Pachinko

When I was a teen, my group of friends used to spend weekends together for spaghetti dinners, play D&D, drink the finest loose leaf tea and play the old style Pachinko machines. These are interesting games in that they are BOTH hypnotic AND LOUD. The old style machines have been replaced with ones that are more similar to a slot machine but they still use the ball bearings. The new machines don't have as many pegs in them.

I met an elderly Soror this weekend. I guessed she was in her 70s, beautiful woman who was finely dressed, great big silver ankh on her necklace and absolutely beautiful and kind smokey blue eyes. Her silvery hair was neatly swept up in a gentle bun and she smelled of fresh lavender. Her voice reminded me of a fine Stradivarius violin playing the Brahms lullaby. I anticipate more discussions with her so I will give her a name, Grandma Soror. She and I spent some time chatting. She has been doing work in an area which I have been eager to get into myself. I am so happy I found her because she has knowledge and experience spanning decades. She spends time on both coasts and she has studied with some of the old-time respected occultists in both areas.

One of the things that I found interesting about her is that she no longer concentrates her efforts on the qabalah. She told me that the qabalah work made her feel like a pinball machine. I cocked my head to the side and wrinkled my brow when she made the statement. I have been trying to identify a personal metaphor for the qabalah for quite some time. Another Frater had referred to the qabalah as a pendulum, which I also had difficulties relating to. (I will also give him a name for the same reason as Grandma Soror, so I will refer to him as Frater HB). Pendulums have very predictable motions. The Work is not quite so predictable for me.

When she mentioned the pinball machine as a metaphor for the qabalah, I got an epiphany. The qabalah doesn't feel like a pendulum or a pinball machine to me, the qabalah work feels like.. well.. .a pachinko machine:



Note: Each time a ball hits the center, the machine spits out more balls in your tray so you can play longer. In a regular game of Pachinko, the balls are traded for cash or prizes.