The tower of Babel, ca. 1556 Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
"Nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do"
Be mindful of what you lend your imagination to, for it is in that realm that semblance takes form and receives the first breath of life into illusion and delusion. ~cizz
And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east (the ancient times) that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.
And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.
And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded.
And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.
When we consider the spiritual symbology in the stories written and translated in the bible it's an amazing feat that the keys to understanding these spiritual mysteries and meanings are also to be found written within the same texts. As the story of the tower of Babel places emphases on language and speech another interesting verse to consider would be Proverb 25:2, "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter."
Why is it so interesting? Because the authors are telling us that god has concealed (covered and hidden) spiritual things. When we uncover the hidden layers of words used in translating this verse we find that "a thing" and "a matter" are the same, dabar which means "speech". The same "one speech" that is mentioned in our story of Babel. The word speech is the story or chronicle of a subject, so the tower of Babel is about everyone having and speaking one and the same story.
The way the authors wrote this story/speech gives a visual image to help in understanding what is spiritually occurring, so what exactly does "one language and one speech" mean? Here is the visual, "you build a speech from the confine and limits of your language as you build a tower within the confine and limits of your city".
So the one language is a representation of the city they are building, as the tower is representation of the one speech/story being built. And here is my modern version of the speech,
"Go to! Let us all ascribe to this one belief of fear and terror that we shouldn't be separated and scattered over the earth (literally, the phrase "go to" means ascribe to or set in place). How badly do others want you to ascribe to their beliefs, their standards and rules, their religion, and all that they believe is true, etc...?
The people were building a tower and believing a speech/story within the limits and confine of their city and language, those two limits where based on fear and terror. (the word city is translated from iyr which means excitement or anguish "of terror". They wanted to make a name and have their top ( the word top is translated from ro'sh which means "chief or head" of man, city, nation, place, family, priest). What chief head interpretation of stories do we each personally cap our own tower with? Parents, teacher, school, friends, social groups, religious groups, the country you live in, the ancient ways of the land you walk and sit upon?
Can you see the story/speech coming together in the image we find in the tarot's Tower trump?
As A. E. Waite 'ascribes to' the interpretation (i.e. language and city) that the two falling figures in the card image are those of the "literal word" and "false interpretation", for me personally, I can sense negative energy rising from the word "false" and thus it begs that I put in something positive to weigh and balance out that energy, if you grasped my opening statement to this post then you should be able to understand that nothing and no-thing can actually be accurately labeled as "false" -- as we all have something called magic or magick which is our capacity and continuous state of imagination that extends "life breath" to and into everything we can imagine and place an image onto. I would switch the word false to "limited interpretation".
So, back to the subject of our tower and our crowning, ruling, governing tower top, that caps and restrains the limited interruption of a speech/story -- which in this case instills fear and terror -- then says this tower and its crown are your only way to build and reach the heavens on a spiritual level.
"And the LORD came down to see the city (terror and fear) and the tower (speech/story), which the children of men builded"
The story goes on to say that their language (city, terror, fear) was confounded and that they left off building that city, i.e. their limited way of interpreting the story was removed and the story tellers were scattered abroad the whole earth.
A. E. Waite and Pamela Coleman Smith Tower Trump
As the tower trump shows, only the capping crown of the tower is toppled down, the tower (speech/story) still remains intact. All the bricks (although some build with stones, the same stones they use for weapons) that went into making the tower are still there as in the bible story makes no mention that the people left off building that tower/speech/story to reach into the heavens (they left off the method of terror in the building), the people were scattered over the face of the earth and we now have many languages (even unspoken languages!) to build our own personal spiritual tower and story upon to reach into the heavens, remember you are your own tower cap nothing wrong with designing your own crown and don't be surprised if your first attempt in crafting and designing doesn't fit your tower, don't get angry in the night of a storm and blast your friends and your own azz off the tower, remember the stairs or ladder, calmly, gracefully descend and when your feet are placed firmly on the ground gently raising the dust into the sun light of the breaking new day, hold your misfit crown up into that light and see it's beauty and all the love and passion that went into making and crafting it and if you decide to place the crown making aside to wander off into the wonder and awe of this magickal creation that is okay too. We have many types of crowns, some prefer simply twigs, leaves and flowers, while others care nothing what so ever about crowns.
A crown only becomes thrones when it is being forced on with the demanding expectations that one must wear it. ~cizz
(Scatterings!)
"Magick and its supports and puzzle pieces are all around us. Each new direction of study of the mysteries leads back to and overlays upon itself. Astrology gives meaning to lunar and solar magick. Qabalah gives depth to each phase and facet of our spiritual selves and the process of initiatory experience. Sacred geometry tells the riddles of the magickal symbols. Alchemy gives the recipe for transformation and sacred attunement. Herbology reveals the truths of the natural world and the invisible allies we have that guide us. Tarot taps into the subconscious realms of the visual world. Energy practice pulls us intimately into a consummate union with the fabric of our world in connection and conjunction with the cosmic and universal dimensions."Quoted from:
A Witch's Sacred Journey
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