Water from an Ancient Aramaic Perspective

The Ancients Knew What Western Science is Re-Discovering

The ancient Aramaic word for water is maya (similar to Hebrew mayim) refers not only to water in its purely physical form (what we would call H20), but to everything that is of the nature of flow filled with life energy (hayye). In this sense, it is related to the word for heaven (shemaya), which is an activity, not a place, and is about the unlimited flow of light in its 'wave' form (shem). Shem can be translated as personal atmosphere that incorporates both light and darkness or manifest and umanifest Reality. Ancient Semitic thought recognizes the value and limitation of both light and darkness as seeming polarities contained in the same field. The root (sh) indicates movement extending from a point that defines some specific form of existence (m). SH as a prefix often means a "doubling" or "two of" and while it could be translated as "second waters", it could also be intimating a more esoteric meaning such as the manifested waters born of the etheric waters. In other words, it could be pointing to the evolutionary cycle of humanity that was so intimately understood and incorporated into common mystical practices.

All things have their own unique shem, their unique sacred vibration of the Sacred Unity (alaha). Quantum physics would refer to alaha as the field and is a modern mechanistic view of the interconnectedness of all things that the ancients felt themselves to be a part of and enmeshed in. A more modern translation of alaha is God, but this is an abstraction from the fuller meaning of an ancient Semitic paradigm. The word alaha points to the interconnectedness that lives between all things immaterial and material. The root means both yes and no and relates to the being and nothingness both existing as a part of a greater Sacred Unity. Interestingly, the word for child (bar) is better translated as container for the light and radiance of alaha.

Water is considered one of the primaeval elements and the letter M in many ancient alphabets (e.g., Phoenician, Greek) represented water. Many modern languages' words for water or sea begin with m and still carry it. Interestingly, the ending -aya (maya) means there is no limit or boundary. M as a root in Aramaic means a full enactment. So, 'water' means the limitless and full enactment of the unlimited flow of manifesting light raying forth the sacred unity that is present in every particle of existence. So the 'living waters' (maya d'hayye) Christ spoke of to the Samaritan woman at the well in the Bible can be translated as the life energy that flows and springs up from the inner fountain of self hollowing out, allowing the breath of the soul to offer satisfying nourishment. This inner fountain springs from the life energy of all the hierarchical worlds that created all worlds and time and offers an eternal replenishment of flowing connection to the province of livingness. This livingness spans the spectrum of life immaterial and material and highlights the original verb in the ancient semitic language is to live.

In the ancient Aramaic worldview, the living waters can be found by connecting small self or naphsha to its source, ruha. In other words, to find one's living, flowing connection to life source is the path to uncovering ones soul, or I-ness. that connects one to alaha. This is done thrugh prayer, shaluta, which is a hollowing out of the naphsha in order to create room for ruha, breath/spirit that contains connection to the source of Sacred Unity, alaha. The source of balancing this process is on the heart, leba, or from the center of one's feelings and I-ness, which embraces both the naphsha and the ruha as a bridge that balances both polarities. The ancient saw the naphsha and the ruha as the two eyes that look upon the world and when reconciled, we have a view to all dimensions and can access all dimensions, reconciling the community of images into an one I breath. This concept embraces the inner and outer self and worlds and recognizes both the inner and out self and the community of voices living in each. The archetypal human being is our model for this process which is called adam. A means the original archetype of Sacred Unity and is a non gendered representation of individual consciousness. -dam means juice, wine, sap, nectar, essence or blood and is distilled from Sacred Unity. This adam represents the perfection of humanity. The Word, melta, that the Elohim spoke adam into existence with, means something fully formed or anything formed that runs from beginning to end. This is remarkably different from the Greek logos which literally means word and is far more abstract than this evolutionary concept of life forming into a culmination or perfection that Aramaic offers.

Poetic language that is not direct and simple offers a unique manner of reaching deeper parts of the soul and speaks the language of metaphor that cultivates a wild parts of the self that need to be returned back to their original rhythm. This turning back, taba, is usually translated as repent but really loses the depth of meaning intended and moralizes and demoralizes a person's journey. To return to right rhythm with the sacred leads to a state of being blessed. Further, the word usually translated as good (or bad) is taba, and is better understood as ripe (or unripe). This also abandons a moralistic and judgemental paradigm, replacing it with a far richer depth of psychology for understanding one's relationship to Truth. Truth, shrara, understood in this way is a verb meaning unforgetting (Greek: aletheia) and is continual process of harmonious action that liberates or is strong and vigorous and opens possibilities. This process is governed by law, namosa, and points to anything of beauty that helps relieve or take away that which deprives a human being of strength.