Hebrew Letter Nun
Leviathan
Tannayin
Nun (Leviathan)
Nun is related to the subliminal consciousness in the sense of the watery depths. Peering into the Deep, we are unable to make out what is beneath the surface, and cannot fathom the depths. We do sense however, that some great force of Nature keeps the Waters in constant fluid motion and that they move as one Being that is Alive; all one Body of Living Fluid. In the sunlight, the sparkles bring delight and the undulations provide a relaxing hypnosis. The darker the depths and the more stirred-up things become, the more scary the encounter. When raging, we are terrified with the raw power and futility of our tiny attempts to resist a surging tsunami. It is this subliminal Being, so placid yet so fearsome, that we address in the water-sign of Scorpio. We engage the domain of the Water Dragon, Leviathan.
Nun, as a Hebrew letter, has many Kabbalistic lessons, as told in the Zohar. Foremost is the Ivrit word ‘nephesh’, meaning Soul, or animal soul. This refers to the anima, or Primordial Soul. Moses’ Mother (Aimah, the Great Mother), put him in a basket and floated him in the River (near the edge, among the rushes). Our cognitive consciousness (Moses) is related to Tiphareth (Melekim: our Inner Ruler) via the Soul. The Central Nucleus of any Planetary System is its Stellar Engine, therefore the Sun relates to our Soul, the central core of our cognitive being. The Great Mother placed us as a self, into a ‘basket’ (our rib-cage and body), where we float upon the Waters of the Subconscious. But ‘near the edge’ where it is safe and relatively shallow and calm …not too far out, where the Deep Currents would carry us away.
When Moses (our cognitive faculty) was in the Court of Pharaoh (the Ego), contending with Pharaoh’s Magicians, God told him to cast his staff upon the ground and it would become a serpent:
When Pharaoh shall speak unto you, saying, Shew a miracle for you: then thou shalt say unto Aaron, Take thy rod, and cast [it] before Pharaoh, [and] it shall become a תנין tanniyn. – Exodus 7:9
The usual word for ‘serpent’ is ‘nachash’ but in the verse, the word ‘tannayin’ is employed. The Nun-fish is a Sea Dragon; an enormous River Monster that causes panic and chaos (fish are subliminal), who recurs several infamous times throughout the Bible.
Moses, also known as ‘the great fish’, is from the Tribe of Levi and thus is known as Levi-Tannayin, or Leviathan. The Zohar says: ‘the master of all fishes is called Leviathan’. In another episode, God instructs Moses to cast his rod upon the ground and when he does, it turns into a serpent. Moses is afraid and runs away. The Ego fears the unknown province of the Subconscious, though it is through this province that our Will (the rod) is manifest.
In the Zohar, Rabbi Shimon asks who this Leviathan is, and ‘the Great Luminary’ answers him:
“It is the Central Pillar and we consider Tiphareth, and Yesod, as one. And he grows in that sea, which is supernal Aimah, namely Binah, which is a Sea [shamayim]”
Tannayin is the Great Power of the Soul (acting subliminally) and this reveals the mystery of the ‘Bridge to the Zgate Principles’. The Bridge is the subliminal Soul …which represents the Dragon Lineage.
Now Leviathan emerges again in the chronicle of Job:
“Canst thou draw out leviathan with a hook? …Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a seething pot or cauldron. His breath kindleth coals, and a flame goeth out of his mouth. The flakes of his flesh (scales) are joined together: they are firm in themselves; they cannot be moved. His heart is as firm as a stone; yea, as hard as a piece of the nether. When he raiseth up himself, the mighty are afraid: The sword of him that layeth at him cannot hold: the spear, the dart, nor the halberd. He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood. The arrow cannot make him flee: slingstones are turned with him into stubble. Darts are counted as stubble: he laugheth at the shaking of a spear. He maketh the deep to boil like a pot. Upon earth there is not his like. He is made without fear. He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride”. – Job 42
Could there be any more apt description of a Dragon? At hearing this Job surrenders (see Hercules and the Lernean Hydra) and his ordeals are over. This is because the Initiation of Nun has come to an end and the Process of Salvation has begun. We see this operating in the story of Jonah and the Whale (also in the Epic of Jesus):
Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights. – Jonah 1:17
This represents being in the Depths of the Subconscious through one Trinitarian period. Jonah was not an Ascended (Resurrected) Master until he came out of the Belly of Binah (was Born Again of Aimah). The Trinitarian Process is Dynamic and Generative. Yeheshuah has mastered the power of Leviathan and that is why he can walk upon the water, change water into wine, and calm the seas.
Demons and Saints are terrified by Leviathan and all religious people run away from him in fear. Leviathan, the Beast in the Waters is very powerful, -a Primordial Titanic Force- and the Intellect cannot encompass that which it cannot grasp. Without this Primal Living Force of Leviathan in the Waters, we cannot return to Moksha, Liberation: the Power of Leviathan will glue us to the appetites of samskara -psychological imprints- and our Ascension will be crushed. We need the Vital Force of the Living Mother (Aimah, Mary, The Grail, The Dragon Lineage), that the Inner Elohim will lead us to Redeem. Then our Health and Vitality will be Perfected and we shall be Masters of Life:
“And Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated”.
Now, Biblical accounts of Leviathan have been compared to the Canaanite dragon, Lotan, and many parallels have been drawn between Leviathan and the Mesopotamian Sea Dragon, Tiamat (whom Marduk defeated). Other world narratives include Indra slaying the Dragon Vrtra and Thor, slaying Jormungandr. The Hebrew accounts are often held as metaphors for a powerful enemy. Christians made the Dragon a metaphor for envy and the Ophites related it to physical space. As a metaphor, the defeat of the monster ‘chaos’ results in world peace and Spiritual Utopia.
The Key to Understanding the Mystery of the Sea Dragon Leviathan, is that eating it brings enlightenment. The fugitive Israelites were sustained in the desert by eating manna, which was said to be constituted of the dismembered parts of Leviathan. In the Zohar, the Righteous (Tzadikim) are enlightened by eating Leviathan’s skin and in other passages Leviathan is expressly associated with these same Righteous Tzadikim. In another teaching, Rabbi Eliezer is suddenly struck by a blinding light (cf. Saul on the Road to Damascus) and his companion suggests that it is illumination from the Eye of Leviathan. In Western myth, the Eye of the Dragon has a Powerful Illuminating effect, like the rising Sun at dawn.