I've always found the Merkaba symbol captivating and beautiful; but after attempting to do some research about its origins, I've wound up pretty confused.

It's supposedly associated with Merkabah Mysticism, a school of Abrahamic mysticism that grew out of the book of Ezekiel, which describes his prophetic visions of God in detail. But these descriptions have nothing to do with the multidimensional pointy star that many of us are familiar with. Ezekiel mentions the Chariot of God, which is composed of four beings, each made up of four faces pointing in different directions. He also saw the Ophanim, angels that appear as a "wheel inside of a wheel"; and lastly, the Seraphim (burning angels). Each of these things are visually represented in very specific ways.

Curious, I did some searching and tried to find any kind of link between the Merkaba shape and the school of mysticism which it is claimed to be connected to. I couldn't find a single credible source, and literally everything I saw about it were new-age blogs about chakras and learning how to "ascend to higher dimensions". A few of these "sources" seemed to recycle the same hocus-pocus jargon, and a few of them claimed the Merkaba has its origins in ancient Egypt (again, a claim I couldn't find a single viable source to verify).

So I'm wondering if anyone here has any information? Does this symbol actually have any kind of historical/theological significance, or was it made up by a bunch of hippies because it looks trippy? I'm not interested in anecdotal evidence--if you make a claim please back it up w/ a legitimate source.

Thanks!

i do not know anything about Merkabah but i know where you can find some info about Ezekiels Wheel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9w-i5oZqaQ#!
at 1:58:17 the section about the Wheel starts...

-jiva

Like all siddhas, hanifs, prophets, rishis, saints, walis, seers, jogis....etc, Ezekiel (RA) was a sort of hippie, so it does originate from a bunch of trippy hippie psychonauts (...we think).... disheveled hippies sometimes have to give a reality slap in the face of the theologican, so their "works" may not be complete off-track-scholastic-vanity, which it often is and hence moar likely unfit as a reference source for future generations......due to their vicious nature, we don't really trust the theologicans as wisdom-method preservers, we trust artists, singers, poets and the poor moar then them and this is as legit as it gets.

We think mysticism can not remain a static artifact, it must renew itself in every generation (..and it does).



Also see Anahata and Lataif ul Qalbi

You are unlikely to find information that is going to fulfill your criteria of "legit" information on this topic.

From what I can tell, all this Merkaba information comes from Drunvalo Melchizedek who was supposedly given the memories of Thoth going back through Egypt to Atlantis where he was a king. There is no solid supporting evidence for any of this story, but it's an intriguing one nonetheless. At the very minimum its some pretty heady sci-fi. At best it's still the source of all this information on sacred geometry which is something I know is of interest to much of the membership here.

If you've ever seen the Spirit Science videos on youtube, particularly the one on human history and the sacred geometry stuff. It's a nice cursory overview of Drunvalo's story. If you are interested in digging into it a little deeper, Bob Frissell's books (Nothing in This Book is True, Something in This Book is True, You are a Spiritual Being Having a Human Experience) really delve deeply into this information. You can also just go straight to the source and reead Drunvalo's books.

A lot of the information stresses credulity but some of it is really quite interesting, I really dig the sacred geometry stuff and feel there is some validity to that, even if I don't necessarily buy the stories of Merkabas on Mars and the kingdoms Atlantis and Lemuria.

I'd suggest if you choose to delve into what's behind all this Merkaba mumbo jumbo, that you check your credulity, skepticism, and stipulations that information must be legit and cited at the door and enjoy the story for what it is. Just like going to the movie theater, enjoy the show first, then re-engage your skepticism and tear it apart for a critical scathing review afterwards.

Frissel's "nothing in this book" was he first alternative type book I read over ten years ago. I found it again last year and read it for kicks, tried the Merkabah mediation for a week and had to stop because of some really strange states of consciousness it seems to produce during sleep reading trough thebook again I had thought it was all nonsense but entertaining, so the meditation after effects caught me off guard. I've been meaning to try it again.

Thanks for the links/info everyone

You're totally right dreamer. The reason I'm asking about this subject with skepticism is because I've been considering getting a tattoo that incorporates the Merkaba, but I certainly don't want to put anything permanent on my body if I don't know for sure where it comes from. It's a cool shape regardless, but its significance to me personally is changed drastically if it's a product of the new-age movement. Nothing wrong with that at all, but I just don't want it on my body if that's the case.

Would you mind elaborating on this, please?

Are you talking about lucid dreaming? Access to the clear light a'la Tibetan yogas?

Are you able to reproduce those states while awake or in meditation? How did the state arise within the dream? Were you conscious of the changeover?

Most of the Merkabah stuff I'm aware of is basically a rehashing of "Pathworkings" from various mystery traditions, so it may be that you're just accessing your own internal symbology and its associated states.