M is for Mystery

Hop aboard the Mystery Wagon today! I awoke at 6 am and checked on my sleeping daughter. What to my wondering eyes should appear? Well, it wasn't a miniature sleigh or 8 tiny reindeer. :o) It was the letter "M" ... on a sticker ... stuck on her eyelid. Sez to myself "WTF?!" Where did it come from? How did it come to be stuck on her eyelid?














Which, of course, led me to wonder about the letter "M" ... in its camel-y glory. Ben (youngest) has been showing me the letter "M" via Cookie Monster and Monsters, Inc. video, past few days.












Here's what I found, mostly from Wiki:



The letter M derives its shape from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu (Μ, μ). Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water. It is known that Semitic people working in Egypt c. 2000 BC borrowed a hieroglyph for "water" that was first used for an alveolar nasal (/n/, because of the Egyptian word for water, "n-t". This same symbol became used for M in Semitic, because their word for water began with that sound.

[One site mentioned the "mem" hieroglyphic being an owl .. but I can't find it now.]

Mem (also spelled Meem or Mim) is the thirteenth letter of many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew מ and Arabic mīm م. Its value is IPA: [m].

The Phoenician letter gave rise to the Greek Mu (Μ), Etruscan 𐌌, Latin M, and Cyrillic М.

Mem is usually assumed to come from the Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol for water () which had been simplified by the Phoenicians and named after their word for water, mem (), ultimately coming from Proto-Semitic *maʾ-/*may-.

In gematria, Mem represents the number 40. Its final form represents 600 but this is rarely used, Tav and Resh (400+200) being used instead.

In the Sefer Yetzirah, the letter Mem is King over Water, Formed Earth in the Universe, Cold in the Year, and the Belly in the Soul.

As an abbreviation, it stands for metre. In the Israeli army it can also stand for mefaked, commander. In Hebrew religious texts, it can stand for the name of God Makom, the Place.



Mem is associated with The Hanged Man (Atu XII), the element of water and the path between Geburah and Hod on the Tree of Life.

The Hanged Man is a card of profound but veiled significance. Its symbolism points to divinity, linking it to the Passion of Christ in Christianity, especially The Crucifixion; to the narratives of Osiris (Egyptian mythology) and Mithras (Roman mythology). In all of these archetypal stories, the destruction of self brings life to humanity; on the card, these are symbolized respectively by the person of the hanged man and the living tree from which he hangs bound. Its relationship to the other cards usually involves the sacrifice that makes sacred; personal loss for a greater good or a greater gain.

Serenely dangling upside-down, the Hanged Man has let go of worldly attachments. He has sacrificed a desire for control over his circumstances in order to gain an understanding of, and communion with, creative energies far greater than his individual self. In letting go, the hero gains a profound perspective accessible only to someone free from everyday conceptual, dualistic reality.

This, from a weird little spot called bible-codes.org:

Exodus 14:21-22 records the Red Sea divided by "a strong east wind". In the following we have allusions to several different epoch events to do with the sea as recorded in the bible, including the creation, the flood, the Red Sea crossing, the cross, and an end-time event still to happen. Also keep in mind that the bible code is still using play-on-words for certain letters of the Hebrew alphabet; here, "waters" for "Mem" and hand for "Yod", which is the Atbash of Mem.














Our favorite "m" :o)



Sarah has *no* idea how it got there but was amused! So, the mystery continues but it was an interesting journey through the letter "M" ...