The I Ching Mandala and Kabbalah – Correspondences

 

The proposed I Ching Mandala was developed using the "dressing" technique, or Malbush (Jewish theurgy) (1), which allows for the manipulation of the numbers of the trigrams—used in place of the Hebrew letters—and their projection onto the cells corresponding to the numbers of the numerical squares of the Primary and Secondary Sequences of the I Ching, where the Secondary Sequence corresponds to the magic square of Saturn, ruler of time. In Kabbalah, the Malbush is visualized as a garment of pure light, and sacred phonemes, woven by the operator to clothe the "Golem,"(2) the magical clay statue at the operator's service. The word "golem" derives from the root of the verb "galam," which means to fold or wrap a cloth (wa-yiglom)  (3). The original universe is a formless and blinding light. To create the world (or to bring the Golem to life), the Kabbalist must "clothe" this intangible energy using the combinations of the alphabet, and specifically the Mandala, the combinations of the numbers of the trigrams contained in each hexagram. The combinations act as threads that, when intertwined, create a garment (Malbush) that contains and slows the energy, allowing it to manifest in a stable and visible form, animated by the matrices of the numerical squares considered. Therefore, instead of a clay statue, the numerical squares of the Mandala are animated, clothing their hypostases or basic numerical cells with the values ​​of the trigrams that, brought into being in the hypostasis, animate the squares themselves. In the basic table, the hexagrams used are The Creative no.1 and its complement The Mount no. 52.

In the mandala they have been paired, not as changes, but as homologous, that is, 1->1 and 52->52. In the table, the two hexagrams no.1 are placed on the left, the two hexagrams no.52 are placed on the right. In hexagram no.1, time is represented at its origin, in the image of six dragons ascending to heaven and manifesting the creative principle of man in the microcosm; in hexagram no.52, mysterious time is represented as it revolves upon itself, within the described origin, in six stages of meditation, in which the reunion of man with the divine principle assimilated to the macrocosm is manifested. For this reason, in the Mandala, the six lines of each hexagram, corresponding to the six states mentioned, are also counted according to the values ​​6, 7, 8, 9, both in the left and right score. The result of the counting (4) on the left is: 26 + 186 + 84; on the right gives: 248 + 264 + 92. The sum of all the values ​​gives 900 which corresponds in the operative Kabbalah to the final value of the letter Sadè, which rules with the sun and is the last and most powerful of the mysterious forces responsible for the degrees of occult knowledge.

 

Therefore, in divinatory practice, by inserting the numerical values ​​of the trigrams that make up - from time to time - the two hexagrams obtained, Base and Change, into the fixed scheme (hypostasis) of the basic matrices or squares of the Primary and Secondary Sequences of the I Ching, the Mandala comes to life, weaving a tailor-made garment for the chosen moment in time. The complete calculation for all 4096 combinations (64 x 64 hexagrams) is developed by a computer program: each hexagram and its change it generates a numerical value of the manifested energy; analogically, in a comparative study, the numerical value is placed in correspondence with an Egyptian formula from the Book of the Dead. The numerical table is published in the book “The Phoenix and The Eye Of Horus” Umberto Capotummino- Sekhem.

 

Notes

1)    Moshe Idel, Golem. Jewish Magical and Mystical Traditions on the Artificial Anthropoid. 1990 State University of New York Press (Albany, N.Y.) Chapter 10, VII.

2)    2) ibidem Chapter 7.

3)    3) Giulio Busi, Elena Loewenthal, Mistica Ebraica. Testi della tradizione segreta del giudaismo dal III secolo al XVIII secolo. Introduzione, 7, XL, XLI.

Note 4: It is noteworthy that on the left side of the Mandala, the number of the Name YHWH 26 (5+6+5+10) appears; The sum of the squared value of the letters gives 186 (25+36+25+100). It follows that from the Name YHWH, by arousing its space-time powers, we obtain 186 which is the value of his Dwelling or “Makom”: “He (The Lord) is the Place of the World” - (Keter Shem Tov, The Crown of the Good Name, on Mistica Ebraica p. 362, op.cit.), as already Micah 1:3 Look! The LORD is coming from his dwelling place; he comes down and treads on the heights of the earth.

On the right side of the Mandala, the number 248 manifests itself, which expresses the successive emanations of energy descending into the man's field of actions. Idra Rabba states that this number 248 relating to the ornaments that descend from the yod represents the “Ornaments of the King”.

(Idra Rabba,  Sefer -Ha Zohar, pag 501-502, on Mistica Ebraica, op.cit.)