Hebrew Letters- alef

A Matrix of Meaning:
Portraits of the Hebrew Letters, in Pictures and Words
©1996 Stan Tenen
http://www.meru.org/letteressays/alef.html
Level I – Archetype

Alef

Greatness – Mastery


AlePh stands for ALL, ALooF and an ALP – a high point, a high sacred mountain. It is ALL-ONE-Wisdom Conscious-ness. PheLA (ALePhin reverse) is a miracle and a mystery. ALePh represents the Whole, the General, the Great and Inclusive Wisdom of the Transcendent and the Immanent, together. ALePh, of all the letters, is the only one that is both the Unitary "seed" of Singular Consciousness and the Whole of Consciousness – Consciousness is always Singular and Whole. (What meaning is there to "half" of a thought?) Aleph, as the Singular, is the sun-seed-center (The Primal Point), the Source; ALePh, as the Whole, is the Idealized Fruit – the APPLe – and its fruition. ALePh represents the strongest, most coherent, and most encompassing Archetype; that is why ALePh means Ox (or Bull, the astrological symbol of the Taurean age when the alphabet was stabilized.)

ALePh is the Transcendent and exquisitely Singular "Primal Point" at the center of Continuous Creation. It is the tip of the Great Flame, the Seed, the Tao, the dew-drop ( the Manna – from Pirke Avoth’s description of the 10-Things Created on the Eve of the First Sabbath) and the "Grain that no granary comprehends" (from Rumi’s poetic description of the Mevlevi Sufi Round Dance. For additional Sufi imagery, see the poster, The Geometry of Rumi's Description of the Mevlevi Sufi Round Dance, in our section on Arabic, Moslem, and Sufi Material.)