Greetings Friends – During this Michaelmas Season, as we head into All Souls, a shift occurs within us, echoing outside of us in Nature, & reflected in various cultural expressions & traditions.
Yom Kippur, the Day of At-one-ment, comes 10 days after Rosh Hashanah, & is the culmination of the entire High Holy Day drama. It is the Holiest Day of the Jewish year or, as the Bible describes it, the “Sabbath of Sabbaths”. During the 24 hours of Yom Kippur, the biblical commandment to fast from food & water, while engaging in intense soul-searching, & praying for forgiveness is practiced. Yom Kippur is a day of inner purification & of reconciliation with the creator & with our fellow human beings. It is a reminder of the frailty of human existence & our duty to act charitably toward the less fortunate. This ancient tradition is just as important now as it was for our ancestors, maybe even more so - with all the horrors happening in Israel & Palestine, with the Zionists invading southern Lebanon in a dramatic escalation - & deadly Israeli strikes in Beirut, etc…
The inspiring, yet sobering, words of Isaiah 58 are read publicly in the synagogue on Yom Kippur “This fasting I have chosen,” says the prophet Isaiah, “Is it not done to loose the chains of injustice & untie the cords of bondage? To set the oppressed free & break every yoke? Are we not meant to share our food with the hungry & to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, you must clothe him, & not turn away from your fellow man?”
It is the moment in time to dedicate mind, body, & soul to reconciliation – with The Divine, with our fellow human beings, & with ourselves; a time to turn to those we have wronged, acknowledging the pain we might have caused. At the same time, being willing to forgive, & to let go of certain offenses & the feelings of resentment they provoked in us. This journey for both seekers & givers of pardon mirrors the journey a soul takes after death.
There are number of customs & traditions associated with the Holy Day of Yom Kippur. For example: the mikvah, or ritual bath. The scripture says “You shall immerse yourselves in water & be purified.” This practice, from which Christian baptism originated, symbolizes purification & regeneration, as well as new birth, through repentance. Another custom is to greet each other by saying ‘May your name be inscribed in the Book of Life’ Gmar Chatimah Tova.
The High Holy Days are divided into two parts: The first is the inscribing which begins on Rosh Hashanah & finishes on Yom Kippur when the final “sealing” of fate takes place for the year. Parents customarily bless their children with the priestly benediction: “May it be the will of our Father in Heaven to put into your heart love & reverence. May your eyes be directed, may your mouth speak wisdom, & your heart strive for holiness. May your hands be occupied with good deeds & your feet hasten to do the will of the divine. May He grant you sustenance without stress & with profit, out of His hand that is open wide. May you be inscribed & sealed unto a good, long life. And so shall it be. Amen.”
Our names are inscribed into the Mother Earth at the time of our birth. And thruout our many lives we add to this imprinting – Thru our thoughts, words & deeds – thru our interactions with other people, we create a trail that we traverse. And this pathway makes its mark. So what happens to all that we inscribe into the Earth?
I think of the tale of ‘Eros & Fable’ by Novalis. In it there is a wise woman, named Sophia, of course, who has a bowl of oracle water. When a scroll is immersed in it, all the nonessential writing is dissolved, leaving only what has lasting significance. Then this inscription is set into the great book. But what happens to the rest? Does it become food for the adversary? At this time of year we can imagine that our life story is dipped into this chalice. Our true name, our true eternal Self is not dissolved. But everything that must dissolve represents how we didn’t live up to our true name – How we missed the Mark. And so it is that the question arises for each of us: How much of us is junk food, & how much of our divine nature can be inscribed in the Book of Life?
It is also customary to give extra charity before the holiday, & to light memorial candles for departed family members. As with all Jewish festivals, the woman formally ushers in the holiday by lighting the candles at sundown. Evening services commence with the recitation of the Kol Nidrei prayer, a plea for absolution from any & all unfulfilled vows a person may have made in the course of the year.
Contrary to popular belief, Yom Kippur is a day of hope & optimism in addition to a solemn day of soul-searching. The Day of Atonement provides a unique awareness of one’s own character, a track record, as well as the opportunity to upgrade relationships with relatives, friends, associates & the community at-large. Yom Kippur’s focus on forgiveness, highlights humility, fallibility, compassion, soul-searching faith, thoughtfulness, being considerate, & accepting responsibility
Cabalistic tradition states that the first human being, Adam, was created on Rosh Hashanah. And so it is that Human-beings are given an opportunity to recreate themselves spiritually, each year, on Yom Kippur. This holiday is celebrated when the constellation of the scales give way to the virgin as herald in the heavens. Libra & Virgo symbolize key themes of Yom Kippur: Justice, balance, truth, symmetry, wholeness.
Libra is ruled by the planet Venus which reflects the beauty of love, & Virgo is ruled by Mercury the god of communications.
During this season it is customary to walk to a body of fresh water & recite a special prayer, symbolically casting bread crumbs into the waters, a symbol of our sins: those actions that have missed the mark.
And now, at the risk of mixing metaphors, I’d like us to put into practice the Hawaiian ritual of forgiveness, called Ho‘oponopono – It stems from an understanding that everything in the world is connected, in spite of our feelings of ‘separateness’.
What we do to ourselves & others has repercussions. Because of this unity everything that occurs in our own little world creates a resonance in others & in society as a whole. To heal the planet we first have to heal ourselves; to do this, we will rely on four magic sentences: I am sorry. Please forgive me. I love you. Thank you. x4 In earnest wakefulness & practiced Peace – ~hag
11 October 2024 - “Speaking with the Stars”: A severe solar storm sparked by an intense coronal flare from the Sun reached "extreme" levels bombarding Earth - triggering a "severe" geomagnetic storm - could this be connected to the recent hurricanes & flooding - & the ongoing war in the Middle East...?
‘Mary Magdelene – The Sanctifier’ – with Hazel Archer-GinsbergMonday 14 October 20247 pm – 9 pm Central Time (US & Canada)Sponsored by The Minneapolis Theosophical SocietyThe zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84368789880?pwd=bUI5b3FZcHNoc3NLaXpUbktHejRGUT09 Why does Mary Magdalene resonate with so many of us these days? Some 2000 years after the Turning Point of Time, her insights, her mission, her mystery, is needed now, more than ever. In our work together we will be drawing from her living wellspring, unveiling ancient manuscripts, lost for centuries - like her banned Gospel, often called, ‘The Gospel of the Beloved Companion’. We will employ artistic inspirations thru the collages Hazel has created, using images rendered by great initiate painters who have sought to capture & convey the essence of the Magdala. We will use our focused intention, to decode & embody the wisdom of ‘Our Beloved Companion’– so that the spirit of Mary Magdalene, Priestess of Isis, Myrrhophores, 'Apostle to the apostles', can take us on an initiatory journey.
17 October 2024 - a Sukkot / All Souls / Full Hunters Harvest Moon "When you sit in the Sukkah, 'the shade of faithfulness,'
All Souls Festival |
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