Get Out. B’shalach
I dedicate this week’s Torascope to all those working to stay spiritually aligned during this time of great transition. May all our journeys for personal liberation result in joy-on-earth for all.
“The potential of the universe will only be realized when we wake up to a more expanded notion of divinity that includes our ability to expand it, and expand with it.”
I.
Bring these ideas into your awareness:
Wednesday evening is Tu B’shvat, Hebrew Earth Day that honors the sacred nature of fruit and land. Thursday is a full moon. The world settles further into the new American presidency. The corona virus continues to spread. And for Torah practitioners this weekend is called the Sabbath of Song, commemorating the splitting of the sea, an event so powerful it brought a single traumatized people into a single unified song. A lot of energy in the air, so it is natural to have the “not-quite settled” feeling.
II.
The Torah Omens invite us to follow this map out of our own personal Egypt-- meaning our oppressive states of consciousness. Last week the Israelites made the ultimate sacrifice of faith, and this week the coming tests/initiation process keeps coming.
In fact, this week’s chapters called B’shalach, meaning, to be sent out, explore the God-logic of being taken the long way around from Egypt to the ‘Promised Land’. ( “The people may have a change of heart when they see war and run back to Egypt.”)
Welcome to the next phase of spiritual boot camp, designed to free an enslaved consciousness from its immersion in a toxic soup of thought forms.
Who hasn’t been swimming in a mix of toxic ideas lately?
Ready to put the muddled thinking behind you?
Ready to get clear?
And so the story goes, after H’ took the Israelites out of Egypt in the night, H’ strengthens Pharaoh’s heart one last time, (“v’yachazek lev pharaoh”) triggering an epic chase scene that solidifies the identity of the Hebrew God as a supernatural force that fights and wins wars on behalf of his people. Yay Warrior God!
The Torah narrative describes a worst fear being realized. The Israelites are trapped between the sea and the unyielding Egyptian army. The freshly freed slaves assume the obvious and the worst-- ‘were we led out in order to die in the desert?’ Moses now settles into the true purpose of his mission, not only to take the nation out of physical slavery but into a higher state of consciousness. Moses touches the water with his staff, and a supernatural eastern wind blows across the sea, forming walls of water through which the former slaves pass - the very same waters that crash down on the soldiers and horses bent on killing them.
This is where the song comes in.
Imagine it.
The edge of the sea that just miraculously saved you, washed your worst fear away. Whatever was chasing you, and your most distant of relatives, can’t touch you anymore.
Imagine that feeling. Being safe. Being saved.
Each person singing out the exact same song, praising the exact same idea of divinity in exactly the same moment. The God that wins wars, the God that saved their lives.
What would that feel like? To experience supernatural forces saved you and all your extended relatives and distant cousins.
Does that idea of divinity assure you? .
III.
The weekly energies peak and then progress. Change is not simple. Safe from an oppressive consciousness, new spiritual muscles must be formed so that we don’t slip into a lower state of consciousness again.
Transformation takes time. Just as a person rescued from a traumatic, abusive situation, beaten body and broken soul, can easily slip back into a constricted state, and even romanticize life with an oppressor, so it is with evolving our consciousness, vulnerable to return to its familiar harsh thoughts and judgements.
The Torah narrative highlights this possible backsliding through the series of protests and complaints that begin three days after the watery redemption. They are thirsty, so Source Energy reveals an oasis in the desert. They are hungry… and delusional. They complain for food (and meat), triggering the next stage in their training. Manna (magical honey wafers) is given in the day, Slav (birds) fall at night and with it, a consciousness of awakened eating. The food of higher consciousness.
Spiritual Bootcamp kitchen rules:
Food will come, but it will only come in a sacred alignment. Only take what you need to meet your basic daily needs. Trust more will come the next day. Respect the spiritual law. Collect double on day 6 - rest on day 7.
Nourishment as an alchemical process that both requires and deepens a responsibility to spiritual behavior in time.
Tests and tools revealed.
The Torah narrative highlights how quickly the demands of our body reduce our faith, and how to gain the muscle of trust through abidance with spiritual law.
IV.
The complaining doesn’t end there and neither does the resistance. In the same week as the miracle winds and waters wash away their oppressors, the Israelites meet their mortal enemy — a nation called Amalek that will haunt them throughout all time.
You might be out of Egypt but you aren’t beyond discomfort or danger. Remember Amalek. Evil still exists in the world, (as do the shadows, ego, doubts and the judgements that attack us constantly).
A liberated soul needs time to set free, and it must find itself ready for this-world situations, internal or external wars. We evolve in stages. The promise of God-Logic “and I will blot them out,” is meant to assure us - even though the attackers are there, I am still here protecting you.
V.
Take this week to be gentle with yourself. Notice emergent fears or common complaints, and when something feels like an outright attack, do like Moses did when Amalek came, and raise your hands to the sky.
The waters of spiritual rebirthing are open for us this week. Allow yourself to envision your worst fears washed away. Let the limiting thoughts that chase you sink like rocks to the bottom of the ocean.
When you Sing the Song of the Sea, rejoice in the knowledge that Warrior God is on your side. Join Miriam’s interpretive circle dance, bring the revelation into the movements of your body. Expand your notion of what alignment with Oneness in nature can do for you.
Experience Relief,
And then, allow Reality.
Wishing everyone a safe passage across the sea of transformation.
A happy Earth Day,
A healing full moon,
And a Shabbat Shalom.