Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Cauldron Of Mastery


Glowing blue plasma streaming upwards from the central electrode of a plasma lamp. (PlasmaPhysics)

Be fertile and increase, fill the land and master וכבשה it ... Bereshit 1:28

The hebrew word for cauldron כבשן comes from the shoresh (root) כבש meaning to "subdue", "master", "transform", "furnace where material disintegrates" and "spider" [1].

From the root כבש comes the keyword to the mitzvah to transform and master the land (ha-aretz, malchut) as commanded in Bereshit 1:28. Note, וכבשה in the pasuk begins with the letter vav ו and ends with the letter hei ה. Vav-hei וה is shorthand for the soul of mashiach (messianic consciousness) [2]. Consequently, the command is to transform וה into mastery ן, as evidenced by the transformation of וכבשה into כבשן.

Interestingly, recent details recurrent in my dreams includes the concepts of "plasma", things/people "disintegrating" as in a nuclear event, the presence of a nightrobe, and spiders. Indexing my dreams, I found that the two colors my nightrobe has taken in the dreams are pink and blue - like in the plasma pictured above.

Disintegration corresponds to the processes of purification ו and transformation ה, which precede "mastery" ן (active reorganization of structure).

In addition to the root letters, כבשן cauldron has a nun-sofit ן, where the final nun implies a perpetual continuity, like the threads connecting the details running throughout all of my dreams. In other words, the transformation and mastery emanating from the cauldron are ever-evolving.

All of these dream details taken together are signs pointing to the shamanistic presence of the power of the female "cauldron energy" in my life. Torah validates it.

In harmony with Torah, Celtic shamanism teaches that the cauldron כבשן represents:

the source of limitless food
the source divine knowledge, wisdom and inspiration
the source of the ability to revive the dead
the source of transformation and mastery of consciousness

From plasma figure below, we can also see how the root כבש also acquired the meaning "spider". The raw energy of the plasma below is harnessed and transformed in the plasma above.


Footnotes:

[1] Etymological Dictionary Of Biblical Hebrew, R' Matityahu Clark

[2] Studies In Ecstatic Kabbalah, Moshe Idel

(Plasma Energy)


רבי יוחנן אמר משיצרפם בכבשן ריש לקיש אמר משיצחצחן במים
Bava Metzia 84a (בכבשן "in the cauldron", Schottenstein-Artscroll)

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