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

Kabbalah and the Elements...

This and the next post were replies to an email on a list, though I've removed the parts that are relevant only to the message I was replying to.  I liked how I said what I said and figured I'd share it with anyone who wants to read it.

In Kabbalah, the way I was taught, the three elements are tied to the three Mothers in the Hebrew alphabet, Shin, Aleph, and Mem.  The world began with the first Breath, G-d breathing into the universe and giving it life.  Breath is words and words is breath, the world was spoken into being, the world is made of breath, the breath became sound, the sound, became letters, the letters became words, the words became creation. "Let there be light."  The Breath is the letter Heh.  Heh is breathed more than spoken.  Notice the similarities between the Hebrew Heh and Hawaiian Ha, breath and four.  Kether, Crown is that Breath, Chokmah, Wisdom, breath from breath.  In the Jewish Tree, Heh connects Kether and Chokmah.  Chokmah is like Kether, and Binah, Understanding, reflects Chokmah.  With Binah there were two, duality.  Vev connects Kether and Binah.  Vev is the hook that hangs the Veil in the Temple.  Vev is And in Hebrew grammar.  With Binah, there were two, Chokmah AND Binah, Abba and Imma, Father and Mother.  But I digress.

G-d breathed into Adam, giving him life.  That breath, that Ruach (wind, breath, Talker) gave life.  The mud man became the living man.  Just so, G-d breathed into the universe of Void and Chaos, which sounds a lot like mud in the Zohar, and gave it life.  As above, so below; as below, so above.

The first Breath filled the void that is the Tzimtzum, the Contraction, the Womb of the Star Goddess.  Breath is Air with heat and moisture, Fire and Water.  Heat rises and water condenses on the lower surfaces, hence Fire rose above and water condensed below, leaving Air in the middle.  Fire is Shin, the upper Mother, which connects Chokmah to Binah, and is the upper world, Atziluth, the World of Emanations.  If you look at the form of the letter, Shin is three flames.  It's said that in the world to come, it will have four flames.  Air is Aleph, the middle Mother, which connects Chesed to Geburah, and is Briah, the World of Creation.  If you look at the form of Aleph, it is a bar with a Yod on each side.  There's other symbolism, but you can see it as Air being the bar, with Fire above and Water below.  Water is Mem, the lower Mother, which connects Netzach to Hod, and is Yetzurah, the world of Forms, which is the Great Lower Sea, Binah being the Upper Sea.  Mem literally means Water, but also the Womb.  If you look at the form of Mem, the top looks like a wave on the sea.

Now, in Kabbalah, the masculine is that which gives and the feminine is that which receives.  This is why G-d, who is both male and female, and neither, for there's no duality at Kether and above, is seen as male.  G-d gives and his Bride, Israel, receives.  Heaven gives and the Earth receives.  The metaphor is sexual.  The male "gives" his penis, and the female receives it into her vagina.  The male gives semen and the female receives it into her womb.  In the Tree, above gives and below receives, so above is masculine and below is feminine.  Kether is masculine to everything, and Malkuth is feminine to everything.  For the rest, it's relational.  Chokmah is feminine in relation to Kether and masculine in relation to Chesed.  Likewise, this is true left to right.  Chokmah is masculine to Binah's feminine.  Which brings us to the Pillars.

The three Mothers rotate and become the three Pillars.  So, the Pillar of Mercy, the Pillar of Chesed, is the Pillar of Fire.  The Pillar of Severity, the Pillar of Geburah, is the Pillar of Water.  And the Middle Pillar is the Pillar of Air.  The Pillar of Mercy is masculine and is made up of Chokmah, Chesed, and Netzach.  The Pillar of Severity is feminine and is made up of Binah, Geburah, and Hod.  And the Middle Pillar stands between them, the balance.  I've written a lot in my LiveJournal about the three Pillars, but most of it isn't important here.

So, at least in Jewish Kabbalah, Netzach would be Fire and Hod Water.  Of course, most of the attributes of Netzach are things that the modern Western world associate with feminine behaviour and traits, and most of the attributes of Hod are things that the modern Western world associate with masculine behaviours and traits, so many Westerners flip the two, making Netzach feminine and Water and Hod masculine and Fire.  But this is because we have different cultural biases and stereotypes and don't understand that everything is both male and female, Fire and Water, for all is in G-d, in the Star Goddess, and there is no duality in that True reality, only in the illusions of this world.

FFF,
~Muninn's Kiss