Jewitchery & Jewishness

JN at Jewesses With Attitude wrote:

Jewitches and Jew-U's also shatter the assumption that those who do not identify with the status-quo are Jewishly unaffiliated.

But here's a question to consider: would a Jewitch or a Jew-U walk into a synagogue and identify herself as Jewish? Or is her Jewish "self" only manifest in those spaces populated by those who share the same kind of pluralistic faith identity? Is there a chance that many of these Jewitches and Jew-U's could, in fact, fully express themselves and find fulfillment in liberal Jewish spaces but are under the assumption that such spaces don't exist? Just how compatible or congruent are these blended identities? Are the Jewitch and Jew-U communities a socio-cultural-spiritual phenomenon, or are they, in fact, transforming religion entirely?

JN asks if a Jewitch would go into a synagogue and identify herself as Jewish - and the answer is, for most of us, including myself - absolutely. In fact, my interest in Jewitchery naturally evolved from my traditional study of Jewish kabbalah from a Chassidic perspective.

Not all Jewitches practice traditional Wicca divorced from traditional Judaism. I don't. I do however, incorporate elements of Celtic witchcraft and Native American shamanism (both also among my natural ancestries along with my Jewish ancestry) into my traditional Jewish kabbalistic practice and study. I love being a Jewitch! It's a life-enhancing blend of all that I am.

Could I be "fulfilled" in a liberal Jewish space? Maybe. Maybe not. In some ways, clearly I am liberal and reconstructionist. On the other hand, I am quite Chassidic in outlook. Most of my kabbalistic study and understanding is based in Chassidic teachings. I also don't "dress" very liberal. For example, I wear long (usually black or dark) skirts peculiar to a more traditional approach. I also wear a Jewitch pentacle and/or a Jewish star along with a witch's pentacle - neither liberal nor orthodox. Consequently, in some ways, my Jewish practice is distinct from both liberal and orthodox practice.

Are Jewitches changing religion entirely? I don't think so. My evolving interest in Jewitchery is in no way a threat to my Judaism. Jewitchery does, however, define for me what it means to be a Jew seriously fulfilling the mitzvah to elevate the sparks of holiness dwelling within my charge. I see Jewitchery as an individuating development and evolution of the Divine Feminine element within the Shechinah. Transforming religion? No. Transformative of feminine consciousness? Yes.

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)

Mezuzah & Athame

Rabbi Yosil Rosenzweig writes regarding the mitzvah of mezuzah and the oht (sign) of blood:

The Mitzvah of Mezuzah is actually commanded in Devarim 6:9. But in Shemot 12:3-15 the reason for the Mitzvah is explained: "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel, saying: On the tenth of this month each person shall take for themselves a lamb or a kid, for each household...[on] the fourteenth of this month, the entire congregation of the assembly of Israel shall slaughter it in the afternoon. They shall take some of its blood and place it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they will eat...I shall go through Egypt on this night, and I shall strike every firstborn in the land of Egypt, from man to beast; and against all gods of Egypt I shall mete out punishment. The blood shall be a SIGN for you upon the house where you are; when I see the blood I shall PASSOVER you; there shall not be a plague of destruction upon you when I strike the land of Egypt. This day shall be a remembrance for you and you shall celebrate it..."

An Oht (a sign) is significant because it is a reminder of an act that occurred before the eyes of the entire nation.

The mezuzah (מזוזה), representing the protective blood sign, is spelled with two letters zayin. The two letters zayin united together (זוז) within one word for the Jewish ritual item upon the doorpost is like "one dagger of double edges (זוז) of her (מה)." In other words, the "blood sign" on the doorpost which protects a Jew's home in mitzrayim is a woman's double-edged dagger. The contemplative power to "connect and interrelate all elements within creation", bringing down Divine Will into Understanding, is a function of the letter vav which forms the spine of the dagger of double-edges.

The witch's double-edged ritual dagger is called an athame (pronounced a-tham-ay). Silver Ravenwolf writes regarding the Celtic history of the athame [1]:

We know from Celtic history that, for a time, their weaponry through use of iron was far superior to their contemporaries, and that they were feared because of it. We also know that such folklore practices as hanging a knife above a door to cut any negativity that might enter the home (which means that the knives were not used to physically cut, but to defend on the astral plane) were highly popular in that culture.

A witch's athame is never ever used to draw blood. If it ever does, it becomes ritually unfit and can never be used again. It must be buried. Thus, in ancient Celtic culture the protecting blood sign upon the door was a double edged dagger which never draws blood. In other words, like the mezuzah, it is a protective blood sign which never draws blood.

Putting these ideas together, we can see that the Jewish ritual mezuzah and the Celtic ritual athame both refer to the same essence of spiritual protection - to guard the house from all negative influences that might attempt to enter it. Even the construct of the word mezuzah contains within it the idea of a woman's double-edged dagger as the protective device.

Footnote:

[1] Solitary Witchcraft, Silver Ravenwolf (p. 125)

Eclectic, Self-Initiated, Solitary

Ormus/Shabbathai inquires via email:

I am interested to know those [if] some of us here practice a very rare form of Jewish Witchcraft known as Kishuf (Kishuph or Keshuf) and Nephashuth (or Nephashot)? I am initiated in this tradition and look to find someone who is also part of this way.

I have no idea about this tradition. To clarify my own path - I am an eclectic self-initiated solitary Jewitch whose practice combines elements of Jewish kabbalah (primarily), Celtic witchcraft and Native American shamanism. These traditions are the ancient roots of my known natural ancestries. My primary religious path is Judaism and Jewish kabbalah, however, I am the product and a tapestry of all my ancestors. I am made of all these peoples and I have no intent on cutting any of them off. In refusing to do so, I am honoring, not only my ancestors, but the mitzvah (Shemot 20:12) to honor one's parents (which means ancestors) as well. This mitzvah is one of the aseret hadibrot and I don't take it lightly.

I have no "coven" or "circle" that I belong to and I have no mentor. I do my own thing my way as my soulpath leads me. I have an INTJ personality, and those who know anything about personality types, will understand that I'm not really "into" following the crowd regarding much of anything - that includes spiritual matters.

Honoring The Ancestors

Honor your father and your mother.
כבד את-אביך ואת-אמך
Shemot 20:12, Aseret HaDibrot

This commandment is not unique to Jewish or Judaic-based traditions. Confucianism, Native American spirituality, shamanism and even various forms of paganism each teach its practitioners to "honor the ancestors".

There are no "purebred" human beings. There is no such thing as a "pure" Jewish or Celtic or American identity or tradition. All of us have forebears of non-Jewish or non-Celtic or non-American heritage. To honor one's parents, to honor one's ancestors, is to honor them all.

Honoring one's ancestors is not a sentimental exercise with the aim to induce feelings of being special or superior. It isn't to praise one's ethnicity or one particular "type" of human being. What is it then?

It means coming face to face with who you are and where you came from. More importantly, it means to work to heal the wounds caused by those who came before us. It means to work to resolve the pain introduced into the world by those in our family trees whose behavior or values we may not embrace, whether they be Nazi sympathizers, Jewish capos or exterminators of pagan cultures. No people, I repeat, no people, is without a dark history that needs correction.

Honoring the ancestors is to work to make those corrections. This is why "honoring one's parents" is the hardest mitzvah to do.

Jewitch In The Aron HaKodesh

Negative mitzvah 310 tell us that a witch is not to be killed directly, but is merely not 'to be let to live'; she will obviously die as a result of not being let to live. What does this mean?

The Torah uses negative language to describe the method of punishment - death by active communal neglect or worse, by supporting those who would directly kill her. Estee Psaty has suggested that:

by using negative language as it does in phrasing the mitzvah, the Torah hints that the putative 'sin' of the witch is not outright deserving of punishment, thereby further suggesting that her death is viewed merely as a 'necessity'.

See, the problem is that she isn't really deserving of death - yet her death would be welcomed by those who think she (the one who is "bewitchingly" different) is a threat to the influence of those who control and hold power within the community. Consequently, she becomes a "marked woman".

Considering all this, it is clear then, that not only does the kabbalah have a built-in immune system, but also does Torah Law have a built-in immune system against those who would abuse it to justify manslaughter at best, murder at worst (should the witch die). Importantly, the "Jewishness" is questionable of any Jew who would blindly observe this mitzvah to allow harm to come to an innocent person by his or her active and knowledgeable neglect (or worse).

Why is the "Jewishness" of a Jew who blindly observes this mitzvah in doubt? Because, the truth is, the witch will not obviously die. And when she fails to die, she will eventually come to understand what the community has tried, yet failed, to accomplish - to indirectly, yet actively, kill her, abusing Torah Law to justify it.

The real sin done with respect to this mitzvah, is not one done by the witch, but by those who have turned the mitzvah into an idol, using it to justify participation in and/or facilitating the possible death of someone innocent (the witch not deserving of outright punishment) as opposed to using the mitzvah as a catalyst to discover his or her own "enlightened ignorance" in the active effort not to participate in or facilitate indirectly, yet actively, killing (or even harming) an innocent person just because a mitzvah seems to advocate it and G-d seems to have commanded it. A true child of Avraham and one with Torah in his or her innards would do the latter.

Without a doubt.

In Pursuit Of Ignorance

Mysteries Of The Flame

כבשן

The fire of a candle flame is a low-temperature partial plasma (Plasma Physics). A candle flame, as a low-energy partial plasma, is a subdued form of the high-energy complete plasma characteristic of the feminine "cauldron of mastery". Candlelighting (hadlakat nerot) is one of the 3 primary mitzvot entrusted to women. These facts taken together suggest that one of the "reasons" for the mitzvah of candlelighting is to provide a connection toward observing the command of Bereshit 1:28 - to subdue, transform and master the feminine energies of malchut (ha-aretz).

וכבשה