Ritual Law.

THE BIG IDEA

This week’s Torah Omens carry a wide range of elements. There is significant loss, major transgression, severe consequences, military victory, actual snakes, a red heifer and the homeopathic healing. So, if you are feeling a little all over the place this week, caught in the highs and lows, rest in knowing you are in good alignment with this week’s energy found in  Chukot  (translated as ritual law) the part of the Torah narrative read by practitoners this week. 

Use the enhanced sense of vision that arrived with the Tammuz moon to see through your inner darkness. Scan for any lingering fear, sadness or grief and take some time to reaffirm your faith in a larger sense of unfolding.

Since the eating of the fruit in Eden, snake energy touches us all, internal voices that slither through our hearts and minds. Just as the Israelites in the desert look directly at the snake in order to be healed, this is an excellent week to call up snake energy, and face it head on.

If you find you are getting stuck in the darkness , try the Snake Meditation (suggested in the Inner Work Guide at the end).

DEEPER DIVE 

What is the purpose of ritual laws and spiritual purity?

Why go so far as to banish someone that doesn’t respect these laws? 

Could it be that on the spiritual plane (a reality that coexists with our own) certain spiritual contaminants are as dangerous as certain bacteria? Does spiritual impurity need to be taken as seriously as germs in the early days of Corona? (Remember when people were extremely careful to keep their hands and surfaces sanitized at all times as a way of lowering the risk of transmission.)

Perhaps spiritual bacteria, or ‘impurity’ works in a similar way. For example, if you encounter death directly, (i.e. touching a dead body), it necessarily triggers thoughts and feelings that separate you from others. Questions about mortality, along with feelings of  loss, grief, sadness, and anger create potential entry points for “dark thoughts,” and spiritual doubt. These thoughts must be faced directly, and the physical separation from the collective allows a person the space to process those feelings. And so, like washing your hands, spiritual cleansing requires a conscious practice to keep from contaminating others with energies of which we understand little.

After all, what is a ‘holy nation’ if not a nation that is dedicated to it’s spiritual purity above all else?

This week moves from the contemplation of ritual laws of purity (the red heifer) and the ritual laws around touching the dead into the actual processing of it. Miriam dies, and with that the water dries up, the people act out, and Moses hits the rock solidifying his fate as one from the generation sentenced to die in the desert. This week offers direct examples of the way death and loss can touch the fates of the collective, and the people in it. 

THIS VIDEO about Miriam’s death and the loss of water and Moses hitting the rock IS GREAT. 

Imagine. Miriam, the first named prophetess, and carrier of water, dies suddenly. Her death signifies the end to a generation that did not merit entering the land. However, the next generation, the children of the liberated slaves, are left without a model of how to process emotion. They have only seen their parents emote through outrage and complaint, and so understandably, they do the same. And, perhaps for this reason, Moses reacts. Perhaps he lacks the God perspective to see intergenerational growth, or perhaps his death is a part of that change. Whatever the reason, he uses his own mystical ability to bring water, and not God’s instructions, making him and Aaron ineligible to enter the land. The relationship with this new generation must evolve, and leadership, like human consciousness, must keep growing, even Moses.

The story continues, clarifying that war must be fought directly (the nations will not let the Israelites peacefully pass). And this holy nation is prepared for spiritual battle - which seems to mean you can’t just ask a nation to pass peacefully, there must be direct contact. Physical battle fought through spiritual alignment. 

How do you prepare a nation for spiritual battle when they get scared easily and feel unprepared to face physical giants? (after all they are only eating manna aka. angel food)

We see the death of Aaron and the sadness that followed, we see the first time that the Israelites call out to God and ask for help as a collective. We see the Israelites make a pact to acknowledge God’s greatness, and we see them win the battle.

Perhaps the overwhelm of that victory on their system, or the loss of Aaron, or the knowing of how many battles are still to come, or the absence of their parents, invites them to cry for real food and real strength and complain about the Manna, the only food they have never known.

Their cries of lack are greeted by fiery snakes that kill. The snake which has overtaken their consciousness when they complain becomes the pit of snakes the overtake their bodies. And they do what their parents did when they were being physically cleansed by god, they call out to Moses who is instructed to heal through homeopathy, teaching us that like cures like. Moses is instructed to make a replica of a snake to neutralize the venom - all that look at the snake will be healed. All that are able to look at the way old consciousness is biting you, and offers it up to a higher consciousness will be healed.

That is the level of connection needed to begin winning sacred battles.

And so it follows, those that looked at the snake lived and went on after to encounter a series of battles, also against giants, and win.

INNER WORK GUIDE

What is your default complaint? Where did you learn it from? Is the complaint something you learned from your parent’s discontent - or do you feel your dissatisfactions with life and doubts are your own?

SNAKE MEDITATION:

Imagine a snake.

Imagine a poisonous snake.

Imagine that poisonous fiery snake moving closer to you.

Keep watching the snake’s unique movements, and notice your thoughts .

What of your own thoughts are awakened by the snake? Which thought forms keep snaking around? Is it the thought of a certain person or event in your day? Or is the snake represented by a person you might want to be? Or the life you wish you had?

Take some time with your eyes closed to identify the snake and look directly at it.

Look at it closely for what it is and imagine that awareness as an offering to god--- and, by lokming directly at it, know yourself as entirely healed.

*** if you feel comfortable *** please share the list of questions that snake through you and stop you from achieving your goals in the comments or with me via email.

Thanks and Shabbat Shalom!