Kabbalistic Astrology
by Patrick Mulcahy
The Key to Jacob's Wheel
The key that unlocks the Jacob's Wheel system is found in the ancient kabbalistic book The Sepher Yetzirah.
There are various levels of knowledge and mystery in the text of this classic book. On one level it describes the ten sephiroth and 22 pathways of the Tree of Life, but encoded at a deeper level is the basic structure of Jacob's Wheel.
Sepher Yetzirah, II:4
Twenty-two Foundation Letters:
He placed them in a circle (GLGL, גלגל)
like a wall with 231 (RL"A, רל"א) Gates.
The circle oscillates back and forth.
A sign for this is:
There is nothing in good higher than Delight (ONG, ענג)
There is nothing in evil lower than Plague (NGO, נגע).[Translated by Aryeh Kaplan.]
The idea of a cycle (circle, or wheel - Heb: GLGL, גלגל) is a central one in the Sepher Yetzirah. That is why it focuses so strongly on the astrological archetypes. The book is actually an instruction manual for building a map of the energy cycles and currents that are flowing through our World (and our personal lives).
The word GLGL is one of three word-keys that help define the correct arrangement of the 22 Hebrew letters within the Jacob's Wheel mandala. The other two are ONG (ענג, 'delight') and RL"A (רל"א, the number 231). These three words all occur in chapter II, verse 4 (quoted above).
GLGL is the mathematical key. It instructs us on how to arrange the 22 Hebrew letters within the Jacob's Wheel mandala by giving us the 'magic number' 33. GLGL is valued 66, where GL = 33, so that GL + GL = 33 + 33. This is the key formula.
When I say that the number 33 is 'magical' I mean it in the mathematical sense. For example, the 'magic square' of the number 6 consists of the numbers from one to 36 arranged in a 6x6 grid and every row of numbers in that square adds up to 111. Thus, the number 111 is 'magical' in relation to the 6x6 magic square.
The Jacob's Wheel mandala's basic blueprint contains the numbers from one to 21, and consists of seven rows of three numbers where each row (or 'spoke' of the wheel) adds up to 33.
The JW mandala uses the ordinal values of the Hebrew letters (1 to 21) to determine the correct arrangement (as depicted below). The 22nd Hebrew letter is positioned at the centre of the mandala.
The ordinal values of the Hebrew letters are listed in the table below-left.
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In the mandala diagram above each row of three numbers adds to 33 like so...
1 + 12 + 20 = 33
2 + 13 + 18 = 33
3 + 14 + 16 = 33
4 + 8 + 21 = 33
5 + 9 + 19 = 33
6 + 10 + 17 = 33
7 + 11 + 15 = 33
Thus the Hebrew word GLGL (33 + 33) is seen to be an important key to the arrangement of the Hebrew letters on the JW mandala. The entire series of 22 mandalas that constitute the JW master mandala are likewise arranged according to the pattern derived above.
Interesting Note: As you know, the Hebrew word 'GL' is valued 33 because G (3) + L (30) = 33. Now, if we expand the word GL by spelling its Hebrew letters G (Gimel) and L (Lamed) in full we derive: GML (73) + LMD (74) = 147. Thus, the word GL has two main values: 33 (basic) and 147 (expanded). Interestingly, the 147 year master cycle of Jacob's Wheel is fundamentally important in the Jacob's Wheel system because it reflects the life-time of the patriarch Jacob, and because it's the shortest possible Jacob's Wheel master cycle containing minor cycles and phases of whole months and whole years. (Master cycle = 147 years. Minor cycle = 7 years. Phase = 4 months.) 147 = 3 x 7 x 7.
When the letters are substituted in place of their corresponding ordinal numbers we derive the following...
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This is the first mandala of Jacob's Wheel. It is situated on the first spoke of the inner ring of the master mandala - the same relative position in that greater mandala as the letter aleph (A, א) has in this smaller one.
On the first spoke of the mandala (above) you will find highlighted in yellow the number RL"A ('231', רל"א) - read from the outer to the inner ring. The first spoke of the first mandala thus contains one of our important word-keys, which tells us that our mandala pattern is correctly formulated.
Our other word-key is ONG ('delight', ענג). You will find it highlighted in green on the third spoke - also read from the outer to the inner ring. The word NGO ('plague') merely re-confirms this combination of third spoke letters. So we see that again our pattern is confirmed by the clues contained in this special verse (II, 4) of the Sepher Yetzirah.
Thus it can be seen, that with these three word-keys GLGL, RL"A, and ONG, we are given enough encoded information to derive the first mandala of Jacob's Wheel. And from the pattern of the first mandala we can then derive the remaining 21 mandalas of the Jacob's Wheel master mandala.
Of further esoteric interest is the fact that the final mandala positioned on the spokes of Jacob's Wheel (i.e. the 21st mandala - corresponding with the Hebrew letter Shin/ש in the diagram above) contains, in Hebrew, the word "Israel" (YShRAL, ישראל).
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 The 'Israel' Mandala (#21 in the 'magical' sequence) |
This is the only one of all the 22 mandalas of Jacob's Wheel that contains the word "Israel". As you can see, the word 'Israel' occupies the same spokes (i.e. the first and third) as our original word-keys do in the very first mandala (see the diagrams above). The initiatory name/formula 'Israel' symbolises the perfection of human consciousness in this Earth psycho/biosphere.
Interesting Fact: The State of Israel was created on the 14th May, 1948. Amazingly, this occurred during the Israel phase of the Israel cycle of the grand World 3087 year master cycle of Jacob's Wheel. The odds of this event occuring within this particular seven year phase of the 3087 year master cycle is 1 in 441. The Israel phase of the Israel cycle is identified by the Hebrew letter Qof (ק) in the mandala above right. It means that the nation of Israel is governed by the archetypes Raysh-Qof [3/4], or Mercury-Pisces [3/4]. More Information. |
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Now all that is left to do is to substitute the astrological correspondences (as detailed in the Sepher Yetzirah) in place of the Hebrew letters and we have fully deciphered the cycle of archetypal energies that pour through our reality matrix. The first mandala in the JW sequence appears as follows...
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Important Note: After the Hebrew letters have been arranged upon their mandalas in the 'magical' sequence, the twenty-one Jacob's Wheel cycles/phases follow a course that is different to the original magical order. When using the Jacob's Wheel system the cycles and phases are read in the natural spiral sequence illustrated in the following diagrams. In other words, the 'magical' sequence formula is used only to arrange the twenty-two Hebrew letter archetypes and fix them in their places. The creative-evolutionary process then proceeds to unfold through them in a natural triple spiral, as follows... |
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 The Jacob's Wheel master cycle forms an endlessly repeating spiral loop. |
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In conclusion, it seems quite probable to me that the author of the Sefer Yetzirah (all those hundreds of years ago) was sitting with Jacob's Wheel in front of him and thinking 'how can I preserve this secret knowledge for the generations to come?'. Then, knowing that the first mandala contained the words RL"A and ONG he decided to use those words as keys, along with the word GLGL as a mathematical key. And so he composed verse II,4.
There are other word-keys in the Sepher Yetzirah that provide confirmation of the JW model, but it is this verse (SY: II, 4) that gives us our main clues as to the geometric structure of Jacob's Wheel.
The ultimate confirmation of the Jacob's Wheel system comes from the fact that it works in practice as an astrological tool. (If you would like to test for yourself the Jacob's Wheel system of kabbalistic astrology please download the free Jacob's Wheel software available from this website.)
Download Hebrew Version
Download Astrological Version
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