Gate 117: Zayin-Lamed (זל)

The 117th gate of the 231 gates is זל, Zayin Lamed.

ז - Zayin - Weapon, Sword, Arm, Strength, Will, Choice, Desire, Actively impacting the world, Marriage, War, Wife, Husband, Crown, Completion, To Act

ל - Lamed - Ox Goad, Staff, Prod, Go Forward, Tongue, To Learn, To Teach, Secret Heart of Eve, Tower Soaring in the Air, Heart that Understands Knowledge

זול - zûwl - to shake, to shatter, figuratively to treat lightly, lavish, despise

לוז - lûwz - to turn aside, to depart, be perverse, depart, froward, perverse (-ness)

אָזל - âzal - “I will” + ״זל״ - go away, disappear, fail, gad about, go to and fro, yarn, be gone (spent), be exhausted, evaporate, to roll, to spin (in the sense of rolling, but used in weaver), to take away, to troll or trowl

הלּז - hallâz - “the” + “לּז” - this or that, side, that, this

נזל - nâzal - “we” + “זל” - to drip or shed by trickling, distil, drop, flood, cause to flow, flowing, gush out, melt, pour, pour down, running water, stream

Literally, Zayin-Lamed, the Weapon (or Arm) and the Ox Hoad, figuratively, to cut and to prod, to move away and to move forward.

This gate is about shaking things up, separating things, defining things by difference, distilling and filtering, spinning something into something new.  It’s about change, being changed, creating change.  In this context, Zayin is about being active and Lamed is about learning.  Both create change.  To stop moving or stop learning, either is to stay the same.  This gate is a call to do the opposite.  Keep learning, keep moving, keep changing and causing change.  It is the gate of the Catalyst, for through it, all things change, with the strength Zayin brings and the prodding forward by Lamed.

Zayin (7) + Lamed (30) = 37.  Other words that add to 37 include ones meaning to perish, grow old, standard or banner, professional, flame, and Yechidah, which is the upper soul, the Godself, which holds the Threads of Fate.  37 reduces once to Yod (10), and twice to Aleph (1).  Yod, the Hand, is that which gives and received, the seed from which things grow, the single point, the centre which is the circumference of all, it is creation and desire, the beginning, which is also Aleph (1) which it reduces to.  Aleph, like Zayin, is strength, but a strength of beginning where Zayin is a strength of changing. Aleph is the ox, which pulls the plow, it is the silence before creation, the separation of above from below, sky from earth, the Mirror of the Outer Dark.  It is Air, which is the middle pillar, and Beriah, the World of Creation.

Beginnings and endings, creation and growing old.  Seeds producing life, flame creating heat, beginnings and growing from beginnings.  Change.  Change of creation, change of growth, change of old age and perishing.  Change, action, movement.

The lesson of the 117th Gate is that it is necessary to act and to learn, necessary to change.  Stagnation, like in a pond, kills.  Life is in the change.  Embrace change, embrace action, embrace learning.  We are in the World of Action, the world where change begins, rippling up through the worlds, as below so above, as above so below.  Be always learning and always acting.

FFF,

~Lorekeeper

Gate 12: Aleth-Mem (אם)

א - Aleph - Air, Strength, Silence, Separation, Mirror, and Union.

מ - Mem - Water, Wisdom, Womb, Love, One, and Pregnancy.

אֵם - 'em - Mother of humans, figurative mother of the people (Deborah), mother of animals, point of departure or division
אִם - 'im - if (conditional), no or not in oaths, if, whether, when, whenever, since, but rather
לְאֹם - leom - a people, nation (Lamed as a prefix is to/for; for the mother, people or nation)
אָמָה - 'amah - maid-servant, female slave, maid, handmaid, concubine. (Heh as a suffix makes a pronoun; pronoun of mother rather than the mother herself)
אַמָּה - 'ammah - cubit, distance the length of the forearm, 18 inches.  Metaphorically beginning, head, foundation of a thing.  "Mother of the Arm", forearm.
אֻמָּה - 'ummah - people, tribe, nation
אֲמָם - 'Amam - their mother
נָאַם - na'am - to prophecy, utter a prophecy, speak as prophet, say
נְאֻם - neum - utterance, declaration, revelation
אָמַן - 'aman - to support, confirm, be faithful, uphold, nourish, foster-father, foster-mother, nurse, pillars, supporters of the door, to be established, be carried, make firm, sure, lasting, verified, to trust, to believe in.
אָמַן - 'aman - to take the right hand, to turn right, choose to the right, go to the right, use the right hand
אָמָן - 'aman - master-workman, artist, steady-handed one, artisan
אָמֵן - 'amen - verily, truly, amen, so be it
אֹמֶן - 'omen - faithfulness
אֱמֶת - 'emeth - firmness, faithfulness, truth, sureness, reliability, stability, continuance, true testimony, true judgement, divine instruction, truth as a body of ethical or religious knowledge, true doctrine.
אָיֹם - 'ayom - terrible, dreadful
אָמִי - 'Amiy - bond-servant, descendant of Amon, Solomon's servant.
מָא - ma' - (Aramaic of Hebrew מָה, mah) what, how, of what king, whatsoever, whatever, how now, why, wherein, whereby, wherewith, by what means, because of what, the like of what, how much, how many, how often, for how long, for what reason, to what purpose, until when, how long, upon what, wherefore, anything, aught, what may
שַׁמָּא - Shamma' - desert
מֵאָה - me'ah - hundred, 1/100th
מְאָה - ma'ah - hundred, one hundred
מָאן - ma'n - vessel, utensil
מָאֵן - ma'en - to refuse
מָאֵן - ma'en - refusing, unwilling to obey
מֵאֵן - me'en - refusing

The core of the gate is אֵם, 'em, mother.  Aleph-Mem, is like Gate 1, Aleph-Beit, Ab, Father, ox-house, strength of the house.  'em, Mother, ox-womb, is strength of the womb.  The point of departure or division is the lips parting to reveal the womb, strength of the womb shown in childbirth.  Mother.  Or, looking differently, Aleph is separation, and Mem the womb, bringing the idea of the point of departure or division.  A people or tribe or nation, leom and 'ummah, is the fruit of the womb and the mother, those that come from her.  The use of Aleph-Mem as metaphorical mother, the mother of a thing, is important.  We see this in the vocal words, na'am and neum, prophecy and utterance.  Speech is the beginning, the mother, of action.  "God said...and it was so."  In 'aman, we find meanings of nourishment, commonly seen as part of what it is to be a mother.  A craftsman, 'aman, can be seen as the mother of his or her art.  In 'amen, so be it, we see the commitment to something, and that commitment is the mother of it.  Reversed, the core is מָא, ma', though this is the Aramaic form.  Ma' is questions and exclamations.  This links well with mother, for questions are the mother of discovery, and exclamations bring forth.  In a way, ma'en/me'en, to refuse, refusing, unwilling to obey, are the opposite of their anagram, na'am/neum, prophecy, and the opposite of the point of departure/division of 'em.  But this isn't quite true.  Refusal and unwillingness to obey is it's own departure and division from the authority that is refused, and this act is the mother of what comes of it.  Ma'n, vessel or utensil, relates well make to the womb, for the womb is a vessel.  Mystically, Nun is a servant or vessel of the divine.  Ma'n can be seen as "Who is the vessel of the divine?"  The vessel of the divine is filled with the divine in the same way the womb is filled with the unborn baby.  Or ma'n with the anagramic meaning, 'em, could be the mother of the vessel, or the vessel that is of the mother, the womb.  Shamma', desert, is a bit harder. Shin is the tooth, and symbolically, this is nourishment.  But desert?  The desert by definition isn't nourishing.  But Shin as a prefix changes a verb into the doer, so Shin-Mem-Aleph, Shamma', would be One Who Mem-Alephs.  One Who Questions?  That Which Questions?  Does this imply the desert is that which brings questions?  I'm not sure.  It is interesting that the word is made from the Three Mothers, from Shin, Fire, Mem, Water, and Aleph, Air.  Me'ah/ma'ah, hundred/hundredth, is problematic as well.

Aleph (1) + Mem (40) = 41.  Or, with the final Mem, Mem is 600, so 601.  In addition to 'em, 41 is fecundity, ram, force, hart, My God, to fail or cease, Divine Majesty, terminus, to burn, terror, to go round in a circle.  601 isn't anything by 'em.  41 reduces to 5, Heh, and 601 reduces to 7, Zayin.  Heh is the window, and mystically the first breath.  Zayin is a weapon, and mystically marriage.  5 is also mist, vapour, back, food, elevation, top, pit, water-hole.  7 is also lost, ruined, desire, good fortune, was weary, riches, power, fish.  Fecundity fits well, productiveness in offspring, vegetation, intellectual pursuits, basically to be good at giving birth.  The others are harder.  The destructive and ending words from 41 seem to be the opposite of birth and motherhood.  Same with many from 7.  But marriage fits well.  And a water-hole could easily be seen as a womb.

The 12th Gate is definitely the Gate of the Mother.  It is akin to the 1st Gate, the Gate of the Father, but a different type of strength.  The 1st Gate is about protecting, the 12th about nourishing.  While not every male is a protector and not every female is a nourisher (and in fact the reverse can be true), the role of the Father is as protector and the role of the Mother is as nourisher.  The Gate of the Mother is the Gate of Nourishment.  The lesson to learn, to cross the gate, is how to nourish those things we create, those things we give birth to, in our lives.

FFF,

~Muninn's Kiss