The 72 Names Of God - rings, doesn't it? Evocative... ancient... The sound of dusk breezes whispering over dusk-red Sinai sands, the sound of arcane, mystic, weathered texts whispered over the flicker of a whispering Menorah candelabra, the whispered sound of something forgotten.

The Power of Kabbalah

I recently discovered the 72 names of God whilst reading The Power of Kabbalah by modern Kabbalah doyen Yehuda Berg. Although the book did interest me overall (bright, breezy, modern, ergonomic Kabbalah), it was a chapter on the 72 names of God that really got my attention.

In that chapter Berg discusses the power, the effect the 72 names of God can have on you, even if you don't speak Hebrew, can't read it, understand it, tell it apart from Greek, etc. You don't have to understand Hebrew to derive benefit from the 72 names of God (not even Hebrew speakers can pronounce them, they are unpronounceable combinations of letters).

The power and effect the 72 names of God has on you comes from the fact that the Hebrew language is a codex of creation, a communicable key of the forces of creation and each of the 72 names is a key that unlocks a different locked and dusty chest in our inner lives.

The source of the 72 names of God comes from an episode of huge importance to the Hebrew people, an episode that defined them as a people, an episode which is a macrocosmic cameo (if one can say that) of the journey that all of us must eventually take during our moral evolution: the crossing of the Red Sea.

Moses, it is said by Kabbalists, used the 72 names of God to part the Red Sea. Powerful stuff indeed. The Kabbalists further assert that the esoteric 72 names of God were then spun or encoded into the lay fabric of the exoteric Old Testament book of Exodus, specifically into three verses from chapter 14:19-21.

19. And the angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, removed and went behind them; and the pillar of cloud removed from before them, and stood behind them;

20. And it came between the camp of Egypt and the camp of Israel; and there was the cloud and the darkness here, yet gave it light by night there; and the one came not near the other all the night.

21. And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

Ancient Kabbalists decoded Moses' powerful and spiritual 72 names of God evocation from the prosaic biblical text by writing the first verse right to left, the second left to right and the third right to left and then grouping each vertical group of three Hebrew letters into segulot, each of which has a power to affect change in an aspect of our lives.

How to use the 72 Names of God chart

- To derive benefit from the 72 names of God chart in your own life, simply scan the chart from top right to bottom left (as Hebrew is read).

- Make it a routine, a ritual.

- Get yourself into a still and meditative mood, a contemplative and receptive mood.

- Conscientize why you're carrying out the scan to increase its benefit.

- And then simply scan the letters, read the letters, allow them to work into you, to change you, to rewrite you.

How could it be that simple? How could it be anything but?

They are the 72 names of God, they are the code of creation, they are the words God used to create the world, they are the eternal whisper that we have forgotten to listen to under the prosaic cacophony of modern life.

• Good, informative background article on the 72 names of God - http://site4luck.com/English/Article.aspx?Item=126
• Excellent site on the 72 names of God that provides insight on each separate segula; has meditations for each of the 72 names - http://www.geocities.com/ichthys7/
• Nice little site exploring the nature of the 72 names of God; has a lovely little video on the 72 names of God - http://www.mastersofsedona.com/SpiritualServices/72NamesOfGodMovie.htm