yod-eling to the firey break through / this little light of mine

*Updated 4/7/11

sWords, Knifes and Saws. 

 I have begun to have a greater appreciation for the connection between the fiery creative energy and nature's law of cutting/dividing.

The Hebrew letter Shin, (representing the element of Fire and Spirit and associated with the Judgment/Aeon card in the tarot) means 'tooth'. Teeth cut through things too! They are tools for cutting and chewing our food in preparation for the transformation of energy. (There are also teeth on a saw). 

Hmmm, perhaps this is one reason why in recent weeks the Red Key of the local Key Bank keeps catching my eye in various locations...

Red is the color often associated with fire, and also the color connected to the root chakra. 

A key is a tool for separating 2 parts that are locked together, much like a sword, and is symbolic of knowledge, mystery, initiation. 

 

Within the spelling of Shin (ShYN ) is the Yod which means hand, it is an instrument of creation and a flame from which all of the Hebrew letters are born. Yod also represents the sign of Virgo, which is traditionally ruled by MERCURY, and the Hermit card in the tarot.

The other letter within the spelling of Shin is Nun. Nun means fish and like fertilizer is both decay and growth. It symbolizes the sign of Scorpio, and the Death card in the tarot. 



So within the letter Shin, is the firey, creative spirit which burns to bring about transformation and growth!

The path of Shin on the Qabalistic Tree of Life connects Kingdom (which is representative of the condensed, earthy physical realm that we are familiar, much like the root chakra) to  Splendor (associated with Mercury/Hermes/Thoth). 

"'The Splendor of the Material World. Mercury acting through Fire, upon the Cosmic elements.' In other words this path serves to awaken the Intellectual center (Mercury) in the psyche (Cosmic elements) of the initiate using Yod energy."~

Self-Initiation Into the Golden Dawn Traditionby Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero

(*It seems fitting that MERCURY happens to be in the FIRE sign of Aries presently.)

The word Splendor means brilliance, bright and shining. It's interesting that the root of the word Black is also to burn, gleam, shine, flash. What burns (breaks earth down), is flashy and brilliant? Yes indeed, Fire! 

Thursday morning when I couldn't sleep I wrote down some thoughts: 
Nature creates by dividing. Things must be broken to pieces in order to put them together again in a new way. Our purpose is to create our self. If the point was to arrive at an end point, where we can experience total unity and bliss, free of hardship, than there would be no need to experience, change, evolve, create - for the peaceful loving union is already the primal nature of the universe/god/all/nothing. In order to experience all of the infinite possibilities and facets of our Self, our higher intelligence urges us to seek destruction so that we may have ingredients to play and build with.

On a personal level, what scorches you, beats you up, and breaks you down is most definitely what will lead you to growth, greater understanding, and fuel your creativity. Facing your fear and pain is your initiation, your ignition.

 Now I'm finding it interesting to read the first chapter of Genesis with a different view of the word 'saw', as a tool of dividing, which shows us how we see the world in parts rather than a whole. Also interesting is that the inverse of SAW is WAS. It gives new perspective to, "...and God saw that it was good."

spirit/nothing(God) divided(saw) that it could experience/unite/be(was) spirit/everything(good/god)

Just yesterday afternoon I read the following:

The Secret of the Shem-Ha-Mephorash

"God is.

Undivided God is pure potentiality

and realizes Nothing.

God can only realize Itself by becoming Many

and then experiencing all possibilities

through the adventures of Its many parts.

The ultimate purpose for My existence is to

exhaust My individual potentiality.

My Love for God and God's Love for Me springs from

the Great Secret we share.

The Secret is

God and I will achieve Supreme Enlightenment 

at the same moment." 

~ Rabbi Lamed Ben Clifford (aka Lon Milo Duquette in his delightful work, The Chicken Qabalah)

"For I am divided for love's sake, for the chance of union. This is the creation of the world, that the pain of division is as nothing, and the joy of dissolution all." ~ Aiwass, The Book of the Law written by Aleister Crowley

 

I guess because of being inspired by these connections I have been singing "This Little Light of Mine" lately. Today I looked up the song lyrics to see if they are the same as I remember learning them in Sunday school as a 3 or 4 year old, and in the process was pointed to the clip of Christina Ricci singing the song in the movie Black Snake Moan:



And this prompted me to remember that in that film, Christina plays the character Rae (meaning, 'beam of light'), who is chained to a RADIATOR (fitting with the current radiation crisis happening after the recent devastating quake and tsunami in Japan) by a blues man named Lazarus (the well known name of the dead man brought back to life by Christ. Some have also made the comparison to the Egyptian deity Osiris).

 I think I shall have to watch that movie again...

 

"everything is hotter down south" 

serpent fire

*4/10/11 - Sometimes for fun I will click on "Next Blog" at the top of the blogger page. Today it brought me here with these appropriate images:

childish context...part two

In a previous post I mentioned my reemerging love for children's books and highlighted a few of the ones that I have found to be imaginative, inspiring, and full of simple wisdom. This holiday I found a few more goodins to add to the list!

The Dandelion Seed - written by Joseph Anthony, illustrated by Cris Arbo
This story follows the life of a dandelion seed, with a beautiful message about letting go and captivating artwork, this husband and wife team has created a gem of a book. I can't wait to read their other one, titled "In A Nutshell".

On the Day You Were Born - by Debra Frasier
Simply beautiful artwork and a heartwarming message that welcomes the reader and shows our connection to mother earth and all of the other earthlings. Makes you feel honored to be a part of it all.

When the Wind Stops - written by Charlotte Zolotow, illustrated by Stefano Vitale
I love a good story about the cycle of life, and this one is adorable. Written in the style of a young inquiring mind, with the question and answer format of which so many parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and teachers are all too familiar. The illustrations are imaginative and colorful, just like the questions.

Beautiful Oops - by Barney Saltzberg
A book that helps us to realize that sometimes the most beautiful works of art come from what we initially think is a "mistake". Fun, creative, and dimensional!

 Appearances: clearings through the masks of our existence - written by Rusty Berkus, illustrated by Christa Wollan
An illustrated book for the older children of the universe (aka teens and adults) in search of our answers. The images are delightfully reminiscent of my '80s upbringing and combined with a beautiful, peaceful, and encouraging message about remembering, loving and being who you are. My mother gave it to me as a gift recently and I read it occasionally for a good dose of nurturing. The author has a number of other books that I hope to check out sometime.

Happy reading!

the element of water: a reflection

"...Water shows us through science that our thoughts have an effect on our external reality. Imagine the possibilities when people realize their own potential for creativity..." Deepak Chopra

We are all, at the very least, partially aware of the pollution and destruction of our most precious resource. And most of us have heard that our body's water content mimics the Earth's own composition. I think most of us learned in elementary school that there is a certain amount of water on our planet and it follows a certain cycle. And we know that all living things on the Earth need some amount of water for survival. These are the basics of water, of which we take for granted most of the time, but there are many other qualities of water that most of us are not conscious of. The documentary Water: The Great Mystery probes the common element further, with insights from researchers and scientists from all over the world who are finding and showing many facets of water that we did not see before. Most intriguing to me is that water has memory, contains information, and it is something that we all share.

Dr. Gabriel Cousens touches on the work of a number of scientific researchers that support the statements of the above mentioned documentary in his book Spiritual Nutrition. In summary he states that "water: (1) can carry both positive and negative information; (2) has a memory; (3) has a memory that can be erased; and (4) can transfer that vibrational information." Dr. Cousens goes on to write about the "Cosmic Meaning of Water":
  "In essence, water is like the Divine Presence in living creatures. It vibrates within all life as the blood of Nature that takes on many forms: a glass of water, the vast oceans, turbulent mountain streams, or even the blood in our bodies. Water and life are synonymous. Yet playing different roles, it remains one essence - moving as the play of consciousness. Symbolically, water may be considered the movement of consciousness on the planet. It is the foundation of life on the Earth and resonates in constant harmony with the universe, holding the solar energy of the sun and stars, the lunar energies, and the energies of the Earth. In that process, water changes its properties. Depending on what energies it absorbs and carries, water can be either a benifit or a harm to people, making them well or ill. It can give off positive or negative energy, healing or disease-producing energy."

So what are we doing to the water? It seems to me that the corruption of our water is the most direct attack on ourselves, for if the water is polluted than so are we. What we drink and what we bathe in no doubt has an effect on the health and well being of our body, mind and soul. But now we are seeing that what we think, feel and do has an effect on the water that permeates almost everything in our lives. Which can make one think, what came first, the pollution of our water or the pollution of our mind/heart/soul/desire/intentions?

My previous posts listen to your heart and the heart of the matter also relate here, for as we know, water is related to the Moon, and those posts describe the connections of the Moon to the heart as well. Through the gravitational interaction between the Moon and the Earth we see the tides of the oceans fluctuate, rise and fall. We can see further connections in looking at symbolism as well. In the Tarot, the suit of Cups is associated with the element of water. The cards of this suit describe emotional and intuitive experience, and our unconscious, private self. In astrology, the 12 signs of the zodiac fall under the ruling of one of the four elements, with Cancer, Scorpio and Pisces being the water signs. Each sign also has a ruling planet; Cancer is ruled by the Moon, Scorpio is ruled by Pluto, and Pisces is ruled by Neptune. All of these planets associated with the water signs share some astrological associations such as intuition, emotions, and sort of the hidden undercurrent of everything (pun intended). There are also 12 houses in the astrological natal chart that represent the different realms of experience in life. The houses also have elemental qualities, with the 4th, 8th, and 12th houses being the water houses and thus ruled by Cancer/Moon (4th house), Scorpio/ Pluto (8th house), and Pisces/Neptune (12th house). For more in-depth explanation, Stephen Arroyo's books Chart Interpretation Handbook and Astrology, Psychology and the Four Elements, both serve as great sources  for understanding the connections to the elements in astrology. It could take a very long time to explore each of the signs, planets and houses, so let's just take a surface look at the Moon, Cancer, and 4th house in connection to water for now. The Moon represents our past, memories, predisposition, the experiences that have shaped us and imprinted us (a quality we share with water as mentioned above). The sign that we find the Moon in at the time of our birth shows how we express our instincts, and what makes us feel secure - based on our previous experience. The Moon represents the subconscious part of ourselves, the way that we instinctively operate and act without consciously thinking. In connection to the Moon and the sign of Cancer, the 4th house represents the realm of experience in our lives that has to do with our home base, where we are coming from. In our personal birth chart, any planet in this house would show subconscious energies, possibly things that we have formed an attachment to and need to assimilate and let go of. Looking at symbolism helps us to see a direct connection between water, our emotions and our subconscious. Our own tears show us this connection very well. Even if we cannot wrap our minds around the meaning of the connections, we can see that they are definitely there.

If you watched any of the videos or listened to the interviews with Dr. Bruce Lipton in my last post, he talks about how our beliefs create health or disease, not only within us, but everything around us as well. He also speaks of learning to be more conscious, rather than living out of our subconscious. Living out of the subconscious continuously, without thinking, creates more of the same. However we can live with the conscious intention to change ourselves and our environment and eventually, through living out those actions, it will become second nature, creating a whole new reality. It has been scientifically proven that the observer affects the experiment, it seems it is just taking a little while for everyone to accept this as truth, just as it took hundreds of years for people to acknowledge that the Earth wasn't flat. We like to feel secure, so we think and act based on what we "know", but one of the fundamental "laws" of nature is that it is always changing, so what we "know" is not permanent. We need to become more flexible and mutable, to flow harmoniously with nature. However we can only do this through intention and effort, to continuously make conscious choices, balancing and creating. Water is reflecting more than our mere physical image when we gaze into it. The quality of the Earth's water is our subconscious staring back at us, showing us what we are doing to ourselves. The deterioration is a direct result of our patterns of destruction. But the beauty of water is that it has a built in balancing process, and if we can make the conscious effort to change our patterns of behavior, to treat water with respect and love - with the return to the natural state of water, we return to our natural, healthy state as well. And that is empowering. Of course this is something that requires so much more exploration, but it is truly exciting and inspiring.

childish context

As we "grow up", many of us forget about how good it feels to be imaginative and creative, and how to be full of wonder as we live in the world. Lately I have been working (and by working i mean playing) to bring back this state of mind in my life, to dive back into the purity and joy of learning, dreaming, dancing, creating and loving. (And I am delighted and inspired to see the expression of the inner child of my friends too, such as the lovely Tanya and the forever youthful miss Jennie). One of the things that I have discovered, is that I still really enjoy reading children's books! My initial reasoning for reading them was because I wanted to find stories for my nieces and nephew that were fun to read and had a positive message about life. As I "researched" books to share with my kindred, I found that I was having just as much fun reading them. Here are 4 of my favorites that I have found so far and I highly recommend:

The Sun in My Belly - written by Sister Susan, illustrated by Sister Tin Nghiem, and introduction by Thich Nhat Hanh
A delightful story about forgiveness, the interweaving of life, and our connection to each other, to the animals, to the food we eat and the earth. And the water color painted pictures are absolutely beautiful!

 All I See Is Part of Me - written by Chara M. Curtis, illustrated by Cynthia Aldrich
This story also tells about the universal oneness of everything. A little more poetic and "right brained" than the above book, it is peaceful and full of wonder and the images have a very soft feeling to them. Additionally, it is a recipient of the Body Mind Spirit Magazine Award of Excellence, and everyone likes a winner.

The Land of Smaerd  - written by Andrea von Botefuhr, illustrated by Bryn Barnard
Another award winner, this story invites creativity and it has a message of positivity and a reminder that whatever you dream can come true. I especially loved the artwork in this book, it is full of color, imagination and has sacred geometry sprinkled throughout.

 

Owl's Secret - written by Louise Gallop, illustrated by Shannon Cartwright
This is a cute book, written in a style remindful of the tradition of the Native people. A tale that celebrates the differences in all the creatures of the Arctic, and encourages finding your own talents and strengths. I also like the glossary of flora and fauna in the end of the book.

in the beginning there was the word (sound)...

"Vibration is that same energy, same power, ye call God." - Edgar Cayce