Kabbalah: The Red String bracelet

stella01904

MM ~ What I find really interesting is that there are Evil Eye cultures all over the world, it's universal. Italians test for Evil Eye by dropping olive oil into a bowl of water, Mexicans use an egg to "take it off". In some cultures only children are vulnerable. in others , anyone can get it - many Gypsy horse brasses are designed to keep the horses from getting it! I never get tired of Evil Eye lore. BB, Stella
 

Emeraldgirl

There's also a lot of Evil Eye type "myths" in Asian culture to. My partner's family is from China and it'a amazing how many Western "Myths" are also found in Ancient Chinese texts going back 1000's of years and before China opened up to the rest of the world
 

hoomer

kwaw said:
Since time immemorial. Pilgrimage to sites of relics was a huge commercial enterprise for the catholic church in the middle ages; as is pilgrimage to sites such as Lourdes today, where you can find all sorts of plastic trinkets and bottles of 'healing' waters being sold at exhorbitant prices. There is also a strong documented history of the use of charms and talismans with Judaism. The founder of the Hasidic movement the Baal Shem Tov [the 'good master of the name'] made his living as a magician selling talismans and charms. Examples of such 'magical' practices can be found in most if not all religions, at all times in their history.

Kwaw
Yep....a sucker is born every minute...lol....

you too can but a piece of the 1 true cross.....

for $49.99...I can help you buy a piece of Christ's toe nail clippings....
 

hoomer

Shrug in the end do what you like.......

I think there is danger in taking mystical texts literally though...shrug
 

Driley

Red String

I know that Persian Jews have worn red strings to protect themselves from the evil eye for a long time. This is especially true in the case of mothers and infants.

I don't think tradition requires you to pay $29.95 for a bit of string, however. While arguments can (and are) made about the importance of the color red and the blessing of the string, etc. I think the main purpose is to remind you to be aware of the fact that your good fortune may attract the envy of others (the Evil Eye).

It is a reminder to be modest, gracious, and generous and to be even more so with others who have not shared your blessings.

In that light, I would cheerfully tie a red string around the entire world.
 

Little Baron

A while back, I saw a documentary about the Bergs and the Kabbalah Centre. It was saying how the Bergs have financially benefited from the religeon and how others have been brainwashed and taken away from their families to work at the centre for nothing.

The documentary also dispelled the myth of the water, which was apparently no more significant than many other kinds and didn't have the properties that people were told would heal their Cancer. Many of the people working at the centre were recorded secretly, displaying homaphobia and also not painting a very good picture of the Bergs and The Kabbalah Centre.

The red string bracelet, as many Kabbalists not involved with the centre said, should be free. I know people who have been given them and you don't need to buy them from the internet.

In the documentary, when the Bergs were meant to attend a conference and found that the BBC may be there there waiting, they suddenly cancelled and said they were ill. They sent Madonna instead, who was ushered through quickly and not allowed to talk to the press. However, I did hear recently that she asked the Kabbalah Centre for a full break down of where her money was going.

LB
 

kwaw

Red Thread

Red Thread

Your red thread I wear upon my wrist,
once as scarlet as your lips,
has faded like the fallen flowers that feed
the scattered seeds and evergreen.

You once told me we are made of star stuff,
the same that dances in the stones,
just as ancient and as worthy of our awe.

Now your mouth is the forgotten country
from which I've long been exiled:
they say you wept as I was leaving,
as I weep for my return.​
 

firecatpickles

That is a lovely poem, kwaw.

The only red string myth that our rabbi is aware of is that Russian (?) Jewish mothers would hang a red string above the crib to ward off evil. Anything else is just a bubbe maise.
 

kwaw

The harlot at the window.

The harlot at the window.

To my beloved
my window is always open,
whether it face East or West
or North or South.

Gazing through my window,
peering forth through blinds,
I watch him leap and dance
and sing with him his psalms.

Through clerestory windows,
with clear story signs,
I set forth ravens
a cord and red twine

(and never despise him).

Though he love all,
the fools love only him,
their Rome, their Mecca,
their Jerusalem; their window

from which they'd push me,
have me fall among their prophets
to feed the yapping dogs.
Though they scatter my remains,

my head, my feet, my palms
to the quarters of the earth,
from the depths of East and West,
the depths of South and North

my window is always open,
to our beloved.​
 

CornissMagorniss

Your Tarot Correspondent In Jerusalem

It's a Rachel's Tomb thing. There are people at the Rachel's Tomb complex at all hours of the day and night, generally reading Psalms. It is also a practice to wind a red thread around the tomb itself 7 times, which can then be distributed to others. As I understand, anybody can do this.