of the rod of Moses and Aaron and the Exodus story. In the legends the scepter appears as a the same staff made of Sapphire that the Creator had made in the twilight of the first Sabbath Eve.  From the Ginsburg book of legends of the Jews we have this concerning the staff and the line of it’s descent.

“When Adam was sent out of Eden he carried this staff with him as one of the gifts he received from the creator. He gave it to Enoch who in turn gave it to Noah who gave it to Shem. Then Abraham was given it and he gave it to Issac who gave it to Jacob who brought it with him to Egypt and handed it to his son Joseph. When Joseph died, his house was pillaged and the pillagers brought the sapphire rod to the Pharaoh. Reuel was one of the counselors of pharaoh. He wanted the rod for himself stole it and carried it with him out of Egypt. He planted it in his garden in Midian. (The story here takes on an Arthurian sword legend twist-note by editor). Reuel, whose name later became transformed to Jethro, announces that whoever could pluck out this rod from the ground could marry his daughter Zipporah. Many strong chiefs from all over the lands tried but failed to get the staff out of the ground and win the beautiful Zipporah. Moses ends up in the garden and seeing the staff with the ineffable name of haShem, the Creator engraved upon it, he easily plucks it out of the ground.”

 So we have the beginnings of the saga of the holy scepter, which after the exodus from Egypt was said to have been placed in the Ark of the Covenant and eventually placed in the mishkan, the moveable sanctuary, and in the holy of holies of Solomon’s temple. It is said to have disappeared after the destruction of the first temple. The legends have stated that it would reappear in the messianic age.

            So we have followed the stories about a sapphire book, a crystal stone and the sapphire scepter which follow pretty closely the same lines of transmission. This transmission actually also resembles closely the secret whispering from “ear to ear” of the wisdom of the kabbalah itself. The next and final stage of these legends comes in the literature after the destruction of the second temple. This includes the pseudopigraphical writings such as Enoch and the Sepher hechalot (palaces) as well as the Zohar and kabbalistic writings. In the famous pseudopigraphic writing called the Testament of Solomon we read about a special ring made of a precious gem and engraved with the ineffable name of the Creator upon it. It is referred in the traditions as the ring of Solomon. In the Testament of Solomon it is specifically by means of this ring technology that the wise magician king is able to summon all the spirits, genii and demons of the fire, water and air and make them appear before him and reveal their nature and secrets. He then puts them to work to build his Beit hamikdash, the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem. In the hechalot literature, which is a type of writing of early Kabbalah, we have information about the various heaven worlds and upper palaces that make up the divine landscape. We also have the names and attributes of the beings that guard the gates and make up the denizens of these palaces and halls. One gatekeeper is called Anaphiel YHVH and he is one of those special being angels who actually has the divine four lettered name as part of his name. Anaphiel especially is the keeper of the seal ring of HaShem, which contains engraved the ineffable name. Here is a quote from chapter 23 of The Greater Hecahalot, from Understanding Jewish Mysticism , by David R.Blumenthal KTAV Publishing House

“Anaphiel the Lord of Israel, a prince honored and beloved and fearful and terrifying and dear and splendid and strong and mighty and powerful and just and gallant, a prince whose name is mentioned on high before the throne of His glory three times each day from the day when the world was created and until now, for praise. Why? Because the signet ring of the seal of heaven and earth is given over into his power.. And whenever they see him all those on high kneel and fall down and prostrate themselves before him, a thing which is not done in the height [before any other prince]. If you say, 'They do not fall down before the Prince of the Presence‘ [This is true] for those who stand before the throne of His glory, who do not prostrate themselves before the Prince of the Presence, but before Anaphiel the Prince [even] so with the permission and according to the will of Atratas, the great master, Aphimiel Shama Birtsa-YHVH, Lord of Israel”.

We also find this reference specifically to the Ring of Solomon in the Testament of Solomon: page 962 of The Old Testament Pseudepigrapha, edited by James H. Charlesworth Doubleday:

“And it came about through my prayer that grace was given to me from the Lord Sabaoth by Michael his archangel. [He brought me] a little ring, having a seal consisting of an engraved stone, and said to me: "Take, O Solomon, king, son of David, the gift which the Lord God has sent thee, the highest Sabaoth. With it thou shalt lock up all demons of the earth, male and female; and with their help thou shalt build up Jerusalem. [But] thou [must] wear this seal of God.”

It is in the Zohar, the wonderful book of the Kabbalah that we find some beautiful references to this ring of Solomon and get an idea of its function in the greater scheme of the bigger school of wisdom initiation. It has a very long word name, “degushpankha” in the Aramaic that means a seal ring and its origins according to Hebrew etymology point to Persia. This is interesting since a very popular Persian fairy tale called Bahram the Snake Prince, 

From the book, "Persian Fairy Tales"

mentions the ring of the great King Suleiman (Solomon) who has a high rank in the stories and legends of Persia, Arabia and Islam and the Koran. What is very wonderful is how the author of the Zohar tells us what Solomon uses this ring for.

“Therefore, the Song of Songs is holy of holies, and there is no verse in this Canticle which does not contain the mystery of the “thousand and five”. There are five grades contained in the title, as we have said. But why is the “thousand” not indicated? The truth is that this is hidden and will remain hidden until the Wife(the Shekinah) unites Herself with her Husband.Therefore Solomon endeavoured to bring that “Thousand” to the Bride in secret, by aid of the mysterious ring whereon is engraved the seal of the supernal wisdom(cf. Targum on Eccl. I,7). As soon as he had completed the making of the Holy of Holies below, the mystery of the Holy of Holies above ascended and was hidden,so that the concealment of the Union might be complete above and below, according to the Divine purpose. The mystery of the Holy of Holies above is the mystery of the Supernal Wisdom and Jubilee.” From page 12 The Zohar IV, Sperling translation of Sepher HaZohar folio 2: page 145b.

Solomon is most revered for having built the first Temple and this of course best embodies the physical Kedoshim or holies that houses the technology that has been given to Israel. The Zohar in the commentary of the Torah portion Terumah goes into the sublime Song of Solomon and the inner meaning of this wisdom. It says that Moses by building the holy tabernacle in the wilderness brought about the union of the upper holy mother or matrona with the world here below Solomon in building the temple brought a perfect union of the Matrona (Shekinah) with the Bridegroom above. The Zohar has a detailed commentary on why the Song of Songs said to be Solomon’s is the Holiest of all the writings which we will further discuss in chapter Ten.. Concerning the ring of Solomon it particularly tells us that Solomon endeavors to bring the Thousand pieces of silver, which is the very Tree of Life mentioned in the Song of Songs, to the bride (Shekinah) by means of the mysterious ring upon which is engraved the seal of the supernal wisdom. (Terumah 145b) It is specifically the knowledge of this whispered tradition within Kabbalah about this “sapphire” technology that the adepts in the wisdom tradition warned to keep the Zohar and the other writings of kabbalah away from only those serious students of the mysteries. There are two places in the Song of Songs that particularly point to the secret “sapphire” technology. The one in chapter IV:9 where the male protagonist says one jewel, "Ankh", of your necklace and one glance of your eyes is as... 

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ט  לִבַּבְתִּנִי, אֲחֹתִי כַלָּה; לִבַּבְתִּנִי באחד (בְּאַחַת) מֵעֵינַיִךְ, בְּאַחַד עֲנָק מִצַּוְּרֹנָיִךְ.	9 Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my bride; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one jewel of thy necklace.

We have here a relation to the famous Egyptian tool shown in the hands of many carved Egyptian deities the famous and venerable Ankh, which is now always depicted as a wand like cross. The other obvious place in Solomon’s song which refers to the "sapphire" technology is where the female protagonist says your arms are as rods of gold set with Tarshishim.

יד  יָדָיו גְּלִילֵי זָהָב, מְמֻלָּאִים בַּתַּרְשִׁישׁ; מֵעָיו עֶשֶׁת שֵׁן, מְעֻלֶּפֶת סַפִּירִים.	14 His hands are as rods of gold set with beryl; his body is as polished ivory overlaid with sapphires.

 The tarshim are usually translated as beryls. The word for rods is Gilaylai, which denotes a kind of circling or whirling and matches up perfectly to the helical rods of the Hermes/Thoth, deity of wisdom being depicted in ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs (picture from book cover).

In the fundamental book of kabbalah, the Sepher Yetzira, we have a reference to the three means by which the creator formed the world; these are sepher/text, sephar/number and sippur/speech. These three also explain how our world is built of number/time, shape-text/space and speech-story/being. Although usually related to speaking, writing and numbering they all have the root for the word sapphire-sameck,peh,resh, a jewel often mentioned in the biblical writings and we find is a keyword denoting the sacred gem technology. In Ezekiel’s vision of the merkabah we read a description at the heart of the vision of a throne or seat of sapphire stone. The Zohar has a commentary on this sapphire stone,

From Soncino Zohar Shemoth, sect.2 Page 126a “And under his feet as it were a paved work of a sapphire stone”-what was this which they saw? They beheld the precious stone with which the holy one will build the future sanctuary, as it is written, “I will lay thy stones with fair colors and lay thy foundations with sapphires”(Isa.54, 11)        In the description of the stone tablets that Moses brings down from Sinai we are told that they are made of a pure work of sapphire stone. As earlier stated the book of the angel Raziel, and the rod of Aaron are also sometimes referred to as being made of Sapphire. In the Sepher HaZohar we have a story where the soul spark of Moses (quote). Shemoth, section2, page 240b,” "When the hour arrived at which Moses the faithful shepherd and prophet was to descend into this world, God brought forth a holy spirit from the depths of a sapphire stone in which it was hidden, and crowned it with crowns." 

 So we have here an origin for the soul spark of Moses himself from the depths of a sapphire stone. In the aggadah, the Jewish legends from the Talmud, we also have many stories regarding sacred jewels and precious gems, either making up the halls or palaces of heavens or being found on the thrones or garments of great personages. One legend is about the seven things that were said to actually be created two thousand years before the Earth was created.  From Ginsburg’s Legends of the Jews, we read, “In the beginning, two thousand years before the heaven and the Earth, seven things were created: the Torah written with black fire on white fire, and lying in the lap of god; the Divine Throne, erected in the heaven which later was over the heads of the Hayyot; Paradise on the right side of God, Hell on the left; the Celestial sanctuary directly in front of God, having a jewel on its altar graven with the name of the messiah, and a voice that cries aloud, “Return, ye children of men.” Also from Ginzberg's Legends of the Bible, page 4 JPS edition:"Corresponding to the seven heavens, God created seven earths, each separated from the next by five layers. Over the lowest earth, the seventh, called Erez, lie in succession the abyss, the Tohu, the Bohu, a sea, and waters."  Another such legend, which can also be found in Islamic traditions, is how the seven heaven worlds are actually made from seven different kinds of jewels mirrored by seven under Earth world..

From "Eire Islam"(internet)derived from the Quran seven heavens and seven "Earths" mirror the seven crystal systems. The same structure is spoken of in the ancient Jewish midrashim with seven "underearths"

What is interesting about this is that modern science has discovered that there are actually seven distinct types of matrices or lattice structures that the crystals form within the Earth's crust. Some scientists have changed this to six with one of these having two distinct divisions.

seven crystal systems from the internet boomeria.org

            It is necessary at this point in this discussion to reveal how the nature of the sacred technology is a key to this story, to reiterate some of Rudolf Steiner’s writings about the mineral kingdom and it’s relationship to the living world and the angelic world. Steiner was quite the expert on these interrelationships and with the understanding of the five continuum world view laid out in chapter six we can get a picture of a technology that interfaces with substances or energies that modern physics does not yet measure or understand, but is very real. In Twylah Nitch’s book on the Other Council Fires were Here before Ours, we are related a history of the world from the consciousness of the mineral world and we are given a much wider understanding, a greater ‘depth” so to speak on how the crystals, metals and minerals are far more than modern science confirms. Detail of how the minerals fit into the larger scheme of the complex living cosmos can be found in Steiner’s writings, in his Lecture #8, The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and in the Kingdoms of nature, he goes deeply into the nature and interrelationship of the mineral world. He has a chart see below, which show the types of four different “bodies” that the mineral(physical-guf), plant(etheric-ruach), animal(astral-nephesh) and human(egoic-neshamah) possess in four different realms.

Steiner's chart of souls and their respective bodies/sheaths from internet rutupic.pw

These realms match up well with the four worlds discussed in chapter six on the worldview of Kabbalah. Rabbi Gershon Winkler teaches that in Kabbalah there are four realms of beings- the still ones/minerals, the sprouting ones/plants, the moving ones/animals and the speaking ones/humans. Steiner explains how there are four worlds, physical, astral, devachanic, and higher devachanic and they correspond to four types of bodies or sheaths, physical body, etheric body, astral body, and egoic body. The human being as seen in the chart has all four bodies or sheaths including the egoic, which is kind of an individual soul consciousness, in the physical world. The animal has the three bodies, physical, etheric and astral in the physical world while their ego is in the astral world. The plants have their physical and etheric bodies in the physical world while their ego is in the devachanic world. The mineral, and this is most important for this discussion here, has the physical body in the physical world, the etheric body in the astral world, the astral body in the devachanic world and the ego in the higher devachanic world. This basically shows us that although the crystal appears inanimate and fully inert and unconscious, it has an interface with more conscious realms in each of the “higher” worlds though with only a physical sheath it doesn't manifest physically the qualities of the "higher" sheaths.. Even though the mineral does not manifest an egoic or individual consciousness in the physical world it is connected to a collective soul consciousness in the higher world that Steiner calls the higher devachanic world and in kabbalah is called the world of emanation or Atziluth. This quote can help clarify Steiner’s view on the minerals, “Now it is easy to see in the physical world that we have only the physical body of the minerals. Hence the mineral appears to us as inorganic, devoid of life; on the other hand, we have it’s etheric body in the same world in which are the group-egos of the animals, and the astral bodies of the plants...All this takes place in those beings which lie behind the mineral kingdom as its astral body, and which we find in the devachanic world. The actual ego, the real group-ego of the mineral kingdom is to be sought in a higher world, which we will call the higher Devachanic world. Here only do we find the group-egos of the mineral kingdom...We must not identify what we recognize as the individual principles of beings, with the corresponding worlds, but must accustom ourselves to presuppose differentiation's among the various beings. A more occult discernment makes this quite clear. Thus provisionally we have to find only the group-souls of the minerals in a higher devachanic region.”

            We have discussed in an earlier chapter how the use of blood in ceremonial prayer is a critical part of the Jewish tradition; however how it is truly important has remained obscured. The connection of the metal Iron is of great importance here. In a sense blood is a biological form of iron, this metal playing a key role in the hemoglobin molecule that makes up the blood. The iron is the element that gives blood its red color. We know from the works of Kabbalah that Iron is very connected to the initiation of an Israel because the Hebrew word for iron is barzel and the four letters of this word, Beit, Resh, Zain and Lamed are the initials of the four wives of Jacob, Bilhah, Rachel, Zilpah and Leah. These are the mothers of the entire twelve tribes of Israel. The iron element also forms cubic shaped crystals as do some other crystals that have iron as a main part of their chemical make up.  This cubic pattern is very important in the geometrical language of the kabbalistic mysteries. In the Sepher Yetzirah, a handbook of Kabbalistic teachings and world view we have the description of a three dimensional cube in chapter one, the six faces of the cube being sealed with the letters of the name of HaShem. The structure of this basic geometric form not only holds the spatial reality and orientation of our everyday world but it carries the symbolic archetypal structure of the Jewish wisdom tradition as a temple of initiation. The three fundamental axis of the cube, are the three patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well as three “mother” letters of the Hebrew alphabet, aleph, mem and shin. The six faces of the cube are the six matriarchs of Israel, Sarah, Rebecca, and the four wives of Jacob. The twelve edges of the cube are the twelve tribes of Israel. The central point of the cube is the holy one, the divine HaShem. This geometric knowledge in kabbalah holds basic language that is very well developed and we can relate it here materially as the cubic form of crystal lattice structure being very important in the structure of the sacred technology of the wisdom tradition. This brings us back to the metal iron. Iron ore forms in cubic shaped crystals. The element iron has an atomic number (number of protons) of twenty-six which by gematria is the value of the four lettered name of the creator, Yod-10, Heh-5, Vav-6, Heh-5 = 26. Iron hence is of central importance in the mystery of the name of the creator and the structure of our world, human, living and material. The core of the globe of the  Earth is metallic iron. Iron is found mentioned throughout the Jewish scriptures and the prophet/navi Isaiah does say that Yisrael will be as a pillar of iron.

From Sepher Eshel Avraham(1701ce) with the metal Iron/barzel in the central wheel

            The most important sacred stone in the later Jewish tradition is the Eben Shetiyah, the foundation stone that the holy of holies of Solomon’s temple was built upon. We are also told in many alchemical and kabbalistic treatises that this stone is a cubic stone and the dimensions of the holy of holies gives us a cubic geometrical form. The goal in the alchemical traditions throughout the centuries of this stream of the wisdom tradition found particularly in Europe is to achieve or possess the most holy Stone of the philosophers and we many writings and teaching in alchemy about this although they are very veiled and sealed, to protect the knowledge in this line of the wisdom tradition. A lot of the alchemical wisdom was derived from the kabbalists and the writings of kabbalah. We find that many alchemical teachings involve the making of gold, however we are told that this gold is not the common form of gold. In making this gold we are directed to find the very “seed” of gold and all the metals and the quality that is “seed” is really at the core of alchemy and how it connects to this chapter and the entire writing. We are really stating in this writing that certain crystals within the Earth are the true “seeds” of the mineral world which carry a special interface with the “higher” worlds in kabbalah. This is where the works of Rudolf Steiner help us connect all this together and why we discussed them earlier in this chapter. We can summarize at this point that our sacred stone or seed we are looking may have a  cubic structure and somehow be connected to the metal iron or contains the metal iron. This is directly related to the very physical holy of holies at the heart of Solomon’s temple and the wisdom tradition of Solomon as it developed for thousands of years. The Torah book of Shemot/Exodus contains many more teachings about stones being used as in the Choshen or breastplate of the Jewish High priest.

High Priest's breastplate from Congregation Beth Mordehai

             There are hints that the technology that allows the interface between the world of the throne and the physical creation is found in different traditions.  In the story of the Tibetan lineage tulku of the Karmapa we have shown his sacred Black Hat/Crown which is said to have been woven by dakinis out of pure sapphires. The eight celestial bodhisattvas of Tibet have consorts who are female devis/Taras with relationship to the crystal substances. An example of this is the white Tara who is the consort of the bodhisattva Chenrezig(Avilokeshvara). She is related to a clear diamond like crystal and prayer beads for connecting with this Tara and bodhisattva are often made of some form of crystal. The diamond is one of the stones with a cubic crystal form. The other Taras of different colors who often are depicted as consorts of the celestial bodhisattvas and Buddhas are related gems of different colors.

 In the Zohar it tells us that the scepter of Moses and Aaron had two functions, which we discussed briefly earlier.  One was if it was held on one end would be to perform a miracle as in the parting of the red sea. The other use would be if it was held by the other end but the Zohar chooses to remain silent at this point in the text. The part on the seal ring of King Solomon joining above and below gives us the rest of the information. This is the same form of sacred technology that allows the soul fire of an upper world to be brought into the physical world possibly by way of a magnetic fire brought from celestial realms by means of a sacred special kind of star/kochab as discussed in chapter one.

The sacred stone said to have been placed by the patriarch Abraham in the wall of the Kaaba in Mecca. ,
Some say it has a celestial origin and had been given to the first human Adam(from hadith)

This allows for what is called in ancient Kabbalah, Ibbur, the soul impregnation of soul substance into our physical living world.  We will further touch on this in the chapter on the place of the third temple and Jerusalem. We can understand now that several ancient traditions had secret teachings about a specific crystalline technology that is an interface between the realms of being and soul substance and the physical human Earth world. Prophecies from the Tibetan, Native American, Christian, Islamic and Jewish traditions point to the possibility that a new manifestation of a holy temple or shrine will play a significant role in bringing about the long wished for epoch of a peaceful world here on Earth.

New Jerusalem depiction with twelve foundation jewels from internet Revelation scriptures.com

Geometric depiction of New Jerusalem from the Christian book of Revelation with twelve foundations stones

"The Turtle Talks Torah" Chapter Six The Shechinah: Holy Tree

       Chapter Six: The Shechinah, The Tree and the soul of the Mother Earth

            Studying with the various Native American medicine elders brought me on a serendipitous path towards understanding the central role of the globe of the Earth in the wisdom traditions. Basically like the individual human being so is the Earth herself a full embodiment of the divine realm with five distinct levels or soul interfaces. However with the Earth the fourth or Chayah/life level of soul is the original mother of life herself, the great Goddess, the sacred Tree. The fifth level of soul called in Hebrew Yechidah, or uniquely singular is who Jews call HaShem or God, the Source of love.The other three "lower" levels of interface are called in Hebrew neshamah/human individual, ruach/emotional-plant spirit and nephesh/animal soul. With the physical manifestation of the world the Earth however was not completely aligned with these upper soul levels and that has been the human work to Tikun or realign ourselves and the Earth with the Tree of Life being and the holy Source. The switch from a geocentric worldview to a heliocentric view with the development of the telescope and astronomy in the 1500’s caused a certain shift to occur in the importance of the earth herself within the majority worldview. The centrality of the Earth as a living being who is a mother to all life is fundamental to the worldview of the Aboriginal Americans.

Turtle carapace shell with the five levels of soul down the center with spots/scutes

The Earth is, within this tradition, not only conceptually alive as in the modern “Gaia Hypothesis”; she is alive as an individual mother who is actively giving and caring. This orientation to the Earth as a being demands that the individual and tribe respect each other and that all individuals live as relatives within a family whose very survival is based on this mutual support.

From the book "LightningBolt" by H.Storm with editor addition of the five Hebrew names of the five soul levels

This is why we hear that there is no word for religion in the Native American languages. Their very life path must demand that they walk in a balanced and beautiful way upon the breast of the being that sustains them in every way. Here is another version of the famous Navajo prayer of “Walking in Beauty” which states the principal of an Earth centered faith.

“In beauty may I dwell

In beauty may I walk

In beauty may it rain on my young men

In beauty may it rain on my young women

In beauty may it rain on my chiefs

In beauty may it rain on us

In beauty may our corn grow

In beauty may our children grow

On the trail of pollen, may it rain

In beauty before us, may it rain

In beauty behind us, may it rain

In beauty below us, may it rain

In beauty above us, may it rain

In beauty all around us, may it rain

In beauty may I walk

With beauty before me may I walk

With beauty behind me may I walk

With beauty above me may I walk

With beauty all around me may I walk

It is finished in beauty (From the Navajo Nightway Chant)

           

The medicine wheel teachings of the Cheyenne that I studied are a means to integrate all the aspects of the natural world from both the outer and the inside dimensions of a person. It was with this circle of Chiefs that I began to come into a relationship to the wheel of the Earth, as she is a sentient being herself. Within the Jewish tradition there is the feminine quality of the divine called the Shechinah, which literally means indwelling of the divine. This is now generally accepted as a quality of the divine. I discovered however that some Jewish ancient Rabbis had related to the Shechinah as a very individual being and further study brought me to the understanding that the Earth Globe like an individual human has five different qualities of soul or being substance. With these guidelines one is able to understand a seemingly complex confusion of feminine qualities and conceptual “archetypal” traditions that truly have a real basis in fact directly related to the Earth as an individual living being.

Demeter and Persephone from Sharath Kamarraju/internet

The tradition of the divine feminine called the Shechinah in kabbalah, as an exiled aspect of the people of Israel searching for there promised home has a direct relationship to the Greek mysteries practiced at Eleusis. These involve the famous legend of Demeter the grain mother/Earth mother who is in mournful search for her lost/exiled daughter Persephone. Persephone is captured by the deity Hades and kept in the under Earth world half the year. Hades had seen her on the surface world, fell enamored of her and brought her with him below. Because she ate three pomegranate seeds she needed to stay below in the kingdom of Hades for half the year ,the winter cycle. When she came above the spring and the growing season ensued, her mother Demeter was joyful indeed. Usually this myth is interpreted in a psychological - archetypal way. However when we look at the story in the light of tradition that perceives the Earth as a being we can come out with a different understanding. If we perceive the Earth as a being with five different “levels” of soul as defined in kabbalah for an individual then Demeter the mother and Persephone the daughter are two different parts of the five part soul of the Earth mother. In the Sepher HaZohar we follow the story of the two matriarchs Leah and Rachel who embody these very same two parts of the soul. Rachel is exiled along the roads of the face of the Earth. She awaits for the people to come back ingathered to their sacred home and united to the divine sovereign on Earth. In fact it is the very earth where the “Queen” and the “King” may join together in a renewed new found love.

Rachel and Leah at the well, "upper" and "lower" mother(from Dante)

This is really a big part of what the biblical book Shir HaShirim, the Song of Songs is about. She is described as the “lower” mother who carries the last letter ‘Heh” of the four lettered unpronounceable name of the Creator Yod-heh-Vav-Heh. The second letter “heh” is attributed to Leah who is known as the upper mother. She lives in the world of the throne or second world, in the scheme of four worlds that parallel the four letters of the divine name and the four of five qualities of the soul being. The third letter is the letter vav which is masculine and is the single letter Hebrew word for “and”. The value of this letter is 6 and it is related to the six depths or omakim that define the spatial world of three spatial continuums explained in  chapter five on the ten depths in kabbalah. So it is the very world we perceive as “space” that joins the lower world of Earth/Rachel(Malchut) (last Heh) to the upper world of eternity/Leah(Binah) (second heh). This upper world is where the fourth continuum of time is born. It contains eternity and is the place where the seat or throne of initiation is seen to exist according to the visions and experiences of prophets and kabbalists. So we can discern here a close parallel to the upper mother and lower mother with Demeter and Persephone, both pairs each were searching for the other for a united completion. In the Christian Gnostic traditions this also parallels the exiled Sophia being reunited with her divine lover. In fact in the Kabbalah this completion of the joining of these two feminine beings is the very magnum opus, the great work of redemption and tikkun olam, the healing and balancing of the world. This is the quest of the initiate of kabbalah, to unite the letters of the divine name within oneself and within the entire world. On the Jewish Sabbath we pray for the Shechinah herself, the united divine feminine to enter into our homes, our lives and our world.

            We will finish this chapter with a return to the beginning of this story in a sense. The coming of the star maiden, called White Buffalo Calf Women, the spirit of the plant world in the Plains Indian teachings. This is the very Demeter - DeMater - the mother who as the grain mother is the spirit of the plants and the sacred Tree. She is the spirit of the seeds and as we discuss in the next chapter even the crystal seeds we call gems. We have spoken about how she is connected to the coming to the Earth with a comet or spirit star. We have discussed how the comets are the interface or messengers with the world of the throne or higher soul world (neshama-2nd heh of divine name)). So we see how the return to the world of the neshama or higher soul of the Earth being to the Earth/Human world by way of sacred comet fulfills the work of joining the upper mother or Corn mother (in the Pueblo tradition) to the lower mother or Corn maiden, the earthy blood soul part of the Earth being called the nefesh in Kabbalah. This being force being found aligned with the red pipestone and the red sacred stone she carried to the Lakota people when she brought them the way of the pipe, the Chanupa, thousands of years ago.

White Bison Calf Woman(from the internet)

 We will here give over a new analogy for the divine creation as a seed and a Tree, the Tree of life or Etz Chaiim in the Hebrew.

The Seed and the Tree:

A world as ours where creative, loving and imaginative unique individuals may be found is a sign for some of us that the ultimate source of this creation also holds all the qualities of a creative unique individual including uniqueness and individuality. Did this world happen by chance from the original mix of forces and elements or is the world a conscious creation? Many of the newer and diverse views of “God” within the Jewish tradition steer away from this idea that the Creator has unique individuality. Some of this has been a reaction against the old man in the sky view of a punishing deity. Also folks have tried to fit their understanding of the divine so as to align more with the scientific views of the origins of the creation and the time/space- matter/energy only shape of the world. With such confusion and differing contrasting concepts and views of the ‘Supreme Deity” here is offered an analogy that may help reveal the true shape of the “Elephant” so to speak (from the legend of the five blind men and the elephant).

If we may conceive of the entire living creation as a vast mighty tree as many ancient cultures have we may also envision her ultimate source as an original seed. The life in the seed is the very divine essence that flows throughout the tree and into every single individual cell. Each individual cell contains the life essence (divine spark) and the complete information within it (DNA) that define all the qualities of the original seed and the entire tree. (We are made in the image of HaShem)  

In this analogy the only spin needed to understand a fit in the conceptual view of an omnipresent, omnipotent and omniscient deity which ancient Jewish tradition ascribes to the Holy One is to understand that the original seed is eternal and unchanging.  This original seed also exists as the ever flowing fount of divine life essence into the great tree that is creation.

We may understand that there is a variegated array of the function of different single cells in the structure of the great tree. There are of course cells as part of the roots, trunk, leaves, flowers, fruits and seeds. Certain cells are destined to themselves become seeds and this state of the individual cell may be understand as that of an “enlightened” individual with the many different names that various religious/spiritual traditions ascribe to a fully present awakened individual. This seed state within the tree may also be understood as an individual that has become so fully cognizant of the array of unique qualities that she carries that she comes into a close relationship and knowing of the original seed (I and Thou).

Different religions and spiritual traditions may have a variation or spin on this analogy that would better fit their own world view, divine view and understanding of the individual in relation to the greater world and the divine.  Some traditional Jews may argue with this analogy and cite the Rambam where he says that the Creator(haBoreh) has no form so how may we conceive of that one in the form of a seed? In the ancient Jewish worldview (from the Sepher Yetzirah) there are three realms- time(shanah),space(olam) and soul(nephesh) unlike the modern view of only time/space. Therefore the original seed may not have to be embodied in a physical corporeal form to exist since the realm of soul is as original as the space/time physical world and as real. Various Buddhist traditions may understand this seed as a state achieved through Buddhist practice but a state that is not to be attached to or understood as having any permanency or hierarchical importance. This would be the greatest difference in Buddhism where the idea of deity is not usually a concern except in relation to the many deities in some traditions as in Tibet. Great secrets may be revealed and I believe have been discovered by folks venturing into sincere loving interfaith comparison (The Jew in the Lotus). Some Christians might believe that the Original seed is like the “Father”, the entire life of the tree like the “Holy Spirit” and the “Son” once appeared embodied in a new seed that started teaching the other “cells” about the original seed. These different spins have become elements of faith and dogma in some instances but how they all fit together might be of interest in further interfaith dialogue.

It is also completely in alignment with the above understanding of the sacred Tree as a being or soul level of the entire Earth that the original mtDNA mother of all humanity carried the root soul that streams through the living tree of our cells and bodies and makes us all relatives. We are one hoop of peoples made of many smaller hoops as Black Elk saw in his incredible vision about the healing of the world.

 

"The Turtle Talks Torah" Chapter Five: The Ten Depths and True Shape of the World

     

Ancient Hebrew worldview with the Earth as center and all the heavenly spheres/realms of beings emerging from the great ocean of soul

In this chapter we will discuss the basic cosmology or worldview found through the lens of the kabbalistic tradition. It is really fairly simple at its core and will greatly facilitate the smooth weaving of the tapestry we are working at communicating to the reader here in this writing of ten chapters. The commonly excepted view of modern western science about the world that we perceive is that it is made of a four-dimensional space-time continuum. There are three dimensions of space that stretch out to give us our physical reality. These are often referred to as length, width and height. These are each conceived as continuums or directions we can move in along a path, each with two endpoints that stretch infinitely in opposite directions. So we can move ahead of us or behind us (length), to the right of us or to the left (width), and up above us or down below us (height). These are the three continuums that define three-dimensional “space”. These dimensions can also be studied as geometric forms such as the line, the plane, and the cube. A thorough simple study of how these dimensions are related mathematically is important for a full understanding of the ten depths that are fundamental to the theoretical world view in kabbalah and how it differs from generally accepted scientific paradigms. A great little classic book about dimensionality and “higher space” is entitled Flatland by Edwin A. Abbott. I highly recommend this for a serious student of the wisdom traditions. The three continuums of space therefore have six infinite endpoints that stretch out in six directions around us. A full development of this scheme can be found in studying the most fundamental and very important book of kabbalah entitled, The Sepher Yetzira. The fourth continuum generally excepted in modern physics is that of time. It’s infinite endpoints are beginning or first (in the past) and the end or last (in the future). These two endpoints of linear time added to the six points of space give us the eight depths of the modern space-time conception of the world. Where the ancient world view of the author of the book the Sepher Yetzira differs from the modern is that there is postulated one more continuum, a fifth, called being, soul/nephesh, or life. The Sepher Yetzira tells us that the infinite end points of this dimension of being are Tov, good and Raa, evil. These are as much a commentary on what these “depths” or infinite endpoints are as much as anything. We really cannot describe what any of the 10 depths or endpoints of the five continuums are exactly. They are made “out of nothingness” /B’limah, literally “out of what?”according to the Sepher Yetzira.

 

This is the English translation of the Sepher Yetzira’s chapter 1:verse5 regarding these ten Omakim/depths, from Aryeh Kaplan's book on the “Sefer Yetzirah”

“Ten sefirot of Nothingness:

Their measure is ten

which have no end

A depth of beginning

            A depth of end

A depth of good

            A depth of evil

A depth of above

            A depth of below

A depth of east

            a depth of west

A depth of north

            A depth of south

The singular Master

            God faithful King

            dominates over them all

                        from his holy dwelling

                        until eternity of eternities.”

Basic ten Sephirot or Depths as the 6 faces, 3 axes and center of a 3-D cube

           The depths of the continuum of life, the fifth continuum, denote directions we can take and not not only a  stationary place or places. So we may move on our life path in either the direction of towards “good” or the divine, or we may move in the direction away from the “good” or divine. The basic amazing statement here in this world view is that being or life is it’s own dimensionality and it did not arise by chance out of a mix of inorganic matter over very long periods of time. Actually as we study this tradition we find that the reverse is true in a sense. Measurable matter and energy actually arises out of the primary “substance” of the being world, an ocean of soul. This being realm of soul is as primary and original as the space-time continuum and did not just develop with the outward appearance of life forms in the evolutionary timeline. There are therefore three realms that are postulated by the author of the Sepher Yetzirah: Nefesh/Soul; Shanah/Time(literally year) and Olam/space(literally world).This always reminds me of the saying of the Islamic holy man and poet, Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi. “The whole physical creation is as a speck of dust floating on the foam on a wave on the surface of the ocean of being.” The two depths or polarities of the fifth continuum of being, which are called the “depth of good and the depth of evil” carry great import for the picture we are painting in this writing. In all the material concerning the ancient Native American wisdom tradition we quite often have reference to the sacred twinness, which is at the root of all life and manifestation, and which is even found reflected in the divine. In the Plains Indian wisdom we particularly have the divine “greatperson” or “persons” called Wahkan Skan or Wahkan tanka. Wakan being the female mother of life and Skan or Tanka the male all father. These are twin mysteries that do in a sense point to the divine single mystery who is the origin and source of all twinness, including gender itself, and light and dark, day and night, good and evil. The singular Source I often call the Source of love or Hashem, literally in Hebrew, "the name"/God. The two male brother twins in many native American traditions are called flint boy and born of water, or Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca or in the Mayan Popul Vuh epoch they are called Hunahpu and Xbalanque, Heart of Heaven and Heart of Earth. In the Hopi tradition they are male twins who sit at the opposite ends of the Earth and keep her in balance and alive. These twins are within the lines of deep initiation representing the dance of how these polarities or depths of being do come into awareness of each other and together play a big part in any true place of initiation of the great mystery. The development of how the ten depths relate to each other and our world of qualities reflected in human life is also directly related to what in kabbalah is called the work of unifying the holy name in the world. The entire created manifested world is in play due to a dance of these polar forces of being which can be very conscious in a human being. As we develop this writing there is a thin thread running through that explains how certain personages play out a dance that brings the “good” direction and depth into a harmonic play with the “evil” direction and depth. The upcoming chapter on Israel and Rome develop this in regards to the initiation of the place of an Israel and the relationship to the twin brother Esau and his power or angel being who is the guardian of Rome. This  can coincide with the polar direction of “kingdom” or the depth of the being continuum which is in the direction away from the innocent first wisdom that transcends time and is oceanic in scope and all “good”. The direction towards this “evil” is developed through the great knowledge that comes with great age within time and can be associated with intense desire for its polarity. This is what the early works of Kabbalah say of the prince of Rome who is called Samael. This quote is from the Treatise on the Left Emanation, by Rabbi Jacob HaCohen in the 13th century,

”I will now set down the names of the princes of jealousy and enmity. Yet since their essence and their service is true and pure, their mouths are free from mendacity and neither lies nor falsehoods pass between them.

   The first prince and accuser, the commander of jealousy, is evil Samael, accompanied by his retinue. He is called "evil" not because of his nature but because he desires to unite and intimately mingle with an emanation not of his nature, as we shall explain.”(from the book The Early Kabbalah in the Classics of Western Spirituality  series.

We will develop the play between Rome (Samael) and Israel in the upcoming chapter but here is it’s very origin and root in the heart of the five-continuum worldview of Kabbalah and the polarity of the desire realm which the early kabbalists tie in closely to the angel/demons of the left emanation. This is really the dance of the twin Trees mentioned in the beginning of the book of Genesis; The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and evil, both which are found in the center of the garden. They really are the same Tree except one is in a sense from the viewpoint of the outside and sensing the polarity of it all and the other Tree of Life is from the integrated center where all is resolved into a perfect symmetry of Peace and beauty. Some of the early Kabbalists saw the ten sephirot/spheres or depths divided into a left right polarity as in the form of a ladder or tree and proposed that the physical world hung in the balance of these polar divided powers or forces. This has been the basis of the "pop' Kabbalah now famous in the general world but it is kind of out of balance. It is only one perspective that needs to be simply integrated into rest of the living teaching where we come into a relationship with the divine center. Conscious beings, angels, demons and souls have their origin from different parts of this expanded play of the ten depths. The ten depths are also seen, as a development of the basic four lettered name of the divine and the work of the kabbalist is to reunite this name in a balanced and beautiful way in our physical world. This is a world of balance fully in the flow/sheaf of the divine influx. These ten depths are also depicted in a form of whirling out of a central source(see image) in the time of origin however this is always also happening and is actually a key to tikun olam or the realigning with the ongoing creative maelstrom so as to bring ourselves into the world of balance fully in the flow/sheaf of the divine influx.

The Ten Depths or Sephirot/Spheres whirling out of the pure realm(revealing the golden mean)

            A brief mention here is in order about how an understanding of this five continuum world view solves the great debate between advocates of the evolution of living organisms according to Darwinian theory and the advocates of creationism where all creatures are were made at once and roughly at the same time with no changes in form over long periods of time. These two views remind one of the old story from the Asian and Middle Eastern traditions about the five blind men and the elephant(see image). The folk tale tells of five blind men encountering an elephant. "It's a tree," says one, stroking a leg. "No, no, it's a rope," says another, feeling the tail. "No, this must be a wall," insists a third, spreading his arms against the bulk of the elephant's body. It is a tree says the one grasping the leg and the fifth says it is a fan while grasping an er. All five had a different perception of the elephant based on the part they examined, and all five conclusions were wrong. The elephant was larger and more complex than any of the men realized. Yet it was simple when all integrated as a whole.

Story of the blind men and the elephant

This relates exactly as to the argument between the two sides on the origins of life on earth. Each has only a narrow slice because their worldview is not inclusive enough to give us a more profound and full picture of how the cosmos has developed and is always in a continuous creative unfolding..  With the understanding of a fifth continuum of being or life as given to us from the ancient wisdom schools we can perceive how the physical world evolves out of a grander “ocean” of being which is it’s own dimensionality. Life forms or living organisms on Earth did not by chance simply appear out of inorganic chemicals over long period of time. Scientists have been trying to prove this by simulating conditions in a test tube with inorganic material. They have never “made” life and they never will. This is because life is it’s own vast dimension of being and it is the interpenetration of this fifth continuum which is life, with the physical world of space and time that allows forms of life to appear and evolve and grow over vast periods of time. The study of the relationships of the simple dimensions to each other as given in the book Flatland explain how the interpenetration of a higher dimensionality such as a three dimensional cone would look if it cut through or interfaced with a two-dimensional flat plane. A being living on the flat plane would first perceive a dot appear in his flat world, that world having only the dimensions of length and width. As the 3-D cone moved through the flat plane surface, the being in flatland would only then see the point becoming a circle that appeared to get larger and larger, similar to a growing thing, and then it would simply vanish as the cone completely left the flat surface world. The being in the flatland could not see anything beyond the two dimensions so he could not grasp the entire view of the 3-D cone, only a slice or cross section at a time.  When we understand these simple relationships between the geometrical bodies of one, two and three dimensions we can apply these same principles to the two higher or more complex dimensions or continuums called time and being. When each higher geometric figure interfaces or moves through a geometric body of a lower dimension we get certain patterns that appear in the body of the lower dimension that shows that a body of a higher dimension is moving through it. The example of this is the cone moving through a plane that shows in the plane as a point becoming a circle that grows steadily bigger and then disappears. To simplify this whole discussion and relate it back to the origins of life debate we can ask what is the pattern that the 5-D dimension of life or being creates within the physical world of three dimensions of space and the one of time? The one pattern ONLY found in living growing organisms is that of the golden mean or sometimes called the number progression known as the Fibonacci series after the Italian scientist who first recorded this mathematical phenomenon found only in life. So the golden mean proportion is the mathematical proof in our physical 4-D space/time world that life as the fifth continuum interfaces the 4 other continuums and appears in growth patterns to adhere precisely to this one mathematical proportion. This proportion is most easily seen in the progressive spiral of the nautilus seashell or the pinecone.

Fibonacci spiral and golden mean ratio found only in living organisms

Our own human bodies are built on this same proportion. It is our visual proof of the existence of the fifth continuum as the source “world’ of being that manifests in the physical world of time and space as living growing organisms. It is very simple and supremely beautiful! (5-d interpenetrates 3-D = golden mean)The Sepher Yetzira uses the fundamental principles of geometry to give us a view into the world made of five continuums. In the Sepher Yetzira,, The Book of Formation we have the golden mean proportion given to us discreetly in the fact that the ten sephirot are said to be as the fingers, ten and not nine, and ten and not eleven. From the Sepher Yetzira Chapter 1:3 and 1:4;Kaplan Trans.

“Ten Sefirot of Nothingness

            in the number of ten fingers

                        five opposite five

            with a singular covenant

                        precisely in the middle

            in the circumcision of the tongue

            and in the circumcision of the membrane.

Ten Sefirot of Nothingness

            ten and not nine

            ten and not eleven

Understand with Wisdom

Be wise with Understanding

            examine with them

            and probe from them

Make each thing stand on its essence

and make the Creator sit on his base.”

 They are also said to be placed together like our fingers five opposite to five. There are ancient pictures of the ten sephirot whirling out like a wheel of ten spokes(image above) from a center source point. This ten-faced polygon gives us the precise proportions of the golden mean as a five-side polygon or pentagram will as well. A nine sided or eleven sided polygon will not produce the golden mean proportion, only the ten sided polygon, which is a development of the five, like the five fingers of the hand. This is why the Yetzirah says “Ten and not nine, ten and not eleven”. This is a simple basic geometric principal of the golden mean which in ancient times was regarded as a supreme secret in the wisdom schools.

the golden mean ratio as depicted in a five or ten sided polygon as in a flower

The source of the blood covenant, or naming ceremony called “Bris milah”, the covenant of the flesh as a special form of prayer can also be seen here as related directly to the human body and the continuum of life and being and the fibonacci progression in days after birth.. We already discussed how on the ancient Mayan cave painting the nautilus sea shell (displaying the golden mean proportion) at the level of the generative organ in the picture of the priest initiate who is also shown piercing his own foreskin, signaled this ancient understanding of these same connections. We see the Fibonacci series in play here with the covenant of Abraham, the bris milah being performed as a ceremonial naming prayer in the presence of the whole community on the EIGHTH day of life,the "8" being the sixth number in the progression of the series: 1,1,2,3,5,8,13,21....... With the addition of the beginning number as zero it then becomes the seventh number in the series although Fibonacci did not use the zero when he presented his discovery centuries ago. The magic of the serial progresion being found both in the geometrical spatial development as in animal and plant dimensions as well in the sequence of time and generation. As an ancient form of shamanic prayer ceremony this procedure brings the individual into a full presence, body and soul at a day where where the Fibonacci series of generative dance aligns with the OCTAVE of music.

Nat'l Geographic 1987 story/ ancient Mayan cave painting of priest with nautilus shell and piercing his foreskin

The importance of this golden mean ratio and fibonacci series is revealed in another way in the Sepher Yetzirah, the primer of kabbalah. The first chapter of the Sepher Yetzira also develops for the reader the form of a three dimensional cube as a worldview of three-dimensional physical space. The 3-D cube has eight points or corners called vertices. The 2-D plane has one half this or 4 corner points called vertices. The one-D line has two corner points or vertices. So we see that at each higher dimension form the number of vertices is doubled. We have the pattern so now we can count or postulate how many vertices a four-D cube, a tesseract, called a hyper cube should have. It would have twice the eight of a 3-D cube or sixteen. The 5-D hyper cube, which represents our vast dimension of being encompassing the entire creation, would have twice the number of vertices of a 4-D cube or thirty-two. Now we know why the ancient Sepher Yetzira, the primer of Kabbalah begins with,

“With thirty-two wonderful and hidden paths of wisdom

engraved Yah

            the Lord of Hosts

            the God of Israel

    the living God.........” (after kaplan translation) Rabbi Aryeh Kaplan discussed this amazing interpretation of the thirty two as the vertices of the 5-D hypercube.

 We also can see how these thirty-two “paths” that define a five continuum universe are hinted at in the Buddhist and Asian idea that enlightened humans are born with thirty marks or signs of their level of initiation. This means that they bring this inclusive consciousness of all five continuums into their present physical birth. This reference to the thirty-two marks of a Buddha or celestial bodhisattva can be found throughout the Buddhist writings.

Most turtle shells with the FIVE scutes/scales down the center=5-D fibonacci "talks" SOUL

            The universe is here stated to be built, geometrically from five continuums or dimensions. Each infinite end of each direction or continuum give us the ten depths that the Sepher Yetzira further elucidates with many details that describe the world and the human experience in this universe. A whole chapter is given over to the polarities and contraries that are fundamental to human experience such as pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, life and death. The basic polarities of the continuum of soul as ‘good and evil” tell us that evil is not a particular thing or being like a devil outside of ourselves. This evil potential inside ourselves is called the yetzer Raa or evil impuese.. Evil/Raa is a direction that may choose to face which is away from the good direction. It is in this understanding that the Hebrew prophet proclaimed that the Source of love(God) created “evil”. HaShem(God) creates the map and it gives us the choice of what direction to journey in on our life path. ;Isaiah 45:7:” I am the Adonai; and there is none else;

} 7 I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace, and create evil; I am the Adonai, that doeth all these things”.

            These ten infinite depths or spheres are called sephirot in Hebrew. They are traditionally and popularly placed in the form of a tree made of three distinct columns. This is called often the tree of life. This sacred tree of life called the Etz Chaiim in Hebrew is the same holy tree that the elder Native American Hyemehosts Storm wrote about in his essay that we quoted in chapter four.  The original root of the Tree of Life is in this writers understanding the divine being called the Shechinah in the Jewish teachings and we have a  chapter devoted to who she is as found in different traditions and religions. The Tree of Life is found in the wisdom traditions around the entire globe. The Tree is not only symbolic but is also the entire living creation and all it contains. There are other ways of understanding how the ten depths make up our world and reality and at the end of this chapter there is the tree in the form of a wheel where the Earth is actually in the center and embodies the tree in a healed and beautiful form. The tree however is a good symbol and we can find it in other wisdom teachings such as the European Iggradisll and the tree of life in the Native American traditions. The tree always provokes the idea that Life is the primary reality around which the entire creation is built from. This is a holistic and radically different worldview then that of modern science in the mainstream. Even many scientists are moving back to this understanding. Quantum physics gave us an understanding of how everything, every particle and wave of matter and energy are fundamentally connected. These five continuums of space/olam(3), time/shanah(1), and being/nephesh(1) develop out of the Source of love and the creator and sustainer of all.  We must first understand this creation and our place within the creation. In the Jewish tradition this is being able to say “Hineni” or “here I am” in full relationship with the Source of love and our origin. By giving the ten omakim or depths, qualities that we can understand as experiences within our emotional and intellectual experience we are helping define the very physical creation in a sacred way. This is part of the fundamental command to the Jewish people and students of the other faith traditions, to be vehicles for bringing holiness into the whole world around us. This walk within this holy tree is found in a traditional Navajo prayer, one version here from talking-feather.com online:

“Walking in Beauty: Closing Prayer from the Navajo Way Blessing Ceremony

In beauty I walk

With beauty before me I walk

With beauty behind me I walk

With beauty above me I walk

With beauty around me I walk

It has become beauty again

Hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shitsijí’ hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shikéédéé hózhóogo naasháa doo
Shideigi hózhóogo naasháa doo
T’áá altso shinaagóó hózhóogo naasháa doo
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’
Hózhó náhásdlíí’

Today I will walk out, today everything negative will leave me

I will be as I was before, I will have a cool breeze over my body.

I will have a light body, I will be happy forever, nothing will hinder me.

I walk with beauty before me. I walk with beauty behind me.

I walk with beauty below me. I walk with beauty above me.

I walk with beauty around me. My words will be beautiful.

In beauty all day long may I walk.

Through the returning seasons, may I walk.

On the trail marked with pollen may I walk.

With dew about my feet, may I walk.

With beauty before me may I walk.

With beauty behind me may I walk.

With beauty below me may I walk.

With beauty above me may I walk.

With beauty all around me may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, lively, may I walk.

In old age wandering on a trail of beauty, living again, may I walk.

My words will be beautiful…” Beauty is the central balanced Sephirah in the Hebrew called Tipheret.

            I present in these pages a different way to study and use these 10 depths than has been given during the centuries by traditional Kabbalists. It is during the ceremonial days between the holiday of Passover and Shavuoth that the students of Kabbalah would use 7 of the “lower” sephirot to guide them in preparation for the celebration of the revelation at Sinai. Each of these depths carries qualities that we can use to help us follow the journey from “enslavement” as an isolated individual to “enlightenment” and revelation as a healed human bringing holiness into our self and into the world. I include here a ceremony that could be done at any time but particularly may be used during the seven weeks between Passover and Shavuoth and on the Eve of Shavuoth as a way to understand the continuums of our created world in a uniquely integrated and whole form.

                        THIS IS THE WHEEL OF THE TEN DEPTHS                                                             CALLED THE OMAKIM (depths) OR                                                                                           SEPHIROT (spheres) IN HEBREW

            This wheel dance of prayer and contemplation is closely fashioned to the ancient Gnostic round dances of the early Christians and Jews and celebrated their prayer and relationship to the divine mystery with movement and song. It is also inspired the beautiful dance and sacred movements found in the Islamic Sufi schools. Dancing this wheel involves a way of praying, meditating and counting the 49 days of the omer between Passover and Shavout. It is developed in the form of a wheel with the center representing the heart of the Earth globe and the blessed Sabbath Kingdom of Peace, both within the world and inside our selves. It can be used at anytime of the year, the 49 days between the feasts of Passover and Shavuot represent an archetypal count that brings us from slavery and constraint into revelation and freedom by opening our understanding and relationship to the divine mystery. For Christians this is the period in their ceremonial calendar between the Last Supper and the Pentecost when the disciples of Jesus were blessed with the fire of initiation and baptism.

            This is another way to contemplate the 10 sephirot that are a central teaching of the oral Torah called Kabbalah. This is specifically made to represent a world of the Tikkun Olam, a healed and balanced World where heaven and Earth have joined together. In this scheme the Shechinah who is the feminine part of the name of HaShem(the Creator) is the very neshama or soul of the planet earth, the original root of the Etz Chaiim/Tree of Life and called First Woman in some Native American teachings.  She lives in the Sabbath center where the first and tenth depths or sephirot are now situated together. These are called traditionally in English the crown and the Kingdom.

            The six words of the basic and most important proclamation of the unity of the entire creation and the divine mystery, the creator, are Shema Yisrael Adonai Elohaynu Adonai Echad. This is roughly translated as hear Oh Israel the Creator is our divinity; the creator is the unity and reality of all that is. The second and following verse is Baruch Shem cavod malchuto Leolam Vaed. This roughly means that blessed is the Name of the Divine glory in the Kingdom for all Eternity.

            As we pray the six words of the Shema in each depth of the circle (representing six days of the omer count) we complete the prayer with Baruch Shem Cavod Malchuto...., in the center of the wheel and in our own heart center. This the place of the depth called malchut, the kingdom of the world, mentioned in the prayer. Then we either cross the wheel to the opposite depth or move to the left to the next depth depending on the particular step we are on. We finish the wheel journey in the center with the Shema and the Baruch Shem cavod. (this is just if an individual is doing this)

            Before each Shema on each depth we may contemplate the quality of the sephirot and the Personage from the Jewish tradition that holds this quality and helps bring that wisdom into our own understanding.

            For each reciting of the Shema we slowly turn counterclockwise individually in place six times as we slowly sing the Shema with our hands raised. Each turn is one day like the turn of the earth on her axis. Then we take a step forward towards the center (if we are a group in a circle) and bringing our hands to our chest we say the Baruch Shem cavod.... for the seventh day of the first week. When working as a group we slowly circle around to take the opposite positions on the wheel (as if we crossed through the central hub). We repeat this process seven times - totally the 49-day counts. The final Shema of the fiftieth day we step towards the center(if in a group) and sing the shema using a visualization prayer where each of the six words is placed in the six directions - front/back; right/left; up/down around us and we say the Baruch Shem cavod... as we bring our hands to center in our chest. Then we finish with the Halleluyah for a healed Earth.

 

            Contemplations for each Depth and week:

 

Week One: Hod, the splendor of humility

Aaron the humble high priest whose path from the direction “behind” we walk as children of Israel. We do this particularly to fulfill the command to be a nation of priests who are to bring holiness to the whole world.

 

Week Two: Netzach, victory of destiny

Moses who climbs the mountain of life ahead of us and comes face to face with the creator, the great mystery whose name we are manifesting in this dance of life.

 

Week Three: Hesed, lovingkindness and mercy

Abraham, the father of the Jewish people who welcomed the stranger and had so much love that he lived the entire Torah in his heart before we stood at Sinai as a people. With our right hand we do mitzvoth to transform our world.

 

Week Four: Geburah, Glory of Strength and courage

Sarah, the mother of the Jewish people who gave birth at the age of ninety and fully accepted the covenant with the Creator. We accept what comes to us with our left hand and respond with courage.

 

Week Five: Tiphereth, Beauty of Balance

Israel who wrestles with the divine within and without. We hold the ideal of beauty above us as a guide to our life path.

 

Week Six: Yesod, the foundation of sexuality

Miriam, who brought us through the waters with joy and helped birth a people of holiness. Our foundation below us connects us to the depth of the Earth with our sexuality.

 

Week Seven: Chochma, wisdom of beginnings

Solomon, who built the first temple and only wanted wisdom and understanding for himself, we begin anew each day as the creator renews the creation. 

 

Shavuot, in the center of Sinai

Rachel and Leah, an Earth healed by the joy of the Sabbath

Most species of turtles have 37 scutes/scales on their top shells/carapace and 12 scutes on the bottom shell/plastron = 49 in total. The whole animal with life and soul is the FIFTY! Like the count of the omer/sephirot integrating creation into what Kabbalists call the Shaar HaNun, the complete fifty gates of wisdom.

         This ceremony brings us directly into the traditions about the appearance of the third Beth HaMikdash, or holy temple and how it is that it already actually interfaces with the Earth world in a new way. The legends tell us that in the fourth heaven which we remember from chapter two is a journey of 3750 years (of prayer) the heavenly holy temple exists eternally and that this one will come down to the Earth in a twinkling of an eye. There are seven heavens in the kabbalistic tradition and as also stated earlier these are said in the legends to be made of seven kinds of crystals. Each heaven is a seed in a sense within the higher continuums of time and being that develops into one of the seven “lower” depths or sephirot. The bringing of the eternal Holy temple from the fourth heaven into our physical world is another way of speaking about the healing of the world called the tikun olam. There is some debate about how the Third temple appears. Many traditional Jews believe it needs to be built by people, as in the Torah there is the commandment to build a holy house or beit haMikdash. However many rabbinic sages have said that that commandment was already fulfilled by the building of the first two temples in Jerusalem and that the third temple would not be a man made building as the Zohar states. Part of the aim of this writing is to explain how it is that the third temple is already here, that it actually includes the entire earth and that it was brought in line with the physical world from the realignment of the upper dimensions with the lower dimensions that took place when the sacred fire of the comet came by the earth in 1990 and fulfilled it’s work of reuniting the soul substance of the being of the Earth here in the physical world and through the human world. A summary on the web about Rabbi Moshe Luzzato’s book called Mishkney Elyon reveals the basis for the heavenly temple in relation to it’s manifestation on earth and the entire manifestation of the physical world built on the ten depths called the sephirot. Here is part of this introduction,

“Consider an example of how numbers create space: A room that is forty feet in length, twenty feet wide and twenty feet high is "created" by walls of appropriate length and height. In the language of Mishkney Elyon, the floor-space of such a room is created through the "joining" (Chibur) of forty and twenty. Chibur is the Hebrew word for the mathematical relationship expressed by x, the multiplication sign. We would say that the room is 40 by 20, and 20 high, or 40 x 20 x 20. The mathematics of Mishkney Elyon are no more complicated than that.

As Ramchal(Luzzato) proceeds with his "tour" of the various areas of the Temple, he shows how each individual Hall, Chamber, Wall, Gate and Courtyard "appears" as a result of the "joining together" of some or all of the letters of various Divine Names. These names correspond to the Sefirot and Partzufim, which are the Middot, "qualities" or "measures". Chibur, "joining" and "multiplication" of the "measures", brings into being three-dimensional "spaces" where the axes of "length", "breadth" and "height" are the three "lines" or "columns" of Chesed, Kindness, Din, Judgment and Rachamim, Mercy and Balance (see Sefer Yetzirah 1:13).

The Temple that Ramchal explains to us in Mishkney Elyon is that seen by Ezekiel in his prophetic vision. The Angel appeared to the Prophet with his "measuring rod" and "linen cord", taking him on what today would be called a "virtual" three-dimensional tour of the entire Temple, showing him every detail and giving him exact measurements. These "measurements" are the Middot, the Sefirot and Partzufim, and their interactions and "joining" create "space". The Temple that Ezekiel saw exists in metaspace, or in the language of religion and Kabbalah, space as it is "above", "in Heaven".

Yet the Sefirot and Partzufim hold sway on all levels of creation, spiritual and physical. Numerical relationships between the various names are capable of being expressed in the form of the finite, physical three-dimensional "Halls", "Chambers", "Gates" and "Courtyards" of the Temple in this world. The Heavenly Temple is thus a hologram that exists on a level beyond space as we know it – "in Heaven" – and as such it is the very blueprint of creation. Yet this same hologram is destined to actually manifest in physical space in the form of the Third Temple on Earth. This will be the tangible embodiment of the holographic pattern.’

And here is a particularly incredible part of the book about the foundation stone, the Eben Shetiyah that we discussed in chapter eight,

“The Foundation Stone

When the Creator willed the creation of this world, He included everything in ten great lights [the ten Sefirot] from which all the different creatures emerged like branches extending from the trunk of the tree. There is nothing in the whole of existence that does not have its place in the supreme Chariot/Merkavah.

The last of these ten lights [Malchut] is called Shechinah [the Indwelling Presence]. It is here that all existing beings are rooted. Understand this well. For besides the roots that all existing beings have in the other higher lights, they also all have a root in the Shechinah, which is therefore called "the mother of children". Everything comes forth from her hands, and for this reason all things are rooted in her.

Understand that there is a special place known to her where all these roots come together. [This is the Heavenly Temple.] In that place is the root of all things, both those that depend on her and those that depend on the other higher lights. In that place are the roots of the earth and all it contains, the heavens, the heavens of the heavens and all their hosts without exception.

In the middle of the place where all these roots come together, there is a single "stone". [This is in the Holy of Holies of the Heavenly Temple.] This stone is most precious. It possesses every kind of beauty and charm. It is called the Foundation Stone (Even Shetiyah). There is a corresponding stone in this world - the lower world - in the place of the Holy of Holies, as will be explained later.

Stretching out in all directions from this stone are channels and pathways leading to all things. At their start these channels are great highways governing and regulating all the different orders and species of created beings, all of which have a deep inner knowledge of their root paths. From here they all receive their share of the constant sustenance given to them by the King.

Branching off from these highways are countless smaller pathways containing the individual roots of every single being in creation from the biggest to the smallest. Each one has its own unique pathway.

All these channels and pathways start in the place I mentioned at the outset. From the point where they all join together in the stone in the middle of this place, the Creator watches over them and scans them all with a single glance. This is the secret of the verse: "He forms their hearts together, He understands all their works" (Psalms 33:15). For this stone stands at the heart of the universe, and there all things are gathered in and joined together and scanned in a single glance by the King.”

This idea of the foundation stone brings us directly to the theme of this writing where a sacred stone technology is actually the holy Eben Shetiyah that unites the heavenly temple with the physical world and bring the upper worlds in a new alignment with the physical that enacts the full healing or Tikun olam. The sage Rashi was also a proponent that the third temple would be revealed and sent from heaven in an instant, completely built. It is said that when the temple in Jerusalem was destroyed the gates of the temple sunk into the ground and that in our times these will rise up and be fastened to the heavenly temple by the Moshiach who would then be given the credit of having built the whole temple in the physical. Each of us humans on the path of initiation are as candidates to be the moshiach that builds this third holy temple and makes sacred in our own journey this holy Earth. From the Sepher haZohar we have this said about this same third holy temple (soncino trans),

“”The lord buildeth Jerusalem”(psalms 147:2)He and no other. It is for this building that we are waiting, not a human structure which cannot endure. The Holy One, blessed be He, will send down to us the first house and the second house together, the first in concealment and the second openly. The second will be revealed to show all the world the handiwork of the holy One, blessed be He, in perfect joy and gladness. The first, which will be concealed, will ascend high over that which is revealed, and all the world will see the clouds of glory surrounding the one which is revealed and enveloping the first one which ascends to the height of the glorious heavens. It is for that building that we are waiting. Even the future city of Jerusalem will not be the work of human hands, all the more so the temple, God’s habitation.”

From cover Idel's book "Kabbalah, New Perspectives" with a balanced wheel of the ten Depths