CM - use of Hebrew?

[KEishin]

A question for the fellow pagan CM folks out there:

How do you feel about using Hebrew in your rituals? I'm trying to decide if I want to learn it for some of the more intense stuff I'm studying. Sure, I can phonetically memorize it all, but it doesn't have the same impact, IMO. Ditto if I try to use English or any other language I'm fluent in. I realize Hebrew is considered a sacred and magickal language, but is it too archaic for more modern forms of Paganism?

Then there's also the parts that refer to very Judeo-Christian concepts in ritual ('Atah Gebur Le-Olahm Adonai' comes to mind). Do you find that those elements are a hindrance to you in your practices or that they really don't matter? After all, all the gods come form the same source, so does it matter what name we call them by?

I'm just looking for other practioners' opinions. There are very few serious CM folks in my area for me to talk to.

[Xentor]

I don't use any language unless I am absolutely certain about the meaning.

[Sundragon]

A question for the fellow pagan CM folks out there:

How do you feel about using Hebrew in your rituals? I'm trying to decide if I want to learn it for some of the more intense stuff I'm studying. Sure, I can phonetically memorize it all, but it doesn't have the same impact, IMO. Ditto if I try to use English or any other language I'm fluent in. I realize Hebrew is considered a sacred and magickal language, but is it too archaic for more modern forms of Paganism?

Then there's also the parts that refer to very Judeo-Christian concepts in ritual ('Atah Gebur Le-Olahm Adonai' comes to mind). Do you find that those elements are a hindrance to you in your practices or that they really don't matter? After all, all the gods come form the same source, so does it matter what name we call them by?

I'm just looking for other practioners' opinions. There are very few serious CM folks in my area for me to talk to.
Despite the massive amount of press Hebrew received from Victorian occultists there is no such thing as a magickal language lest one's beliefs make it so. There is probably some egregore on the Astral that you can plug into that exists due to the belief of thousands in the power of this language but that IMO is about as far as the importance of Hebrew goes.

Magick can be described sometimes as the focusing of desire and intention and the communicating of that desire and intention to both the cosmos at large and your subconscious specifically. However, it helps if one "feels" magickal and sometims using "barbarous words of evocation" and Hebrew helps people feel that way the same way certain incenses and candles do as well. It is about tapping into the resonance of your own power and at times out of the ordinary things (robes, scents, tools, "magickal languages", etc.) can help one to do that.

Personally I feel that Hebrew is no more magickal than the native language of the speaker and shouls only be used as the prop that it is if at all. Anyway, there isn't even any agreement on the correct pronunciation of Hebrew as it was dead for a long time before it was resurrected. If there was any intrinsic magick I believe it would have been in the original and not the Golden Dawn pronunciations.


Blessed Be,

Chris

[Xander67]

Each of the 22 hebrew letters have a significance in the qaballa.

each of the 22 hebrew letters has a corespondence with an aspect of astrology, and an aspect of the tarot...

[Toad]

Despite the massive amount of press Hebrew received from Victorian occultists there is no such thing as a magickal language lest one's beliefs make it so. There is probably some egregore on the Astral that you can plug into that exists due to the belief of thousands in the power of this language but that IMO is about as far as the importance of Hebrew goes.

Magick can be described sometimes as the focusing of desire and intention and the communicating of that desire and intention to both the cosmos at large and your subconscious specifically. However, it helps if one "feels" magickal and sometims using "barbarous words of evocation" and Hebrew helps people feel that way the same way certain incenses and candles do as well. It is about tapping into the resonance of your own power and at times out of the ordinary things (robes, scents, tools, "magickal languages", etc.) can help one to do that.

Personally I feel that Hebrew is no more magickal than the native language of the speaker and shouls only be used as the prop that it is if at all. Anyway, there isn't even any agreement on the correct pronunciation of Hebrew as it was dead for a long time before it was resurrected. If there was any intrinsic magick I believe it would have been in the original and not the Golden Dawn pronunciations.


Blessed Be,

Chris


I gotta go with Sundragon on this one. I do understand the little hebrew that I use in ceremony...but aside from a fleeting desire to learn Hebrew when I first started CM based rituals...I have found it unnecessary.

[KEishin]

I do understand the little hebrew that I use in ceremony...but aside from a fleeting desire to learn Hebrew when I first started CM based rituals...I have found it unnecessary.
Good, becuase that's how I've been feeling about the whole thing too. Hebrew is nice, but it's a language just like any other, so I don't see the need to learn it. Glad I'm not the only one that feel that way!