Meditation on the Hebrew Letters

Over the years I've developed several methods for meditating on the Hebrew letters that work very well for me. These methods are nothing other than extremely simple, though they're infinitely extensible. A rough outline, using the Golden Dawn attributions (which are almost identical with Crowley's attributions, or BOTA's for that matter), follows. 

Choose your letter. Seek out the corresponding names, colors and incenses, as well as the corresponding Tarot trump. 

Decorate your temple (or what have you) with the proper colors (always use the King scale for the letters), light the proper incense, anoint with the proper oil, etc. 

Open up with the banishing ritual of the pentagram, add the banishing ritual of the hexagram if you want to kick things up a notch. 

Spend a few minutes gazing at the Tarot trump. Let it saturate your psyche, sinking deeply into the fertile soil of the subconscious mind. Scan the card in rows (about 12 rows per card), from right to left, taking in every element of the image. 

Sit down, close your eyes. Imagine that your aura is filled with light of the color of the Hebrew letter in the King scale. Let that light extend out to fill infinite space. Imagine that the Hebrew letter rests in the very center of your aura, in white light. Above that letter, visualize the corresponding elemental, planetary or zodiacal sign, also in white. 

Once you've got the visualization going quite strong, start vibrating or intoning the names. First, the Atziluthic name, then the Archangel, then the letter itself. Come back to these vibrations several times during the meditation (which should last roughly between 15 minutes to a half hour). 

Contemplate the placement of the path which corresponds to the letter on the Qabalistic Tree. Contemplate further the title of the Tarot trump according to the Golden Dawn. Reach out to the very essence of the letter and its associations. Try to make a connection. 

Afterward, let the light and the symbols sink deep deep deep into the center of your being. Take a deep breath, tense up every muscle in your body, then relax. 

Close by the same banishing rituals with which you opened. 

Here's a meditation on the letter Tau as an example: 

The temple is decorated in indigo (silk is good, cotton is fine), with maybe some black trim. Civet or Musk, or maybe some Nu Essence Saturn is burning on the charcoal. 

Open with the banishing rituals of the pentagram and hexagram. 

Anoint with some Saturnine oil. 

If you're up to it, invoke Saturn by hexagram (check the planetary aspects first!) 

Sit down and gaze upon the World card for a good 10 minutes or so. 

Close your eyes. Let your aura be filled with indigo light. Let it expand to fill infinite space. 

Visualize the letter Tau, in white, in the center of your aura. Above the Tau, visualize the sign of Saturn, also in white. 

Vibrate the following names (several times): YHVH ELOHIM, TZAPHKIEL, ARALIM, TAU. Spend some time reaching out as best you can to the essence of Tau and of Saturn. 

Contemplate the placement of the path of Tau between Malkuth and Yesod on the Qabalistic Tree. Vibrate the names a few more times. 

Contemplate the title: The Great One of the Night of Time. Vibrate the names a few more times. Imagine that all of these symbols are sinking into your innermost depths. 

At length, take a deep breath, tense up every muscle, relax and open your eyes. 

If you invoked Saturn, banish it. Close by the lesser banishing rituals of the hexagram and pentagram. 

Do it every day. Start with Tau and work your way up to Aleph, then start back over again with Tau. These methods are very simple, but effective (I'm not claiming any great originality, here). They work on many different levels, and if persisted in, they'll take you through the rudimentary to the intellectual to the intuitional to the visionary and beyond. To these can be added devotional litanies, skryings, large and elaborate ceremonies, anything you can think of, though it is best to start simple. 

There are a number of methods by which the letters can be meditated on in combination. I'll elaborate on some of these along the way.