Traditionally, each of the twelve tribes of Israel have been associated with a specific month in the Jewish year. You might wonder why I associate different tribes with each month when other people use a different model. The people who are teaching that each month correlates with a tribe, Hebrew letter, sense, body part, and constellation are pulling their data from an ancient book, Sefer Yetzirah which they usually won’t disclose because of the connections to Kabbalism. Sefer Yetzirah pre-dates Kabbalah; Kabbalah followers and occultists have picked up the concepts it contains and run with these, as it is a very mystical book. So have some messianic sources. Other people simply parrot the information without tracing it back to the source. I see bits of Masonic detail in the text as well, though it would predate freemasonry. Despite the book’s questionable background, it might include valid information. It’s not very long, and you can read it online and get a feel for it yourself.
Sefer Yetzirah itself does not link any tribes to months within its texts, but in Kabbalah, each of the tribal patriarchs is a soul root from which the Jewish people descend. By extension, they placed the tribes correlating to the senses listed in Sefer Yetzirah, which happens to be marching order. I started with marching order, but didn’t feel that the months lined up correctly. The more I learned, the more I saw connections between the tribe’s prophecies, their flags, and the constellations. When I laid them out according to what I was seeing, the revelation on each month worked.
Truth should confirm itself when it’s correct. We can check the order by lining up all the twelves numerically, starting in the month of Nisan: twelve tribes, twelve months, twelve constellations, twelve gemstones, and twelve gates. I looked for layered revelation where these confirmed each other, and I had a hard time tying up everything so that it was neat and tidy when I tried to use the commonly held marching order of the tribes. Some of the information about the twelve tribes can be sourced biblically or in Jewish history, which connects all these topics.
In every case except the tribes, I’ve been able to lay out the patterns in order with Nisan as the starting point, and it just works. If you wanted to go by the law of first mention, you would put the tribes in birth order, but that didn’t work. Neither did blessing order or camp order. God is a God of order, yet the tribes were never in the same order twice. Therefore, I opted instead to match them with constellations since it was obvious and screaming at me. If you look at each tribe’s banner or blessing, you will see constellation clues. You cannot convince me that the Lion of the tribe of Judah isn’t Leo! But marching order has Judah with Aries the ram/lamb.
Joseph’s prophecy was “With bitterness archers attacked him; they shot at him with hostility. But his bow remained steady.” (Gen 49:23-24) I placed him with Sagittarius, the archer. Some connections are more subtle, and you find them in the decans or sub-constellations, which I’ll get into more later. Some I had to place by faith and found the confirmation later as I looked into the meanings of gates or months. “Dan will be a snake by the roadside,a viper along the path that bites the horse’s heels so that its rider tumbles backward.” (Gen 49:17) Scorpio contains Ophichus, who has a heel wound, and Sagittarius, next to Scorpio, is a half-man–half-horse, and the fall back can be seen when Sagittarius descends lower in the sky than Scorpio. I’m not comfortable ignoring these significant points just to put the tribes in the customary marching order.
A few others like me have determined alternate placements, and we don’t agree entirely either, but I see their logic and applaud them for thinking outside the box rather than following blindly. I appreciate anybody willing to question “the way we’ve always done it” and chart their own course. I’m not dogmatic enough to say I’m correct on all counts, but I think I’m much closer than some of what’s out there. I will say, that when all the sets of twelve come together, they present a cohesive picture with each building upon the other. When we have trouble sorting truth, we can always look for confirmation.
I’m not going to be emphatic about how right I am, because I’ve changed my alignments several times, and I am not done learning. However, there are enough consistent themes that I feel my information connects well.
If we put the tribes in the order that I have them now, correlating to constellations, and look up the meanings of their names, we have a relevant message for our journey.
Gad: A fortune for which a troublesome, invasive effort is made
Asher: The nouns אשר (‘esher), אשר (‘ashar), and אשר (‘osher) mean happiness or blessedness. Nouns אשור (ashur) and אשר (ashur) mean a step, a walk, or a going.
Benjamin: Son of my right hand
Zebulon: Glorious dwelling place
Judah: Let him be praised
Naphtali: My wrestlings
Levi: To join or connect
Dan: Judge, judgment
Joseph: Increaser, to add increase or repeat
Simeon: Hearing or hearing with acceptance
Rueben: A combination of two words: The first part comes from the verb ראה (ra’a), meaning to see or understand. The second part of the name Reuben is the word בן (ben), meaning son, offspring.
Issachar: Recompense
Putting it together: There is a fortune for those who are willing to make a troublesome, invasive effort. There are happiness and blessings for those who make a decisive progression forward. The son of my right hand will guide you to a glorious dwelling place. Let him be praised. Wrestlings (mental) joined with careful judgment bring an increased ability to hear, see, and inherit the recompense for your trouble.
Seneca Schurbon
AuthorIf you’ve enjoyed this post from Seneca, check out her books in the Healing in the Hebrew Months series: Prophetic Strategies Hidden in the Tribes, Constellations, Gates, and Gems and Shemitah for Christians: Living in Rhythms of Rest