Lurianic paths: Qoph & Heth

Fulgour

Lurianic Kabbalah in the Middle Ages

Following the upheavals and dislocations in the Jewish world as a result of the Spanish Inquisition and the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the trauma of Anti-Semitism during the Middle Ages, Jews began to search for signs of when the long-awaited Jewish Messiah would come to comfort them in their painful exiles.

As part of that "search for meaning" in their lives, Kabbalah received its biggest boost in the Jewish world when the explication of the Kabbalistic teachings of Rabbi Isaac Luria (1534-1572), by his disciple Rabbi Chaim Vital who published the Luria's teachings, gained wide-spread popularity.

It was Luria who popularized and gave credence to the teachings of the Zohar which had until then been a little-known work. The author of the Shulkhan Arukh (the Jewish "Code of Law"), Rabbi Yosef Karo (1488-1575), and Rabbi Moses ben Jacob Cordovero (1522-1570) were also great scholars of Kabbalah and spread its teachings during this era.

from: Wikipedia article "Kabbalah"
 

Fulgour

To My Fellow Seekers

I've decided that a person can substitute the word
"Library" for the word (however spelled) Kabbalah
and that the most workable philosophical approach
when attempting to understand the workings of it,
isn't to arrange the books in a pattern on the floor
but to read the ones that appeal to your interests.
 

basilikon

Shalom, Fulgour,

In an attempt to explain why I personally believe the 12 elemental letters and diagonal paths are associated with one another in the manner in which they are represented in the Lurianic model of the Tree of Life, I would have to say that the letters appear to follow a winding or weaving path around the 12 diagonals. Try tracing a trail or 'connecting the dots' for the 12 elemental letters, beginning with Heh. It almost looks like a Celtic knot to me, and as you progress down the right side of the tree, when you reach Lamedh, this trail twists to Nun and then proceeds up the left side of the tree, where the it ends at Qof.

The only groupings of letters which I have noticed within these 12 elementals concerns their astrological associations. The letters Heh, Teth, and Samekh, which correspond to Taleh (Aries), Aryah (Leo), and Qasshat (Sagittarius), respectively, correspond to paths which create a pattern mirrored by the paths corresponding to letters which are associated with the earth signs, namely, Waw, Yodh, and Ayin (corresponding to Shor/Taurus, Betulah/Virgo, & Gedi/Capricorn, respectively).

Similarly, a shared pattern emerges when comparing the paths corresponding to the 'Air' letters Zayin, Lamed, and Tsaddi (Te'omim/Gemini, Moznayim/Libra, & Deli/Aquarius) with the paths corresponding to the 'Water' letters Heth, Nun, and Qof (Sarton/Cancer, Aqrav/Scorpio, and Dagim/Pisces). Later today, I'll try to post examples here of how these patterns look.

I haven't really delved deeper than this on the geometry of the diagonal paths and their associations, but I do have some interesting information regarding the twelve tribes of yisra'el and the twelve astrological signs. Of course, we should bear in mind that there are many other renderings of the Tree of Life (many of them more modern than ancient) which take the construct from its familiar 2-D structure into 3 — and perhaps even 4 or more — spatial dimensions.
 

basilikon

Attached are diagrammes showing the elemental letters' paths as described in my previous post, along with a composite showing how the 4 patterns combine to form the entire structure of the 12 diagonal paths.
 

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venicebard

basilikon said:
Attached are diagrammes showing the elemental letters' paths as described in my previous post, . . .
Interesting. In primordial terms, he has placed fire and air (astrological earth's primordial association, based on the fact that earthly body points towards cancer, not capricorn) to right and left to begin with, just as the two pillars of Solomon's Temple are attributed to fire and wind. Hmm. (I presume Luria knew the primordial allocations.)
 

basilikon

Please forgive my ignorance, venicebard, but I'm not following your meaning.

When you mention below

venicebard said:
he has placed fire and air (astrological earth's primordial association, based on the fact that earthly body points towards cancer, not capricorn) to right and left to begin with

I'm not comprehending your intended message. In the diagrammes attached to my previous message, the paths of the 'fire' letters and the paths of the 'air' letters form completely different and geometrically non-congruent patterns.

Also, are you saying that air is "astrological earth's primordial associaton", and is this "based on the fact that earthly body points toward cancer, not capricorn"? What do you mean by 'earthly body'? The planet earth? How does cancer fit in, considering it is a water sign?

I'm sorry, but you may have to resort to using smaller and more numerous words, so I can understand what you're trying to communicate. ;)
 

venicebard

basilikon said:
Please forgive my ignorance, venicebard, but I'm not following your meaning.

When you mention below



I'm not comprehending your intended message. In the diagrammes attached to my previous message, the paths of the 'fire' letters and the paths of the 'air' letters form completely different and geometrically non-congruent patterns.
No, I was speaking of primordial air, which is equivalent to your 'earth', since you are using the astrological associations: fire remains the same in both, as flame presses upwards (towards aries the head), but the other three have been whirled about in astrology. Water -- as the tradition surrounding the Star of David makes clear -- points down (towards libra the loins), the direction water flows, hence its association with Torah (which also flows down to us from on high). Earthly body faces forward, towards cancer, while the wind in one's face when one moves forward blows back, towards capricorn (mid-spine in the closed, knees in the open-and-extended versions of the zodiac).
Also, are you saying that air is "astrological earth's primordial associaton", and is this "based on the fact that earthly body points toward cancer, not capricorn"? What do you mean by 'earthly body'? The planet earth? How does cancer fit in, considering it is a water sign?
The body, in case you hadn't realized this, is the earthly or solid part of an individual (even though the self that inhabits said body is not itself earth). The exact reason for astrology's whirling about of air-water-and-earth is unknown, but I have developed a coherent theory concerning this. It involves, however, a third way of delegating elements to quarters in addition to the primordial and the astrological, so I will embark upon my attempted explanation only if you so request.