The Power of the Word
By Betzalel Maggid 2018/05/17
Copyright (c) 2018 dreamrunes.com
When I was a younger man, I went through a bout of homelessness. During this time, I lived at a friend’s house, who had another person that was staying there as well. This other person who lived at my friend’s house, had a drinking problem, and whenever he walked through the house he would always try and pick a fight with me. Whenever I would walk through the kitchen, he would bump into my shoulder, and then yell at me, “Watch out man!” Of course, this guy was the size of a football player. Me – not so much. So, one night, when I was walking through the kitchen, he did his usual bump of my shoulder and yell at me. At this point I got really mad, and stormed off upstairs to the bedroom I was living in.
It was during this period of time, that I was deeply studying Kabbalah, and in specific, the use of Hebrew letters as the energetic forces of creation. I was so steamed about his repeated taunts, that I blew off steam, by writing the Hebrew letters on a notepad, and visualized a red laser beam, shooting out from the letters to where he was sitting below, downstairs. I remember, I wrote the Hebrew letters, which symbolized removing a serpent from our midst. After doing this, I put the pad of paper on my night stand and went to sleep, thinking nothing of what I had just done. In my mind I was just harmlessly blowing off steam, rather than getting into a fist fight with a football player sized jerk.
The next morning, I woke up and went downstairs. My best friend was sitting in the living room smiling ear to ear. He said, “Dude! You will never guess what happened earlier this morning. Some lady from the bar, kidnapped her own child, and the dumped the car in our front year. When the police came to the door, John answered, and they found out he had a ton of parking tickets not paid, so they dragged him off to jail!”
It was at this point, I remembered what I had done the night before. I was absolutely shocked. I had never thought that my actions of writing down the letters like that, would manifest the events that occurred and took John to jail. This is when I really honestly learn, the true power of the spoken work, often talked about in the Bible. If these references aren’t enough to get the picture of how seriously the Bible takes the power of the word, I don’t know what else would.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1 (KJV)
“But the word of God grew and multiplied.”
Acts 12:24 (KJV)
“Thou art snared with the words of thy mouth, thou art taken with the words of thy mouth.” Proverbs 6:2 (KJV)
“But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.” 1 Peter 1:25 (KJV)
“That I might make thee know the certainty of the words of truth; that thou mightest answer the words of truth to them that send unto thee?”
Proverbs 22:21 (KJV)
“The eyes of the Lord preserve knowledge, and he overthroweth the words of the transgressor.” Proverbs 22:12 (KJV)
“The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.” Isaiah 40:8 (KJV)
“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.” James 3:6 (KJV)
When I was at the School of Metaphysics, we had a common saying, “Thoughts are things, and they will manifest.” Thoughts that we have, are formed first by pictures in our minds before we relay them to words and speak them out loud. In the “Subconscious Mind”, these thought pictures are called “The Universal Language of Mind”. Being a Kabbalist, it is my duty to study words, break them apart, decipher their mathematical value, and then peace them back together to extract the most amount of meaning from a verse, or Rabbinical reference. The Hebrew alphabet is much like “The Universal Language of Mind”, in that, it is an alphabet of symbols, and pictures, which makes it a Semitic language. One Rabbi said in the Artscroll Siddur, that the Hebrew language, and alphabet, is much like a stone Which, when struck with a hammer, splinters into hundreds of pieces. Each piece is a valid interpretation of that letter.
In the book, “Sefer Yetzirah: in theory and practice” by Rabbi Aryeah Kaplan, we learn that the Hebrew letters, are not just plain letters. According to the Sefer Yetzirah, and various other ancient and medieval Rabbinical writings, the Hebrew alphabet, are really symbols for the forces of creation, which manifested after the absolute unknowable aspect of the creator, the “Ain Sof”, inserted the seed of light, with in the womb of the infinite expanse of the universe. In Kabbalah, this is known as the act of “TzinTzum”, or the restriction of the Creators light, to contain the creation. The Hebrew letters, can be conceptualized, like having a piece of card board, and in the center, having the cut-out form of the Hebrew letter, which allows light to pass or “filter” through. In much the same way, the letters are “channels” by which the light of “intelligent infinity”, filters through, and dims it radiant light, in order for our mere mortality to behold it. It is often said in Rabbinical writings, that the “Tzaddik” or “Righteous”, if they so choose to, could from universes, and worlds, from the power contained in the Hebrew letters. They are the “Plenum” from which the universe arises. Below, is a list of the Hebrew letters and their meanings.
The lesson I learned from accidentally throwing a lightning bolt at my former roommate was invaluable. It gave me a healthy respect of the use of the powers contained within the Hebrew alphabet. Afterwards, I have been always careful not to repeat the same mistake. These are powers that must be taken with great respect, and responsibility. John, if you are out there reading this article, I am truly sorry for any discomfort I may have caused you. I definitely adhere to the first law of Wicca in my studies and practices, “And it harm no one, do as thou wilt…”.
I hope that my life lesson may be of use to others who are following the Mystery School path.
May the light, and love, of the One infinite Creator, be a light on to your feet, along the path.
· Betzalel Maggid