Dalet is the Fourth Letter of the Alef Bet, and the Third Double Letter. It has the sound of the Letter “D” in English. In Ancient Times, however, when lacking the Dagesh, it had a soft sound like in the English Word “the”. The original pictograph is of an open hinged door. Dalet means “door”. The actual trilateral root is [Dalet Lamed Heh]. It is common in Hebrew for Feminine endings to vary between a final Tav, or Heh. The root has to do with the idea of pulling or drawing forth (as in Water). Cognates include dala, “draw water” dal “door”; dali “bucket”; and daliyot “branch”. The word delet specifically denotes a swinging door of a building, since doors most commonly opened inward. If you look at Dalet carefully, you can see that the original pictograph represented a door opening on a building. This is very appropriate for the third Pathway (numbered #14 in the Sefer Yetzirah), as it reaches from Chokhmah to Binah, crossing, as it were, the Thirteenth Path and is the door between the Three Supernals and the lower Seven Sefirot. The Numerical value of Dalet is Four. The text of the Fourteenth Path is as follows:
The Fourteenth Path is Named the Illuminating Intelligence (Sekhel Meir מאיר שכל), and is so called because it is the essence of the Hashmal, the teacher of mysteries of the Holy Secrets and their design.
This passage is a little unusual, because of the referent to Hashmal. You may remember, from a previous article by this writer, that the Hasmalim are Angels of Chesed ("Kindness" or "Mercy"), which is the next Sefirah after Binah. Chesed is located on the Tree of Life directly below Chokhmah. Hasmalim (plural) means "Lightning Bolts"; the word in Modern Hebrew is used to mean "Electricity". This reflects to the Sefer Yetzirah, which, you may remember, says that the Sefirot appear “like a lightning flash” from the Ayin Sof Or. There is actually a separate School of Mysticism based on this Concept. The Pattern formed resembles a Caduceus.
The Tarot Card is the Empress, Numbered Three. There are two major variants in the female gender of humankind; women are either pregnant, or they are not. The previous Tarot Card, the High Priestess, was not pregnant, while the Empress definitely appears to be pregnant. Traditionally, she sits on a throne of Stone, and not surprisingly, there is a symbol of the Planet Venus by her side. In a Reading, the Empress is usually a very positive card, indicating pregnancy, creativity or fertility in Ideas. She is, above all, a symbol of Abundance.
The Planet that corresponds to Dalet is Venus, which is also connected to Netzach (“Beauty”), the Fifth Sefirah. This correlates Dalet further to the Stone Principle and the Number Four in Nova Thought. The Spiritual Meaning of Dalet is very similar to that The Three Stone Runes, Fehu, Othala and Eihwaz, and thus relates to the Root Chakra, the Muladhara. The "Character" in Nova Thought is the "Guardian", which fits very well with the Empress being at the Gate (or Door) to the Three supernal Sefirot!
An Affirmation for Dalet might be:
The Gateway to the Divine is opening to me now, and the Abundance that comes through is filling my Being.
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