BAPT-ism - A Qaballistic Deconstruction

This article will focus on a particular method of deconstructing "the Construct" via the use of the letters that comprise a word. For my friends in the linguistics world, this article carry with it a "respectable cringe level", for it will break away from standard etymological and linguistic constrictions and seek to apply a purely "qabbalistic", "philosophical", or "esoteric" deconstruction of the word. In doing so, it is our intent to provide the inquirer additional insights into esoteric construction of words and methods used to encode esoteric forumlae through the use of word formation.

This article is an extension of principles and ideas contained in the article  "Bats, Bath's, and Ba's".

A review of this article will be helpful to understand some of the primary background material implicit in this article.

The Religious Ritual called "Baptism"

"Baptism" as a religious ceremony is essentially a "death and resurrection" ceremony.  A simplistic explanation might entail something like this: a person (the old self) dies, and then is reborn into a new "Christ consciousness", or path through which a "Christ consciousness" could be opened through the process of a "baptism".

As a primitive rite, a baptism involves the immersing of the applicant into water, accompanies with some religious invocation intended to convey some power onto the applicant who is engaged within the religious ritual.

This "submerging", with a subsequent "laying on of hands", is meant to confer a special power onto the applicant.

Allegorical Use of Baptism within Classical Greek and Roman Traditions

In order to better understand the totality of the archetype of "baptism", or its allegorical, it is, as is always the case, necessary to "grab" a few more usages of a word.  In so doing, we can add "texture" and "body" to what is otherwise a very skeletal framework upon which to build or decode the "philosophics".

The word "baptism", or "baptize", is a Greek word and is modified through suffix or prefix additions/changes as charted below.

1 βαπτíζω baptízō to baptize, dip, plunge
2 βáπτισµα báptisma baptism
3 βαπτισµóς baptismós a dipping, washing
4 βαπτιστ baptistēs Baptist [used only of John the Baptist]
5 βáπτω báptō to dip [with related words, e.g. βαφ, baphē , “dye”]
6 βαπτóς baptós dipped, dyed
7 βáπτισις báptisis baptism [1x in all Greek literature from 8th cent. BC through 3rd cent. AD].
8 βáπτιστος abáptistos undipped

Gary Martin at AOAL.org or has compiled a list of passages where these words have been used, and from this, we can begin to peer deeper into the philosophical usages of the Greek "baptizo" as it is applied to Christian religious ritual

One such usage comes from the 8th century BC, wherein Homer uses the word to describe the tempering of steel as when "dipped" into cold water.

 …And as when a smith dips5 a great axe or an adze in cold water amid loud hissing to temper it…even so did his eye hiss round the stake of olive-wood. Terribly then did he cry aloud… - Odyssey 9.392

Another usage comes from Pindar in the 5th century BC.

Purveyors of slander are a deadly evil…But what profit really results from that cunning? None, for just as when the rest of the tackle labors in the depths of the sea, like a cork I shall go undipped8 over the surface of the brine [salt-water sea]. [Translator note: The image is that of a cork floating on the surface while the weights and nets sink into the sea.] - Pythian Odes 2.80

One final passage is taken from Josephus in the first century AD.

After this catastrophe of Cestius many distinguished Jews abandoned the city as swimmers desert a sinking1 ship. 

From these examples, we can begin to confer a larger esoteric, or philosophical construction, to the ritual of the baptism.  The baptism serves as a tempering of the spirit of the applicant, while it can also be said that those upon whom the baptism has been conferred, one may become more "pure in spirit", and hence "rise above the waters" wherein the rest of humanity "swims".  And finally, as is often the case when "Jews" are implied in the passages, the exact opposite meaning may be inferred, wherein in this case, the "baptism" equates to the total submersion and loss of the "soul" as represented by submersion or sinking of the "ship".

However, the primary usage or construction seems to be a state wherein the spirit is immersed in the waters and yet remains afloat as an iceberg or one who is immersed into a water with an excessive saline (too much Typhon) water and hence rises accordingly.   This state can be equated to the balancing of Ma'at wherein "tyranny" and "darkness" imposed results in a condition where people seek to rise themselves above the waters (tyranny) or require external assistance in order to relieve the people of the tyranny under which they find themselves.

The "Christening", or "Baptism" of Ships

As we have seen, "baptism's" largely revolve around the idea of "floating above the waters" and so has naval overtones.  In the case of ships that cross the oceans, another form of "baptism", or "Christening" takes place, and has evolved from ornate ceremony to a more cost effective "smash of a bottle of wine or champaign across the bow" of the about to be launched ship.

Other "christening fluids" have been noted, including  brandy, whiskey, although water from local rivers near ship builders has also been used.

It is said that French christening ceremonies very much mirrored Christian baptismal ceremonies.

In all of these cases, the intent of the ceremony is to wish safety upon the ship and her crew, leading further to support the idea of "baptismos" being that of "rising above the waves.

BAPT - ism - A Qaballistic Deconstruction

We now embark on an attempt to "deconstruct" the word BAPTISM within Qaballistic principles.

Within Qaballa, the totality of "the thing" is contained within it's name, and by default, it's constituent Letters.

We must also take into account elements of word constructions as discussed earlier in the article on "Baths, Bats, and Bas".

One Qaballistic basic is that of "notaricon".  Notaricon, in its simplest expression, or usage, creates single words from utilizing the first letter of each word in the phrase.  Hence "Central Intelligence Agence" utilizes the first letters of each word to form CIA.

Notaricon, in its simplest expression or usage, therefore, is nothing more complex than the technique used to form acronyms.  However, we can extend the use of notaricon and apply the method to break out individual letters from the whole of a word.  Hence, in the word, SWORD, a sign of the Tarot Deck used to denote "communication", we can break out the S of SWORD to create S-WORD, wherein underlying the Letter S is the word SPOKEN.  SWORD, therefore, deconstructs to SPOKEN WORD.

In the case of BAPTISM (and all words), we must first seek out the ROOT of the word.  The first step is to remove alterations to the word by removing any prefixes or suffixes.  In this case, and in all forms, the word BAPTISM in all its conjugations reduces to BAPT.  BAPT can be broken down into many paired variants, all worthy and necessary of consideration.

B-APT
BA-PT
BAP-T

From here, we can infer that "APTitude", or the act of rising above the fray of the unthinking masses through a focused effort at logic, knowledge, and reason, has its root in the esoteric and philosophical properties held within the larger construct known as "BAPT-ism".

It is this larger construction which often reveals the totality of esoteric or philosophical word constructions and meanings.

Our Construct is simple: mankind is drowned.  Saith Ishtar, "forever my people shall swim like fishes in the sea".  Mankind has been largely cut off, but impossible to completely cut-off, from its spiritual source or fount.  Within the schools of logic and reason, it is held that a return of the "Word" is the means through which knowledge and wisdom allows one to master the material world around one and through this mastery, "rise above the waves".

The Word, being Pi, is a Number, a Letter, and a Sound.  However, PI is also used out to 32 digits, and this expression is further expressed as a comprehensive design with the 26 digit English Alphabet.  This Alphabet uniquely is set against a 9x9 x 7 matrix which starts with A and ends with P.

The hard "T' sound, as are all of the DENTALS, are used to denote PAST TENSE.  In the case of SPEND, the past tense becomes SPENT, whereas DANCE becomes DANCED.  DANCED, although spelled with a D, becomes as the hardened T.

Hence when we peer in the the PHRASE BAPT, we can release the Letter B to be a notaricon for the word BE, while AP denotes the phrase AP, and T is a past tense.  In this case, the phrase reveals B AP'd, or immersed into the Construct which is based on Pi and which is represented by an Alphabet that has as its start point the Letter A and ends at the Letter P.

We can now see that the BAPTISM is not so much about a religious ritual, but rather a religious ritual emulating what is a very real "reality".  If one is to "rise up", one must first become "immersed" into the spume of Typhon, which is allegorically referred to as an Earthly existence.

What "rises one up" to float as a "cork on the water" is a comprehensive understanding of the Construct and how this design works.

One must come to understand Y.