Surrendering to the Bus Buzz

Photo by sicoactiva

I was waiting at the bus stop downtown yesterday needing to get home in a hurry. There are two buses that I can take: one which runs more frequently but takes longer, and one that runs less frequently and is much quicker. Just as I got the stop, the bus that takes longer pulled in. As I often do, I "vibed" the bus. Energetically, I placed the longer bus to my right and the quicker bus to my left. I shifted my attention between them and the quicker bus buzzed, so I chose not to get on the longer bus. After about two more minutes of waiting, the quicker bus pulled up and got me home without a problem.

I've been using this technique for a long time and find it very helpful. My interpretation is that I'm doing a small check in with the flow of the world to see where I should be at the moment. It's always important for me to remember that where I should be is not always where I want to be.

There are times when my buzz has been to take the longer bus which got stuck in a bad traffic jam. As I'm sitting there grumbling to myself, I have to remember that there is some reason that I'm on this bus and not the other. Sometimes it's a reason I can see: when I get off the bus I bump into a friend who I haven't seen for awhile. Sometimes it's for a reason I can't see: so I didn't run into the friend who really isn't good for me. And sometimes, it feels like the reason is that I'm being reminded to trust my reasoning, and not place blind faith in this  energetic trick.

There are times when I feel like my life is just going with the flow of the world. The things I desire for myself seem to be in concert with my place in the world. And there are times when I'm far from the flow, nothing seems to be going smoothly or well, and I need to do something to get back with God. I know that there are certain activities the usually get me back into alignment, though I sometimes have to go through several different ones before I feel fully aligned. Everyone is different, so it's important to know for yourself what brings you back in alignment.

Being close to God involves a great deal of surrender without collapse. When one is aligned, one's desires match those of Gods, and the movement is akin to swimming with the current. But there are occasions when the messages we receive do not match up with our own conclusions, and these often make me hesitate. If I know that my energy is aligned with the world's, then I trust that the message is correct. But if my energy has been "off" then it's hard to know what to do.

This is especially true when receiving messages through others. I know people who see into the spiritual world very clearly. I always an tempted to just call them for the answer rather than trying to work it out for myself. The danger is that I am receiving a message through someone else's eyes. I don't know if they are aligned with the world when they are giving me the message, and depending on my own alignment, I can wildly misinterpret the message even if it is correct.

This is why it's important to know for yourself how you connect to God and what makes the connection more powerful. When you are connected, your impulses and the flow of the world will be the same.

One of my favorite biblical passages can be found in Ecclesiastes 7:14: When times are good be happy, but when times are bad, reflect. In this instance, one can read that as when one is connected, be happy, but when one is not, reflect and reconnect.

Removing the Evil from the decree

Again something I wrote a few months ago:

During Yom kippur services, I was struck by Unatana Tokef. The power and the words of the prayer spoke deeply to me.

The second paragraph, which begins "On Rosh Hashanna it is written..", is a fairly standard shamanic incantation. Calling on the ancestors who have died in various ways: "who will live and who will die... who by water, who by fire, who by the sword, who by a wild animal..." When I recite the prayer, I feel the souls of Jewish ancestors fill the room. It is a very powerful prayer and can be used as a calling the souls meditation.

It then outlines the goals of Jewish Shamanic Healing:

ותשובה ותפלה וצדקה מעבירין את רוע הגזרה
And repentance, prayer, and charity removes the evil of the decree

The word "decree" is generally used in kabbalistic texts to refer to judgments of heaven that effect our lives. In the context of this blog, it refers to illness. Repentance, prayer, and charity do not remove the heavenly decree, but remove the evil from it. This manifests in three ways: they heal, they change their attitude to the illness, or the change happens without illness. For some people, the person gets sick, but heals completely. For others, their attitude towards the illness changes and they no longer view it as so damaging to their lives. For others, the change or energy that causes the illness manifests in another way which is not destructive to the person. This allows them to manifest the decree without damage or illness.

People often ask me if they will heal completely from whatever is ailing them. My answer is that they need to change with the illness, and they will feel better, even if their symptoms persist. But, more often than not, their symptoms disappear as well.

Noah's Ascension

  בראשית כ וייבן נוח מזבח ליהוה וייקח מכול הבהמה הטהורה ומכול העוף הטהור ויעל עולות במזבח  כא וירח יהוה את ריח הניחוח ויאמר יהוה אל ליבו לא אוסיף לקלל עוד את האדמה בעבור האדם כי יצר לב האדם רע מנעוריו ולא-אוסיף עוד להכות את-כל-חי כאשר עשיתי  כב עוד כל-ימי הארץ זרע וקציר וקור וחום וקיץ וחורף ויום ולילה לא ישבותו.

Genesis 8:20 And Noah built an alter to God. He took from all of the pure animals and from all the pure birds and raised them as an ascension offering at the alter. (21) God smelled the pleasant fragrance and God said to his heart, I will not continue to destroy the earth because of man for his heart's inclination is bad from his youth. And I will not again destroy all life as I have done. (22)To the end of the days of the land, during seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, will not cease.

The next time sacrifices are mentioned in the Tanach is during the story of Noah (Genesis 8:20-22). After the flood is over, Noah comes out of the ark and builds an alter (מזבח). He takes one of each of the pure animals and sacrifices them in/at the alter. The word for Sacrifice is olah עולה, to go up. The scent of the sacrifice (and possible Noah) go up to God, and in response God says to his heart that he will not destroy the world again in response to man's evil inclination.

This is a very different type of sacrifice then Cain and Hevel. Their sacrifice was a mincha (rest), and the result of the sacrifice was that God gazed upon Hevel. In this sacrifice, the goal of the offering was to ascend, and the result was that God made a change. One question I had was what exactly ascended? In the text, God smelled the "pleasant fragrance". My general assumption is that God is so far beyond us that we can't even begin to understand or explain God, but how does one make sense of God "smelling"?

I think the answer lies in a closer reading of the text. The word for pleasant odor is ריח הניחוח reach hanichoah. The first word can be read as רוח or spirit/wind, and the second is a variation on his name: נח Noah. When God smells (וירח), his spirit (רוח) meets with Noah's. This reading is that the spirit of Noah ascended up to God, God "spirited" Noah's "spirit", and it effected God's heart.

The Mincha sacrafice is a type of offering that results in a connection with God. It seems that the person offering the sacrifice brings God into the world. An ascension offering is more active and one that makes a change in the world. Here, the person goes into the spiritual world to make a change.

I'm excited to see how these types play out as we go further into our study, and what we can learn from how sacrifices were used biblically.

Praying to move things

Image courtesy of SoulHolder

One of the major aspects of Jewish spiritual growth is prayer. Our tradition is to pray three times a day. This builds discipline and focus. One way to spiritually make things move is based on strong focus. Concentrate on the object you want to move, send it love, and it will go in the direction it is supposed to go.

There is danger here in that one is often tempted to move it in the direction that one wants it to go, which may or may not be the direction it's supposed to go. Depending on your spiritual power, you may be able to move it towards your desire, but as any mechanic can tell you, if you push it in the wrong direction it will break and all your good intentions will take you or your patient to a worse place.

I think it's always best to connect oneself to God before trying to move anything, then reflect on your own motives for trying to move it, and only then send it love and power if your motives are for healing. I often find that once I've connected to God, I find I no longer have any desire to move the thing. I find that it is exactly as it should be even if I am not really happy with it. It's difficult to tell a patient that their illness or pain is where they need to be at the moment, but if it's true, all efforts to move it will backfire.