DIVINATION STONES IN THE BIBLE
The Bible cautions against sorcery, yet it did not seem to oppose a kind of divine sorcery practiced by its high priests. This might be why we rarely hear about the Urim and Thummim (pronounced OOR-eem and THOOM-eem). The Urim was a pouch attached to the breast piece of a high priest’s garment which held twelve colored dice stones called Thummim. The priest would use them to seek guidance from YHWH on behalf of the ruler, the High Court, or someone serving a need of the community.
Biblical references to them are in:
Num 27:21;
1 Sam 28:6;
Ex 28:30;
Lev 8:8;
Deut 33:8;
Ezra 2:63;
Neh 7:65.
In Lev 8:8, Yahweh gives detailed instructions to Moses on how to make the high-priest’s vestments where the Urim was to be placed. Then, in Exodus, it reads:
“Fashion a breastpiece for making decisions... It is to be square... and folded double. Then mount four rows of precious stones on it. The first row shall be carnelian, chrysolite, and beryl; the second row shall be turquoise, lapis lazuli, and emerald; the third row shall be jacinth, agate, and amethyst; the fourth row shall be topaz, onyx, and jasper. Mount them in gold filigree settings. There are to be twelve stones, one for each of the names of the sons of Israel, each engraved like a seal with the name of one of the twelve tribes.” Exodus 28.
The Urim ceased to be a source of oracular answers immediately after the death of the first prophets and has remained a mystery ever since. However, a certain order of Rosicrucians, who claim a lineage dating back to the early priesthood, documented versions of the Urim and Thummim that they used extensively in their rituals. Little information is available about this device in Jewish and other literature, since its use was prohibited for everyone but the Leviticus priests. Nevertheless, German Rosicrucians, who claim to possess secret books handed down through the ages, have preserved important details about this ancient divination system.
Flashing Letters on Stone Dice
The Bible records that all of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel were engraved on the stones of the breast piece, but this is not accurate. According to other Jewish sources, the tribal names were engraved on all but the last three stones; “On the Beryl was inscribed Asher, on the Onyx, Joseph, and on the Jasper, Benjamin,” along with the “tribes of Jeshurun” (a name for Israel). They added the latter so that all of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet would be engraved (Yoma 73b). While the "tribes of Jeshurun" part of the engraving is not mentioned in the biblical canon, it is preserved in rabbinic sources. The Babylonian Yoma 73b records that certain Hebrew letters were missing: Teth was missing in the names of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and elsewhere the Tzade as well. In order for Yahweh to give answers, all the stones had to contain all the letters of the alphabet.
The answers would come from the letters “standing forth.” Various Jewish works from the Second Temple Period refer to the twelve stones of the breast piece as “flashing” distinctive colors. According to the rabbis, the oracle was affected by rays of light shining on the letters or protruding from them and forming into groups so that the high priest could read them. Only priests speaking through the holy spirit and upon whom the Shekhinah descended could invoke them.
In a section of the Letter of Aristeas, Pseudo-Aristeas describes the splendor of the high priest Eleazar’s vestments to his brother, Philocrates:
“We were greatly astonished, when we saw Eleazar engaged in the ministration, at the mode of his dress, and the majesty of his appearance, which was revealed in the robe which he wore and the precious stones upon his person. There were golden bells upon the garment which reached down to his feet, giving forth a peculiar kind of melody, and on both sides of them there were pomegranates with variegated flowers of a wonderful hue.
He was girded with a girdle of conspicuous beauty, woven in the most beautiful colours. On his breast he wore the oracle of God, as it is called, on which twelve stones, of different kinds, were inset, fastened together with gold, containing the names of the leaders of the tribes, according to their original order, each one flashing forth in an indescribable way its own particular colour.” (1)
The Letter of Aristeas was most likely written around 138−130 bce. The reference to the breast piece as the “oracle,” and the twelve stones of the breast piece as “flashing” distinctive colors shows up in other Jewish works, as well. Josephus also stated that the twelve stones of the breast piece held light-emitting properties;
“God declared beforehand, by those twelve stones which the high priest bare on his breast, and which were inserted into his breastplate, when [Israel] should be successful in battle; for so great a splendor shone forth from them before the army began to march, that all the people were sensible of God’s being present for their assistance… Now this breastplate… left off shining two hundred years before I composed this book, God having been displeased at the transgressions of his laws.” (2)
Rosicrucian Revival of the The Urim and Thummim
While exoteric sources insist that the Urim and Thummim are lost to history, some occultists claimed to have used them as artifacts in ritual magic. The alchemical kabbalist, Heinrich Khunrath (1560-1605), was one such practitioner. A century later, among the initiates of the Gold-und Rosenkreuz, similar artifacts were still being used in accordance with Khunrath’s tradition, which regarded them as Philosophers’ Stones inlaid upon an object composed of an alloy of the seven metals used for scrying. They used an alchemical alloy, called Electrum Magicum, that was hermetically derived from seven planetary metals and used for their harmonizing magical properties.
Paracelsus was known to use this alloy in scrying mirrors but it was also used for knight’s armor and weapons. Typically, it was made with 10 grams of gold and 10 grams of silver, 5 grams of copper and 2 grams of tin, 1.66 grams of lead, 1 gram of powdered iron, and 5 grams of quicksilver or mercury.
Hereward Tilton, in his research of Rosicrucian manuscripts in Europe, uncovered some intriguing tidbits concerning what may be an evolving version of the ancient oracle. In an article (3), he wrote:
“Having studied Gold- und Rosenkreuz manuscripts in London and Munich detailing the construction and use of this artefact, I was invited by Thomas Hakl to inspect the Octagon copy of the Thesaurus thesaurorum (Treasure of Treasures), an extensive manuscript compendium of the order which contains fleeting references to the Urim and the Thummim (referred to synecdochically as a singular ‘Urim’), as well as to the electrum magicum upon which they were inlaid. With a wealth of manuscript and printed Rosicrucian material to hand, and ensconced within what seemed to be the very vault of Christian Rosenkreuz, I set about a source-critical analysis of the Thesaurus thesaurorum which would cast a great deal of light not only upon the cultus (group religious ceremonial) of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz, but also upon the history of this important occult order.”
According to Tilton, Khunrath resurrected the Urim and Thummim and employed them as artifacts of ritual magic in the Fraternity of the Rosy and Golden Cross in the late sixteenth century. The Octagon manuscript, Thesaurus Thesaurorum †, is billed as a testament by the order and a similar 18th compendia entitled Thesaurus thesaurorum- not quite identical in title– exists in Darmstadt and Stuttgart. Though slightly different, both record the order’s practice and a veiled account of its history. The Octagon manuscript preserves some sections removed from the Stuttgart and Darmstadt manuscripts, resembling a copy once held by the Supreme Council of the Ancient and Accepted Rite of Freemasonry in London.
† The full title of the Octagon manuscript is Thesaurus Thesaurorum a Fraternitate Rosae et aureae Crucis Testamento consignatus, et in Arcam Foederis repositus suae Scholae Alumnis, et Electis Fratribus. anno. MDLXXX (The Treasure of Treasures, set down as a testament by the Fraternity of the Rosy and Golden Cross, and kept in the Ark of the Covenant for the protégés and chosen brethren of their school).
The purpose of the Thesaurus thesaurorum was to transmit esoteric knowledge within the order. Just as the order appears to have reconstructed the oracle, it may have also rebuilt the Ark of the Covenant, using it as a sacred repository in which the artifacts were kept until their use in initiatory rituals and ceremonies.
While the manuscript alludes to the Urim, it does not explain its manufacture. However, Tilton found some texts that described the production of essential tinctures or ‘stones’ from the four realms which are used in several varieties of Urim. In addition to the traditional pendant breast plate with twelve stones, there is also mention of a plate with two cups and a mirror in the center, as well as a free-standing Urim with six stones. While the latter two are presented as separate artifacts, this may have been a way to conceal from the uninitiated that they were two parts to a singular system. See the third illustration below. The first two illustrations are based on sketches from the manuscript while the third shows my conception of how these two artifacts may have been used together.
The Christianized Rosicrucians of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz placed tremendous importance on the Urim. They regarded it as ‘Jehova Jesus himself’ and the divine light that shines forth from it was the Holy Spirit. They used the Urim for scrying and vetting the lower initiates, as it was believed to grant the highest initiates, or the Magi, mystical powers of surveillance and control.
Probably in Nuremberg, during initiations at the Imperator’s dwelling, the Urim was placed on a table between two burning lamps. Seven Magi sat in chairs inscribed with the symbols of the seven planets. From their seats, they would scry while the lower-ranking brethren would lie face-down on the floor in a state of inner communion with the divine. One of the order's most prominent members, Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm of Prussia, became a Magus after he “passed the Urim and Thummim and was approved” in April of 1783. (3)
Scrying in the Electrum Magicum
Heinrich Khunrath relates in his restricted esoteric teachings that the magic artifacts are produced from electrum magicum. In his printed work, he states that the Urim and Thummim are made from the Philosophers' Stone through which God reveals his secrets to the theosopher. One has to wonder therefore if the Urim and Thummim were actual artifacts as opposed to mystical allegories for gnosis. In Rosicrucian circles, the Philosophers' Stone is considered an allegory of the “chymical marriage” between the mind and the Divine. This is achieved by awakening the seven psychic centers, often symbolized by the seven planetary influences. The seven metals that comprise electrum magicum might also be an allegory for these seven psychic centers that are activated through initiation.
According to the text, Khunrath taught his followers about a traditional esoteric type of scrying mirror that was both a magic artifact and an instructional aid infused with a 'powerful ray of divine omnipotence.’ It resembled two polished mirror-like stones marked 'Urim' in between which was a 'wonder-working stone of the wise,’ a type of scrying mirror that “reflected the Thummim.” Here again we encounter the idea that a central mirror is positioned between stones.
Various Rosicrucian texts contend that the spiritual rebirth required to bring forth a new Adamic body cannot be attained by learning through worldly experience, textbooks, or astrology. Fallible human reasoning cannot help one pass from this visible world into the inner Mysterium where the mind may penetrate to “the Center of the great spirit and achieve spiritual union with Jehovah.” This union is the goal of divine magic, which utilizes seven “source-spirits” as a bridge between this ephemeral world and the eternal realm of triune divinity. These seven spirits exist within the human microcosm as “sealed psychic qualities” and are broken open through the spiritual process of initiation. It appears that the Urim may have evolved from a simple system of casting and interpreting dice to a device that facilitated initiation.
Varieties of Urim and Thummim
Whatever the Urim was, it probably combined the throwing of lettered dice with scrying. The Hebrew alphabet lends itself well to such dice work by the nature of its structure. From an alphabet with no vowels, words can have multiple meanings. For example, in English, the letters HT would leave us guessing whether the intended word, when given a vowel, would become HAT, HIT, HOT, or HUT. The entire Hebrew alphabet can thus be entirely flexible, making the original Urim a kind of Rorschach test of letters that the subconscious mind might have interpreted, or “illuminated.”
To do it well, however, the adept needed to be properly admitted into the mysteries of the seven “source-spirits,” or seven spiritual capacities, that made illumination possible. Initiates of secret orders that utilized the Urim in later times may have no longer had a Jewish education or knowledge of Hebrew; therefore, they would have needed a version of Urim that no longer relied upon Hebrew words and letters. Thus, later varieties of Urim would likely have relied predominantly on Kabbalistic symbolism and scrying.
While many versions of Urim may have evolved from the original simple twelve stone system, these will not likely become available for consumption by the general public. Street psychics who claim they can disclose the future for $50.00 would surely deck their ‘tables of fables’ with such eye candy to enhance the flow of income from the vulnerable or the vain. No doubt this is why the Urim and Thummim remained a sacred secret and may continue as such today. The vulgar usage of them would amount to using the divine name in vain, being contrary to the purpose of devices never intended to facilitate personal ambition. Given the lore that only the most advanced initiates can use the Urim properly, and that very few people ascend to such heights, we should not expect to see them on the market anytime soon.
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* Illustrations of sketches by P. D. Fougeres: Copyright ©2022 Trigram Books.
FREE WALLPAPER of the Rosicrucian Urim and Thummim shown below is available on the ABOUT page. Check it out.
References:
(2) Whiston, William, trans. The Works of Josephus. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1993.
(3) The Urim and Thummim and the Origins of the Gold- und Rosenkreuz,” Hereward Tilton, Academia.com
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