The Name Initiation

The biblical story of Jacob is an allegory of human evolution on our planet. And his experience at Peniel (Face of God) is linked symbolically with the transformation of the basic octahedron into the Holy Temple octahedron. All human beings eventually undergo this high initiation, called the ShM Initiation (or ‘Name’ Initiation).

Jacob’s name-change to Israel (YShRAL) symbolises the elevation of human consciousness from the sefirah Tifaret (Jacob) to the sphere of Da’at (Israel). At that time Da’at becomes integrated into human consciousness and the ‘covenant of the Unique One’ (BRYTh YChYD) is activated.

During the evolution of the octahedron the ShM Pillar becomes established as its central axis. This occurs as Jacob’s guardian angel (Tifaret, Kaf) releases his hold on the Shin and Maym pathways and allows them to fully merge together. Jacob as Israel (Da’at) then assumes control of the ShM Pillar.

The ShM Pillar empowers Israel to become consciously involved in the divine Work of Yetzirah (Formation). In other words, after reconciling the paths of Shin and Maym within his own microcosmic self, Jacob as Israel is able to consciously assist the Creator in the macrocosmic merging of Binah (Shin, divine fire) with Hockmah (Maym, divine Water). In doing so, Israel takes his first step on the new path of cosmic evolution.

Patrick Mulcahy, Sefer Yetzirah Magic

The Gift of Tears

The soul who cries is more living, and therefore fresher and younger than when it does not cry.

The ‘gift of tears’ was always considered by the masters of Christian spirituality as a grace from the Holy Spirit, for it is thanks to this gift that the soul surpasses itself and ascends to a degree of intensity of life which is certainly above that to which it is accustomed.

Now, the ‘gift of tears’ is a comparatively recent spiritual phenomenon in the history of human spirituality. In the ancient world one wept only ritually, ie through verbal lamentations and through prescribed gestures of mourning or grief, and it was amongst the chosen people, Israel, that real weeping began.

It was as a manifestation of the share that the chosen people had in the mission of preparing for the coming of Christ – who wept at the time of Lazarus’ resuscitation and who sweated sweat and blood during the night in the Garden of Olives – that real weeping came to have its rudimentary origin from the womb of this people. And to this present day the Jews preserve, cultivate and respect the ‘gift of tears’. In fact, every revelation in the narrative of the Zohar is preceded or accompanied by the weeping of the one who had it and who comes to share it with the others.

Meditations on the Tarot, Letter II, The High Priestess

The Supernal Archetype

When a person wishes to unify the Blessed Holy One and His Divine Presence (the male and female aspects of the Divine), he must banish all other thoughts. [Such thoughts] are the Klipot, regarding what is written, “There are many thoughts in the heart of man” (Proverbs 19.21). One must bring the Divine Presence into his mind, as the verse continues, “But the counsel of God will abide.”

This is the mystery of Unification. The individual who is worthy of the World to Come must unify the name of the Blessed Holy One. He must unify the upper and lower levels and limbs, uniting them all bringing them all to the necessary place, where the knot can be bound.

This is the mystery of “Hear O Israel, God is our Lord, God is One.”

The mystery of “Hear” is the Name which becomes seventy names.

This is the unifying category, Israel. It is called the Elder Israel, since there is also a lesser [Israel]. Regarding [the latter] it is written, “Israel is a child and I will love him” (Hosea 11.1). But [the one alluded to in “Hear O Israel] is the Elder Israel.

[This Elder Israel is] a single mystery and a single unifying category. “Hear O Israel” thus includes the [supernal archetype] Female and her Husband.

The Zohar

Tomberg: Apocalypse, Israel and Atlantis

In the sense of the Apocalypse, we can best understand the choosing and the significance of the chosen people, or the undying Israel, by studying the history of humankind with the purpose of discovering the origin of the chosen people. We must go back to a time when civilisation flourished in Atlantis, the continent of West Europe, which was later submerged.

That civilisation was especially distinguished from that of today by the fact that it was based on very different human faculties. Modern civilisation is founded on the human faculty of thinking and the experiences that reach us through the mind, whereas the Atlantean civilisation was based on faculties that would be viewed today as ‘magical’.

The faculties of Atlanteans relied on a far more intimate relationship between humankind and the natural environment than exists in modern times. For Atlanteans, an external natural event was as direct inner experience; similarly, the inner experience of Atlanteans exerted an influence on the outer events of nature.

The will had the power of not only moving a person’s limbs, but it could also effect the forces of nature. The will had the power of not only moving a person’s limbs, but it could also affect the forces of nature. Likewise, the spoken word had a power that today, when speakers lecture or declaim – we can no longer conceive of. It could heal or kill, build or destroy, through the natural force that accompanied it.

Christ and Sophia (The Chosen People, The Nature of the Old Testament) Valentin Tomberg