The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious.  It is the source of all art and science.

—Albert Einstein, Physicist, Nobel Prize Winner, 1879 - 1955

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Photographs of the far reaches of the universe always help put things in perspective, don’t you think?

We are so small compared to the enormity of the universe or universes in which we live.

How can our human experiences feel so important when we are only like a grain of sand on the beach.  But our experiences are strong and deeply felt –motivating, throbbing, personal.   Consider the billions of humans that inhabit the planet, each with a unique set of circumstances–how can this be?

Humans are all part and parcel of an intricate web of life and of energy systems.  We are like intelligent, thinking, rational, actionable pieces of a huge puzzle.  Our free will enables us to go anywhere, do anything or think anything we choose.  But we are still enmeshed in a larger design.

We are like sensing, feeling eyes of intelligent life form who wishes to know every condition and every thing that can be. This life form bores easily and so constant change of circumstances enables a fantastic array of experience.

Nature and science rule the heavens, the earth, and the creatures.  Everything works perfectly like a clock that never loses a second of time.  Each element obeys the “laws of nature” that rules it.   It is science, mathematics and nature.   The universe itself is a mystery unfolding as we learn more each day.

This system of which we are a part could not be any more amazing.  Any more complex.  Any more simple.

Hunans have come to count on the certainty of things.  Like the sun coming up in the morning and the seasons following each other just the way they did last year and for aeons gone by.   We all obey the laws of physics.  We all are part of this intricate world which we do not own and cannot control.

And still, even if we are attempting to maintain balance and equilibrium in our day to day life, we cannot.  Exigent circumstances compel change anyway.  Life is like a moving target.  The seasons change, we age.  People come and go.  Our health changes.  Our family grows up.  Friends and loved ones pass.

I can’t help it because I am getting the strongest feeling that our world is getting an overdue attitude adjustment from years of abuse of power and wealth.  Maybe it is just me.  But, it doesn’t seem so.

More than once in recent history have we gone through changes in civics because of imbalances in power and wealth.  Many governmental systems have been put into place over and over again to balance these things.  None have worked.

But this thing called physics is put in play…call it kinetics.  To every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.  We have years of growth followed by recession.  We have people who want more capital gains than they could have thought possible so they put their money with Bernie Madoff.  We have mortgage lending to people without the ability to pay, but others who directly benefit from the insane scheme.  Greed leads to fraud.

So, when our security is threatened one way or another, the individual has to find another way to grow to love life and to remember to feel the joy that life brings.  Maybe it is finding a way out of the dilemma one finds oneself in.  Maybe it is taking a look at the simpler pleasures: like biting into a perfect Fuji apple and experiencing delight.

The pendulum swings in one direction, then another.  No one is left untouched.  It is the game of life and everyone plays.  Active or inactive, the game just keeps going on.  We are all a part of something so much bigger than just our “self”.

This is the mystery of life.  And the mystery is so complex that no one will ever figure out the whole thing.  That is precisely what is so interesting about this mystery.  All we can do is participate fully, feel deeply and enjoy the experience.   Even the hurts we feel invoke great feeling and lead to an improved person.  You. Me.  The purpose of life is to experience joy.  Even the pain is a lesson to focus on the joy that is under that pain.  The mystery is there for us to explore to the fullest.

In times of great stress or adversity, it’s always best to keep busy, to plow your anger and your energy into something positive.

—Lee Iacoca, American Businessman, 1924 to present

Ok, the health of the United States and its sagging economy is getting to me and everyone I know.  After saying this online in one forum, I got resounding agreement from the group because, at this point, everyone has been affected in some way or another.  The stock market, the recession, the economy, job losses, lost investments, war, bankrupt states, mergers, sub-prime mortgages, social security, the health of the governments and schools.  Prices are going up, incomes going down.  Add this together and it spells stress.

Pick up a newspaper, listen to the radio, turn on the television and you are bombarded with dismal news and crisis.   It is no wonder that many people are in crisis, domestic violence is way up.  People have real tragedy from lost jobs, houses and retirement income that were once secure.

Being stressed out has become a national epidemic which has significant long term negative effects to our health.  Chronic stress, which we cannot avoid at this time in our life, has been linked to high blood pressure and heart disease and many other illnesses.

In times of life crisis, the first thing I do is go back to basics.  Eating right, getting enough sleep, and mandatory physical exercise everyday. It is not actually the stress that kills us, it is our reaction to stress that is the killer.

And, even more important than staying mentally and physically active, is keeping matters in perspective by staying focuses on the present moment.  By forming strategies to improve your situation in the present, you can master movement into a new position.   Acquiring a positive attitude is a mental habit that is far preferable to sitting around thinking about the worst case scenario and imagining yourself walking into that terrible scenario.

Generally, we can feel better about things when viewed from gratitude about the good things that we have in life, whatever they are. Not to be too obnoxious, but I can even build a case that the stress is a good thing because it can motivate us to make some long overdue changes to our life.  But the main thing is to build a habit of not sitting and stewing over the bad investment, poor choice of marriage partner, lost job, or sunken property value that is now afflicting us.

Reviewing the situation over and over again creates anxiety and increases the stress.  This reaction constitutes worry and anxiety which, over time, can negatively impact the immune system and weaken resistance to infection and the ability to recover.  Pretty soon sleep is affected or addictions invoked which only makes it worse.

The stress source itself is not the problem, it is the way we view it and keep it unresolved in our mind.

Are there compulsive behavior patterns that have emerged?  Mindless eating, drinking, smoking?  Buying things that you don’t really need but want?    It is really fantastic to notice what sometimes goes on automatic and become mindful and aware of it –and change for the better.   And, there are so many ways we can change for the better.

If you like, turn off the television and the radio in an effort to stop listening to the bad news distributed by the media.

Doing something simple like taking a walk or exercising can be a great help.  There are many other ways of focusing time and attention to productive and clarifying strategies.  Read.  Eat well balanced meals. Take some time for yourself.  Productive methods of mental management can calm us and move us mentally to a more positive attitude by taking our mind off our problems and learning something new.

They say that exercise increases the endorphin or “feel good” levels in your body while stress increases the cortisol or stress hormones which set about tearing metabolic systems down.  Do things that make you feel good.

Spend time with people who support you and love you can be a great way to take your mind off your problems.  Play. Talk.  Laugh.  Do something together.  Start celebrating the good things that life offers with the people who really matter to you.

Learn for yourself that you are not your job, your house or your finances.  You are a beautiful human being.

Everything should turn out fine in the end.  We come into this world alone and empty handed and we end up leaving just the same way.  The goal of life is to achieve happiness and joy despite all of the trials and tribulations that each of us encounters along the way.

You do not control the future and cannot predict what might happen next.  All you can do is steer the boat in the direction that you want to go and let the wind fill the sails to take you where you may want to go.

What an incredible turn of events we are experiencing now.  If you ask me, this scene is all about learning precisely what is important in life and putting the emphasis to those things.

On life’s journey faith is nourishment, virtuous deeds are a shelter, wisdom is the light by day and right mindfulness is the protection by night. If a man lives a pure life, nothing can destroy him.

—Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, 563-483 BCE

Now is a stressful time in the United States for many people as much of our infrastructure is caving in to to inevitable and necessary changes.   As a result, ordinary people are experiencing loss as companies and governmental agencies liquidate and fold, downsize and the like.  And the credit crisis hits just about everyone as home values plummet, stocks dip and salaries are lowered.

I guess I am bringing this up because I was really annoyed when someone I care about lost his job and the people at this company were pumping him for information about various people and situations in the company.  The co-workers were totally without any regard for this guy’s feelings of loss and abandonment.   These people were both rude and insensitive.   But, more than rude, they lacked the necessary empathy and awareness that this person was in a state of shock and despair.   They were not mindful of the situation of the other party.   Or didn’t care.  Believe me, my friend noticed how they acted and probably will never forget.   When we are in pain, even minor actions on the part of innocent parties can be amplified in the mind.

The way we perceive stress and how we react to our perception can determine how stress affects us physically, mentally and emotionally.  Stress reactions can be stimulated by anything that we believe to be a threat from verbal discussions, as with my friend, to jumping out of an airplane for fun.  The body is filled with stress hormones (like cortisol) and adrenaline which causes the heart to race along with many other reactions.  Constant stress can cause many (even, perhaps most) diseases including arthritis, multiple sclerosis, high blood pressure, stroke, gastrointestinal problems, diabetes, asthma, headaches, depression, insomnia, fatigue, eating disorders—and more.

The Buddha lumped a lot of this together and just called it suffering.

Meditation practices common in eastern philosophy are exactly what modern practitioners are teaching to decrease harmful behavior leading to diseases and emotional breakdown.  These ancient practices have been proven to reduce stress, improve health and increase happiness and compassion.

If my friend’s co-workers had been more mindful and compassionate, they never would have said half of the things that they did which caused so much pain.  They would have been mindful of the situation and not just thinking of themselves.  But, they have to stay in the moment, on purpose, paying attention to every nuance with total awareness.

Mindfulness involves stopping the habits that keep us stuck in the “reactivity” that causes suffering to others and to ourselves. The Tibetan Buddhist author Pena Chodron says that “the root of mindfulness is experiencing the itch as well as the urge to scratch, and then no acting it out.”

Staying in the moment is key.  Staying in the moment, not the past, not the future is what enables us to be able to pay attention to today, to what we are doing and experiencing what we are feeling in our bodies–what we think in our minds.   We can learn what we do by habit.  By ritual.  By rote.

When we pay attention to what we are thinking and doing we can break the cycle.  We can become conscious again.  This does not necessarily mean that we will be happy about the situation.  We may become aware of a pattern of negative thinking or unconscious behavior.  But, by first recognizing the pattern or activity, we can change it.

So, while you might want to run away to an ashram or retreat to learn Yoga and meditation to change your life, you don’t have to do that to gain the benefit of mindfulness.  Luckily there is great research going on in the medical community that identifies the effects of mindfulness on the body.  There is much for us to learn about how our mind affects biology.   But, there already have been hundreds of studies that can demonstrate that mindfulness practices can reduce the negative physical and emotional consequences of self induced stresses.  The result can be less pain and suffering from chronic disease, improved impulse control, better mental health, better communication and emotional regulation.

But, in the meantime, we all need to practice awareness, compassion and empathy by putting ourselves in our neighbor’s shoes before we speak a word.  A little compassion and support goes a long way.

It is the circle of life, and it moves us all, through despair and hope, through faith and love, ’till e find our place, on the path unwinding’

—Elton John, British musician and composer, born 1947

No symbol is more profound than the ancient Ouroborus.   Dating back to 1600 BC, supposedly around the time of Moses, the concept of Ouroborus comes from the Emerald Tablet of Hermes Trismegistus of ancient Egyptian times.  The idea of the Ouroborus shows up continuously across the world as a symbol of duality in all of its forms.   Ancient Greeks named the Ouroborus, but the same symbology appears in Aztec, Chinese, Hindu and Gnostic philosophies as well.   The Ouroborus swallows his tail in a never ending circle.  The Ouroborus is known as the tail swallower.   Some beleive that the Ouroborus is a depiction of a star and cloud configuration in the center of our Milky Way Galaxy.

Numerous peoples say we may be living in the end days of a great cycle.  The Maya called a cycle a Baktun.  The Mayan calendar ends abruptly on December 21, 2012, indicating the end of this cycle and the beginning of the next. The Hindu cycle is a called Yuga as they speculate periods of relative darkness and light.  The cycles together form one “Great Year” as our solar system winds its way across our galaxy circling the central sun of the Milky Way.  Today, we are leaving the midst of the Kali Yuga, or deepest period of darkness.  The dark ages.  Still.

Fundamentalist Christians claim that we are in the end days of our current cycle and that we should expect the Rapture as some leave this earth in a catastrophe.  Others believe that the return of the Messiah is imminent.  Some religions and believers expect us to enter a Messianic age, the Age of Aquarius.  Some people speculate fearful scenarios with fire, earthquakes, and plagues that represents the end of the world as we know it.  Other speculations are spiritual ecstasy theories.   No one really knows.

I will not posit a theory as it is just conjecture stemming from my own intuition and mind.  But, I will say that I believe that we are a part of this great cycle and that we are observing considerable awakening, invention and positive growth starkly contrasted by serious issues of greed, war and poverty.

The Ouroborus is a representation of the change and is the symbol of the great cycles of time on a grand scale.  Birth and Death.  Night and Day.  Creation and Destruction.  Light and Dark.  Good and Evil.  Male and Female.  Ouroborus represents the bringing together of duality in all of its forms.

Perhaps some of this duality would be alleviated in a great return to wholeness.  Androgeny.  A blending of both sides.  All is one again.  What would that be like?  Where this earth represents a little bit of heaven, born from nature, “As above, so below.”

Perhaps we are very, very lucky to be living on this earth at this time, despite all of its problems. Because we are living here now to see what will happen next in this great drama playing here called life.  Each of us has taken our role, each of us has a seat in the theater with a unique view.  And, there have never been more people alive at one time as now.  As if we all wanted to come to this particular show.   But, what?

It is clear that there have been great cycles before us even though we have no recorded history for them.  Rumors of a previous civilization destroyed in a great flood about in every culture and in the Bible’s 5 Books of Moses.  The cave men roamed the earth and the dinosaurs before them.  And we know very little about what went on because our history only goes back 5 or 6 thousand years.

Born from nature, we are brought here with nothing, remembering nothing.  And then we grow, change and age and as we do we go back through the same process nostalgic for the life we led.  If we are lucky to live long enough, we may lose our faculties again, memory, wet our pants, need help dressing and walking and then leave this world, as we came, alone with no possessions.

The incredible predicament that the world find’s itself in today does not meet the criteria that the doomsday sayers thought….it is economic. And driven by greed.  The greed of a few today is no different that the greed that fueled the French or Russian revolutions in the past.  Despite the various mechanisms provided for distribution of wealth in different nations, all of them are failing.  The Chinese Communist system has a huge disparity between rich and poor now that they have the fastest growing economy in the world.  The Russian system of government has made billionaires of a few, leaving the masses in poverty.  In Africa, the same.  And the American system of government is clearly breaking down.   Economics affect everyone, everywhere.

At the end of any cycle we see the effects of aging and entropy.  Systems that once worked break down.  Today, we see all sorts of systems breaking down.  From individual people to corporations, governments, and belief systems the toll is mounting.  Some people resist the change and fall prey to depression as they cling to the remnant of the past. The closely held ideas of how life should be has not come to pass.

Generally speaking, there is not much we can do when the circle of life comes to pass before our eyes.  So grand is the scheme upon which the universe is pinned.  Humans look frail and small beside these great works.  We do not own the system:  we do no control the workings.  We are a part and parcel of the dynamic that is in play. As said Hermes Trismestigus, “Speak not of this to men who have not the mind of God, for to them we seem as liars and charlatans.”

As said Hermes Trismestigus, “Speak not of this to men who have not the mind of God, for to them we seem as liars and charlatans.”

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”

—Henry David Thoreau, author, 1817-1862

So the Fool has arrived into balance.  And then what?  While he has come far in establishing harmony in his life, his life may well be far from over.  But he has his health, peace of mind and has met many encounters with difficult and and trying circumstances.  Perhaps this Fool has mastered life.  Perhaps not.

The Devil is not necessarily clothed in horns and a red suit showing us the way to evil outside of our self.  The devil can represent the ignorance, hopelessness and arrogance that we each carry.  Sometimes the mundane and ordinary concerns of the material world bind us to a life that does not produce any gifts to mankind, personal growth and learning.  If we are a dentist duly performing our duty day after day, it is hard to see anything beyond the need to provide for our family, pay the mortgage,  socialize with friends and thus go on like this day after day.   These material needs may be innocent but represent such security that most people cling to them as if they are the most important part of life.  This system is so common and so compelling that it represents the better part of the mass of life unlived as Thoreau claims above but it is a form of slavery and avoidance.  My point is that while we Fools do need to get a handle on the basics of existance, to stay stuck in this place is like playing the first part of the movie over and over again and never seeing the conclusion because you are afraid to go there.  The price that our Fool pays is very dear, because the material existance leads to an empty life of despair.  What do they say?  Many people are living a life of quiet desperation.  That life is the devil within us.

Sudden change seems to be the release from this type of self made prison.  Sometimes we call these changes midlife crisis.  Sometimes divorce or disease or job loss forces change upon us.  But, upon us the life we have built so carefully year after year comes crashing down.  Ususally a monumental crisis forces us to look within and then change.  While these sudden changes are generally emotionally traumatizing for a period, only large crises can generate sufficient power to shake some people to the core to see what is really there.

Like a lightening bolt hitting us, we are humbled by the force that we do not control or contain.   With this force comes the truth revealed about that situation.  And the Fool can see that some of his former beliefs were based on false impressions.  The job, diseased body, death, or disfunctional partnership emerges as the culprit to show us that nothing is permanent and that everything changes.

No longer disguised in our former life, the Fool emerges with a serene calm.  Inspiration and hope are restored as our Fool places his future in the mystery of life knowing that everything will end up alright.  The Fool is a stronger person who is at peace with the world.

But, no rest for the weary Fool.  That peace that comes from tragedy cannot last forever either.  It is in those dreamy and calm moments that our Fool can become susceptable to fantasy, deception and distortion based upon a false and dreamy picture of the future.  Like the moonlight, the creative imagination is only a reflection of the mind and can wander into fantasy of exuberance or of fear and anxiety about the future causing the Fool to feel lost and bewildered.

But, a little further down the path, clarity arises with the light of the Sun on a new fresh morning.  The Fool is nearly ready to start on a new life with cheerful energy and enthusiasm.   He has been humbled but has the self assurance to stand up and face a new day.  A strong Fool will draw to him everything he needs to understand and realize the goodness that the world can bring.

As if reborn anew, the ego was shattered, allowing the true self to shine through.  Joy is experienced as this Fool leaves the rotting corpse of the ego and its whole manifest universe behind.  The game that was playing out was a drama built by the self for actualization and is no longer needed.  The Fool is cleansed and refreshed, a better and wiser person, able to choose which values to cherish and which to discard.  This lucky Fool emerges victorious as he better understands his values and purpose in living this life.  Doubt and hesitation is replaced with the energy to create his own reality and follow his true dream.

Re-entering the world with new vitality and more understanding the Fool has become whole again.  The false world vision of the ego has been met head on and crashed to the ground and the true self has emerged with a smile and a wink.  Happiness and fulfillment are the result regardless of material situation.  The Fool has learned that nothing is permanent and that we come to this world with nothing and leave that way.

This realization allows the Fool to give of himself freely and render service by sharing the gifts that he has developed.  Thus, his accomplishments are many.  Our Fool has found the meaning of his life and the courage to pursue it.

This cycle ends and another cycle begins in a never ending game called life.  A new Journey begins.

“He dares to be a fool,

and that is the first step in the direction of wisdom.”

–James Gibbons Huneker, music writer and critic, 1857-1921

This life is but a projection of our consciousness as if by mirrors and a reflection of light and sounds.  The Fool is trapped in his own mirror and the journey is not what we thought it should be.  As the Fool progresses on his journey to self realization he is sooner or later to ask himself the question, Why?

This section of the journey is only too common as it is visible in world economies, war, abuse of power and even in the very visible lives of our royalty and movie stars.  This phenomenon explains why journalists focus on the bad news or the fallen lives of former heroes, pop stars and even Presidents of companies and countries.

The Fool becomes obsessed with that question why.  The search for an answer is not out of idle curiosity, but out of the deep need to find out why people and systems suffer and die.  This next stage is extremely important to go through completely to get to the truth or the Fool will end up in another replay of a similar drama, but likely worse.  The only cure is to look inward to understand the feelings and motivations that led to the situation in the first place.  What is the lesson that was there to be absorbed? In this phase the only thing that will satisfy is a period of solitude and reflection away from the relenting and frantic activity that society presents to us on a daily basis.  This is when the Fool can change from a human doing to a human being, if given the chance.  Sometimes, the Fool can seek a teacher for guidance or direction if he is stuck.  But it is inevitably his unique problem to solve and issue to resolve and he or she must become a Hermit for a time.

After a period of soul searching, the Fool figures it out.   A smart Fool can see how he has set up his own drama in all of its intricate design with patterns and cycles designed purely to bring out the lesson required from our most mysterious universe.  The experience seems perfect to awaken the necessary process of change to improve the perception of the Fool.  The perspective of the Fool has widened, the understanding deepened with the result of the sequence of events being a turning point of change.  After this period of assimilation, the Fool redirects his energy in a new way having a renewed sense of purpose and a broader and wiser plan.  The wheel of fate has turned to bring movement and action again.

Learning about cause and effect usually brings us Fools to these turning points in life.  When we take responsibility for our past actions and decisions, we can ensure a more steady course in the future.  If we correct our mistaken beliefs or understand what a more fitting lifestyle might be for us we may be able to take a course correction, large or small and move forward toward growth and insight.  That means taking responsibility for the decisions that got you into this boat.  Or, we can slip into the same old thinking and take the familiar and easy road to repeat the unconscious choices that got us there in the first place.  That familiar route is what closes personal growth and keeps us stuck in the same rut.  Moving onto a new path takes courage.

With no other choice but to continue searching, the Fool has learned that life is not so simple.  Humbled, he moves forward.  Feeling defeated, he relinquishes control of the circumstances and just follows where life takes him.  Amazingly, even though the Fool feels extremely vulnerable having given up control of life, things seem to continually move along and he feels good, free of the burden of driving his chariot.   Peace comes to the Fool.  Free at last.

Knowing that secret, that life is bigger than anyone dreamed before, the Fool begins to pare down and eliminate the bad habits and attitudes that caused him to swing back and forth on a seesaw of moods.  The more mature and stable Fool emerges from this transition to a new and higher state of being.

Balance is what the Fool requires after realizing that giving up all of life’s pleasures is not necessary either.  Tempering the extremes, balance and harmony ensues and with this equilibrium is a new appreciation of moderation in all things.  Finally, the Fool experiences true maturity and centers himself into a healthy set of attitudes bringing with it the well being that life should have.

But the road does not end here…..life is full of surprises.  The world has many messages.  The Fool’s journey continues.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep

to gain what he cannot lose.”

—Jim Elliot, author, 1927-1956

We all travel a road, a journey to self actualization and realization. These trips are long and complex requiring detours, deceptions, backups and restarts.  Very few people experience consistent and smooth progression.  Every person has his or her unique path but the milestones and growth experience may be universal.  The Tarot calls this the Fool’s Journey as if it is a metaphor for our journey through life.

Some of us are born with innate gifts in one area, but blind in another.  We can be an intellectual genius and an emotionally immature child.  Or, perhaps you have known people with immense wealth and power but who never know love.  There are others who wander lost, bewildered and afraid to journey.  These people are contrasted by some interesting souls who are creative, action-oriented, risk takers and confident.

The Fool’s Journey is not orderly and is sometimes so lengthy that it cannot be perceived on a daily basis with the truths that are offered only revealed in retrospect.  We skip lessons or refuse to learn the lesson and then fail to reach our potential.  When we are blind to the lessons by ignoring the signals to look inward we might have to repeat and repeat the same situation in a new way until we see what is going on and thus surrender our notions to the depth of the experience.

Many times we try to overcome the difficulties encountered on the path but fail repeatedly.  No matter what the lesson is and no matter what the pattern of discovery is that is what we are here to do and cannot avoid in order reach our true potential.  Even the most successful, powerful and visible people are here to do the same things that the ordinary mortals do–for some reason their journey is public and not private.  Not better, not worse.  Just different.

We start as the Fool, in the beginning.  Innocent and with faith, we are simple souls embarking on a journey expecting a positive outcome and unaware of any hardship or pain that he or she might encounter as we venture out to learn the lessons of the world.

After commiting to the path–a school, a marriage, a child, a lifestyle, a new city–our Fool encounters the great balancing forces of the universe–the forces of opposites.  We awaken to the conscious awareness given by the Magician that allows us to impact the world we have before us with concentration of will and our power.   We also encounter the creativity of the feminine and fertile ground of unrealized potential that springs forth new life.  Both are needed, as father and mother to create new activity.  Each pole, positive and negative, male and female, are needed for balance.  Without the negative we cannot see the light and without the light, we cannot create anew.  So, with trial and error, we forge forward into the new experience.

As this Fool gains more awareness of his environment he gets to understand the surroundings and explores and delights in the new situation.  Our Fool is meeting the Empress, representing the earthly mother who surrounds us with support and nurturing.  But as soon as we meet this experience, we also experience the Emperor who represents structure and authority.  So we feel some restriction but also security from patterns and lines of demarkation around the experience.  Another way of putting this is that we have boundaries and rules in each stage of life that regulate behavior in the society that we find ourselves that are somehow necessary for our well-being.   We find ourselves somewhere where there is a figure in authority who will enforce our behavior.  No matter what system you find yourself in, somehow there is a built-in check and balance system.  In this way, the Fool learns and understand his purpose and boundary conditions.

Eventually, this Fool strays into the larger world and educates himself about the world he finds himself in.  Taking in information about this world, he will develop a personal belief system.   The new Fool has been indoctrinated, educated, and trained in the practices of this society and has become a part of the culture.  The Fool cannot help but identify with his group — is this a family, religion, country, company, school–and this group give him a sense of belonging and enables that feeling of separation or aloneness to dissipate.  The Fool enjoys the experience of this group and conforms to the culture or must move to another group.

Most people yearn for intimacy at some point in their life.  And this urge is powerful.  Sometimes intimacy is confused with sexuality, which is also an extremely powerful urge.  The young Fool begins to look for relationship.  And these relationships are formed with other Fools with similar belief systems and values. The relationship, once found, helps to balance individuals who become a half of a symbiotic relationship.  These relationships are especially important with those who need the comfort of another to feel whole because they are not entirely self aware and constantly experience the loneliness from separation.

Just past this adolescent phase, the Fool steps into adulthood.  Feeling masterful, the adult Fool has a strong identity with his experience or group and through discipline and willpower, repeating what has worked well in the past he feels that he understands his environment.  The ego feels victorious.  We have the exuberance of a happy child.  This is what we went through when we had the stock market bubbles….unjustified success and the feeling of self satisfaction.  You have the assured confidence of a winner and the feeling that this will never end and that somehow you did something good to deserve applause. This is the ride up on the Chariot of life.

Eventually, this ride up at the top presents challenges.  Some challenges are darn hard.  Some cause bubbles to burst.  Some challenges are amazing serving the purpose of reversing the previous thinking that had been ingrained in our belief system.   We have to draw on our inner strength to go on despite amazing setbacks.  This can represent ill health, job or relationship losses, children who don’t turn out the way we thought they should.  In comes a whole new phase of life requiring new attributes of patience, tolerance, and stoicism.  A kinder and softer power prevails as intense feelings temper the exuberance of the previous phase.   It is in these times that we realize that we do not control the world.  There seems to be more to life than that. It is in times like this that people begin to believe in a higher power.

What next, what hardships to I have to overcome, why is this happening to me?  The Fool cries like Job did.

More in the next blog entry….the Fool’s Realization.

“There is a difference between happiness and wisdom:

He that thinks himself the happiest man is really so;

but he that thinks himself the wisest is generally the greatest fool.”

—Sir Francis Bacon, English Lawyer and Philosopher, 1561-1626

We are all fools of a sort.   Life issues us days upon days to wander, learn, love and be productive. Sometimes we take advantage of what life offers.  Sometimes we squander our good fortune.

Life is a journey that takes us through all kinds of adventures while meeting a series of individuals in situations that present themselves along the path.  We enter each doorway on the path expectantly, like a Fool at the brink of a precipice surveying the horizon ahead.  We don’t really know what lies ahead, nor do we really know from whence we came.  It is our folly, our ideas which got us to this point in the first place.  Naive.  Ready to see what will become of the adventure before us.  And we begin, again, another Fool’s Journey.

It is if life itself moves in a great circle.  Ever expansive or ever contracting….the fool can choose.  But, only one thing is clear:  everything moves, everything changes.  It is a law of nature.

The Fool represents the beginning of the journey into the unknown.  When we begin a journey we are innocent and spontaneous.  We have been given a fresh start for new potential from this important opportunity.  What is it?  A new job? starting college? A new romance?  A new baby?  Each time we start into the new adventure we have significant and unexpected circumstances assail us without any planning.  We are pure excitement in this new phase of life.  This new beginning can lead us anywhere.

We might feel confused, dazed from lack of clarity since we have no experience from which to proceed.  Clinging to the ways of the past are a mistake because they are old and worn ideas and methods of relating and coping.  It is time to move forward into a new direction because the Fool is ready to start a new life cycle.  We lose control.  We have to trust that we will be able to cope with our new circumstances as they arise.

The more that we are able to embrace the Fool into our daily life, the more that we are able to innovate, travel, envision, master, dream, and wander.  The more we are able to trust in life itself, the more free movement becomes available to us.  Life is secure when we embrace our Fool.  We can trust life to take us to heights that we never imagined that we can go.

The characteristic feature of synchronistic occurrences is meaningful coincidence, and as such I have defined the synchronistic principle.

This principle suggests that there is an inter-connection or unity of causally unrelated events, and thus postulates a unitary aspect of being which can very well be described as the ‘unus mundus’ –one world.

C. G. Jung, Collected Works

Have you experienced situations so bizarre, so amazingly strange that it just could not have happened by coincidence?  Chance meetings with people you have been thinking about?  Or, the telephone ringing just as you have a thought about someone?  Or even more….long drawn out sequences of events that you cannot plan or anticipate…. Carl Jung called this synchronicity….it is also Kismet, serendipity, fate, destiny and more.

Now, it is also not clear that everything in this world happens synchronistically.  We people have free will and manifestly decide many factors that set our lives on a course.  We must paddle, if you will, through the whirlwind we call life.  Headwinds, setbacks, troubles, and fortune assist or hold back our progress.  It is as if we are adrift in a current that pushes and pulls us with information bombarding our senses, should we choose to recognize it.

These situations, pulled out of everyday life, are so amazing and so mysterious that it always reminds us of the magnitude of the universe (or universes) in which we play such a small bit part.  These situations also serve as reminders that we are not in control of the life to which we so dearly cling.  We come into the world small, helpless and with no possessions–and we exit that way, too.  Our job is to notice, listen and learn so that we can grow from the many experiences that we will have on this earth.

In the fullness of time, the reasons and the passion of the experience will flower.  We can’t make it happen any faster or slower….experience is not ours to manage, just to savor, learn from and enjoy.

Maybe the lesson is to let go and just let it be as it shall be.

Love the animals, love the plants, love everything.

If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you perceive it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day. And you will come at last to love the whole world with an all-embracing love.

—Fyodor Dostoyevsky, author 1821-1881

There was a time when ancient wisdom was considered blasphemy.  People were forced into religious systems without their permission, or else.  Many brave individuals were put to death for their beliefs–including Jesus.  So we have been through a tremendous dark age, forgetting our heritage, forgetting our place.

There was a time when pagan works were very threatening to the emerging but violent Western civilizations.  The Egyptian Library at Alexandria founded by Ptolemy I and its smaller library at the Serapheum were destroyed by degree of Thodosius in the third century AD destroying much of the written history of civilization and most of the works of Hermes, known as the God Thoth or Mercury, scribe of heaven.

Perhaps some of these works are still with us, moved, buried, not destroyed. Hopefully this goal is not wishful thinking.  Wouldn’t it fill in the gaps in our knowledge of our selves and our history if perhaps one day we rediscover this lost material?  What a loss we have suffered. What a tremendous find it would be if this ancient wisdom is finally revealed.  Some guardians of secrets are deliberately releasing information and making it public after years of secrecy.

Considered on of the oldest books of all time, The Sefer Yetzirah, or the Book of Creation was probably written by the father of Judaism, Abraham, according to oral history. The tradition called the short book “The letters of Abraham, our father”.  History places the date of Abraham at 1800 BCE, around the time of the writing of the Vedic texts in India.

This Book of Creation is the most mysterious of all the texts of the Kabbalah.   It reads as an obscure manual.  However, when understood properly by an initiate of the mystery schools, it is an instruction manual, consistent with alchemy of Hermes, that is supposed to aid in concentration and to develop telekinetic and telepathic powers. This and other similar works, especially the Vedas and the Emerald Tablet from Hermes Trismegistus, form a body of wisdom that has been penetrated by mystics, religious scholars, magicians, and mystery schools for centuries.

Supposedly this wisdom traveled in the steps of our forefathers–from Adam it passed to Noah, from Noah to Abraham who emigrated with it to Egypt, where the patriarch allowed a portion of this mysterious doctrine to ooze out.

It is possible that it was in this way that the Egyptian, Hermes Trismestigus obtained knowledge of it.  But, history is so confusing insofar as there is a Hermes senior and a Hermes junior…so perhaps historians are only guessing.  As I have mentioned before, some believe that it is possible that Hermes and Moses are actually only one person.

Moses was learned in all the wisdom of Egypt as he was raised by the royal family and was initiated into it in Egypt, all of which is well documented. Moses became more proficient in the use of the magical powers of creation during his 40 years of wandering in the desert.  Moses initiated seventy Elders of the tribe into the secrets of this doctrine during the sojourn in the desert and since then, they have transmitted secrets from person to person.

Jewish mystics claim that Moses ascended Mount Sinai three times, remaining in the presence of God forty days each time. During the first forty days the tables of the written law were delivered.  The Ten Commandments.  During the second forty days he received the soul of the law, the Mishnah. During the last forty days God instructed him in the mysteries of the Kabbalah, the soul of the soul of the law.

Moses concealed the secret instructions that God had given him in the first four books of the Pentateuch, and for centuries students of Kabbalah have studied the Old Testament for codes about the secret doctrine of Israel.  And there are numerous scholars still seeking to understand what is hidden there in the codes supposedly given to Moses by God himself.

As if spirituality is a problem to be solved, there is a riddle.  Just as the spiritual nature of man is concealed in his physical body, so the unwritten law is concealed within the written teachings of the bible as a code.  And this key comes from the Sefer Yetzirah, one of the primary books of the Kabbalah.

Kabbalah means the secret or hidden tradition, the unwritten law, and according to an early Rabbi, it was delivered to man in order that through the aid of its principles he might understand the mystery of both the universe and the universe within him.  As above, so below.

According to the Sefer Yetzirah, there is a Tree of Life within us.  And this contains 10 Sephiroth, 32 mystical paths of wisdom, 221 gates, and 72 names of God from permutations of the 22 original Hebrew letters.   The Tetragrammaton, or name of God, is formed by re-arranging the four letters of the Great Name, י ה ו ה, (I H V H), in the form of the Pythagorean Tetractys, then, the there are 72 permutations or versions which represent various powers that this Great Name manifests.  The Tetragrammaton appears 6800 times in the Old Testament.

Understanding this system of thought can become the study of a lifetime.  Here is an example of one paragraph of the first chapter:

“Ten Sephirot 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”

This excerpt discusses the will of man, the faculty of the highest Sephira, Keter, meaning Crown.  As a mystic reaches the highest levels of consciousness, he may be fooled into thinking that he is reaching for God, himself, but the Sefer Yetsirah says, ten and not eleven, because we cannot ever reach that level of the Infinite, the Ain Sof–it is beyond our grasp.

From this and related books, many secret or arcane traditions have sprung up using the wisdom handed down.  Astrology, gematria and the Tarot are based upon the systems articulated here.  All arcane.  All undeniably old and ridiculed by the practical science of our modern world.  Forgotten knowledge?

If you study either the Kabbalah or the Tarot, you will find the most gracious links to the wisdom presented in the Sefer Yetzirah.  Actually, it is amazing how the Tarot has boiled down much of the information into a visually presentable style.  There is much more to Tarot than you might think at first blush.

The Sefer Yetzirah is perhaps the one of the most dense but detailed and enlightening informational books ever written.  On the other hand, this was written by the guy who came back from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments.  Those are similarly dense and important.

The Book of Creation is so short that I am going to give you a reproduction of it here in case you are interested….now, it would take a lifetime of study and hundreds of pages to examine these contents, but it is totally cool to see the real thing.

Then, if this text peaks your interest as it has mine, you can buy a book or 100 books to learn how to interpret this.  If you are interested in reading a great analysis of the theories behind this important book, it has relatively recently (10 years ago) been translated into English by Aryeh Kaplan, naturally called the Sefer Yetzirah.

The Short Version of the Sefer Yetzirah, Book of Creation

Chapter 1

1. With thirty two mystical paths of Wisdom engraved YAH, YHVH of Hosts, God of Israel, the Living God, God Almighty, high and exalted, dwelling in eternity on high, and his name is Holy, and he created his  Universe with three books, with text, with number, and with communication.  They are Ten Sephirot of Nothingness and 22 foundation letters:  three Basics, seven Doubles, and twelve Elementals.

2. Ten Sephiroth like the number of ten fingers, five opposite five.  The singular covenant is directly in the middle, like the circumcision of the tongue in the mouth, and like the circumcision of them membrum.

3. Ten Sephiroth of Nothingness, ten and not nine; ten and not eleven. Understand with wisdom, probe with understanding. Discern with them and probe from them. Make a thing stand on its essence and make the Creator sit on His base, for He alone is the Former and Creator and there is none beside Him. And His measure is ten and they have no end.

The ten ineffable Sephiroth have ten infinitudes, which are as follows:

The infinite beginning and the infinite end;

The infinite good and the infinite evil;

The infinite height and the infinite depth;

The infinite East and the infinite West;

The infinite North and the infinite South;

and over them is the Lord Superlatively One, the faithful King.He rules over all in all from His holy habitation for ages of ages.

6. The appearance of the ten spheres out of Nothing is as a flash of lightning or a sparkling flame, and they are without beginning or end. The Word of God is in them when they go forth and when they return. They run by His order like a whirlwind and prostrate themselves before His throne.

7. The ten Sephiroth have their end linked to their beginning and their beginning linked to their end, co-joined as the flame is wedded to the live coal, for the Lord is Superlatively One and to Him there is no second. Before One what can you count?

8. Concerning the number of the Sephirot out of Nothing, seal up your lips and guard your heart as you consider them, and if your month opens for utterance and your heart turns towards thought, control them, returning to silence. So it is written: “And the living creatures ran and returned.”  And on this wise was the covenant made with us.

9. These are the ten emanations of number out of Nothing:

1st. The spirit of the living Elohim, blessed and more than blessed be the living Elohim of ages. His Voice, His Spirit, and His Word are the Holy Spirit. 2nd. He produced air from the spirit and in the air. He formed and established twenty-two sounds–the letters. Three of them were fundamental, or mothers; seven were double; and twelve were simple; but the spirit is the first one and above all. 3rd. Primordial water He extracted from the air. He formed therein twenty-two letters and established them out of mud and loam, making them like a border, putting them up like a wall, and surrounding them as with a rampart. He poured snow upon them and it became earth, as it reads: “He said to the snow be thou earth.”  4th. Fire. He drew forth from the water. He engraved and established by it the Throne of Glory. He fashioned the Seraphim, the Ophanim, and the Holy Living Creatures, as His ministering angels; and with these three He formed His habitation, as it reads: “Who made His angels spirits, His ministers a flaming fire.” 5th. He selected three consonants (I, H, V) from the simple ones–a secret belonging to the three mothers, or first elements; א מ ש (A, M, Sh), air, water, fire. He sealed them with His spirit and fashioned them into a Great Name and with this sealed the universe in six directions. He turned towards the above and sealed the height with י ה ו (I, H, V). 6th. He turned towards the below and sealed the depth withה י ו (H, I, V). 7th. He turned forward and sealed the East with ו י ה (V, I, H). 8th. He turned backward and sealed the West with ו ה י (V H, I). 9th. He turned to the right and sealed the South with י ו ה (I, V, H). 10th. He turned to the left and sealed the North with ה ו י (H, V, I).

10. These are the ten ineffable existences out of nothing; From the spirit of the Living God emanated air; from the air, water; from the water, fire; from the fire, the height and the depth, the East and the West, the North and the South.

Chapter Two

1. There are twenty-two basic letters. Three are the first elements (water, air, fire), fundamentals, or mothers; seven are double letters; and twelve are simple letters. The three fundamental letters א מ ש have as their basis the balance. At one end of the scale are the virtues and at the other the vices, placed in equilibrium by the tongue. Of the fundamental letters מ (M) is mute like the water, ש (Sh) hissing like fire, א (A) a reconciling breath between them.

2. The twenty-two basic letters having been designed, appointed, and established by God, He combined, weighed, and exchanged them, and formed by them all beings which are in existence, and all which will be formed in time to come.

3. He established twenty-two basic letters, formed by the voice and impressed upon the air by the breath. He set them to be audibly uttered in five different parts of the human mouth: namely, Gutturals, א ה ח ע; Palatals, ג י כ ק; Linguals, ד ט ל נ ת Dentals, ז ש ס ר ץ; Labials, ב ו מ ף.

4. He fixed the twenty-two basic letters in a ring like a wall with two hundred and thirty-one gates, and turned the sphere forward and backward. Turned forward, the sphere signified good; when reversed, evil. Three letters may serve for an illustration: There is nothing better than ע נ ג (O, N, G), pleasure (joy), and nothing worse than נ ג ע (N, G, O), plague (sorrow).

5. How was it all accomplished? He combined, weighed, and changed: the א (A) with all the other letters in succession, and all the others again with א (A), and all again with ב (B); and so with the whole series of letters. Hence it follows that there are two hundred and thirty-one formations, or gates, through which the powers of the letters go forth; every creature and every language proceeded from One Name and the combination of its letters.

6. He created a reality out of Nothing. He called the nonentity into existence and hewed colossal pillars from intangible air. This has been shown by the example of combining the letter א (A) with all the other letters, and all the other letters with א. By speaking He created every creature and every word by the power of One Name. As an illustration, consider the twenty-two elementary substances from the primitive substance of א. The production of every creature from the twenty-two letters is proof that they are in reality the twenty-two parts of one living body.

Chapter Three

1. The first three elements (Mothers, א מ ש) resemble a balance, in one scale virtue and in the other vice, placed in equilibrium by the tongue.

2. The three Mothers, א מ ש, enclose a great, wonderful, and unknown mystery, and are sealed by six wings, namely, air, water, fire–each divided into an active and a passive power. The Mothers, א מ ש, gave birth to the Fathers, and these gave birth to the generations.

3. God appointed and established three Mothers, א מ ש, combined, weighed, and exchanged them, forming by them three Mothers, in the universe, in the year, and in man.

4. The three Mothers, א מ ש, in the universe are: air, water, and fire. Heaven was created from the elementary fire, ש, the earth, comprising sea and land, from the elementary water, מ, and the atmospheric air from the elementary air, or spirit, א, which establishes the balance among them. Thus were all things produced.

5. The three Mothers, א מ ש, produce in the year heat, coldness, and the temperate state. Heat was created from fire, coldness from water, and the temperate state from air, which gives equilibrium to them.

6. The three Mothers, א מ ש, produce in man breast, abdomen, and head. The head was formed from the fire, ש; the abdomen from the water, מ; and the breast from air, א, which places them in equilibrium.

7. God let the letter א (A) predominate in primordial air, crowned it, combined it with the other two, and sealed the air in the universe, the temperate state in the year, and the breast in man.

8. He let the letter מ (M) predominate in primordial water, crowned it, combined it with the other two, and sealed the earth in the universe, coldness in the year, and the abdomen in man.

9. He let the letter ש (Sh) predominate in primordial fire, crowned it, combined it with the other two, and sealed heaven in the universe, heat in the year, and the head of man.

Chapter Four

1. The seven double letters, ב ג ד כ פ ר ת (B, G, D, K, P, R, Th), have a duplicity of pronunciation, aspirated and not aspirated, namely: פּ ת, רּ ר, פּ פ, כּ כ, דּ ד, גּ.  They serve as a model of softness and hardness, strength and weakness.

2. The seven double letters symbolize wisdom, riches, fertility life, power, peace, and grace.

3. The seven double letters also signify the antitheses to which human life is exposed. The opposite of wisdom is foolishness; of riches, poverty; of fertility, sterility; of life, death; of power, servitude; of peace, war; and of beauty, deformity.

4. The seven double letters point out the six dimensions, height, depth, East and West, North and South, and the Holy Temple in the center, which sustains them all.

5. The double letters are seven and not six, they are seven and not eight; reflect upon this fact, search into it and reveal its hidden mystery and place the Creator on His throne again.

6. The seven double letters having been designed, established, purified, weighed, and exchanged by God, He formed of them seven planets in the universe, seven days in the Year, and seven gateways of the senses in man. From these seven He also produced seven heavens, seven earths, and seven Sabbaths. Therefore He loved seven more than any other number beneath His throne.

7. The seven planets in the universe are: Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, Sun, Venus, Mercury, and Moon. The seven days in the Year are the seven days of the week. The seven gateways in man are two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, and the mouth.

8. In the central triangle are the three Mother Letters from which come forth the seven Double Letters–the planets and the heavens. Surrounding the black star are the signs of the zodiac symbolized by the twelve Simple Letters. In the midst of this star is the Invisible Throne of the Most Ancient of the Ancients–the Supreme Creator beyond definition.

1st. He caused the letter. ב (B) to predominate in wisdom, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them the Moon in the universe, the first day in the year, and the right eye in man.   2nd. He caused the letter ג (G) to predominate in riches, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Mars in the universe, the second day in the year, and the right ear in man.  3rd. He caused the letter ד (D) to predominate infertility, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them the Sun in the universe, the third day in the year, and the right nostril in man. 4th. He caused the letterכ (K) to predominate in life, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Venus in the universe, the fourth day in the year, and the left eye in man. 5th. He caused the letter פ (P) to predominate in power, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Mercury in the universe, the fifth day in the year, and the left ear in man. 6th. He caused the letter ר (R) to predominate in peace, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Saturn in the universe, the sixth day in the year, and the left nostril in man. 7th. He caused the letter ת (Th) to predominate in grace, crowned it, combined each with the others, and formed by them Jupiter in the universe, the seventh day in the year, and the mouth of man.

9. With the seven double letters He also designed seven earths, seven heavens, seven continents, seven seas, seven rivers, seven deserts, seven days, seven weeks, and in the midst of them His Holy Palace. There is a cycle of seven years and the seventh is the release year, and after seven release years is the Jubilee. For this reason God loves the number seven more than any other thing under the heavens.

10. In this manner God joined the seven double letters together. Two stones build two houses, three stones build six houses, four stones build twenty-four houses, five stones build 120 houses, six stones build 720 houses, and seven stones build 5,040 houses. Make a beginning according to this arrangement and reckon further than the mouth can express or the ear can hear.

Chapter Five

1. The twelve simple letters ה ו ז ח ט י ל נ ס ע צ ק (H, V, Z, Ch, T, I, L, N, S, O, Tz, Q) symbolize the twelve fundamental properties: speech, thought, movement, sight, hearing, work, coition, smell, sleep, anger, taste, and mirth.

2. The simple letters correspond to twelve directions: east height, northeast, east depth; south height, southeast, south depth; west height, southwest, west depth; north height, northwest, north depth. They diverge to all eternity and are the arms of the universe.

3. The simple letters having been designed, established, weighed, and exchanged by God, He produced by them twelve zodiacal signs in the universe, twelve months in the year, and twelve chief organs in ` human body.

4, The signs of the zodiac are: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. The months of the year are: Nisan, liar, Sivan, Tammuz, Ab, Elul, Tisri, Marcheshvan, Kislev, Tebet, Sebat, and Adar. The organs of the human body are: two hands, two feet, two kidneys, gall, small intestine, liver, esophagus, stomach, and spleen.

5.  As to the arrangement of properties:

1st. God caused the letter ה (H) to predominate in speech, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Aries in the universe, the month Nisan in the year, and the right foot of the human body. 2nd. He caused the letter ו (V) to predominate in thought, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Taurus in the universe, the month liar in the year, and the right kidney of the human body. 3rd. He caused the letter ז (Z) to predominate in movement, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Gemini in the universe, the month Sivan in the year, and the left foot of the human body. 4th. He caused the letter ח (Ch) to predominate in sight, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Cancer in the universe, the month Tammuz in the year, and the right hand of the human body. 5th. He caused the letter ט (T) to predominate in hearing, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Leo in the universe, the month Ab in the year, and the left kidney of the human body. 6th. He caused the letter י (I) to predominate in work, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Virgo in the universe, the month Elul in the year, and the left hand of the human body. 7th. He caused the letter ל (L) to predominate in coitus, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Libra in the universe, the month Tisri in the year, and the gall of the human body.  8th. He caused the letter נ (N) to predominate in smell, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Scorpio in the universe, the month Marcheshvan in the year, and the small intestine in the human body.  9th. He caused the letter ס (S) to predominate in sleep, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Sagittarius in the universe, the month Kislev in the year, and the stomach in the human body.  10th. He caused the letter ע (O) to predominate in anger, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Capricorn in the universe, the month Tebet in the year, and the liver in the human body.  11th. He caused the letter צ (Tz) to predominate in taste, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Aquarius in the universe, the month Sebat in the year, and the esophagus in the human body.  12th. He caused the letter ק (Q) to predominate in mirth, crowned it, combined it with the others, and fashioned by them Pisces in the universe, the month Adar in the year, and the spleen in the human body.

6. He made them as a conflict, He arranged them as provinces and drew them up like a wall. He armed them and set one against another as in warfare.

Chapter Six

1. There are three Mothers or first elements, א מ ש (A, M, Sh), from which emanated three Fathers –primordial air, water, and fire–from which issued the seven planets with their angels, and the twelve signs of the Zodiac.

2. To prove this there are three faithful witnesses: the universe, the year, and man. There are the twelve, the balance, and the seven. Above is the Dragon, below is the world, and lastly the heart of man; and in the midst is God who regulates them all.

3. The first elements are air, water, and fire; the fire is above, the water is below, and a breath of air establishes balance between them. The token is: the fire carries the water. The letterמ (M) is mute; ש (Sh) is hissing like fire; there is א (A) among them, a breath of air which reconciles the two.

4. The Dragon is in the universe like a king upon his throne; the celestial sphere is in the year like a king in his empire; and the heart is in the body of men like a king in warfare.

5. God also set the opposites against each other: the good against the evil, and the evil against the good. Good proceeds from good, evil from evil; the good purifies the bad, the bad the good. The good is reserved for the good, and the evil for the wicked.

6. There are three of which each stands by itself: one is in the affirmative or good, one is in the negative or evil, and the third provides equilibrium for them.

7. There are seven divided three against three, and one provides balance in the midst of them. Twelve stand in warfare: three produce love and three hatred; three are life-givers and three are destroyers.

8. The three that cause love are the heart and the two ears; the three that produce hatred are the liver, the gall, and the tongues; the three life-givers are the two nostrils and the spleen; and the three destroyers are the mouth and the two lower openings of the body. Over all these rules God, the faithful king, from His holy habitation in all eternity. God is One above three, three are above seven, seven are above twelve, yet all are linked together.

9. There are twenty-two letters by which the I AM, the Lord of Hosts, Almighty and Eternal, designed and created by the three Sepharim of Numbers, Letters, and Sounds. His universe, and formed by them all creatures and all those things that are yet to come.

10. When the Patriarch Abraham had comprehended the great truths, meditated upon them, and understood them perfectly, the Lord of the Universe appeared to him, called him His friend, kissed him upon the head, and made with him a covenant.

First, the covenant was between the ten fingers of his hands, which is the covenant of the tongue; second, the covenant was between the ten toes of his feet, which is the covenant of circumcision; and God said of him, “Before Abraham bound the spirit of the twenty-two letters upon his tongue and God disclosed to him their secrets.”

God permitted the letters to be immersed in water, He burned them in the fire and imprinted them upon the winds. He distributed them among the seven planets and gave them to the twelve zodiacal signs.