AtDtDA(34): That Which Dwells

[Dave Monroe]

"'You are familiar with the idea of the Shekinah--That which dwells?'"
(AtD, Pt. IV, p. 960)


"the Shekinah--That which dwells"

God's Presence, Kingdom

The Shekhinah is a Talmudic concept representing God's dwelling and
immanence in the created world....

According to a Rabbinic tradition, the Shekhinah shares in the exiles
of the Jewish people.

Therefore, the redemption of the people of Israel is inextricably
linked to the remedying of an alienation within God him/herself,
introducing a bold new element into traditional Jewish Messianic
eschatology.

It is through the Shekhinah that humans can experience the Divine.

The passivity of the Shekhinah is often emphasized (equated with its
femininity), as the recipient of forces from the higher Sefirot....

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Shekhinah.html
http://www.ucalgary.ca/~elsegal/Sefirot/Shekhinah.html

Shekhinah ... is the English spelling of a feminine Hebrew language
word that means the dwelling or settling, and is used to denote the
dwelling or settling presence of God, especially in the Temple in
Jerusalem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekinah

Shekhinah is derived from the Hebrew verb שכן. In Biblical Hebrew the
word means literally to settle, inhabit, or dwell, and is used
frequently in the Hebrew Bible....  the Shekhinah refers to a dwelling
or settling in a special sense, a dwelling or settling of divine
presence, to the effect that, while in proximity to the Shekhinah, the
connection to God is more readily perceivable.

... Shekhinah means "the presence of God" ... practically the same as
the Greek word "Parousia also a feminine word (literally: "presence")
which is used in a similar way for "Divine Presence".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shekinah#Etymology

The Latin incarnatio (in: caro, flesh) corresponds to the Greek
sarkosis, or ensarkosis, which words depend on John (i, 14) kai ho
Logos sarx egeneto, "And the Word was made flesh"....

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07706b.htm

"And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw
his glory, the glory as of the Father's only Son, full of grace and
truth." --John 1:14

http://bible.cc/john/1-14.htm
http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john1.htm

The incarnate Word is the new mode of God's presence among his people.
The Greek verb has the same consonants as the Aramaic word for God's
presence (Shekinah)....

http://www.usccb.org/nab/bible/john/john1.htm#foot9

"sshhhghhh" (GR, Pt. IV, p. 680)

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0007&msg=47435
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0803&msg=125002


"British Kabbalism"

See, e.g., ...

http://mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=109
http://books.google.com/books?id=5jSQhrao540C


"the High Priestess"

The High Priestess (II) is the second trump or Major Arcana card in
most traditional Tarot decks....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Priestess

She has the lunar crescent at her feet, a horned diadem on her head,
with a globe in the middle place, and a large solar cross on her
breast. The scroll in her hands is inscribed with the word Tora,
signifying the Greater Law, the Secret Law and the second sense of the
Word. It is partly covered by her mantle, to shew that some things are
implied and some spoken. She is seated between the white and black
pillars--J. and B.--of the mystic Temple, and the veil of the Temple
is behind her: it is embroidered with palms and pomegranates. The
vestments are flowing and gauzy, and the mantle suggests light--a
shimmering radiance. She has been called occult Science on the
threshold of the Sanctuary of Isis, but she is really the Secret
Church, the House which is of God and man. She represents also the
Second Marriage of the Prince who is no longer of this world; she is
the spiritual Bride and Mother, the daughter of the stars and the
Higher Garden of Eden. She is, in fine, the Queen of the borrowed
light, but this is the light of all. She is the Moon nourished by the
milk of the Supernal Mother.

In a manner, she is also the Supernal Mother herself--that is to say,
she is the bright reflection. It is in this sense of reflection that
her truest and highest name in bolism is Shekinah--the co-habiting
glory. According to Kabalism, there is a Shekinah both above and
below. In the superior world it is called Binah, the Supernal
Understanding which reflects to the emanations that are beneath. In
the lower world it is MaIkuth--that world being, for this purpose,
understood as a blessed Kingdom that with which it is made blessed
being the Indwelling Glory. Mystically speaking, the Shekinah is the
Spiritual Bride of the just man, and when he reads the Law she gives
the Divine meaning. There are some respects in which this card is the
highest and holiest of the Greater Arcana.

http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/pktar02.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_High_Priestess#Kabbalistic_Approach

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://trionfi.com/tarot/cards/02-popess/
http://www.tarothermit.com/priestess.htm


"shiny black accoutrements"

http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_678-694#Page_690
http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_678-694#Page_678


"'When god hides his face'"

"He hath said in his heart, God hath forgotten: he hideth his face; he
will never see it." --Psalms 10:11 (KJV)

http://bible.cc/psalms/10-11.htm


"Without her to reflect"

"For now we see through a glass, darkly ..." --1 Corinthians 13:12

http://biblecc.com/1_corinthians/13-12.htm


"She is absolutely of the essence"

Tres deconstructive, non?  Oui ...


"a canone of Cosmas of Jerusalem"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_(music) ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmas_of_Maiuma


"vertigo was somehow designed into the place"

Cf. ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westin_Bonaventure_Hotel
http://www.eng.fju.edu.tw/Literary_Criticism/postmodernism/examples/bonadventure.htm

Talk about reflection ...


"some invisible, imponderable medium"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luminiferous_aether


"The mooned planet ... the planetary electron"

?


"a form of death"

... To die: to sleep;
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;
To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;
For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause ... (Hamlet, III.i)

http://shakespeare.mit.edu/hamlet/hamlet.3.1.html

And see as well, e.g., ...

http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/death/de-gdp5.htm