There is a rhythm that we can all access. A rhythm to our time on earth, a rhythm that is our breathing, that is our hearts beating, that is the cycle of seasons as they pass through our hearts. That cycle is in fact a spiral. Every year we pass the same point yet we are higher and closer. Every season's energies are different. Each moment in time has a specific energy when it is most easily absorbed, accessed, renewed and repaired. By working to be ever more conscious of these forces and their unique moments in time, we may better be able to make use of their energies. It is work for the body, the heart and the spirit. Time is holy.
The Jewish calender begins counting the months with Nissan, the month of Pesach. We internalize slavery in order to fully experience freedom. We know the heart of the stranger for we were strangers in Egypt. Then Counting the Omer we discover that it's in the journey we come to know who we are and what we are made of. On the 33rd day of the Count, the radiant flames of Lag B'Omer connect the physical and the spiritual worlds. Fire is an expression of the union of heaven and earth, a preparation for the festival of Shavuot, the holy wedding in time.
In the heat of summer, brokenhearted, we are brought to the level of mourners on Tisha B'Av. Our mourning reminds us to return to the present and to bless what we have. Aware of the miracle of our every breath, we can now see the King is in the Field. So so close to us. We are all daughters and sons of the King. In this knowledge we find the grace to embark on the work of the month of Elul, a season to prepare our hearts for the High Holidays: Rosh HaShanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot. "To everything there is a Season... A time for War and a time for Peace" these words are from Kohelet (Ecclesiates), which is read on the Shabbat that falls during Sukkot or on Shemini Atzeret.
"At the beginning of time, there shone a unique light called the Ohr Haganuz... the Hidden Light. With this light you could see from one end of the Creation to the other. Even though the Creator hid away the Ohr Haganuz after the first thirty-six hours of Creation, there are times when you can still catch glimpses of its hidden glow". The thirty-six candles lit on Chanukah correspond to the thirty-six hours during which the Ohr Haganuz shone". (1)
Tu B'Shevat, one of four new years in the Jewish calendar, marks another beginning. The sap starts to rise in the trees, yet the world appears to be devoid of outer growth. The full moon of Shevat is still a period of concealment. Tu B'Shevat comes to remind us that the seeds of redemption are indeed stirring within.
When the month of Adar arrives we increase our Joy. The Rabbis say that all the festivals will one day cease, but the days of Purim will continue even in the Messianic era. Purim is a brief glimpse of the World to Come. Here we experience a paradigm shift, a direct link to that mystical state called Joy.
Sources
"Seasons of Joy" Arthur I Waskow
"Preparing Your Heart for the High Holy Days, a Guided Journal" Kerry M Olitzky and Rachel T Sabath
"Seasons of the Moon- Cheshvan/Kislev" Ohr Somayach Interactive 2000 (1)
The following Web Sites are great sources for Torah: A Still Small Voice, Chabad in Cyberspace, Ohr Somayach Interactive, Meaningful Life and Inner Dimension
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Dragons hold vastly different meanings in the East and the West. The Dragon is a symbol of royalty in China, suggests that those born under this sign will be brave, powerful and born leaders. It is the symbol of the Emporer who has supernatural power. The emphasis in the East is on the positive aspects of this primal symbol like wisdom, strength and the guardianship of esoteric knowledge. The Dragon is said to grant fertility and is revered as a harbinger of good fortune.
In the West the Dragon often carries quite the opposite meaning. It has come to represent chaos, evil and the untamed and unmanifested animal nature. The slaying of Dragons was a medieval right of passage and proof of a man's true heart. There is also an ancient connection between the dragon and the serpent. As the serpent is to blame for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, this would explain the great distaste cultivated toward this mythic creature in the West. The Leviathan, a dragonlike sea creature mentioned in the Bible, is often thought to be the continuing embodiment of chaos in the world. It is said it will finally be conquered and eaten at the great Messianic feast. However, in the Kabbalah, Levithan is equivalent in value to the word malchut which means kingdom, suggesting the Leviathan as a symbol of the Divine Source of Kingdom.
More than any other symbol then the Dragon might be said to embody the unifying force underlying all opposites. The mutual dependence of light and dark, male and female, creation and destruction. In itself it need not be either good or evil, rather it represents energy that can be used for either. The Dragon has come more recently to stand for the inner world of the unconscious. A struggle with the dragon represents difficulties to be overcome in gaining the treasures of inner knowledge.
The Dragon in the Garden is a Dragonfly. Along with the butterfly, dragonflies have a symbolic connection to the soul. The Dragonfly is the essence of change. May all beings benefit.
Sources
'A Sea-Monster with the Head of a Bull' c.1541-45 by Perino del Vaga from the Baltimore Museum Show "Raphael and His Circle: Drawings from Windsor Castle" Summer 2000
"Dictionary of Symbolic and Mythological Animals" by JC Cooper
"An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols" by JC Cooper
"Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend" Alan Unterman
"The Hebrew Letters, Channels of Creative Consciousness" Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh (2)
"The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols" Edited by Udo Becker
NYTimes Article by Somini Sengupta
In the West the Dragon often carries quite the opposite meaning. It has come to represent chaos, evil and the untamed and unmanifested animal nature. The slaying of Dragons was a medieval right of passage and proof of a man's true heart. There is also an ancient connection between the dragon and the serpent. As the serpent is to blame for the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden, this would explain the great distaste cultivated toward this mythic creature in the West. The Leviathan, a dragonlike sea creature mentioned in the Bible, is often thought to be the continuing embodiment of chaos in the world. It is said it will finally be conquered and eaten at the great Messianic feast. However, in the Kabbalah, Levithan is equivalent in value to the word malchut which means kingdom, suggesting the Leviathan as a symbol of the Divine Source of Kingdom.
More than any other symbol then the Dragon might be said to embody the unifying force underlying all opposites. The mutual dependence of light and dark, male and female, creation and destruction. In itself it need not be either good or evil, rather it represents energy that can be used for either. The Dragon has come more recently to stand for the inner world of the unconscious. A struggle with the dragon represents difficulties to be overcome in gaining the treasures of inner knowledge.
The Dragon in the Garden is a Dragonfly. Along with the butterfly, dragonflies have a symbolic connection to the soul. The Dragonfly is the essence of change. May all beings benefit.
Sources
'A Sea-Monster with the Head of a Bull' c.1541-45 by Perino del Vaga from the Baltimore Museum Show "Raphael and His Circle: Drawings from Windsor Castle" Summer 2000
"Dictionary of Symbolic and Mythological Animals" by JC Cooper
"An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Traditional Symbols" by JC Cooper
"Dictionary of Jewish Lore and Legend" Alan Unterman
"The Hebrew Letters, Channels of Creative Consciousness" Rabbi Yitzchak Ginsburgh (2)
"The Continuum Encyclopedia of Symbols" Edited by Udo Becker
NYTimes Article by Somini Sengupta
