The Dragonfly
In many cultures, dragonflies are revered as instruments of enlightenment and transformation, but they did not start out that way for me. As a child I feared them. Because we called them darning needles I thought they could bite or pierce me. I would run from them in terror. I could not have imagined then how my studies of Kabbalah and energy medicine would combine to slowly reveal layers of dragonfly secrets.
The dragonfly ties together many of the ideas presented in this book. The four-letter Name 
/YHVH, is a good place to begin. For this discussion, recall that the four letters of the Name symbolize the balance of masculine and feminine. Within YHVH all opposites become one. The letter 
/aleph, as the number one, also symbolizes the balance of opposites through its letter components. In addition, the deconstructed aleph and the letters of YHVH both share gematria 26 and both are symbols of one and the infinite (see chapters 7 and 8).
How did these ideas lead to the dragonfly? Energy medicine provided the key, and the key was the infinity sign (see chapter 9). I learned the energetic significance of infinity patterns at about the same time I noticed references to them in kabbalistic texts I was studying. I began to use infinity signs for healing, clearing, connecting, in any situation I thought might benefit. It was a match made in heaven…and earth…for the infinity sign, like YHVH and aleph, symbolized the balance of opposites and the oneness of everything.
My background in science as well as dance led me to experiment with transforming the mental constructs of Kabbalah into physical movement. I even developed a yoga-like practice to embody the Hebrew letters (chapter 21 is an example). I was able to better understand some of the mental abstractions of Kabbalah by grounding them in the physical body. I often played with infinity patterns in this way.
The Dragonfly Is Revealed
One day, I was practicing alternate nostril breathing for balance and calming: inhaling through the right nostril, exhaling with the left, inhaling left, exhaling right…repeating this sequence many times. There were four parts to the breath, so I decided to try adding the four-letter Name. To help me stay focused on alternating right and left, I traced infinity signs over my face as I breathed. Two breaths in and out, two connected infinity signs, completed the Name. I saw that what I had been drawing was a dragonfly’s wings, each lobe containing a letter of the Name. I found this image to be a helpful way to visualize the breath and so continued to trace the dragonfly wings when I practiced (see the image in chapter 15).
Several months later while I was practicing this breath in preparation for Yom Kippur (which would begin that evening), I suddenly became very curious about the Hebrew word for “dragonfly.” I looked it up. It was “sh׳pirit” 
. The similarity to the word spirit was only the beginning.
I added the gematria of the letters:
|
Shin |
|
200 |
|
Pei |
|
80 |
|
Yud |
|
10 |
|
Resh |
|
300 |
|
Yud |
|
10 |
|
Taf |
|
400 |
|
1000 = |
To my amazement, the gematria of sh’pi’rit was 1000. One thousand in Hebrew is the word eleph, spelled in Hebrew exactly like aleph, and considered a giant version of aleph. This had to be more than a coincidence.
Guidance can come in mysterious ways. Just a week later, I was invited to lunch in the sukkah of Reb Rachmiel and his wife, Tamar. I was delighted to discover that Rabbi Ariel Bar Tzardok, whose kabbalistic writings I had been exploring, was at lunch as well. With Tamar’s encouragement, I drew the dragonfly for him with the holy letters in the wings and explained what I discovered about the gematria.
Rabbi Bar Tzardok immediately led me to a text written by the famous sixteenth-century kabbalist Moshe Cordevero. He carefully opened to a page and showed me a drawing of a large aleph (facsimile below) with the letters 
written in its sections, just as I had visualized in the two infinity signs of the dragonfly wings.
Image 122—Aleph with the Letters YHVH
I was in awe. I had confirmation that the dragonfly, sh’pirit, 1000, giant aleph, could be regarded as a living spiritual symbol of the oneness of all creation.
Entrance to the Spiritual Plane
Through my Zohar studies with Sarah Yehudit Schneider, I discovered another interpretation of eleph/1000.
Single digit numbers: 1–9
correspond to the world of Assiyah, the physical plane.
Double digit numbers: 10–99
correspond to the world of Yetzira, the emotional plane.
Triple digit numbers: 100–999
correspond to the world of Briya, the mental plane.
Four digit numbers 1000–9999
correspond to the world of Atzilut, the spiritual plane.
As the first number in this series, one thousand represents the symbolic entrance to Atzilut. According to Schneider, the Zohar presents the idea of a thousand maphtechot, a thousand keys. When a person possesses a thousand keys on their metaphoric keychain, it allows them passage from the mental plane into the spiritual plane. The spiritual plane, Atzilut, is also called the world of Kulo Elokut, totally divine. Oneness consciousness permeates it completely. The thousand keys represent the gateway to Atzilut for at that point, the soul has passed all the tests and repairs that it needs for transit into the spiritual plane. The dragonfly, as gematria 1000, represents the doorway to the highest level of consciousness.
Love
And what of love? We began with the letters of YHVH in the dragonfly’s two infinity-shaped wings, totaling gematria 26. Twenty-six divides into a wing of thirteen plus a wing of thirteen.
Recall that thirteen is the gematria of love/ahava (see chapter 10). The two lobes of each wing are opposites in balance. Throughout this book, six and seven, as masculine feminine, have represented all our opposites. In healthy relationships, opposites maintain individual expression and also enjoy a shared place of commonality and growth. Then six plus seven becomes thirteen—love.
If each lobe in the pair of wings is drawn with a six on one side and a seven on the other, then each set adds to thirteen, love. The two pairs of wings represent the relationship of one individual (6 + 7) to another (6 + 7). This is the Infinity sign of Love: 13 + 13 = 26 = 1. (See chapter 10.)
The dragonfly can be regarded as a symbol of all balanced and loving relationships, a miniature flower of life!
Fifty-Two
Thirteen is also the gematria of echad/one. if each lobe of the dragonfly’s wings is regarded as echad/one, the four wings then become 4 x 13, which equals 52, the number of weeks in one cycle, a year. Fifty-two is also the gematria of BaN/
, a special spelling of YHVH that corresponds to Malchut and the Shechina. This name represents more than just spelling or numbers. It represents the inner energetic force of the physical plane, that is, the energy in our world that connects to God.
A Final Lesson
I no longer shrink in fear when I see a dragonfly. Instead, the infinity shape of its wings connects me to YHVH, love, aleph/eleph, the balance of opposites, relationship, spirit. Although that is a lot of symbolism, there is one more lesson the dragonfly can teach us.
The dragonfly travels in its lifetime from water to earth to sky. At each stage it transforms until it reaches its full potential. Its four wings, the balance of its opposites in relationship, are what finally allow it to soar and display its iridescent magnificence. The path to manifesting our unique gifts leads us in many directions as well, and the challenges we encounter require us to transform in order to grow. Ultimately, it is the union of our opposites, our body and soul, our inner masculine and feminine as reflections of the divine One, that enable us to soar and shine.
May we support each other’s journeys with open hearts. May the insights gained from this book help you recognize and shine your unique lights into the world. May the intensity of our combined light heal the world and bring us finally to the time of ultimate oneness.
Amen