Tolkien and the Zohar
I’ve just discovered the source of the female and male geometry in Tolkien’s works. I knew that he had divided the World into the left and right hands: female and male, and that they were bet and alef from his B and A schemes (birch and oak). The two form the opposite and adjacent sides of a right angled triangle. These are Time and Space, bet and alef. He creates the geometry of his system in the hands sequence of the Music of the Ainur. Ilúvatar is a name which has both male and female mystic words within it. The two language elements can be found in the statement in the Book of Lost Tales I:
| Ilinsor A late entry in GL gives Clinthos=Qenya Ilinsor, Helmsman of the Moon. The first element is probably glint ‘crystal’. Ilinsor does not appear in QL. Ilkorin A negative prefix il- is given in both dictionaries; in GL it is said that il- ‘denotes the opposite, the reversal, i.e. more than the mere negation’. See Kor. Ilsalunte (Name of the Moon.) Ilsa is given in QL as ‘the mystic name of silver, as laure of gold’; it is the i of tilkal, pp. 106-7. 106-7. For lunte ‘ship’ see Alqalunte. The Gnomish name is Gilthalont; giltha ‘white metal’ is said to be properly the same as celeb ‘silver’ (Q. telpe), but now including gais ‘steel’, ladog ‘tin’, etc., as opposed to culu ‘gold’, and culu is said to be a poetic word for ‘gold’ but ‘also used mythically as a class name of all red and yellow metals, as giltha of white and grey’. See Telimpe [Book of Lost Tales] |
In Ilsa and laure we see two of the letters which Tolkien uses to symbolize his wife and himself: ‘U’ and ‘I’. The entirety of Tolkien’s language can be understood as a code. That is, every single letter represents the material structure of the World. The very same idea we find in the commentaries on the ‘mystic’ Talmud as they are described. You can find the rebus in his so called ‘Floral Alphabet’. Tolkien uses the word ‘mystic’ here because he has derived his language from the same ideas found in the Rabbinical commentaries. The letters U and I are intended to mean ‘You and I’, as in Edith and himself. You can find ‘you and I’ in his poems ‘The Cottage of Lost Play’ which is also in the Book of Lost Tales I.
| We knew that land once, You and I, and once we wandered there in the long days now long gone by, a dark child and a fair. Was it on the paths of firelight thought in winter cold and white, or in the blue-spun twilit hours of little early tucked-up beds in drowsy summer night, that you and I in Sleep went down to meet each other there, your dark hair on your white nightgown and mine was tangled fair? |
In the poem that change between ‘You and I’ and ‘You and Me’ is symbolic of a change of state. More elsewhere on this site.
He also uses the elements ‘il’ and ‘ar’ to symbolize the Moon and the Sun. Edith the left-hand is the Sun, Tolkien, the right hand is the Moon. The entirety of his works is a dialectic, a conversation between left and right hands, between his wife and himself, between bet and alef. The change in the language during the Akallabeth which sees the title ‘Tar’ change to ‘Ar’ is symbolic of a process which silences the voice of the female, the Sun. In such a situation the man takes both sides, both roles. She is silenced in the conversation. This is why Is-IL-dur and An-AR-ion can be found in the North Gate, the Gates of the Argonath as symbolizing the Sun and Moon. They are both male, which symbolizes the usurpation of the voice of the female. ‘Ar’ can be read phonetically as ‘R’. That is the letter R. In the symbolic language, the mystic letter symbolizes ‘wrath’, ‘the great wave’. And the Akallabeth fittingly ends with the great wave drowning Numenor. The letter A is alef and R is wrath, the wave (imagine ‘r’ visually resembling a wave). The letter A is the Devil, the Enemy. A is the spirit and aspirations of the Enemy which appear first in the right hand, the male. Melkor is male after all. Therefore the element ‘AR’ symbolizes the wrath stemming from the discords of the devil. A is also the oak of Tolkien’s A and B scheme of oak (alef, literature) and birch (bet, philology). You also find the elements ‘ar’ and ‘il’ in Narsil. The sword that was broken bearing runes of the Sun and Moon. The breaking of the sword and the reforging symbolizes this breaking and reuniting of the relationship between alef and bet. All of this understanding led to Predictions #30, #32, #33. It’s all about alef and bet.
Why does wrath represent the Sun, the female? Because the position of the Sun and Moon was reversed at the creation of Arda. Illuin is placed in the north, Ormal in the south. That is a reversal of the left and right hands of Iluvatar. Iluvatar looks eastward (he actually looks up and eastward). You’ll have to take my word for it here. Therefore his left hand is in the north. Because of this all down the histories, her voice was continually being silenced. The letters ‘U’ and ‘I’ in the name ‘Illuin’ symbolizes this seizure of both the You and I in the conversation. Melkor created the confusion in the discords in the Music of the Ainur and created the confusion which led to the reversal. That’s why R is wrath. ‘R’ symbolizes the wrath and discords of Melkor. As such, it actually passes periodically between Man and Woman. This periodicity can be found in the course of the Sun and Moon below. The red course is wrath. The discords of Melkor drown the voice of the woman, the Sun in the Akallabeth. The woman and womankind is ‘She That is Fallen’. The two letter R’s in Tolkien’s monogram back to back symbolize the wrath that crosses between man and woman. This is because Tolkien’s monogram actually represents the material structures of his World and this is hwy he embeds the initials in his works. See Priya Seth’s ‘Breaking the Tolkien Code’. Tolkien actually embedded them at ten times (at least to my knowledge so far). All of the letters represent the material substance as I’ve stated. This is how the language and his names can be understood. And this is why I’ve been able to make 61 predictions to date. For more information on many of the threads here see A Response to Priya Seth’s Breaking the Tolkien Code.
Il is identified as a mystic word (IL) and (AR) because the Moon is male and the Sun is female. Moreover those elements are both at the beginning and end of the name. According to Tolkien’s statement above, The I of IL is the I in Tilkal. What does that mean exactly?
Each of the links in the chain of Angainor is a metal, the seven metals of the ancient world, which are also found in alchemy. Each of the letters in the word Tilkal correspond to one of these links and metals. Already we see a symbolic meaning to the letters because each letter symbolizes a metal. And in fact each one has a numerical value which reflects Tolkien’s own system of numerology (more elsewhere). But we only have 6 letters in Tilkal and I said 7 metals. Tolkien tells us that the seventh metal is the metal tilkal after which the chain is named. Therefore the seventh metal is the name Tilkal itself. But Tilkal does not appear in the metals of the ancient world. Tilkal is in fact the metal mercury. I have written a lot of proof and argument which I will upload to this site. Tilkal is red and green in colour. And that’s why the two spirals in the diagram of the courses of the Sun and Moon are red and green. And you’ll find the two colours dominant in the Floral alphabet. Why red and green? We know that the Greek name for Mercury is Hermes. Alchemy is referred to as hermeticism because of Hermes. His main symbol is the caduceus, a winged staff intertwined with two snakes copulating and carvings of the other gods. These two snakes are the two spirals of the courses of the Sun and Moon, woman and man.
| Hermes |
| son of Zeus and Maia in Greek mythology; Olympian messenger and god of commerce, markets, and roads; protector of herdsmen, travelers, and rogues; giver of good luck, god of secret dealings, and conductor of the dead. from Greek Hermes, a word of unknown origin. He was identified by the Romans with their Mercury. |
| hermetic (adj.) |
| 1630s “dealing with occult science or alchemy,” from Latin hermeticus, from Greek Hermes, god of science and art (among other things), who was identified by Neoplatonists, mystics, and alchemists with the Egyptian god Thoth as Hermes Trismegistos “Thrice-Great Hermes,” who supposedly invented the process of making a glass tube airtight (a process in alchemy) using a secret seal. Hence, “completely sealed” (c. 1600, implied in hermetically). |
| hermaphrodite (n.) |
| late 14c. (harmofroditus), from Latin hermaphroditus, from Greek hermaphroditos “person partaking of the attributes of both sexes,” as a proper name, the son of Hermes and Aphrodite, who, in Ovid, was loved by the nymph Salmacis so ardently that she prayed for complete union with him and as a result they were united bodily, combining male and female characteristics.
Also used figuratively in Middle English of “one who improperly occupies two offices.” As a name for the condition, Middle English had hermofrodito (late 14c.), hermofrodisia (early 15c.). As an adjective, from c. 1600. Also used of things of two natures, such as hermaphrodite brig, for a vessel square-masted fore and schooner-rigged aft. |
The second link in the chain of Angainor is silver. And we are also told about the L is Laure. There are two L’s in Tilkal. The last L is gold and this is the one referred to. How do I know that? I know that because by the time I discovered the Chain of Angainor I had already determined that the numbers symbolizing Bombadil and Goldberry were 2 and 6. See Predictions #1 and #2. Around the same time I determined their numbers I also determined that they were in fact Tolkien-Moon-Silver and Edith-Sun-Gold (hence Goldberry), alef and bet, the opposite and adjacent sides in the right angled triangle. And it was only later that I discovered the correspondence of the numbers 2 and 6 with silver and gold in the Chain. So now we have another letter that symbolizes the female, we now have U and L. If you look at the letter in the Floral Alphabet you’ll see that the colour of the letter is gold.
So we have two sets of letters at either of end of the name Ilúvatar. IL and AR. I is paired with A and L is paired with R. Why? The two sets of letters symbolize the movement from a state of union and harmony, to a state of discord and disharmony. Because the letters represent the material substance of the world, the left hand side of the name is the west, and the right hand side is the east. As we proceed eastwards, we move further away from Aman, and God Ilúvatar at the origin. We can see this correspondence in the Bereshit and Zohar below and we see it in the mystic word that Urwendi opens the Gates of Morn in the east and the Doors of Night in the west. The word she uses is reversed for each door. This establishes a direct connection between spatial position in the world (uttermost west and east) and the language itself.
In the two sets of letters I and L symbolize closeness to God at the origin in the west. AR is the opposite. Across the length of the word we have a decline away from God. In the diagram of the courses of the Sun and Moon below IL symbolizes twilight, dagaz, the Door, the butterfly rune, the letter X. Therefore IL is much the same as UI, but with the difference that is indicates the reversal of something. At this point we have harmony and union between man and woman. What does it reverse? The clue is in the mystic word of Urwendi.
| The meaning of Illuin is unclear,[2] but it could be a combination of ilu (“all”) and luin (“blue”). http://tolkiengateway.net/wiki/Illuin |
I don’t have any problems with that offered meaning. If IL is You and I, Edith and Tolkien, then ‘all’ chimes well with our discussion. Blue is the colour of the west, red is the colour of the east. Again, no problems there since we can see that IL is indeed in the west of the world Ilúvatar as stated.
AR symbolizes the time of separation and disharmony and conflict. At this point the Sun and the Moon alternate in dominating one another. The Sun dominates the Moon during the day. The Moon dominates the Sun during the night. Domination equates to silencing the other and the letter Y. In this way we have the letters X and Y. But what of Z? More elsewhere.
Tolkien stated that in On Fairy Stories:
| We do not, or need not, despair of drawing because all lines must be either curved or straight, nor of painting because there are only three “primary” colours. |
From this we have a clue regarding the creative principles of his World. Time is straight and Space is curved. In the Floral Alphabet, time is the letter ‘l’ and space is the letter ‘o’. And this supports the notion that the letters are indeed the material structures of his World. And this is why he uses the word ‘lo’ to open his wedding poem, and the ‘I Love Sixpence’ poem of Prediction #2 related to Goldberry and Bombadil, and it is the first utterance of the Elves on seeing the stars. It symbolizes Time and Space. Time is the left hand, female. Space is the right hand, the male. The devil tries to separate man from woman, literally separate Time and Space. He tries to separate Tolkien from Edith. The numerical equivalent is the number 10- it looks visually identical to ‘lo’. Ten was a sacred number to Dante and Tolkien includes ten instances of his monogram in the Lord of the Rings. One in Moria, at the West Gate, the second at Rauros at the North Gate, 7 for each rational planes of Minas Tirith and the tenth for the entire world itself.
#We have a swap over. The letter L is actually to be considered as a striaght line. Time is straight.
Because of this symbolic understanding of the name Ilúvatar itself and the hands sequence itself in the Music of the Ainur I had concluded that Ilúvatar was half female and half male. The female was created first. And that is why there are conflicting claims to be ‘eldest’. Indeed neither Bombadil not Treebeard are eldest. Goldberry is. In other words bet is. When Tolkien met Edith she was 19, he was 16, and this was very probably the origin for his use of the numbers 6 and 9 to describe the courses of the Sun and Moon. In the discords of the Enemy, Melkor created the source of contention between bet (left-hand female sun) and alef (right-hand male moon) within the world. However I never expected to find such an obvious implementation of my theories- which include orientation of facing of male and female. You can find it in the Zohar. This is how I have understood Tolkien’s geometry over the last couple of years..
As you can see from the above diagram facing and orientation between the male and female are very important. This is because the courses of the Sun and Moon is a metaphorical ‘battle of the sexes’- an expression of a relationship between man and woman. As stated in A Response to Priya Seth’s ‘Breaking the Tolkien Code’, the Sun dominates the Moon during the day and the Moon dominates the Sun during the night. The two are in discord. The etymology of ‘cord’ gives us the heart, not sound at its root. Discord is the state of divergent wills when the two turn away from each other. It is only at twilight that the two come together in union and harmony.
| discord (n.) |
| early 13c., descorde, “unfriendly feeling, ill will;” also “dissension, strife,” from Old French descorde (12c.) “disagreement,” from Latin discordia, from discors (genitive discordis) “disagreeing, disagreement,” from dis- “apart” (see dis-) + cor (genitive cordis) “heart,” from PIE root *kerd- “heart.”
Musical sense “want of harmony between two notes sounded together; a combination of notes not in harmony with one another” is from late 14c |
This is why we see the two heart shapes suggested in the trees in the illustration ‘Eeriness’ (below left). Eeriness depicts Tolkien’s geometry and symbolic landscape (see A Response to Priya Seth’s ‘Breaking the Tolkien Code’,). And why 
the IL and AR elements in the name of Ilúvatar are ‘apart’ at the opposite ends of the name. Just as in the mystic Talmud, the letters of the alphabet, the word, are the material structures of the world. Therefore separation of material structures in the world is an incarnation of separation of letters on the page. This is also the reason why Old Man Willow and the Barrow Wight appear at opposite ends of the Old Forest passage. Bombadil and and Goldberry are Space and Time and because of that, the country of Bombadil and Goldberry is actually a mise en abyme of the World. The World in microcosm. Old Man Willow is in the far west of their country, while the wight is in the far east edge of it. Both of those figures symbolize Tolkien-Bombadil and Edith-Goldberry in their most separated and fallen, willful states. The Hobbits symbolize their children in that passage. Old Man Willow, as the tree, is a creature of pure language, that is Tolkien completely give over to his pursuit of his Art and philology. He is forgetful of the children. The Barrow Wight is a possessive creature who hoards and does not want the children to leave, and turns affection into a smothering tomb. Both try to kill the children and destroy the marriage because of their natural fallen natures and inclinations to their behaviours. And you can see the symbolism of orientation of the letters of the alef bet below.
The letters of the alphabet all approached God in sequence from end to beginning asking that they may be considered first in the Creation. Since God is the Word then the Torah, the words of God are literally the World. The letters of the alef bet are literally the material structures of the World. This is the essence of the symbolic landscape that we find in Tolkien’s works and the material structures are in his rebus, the Floral Alphabet which can be seen in ‘J.R.R Tolkien: Artist & Illustrator’, Hammond and Scull. A thorough analysis of the symbolic forms of his alphabet will appear on this site.
In sequence all were rejected until bet. Bet was given the honour of the first letter of the Book of Genesis. Remember we read in reverse order (right to left) in Hebrew. This is the origin of the claim to being Eldest in Tolkien’s works. Unlike all of the other letters, Alef did not enter and make a plea to be considered by God because the gift had already been bestowed upon bet. But God spoke to Alef. Alef was also rejected but was also given high place. According to some commentaries Alef was given first place in the Ten Commandments.
So as you can see Adam was created a hermaphrodite originally. This agree with my analysis of Hermes and Tilkal and the courses of the Sun and Moon.