In the Wilderness
THE BIG IDEA
Take advantage of the remaining time between Passover and Shavuot, and prepare another layer to receive the lights of Torah consciousness.
According to the Torah Omens this week is an excellent time to give attention to your own sacred center and organize your awareness around it. Just as God in the Wilderness counts his people and organizes each tribe around the Tabernacle, the physical space designated for the divine to dwell in the desert, the second last week of the Omer, invites us to work on healing our sexual center.
Find your innermost realm, note the special care and protection it requires, and organize the rest of yourself around it. None of the 603,550 men counted in the desert could touch God’s Tabernacle, only the Levites and the three divinely designated Kohanim (Aaron and his two remaining sons) could touch the most sacred objects and live.
Who has access to your innermost spaces - and how do you like that space to be handled, protected and respected as you move through the world?
Remember -- in that center is the connection to the absolute mystery and ultimate power. Life begins by connecting there.
SOMATIC EXERCISE
Labeling our various emotional characteristics and inner parts can help us understand what aspect of our self is dominating our emotional life at any given moment.
Imagine within you was the entire 12 tribes, about to be counted and organized in the desert.
In order to help identify these parts, use a creative license to define what each tribal flag means to you, with each one corresponding to the different attributes.
Reuben – Red flag, with mandrake flowers
Simeon – Green flag, with buildings of the city of Shechem
Levi – Red, white and black flag, with the High Priest’s breastplate
Judah – Sky blue flag, with a lion
Issachar – Bluish black flag, with a sun and moon
Zebulun – White flag, with a ship
Dan – Blue flag, with a snake
Naphtali – Deep wine colored flag, with a deer
Gad – Black and white flag, with a tent camp
Asher – Pearlescent colored flag, with an olive tree
Joseph – Black flag, with Egypt depicted upon it (Since this tribe was divided into Joseph’s two sons, their flags were similar. However, Ephraim’s flag had a bull, while Menasseh’s had a wild ox.)
Benjamin – Multicolored flag, with a wolf
Once you have attributed characteristics to each tribe based on the flag and your intuition, find those places in yourself.
How much of yourself is from each of these tribes?
Take an inner census.
Which aspects have more energy, which are weaker, which are altogether absent?
PART 2
Organize each part into a single line, or four parts, always protecting your inner Tabernacle with the Levi part of yourself.
How well protected is the access to your sacred center?