Jewish Divination
I’m beginning to figure out what “Jewish magic/divination/astrology” means, and it’s having a shortcut to Divinity using the protocols clearly transmitted throughout the culture (PROVIDED we recognize the Source of all the particular apparent forms of Divinity we encounter).
There are, obviously, a lot of apparent prohibition against forms of magic and divination in the Torah and later, but I’m pretty sure those are about the “other gods before Me” thing and the converse of that, which is believing WE’RE doing the magic all by ourselves.
What I mean by “shortcut” is that there is no distance at all between what I guess you might call an “ordinary lifestyle” and intimate relationship with the Divine. The workings and protocols are clearly explained at every turn.
Now just do magic/astrology/etc. that way.
* * *
וַיֹּ֤אמֶר פַּרְעֹה֙ אֶל־יוֹסֵ֔ף חֲל֣וֹם חָלַ֔מְתִּי וּפֹתֵ֖ר אֵ֣ין אֹת֑וֹ וַאֲנִ֗י שָׁמַ֤עְתִּי עָלֶ֙יךָ֙ לֵאמֹ֔ר תִּשְׁמַ֥ע חֲל֖וֹם לִפְתֹּ֥ר אֹתֽוֹ׃
And Pharaoh said to Yosef, “I have had a dream, but no one can interpret it. Now I have heard it said of you that for you to hear a dream is to tell its meaning.”
וַיַּ֨עַן יוֹסֵ֧ף אֶת־פַּרְעֹ֛ה לֵאמֹ֖ר בִּלְעָדָ֑י אֱלֹהִ֕ים יַעֲנֶ֖ה אֶת־שְׁל֥וֹם פַּרְעֹֽה׃
Yosef answered Pharaoh, saying, “Not I! God will see to Pharaoh’s welfare.”
* * *
In proximate scenes, especially astrology, people seem pretty comfortable naming the Voice or Medium of divination. I hear names like daemones, djinn, even guardian angels with associated Hebrew terminology. I may choose the word neshamah (נשמה).
The Jewish map of the soul is layered in a way I believe corresponds to the Daoist map.
精 (jing) = נפש (nefesh)
氣 (qi) = רוח (ruaḥ)
神 (shen) = נשמה (neshamah)
I’ve been working with the middle, ruaḥ, as “qi” for a long time. Hadn’t done a LOT of neshamah work, at least consciously, but I’m beginning to realize that’s what divination is.
I understand the interest in separating this voice out as an other with its own agenda, coming and going with its own stuff to do, but personally the quality has been more like a layer of WHAT I AM that is shown and hidden in accordance with the weather in my soul-field.
That’s not to say there aren’t “others” or “encounters” in my divinatory experiences — on the contrary. More like they encounter and talk to my neshamah layer, with which my quality of contact waxes and wanes. To get the message, my job is to show up on that level.
In a more traditional view, it might be said that the neshamah is the layer of soul who interacts with G_d, who is engaged in prayer, who travels between Heaven and Earth in dream and prophecy even while we remain alive on the nefesh/ruaḥ levels.
I have oft remarked on ruaḥ (רוח) as “wind,” which I have associated with breath in zazen/qigong, but which is also the primordial wind in Genesis. But it is neshamah (נשמה) that is truly identical with לנשום, the verb “to breathe,” making “spirit” a pretty faithful translation.
(Ironically, but also duh, the colloquial use of “spirit” as in “team spirit” is רוח in modern Hebrew).
