Double Dose Of Havdalah Consciousness

י"ד תמוז התשס"ח
Faunus 16

My besom, handcrafted at Samhain.

A traditional witch's broom is called a besom. Sweet-smelling spices in traditional kabbalah are called besomim. There is an interesting connection between a witch's besom (ritual broomstick) and kabbalistic besomim (ritual spices, typically a mixture of cloves and myrtle although other fragrant spices and plants may be used).

The Hebrew word besomim (בשׂמים) is from the root בשׂם meaning to "cut up" [1] (where spices are cut from a whole plant). Ritually, besomim are spices used to separate between sacred time and mundane time. In other words, besomim are significantly associated with the liminal zone between and joining sacred and mundane time (times primarily for spiritual and physical pursuits, respectively).

Likewise with respect to liminality, in ancient Rome, midwives used special brooms to ritually "cut the ties between the world of the living and the realm of the dead after childbirth" [2]. Thus, the besom of traditional witchcraft is significantly associated with the liminal zone between and joining a time of embodied life and a time of spiritualized life.

These facts taken together suggest some common esoteric-occult-linguistic foundation for both the witch's besom and the kabbalist's besomim. The common foundation between the two ritual tools is connected to the ideas of "cutting", "liminality" and "unifying the physical and the spiritual".

Here is an interesting link describing how to construct a witch's besom.

Footnotes:

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

[2] Solitary Witch, Silver Ravenwolf; and The Woman's Dictionary Of Symbols And Sacred Objects, B. Walker

Mirror Magic

י"ד בטבת תשס"ח
Grael 15
Motzi Shabbat Yule

My 6" diameter, 1" deep concave, 1/4" thick skrying mirror is handblown, handrolled and double layered deep black glass fused with a clear glass layer over the top surface. The back surface is finished and the edges naturally softened by the kiln melt process.

A concave mirror is "where a parallel beam of light becomes a convergent beam, whose rays intersect in the focus of the mirror." (Wiki)

When in use, my black mirror rests upon an 8" X 8" square black skrying pillow.

When not in use, my mirror is wrapped with a 42" X 42" square dark navy Celtic paisley ("clearing") print pure silk scarf, placed upon the pillow, and contained within a 9.5" X 9.5" square, 4.5" deep, Tree of Life with Celtic knotwork wooden chest. The volume of the chest is 406.125 cubic inches. The value 406 is the gematria of בקדש, "in holiness", of האת, "the sign", of לשלום, "of peace", and of אתה, containing the mystery of all the permutations and cyclings of the letters of the Jewish-Hebrew aleph-beit. The value 125 is the gematria of החזקה, "the strong", of גבעים, "cups" and of יפלה, "differentiates". The value of 406 pertains to the Unity of Atzilut. The value of 125 pertains to the Creation Power of Beriyah. Taken together, the value of 406 + 125 = 531, which is the gematria of לאשר, meaning "of happiness", "of successful straightforward progression", "of the tree of blessing", and "of well trodden steps".

The underside of the chest's lid is engraved with my Jewish name in Hebrew letters and my Celtic name in Ogham letters. The inside bottom of the chest is engraved with all 48 (= יובל) letters of the Hebrew (including the otiot sofiot and the 4-shin) and Ogham alphabets.

The deep black layer of the mirror pertains to an integral fusion of Yetzirah (the universe of Formation) and the Divine Essence (Atzmut). The clear layer of the mirror pertains to the clarity of Malchut, itself integrally fused and supported by the Divine Essence revealed in the deep blackness of my Magic Mirror.

First, I chose the tools which spoke to me. Then, I explored the dimensional correspondences to discover meanings which reveal the deep Guiding Essence supporting my endeavors as a Jewitch.