Its a cliche, but a book is often judged by its cover. And deciding on a cover is not always the easiest thing as fashions come and go and yet books often outlive their authors and owners. When it came to decision time for the forthcoming title by Sorita d’Este and David Rankine, their first together since the release of Practical Qabalah Magick in 2009, the quest was to find an image which would represent the contents of the book and the immediate thought was to use the symbolic image of a dove:
“I slept, but my heart was awake.
Listen! my beloved is knocking.
‘Open to me, my sister, my love,
my dove, my perfect one;
for my head is wet with dew,
my locks with the drops of the night.’
[The Song of Solomon]
The Shekinah is linked through this symbolism to numerous other beings, including:
— The Holy Spirit — The Holy Spirit who is likened to a dove, as seen in the Gospels when she descends on Jesus at his baptism in the river Jordan by John the Baptist (Matthew 3:16, Mark 1:10, Luke 3:22, John 1:32). The Shekinah is of course equated to the Holy Spirit at times.
– Astarte and Asherah: The dove was traditionally a bird associated with both the Phoenician goddess Astarte and the Canaanite goddess Asherah, as well as goddesses of love in the ancient world, so the Shekinah being symbolised by a dove should come as no surprise.
If you want to find out more, join the FB community page for the book at www.facebook.com/cosmicshekinah
