Saturday, October 9, 2021

If I needed an occult pseudonym, like Éliphas Lévi . . .

When Alphonse-Louis Constant needed a pen name for his occult writings, he chose Hebrew names that were somewhat similar to his own given names. Alphonse became Éliphas (Eliphaz, son of Esau and friend of Job), and Louis became Lévi (Levi, son of Jacob and father of the Levites; Rabbi Louis Ginzberg also used Levi as his Hebrew name).

Today, a rather convoluted series of syncs -- taking me from the "tulip tree," Liriodendrom tulipifera, to the Luria-dendron of the qlippoth -- led me to the Lurianic terms Olam ha-Tohu (World of Chaos) and Olam ha-Tikkun (World of Rectification) -- and the latter is pretty clearly my own personal Éliphas Lévi. William becomes Olam (also transliterated Gholam; cf. Guillaume), and Tychonievich (a Ukrainian patronymic from the personal name Tikhon) becomes Tikkun. I guess Olam ben-Tikkun would be the proper form.

One major drawback is the similarity to tikkun olam, which is the Jewish term for Leftist "social justice."

2 comments:

Ilo said...

the similarity is not accidental.

the reverse order establishes proper hierarchy.

whereas tikkun olam is the human agency to bring about rectification 'of the world' (and hence social justice), olam ben tikkun is the 'world of' (and with ben, the son of) rectification, deriving its meaning and agency from above.

Anonymous said...

William = Willem/Wilhelm, so Golem Ha-Tikkun.

Raw material of Rectification.

K. West, five years or hours, and spiders

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