The Sefer Yetzirah, which means “Book of Creation”, is the earliest known book of Hebrew thought written between the 3rd and the 6th century, which is considered as the beginning of the Kabbalistic teachings. This very short text, less than 2000 words, describes how the Creator used the numbers 1-10 and the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet like units of clay to create the Universe, all the living things in it and all that exists.
The book explains that the word of God generated substance, from which He formed letters, out of which He combined ‘words’, which became things. The text teaches also the secret of the Great Creation and of creation, of the Maker and the maker, explaining that every individual can oneself become a “creator”. The reader is told to ‘test’ and ‘explore’, to learn how to combine letters and numbers to ‘create’ as God did and as the ancient sages learnt to do:
“When Abraham, our father, may he rest in peace, came: he looked, and saw, and understood, and explored, and engraved, and hewed out, and succeeded at Creation as it is said, ‘And the bodies they had made in Haran.’ [Genesis 12:5]
So the Hebrew letters are the building blocks of the universe and the physical and spiritual worlds are nothing more than a combination of letters. Accordingly to the Jewish tradition when God created the world, He looked into the Torah and used it as the blueprint for the creation of the universe with a specific plan for its spiritual elevation (Torah 2:16).
The Hebrew letters are fields of consciousness. Each of them is an expression of a unique energy-intelligence, holding specific attributes, and animated by a very powerful spiritual force.
Accordingly to the Zohar, the different intelligences, or fields of consciousness, that we know as the Hebrew letters, were concealed two thousand years prior to the creation. When God willed to begin its Manifestation, each of them, in a procession in reverse order from the letter Tav to the letter Bet-Aleph (Aleph-Bet), appeared before Him asking to be the quality on which He would create the world.
In the end, after having heard the sequence of the different pleas of each letter, the Creator chose Bet as she expressed her energy intelligence in this way: “Lord of the Universe, may it please you establish the creative process through me, for I represent the energy-intelligent force of berachot (blessings) because I am the first letter in a word for that coded force” – Zohar, Prologue 6:37
Because the letter Aleph did not have any desire to come forward, the Creator gave her the function to unify all the other energies/letters, maintaining the balance between giving and receiving.
In the Sefer Yetzirah the Divine language formed by the 22 Hebrew letters is described as the substance of reality: “Twenty-Two letters are the foundation: He engraved them, He hewed them out, He combined them, He weighed them, and He set them at opposites, and He formed through them everything that is formed and everything that is destined to be formed.”
All the 22 Hebrew letters have a numerical value because both numbers and letters are instruments of the cosmic energy.
Not many people know that these 22 letters can also be found at the very essence of the human nature, into the molecule called deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which contains the biological instructions of the unique “building block” of each species. DNA holds the information needed to develop, survive and reproduce; and in order to carry out these functions, DNA sequences must be converted into messages that can be used to produce the proteins that do the majority of the work in our bodies.
The information in the DNA is initially ‘read’ and then transcribed into a messenger molecule, which translates it into the language of the amino acids, so that the body can understand it. It is this specific language that dictates how the amino acids should produce a particular protein, and nearly all proteins in nature are built with twenty amino acids.
The word protein derives from the Greek word ‘protos’, which originates from the Hebrew word ‘avar.’ ‘Avar’ is the root of the word ‘ivrit’ (Hebrew).
The human DNA creates 22 amino acids (the language of the proteins) and these have exactly the shape of the 22 letters of the Hebrew Aleph-Bet.
The 22 letters are also the main constituents of the names of the 72 Angels of the Kabbalistic tradition. These Angel names came back to light from a 12th Century manuscript, discovered in Spain, where it was indicated that they carry the sacred task of instilling humanity with specific qualities of the Divine to be expressed through its distinctive individuation.
Each of the 72 angelic energy-intelligences has a name, a quality and a function as well as governing particular days and times. At the time of birth three angels are assigned to each individual: the Incarnational or Guardian Angel, the Heart Angel and the Intellect Angel. Each of their name is made of 3 Hebrew letters, thus creating a sacred Hebrew name that emanates specific angelic qualities through virtues of their sound syllables.
Because of the energy-intelligences that each letter conveys and expresses, working with and contemplating these triplets leads to the rising of new states of consciousness – a real opportunity to bring Light, consciousness, into our physicality.
When we work with the 72 Angels by exploring their associations through colours, numerology and vibration, how they interface and work together, learning about their powers, how to call upon their Name by invoking them in specific ways, not only we understand better the qualities and potential that we carry, but we also bring light into our DNA structure, unlocking the light frequencies, allowing the possibility of a very deep shift in consciousness and giving us the conceptual tools to overcome our challenges.
The 22 Hebrew letters provide the connections through which we can relate to the Light, the Creative Divine energy; they are the fundamental aspect of the vast machinery for the communication with the supreme energy of cosmic intelligence.
The 72 Angels names are a great tool offered to us to support through our journey and the process of the awakening of what it is called the Light Body.
The building of the light body means the refinement from ignorance. When we see ourselves in a higher frequency of light, when consciousness begins to awaken, the quality of mindfulness arises. In that process we become less identified with the conditioned patterns of behaviour and what keeps us asleep leading to truth, detachment, clarity and the awareness of our potential.
Next courses:
The 72 Angels of the Kabbalah Part 1: 13th-16th April 2015
The 72 Angels of the Kabbalah Part 2: 17th-19th April 2015
For more information about the 72 Angels courses please click here.
