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THE BIG IDEA

According to the Torah Omens this is favorable time to face your Inner Esau.  

Find the thing that haunts you. Send out feelers, pray for help, wrestle with your demons, bless yourself with the energy of positive transformation that comes by claiming the name ‘Israel’ as part of your identity.

You might feel some lower or heavy energy this week. All transformation involves a certain sense of loss. Along with the celebration of your growth, take time to mourn any lost potential from your life. 

In his return from exile (Laban’s house), Jacob’s only daughter, Dina, is raped and abducted, his two sons exact a bloody vengeance without his approval, his beloved Rachel dies during a painful childbirth, and he buries his father.

Hold yourself in the dark womb of return to self, and notice what losses come up for you. But don’t fear, the light of Channukah is almost here.

A MEDITATIVE PRAYER TO END SEXUAL VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

The darkness of winter helps us draw within and examine some of the most hidden places in our individual and collective experience. Create a safe space, cosy up inside, and take advantage of the colder weather and longer nights. This weekend is an energetically supported time to consider one of the greatest darknesses that plagues our world - namely, violence against women, that tragically exists until this day.

This mediation is designed to help you invite prayerful, healing energy into your body and soul, and send it out to the bodies and souls around the world. Send it first to yourself and/or anyone you know that has suffered, as Dina did, at the hands of a man, and then send prayerful, healing energy out to the women and people of the world.

It is a shocking reflection on our state of consciousness that the abduction and rape of women is not merely the stuff of ancient narratives, but exists as a lived reality until this day.

Please may we awaken to a world where women’s bodies are respected and protected, free from the threat and trauma of violence.

STEP 1: Prepare a space for yourself.

Get into your most comfy clothes. Light a candle. Wrap yourself in a blanket. Begin to breathe in and out gently. Imagine yourself surrounded by a dome of protective golden light. Trust that thoughts and energy can leave this protective dome, but no harm can come to you while you are within it.

Allow the safety of the Torah’s light (consciousness) to hold and guide you through the darkest of places. Feel a protective divine spirit around you as you enter this painful realm of violence against women. Allow the torah narrative to guide you in and out of the mediation, and stay focused on the prayer to heal and end violence against women in any form.

PART 1: DINA

Take a few deep breaths. 

Center yourself and imagine Dina, a young woman born into a spiritual dynasty sister on a journey of return with her family. See yourself as Dina, wandering into town and touring the local markets to get a sense of the ways of women in the local culture.

And then, when you feel steady, imagine her being noticed, abducted and sexually violated by the Prince of the town, Shechem.

As you consider the abduction and rape of Dina, Jacob’s only daughter, keep breathing. Remember you are protected by a golden dome of torah’s light, and notice what comes up for you.

Place your hands on your body and send compassion to yourself, to Dina, and all human bodies that have been threatened, harmed and disrespected.

Gently shift your compassion into a prayer to the Source Energy of the Universe to protect you, and everyone you know from violence, abduction and forced sexual acts. Within this space ask to heal any pain that lingers around sexual or physical trauma.

And finally, wrap your arms around you and give yourself a hug, and send love to the archetype of Dina and all those that share any aspect of her traumatic experience.

May we awaken to a world safe for all human beings to explore freely.

Part 2: JACOB

Still in this state of inner holding, allow your thoughts to move from Dina to her father, Jacob, and imagine his experience. Imagine yourself as the solo inheritor to Abraham’s spiritual fortune hearing about his daughter’s defilement. Imagine the silence he held throughout the entire episode. Notice the way his silence upon hearing the news sits with you.

Notice if you find yourself connecting to the deeper spiritual implications symbolized in Dina’s defilement in his silence or as a father frozen in a traumatic response.

Part 3: The Brothers

Shift one last time, and inhabit the perspective of Dina’s brothers as they came back from the field and heard the both the news of their baby sister’s abduction and rape, but also the request of her rapist and captor to be blessed with her hand in marriage.

Locate your inner Shimon and Levi within yourself and imagine activating the power of trickery, and cunning to avenge your sister’s pain and butcher each and every male of the town.

Take yourself through the story and imagine slaying every man that either hurt a woman or knew of violence being perpetrated on a woman without helping the woman get free.

Allow for the cathartic release that comes with justice and action.

Keep in mind Jacob, their father, disagreed with their violent response.