Golden Dawn Blog by Frater Yechidah

In Part One we covered the often confused issue of vowels in the Hebrew language. Now let's look at some similarly confusing letters that have multiple sounds, along with resolving some confusions over doubled up letters in the English transliteration. We'll save prepositions for a future post. Division of Letters Hebrew has 22 letters, but these are split into three different groups: Mothers, Doubles, and Simples (or Singles), which we learn in the Third Knowledge Lecture.  The Mother Letters are Aleph, Mem, and Shin, relating to the three primary elemental forces. The term 'mother' for these is appropriate since all other forces are born from these elements. The Double Letters are Beth, Gimel, Daleth, Kaph, Peh, Resh, Tav. These relate to the seven planets. The Simple or Single Letters are the remaining twelve letters: Heh, Vav, Zayin, Cheth, Teth, Yod, Lamed, Nun, Samekh, Ayin, Tzaddi, Qoph. The terms 'Mother' and 'Simple' are fairly common sen...

Hebrew is a difficult language for English speakers to grasp initially, as it works very differently, particularly with its lack of vowels. However, there are a number of 'rules of thumb' that can help people considerably with it. The Holy Tongue The first thing to note is that Hebrew ( Ibrith or Ivrith -  ע ב ר י ת ) was intended as a holy language from the start, called by many the Leshon ha-Qodesh ( ל ש ו ן  ה ק ו ד ש ) , the Tongue of Holiness. It was a language studied by Rabbis and held in great reverence, so much so that it became part of the philosophical and religious teachings of the Jews. It's very different to other languages that we might use in magic, such as Latin and Greek, as it was never intended to be spoken in everyday life. Some people objected to the idea of the language being used in mainstream society in Israel towards the end of the 19th Century, but it is now a spoken language in addition to being used for religious purposes. Vowels Hebrew h...

A poem of mine on the Hebrew letter Teth was published in the Vernal Equinox issue of JWMT last year. You can read it here: Teth by Dean F. Wilson

A Conscious, Active Cause in all we see, And number proves the living unity. No bound hath He who doth the whole contain, But, all preceding, fills life's vast domain. Sole worthy worship, He, the only Lord, Doth His true doctrine to clean hearts accord. But since faith's work a single pontiff need, One law have we, and at one altar plead; Eternal God for aye their base upholds. Heaven and man's day alike His rule enfolds. In mercy rich, in retribution strong, His people's King He will upraise ere long. The tomb gives entrance to the promised land, Death only ends; life's vistas still expand. These doctrines sacred, pure and steadfast shine; And thus we close our number's scale divine. Good angels all things temper and assuage, While evil spirits burst with wrath and rage. God doth the lightning rule, the flame subdue. His word controls both Vesper and her dew. He makes the moon our watchman through the night, And by His sun renews the world in light. When dust ...

Daleth (pronounced Dah-leth ) is the fourth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It, therefore, has the gematria value of 4. Its Hebrew spelling is Daleth Lamed Tav , which, in turn, has a gematria value of 434 (Daleth=4, Lamed=30, Tav=400). The fully spelled word means "Door". The letter is drawn by starting with the horizontal "roof", drawing from left to right, and then drawing the vertical line from top to bottom. It is important to ensure the horizontal line extends slightly further on the right, so as to distinguish it from the letter Resh. Just as Gimel is the charitable letter, Daleth is the poor letter which receives Gimel's charity. This aspect comes from the shape of the letter, which, because it is "bent over", resembles a beggar looking for charity. It is also because of the root word for this letter, which is dalah , to impoverish , which, in turn, gives rise to daluth , meaning poverty. Daleth is related to Chesed via the number four, and it...

Gimel (pronounced Gee-mel or Gim-el ) is the third letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It, therefore, has the gematria value of 3. Its Hebrew spelling is Gimel Mem Lamed , which, in turn, has a gematria value of 73 (Gimel=3, Mem=40, Lamed=30). The fully spelled word means "Camel", and is sometimes transliterated as Gamel . The letter is drawn by starting at the left-hand side of the uppermost line and extending straight across and down on the right in one movement. The floor is then drawn from right to left. It's important to make sure that the back of the letter has a "tail", to distinguish it from Mem. Gimel is seen as a charitable, indeed, a righteous , man in the Talmud, chasing after a poor man to give him charity (Daleth, the next letter, is related to Daluth , meaning poverity). The root of Gimel is gamal , meaning "to give", and thus Gimel gives to Daleth from the House of God (Beth), which is filled with the wealth of God's Divine Breath (Alep...

Beth (pronounced Bayt or Bet ) is the second letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It, therefore, has the gematria value of 2. Its Hebrew spelling is Beth Yod Ta v, which, in turn, has a gematria value of 412 (Beth=2, Yod=10, Tav=400). The fully spelled word means "House", and is sometimes transliterated as Bayith . The letter is drawn by starting at the top left, drawing the roof, which extends down into the right-hand "wall". Then the floor is drawn by starting at the left, making sure a little "ledge" extends out further on the right (so it is not confused with Kaph, etc.). The first letter in the Torah is Beth, forming Bereshith : "In The Beginning". There are many commentaries for why a Beth begins this seminal Qabalistic text and not an Aleph. One explanation states that Aleph was not used because it begins the word Arar , meaning "curse", while Beth begins Berakah , meaning "blessing". Another has all the letters line up befo...

In keeping with the nature of my previous posts on the Hebrew alphabet, I'd like to offer a link to a poem of mine I wrote around a year ago on the letter Aleph. It was originally published in Issue 2 of Hidden Spirit , a small esoteric magazine here in Ireland, and then republished online in the Journal of the Western Mystery Tradition (recommended). You can check it out here: Aleph by Dean F. Wilson For those who've read my previous post, the poem should make a lot more sense. I also have another poem on the letter Teth, but I'll save that for when we get to that letter. It's my intent to ultimately write a poem for each letter - much easier said than done!

Aleph (pronounced Ah-lef ) is the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It, therefore, has a gematria value of 1, and often you will see an Aleph used as this number in various texts. Its Hebrew spelling is Aleph Lamed Peh sophith (Peh Final), as displayed in the image above. This word, when spelled out, means "Ox", and comes from the Pheonician pictograph for the letter A, which is almost like an inverted Roman A, with both the lower lines representing the horns of the Ox. The gematria of this full word is 831 when counting the value of the Peh Final (Aleph=1, Lamed=30, Peh Final=800) or 111 when counting the value of the last letter as a regular Peh (Peh=80). To draw the letter, draw the diagonal line first, then the uppermost leg (which looks like a Yod) and then the bottom leg (which also looks like a Yod). Note that the lines connecting these Yods to the central diagonal line should not meet, but rather the left one should be higher than the right (consult the image abov...

The Hebrew alphabet (or Aleph-Beth ) is one of the first things a member of the Golden Dawn was taught, and for good reason. The use of Hebrew in Golden Dawn work, from the LBRP to the Shem ha-Mephoresh , warrants that all students have at least a basic understanding of the alphabet. Indeed, the further you explore the Qabalah, the more you will begin to realise just how vital a knowledge of Hebrew actually is. The ancient Qabalists use it abundantly, not merely as the language they wrote in, but as a language of allegory, pun, and the deep and complex workings of gematria. Its prominence in the Sepher Yetzirah alone is clearly indicative of this. I am strong advocate for having a deep knowledge and understanding of the mysteries of the Hebrew language, and, in particular, its alphabet. Given this, I will be offering some insights into the mysteries of each letter over a multitude of posts to come, starting with Aleph . They will not include all the mysteries, for that would, if possi...