Letters
Sefirot and Letters
This picture is of the kabbalistic Tree of Life. The names of the Sefirot are written around the circles. Although Daat (Knowledge or Consciousness) is not usually included as one of the Ten Sefirot, this picture includes Daat (the white circle).
Fractal Aleph
I was thinking of the diagonal Wow (or Vav) of the Aleph as the Tree of Life because Vav is the letter that unites - and that is the nature of Life - uniting parts and forming greater wholes. So I got the idea to make an Aleph out of three Vavs (Wows) instead of two Yods and a Vav. The gematria of the letter Vav is six. Three times six is eighteen - the gematria of חי (Chai) - the Hebrew word for 'alive'.
The Power of Aleph
Traditionally, the letter Aleph in a Torah scroll is made up of two Yods and a Vav (or Wow). The Name of the letter Yod יוד is very similar to the word Yad יד (hand). The Aleph in this picture is made up of two Yads and a Vav.
Primary Letters (Version 2)
Sefer Yetzirah teaches that there are
Three Mother Letters (Primary Letters) -
Aleph א, Mem מ and Shin ש.
From Sefer Yetzirah:
"Three Mothers Letters Aleph, Mem and Shin
are Air, Water and Fire.
Fire (Shin )is above, Water (Mem) is below,
and the Breath of Air (Aleph) balances between them.
Yin-Yang Aleph (blue and red version)
Do you see the Hebrew letter Aleph in this picture? Do you see the Chinese Yin-Yang symbol here as well? Both symbols represent the unification of opposites - Heaven and Earth, Hot and Cold - and how Life is always dynamically balancing both. On the South Korean flag the Yin-Yang symbol appears in red and blue like in this pictures. I have made several pictures with this motif.
Amazing Aleph
This picture shows a large Hebrew letter Aleph א comprised of a red upper Yod י and a blue lower Yod י with the diagonal Vav or Wow ו in purple. Yellow is the main background color throughout the picture.
Waves and Particles
The Sefirot are often described as emanations of God’s Infinite Light. The Hebrew word for ‘light’ starts with the letter Aleph. Kabbalists believe that God is One and can be found both in the Heavens and upon the Earth (God is both transcendent and immanent). Modern science also tells us that Light is both waves (transcendent) and particles (immanent). In fact both Energy and Matter is made of both waves and particles. In this picture and several others like it, I tried to give a feeling of the Sefirot as waves and particles. See
Primary Sounds (version 1)
In this picture you can see the Three Mother Letters of Sefer Yetzirah:
See the large Hebrew letter Aleph א?
Now look at the yellow diagonal line. It can be seen as the Hebrew letter Vav pronounced Wow. It can also be seen as the numeral One. The Wow of this Aleph balances and united the red Shin ש the blue final Mem ם.
22 Foundation Letters
Three Mother Letters
Seven Double Letters
and Twelve Simple Letters
These are the Twenty-two Letters
with which God engraved and made Three Sepharim,
and with them He created His Universe.
And with them He formed all that was ever formed,
and all that will ever be formed.
God Faithful King rules over them all from His Holy abode forever and ever.
One on Three
Three on Seven,
Seven on Twelve,
and all are bound together.
(Sefer Yetzirah)
Primary Letters
The Sefer Yetzirah teaches that of the Twenty-two Hebrew letters, three are primary.
These are the Three Mother Letters - Aleph א, Mem מ and Shin ש.
Shin ש is in the triangle in the lighter red. The sound of Shin is an outward, chaotic, hissing sound. Shin is a vertically oriented letter that is open upward - like Fire that rises to the Heavens. Our orientation to the Heavens is vertical.
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