Tav ת

Tav is the last; it is a simple mark of the end of eternity.

It is an instant, a sign that checks a box, that says move on, this is done, there is nothing more to be seen. In the beginning, all was set in motion, say the legends, by what the Thunder said and did.

But this too is the magic of tav; what the Thunder is claimed to have said is not that irrevocable instant between eternity and time. Instead, things unfold like the petals of a rose, and nothing remains the same.

Sin/Shin ש

Sin is the twenty-first, and it is an armed bow, about to fire.

It is the aspiration and the moment of ignition, it is both the man who shoots and the missile shot. And where the tongue is, there also is the heart. It is what is to be, and also what it is that is to be.

Shin is the moment of change; where things were, things are not — and yet where things were tells you where things will be. The question that needs to be asked is where the archer aimed his shot before things changed.

Resh ר

Resh is twentieth, and it is a testament; it is catharsis.

It is the lifting of fog at the end of oppression, it is the wind in the trees as the dew hangs heavily. What has been placed in this world does not always serve us well, but God's will is sovereign.

Resh has no magic, but it is of the oldest kind. Before there was sunlight or Adam walked in Eden, the Highest opened the universe. There is a universe in your head; do you know where the front door key is?

Qoph ק

Qoph is nineteenth, and it has special significance to me; it is enigma.

It is the cerebral mystery, the sentience of the mind or the machine in which the mind resides. It is the catch in the throat which is the pause in the thought; it is the moment between two levels of existence and one level of time.

The magic of qoph is that nobody knows what to make of it. It can be abandoned but not forgotten; it might be the child of promise, but nobody knows it yet. And who is to say what promise it bears, or what secrets it keeps?

Tsade צ

Tsade is eighteenth and it is circumspection.

It is the careful hunt and the unavoidable gaze; it is the instrument that captures and keeps, the archivist's tool in the search for truth. It is the selective wisdom of the quest, and the wise ruthlessness of the scholar.

Tsade changes magic into science. It eliminates the superfluity of ritual, but keeps the essentials and codifies them. What is done in the end is the minimal, the ideal, the true. What more can you ask? Or should you?

Pe פ

Pe is seventeenth, prime and curious. It is a circular meditation.

It is a bubble from the waters, the beginning of music and the end of dreams; it is the memory of Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you. Whether Gentile or Jew, you who turn the wheel and look to windward, consider.

What magic pe has is hidden in its folding and unfolding. For what cannot be seen in convolution may be seen in involution, and what revolves may also evolve. And that is why meditation is often best when turned upon a wheel.

Ayin ע

Ayin is sixteenth and it is an eye, wisely seeing.

It is the thought before the deed, the moment before action. And when it is there, it has created the action of the mind. But it is the far sound of the wind, as the Spirit moves on the face of the waters.

Ayin's magic is light, and where there is enough light, there is life, and movement. It carries the memory of the deeps with it, and it tells you, Whisper now no longer, and be free to move.

Samekh ס

Samekh is fifteenth, and it is a nail. More appropriately, it is a post.

It is breath released thinly, because all is held in reserve. But how large the reserve is or what kind it is, these things are unknown. For this is all about secrets, and the movement of shadow as the evening falls. Things retire, silently.

Samekh has no magic of its own save one. It remains unchanged but changes others with the irrevocable. Tell it like bad news, say it in the streets in whispered voices. Even then, nobody can tell the manner of its passing, wherever it comes from.

Nun נ ן

Nun is the fourteenth, and it is void. It calls to you like doom.

It is the voice of the abyss, the great fish at the bottom of the sea, the sound of a gong and the cry of the trumpet. At the end of things, it awaits, as it was in the beginning.

Nun is the feminine mystique. It is the beginning of worlds and the end of sorrow. When a brazen serpent was raised in the wilderness, was Joshua her child and salvation her fruit?

In between M and N

I remember many days in the old lecture theatre, when Prof G would start her long but useful exegesis on calculus with lines such as, "In between M and N..."

Or perhaps I misremember. But there it is. Last night I spent some time watching the beginnings of the cycle turn. As the Thunderer emasculated his father Kronos, who in turn had done the same for old Ouranos, so too is the prophecy likely to come true. One of the Thunderer's psychic offspring may yet turn out to be his bane.

If I were a gambling man, I would put money down on the new Thunderers, from another pantheon altogether.

But I'm not a gambling man. I will just mark my box, and hope that the best is yet to be.

Mem מ

Mem is thirteenth, and it is water; it is the sound of making.

It is a place, and a placeholder; when an action is defined, the nature of the action is framed. It is the silence in the centre, a coalescence from the void, the Lord moving over the face of the primordial deep.

Mem is elemental. It is before and after, existent and co-existent. Yet, while it is still and silent, it is also a home of power; if it makes waves, it changes all things, all at once, like the sea.

Lamedh ל

And Lamedh, the goad, is twelfth; it is forceful direction.

It is the instrument of intent; it tells you the way if you will not see it. It is the arbiter of choice; if you will not choose, it will be chosen for you. It is hammer and thunderbolt, tool of God's will.

Lamedh denies magic; it collapses the wave-function of possibility. You will go, or not. You will go for something, or to something, or not at all. As the rain falls on the grass, remember this.

Kaph כ

Kaph is the open hand, and it shows likeness, the act of finding commonality.

It is a palm, and also the statement that this is what another holds, and what that seems like to you. It is the sound at the back that mirrors the sound in front; it is the throat-clearing noise of God.

Kaph wields the power of bisociation, to make things unalike seem one, to close that which was opened while opening that which was concealed. It makes two that are different into two which are friends.

Yodh י

It is the tenth, and it is small. It is a hand that turns. It is the act of holding.

It is the sign of the Presence, the controlling element of the Universe that can somehow be overlooked and remain unseen. It punctuates and changes what it touches.

Yodh is magically small, but not insignificant. Yet there are those who look at its tip and see the whole, who focus on the truly insignificant. The fingertip is not the hand.

Teth ט

It is the ninth, and it is good. It is an open tomb. It means what it says.

It is a wheel, it spins a tale or drives a cycle. It tells us that God is good, and it is used to measure what is risen. It looks a lot like the tensor product, but isn't.

What teth is, is a remembrance and a sign. O look to windward, for change is coming; look about you, for the flowers are blooming and he is here, for he is risen indeed.

Heth ח

It is the eighth, and it invites. It is open yet warded. It is the laughter of men.

It is an opening and a closing, fresh air and threaded myth. It separates brothers by the way they are amused, and it is the great abundance of the Highest.

The magic of heth untethers; it is a magic of release and confinement, for is it not true that they are the two sides of the same coin of man's wealth?

Zayin ז

It is the seventh, and it divides. It is a sword that burns. It is violence against violence.

It is a mystery; it can carry a crown, or remove it. What does it mean, except the sudden and quiet preparation for strife? It is the other hand of the Almighty, and it is swift.

Zayin is magic in blood, both hot and cold. Where it passes, things are changed forever, and questions are put to rest. Who is to say if the answers would have been any better?

Vau ו

It is the sixth, and it joins. It is a hook and a nail. It is violence put to use.

It is a delicate reversal of time's arrow; it brings together that which was separate. It defines or frames a promise, sometimes made in the Name of the Unnameable.

Vau is a magic of fury, flying through lips and teeth. Where it passes, things are changed or made unchanging. And who is to say if this is better or worse for all?

He ה

It is the fifth, showing the way. It is guidance and jubilation. It is expression of purpose.

It is a hand, providing direction; it is breath, and it is feminine. It is a secret marker for the Name of the Unnameable, and it is therefore blessed and blessing.

The magic of he is in the movement of air, voiceless but controlled. At the end or the beginning, it changes the qualities of what it frames. Somehow, it is a sign of life.

Daleth ד

It is the fourth, framing what must pass. It is gateway and passage. It is what gives.

It is a door and a preposition; it indicates and it beckons. It is the measurement of change, the portal that is increment and quantum, God's invitation.

Daleth is the magic of transition, the gate that forces and is forced. And as we reach out to touch the corner that it makes, who knows what comes next?