From the Destruction of the Twin Towers to the Grand Hexagram
Copyright © Nick Sandberg 2003
Author’s Notes: This piece uses concepts from the Judaeo-Christian esoteric doctrine of Qabalah. It is also topical and intended for the casual reader. Those without sufficient knowledge of the subject to easily follow the story could check out some of the books listed in the Bibliography section at the end.
The Dates
This piece is based around three dates, two from our recent history and one, at the time of writing, from the near future. One of these dates, September 11th 2001, is now burnt into the minds of a generation through the devastation that occurred on that day. Another, November 9th 2003, is the date when a Grand Hexagram astrological pattern (Double Grand Trine) will appear in the skies above us. And the last, the 10th October 2002, is the date which lies exactly between the other two.
I will set out this piece roughly as it came to me, beginning, of course, at the beginning…
In The Beginning…
Berashith bera Elohim Ath Ha-Shamaim Vath Ha-Aretz……In the Beginning God Created the Heavens and the Earth. So begins the first chapter of the book of Genesis, the best known account of the Creation. The first word, Berashith, means “In the Beginning” and the Hebrew word for “beginning” is Rashith – tyXar.
Hebrew words, like those of the other main biblical language, Greek, may be interpreted not only as written language but also numerically, through a number system known as Gematria. Using this system, it can be seen that the letters of “Rashith” add up to give a total of 911.
Writers from a variety of backgrounds drew attention to this in the months following the destruction of the Twin Towers, presenting a variety of conclusions. One thing that personally interested me was the idea that the word “rashith,” beginning, implied the first of a series of events. Armed with this idea I looked at the word more closely.
The most common and most important usage of rashith in Qabalah is almost certainly in the phrase Rashith Ha-Galgalim. This phrase translates as the beginning of the whirlings and refers to a crucial stage in Qabalist creation theory. I will now look a little at this theory and then at the numerology of the phrase itself.
Qabalists believe that our world of substance arises through the actions of an interconnected series of ten spheres, or sephiroth, together known as the Tree of Life. At the beginning of Creation, these ten spheres unfold from a central point, Yechidah.
This central point, from which all creation emerges, forms in an infinite and eternal sea of undifferentiated living light – Ain Soph Aur – the raw essence that proceeds all manifestation. What causes this central point to form is an event known as Rashith Ha-Galgalim – the beginning of the whirlings.
What takes place is a compression in this sea which causes a spiral pattern to be formed within it. This spiral gives rise to a centre, Yechidah, followed by an opposing, expansive spiral from this centre which counterbalances the original compressive spiral.1 This act of compressing the sea of limitless light and thus creating both a double spiral and the central point Yechidah is known as Rashith Ha-Galgalim. A rough diagram is given below:
A quick look at the gematria of the phrase reveals something interesting:
| Rashith | 911 |
| Ha | 5 |
| Galgalim | 116 (3 + 30 + 3 + 30 + 10 + 40) |
What can be seen is that the number sequence 911 : 5 : 116, used to represent a phrase that describes a spiralling motion about a centre, itself represents that spiral. 116 is 911 reversed and turned upside down, then placed the other side of a centre – the number 5.
Noticing this, it struck me that the events of September 11th 2001 might be the compressing element of a forming spiral, meaning that there would be an expansive element associated with either the mirrored reverse of the digits, 116, or simply the reverse of the digits, 119, and that this would also reveal a centre through which a new beginning could commence.
I thus set about checking out the near future for any suitable events on dates associated with either the number 116 or the number 119. Bearing in mind that the US system of writing the date places the month before the day, I was left with two possible days in the year that would fit. These were November 6th and November 9th – 11/6 and 11/9.2
I was struck almost immediately by the date November 9th 2003, the day on which a Grand Hexagram (Double Grand Trine) planetary formation was scheduled to appear in our skies.
The Grand Hexagram
The chart above is that for the 9th November 2003, 01:20 GMT. At this time Saturn, Jupiter, the Sun, Chiron, Mars, and the Moon take the shape of a near perfect hexagram, each being almost 60 degrees from the next. The hexagram lasts for some hours but I picked 1:20 in the morning as this is moment when the Sun and Moon go into direct opposition bringing about a lunar eclipse.
Grand hexagrams occur every few years but I was struck by the amazing closeness of this one to a perfect hexagram and, of course, by its date – November 9th 2003, written in the US, 11/9/2003.
The hexagram is a powerful esoteric symbol and refers essentially to balancing or rebalancing. It relates to an elevation in conscious awareness, and is often considered a symbol of enlightenment. In the esoteric Tarot pack, the light from the Hermit’s lantern, in Key 9 of the major arcana, takes the form of a hexagram. Thus the hexagram is a powerful positive symbol which in this context might be associated with a progressive upward shift in the conscious awareness of humanity. Certainly it could be considered a heavenly rebalancing of the destructive acts of September 11th.
Now that I had dates for both the compressive and the expressive elements of the forming spiral, a mid-point could also be calculated. A time difference of 789 days separates September 11th 2001 and November 9th 2003 and the mid point between the two falls on October 10th 2002 – 10/10/2002.
I will now have a look at the numerology of this sequence, drawing especially from the two most significant sources of Qabalist creation mythology – the Sefer Yetzirah (Book of Formation) and the Book of Genesis.
10th October 2002
The Sefer Yetzirah, or Book of Formation, is a short but highly regarded Qabalistic document whose source is unknown but frequently attributed to the biblical patriarch Abraham. It relates the emergence of the ten spheres (sephiroth) from the undifferentiated essence of creation – the Ain Soph Aur – followed by the twenty-two paths which interconnect the spheres. Thus it is related that a total of 32 paths, or netivot, are engraved by Jah (one of several Hebrew terms for God) in the primal act of creation.
According to Qabalists, these 32 paths are revealed also in the first Chapter of Genesis, where the name of God (here Elohim) appears 32 times. The expression “God said” appears ten times3, each representing one of the spheres, and the remaining 22 times the name appears each represent one of the paths and one of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
What immediately strikes the eye is that all the numbers associated with the Creation are easily found in the date 10/10/2002.
From the Sefer Yetzirah (SY):
| SY 1:1 With 32 mystical paths of Wisdom | (10 + 20 + 02 = 32) |
| SY 1:2 Ten Sephirot of Nothingness | (the number 10 occurs twice) |
| SY 1:2 And 22 foundation letters | (20 + 02 = 22) |
And intriguingly:
| SY 1:4 ten and not nine, ten and not eleven |
This last verse, usually understood as hinting that Jah (God) is both implicitly within substance and, at the same time, utterly detached from it, seems to also reflect the position of the sequence 10/10 within the sequences 9/11 and 11/9.
Meanwhile, in downtown New York, the date 10th October 2002 is remembered by many Wall Street traders, some happily others not so happily. The 10th October was the date of a five year market low on many indices, notably the NASDAQ, the DOW, and the S&P 500. All of these markets bottomed on this date, meaning that there was also the beginning of an upward shift in stock prices this day. The NASDAQ bottomed at 1109 (!), the SPX at 769, and the DOW at 7177. Markets in other countries also showed lows but not as dramatically as those in New York.
Conclusions
In drawing to a conclusion this free-form piece of thinking, I would sum the story up by saying that this portion of the space-time continuum that now envelopes us would seem, most definitely, in my opinion, to be marked by this powerful Qabalistic number sequence. The destructive acts of September 11th lead inexorably to the creating of a new centre for expansion and spiritual development about the date October 10th 2002. This occurs retrospectively with the appearance of the Grand Hexagram in our skies in the early morning of November 9th 2003.
I recommend we all celebrate this new dawn with much rejoicing!
Nick Sandberg 2003
Notes
(1) – The name of the first sphere to emerge, Kether rtk, reflects this process in its lettering. The K, k, symbolizes an enclosing fist. The Th, t, a forming centre, and the R, r, a visible expression.
(2) – There are two other dates which can be written the same – January 16th and 19th. However the slash breaks these up differently – 1/16 and 1/19 – so I didn’t examine them.
(3) – Qabalists include the first line of Genesis in this believing that the phrase “God said” is here implicit if not actually written.
Bibliography
Many fine books on Qabalah (or Kaballah, Cabala, and numerous other spellings!) may be found at any decent book store. Those by Dion Fortune and Gareth Knight are well thought of. The books listed below have particularly influenced me:
Case, Paul Foster, Dr. (1995). The Tarot: A Key to the Wisdom of the Ages, Builders of the Adytum Ltd.
Case, Paul Foster, Dr. (1989). The True and Invisible Rosicrucian Order, Builders of the Adytum Ltd.
Kaplan, Aryeh, Rabbi. (1997). Sefer Yetzirah: The Book of Creation, In Theory and Practice, Samuel Weiser Inc.
Lawlor, Robert. (1982). Sacred Geometry, Thames & Hudson.
Suares, Carlos. (1976). The Cipher of Genesis, Samuel Weiser.
The Three Initiates. (1908) Kybalion : A Study of the Hermetic Philosophy of Ancient Egypt and Greece, R A Kessinger Publishing Co.