Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Mezuzah & Pentacle, Directing Divine Energy

Today I received my first silver pentacle. It looks like the one in the graphic on the left. Now I have both a gold magen David and a silver pentacle. Soon, I will receive the Jewitch star I purchased which combines them both.

Previously I described how the Jewish mezuzah and the Celtic witch's athame (ritual dagger) are both related to the "blood sign" of the exodus through the hebrew letters of mezuzah (מזוזה) and through the mythology of both. Interestingly, the witch's pentacle is even more directly related to mitzvah of mezuzah.

On the back of the parchment within a mezuzah is the esoteric inscription:

KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU
כוזו במוכסז כוזו

Moshe Idel (Language, Torah, and Hermeneutics in Abraham Abulafia) writes regarding this enigmatic phrase and its connection to the pentacle:

In many manuscripts we find a passage that contains a pentagram, and alongside it is written: ‘This is the Maaseh Merkavah KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU’, and under these letters is written: YHVH ELHYNU YHVH.

A pentagram is the star of five points with a five-sided geometrical shape in its center. A pentacle is a pentagram encircled [1]. As the pentagram clearly corresponds to KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU, the pentacle likewise corresponds to YHVH ELHYNU YHVH.

Given the connection of the witch's pentacle to Abulafian hebrew letter kabbalah (which I have uniquely practiced for nearly a decade), I can see now that my interest in Jewitchery is a very natural development of my kabbalistic learning. Moreover, in light of the fact that the witch's pentacle and athame are both connected to the mitzvah of mezuzah, when I acquire my athame later this week, I intend to inscribe upon its blade KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU, in hebrew letters (one side, with a pentacle also) and YHVH ELHYNU YHVH in letters of the celtic ogham (the other side, with a magen David also).

hebrew KUZU BMUKSZ KUZU
כוזו במוכסז כוזו

celtic ogham YHVH ELHYNU YHVH


Note the >-feather (eite) of the ogham line which denotes the "beginning" and direction of writing. This characteristic mark at the left end of an ogham line is like a mystical extention of the tip of the athame. In other words, the essential "energy" of YHVH ELHYNU YHVH is being directed beyond the tip of the blade when used in ritual. Thus, the athame inscribed as discussed above, which as an extention of the witch herself, is used not only to project and direct mystical kavanah, but to direct Divine Energy as well.

Footnote:

[1] The Craft, Dorothy Morrison (p. 84)

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