Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, "And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to Adam, and said to him, 'Where are you?'" (Genesis 3:8-9) God was accustomed to communing with Adam in the garden "in the cool of the day" (for some reason I really love that phrase). After Adam had eaten of the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he was not so eager to take an afternoon stroll with God. If we are reluctant to have a "one-on-one" conversation with our Creator, or with His Son, it is often due to similar thinking on our part. When we are "good", we are eager to be in His presence--praising, worshiping and conversing. When we are "bad", we usually are not so eager to seek Him out, nor do we really want to think about the fact that we are always with Him because of the presence of His Holy Spirit in us. Our Great God, the "Ancient of Days" (don't you love it?) had no beginning, is everywhere-present and is all-knowing. When God came to the Garden of Eden that day, He already knew full well what had happened. When He called, "Where are you?", He wasn't really hunting Adam and Eve. He called to them knowing where they were in hiding and why. God had walked and talked with Adam on many previous occasions "in the cool of the day." (I couldn't resist again.) But this day's walk would be like no other before. The fellowship had been broken. Adam had placed another god before his Creator. He had listened to and believed his enemy and had placed himself on the throne; in charge of his own life. There would be no more walks in the garden; no more close communion of God with Man, with few exceptions, until Jesus came. Man would have no chance for true intimacy with God until the second Adam, Jesus, came and made it possible for Man to have a restored relationship with Him. Now that Jesus has come; now that we have accepted his sacrifice as payment for our sin condition; now that we have accepted Him as Savior and Lord, and now that we are indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God Himself, our relationship with Him has been restored. We are the prodigal son and our Father has welcomed us back into the family. We have Jesus' promise that He will never forsake us nor leave us again. Yes, we have a restored relationship, but we may not be having true fellowship with Him unless we are sincerely seeking it. Before Jesus went to the cross, He drew aside in yet another garden to deal with some serious issues with the Father. "And they came to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, 'Sit here while I go and pray.' He took Peter, James, and John with him. He told them, 'My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me.' He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 'Abba, Father,' he said, 'everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine.' Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. 'Simon!' he said to Peter. 'Are you asleep? Couldn't you stay awake and watch with me even one hour?'" (Mark 14:32-37 NLT) Even those closest around Him were not concerned enough to be in intimate conversation with both Jesus and God as issues of eternal importance were raised. Peter, James, and John had the opportunity to witness and perhaps to partner in prayer with Jesus in His anguish. But they slept. You and I can return to the "garden". We can pause during the day, draw apart, and have fellowship with the Lord. We can walk with our heavenly Father in the (yes,) "cool of the day", which can be anytime we make a decision of our will to set time aside for communion with Him. You and I, like Peter, James, and John after the Pentecost, have the opportunity to walk with our Heavenly Father--with the Almighty Creator of the universe; our God, who is also our Jesus, our brother ("He who has seen me has seen the Father"). Reading the words of a man named A. W. Tozer, I was introduced to a concept called "Spiritual Aloneness". He wrote in his book Of God and Men, "Retire from the world each day to some private spot. Stay in the secret place til the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart, and a sense of God's presence envelopes you. Listen for the inward voice until you learn to recognize it." Tozer, of course, is talking about retiring from the world, listening, sitting still, and being silent until you begin to recognize the voice of God in your mind and heart and all other noises are shut out. I'm reminded of Psalm 37:7, "Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him...". Psalm 4:4 says, "Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still." There's a song by--who else: Watermark--called The Purest Place. It expresses the desire of one to draw near and stay near the Lord and the request of Him to "do what it takes to keep me here in the center of Your heart". I won't write the lyrics to the entire song but make reference to only one line which struck me: "The purest place is You, my King." Think about that. One of the attributes of our Creator is that He is everywhere-present. He is not IN some place; He IS the place! His name is "I AM". If you will, I'd suggest that you pause a moment and consider that. God is in you and you are in God. Take just a moment to experience Him right now. The song that brought about all of this letter to me was not a song by Watermark, or even another great contemporary Christian song. This song was written in 1913 by a man named C. Austin Miles: "I come to the garden alone, While the dew is still on the roses And the voice I hear falling on my ear The Son of God discloses And He walks with me and He talks with me And He tells me I am His own And the joy we share as we tarry there None other has ever known. He speaks, and the sound of His voice Is so sweet the birds hush their singing And the melody that He gave to me Within my heart is ringing I'd stay in the garden with Him Though the night around me be falling But He bids me go; through the voice of woe His voice to me is calling" Look at the first verse. The word disclose means to open up or expose to view. In Jesus, the Son of God, the Father is disclosed to us. (Remember, "he who has seen Me..."?) God reveals His being and His nature to us when we are "in Him." In the third verse, I reluctantly leave His side. He bids me go because I must return to the active life. Through the voice of woe--the grief, regret, and sorrow to which I am subject in the world, I hear Him calling to me. Though the night is falling, He remains with me. And finally, in the refrain is the word tarry. Tarry. Such a great word. It isn't used much now and hasn't been for many years. It means: to linger in expectation; to abide or stay at a place. You know how it was when you were dating a special someone, or how it is when you are with friends and family. The day is over; it's time to go home. And yet, you "tarry". You slowly say your goodbyes, maybe even while making your way to the door; how you continue talking until you reluctantly say final goodbyes and leave. How much more so is it with our fellowship with our Heavenly Father? We long for it to go on forever, knowing that it cannot in this life, but that we will have communion that has no end when Jesus returns. Just as Mary discovered the right thing to do was to sit at the feet of Jesus when she had the chance instead of scurrying around as her sister, Martha, did, we can also take a few moments to be in His presence in the midst of our "scurrying." We would all do well to remember what Jesus said to Mary's "busy" sister, "'My dear Martha, you are so upset over all these details! There is really only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it--and I won't take it away from her.'" (Luke 10) Martha was busy, tired and upset. Sometimes, so are we. But we are told: "But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." (Isaiah 40:31) God loves us more than we can imagine. He longs to spend time with you. Find that secret place; that purest place and remember, "He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty." Tarry awhile with Him in the garden each day. Love, Brother Bill
Professionals have their regulatory bodies and codes of practice, but individuals involved in mystical work are often self taught. This can leave them feeling they are in something of a black hole when it comes to dealing with the public appropriately. From the point of view of the client, it makes it difficult to know who to choose for a reading. Ethical principles should guide all practitioners of the divinatory arts, whatever their field. Talking with a group of astrologers confirmed for me that the same types of problems face all “readers” whose clients have come seeking advice: dealing with difficult questions; the possibility of tragic events; what to do when people have depression or issues they cannot handle alone, and especially, avoiding dependency and the pressure it places on the practitioner. It is dependency on the reader that I will discuss here and how readers and their clients can avoid the problem. Initially, I would say, be clear about motives. As a practitioner, I think the best position is to have a set of strong values with regard to your work that accord with your spiritual perspective. Being a person who tries to live her life by Buddhist teachings I ask myself, “What is my motivation in doing this kind of work?” The answer that initially springs to mind is to help others by giving them the insights gleaned from a reading, but it is more than that. It is to empower others to choose for themselves how to deal more effectively with problems in their lives by giving them information. Encouraging clients to become dependent on more and more readings is not ethical. Client dependency usually occurs when people have a simplistic view of divination. They believe that a reading reveals “Fate” – a future written in tablets of stone that cannot be avoided. They see themselves in the role of puppets on a stage where larger forces are pulling the strings. If they get the “wrong answer” to their queries then real stress can result and clients can pressure readers to tell them what they want to hear by asking the same question again and again, until they get the “right” answer. It’s easy to forget how much the client invests in what a reader says and how careful readers need to be when faced with someone overwhelmed by life problems. The Tarot cards show potentials, trends and possibilities for a person at any one time. At no stage does that person lose their free will. Readers need to show clients how they have choices and need to be proactive in their lives. “If you follow this path, then X may occur. If you follow that path then Y is more likely”. Does anybody get a new job or a new romance if they don’t make some moves towards their goal? A good reading should show ways of making desirable changes. If you are a client looking for a reader who can give you real insight into your possibilities then you should be looking for someone who has the insight to explain things in this way. At no time should you feel you have lost control of your choices. The purpose of divination is to seek guidance not intimidation. Both “seers” and clients need to adopt an exploratory frame of mind in a reading rather than a predictive one and clients should ask, when they book a reading, “How do you work? Is there only one answer to a problem or am I free to explore the possibilities open to me?”
The history of Wicca or “The Craft” is complex but traditional Wicca is rooted in the so called "British Mystery Traditions", for example the Picts, who existed before the rise of Celtic consciousness, the Celts, and some Celtic Druidism. Wicca predates Christianity by about 28 000 years. A variety of archaeological discoveries, reveal that the history of Wicca can be traced as far back as the Paleolithic peoples who worshipped a Hunter God and a Fertility Goddess. Cave paintings, that are dated at around 30,000 years old, depict a man with the head of a stag, and a pregnant woman standing in a circle with eleven other people. Modern American Wicca has its roots in British Wicca, brought to the United States in the late 1950's by English and American initiates of Gardnerian, Alexandrian and Celtic Wicca. These are different forms of Wiccan tradition. All of these cultures form part and parcel of the history of Wicca. The ancient Greek Mysteries of Eleusis, Italian Mysteries of Rome, Etruria and the general countryside, Mysteries of Egypt and Persia before Islam, and various Babylonian, Assyrian and other mid-eastern Mysteries also find a place in the history of Wicca and its beliefs and traditional practices. Perhaps the best way to describe Wicca is to call it a modern religion, based on ancient witchcraft traditions. But do bear in mind that not all those who practice witchcraft today are Wiccas. Wicca is a both a belief system and a way of life. Over the years information about how Wiccan ancestors lived and worshipped has been lost due to actions of the medieval church. However, modern Wiccas have tried to reconstruct the history of Wicca in an effort to lay the foundation for their practices. During ancient times Wicca was called "The Craft of the Wise". This name was derived from the fact that most Wiccas aligned themselves with the forces of nature. They also had knowledge of herbs and medicines, gave council and were important in the village and community as Shamanic healers and leaders. The history of Wicca indicates that Wiccas once had a prized place in society which is quite a contrast to how they are viewed today. Ancient Wiccas felt that man was not superior to nature, the earth and its creatures. Instead they were only one aspect of the world. The idea of sustainable development to maintain balance and equilibrium was central to the belief systems of the ancient Wicca. The history of Wicca is a far cry from the way that man views the earth today. In the last several hundred years, witchcraft and witches have been incorrectly labeled as evil and unrighteous. Where do these ideas that form so much a part of the history of Wicca originate? Some Wiccas believe that the medieval church of the 15th through 18th centuries created these myths. This was done in an effort to covert people to Christianity. The history of Wicca contains many stories of the persecution of witches based on so called “evil” practices. Another theory about the history of Wicca is that as medical science became more prominent in society those who did these initial studies did not understand female physiology, especially menstruation. This “mystery” seemed to fit in with the churches agenda in labeling healers as evil heathens and placing power and respect in the hands of male physicians. Many of these myths and superstitions have survived in modern times giving The Craft a bad name. While Wicca is essentially witchcraft, those who practice it usually do not refer to it as such because of these negative connotations. The history of Wicca is important since it is the persecution of those who practiced it that has led to its current ethic of “religious freedom first”.
You might have read a lot about the Law of Attraction recently (commonly referred to as LOA in shorthand), made popular by its newest informational incarnation, The Secret. But what is it, really, and is it just so much gobble-dy gook? In fact, LOA has been around forever, as have its proponents. People through the years have simply talked about it without using the term "Law of Attraction," but same thing. Norman Vincent Peale did in his wildly popular book, The Power of Positive Thinking, for example. But why is it so hard to figure out, and more importantly, how do you harness it? Well, here's the thing. To "use" it properly, you first have to understand it. So here goes, in a nutshell. First, most proponents of LOA do believe that you absolutely attract everything to you that happens to you, good and "bad" (although if you've seen even discussions on The Secret, even the so-called "experts" vary in their opinions on that to some extent, which I'll discuss later). Now, wait. I can just see you going, "Hey! You're nuts if you think I want to be broke (or sick, etc.)!" And yep, you're right. I'd be nuts to think you want anything bad to be happening to you. Here's where the confusion comes in, and here's where I can help clear it up. If you're attracting something to you, it doesn't mean you want it. Let me say that again. If you're attracting something to you, it doesn't mean you want it. It simply means that you somehow have ingrained in you that it's what you expect. It's your reality. Let's take money (or lack thereof) as an example. Let's say you struggle to pay your rent and basic bills every month, even though you're working really hard. Okay, let's assume for a minute that LOA is right on and that you're attracting this struggle to you. Does that mean you want that to be happening? Of course not. But it probably does mean that somewhere, somehow, you have ingrained within you the message of "not enough" when it comes to money. Maybe your parents were (decent, hardworking, well-meaning) people who said, "Money doesn't grow on trees," or, "There's never enough to go around," etc. If you grew up with these or similar messages and you have them ingrained in you as your reality, then somehow, for you, money is supposed to be scarce and precious. So that's what you attract in your experiences. Money is indeed "scarce" and "precious," and you never have enough. Now, just recognizing this fact goes a lot toward changing your "vibration," which you hear a lot about when someone's talking about LOA. Your vibration is just basically the "signal" you send out to the universe, and that signal attracts what it matches back to you. So if you're always worried about and struggling with money, guess what you attract? Yep, more worry and struggle with money. So then, does this mean you can just say, "Well, la-dee-dah, I'll just quit worrying about money, then, and things will be fine!"? While many proponents of LOA would give a resounding "Yes!" to that answer, I would wager that for most of us, we need baby steps that will ultimately get us to that mindset. More on that in the next article.
For thousands of years of our world’s tradition, majority always rules. The common people decide and the few are left behind. From the crucifixion of Christ in the cross to the election of most of today’s world’s leaders in their presidency, it’s always the majority of votes that becomes the cause. The good choice is the choice of the common people. But can we indeed rely on the choice of the common people? Well, to answer that question, I have enumerated some facts that describe the common people. Fact 1: Lying is common to people. Fact 2: Majority of the people crave for money and fame. Fact 3: Majority of the people are proud . Fact 4: The common people lack patience. Fact 5: True love is rare to common people. Fact 6: Wisdom is uncommon to people. Those facts are facts and we can’t deny them. However, I am not concluding that the common choice is always a bad choice. Sometimes, the common choice makes a right choice especially when it is directed or influenced by few extraordinary people. Nevertheless, greatness and good virtue are only found on few people and reliability is not absolute on the majority of the people. We all need decisions to change or continue our lives. A good decision will bring us success while a bad decision might bring us tragedy. In making a decision, it’s very important for us to know what is a right or a wrong decision. Most people follow the common decision while some people go into unusual decision. If we will base on the hidden truth behind the people mouths, majority of them would chose money and fame rather than love. Most humans will choose easiness rather than difficulties. They would choose pride rather than humility. Life is a decision to make. It is a gate to enter and a way to walk. There are two kinds of decision a person can choose. These are the hard decision and the easy decision. In most cases, the hard decisions are the right decisions, but these are not chosen by most people because of their hardships. Most people like ease and hate sacrifices. That’s why they don’t succeed in their lives. One example of a hard decision is to love truly. True love is full of sufferings and sacrifices. Because of these, most people avoid true love. They avoid love to avoid pains. But what they don’t realize is that they are avoiding the greatness and righteousness of life. Difficulty makes life a real life and true love makes life a great life. In life, there are also two kinds of gates we must choose to get in. There is a wide gate that most people enter because of its effortlessness and convenience. There is also a narrow gate which only few enter because of its difficulties and sacrifices. The wide gate offers convenience, fortune and fame. In the wide gate there are almost no rules and laws to be followed. You can just lie, boast and you can just wear anything (sexy dress is allowed) in the wide gate. It’s such a majestic and decorative gate. It’s colorful like casinos and night clubs. That is why many people are attractive and enters in the wide gate. On the other hand, the narrow gate is full of pains. That is why only few people enter on it. These people are the ones who are god fearing, enduring and humble. They are the persons who are well disciplined and possess the virtue of honesty and kindness. We must choose the right gate for our souls. We must pass on the right way for the survival of our soul. We must belong to the few people who enter into the narrow gate. Remember that majority of the people lie and becomes proud. What we need to do is to make our selves extraordinary, extraordinary people who are straight and beyond the usual people who are proud and liars. We must become persons who are great and inherits true life and eventually inherits the kingdom of our Almighty God. Nonetheless, the choice is still yours. Where would you want to enter? The wide gate which offers effortlessness? Or the narrow gate which offers difficulties?
Copyright 2006 The Lord Word On Healing Publications Today I will love to share with you the importance of Praise and Worship in receiving your blessing from God. Do doctors tell you that you are infertile? Have low or no sperm count? Have you been told you are too old to have a baby? If you answered "Yes," I am here to tell you that health, happiness, and a new family have all already been guaranteed to you. There is a way to have the child you so desire. Imagine the sound of a child's laughter filling your home! Picture having a family that daily brings you all the joy, peace, and love you could have ever dreamed of. Visualize your baby growing healthily inside of you, ready to lead a full and abundant life with you. I am here to tell you today that all of these dreams can be a reality, YOUR reality. The easiest way to obtain victory over all theses situations is to praise and worship God. Praise means to glorify or extol God. To magnify and bless Him. The Bible tells us that God inhabits the praises of His people. (Psalms 22: 3). What does the word inhabit mean? It means God lives in, dwells in, manifest himself in “the praises of His people. When we praise God, we have the Lord as a boarder, an in-dweller in us. For many of you who face difficult or seemingly impossible situations, what you need to do is praise God. When you want God to inhabit your circumstances or difficulties you can do nothing better than to praise Him. For when you praise him you are assured of His abiding presence inhabiting every life situation that may confront you. The only thing you and I can ever offer to God is our praise. We cannot give him money. There is nothing we can give him except praise. How wonderful it is that God says in Psalms 50: 23 “that he who sacrifices thank-offerings honours me and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God.” So you see when you start to offer God a sacrifice of praise these are some of the benefits available to you. Benefits of praise. Praise unlocks the windows of Heaven Praise causes doubt to flee Praise brings down showers of blessings Praise brings down the love and peace of God Praise brings freedom from bondage Praise changes every situation Praise establishes your heart in God and brings God into the circumstances Praise is the master key to God’s store house When you become established in praise you become a true worshipper of God - and you thus prepare your way to reap God’s blessings. In writing on praise, I would like to share from the Bible about David. May the Holy Spirit quicken your understanding and help you understand the truth of the power of praise in Jesus’ name. DAVID What was David’s secret? All his confidence and trust was in the Lord. His boasting was not of any man, but it was of the Lord. David said to Goliath, “You come against me with swords and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the Lord Almighty”. (I Samuel 17: 45) We see in the life of David a beautiful example of God’s hand of protection overshadowing and preserving him from destruction. In his youth David was attacked by lions and bears and later in life he encountered a giant (Goliath) on the field of battle. Against all these overwhelming odds, David was not killed but rather he destroyed those that were bent on destroying him. David said, “All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give all of you into our hands.” (I Samuel 17: 47) You can learn from David; his boasting and confidence was not of what any human could do, it was based on what God could do for him. David lived a life of praise; In the Bible there are Psalms of praise, written by David to God. In Psalms 34: 1, he declared: “I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth.” This was his secret, God’s praise. David knew the power of praise. He knew God dwelt in our praises and nothing could stop him praising God. David listed some of God’s benefits to him for his life of praise as: Redemption from destruction, Forgiveness for all our sins, healing of all diseases. David attributed all theses benefits to his continued praise to God. God fights our battles when we praise him. As you start to praise Him, He will fight for you. Praise is the Christian’s gun of battle. When the battles of life rage hard, the Christian who is fully armed with praise is well clothed for battle. God has commanded us to give him praise at all times. His praise should be to be continually on our lips. When God’s praise is continually on your lips you cannot be defeated. I encourage all the couples who face impossible situations to lift up their voices in praise of God. As you do that the peace and glory of God will come upon you. You say that you don’t know how to praise God. The Psalms are full of praise songs. You can use Psalm 100, 159, 150, 117 to praise God. When I started my walk with God, all I knew was “glory to God” and I used to repeat that over and over again and the glory of God used to hit me so hard that I could hardly move. Praise him any way you know. The important thing is the heart of the person who is praising. As you praise Him, His blessing flows into your life.
Before you are born, you sit down with your spiritual guides (for approximately 2 years Earth time) and together you decide what lessons you need to master during this lifetime, what negative karma you need to balance, and what personality traits you will possess during this lifetime to help you to achieve your life lessons. This forms the basis of what is known as your Soul Life Blueprint. It is over the course of hundreds of lives that you choose to master higher qualities of love, forgiveness, unconditional love, tolerance, acceptance, compassion, empathy, wisdom, and many, many more. Throughout our lives we incur karma (or negative debt) through wrong action. This must be repaid over the course of our lifetimes, and every lesson mastered, before we can free ourselves from the Earth plane, never to return. 80% of the negative energy you feel inside is residual negative energy from a past life or past lives. It is through the process of rebirth or reincarnation that you seek to release this negative energy that you carry inside of you. This negative energy resides in your body's cell memory and subconscious mind. You choose the circumstances that will provide you with the opportunities to learn your life lessons and to repay your karmic debt. 1. You choose your parents. Choosing the right parents is important for the soul to achieve many of its life lessons, and each soul will choose parents that will challenge or teach it in someway. Sometimes it is necessary to choose a harsh or critical parent, who will challenge your internal power. You may not have stepped into your own power and need a dominant force to cause rebellion within your being, to awaken you. It may be that you chose a critical parent as a challenge to test your own self-love and acceptance of yourself. It may even be that you chose a critical parent because you yourself were highly critical of others in a past lifetime and this time you need to experience the injustice of being unfairly criticised and bullied for yourself, as well as repay the karmic debt you have incurred. 2. You choose your personality, your name and your date and time of birth. Choosing your personality, your name and your date and time of birth is a precise action of your soul. Your soul is governed by astrology, or the governing forces of the planets. These planetary forces govern your personality, the way you act, and your internal desires and drives, so it is critical that your soul be born at the precise moment in time, so that you end up with the personality that your soul has chosen to learn its life lessons. Because your name, and your date and time of birth reflect your entire astrological make-up precisely, those trained in the fields of decoding astrology and numerology charts are able to provide you with an accurate and clear account of your soul purpose, your personality, your inner desires, and your karmic debt, etc. You may be wondering how it is that you choose your own name. The answer to this is simple. You psychically implant your full name into the minds of your parents who believe they have chosen your name for you. 3. You choose what negative events and trauma you will encounter. In order to learn your life lessons and become stronger, you need to test yourself and overcome obstacles and often very difficult challenges that you have chosen for yourself before your were born. Hmm, you are saying, but what about free will? If we have predestined our life, what free will do we have? It is true that you have free will when you live on the Earth plane. Before you are born, you choose the many, many different variables or directions that your life could go in. And there are thousands! Your life is like a choose-your-own-adventure novel that you have chosen for yourself before birth. Together with your spiritual guides, you choose all of the possible outcomes that will enable you to fulfill your soul purpose. 4. You choose the negative people who will come into your life. Every person who you encounter on your life-path is your teacher, and reveals to you what you still have yet to master. Especially those who are negative! The very thing you hate most in your enemies, those you hate or cannot stand, is usually the thing you refuse to see or recognize within yourself! These souls act as mirrors for you, and are very important beings for your growth and learning. Your enemies are usually your best or closest friends in the spiritual dimensions, and agree to challenge you on the Earth plane to help you achieve your life lessons. 5. You choose the time you will be awakened spiritually. You give yourself a period of time to awaken spiritually on your own, without any help from spirit. Some choose to awaken later in life, others quite early. Before you are born you request from your Spiritual Master, that if you have not awoken to your spiritual path by the time you have set yourself, that everything that you hold close and dear is to be taken from you, so that you may deeply reflect on your life and what is important to you. This may include losing your spouse, your car, your house, your job, your reputation, your money, your security, your health, whatever is necessary for you to see what is really important to you in your life. 6. Discovering your Soul Life Blueprint. Each soul has encoded in its full name and date of birth its Soul Life Blueprint, which reveals specific lessons it is seeking to master in this lifetime, what karma it is seeking to repay, the purpose of its soul this time around, and the personality type it has chosen to accomplish each of these. Understanding this important information is The Secret to Spiritual Success. Your Soul Life Blueprint will help you to awaken to your spiritual path, and is an important road-map for those already awakened to mastering their life lessons. You will begin to see why you have attracted certain types of people into your life. You will begin to see why you act in a certain way, and what negative behaviors you are here to overcome. You will begin to see how negative actions in previous lives (karma) is still affecting you in this lifetime, and what you can do to correct this and turn your life around. You will begin to see why you have p articular interests and desires, and what fears hold you back in your life. Your Soul Life Blueprint will show you how you can implement new strategies specific to you to help you master your life lessons; it will show you what internal psychological stress patterns you can expect from your personality during this lifetime; and it will show you how to work through these internal stress patterns, how to bring harmony back into your life, and how to find peace within.
All Alone in Here Several years ago I had a quiet but intense experience at the wedding of a close friend. I was early, and as I sat at my table I watched the other guests entering the room. One came in elated, dancing like a performer on stage. Another was withdrawn, inward, as if mulling over some sadness or pain. Some were eating, some talking, some laughing and some sitting quietly. But what I saw – with an almost painful intensity – was that each one of us, no matter what we were doing or with whom we were doing it, was essentially in our own world. Not necessarily lonely, but alone, our thoughts, longings, our selves on some core level separate from everyone around us. Once, many years ago, my four-year-old cousin was standing in the living room with her mother and grandmother when she suddenly burst out, “I’m all alone in here!” When her mother hastened to reassure her that they were right there with her in the room, she responded, “No, in here. I’m all alone in here.” Every human being experiences this essential aloneness. Sometimes we’re not aware of it at all, and sometimes the awareness, like it was for my little cousin, is profound. But whatever the case, it’s always there. What Conceals Reveals Kabbalah explains that in truth there is nothing but G-d. Everything that exists, whether physical or spiritual, is simply a highly limited expression of its Creator, somewhat like each of your thoughts and actions is a little expression of you. The infinite light of G-d, as its name implies, is overwhelming, filling every space. Left unmuted, this all-encompassing light would make it impossible for anything else to exist, just like a ray of light cannot exist as a separate entity within the body of the sun. So, in order to allow for Creation in all of its limitless details and forms, G-d had to conceal His own infinite light. This concealment, known as tzimtzum, is what enables us to be. And more, it allows us to experience ourselves as real, solid, and the center of our universe. This ‘Big Lie” – this core illusion of aloneness and solidity – is what allows us to exist as separate and unique human beings. In its raw, unrectified state, it cuts us off from the truth. But ultimately we are destined to see through the walls, transcend the illusion, and fulfill our potential as uniquely magnificent expressions of the Divine. The Sound of the Void The illusion is powerful, but not total. If we were completely cut off from an awareness of what lies beyond, chances are we would be perfectly content. There would be no reason to question ourselves or our existence, no drive to continuously experience more. But we are not cut off completely. A glimmer of the Infinite light from before Creation surrounds and permeates each person who walks this earth. This light is what gives us the profound sense that there is something else out there. Only the something doesn’t always feel like an actual something. It often feels like something missing - a void. This void, this missing, hovers at the edge of our consciousness, threatening our comfortable sense of solidity and bringing with it an essential longing for…. well, for something. Something more. This sensation of something missing is actually the glimmer of something that is there, but too vast and amazing to be perceived by our ordinary senses. But as physical beings in a physical world, we are not naturally inclined to relate to it in this esoteric way. In fact, the non-physical all too often makes us feel vulnerable and uncomfortable. So, instead of slowly allowing our eyes to adjust to this more subtle light, we avoid the experience altogether, or seek to fill the void with physical things. The subtle awareness of the void pulls us relentlessly toward the next high, the next success, the more exciting relationship, the bigger, flashier toy. The feelings it triggers - like sadness, depression, anxiety or dissatisfaction – drive us to eat too much, drink too much, work too much, spend too much, need too much; in short, whatever it takes to avoid facing the threatening insubstantiality of it all. But, as uncomfortable and threatening as it can feel, if you are willing to face the discomfort, to stop running and listen, you can begin to explore the secret of the void, to expand your ability to see and hear things that lie outside your normal range. Like a beautiful dream whose impression lingers, like a song that stirs memories and feelings from long ago, like a perfume that lingers faintly in the air, the music of the void can stir forgotten memories and open your heart. It can speak to you of where you came from, where you are destined to go and who you are destined to be. A Deeper Level of Life In Hebrew, each letter of the alphabet has a gematria, a numerical equivalent. Whenever the letters of one word are numerically equivalent to the letters of a different word, it points to a secret relationship between the two. It is fascinating to know that the Hebrew word for void, challal, is exactly numerically equivalent to the word chaim, which means life. The message is simple. In being willing to embrace the vulnerability, to stop running away and instead stay present and expand your ability to see, you can begin to reconnect with what has been concealed from you, the part of you that is most truly and infinitely alive. Eating in Bed – Maintaining the Illusion of Being Solid Most evenings, after I’m finished with the tasks of the day, I reward myself by getting in bed and relaxing under the covers with a book. It feels secure and cozy, reassuringly solid and safe. And to further enhance the comforting feeling I almost always take a little bedtime snack with me. In fact, I sometimes take more than one. I’ve been doing this for many years, and, as is the case with most deeply ingrained habits, I’ve become more than a little attached to it. Recently I decided to give it up. I stopped eating in bed, and in doing so I discovered that my comforting habit had been covering up the sound of the void. The perceptions and sensations I began to experience were not necessarily comfortable. In fact, new, bigger things rarely are. But they were rewarding and profound. As physical beings, we are primed to seek permanence and stability. But the bad news – the paradoxical news - is that physical things are inherently unstable and impermanenting face to face with this fact can be scary. It can feel, indeed, like hovering over a dark and formless void. It’s important to remember that this darkness is really a much vaster and more brilliant form of light – one that’s simply too great for our senses to contain. Many of us spend our lives attempting to block it out, to run from the darkness, or to create stability and solidity by clinging to things that are intrinsically unstable. This, however, does nothing to change the darkness, nor to expand our capacity to see. We remain trapped in a world of struggle and illusion. But if, instead, we train our eyes, bit by bit, to see the concealed light, to hear the subtle music, we can begin to set ourselves free – and to use this freedom to make a difference in our own lives and in the lives of those around us. Do You Eat in Bed? Whether you eat in bed or not, I am certain that there are things you do to block out the discomfort of the void. Maybe you eat or drink or work or sleep too much. Or maybe you take solace in having very strong opinions, in making yourself feel bigger and more solid by being right, criticizing, blaming or complaining. Maybe you try to lose yourself in a relationship, or maybe you avoid the vulnerability that an intimate relationship brings. Whatever it is that you do - every now and then, just don’t. Instead, let yourself be open to something – anything - that challenges the way you’ve seen things till now. Going without that extra cookie, that glass of wine, or the need to prove your point might bring up feelings or perceptions that have something important to tell you. Giving up a protective habit is one of the most powerful ways to expand your capacity to see and hear what the habit is covering up. So listen and learn – or better yet, do something that reflects a new, higher way of being. Maybe you can let yourself be vulnerable to someone else where you’d normally be defensive, to really listen rather than defend. Or maybe you can take an hour away from work to sit with your children and smile into their eyes, without having to accomplish anything at all. Learn some Torah, give some charity, or take a few minutes to open your heart to your Creator. These things bring more Divine light into the darkness and expand your ability to experience that light in your everyday life.
