Words, Speech, and Silence
I’ve been wanting to write this for a while, but sometimes the words need to stew in your mind for a while before taking shape into something coherent.
By the way, I apologize for the long hiatus. Honestly, it’s hard to think of something original to write every week, or even every month sometimes. That’s not really my style anyway. I’m not going to write something for the sake of delivering content on a timely schedule. I think that there’s enough of that in the world these days and honestly let’s just say it isn’t leading to the betterment of society. So, you can expect newsletters from me when I have something to say, no more and no less.
Also, I wanted to thank the new subscribers that have joined recently. I appreciate every one of you.
On the long drive back from my sister’s house after Thanksgiving, we ended up driving past a business with a prominently hung banner saying “Heroes Work Here.” It’s a common enough sight in these times but somehow it stirred up something my brain wouldn’t let go of. I was struck by the disconnect between the message and the meaning. The word hero has a certain meaning: it is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. I am sure that the people working at this job have a whole range of characteristics, some noble and some probably not. In any case, they are more than likely just struggling to pay bills and get by like the rest of us.
I’m fascinated by the use of words and how they shape our perception. By using a word like hero, companies are trying to control the narrative to their benefit. In other words, they are trying to create change according to their will. We all know at this point that businesses are desperately trying to keep employees working through sometimes unsafe conditions have resorted to this type of manipulation. A banner extolling the virtues of the workforce might cost a couple of hundred bucks, much cheaper than increasing compensation or doing anything meaningful. In 2021 we are all jaded to this type of treatment. Not only are we bombarded with meaningless platitudes from our jobs but we hear it on the news and from people in positions of authority and power.
In magical practice, we often rely on the meaning of words to impart specific energies into our rituals and other workings. The Sanskrit mantra is a prime example of certain words and syllables conveying specific energy into our work. In the western tradition, we have various names of angels and intelligences, prayers, and calls. Everywhere we turn, we find a link between words, meaning, and power. If we call on the power of Jupiter, we know what that energy generally entails. If we get something icy and restrictive, we know something must be amiss.
Going back to the hero example, what happens when we use a word with an explicit meaning in a context in which it doesn’t belong? Say, for instance, the word hero evokes the energy of someone like Hercules, a mythic hero of ancient Greek legend. Does using it in the wrong context degrade the power it holds? This type of word meaning scramble is used everywhere. How many packaged items have you seen with the words “all-natural” emblazoned on the box? If everything stems from nature anyway, what does that even mean? Asbestos is technically all natural but that doesn’t make it good for you.
Words occupy a liminal space, being both real and unreal. This quality makes them the ultimate tool of the magus. They are can be both the weapon and the defense. The question is, do words exist without the human intellect that pronounces them? More abstractly, do ideas exist without a mind to think them?
As it is said in Liber B vel Magi:
In the beginning doth the Magus speak Truth, and send forth Illusion and Falsehood to enslave the soul. Yet therein is the Mystery of Redemption. By His Wisdom made He the Worlds; the Word that is God is none other than He. How then shall He end His speech with Silence? For He is Speech.
By using words to interface between the macrocosmic universal and the microcosmic human mind, there is a lot that is lost in translation. The word can not 100% replicate the thing as it is. In a way, this is just a restating of the idea that the map is not the territory. There is already significant noise in the signal by the very nature of our interpretation of it. When bad actors further degrade the signal, we slide towards information entropy.
Living in the alphabet soup version of meaning can be draining. When extreme adjectives are invoked for mediocrity, it’s hard to feel much but indifference in almost every situation. We are led to believe going to work to pay our bills is akin to the trials of Hercules, why does every day feel so empty and devoid of meaning? If this box of cereal is all-natural why does it taste like cardboard? We are told over and over that everything is the biggest, best, and most amazing, no matter what it is. Generally, it’s less than average at best. When we are immersed in this type of environment it’s hard to have the energy to combat it. Sure you can turn off the TV, but you can’t avoid every single instance. We are bombarded with it everywhere we turn, even at the gas pump. In this situation, words are intended as weapons against us.
Yet therein is the Mystery of Redemption.
The thing is, words aren’t real but they do partially describe a portion of reality. The fact they can only ever partially describe the Truth is where the falsehood and illusions part comes in. Every word we speak is both false and true. Sometimes the falsehood is quite clear, as with our hero example and our all-natural cereal. In our mundane lives, the manipulation we are all subjected to constantly muddies the waters of meaning, but it does serve to remind us that in a way all words serve to enslave the soul. While that is probably more dramatic than need be (we are talking about something Crowley wrote so it kind of comes with the territory), but that doesn’t negate its value as a good maxim to keep in mind.
So what do we do? How do we end our speech with silence when we are surrounded by speech? What is even Silence with a capital S, anyway?
One of the entries for Silence in Liber 500 is דומה, dumah, with the value of 55. Dumah means silence or stillness, but figuratively also means like the dead who dwell in silence. In fact, the same word with different pointing is the name of the angel of the dead. The number 55 is also the mystic number of the sphere of Malkuth, as it is the sum of the numbers from 1-10. Additionally, if we add 5+5 we also get 10, the number of Malkuth. Clearly, there is something very Malkuth-y about the idea of Silence.
Malkuth is the lowest sphere on the Tree of Life, and it is the place where all the energies of the higher spheres converge. The element represented by Malkuth is Earth. Our material bodies exist here on Malkuth along with everything they can interact with physically. I would even speculate that words only have meaning in Malkuth since it is our physical existence that necessitates the translation of ideas into discrete units of meaning our meat brains can grasp. Recognizing that fact we realize that the problem and the solution are one and the same. We can’t avoid being subject to words, but we can realize they are an artifact of our material existence, and by doing that we take away their power. Not only do we take their power, but we also empower them by virtue of the same mechanism. The speech and the silence are two sides of the same coin. The difference is up us.
“The Word that is God is none other than He”
Praxis
Create or select a mantra that will help you see through false words and detect their true intentions. When you are at the grocery store, repeat it silently to yourself. Does it have any effect on what you buy?
Practice empowering words in your daily life. Treat it like a consecration. Imagine you are creating a whole microcosm connected to each word that you choose to empower. If you pick something like the word “read,” imagine knowledge being funneled into your mind, your intellect becoming stronger and more agile. Imagine your worldview expanding, becoming a more well-rounded person, etc. You may choose to embody it with art or song. Have fun with it. When you are done, you have a personalized, consecrated word of power for your use.
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Amazing read!