A Brief Overview of the Merkabah
The word “merkabah” has several meanings:
- It is the name of a school of early Jewish mysticism
- In Hebrew, it literally translates to a “thing to ride in, cart”
- It refers to the throne-chariot of God in Biblical prophetic visions
The merkabah is a three dimensional shape consisting of two equally sized and interlocking pyramids with three triangular faces, also called tetrahedra. These form a “stella octangula,” or eight pointed star. When viewed two dimensionally, it resembles the Star of David, or a six pointed star. The merkabah is one of the principal shapes in sacred geometry.
In either dimension, the merkabah contains at its center a shared space, created only when the two separate shapes are joined. For thousands of years, the merkabah has served as a symbol of the divine light that resides in every human being; the two separate shapes are the male/female or the yin/yang, and the central space is the sacred unity of dual forces.
When visualized as surrounding the human body, the upward pointing tetrahedron begins at the knees and points upwards, and the downward pointing tetrahedron begins at the shoulders and points downwards. The upward pointing pyramid is considered the male energetic force, and the downward pointing pyramid is considered the female energetic force. The shared central space corresponds to the lower abdomen on the human body, between chakra points 1-3.
The two pyramids that make up the merkabah are viewed as spinning; the male pyramid spins from left to right, and the female spins from right to left. This corresponds to the opposing spiral force seen throughout nature, from the shape of a galaxy to the structure of DNA.
Additional reading: