Magic Eight balls and free will

 

Photo Courtesy of CRASH: candy

Everyone wants a magic eight ball. Ask a question, shake, then get a definitive answer as to what to do. Unfortunately, the world doesn't work that way.

Generally when we ask for spiritual direction, we do not get clear directions from the spirit world. I think it's part of God giving us free-will. If God spoke plainly to us, our only choice would be to do or not do. When we get vague images or half-remembered dreams, it forces us to do the work and make the best choices we can. Our role in this world is not to follow blindly, but to engage and grapple with God. The messages we get can help us along, but it's still up to us to do our work so we can interpret them correctly.

Healing is swimming in the Ocean

 Photo courtesy of Morberg

A patient of mine was late earlier this week. She called me to let me know she was on her way, but running about 20 minutes late. As I waited for her, I began the treatment. I sat at the head of the table and placed my hands where they would be if she were lying on the table. I pictured her in front of me and felt our energy connecting. I felt like I could "see" her whole body  I felt a strange pattern in her neck, which I'd never felt in her before. When she came in 10 minutes later, the first thing she said was that she had slept funny the night before and her neck felt stiff.

When I work on people, my main focus is creating the space in which they can heal. I am not very good at "seeing" everything that is going on in their body, but when the connections are made and the space is created, the healing happens. So it was a little surprising to me that I'd seen her neck problem before she came in.
I realized that the distance between us had allowed me to "see" her problem. Like most feelers, I instantly react to the presence of others. I feel their emotions and energies and immediately start to interact with them when I touch or am in the same space with them. I realized that seeing requires distance, which is why it's so hard for me in the treatment room.

It's the difference between standing on the cliffs and watching the ocean and swimming in the water. While on dry land, you can see the expanse of the water and hear the crash of the waves. But when you are swimming in the ocean, you can feel the cold of the deep and the motion of the waves. The healing happens when you are in the water. The connection between the healer and the patient is what bring the shechina and God into the healing, which allows it all to happen.

A Pesach thought: Mishna Pesachim 10:4

The Mishna in Pesachim 10:4 begins with the four questions and then continues:

The father should teach [about the exodus] according to the son's knowledge, wisdom, and ability. You begin in disgrace and end with praise.

The traditional explanation is that one teaches about the disgrace of our slavery and end with the praise of God for bringing us out of Egypt. I think it's more didactic: teach your children according to their ignorance and curiosity. When they are uncomfortable with their ignorance is when learning begins, so find out the things which don't sit right with them about the exodus and about the seder and begin the teaching there.

May you all have wonderful Seders that move from confusion and consternation to praise and connection to God.

The Jewish Standing Stone

Photo courtesy of Minipixel

The study of sacrifices brings us to the story of Jacob's dream. The story can be found in Genesis 28:10-22.

To quickly recap the story: Jacob has left home to find a wife in Paddan-aram and left an angry and vengeful Esau behind. He's on his way and, seeing that the sun is about to set, takes a stone from the area and lays his head upon it. That night, he dreams that there is a ladder fixed to earth upon which angels ascend and descend. God stands by his side and promises him that his many descendants will be a blessing to all the nations. God also says that God will protect him be with him where ever he goes.

When he wakes, Jacob lifts the stone upon which he slept into a Matzebah מצבה (pillar), pours oil upon it, and proclaims that this is the house of God and it a Gateway to heaven. Jacob then vows to God that if God protects him, he will accept God as his God and the pillar will be God's house. Furthermore, of all the God gives him, he will tithe 10 percent  to God.

On the pshat (simple) level Jacob had an unexpected spiritual experience, his first, in which he found that God was protecting and standing next to him. He realized that where he slept was a place of power and created a Matzebeh to mark the place. He then makes a vow to God demonstrating that he was changed by the experience.

One central issue in this story is what is a Matzebah? The word derives from the root יצב which means to station oneself or to take a stand, and appears three times during the story.

The first is verse 12 in reference to the ladder that reaches from earth to Heaven: סלם מצב ארצה "the ladder was fixed in the ground". In this case, it means fixed permanently. We learn here that this is a place where there is always a שער השמים a gate of heaven (Gn 28:17). The ladder is not resting on the ground, but it is fixed to the place.

The next occurrence is in the next verse ה' נצב עליו which can be translated as "God is standing upon him" or "God is stationed with him". Again, there is a sense of permanence here. God will always be with him.

The last two occurrences are in relation the rock. In 28:18 it states: וישם אתה מצבה "and he put it (the stone) as a pillar".  In 28:22: והאבן הזאת אשר שמתי הצבה יהיה בית אלקים "And this rock that I put as a pillar will be the house of God". The Brown Driver Briggs translation of Matzebah is a pillar or obelisk or a stone that is anointed as a memorial of a divine appearance.  In addition to that the Matzebah is a special marker that denotes a place where God can always be reached. Then Jacob poured oil upon it, it was a type of sacrifice to proclaim that this was a holy place, a place of power where the gate of heaven is easily accessible.

A מזבח mizbayach is the more common type of Altar that can be moved or built as needed. The Matzebah is determined by it's location and can't be moved.

Bringing this to the present day, I'm left wondering if there are certain places where everyone can connect more easily with God? Or places where individuals can easily connect to God due to a prior history with the place? Or if we need to build some sort of altar when we want to connect, and what that would look like from a modern Jewish perspective? What do people think?

Healing to Face to Face

 

Image courtesy of joshbousel

Last night I learned a text on Purim from the Shaar Hakavanot by R Luria and R Vital. His explanation for something I commonly experience was quite beautiful and I'll try to explain it here.

What I experience is that on some days the divine energy flows and on some days it just feels like it's inaccessible. It flows in a very cyclic manner. The other thing I experience is a period of deep stillness during my treatments. In craniosacral terms they are known as "still points". The energy in the patient and the room seems to come to a halt as everything slows to a stop. Sometimes they last just moments, sometimes they extend beyond the time I have for the treatment. When things start to move again, it as if everything has "reset" and where there was dysfunction is now health. I always explain it as equivalent to hitting Ctrl-alt-delete in the PC world. But I think the Ari's explanation is a lot more beautiful.

In Lurianic Kabbalism, when God created man during the first creation story, God created man as androgynous, one being containing both male and female, connected back to back. During the second creation, God put the man to a deep sleep דורמיטא and separated the two halves which allowed them to turn around and be face to face.

One way of understanding the effects is to look at how the two beings would relate to each other. Back to back allows no communication and, although they are connected, they aren't having much of a relationship. When they are face to face they can really relate to each, see each other, understand and love each other.

God took a being in a state of dysfunction, caused a still point, and they awoke from sleep in a state of health. My experience in the treatment room models on the same process. I help the client enter a stillpoint at which point God rearranges them into a state of health.

The Ari points out that during Purim, Haman, who was a master Astrologer, knew when the connection between the Jewish people and God would be weakest. It was then that Haman planned to destroy them.

The Ari writes that the human experience of the deep sleep דורמיטא is a time of troubles and difficulties, during which there is very little divine providence. God feels very distant to us, but when the cycle completes and the connections again strengthen, there is much greater health. In the midrash around Purim, it is believed that Esther's son became King and assisted the Jews to return to Israel to build the second temple.


The cycles of divine energy are part of the healing too. This is a beautiful way of understanding the ebb and flow of divine energy in the world, and how that too, pushes us towards healing.

The Unbinding of Avraham

 

Photo Courtesy of Underpuppy (And Rembrandt)

As my study of sacrifices continues, we have come to the Akeda - the binding of Isaac (Genesis 22). Avraham is asked to sacrifice his only child and in return for doing so, he is rewarded with a promise from God that he will have many, many descendants. The paradox is that in his willingness to give up the thing he most cherished, he was able to assure that it would remain.

The story is very well known and studied. God tests Avraham by telling him that he needs to sacrifice his son as an Olah עלה sacrificial offering. Avraham sets off with his son and two servants. He gets to Mount Moriah, binds Isaac, and places him on top of his newly built alter. As he reaches out for the knife to do the sacrifice, an angel calls out to him and tells him to stop. He raises his eyes and sees a ram stuck in a thicket which he sacrifices instead.

To understand the deeper meaning, we need to look at changes that occurred as a result of the Akeda. As Avraham is approaching the mountain, he and Isaac are described as walking as one: וילכו שניהם יחדו (Gn 22:8). After the Akeda, Avraham returns to his servants but we are not told what happened to Isaac. The two never spoke again after that day, and Midrash has it that they departed separately from the mountain. It is certain that they no longer walked as one.

In response to Avraham's actions, God blesses him with "...descendants as numerous as the stars of heaven..." (Gn 22:17) If the separation that occurred between the two led to the blessing of descendants, then the connection between the two was a spiritual blockage that prevented it. As Avraham was the one commanded by God, then the blockage was inside of him.

In Shamanic healing,  most powerful blockages are usually fear. In this case, Avraham's greatest fear was that he would not have descendants (see Gn 15:2). As is the case with all fears, if they have power over us and we work too hard to try to prevent them coming true, that pretty much ensures that they will come true. In order to take back the power from the fear, Avraham had to be willing to give up his what he most wanted. 

When Avraham reaches for the knife he is stopped and looks up to sees a ram. The text reads "וירא הנה איל אחר" And he saw, here was another (a different) ram (Gn 22:13). The text makes a point earlier in Genesis 22:7-8 that there was no animal for the offering, so how can there be "another" at this point? If you remove the Yod from איל (ram) then you are left with El, God. The fear had become so dominant for Avraham that it had become like a God to him. At that moment, he was finally able to see the fear that had been the other god in his life and in sacrificing it, bring himself back to God.

It was the emotional intensity of the moment that freed him. In order to go through the catharsis, he had to believe that he really was going to do it. When I think of ways to bring this idea into the modern world, we must be prepared to give up things that we want in order to make them happen. It's important to note that Avraham's fears revolved around Isaac and not around himself. He was trying to influence something over which he ultimately had no control.

It's a lesson to all parents, that we can hope for our children, but it's best not to be dominated by our expectations and fears for our children. It will only ensure that the fears will come true. If it's in our control, we can work hard and get it. If it's out of our control, we always have to be prepared to let go of it completely.

One final note on symbolism in the text: when Avraham gets to the top of the mountain, he built an alter, laid out the wood, then bound Isaac. Building the alter is how Avraham builds spiritual power and creates connection to God. Laying out the wood is the preparation that went into the act. In order for wood to burn easily as is required for a burnt offering, it needs to be dried for months and sometimes years. It shows that Avraham had already been putting in a lot of hard work before God enabled him to break through the fear.

The last is the actual binding of Isaac. There is a midrash that Isaac asked Avraham to bind him so when the moment came, he did not flinch. When we go to do things of such emotional intensity, we need to bind ourselves to the act so that we don't flinch when the moment comes.

Why Shaman? A definition and clarification

 

Photo courtesy of Akiva

People often ask me why I use the word Shaman. The question usually follows the statement that being Jewish and being a shaman are not compatible and that shamanism is part of Avodah Zarah (Idol worship and therefore forbidden). The term shaman originally referred to tribal healers in Eastern Asia, most probably Mongolia, who definitely held beliefs and performed rituals which would have been considered avodah zarah. However, over the past 50 years as the term Shaman has become more widely used in the west, it's meaning has blurred to such an extent that it no longer really refers to those original tribesmen.

In it's vagueness, Shaman has come to denote a type of person, not a set of beliefs. A shaman is one who interacts with the spirit world. Most Shamans, but not all, use that interaction for healing. The only common belief among all shamans is that there is a physical world and there is a spirit world. The shaman is a person who can access the spirit world. There are beings that exist in the spirit world which can interact with the shaman. Lastly, changes made in the spirit realm effect the physical world so any changes done there are reflected in the physical world.

None of these are incompatible with Judaism or could be called Avodah Zarah. Judaism  believes that there is a physical world and three other worlds above that. Judaism believes that some people are able to transcend the pargod (veil) to enter the spirit world and interact with angels, demons, ghosts, and tzaddikim there (among others) or through practices in this world make contact with those beings (look up the practice of lying on graves of Tzaddikim). Jews believe that these spiritual beings can cause all sorts of blessings or problems in the physical world. Jews also believe that people in this world are capable of making changes in the spiritual realm to heal in this world. Jews commonly ask for blessings from rabbis or brides or anyone who is considered to be in a holy state and can more easily bring down blessings from God.

A shaman is a descriptor of a type of person, not a set of beliefs. That's why I see no problem with using the term Jewish Shamanism for what I do. I use Jewish means to effect changes in the spirit world for healing and that makes me a Jewish Shaman.