Ruach

As I was getting dressed this morning, I discovered a deck of cards on the floor, the Jewish Mysticism Knowledge Cards. Having no idea how they got there, I picked up the deck and pulled it out of the box. I shuffled the deck with a specific question (or two related questions) in mind: What strength do I need for today? What would help me through the day?

The card I picked was Ruach. I already knew that the meaning of Ruach was breath, wind, spirit.... multiple meanings referring to the animating force.

From the back of the card:
"The second of the three primary levels of soul is ruach, which can meabn soul, spirit, anima, wind, breeze, air, breath, odor, thought, mind, ghost, devil. .... God's ruach - His spirit or breath - hovers over the face of the deep in the first chapter of Genesis. .... Ruach-ha-kodesh is the divine spirit, the spirit of prophecy."

It's so very true that today I feel the need for the animating breath of God. I chuckled when the card showed up in my hand. I felt that tickle of recognition as the card slipped out of the deck. In meditation I find myself listening for the breath of God, Ruach, softly playing past my ear. Ruach comes to remind me to pause and to listen and to reflect.

First Sunday of Lent: Foundations

Yesod Olam

"The ninth sefirah is yesod olam: the divine foundation of the world. ...Through yesod, the divine energy from the upper sefirot enters the tenth, feminine sefirah, malchut, the shekhinah. ...In Yiddish, yesod means basis, foundation, footing, groundwork. Yesoydes is element, Yesoydesdik is fundamental, rudimentary." 

~ from Jewish Mysticism, the Language of the Kabbalah cards

Genesis 3:6-7

So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made loincloths for themselves.

This morning, I drew a card from a "Knowledge Deck" sitting on my dresser: the Yesod Olam, the ninth sefirah on the Kabbalah Tree of Life. Afterward, I went to the liturgical readings for the day and found the first reading was about the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden. In the first, the Yesod enters the Divine Feminine; in the second, the Feminine brings Knowledge to the Masculine. The infinite loop.

Both of these speak to the foundations of faith and spirituality that join, at the very least, Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Lenten season, we stand at the gateway of Knowledge, a knowledge of our very self. If we watch and pray, fast, remain aware, we find our own foundation, the rootedness of our own faith. Lent is not about finding ourselves in a particular religion or faith, it's about finding the Self. Period. In doing so, we find ourselves face to face with the Ineffable.

What are you learning from this season? Where is your practice bringing you? What is it that lays you bare? What covers you again? What Knowledge grows on your Tree?