Neal Stephenson Quote
The belief in the magical power of language is not unusual, both in mysticaland academic literature. The Kabbalists -- Jewish mystics of Spain andPalestine -- believed that super-normal insight and power could be derived fromproperly combining the letters of the Divine Name. For example, Abu Aharon, anearly Kabbalist who emigrated from Baghdad to Italy, was said to performmiracles through the power of the Sacred Names.What kind of power are we talking about here?Most Kabbalists were theorists who were interested only in pure meditation.But there were so-called 'practical Kabbalists' who tried to apply the power ofthe Kabbalah in everyday life.In other words, sorcerers.Yes. These practical Kabbalists used a so-called 'archangelic alphabet,'derived from first-century Greek and Aramaic theurgic alphabets, which resembledcuneiform. The Kabbalists referred to this alphabet as 'eye writing,' becausethe letters were composed of lines and small circles, which resembled eyes.Ones and zeroes.Some Kabbalists divided up the letters of the alphabet according to where theywere produced inside the mouth.Okay. So as we would think of it, they were drawing a connection between theprinted letter on the page and the neural connections that had to be invoked inorder to pronounce it.Yes. By analyzing the spelling of various words, they were able to draw whatthey thought were profound conclusions about their true, inner meaning andsignificance.
The belief in the magical power of language is not unusual, both in mysticaland academic literature. The Kabbalists -- Jewish mystics of Spain andPalestine -- believed that super-normal insight and power could be derived fromproperly combining the letters of the Divine Name. For example, Abu Aharon, anearly Kabbalist who emigrated from Baghdad to Italy, was said to performmiracles through the power of the Sacred Names.What kind of power are we talking about here?Most Kabbalists were theorists who were interested only in pure meditation.But there were so-called 'practical Kabbalists' who tried to apply the power ofthe Kabbalah in everyday life.In other words, sorcerers.Yes. These practical Kabbalists used a so-called 'archangelic alphabet,'derived from first-century Greek and Aramaic theurgic alphabets, which resembledcuneiform. The Kabbalists referred to this alphabet as 'eye writing,' becausethe letters were composed of lines and small circles, which resembled eyes.Ones and zeroes.Some Kabbalists divided up the letters of the alphabet according to where theywere produced inside the mouth.Okay. So as we would think of it, they were drawing a connection between theprinted letter on the page and the neural connections that had to be invoked inorder to pronounce it.Yes. By analyzing the spelling of various words, they were able to draw whatthey thought were profound conclusions about their true, inner meaning andsignificance.