Essence: Heh as Wind-door is symbolic of where we know ourselves to be inspired—literally, breathed into life by the Divine breath. We become individuated, begin to make our own choices and create our life, yet we remain in communication with the Mother.
Rider-Waite Tarot: Emperor
Heh, the number 5, represents a window or wind-door. Unlike Dalet, Heh is the door for air, for the breath of life. It is allows us to receive our first breath and return to Source, our last breath. Heh is to breathe, to be, to form, to become anything, to be changed and be capable of changing oneself. As air is in the space between beings, Heh is to be individuated. Yet as the air we breathe is the same air breathed by all that lives or has ever lived, it is also that which connects us to the Whole.
The number five, Heh, reflects our five senses, which awaken with the breath of the Eternal. Our fingers and toes, our four limbs plus our body, even the five seeds nestled at the heart of a cut apple all reflect and announce the sacred presence of Heh.
Now we are invited to spread our wings and fly. We can know that each breath is a gift and to trust the blessing of existence. As we fully experience breathing life as life.
To understand Heh, it helps to see the evolution from Aleph to Heh as follows: Aleph is before beginning. It is the Great Mystery, all-potential, the fertile chaos. Bet is the beginning of order, focus. It is the impulse to create an other, a yearning to give life. Bet is the beginning of duality, the beginning to create and the first seed of creation. Gimel channels The Creative Energy, bringing this Source-energy in to nourish the first seeds—first creation. Dalet is the door through which all must pass to be born into individual life. And Heh is the first breath we take in order to become a living, individual existence. It is the moment we are inspired by the Divine breath, the moment the Divine enters us.
breathes us, Heh is to answer, to Shine and to be fully present. We need breath to speak, and so in the sound of every word there is breath. So Heh is the sound of being fully alive, grounded, present. Heh is where we come close to the Divine Energy, opening the wind-door that breathes us and invites our participation. Heh is God asking us, as God asked Adam, ”Where are You?” And we answering, “Here I am.” Here, we enter the real world: Being, where we may become and express our lowest or highest. Heh is a dreamer, a visionary, inspired, and yet still practical, grounded and capable of turning our dreams and visions into tangible achievements.
The Heh shares some symbolism with the archetype of the Rider-Waite Tarot Emperor. The Heh has left the body of the mother, drawn a first breath and by so doing, has become an individual existence, a separate being, yet still in relationship to Mother. Heh is the counterpart of the Dalet the Divine Feminine. The Heh card may also represent one who is capable of uniting with the Divine in the act of mutual creation: Male and Female as the Hieros Gamos, uniting heaven and earth. “…he that looketh forth at the windows, showing himself through the lattice…” (Solomon’s Song,2:9), Heh is the curtain that moves in the breeze as He shows Him Self at the window. The connection flows with love.
REVERSED
When reversed the breath is suffocated, all speech silenced. There is no air and so our vital connection is lost.
When Heh is out of relationship to the Feminine it is a mocker or fool, only concerned with worldly power. Reversed Heh is to be forgotten and to have to review the lessons that remind us that we are but a part and not the whole. It is rigidity and inability to be fully present for the other, an inability to love.