Is Reading Psalms in Hebrew Effective Without Understanding the Language?

[Sunnylil]

I recently downloaded The Book of Magical Psalms by Jacobus Swart, and the author is pretty clear that if we want really powerful results, we should be reading them in Hebrew—even for those who don’t know the language. After each psalm, there's a transcription provided. I’ve just learned the letters, and I think reading + understanding will take years of practice.

What do you think about mechanically reading the transcription without understanding it (while knowing the psalm in English, of course)? Has anyone tried it, and is it effective?

 

[Sabbatius]

What do you think about mechanically reading the transcription without understanding it (while knowing the psalm in English, of course)? Has anyone tried it, and is it effective?

I will admit that there is a certain psychological affect that is effective to the psyche if you allow whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish to occur when you are indulging in the "mystical/esoteric" as it is apparently unknown. Hebrew can be a creative language when applied as a poetic and sonorous undertone in magic. I prefer it when applying Western Esoteric practices when I can. When I am not able to, I prefer Greek. I hate Latin to be honest.

My biggest recommendation though is to start off using what you are most familiar with, which is your native language. Familiarize yourself with Hebrew first- learn the pronunciation and stresses. The nice thing is Biblical Hebrew is a small language with only 2,000 root words, which is nothing. My suggestion is avoid learning Ashkenazi for a dialect, which you will recognize when you read anything like: A'doh'noy as opposed to Ah'doh'nai. Just a suggestion.

 

[Sunnylil]

I will admit that there is a certain psychological affect that is effective to the psyche if you allow whatever it is that you are trying to accomplish to occur when you are indulging in the "mystical/esoteric" as it is apparently unknown. Hebrew can be a creative language when applied as a poetic and sonorous undertone in magic. I prefer it when applying Western Esoteric practices when I can. When I am not able to, I prefer Greek. I hate Latin to be honest.

My biggest recommendation though is to start off using what you are most familiar with, which is your native language. Familiarize yourself with Hebrew first- learn the pronunciation and stresses. The nice thing is Biblical Hebrew is a small language with only 2,000 root words, which is nothing. My suggestion is avoid learning Ashkenazi for a dialect, which you will recognize when you read anything like: A'doh'noy as opposed to Ah'doh'nai. Just a suggestion.

Thank for your advice, I think I’ll follow it since it makes a lot of sense. So far, I’ve chanted psalms in three different languages (ones I speak fluently, so I completely understand the meaning), and it’s fascinating how each language brings its own nuances. Unfortunately, Greek isn’t one of them. I’m guessing Hebrew will have the most powerful impact once I gradually understand it.

Could I ask you something if you don’t mind? I was going to make a topic about it, but thought I’d ask here. I was taught that during a waxing moon, you should chant psalms for gaining things (money, love, etc.), and during a waning moon, psalms for banishing or cleansing. Also, to be very careful during so-called "satanic lunar days" because it could be dangerous. Now I’m questioning whether this rule is really necessary. How important is it to follow lunar phases when practicing psalm magic? Does it actually make a difference, or is it better to ignore them?

And also planetary days/hours, should we consider them with psalm magic?
And what about planetary days/hours? Should we be considering them when working with psalm magic?
I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have on this!

 

[HoldAll]

When you are saying the words of a spell in a foreign language you don't understand, you're effectively using

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

(strictly speaking this is not correct though since you already know their meaning) which derive their power from their very strangeness to you, or very mundanely put, they just sound cool - "Adonai" or "Sabaoth", for example, sound mysterious and awe-inspiring while "Lord" is more or less pedestrian in comparison. In my experience, the disparity only becomes clearcut and striking when you declaim such words aloud, simple reading them in a book makes little difference - it's like either idly reading a script or watching the actual scene in a theater; in both cases; some sort of emotional charge, drama, vibration, whatever is required in oder to breathe life into the words and also into your spell, otherwise you're just producing hot air.

 

[Sunnylil]

When you are saying the words of a spell in a foreign language you don't understand, you're effectively using

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

(strictly speaking this is not correct though since you already know their meaning) which derive their power from their very strangeness to you, or very mundanely put, they just sound cool - "Adonai" or "Sabaoth", for example, sound mysterious and awe-inspiring while "Lord" is more or less pedestrian in comparison. In my experience, the disparity only becomes clearcut and striking when you declaim such words aloud, simple reading them in a book makes little difference - it's like either idly reading a script or watching the actual scene in a theater; in both cases; some sort of emotional charge, drama, vibration, whatever is required in oder to breathe life into the words and also into your spell, otherwise you're just producing hot air.

I understand exactly what you mean. From an early age, the word Lord becomes so familiar that it loses the mystery and power and that familiarity makes it harder to slip into a truly altered state. Your analogy to theater really resonates. Thank you for sharing this perspective; it gives me a lot to reflect on.

P.S. Apologies for breaking the rules on Book Shares thread; I'll definitely be more mindful of this in the future.

 

[HoldAll]

P.S. Apologies for breaking the rules on Book Shares thread; I'll definitely be more mindful of this in the future.

Never mind, I made the same mistake when I first got here, I simply wasn't used to forums being run in such an orderly manner. We're trying to run a tight ship here, which is something I'm rather glad about because forums like this one can easily descend into chaos if the mods aren't careful.

Another thought concerning foreign languages used in rituals just occurred to me - take e.g. the ever-popular

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

- sounds better than "Everybody not initiated please leave the premises."

 

[Sunnylil]

Never mind, I made the same mistake when I first got here, I simply wasn't used to forums being run in such an orderly manner. We're trying to run a tight ship here, which is something I'm rather glad about because forums like this one can easily descend into chaos if the mods aren't careful.

Another thought concerning foreign languages used in rituals just occurred to me - take e.g. the ever-popular

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

- sounds better than "Everybody not initiated please leave the premises."

This is actually a very helpful rule. It makes it easy to find the information you need without digging through endless threads and parallel conversations, and I think it also helps the forum thrive. I’m really glad I found this place by chance and hope to stay here for a long time.

The quote "Hekas, hekas, este bebeloi!" made me smile I guess I have a lot of work ahead of me, but it’s nice that Hebrew already inspires me and sounds to me mysteriously beautiful.

I have a question for you, if you don’t mind:
If you were working with psalm magic and the invocation of Shem angels, would you pay attention to the phases of the moon and planetary days and hours? Or is it not crucial with psalms and angelic names?

I always check these things, but after hearing that it might be unnecessary with psalms, I’m curious to learn more.

 

[HoldAll]

I have a question for you, if you don’t mind:
If you were working with psalm magic and the invocation of Shem angels, would you pay attention to the phases of the moon and planetary days and hours? Or is it not crucial with psalms and angelic names?

I always check these things, but after hearing that it might be unnecessary with psalms, I’m curious to learn more.

If it's really important, I'd watch for the phases of the moon but that's about it. I can't bring myself to paying attention to planetary hours but I guess choosing the right day of the week makes good sense (Damon Brand, for example, advocates Thursday for success magic). However, my original background is chaos magic so I'm not really a stickler for tradition.

 

[Sunnylil]

If it's really important, I'd watch for the phases of the moon but that's about it. I can't bring myself to paying attention to planetary hours but I guess choosing the right day of the week makes good sense (Damon Brand, for example, advocates Thursday for success magic). However, my original background is chaos magic so I'm not really a stickler for tradition.

Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I really appreciate it

 

[Sabbatius]

Could I ask you something if you don’t mind? I was going to make a topic about it, but thought I’d ask here. I was taught that during a waxing moon, you should chant psalms for gaining things (money, love, etc.), and during a waning moon, psalms for banishing or cleansing. Also, to be very careful during so-called "satanic lunar days" because it could be dangerous. Now I’m questioning whether this rule is really necessary. How important is it to follow lunar phases when practicing psalm magic? Does it actually make a difference, or is it better to ignore them?

And also planetary days/hours, should we consider them with psalm magic?
And what about planetary days/hours? Should we be considering them when working with psalm magic?
I’d appreciate any thoughts you might have on this!

All of this is really up to your discretion to be completely honest. This is the nice thing about the world of the "Wizarding World" of Esoterica.
When it comes to recitation of Tehillim, or any Hebrew prayer for that matter, time of day is more important than Lunar cycle. But again, this is what you may set to what your practice determines.

My personal practice starts at 4:30am, but then again, I drink coffee and avoid people.

 

[Xenophon]

I recently downloaded The Book of Magical Psalms by Jacobus Swart, and the author is pretty clear that if we want really powerful results, we should be reading them in Hebrew—even for those who don’t know the language. After each psalm, there's a transcription provided. I’ve just learned the letters, and I think reading + understanding will take years of practice.

What do you think about mechanically reading the transcription without understanding it (while knowing the psalm in English, of course)? Has anyone tried it, and is it effective?

If you arrange the text interlineally (sic? A line of Hebrew/a line of English, and so on), reading with understanding comes sooner than you think. I know a guy whose rites require him to recite the Hebrew backwards over a period of days. He says that after the 2nd-3rd day, he pretty well has the "with meaning and with feeling" down pat.

 

[Sunnylil]

All of this is really up to your discretion to be completely honest. This is the nice thing about the world of the "Wizarding World" of Esoterica.
When it comes to recitation of Tehillim, or any Hebrew prayer for that matter, time of day is more important than Lunar cycle. But again, this is what you may set to what your practice determines.

My personal practice starts at 4:30am, but then again, I drink coffee and avoid people.

Thanks a lot! I’ll check out what I can find about psalms and the hours of the day in Jewish tradition, and I’ll experiment until I figure out what works best for me.

Wow, 4:30 sounds interesting. I’ve done a couple of sunrise rituals before, and the feeling is just amazing.
And … to block out the outside world, I use earplugs

Post automatically merged: Aug 22, 2024

If you arrange the text interlineally (sic? A line of Hebrew/a line of English, and so on), reading with understanding comes sooner than you think. I know a guy whose rites require him to recite the Hebrew backwards over a period of days. He says that after the 2nd-3rd day, he pretty well has the "with meaning and with feeling" down pat.

Thanks for the idea! I’ll try it out today. I hope it’ll work pretty quickly, especially with the psalms I almost know by heart. I also found a Hebrew version on YouTube, and slowing it down to 0.75 speed makes it easier to follow along.

It’s interesting—one of the practitioners I spoke with in person used to recite psalms letter by letter, backwards, for black magic rituals. He said he eventually memorized them, though he wasn’t too strict about Hebrew and did it in his native language.

 

[Amadeus]

I recently downloaded The Book of Magical Psalms by Jacobus Swart, and the author is pretty clear that if we want really powerful results, we should be reading them in Hebrew—even for those who don’t know the language. After each psalm, there's a transcription provided. I’ve just learned the letters, and I think reading + understanding will take years of practice.

What do you think about mechanically reading the transcription without understanding it (while knowing the psalm in English, of course)? Has anyone tried it, and is it effective?

I have worked a lot with the psalms, read different English versions, other languages and also in the Old Church Slavonic which I can't understand at all, just spelling out, blablabla. While reading OCS I noticed a strong energy effect, similar to others, but with something additional effect wise. Like a flavor, highly specific something being added to it. Yes it feels effective, just OCS is very annoying to read, the letters look so weird.

Experimented a little with Latin and Hebrew too, without understanding much, effects were still there.

There's only one thing to do, experiment! Latin, Hebrew and OCS can give some interesting effects, even if you can't understand them.You still tune in the frequency, system.

 

[Xenophon]

I recently downloaded The Book of Magical Psalms by Jacobus Swart, and the author is pretty clear that if we want really powerful results, we should be reading them in Hebrew—even for those who don’t know the language. After each psalm, there's a transcription provided. I’ve just learned the letters, and I think reading + understanding will take years of practice.

What do you think about mechanically reading the transcription without understanding it (while knowing the psalm in English, of course)? Has anyone tried it, and is it effective?

Reading Hebrew is easier than it seems. For comprehension, I mean. Your target text is not all that long. And with every Psalm you learn, there's carryover of vocabulary and often phraseology into other Psalms. An hour a day, without fail, works...well, good results, if not wonders. With all the online resources, study should become even more effective. Heck, for a few thousand years, Jewish kids of junior high-school age have been mastering enough of the language to get through their bar mitzvah and the required public reading. I managed to squeeze in a semester into two months self-study in my (eventually aborted) seminary career. (But then that institution was located in Appalachia, not Oxford.)

 

[Ziran]

Reading Hebrew is easier than it seems. For comprehension,

In Psalm 5:8 why is אֶשְׁתַּֽחֲוֶ֥ה conjugated with the aleph prefix? This is a completely unique conjugation, it only occurs twice in the entire tanach. Both in Psalms?

In Psalm 49? What is the answer to the riddle?

 

[Xenophon]

In Psalm 5:8 why is אֶשְׁתַּֽחֲוֶ֥ה conjugated with the aleph prefix? This is a completely unique conjugation, it only occurs twice in the entire tanach. Both in Psalms?

In Psalm 49? What is the answer to the riddle?

I did not say that every verse in every Psalm is "easy." I said that learning to read Hebrew so that it means something is a task well within the abilities of even moderately intelligent people (see my remark about bar mitzvah boys.) There are dozens of commentaries out there on the Pslams. Consult any of the standard ones. My aim was to encourage OP to tackle the language. Your aim? I doubt you had one. Your remark is childish and eristic.

 

[Sunnylil]

I have worked a lot with the psalms, read different English versions, other languages and also in the Old Church Slavonic which I can't understand at all, just spelling out, blablabla. While reading OCS I noticed a strong energy effect, similar to others, but with something additional effect wise. Like a flavor, highly specific something being added to it. Yes it feels effective, just OCS is very annoying to read, the letters look so weird.

Experimented a little with Latin and Hebrew too, without understanding much, effects were still there.

There's only one thing to do, experiment! Latin, Hebrew and OCS can give some interesting effects, even if you can't understand them.You still tune in the frequency, system.

Oh, intersting

I have worked a lot with the psalms, read different English versions, other languages and also in the Old Church Slavonic which I can't understand at all, just spelling out, blablabla. While reading OCS I noticed a strong energy effect, similar to others, but with something additional effect wise. Like a flavor, highly specific something being added to it. Yes it feels effective, just OCS is very annoying to read, the letters look so weird.

Experimented a little with Latin and Hebrew too, without understanding much, effects were still there.

There's only one thing to do, experiment! Latin, Hebrew and OCS can give some interesting effects, even if you can't understand them.You still tune in the frequency, system.

I'm curious, why did you choose Old Church Slavonic? What led you to that decision? I understand OCS, and to me, it feels richer than the English versions—more emotionally charged words, a wider range of synonyms. More emotional depth = more magical power?
My teacher, who used to do curses with psalms, always recited them in OCS, and they worked flawlessly for him. Though, I always thought it was more about his personal power. Funny enough, all my teachers have been left-hand practitioners, even though I lean towards right-hand practices.
In terms of potency, from your subjective experience, with which language have you seen more results? The one you understand better or the one you have the most emotional attacheent with?

Post automatically merged: Aug 28, 2024

Reading Hebrew is easier than it seems. For comprehension, I mean. Your target text is not all that long. And with every Psalm you learn, there's carryover of vocabulary and often phraseology into other Psalms. An hour a day, without fail, works...well, good results, if not wonders. With all the online resources, study should become even more effective. Heck, for a few thousand years, Jewish kids of junior high-school age have been mastering enough of the language to get through their bar mitzvah and the required public reading. I managed to squeeze in a semester into two months self-study in my (eventually aborted) seminary career. (But then that institution was located in Appalachia, not Oxford.)

agree, I’ve already picked up some words automatically. I’m surprised at how quickly it’s happening. My main issue is grammar (though, do I even need it? You can understand the meaning of words without fully grasping how grammar ties them together). But my biggest struggle is pronunciation. Online dictionaries give pronunciation for individual words, but they often differ, and I can’t always tell which one is correct. Plus, it’s even harder to find a resource that lets you hear full sentences. I’m constantly second-guessing whether I’m saying things right.

 

[Xenophon]

Oh, intersting

I'm curious, why did you choose Old Church Slavonic? What led you to that decision? I understand OCS, and to me, it feels richer than the English versions—more emotionally charged words, a wider range of synonyms. More emotional depth = more magical power?
My teacher, who used to do curses with psalms, always recited them in OCS, and they worked flawlessly for him. Though, I always thought it was more about his personal power. Funny enough, all my teachers have been left-hand practitioners, even though I lean towards right-hand practices.
In terms of potency, from your subjective experience, with which language have you seen more results? The one you understand better or the one you have the most emotional attacheent with?

Post automatically merged: Aug 28, 2024

agree, I’ve already picked up some words automatically. I’m surprised at how quickly it’s happening. My main issue is grammar (though, do I even need it? You can understand the meaning of words without fully grasping how grammar ties them together). But my biggest struggle is pronunciation. Online dictionaries give pronunciation for individual words, but they often differ, and I can’t always tell which one is correct. Plus, it’s even harder to find a resource that lets you hear full sentences. I’m constantly second-guessing whether I’m saying things right.

You need grammar to tell you how the words relate to each other. At least the basics.

You Tube should have videos of how to pronounce Old Testament Hebrew. Failing that, pick one reliable Hebrew lexicon or grammar and do what it says. Consider: the Book of Common Prayer as read in London (by a real Englishman, I mean) will sound different than how it sounds read by a Yorkshireman.

 

[Amadeus]

I wanted to experiment with other languages, with some special language. OCS, I believe is used only in the liturgies, nowhere else. I joined some study group and the clergy members taught us how to spell out words.

Also because I speak some basic Russian, I felt like it would be easier to learn it, as lots of the letters are same, then again you have many really weird looking ones and specific rules, symbols.

I think the potency has to do with personal power, some can use any version or language, and they all work the same. In the long run for me the results have been better with the languages that I can understand well and enjoy reading. Still, whenever I used the others, the effects were still good.
That special additional energy effect I get from OCS motivates me to sometimes experiment with it. The experiments with OCS only make up a small percentage of my overall experience with the psalms.

 

[Sunnylil]

You need grammar to tell you how the words relate to each other. At least the basics.

You Tube should have videos of how to pronounce Old Testament Hebrew. Failing that, pick one reliable Hebrew lexicon or grammar and do what it says. Consider: the Book of Common Prayer as read in London (by a real Englishman, I mean) will sound different than how it sounds read by a Yorkshireman.

Thanks for the advice! I really appreciate it and will definitely follow through by checking out some good Hebrew resources and focusing on the basics.