LAMED

LUCY

He made the letter Lamed King and bound to it a crown and tested this one
with this one, and formed of it: Libra in the universe, Tishri in the year,
and the intestines in the soul. With Lamed have been formed: Libra, Tishri,
the intestines, acting and impotence.

OX GOAD

Lamed means ox-goad. An ox-goad is a massive whip used to drive oxen. For
what, asked Alice? Well for a whole load of things but getting it to go the
right way seemed an obvious one. To keep the straight and narrow and reach
the correct destination. Alice also suggested that an ox would be driven to
till the earth, thus preparing one for G-d's will.

TEACHER

Lamed also means teacher. A teacher might be seen as a person who directs
others to their goals and an aspirational person. A teacher also drives a
person and if they did not do so, the student would lack direction and not
learn.

GEMATRIA

Lamed is 30 and gimel is 3. As has been repeated endlessly, units signify
diving things, while tens denote celestial things. Lamed could be like a
camel, but in the more celestial scale. Logan suggested connections in the
brain.

PATHS ON THE TREE

The Golden Dawn attributes lamed to the path between tiphareth and gevurah.
Logan suggested these might be described as consciousness and time, this
would suggest that one might be conscious of situations as they arise – to
monitor them, and so adjust. Tipharet might also be considered as the
spiritual core, so that in this attribution the power in gevurah is upon the
path in tiphareth driving one on, though not in the physical sense.

The Ari attributes lamed to the path between hod and yesod. Logan described
these as logic and memory meeting, in such as way as to deduce outcome from
past experiences.

JUSTICE AND ADJUSTMENT

In the tarot of Thoth, lamed is present as the card justice. A woman,
blindfolded, holds the balancing pans. A sword (gevurah) rests between the
pans. The scales are used to weigh deeds and their punishment or reward.
They might be seen as the beginning and end of an event, but it must be
remembered that these things are more continuous than that. Justice herself
is blindfolded so she relies only on the weights before her not on the
appearance or pleading of the person involved. The sword is present so as to
dispense that justice. We have already discussed zayin, the sword, as a form
of intelligence, and thus as a way of applying justice by means of their
discrimination. More cynically, one might view the show of justice to be a
form of control for the masses.

The scales contain two bubbles, marked alpha and omega the first and
last letters of the Greek alphabet. Alice suggested that these might suggest
the balance of chaos and creation. Some religious groups believe that
creation is constant, and this might imply constant destruction as well.
Some discussion involved the pans of the scales as the claws of the
scorpion, one pan as god's law and the other as spiritual credit.

Justice in this deck has some similarities to the ancient Egyptian goddess
Maat, whose job it was to weigh the heart of the deceased against the
feather of truth. Should it not be balanced correctly, it was fed to a
beast; success allowed the name of the deceased to be recorded by Thoth.
Maat is, however, the goddess of truth, not justice.

LIBRA

Some time passed while debating whether librans were good in bed and the
librans themselves certainly thought so. The reason for this suggestion was
that libra is rules by Venus, goddess of love. It also means that librans
may be good with people, working to make everyone happy. Librans like to
think things through to come to the best conclusion.

Warren told us that water seeks its own level. This is also representative
of a balance being found.

HEARTS

The form of lamed is described as the seed of wisdom, the yod, descending
from the brain to enter the heart. Similarly it can be a heart aspiring to
the word of god, the yod at the top tip of the lamed. Also, the first and
last letters of the torah spell heart, making the torah the contents of the
heart. Thus the torah is a way of reaching to god. And lamed is described as
the heart that understands knowledge.

ALICE CRANE

American Heritage Dictionary (giggle)

SCALE: An instrument or machine for weighing. Either of the PANS, treys, or dishes of a balance. To have as a weight, as determined by a scale.

LIABLE: Legally obligated; responsible.

MERIT: Value, Excellence, or superior quality. Approval or disapproval. Spiritual Credit granted for good works.

SY:
Their foundation is
a pan of merit
a pan of liability
and the tongue of decree deciding between them

Dalet Tet Lamed Nun Tav in the tongue

In one claw we have a Pan of G-d’s law
In the other we have a Pan of Spiritual Credit

In my opinion, and Kaplan’s apparently, that which weighs the two is Lamed.

JUSTICE: The principal of moral rightness; equity

Justice is the …. It’s the Model through which the Law and one’s adherence to such law is measured.

EXAMPLE:

“Oh dear I shouldn’t have been driving drunk. I hit that poor dog. He was old, blind, unable to control his bowels. Flies were swarming around his poor bottom, but when I killed him, poor little Pollyanna burst into tears. Ran and told her mommy, and didn’t leave her room for hours.”

IMO, even though the driver was drunk, the dog’s body had out lived his time. His bones were sore, he could no longer hunt rabbits. Most of his teeth had fallen out and he couldn’t even enjoy his steak scraps if they were well done. Justice was served, even though poor Pollyanna felt cheated.

ADJUSTMENT:

“In lamed we are talking about control and because of that we are talking about adaptation. How can we best control our environment in order to exploit it? “
-Logoid

If a farmer were to live in South America they would grow coffee or coca, something suitable to the climate. Say a South American attempted to grow… wheat. It would wither and die and a good crop wouldn’t be reaped. The farmer in this situation is required to hunt and peck. Search for things that do grow well in his area lest he and his family starve. Adjustments must be made.

If I’m hot I drink ice water. If I’m cold, I bundle up. If I am in a jungle and always being chased by tigers as I hunt for my food I shall climb a tree and prey on they monkeys that dwell in the treetops. Evolution happens for a reason, this reason is called Adjustment or Survival.

GEVURAH TO TIPHERETH

Why would one need to Goad and OX?
To make them move forward, to till the soil, to prepare it for planting.

Just as man must till the Earth for nourishment, so must he prepare his ego for the Divine will of G-d. Before one can put a new living room set in their lounge, they have to get rid of the old furniture. They must empty their room. Otherwise it becomes cluttered, unmanageable.

An Ox tills the land, just as Adam was commanded to do so.

http://www.bibleontheweb.com/Bible.asp
Genesis 3:23 - Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the Garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

http://hjem.get2net.dk/333/qabalah/paths/22lamedadjustment.html
Lamed is the path aligning the will of God in Geburah with the personal indivduation in Tiphareth. Lamed means ‘Ox Goad’ but also ‘to teach’. The grinding force of Geburah puts a steady pressure on the soul that it may stick to its spiritual path.

http://members.fortunecity.com/patrickm/231gates5.htm
Lamed means Ox-goad, which is a device, designed to control the speed and direction of the Ox (or spritiual driving force). One might say that this is one of the main purposes of consciousness- to harness and focus the power of the spirit.

THE TEACHER AND THE STUDENT

http://www.restorationfoundation.org/volume_3/31_13.htm
That the tallest letter in the Aleph-Beis is the one that implies learning and teaching implies that this quality is man’s highest endowment.

Not only is Lamed likened to the student who addresses the teacher for knowledge, but it is also likened to the teacher who learns from the student. Lamed as the Tallest letter represents man reaching up to heaven, and the Yod at the tip of the letter represents G-d making Himself small to fit in the hearts of his children.

Just as man looks to G-d for Wisdom and Understanding, so to does G-d look to man for experience, for G-d ain’t got no hands unless he uses mine.

http://www.inner.org/HEBLETER/lamed.htm
This is the secret of the form of the letter lamed, the heart ascending in aspiration to conceive and comprehend ("understand knowledge") the point of wisdom, the yud situated at the top of the letter lamed.

Casey’s Post:
The Lamed represents the three Mentalities, Chokmah-Wisdom, Binah-Understanding, and Da’at-Knowledge.

Their foundation is
a pan of merit
a pan of liability
and the tongue of decree deciding between them

A Heart that Understands Knowledge.

WARREN LAKE

Path 22 ( Lamed ) Value = 30
The link between Severity Geburah and Beauty Tipareth.
The Path of Justice
Truth is the guardian of this path.
Absolute truth is paradoxic and truly only a relative concept

Linking Tarot Card
Justice
http://www.nrg.com.au/tarot/path22.html

Self Affirmation:
"I am able to distinguish clearly the true from the false and I take charge of
my life and I face the issues in my life with honesty".
"I am the Adjustment, able to adjust to anything".

Denoting balance of personality and mind.
Can be seen as representative of a balanced outlook and the vindication of
truth.
Lamed is the path aligning the will of God in Geburah with the personal
individuation in Tiphareth.

Lamed means 'ox goad' but also 'to teach'.
The grinding force of Geburah puts a steady pressure on the soul that it may
stick to its spiritual path.

The symbols on the tarot trump Adjustment (Justice) associates Lamed with the
sign of Libra and the Egyptian goddessof karma, Maat, who weighs the
hearts/souls of the dying on the scales
of truth against a feather, assisted by Anubis.
In Egyptian mythology, Maat stands for right, truth, law and rectitude.

Related Animal: Ox goad

Symbolic Items:
SCALE: An instrument or machine for weighing.
Either of the PANS,treys, or dishes of a balance.
To have as a weight, as determined by a scale.

More Info:
LIABLE: Legally obligated; responsible.
MERIT: Value, Excellence, or superior quality. Approval or disapproval.
Spiritual Credit granted for good works.
JUSTICE: The principal of moral rightness; equity
Justice is the Model through which the Law and one’s
adherence to such law is measured.
ADJUSTMENT:
In lamed relates to control and adaptation without the restrants of emotions.
calulated but fair judgement.

OX: The tame version of the Bull not as aggressive.
Representing the preparation of ones ego for the Divine will of God.
Clearing out the layers of ego (Shrek) that once ruled without Question.
They must empty their mind and wear there pride on there sleve
(The Donkey).
Otherwise truth becomes cluttered ( layered ), unmanageable.

Lamed means "Ox Goad" which also means "to teach".
The force of Geburah puts a steady pressure on the soul that it
may stick to its spiritual path.

Lamed is a path designed to control the speed and direction of each
personal spritiual driving force).
To harness and focus the power of the spirit.

LOGAN

TEACHER AND STUDENT

The teacher who learns from the student and vice versa.
The heart ascending in aspiration to comprehend knowledge.
Representive of a Heart that Understands Knowledge.

First of all I would like to commend all the summaries
I have read so far and rather than reiterate a lot of
what's been said, I would just like to restate my
earlier assumptions and attempt to put them into
slightly better words.

EVOLUTION

I stated that Lamed could be associated with
evolution, the adaptability of the organism to the ox
goad of the reality of changing conditions. It is my
Understanding that what we think of as God is in fact,
the Natural Universe and the laws therof. I do not
mean to be a materialist as I include the various laws
of consciousness and parallel dimensions/realities in
the make up of the universe as a whole.

What is evolution, as the theory presently stands? It
is the adaptation of a species to a change in the
environmental conditions, and on a more fundamental
level it is the adaptation of DNA itself in order to
survive the local climate wherever it may be. This
adaptation is generally considered to proceed through
random beneficial mutations of a given species out
surviving those who are not blessed with the random
mutations. For example, the conditions of the planet
earth change and the temperature becomes colder and
all cold blooded creatures die out, or at least only
survive at the equator. The objective reality of
universal law, or Deus, here serves as the ox goad
which pokes and prods the DNA into a system which will
survive. The symbol of the ox goad also implies the
pain that often accompanies this process.

There is however, evidence of a further manifestation
of the evolutionary current known as Causative
Formation, which has been discussed at great length on
this group in the past. Causative formation is
observed when structures of DNA alter in order to
benefit from changing environments at great distance
from the changing environment itself. For want of a
better example, say a race of monkeys dies of a virus
on one island, the same species of monkey on another
island will spontaneously become immune to the disease
as if there is some kind of species telepathy going
on. This connects with the esoteric ideas of group
souls, etc, and also illustrates how only a few oxes
have to be beaten with the goad and soon all of them
begin to move in the right direction.

EXTRACTION OF RELEVANT INFORMATION FROM THE GENOME

Over the course of evolution, DNA has acquired much
information that is apparently redundant in the modern
phase of existence. It has been suggested that this
redundant DNA could be viral DNA that integrated into
our genome in previous epochs (modern genetic
engineering is undertaken with the use of manipulated
viruses).

During the process of protein replication (where the
DNA unwinds in order to produce the relevant sections
which code for the protein needed to meet the demands
of the changing environment of the cell) the
information on the genome must be refined and
'cleansed' of all the redundant information, the
'clutter' if you will, in order to produce the string
of code that we need for alanine, for example. This
clutter has never been completely removed from the
genome and actually now serves to separate large
chunks of relevant information from each other, and is
part of a buffering system.

I mention this because I have observed that the
chromosomal processes that occur within the cell (the
cell cycle and the transcription of proteins) mirror
the wheel of the zodiac, and the above part of the
overall process best matches to the star sign of
Libra, which as we know is associated with the letter
and sigil of Lamed. Because this process has evolved
through the build up of redundant material within the
genome, I believe it is pertinent to mention in
connection with what I said about adaptation and
evolution in general.

http://www.thelogos.co.uk/star.htm

This link can be observed in the personalities of
Librans in general, which, as a very general rule,
like knowledge to be exact and measurement to be
precise.

EMOTIONAL CONTROL

Emotional control was a topic that I tried to discuss
on the group by encouraging Librans to share their
feelings on this matter. It was generally confirmed
that Librans are quite tightly controlled emotionally,
and this can produce an imbalance of cold logic which
they use to maintain their emotional balance.

The hormone which is involved with the control of
stress and emotions is cortisol, and I would not
hesitate to guess that hormonal studies of the various
star signs would reveal an over _expression of cortisol
in most Librans. I may be wrong however, and I
forgive myself in advance if I am.

http://www.thelogos.co.uk/act2a.htm

For more information on certain archetypes that arise
because of hormonal balance determined in a large part
by genetics and to a lesser extent by social
conditioning, please visit the above link with
particular attention to the Mimes, with respect to
Lamed.

CONCLUSION

I have not concerned myself with the discussions on
justice, as it varies between nationality and
personality, yet I would state that as far as
celestial justice is concerned we could determine that
Lamed is that one of the divine chromosomes, that is
involved with keeping everything in order, by
correcting the scales if they tip to one side or the
other, and also, importantly, maintaining the
evolution of the universe in a progressive, rather
than regressive, fashion, onwards and upwards, growing
towards the light.

Adaptation, direction, exactitude, relevance, control
and balance; a heart that loves knowledge.