Posts Tagged ‘Jewish’

Fifth Way Visits the Synagogue

Tuesday, January 27th, 2009

OK–
Our Synagogue already has a Meditation Minyan, which I will join. I have a plan, inspired by our new Aron Kodesh, to begin to offer meditations that bridge my basic 5th Way training and expand into a formal Jewish setting. The time and place and my state are ripe for this. I may need or ask for some archival help for illustrations, etc., but I really can probably figure this out on my own. Still, I’d like permission to vet anything by anyone who may care.

Planned [so far] ideas:

Breath and the Body of Light, with some mild introduction to the 5 bodies. After all, Moishe melded Israelite, Midianite a Pharaonic magick into a transcendent melange that empowered a dislocated and disembodied uber-god to incarnate at will in a multiplicity of forms and functions.

Certain postures, attitudes and invocations really do have some absolute value and great potency.

Operating as the etheric double and manners of healing or just finding enough peace and stability.

The top of our Aron is a pyramid with a copper top and copper horns at the base: Ain Soph,Kether, Chokmah, Binah, Geburah– input welcome. I also need to look up Yetziratic scale colors.

Da’ath is for me the gateway to and from the higher worlds, but I’m going to find some dampers and cautions on that for beginners. My key inspiration is to to use the Sh’ma to mediate any connections there. It’s very safe and potent. I also have Mellel and Davka writer to use to cut and paste Hebrew.

Tiphareth is smack-dab in the middle. Torah lives there.

At the base we have Netzach, Hod, Malkuth and Grounded Kether at our feet.

Also, I will want to explain the inter penetration for the Etz Hayim in the 4 worlds. I have a pretty good grasp of this and will be trying to find a diagram.

Somewhere in the garage is my copy of The Golden Dawn, but I know there are many sources.

I have many other ideas:

Simple Sh’ma meditations: Sh’ma Israel YHVH Heinously YHVH had [want a rough translation? Hear Israel I am who I am your God I am the Eternal].

In text this is followed by the V’aHavta, which proscribes fringes at the corners of the garments and a device containing the prayer upon the door posts. I guess will will then operate with prayer shawls [tallitot, or tzititim] and head coverings. I really want to get a set of Tefillin, the leather boxes one binds to arms and head, but that’s a little bit fancy-schmancy.

Various God/Goddess name invocations and meditations.

Perhaps, if all goes well, modify and introduce LRP, SRP, Adam Kadmon and other fun things.

Any feedback? Ideas?

Am I nuts?

I can easily see taking this very slowly and gently.

Mr. Bill

Higher Power

Monday, January 26th, 2009

I love being Jewish. I get to question everything, maybe even have no faith at all!

Anyway, one often hears about “Higher Power”, particularly in Recovery circles. Many have a really negative or uncomfortable reaction to this. I guess it’s like, “how in the hell am I supposed to abase myself to something I can’t see or even verify indirectly?”. Well, I’ll cover that in a different post.

Now, I just want to think about God, Adonai, YHVH, Elohim, ad infinitem.

I’m very happy davening and interacting with that/those guy, guys or entities in Synagogue services. There was always something icky and scary about “God” in Christian services, even in my favorite, the Episcopal Church. He just seemed to want to follow me everywhere and make me feel inferior. Being observant and pious as a Jew, however, feels very comfortable. I maybe wish I could explain that, but I really can’t.

Now, what abut when I feel like I really need a hand on my shoulder, an ear to listen, healing, or someone to mediate and exalt my relationship/s with others and the world around me? Or, when I need to express and release my inner strengths? Who/what do I sense when I meditate?

Two expressions come readily to mind/heart: Shekinah (”Holy Spirit”); Holy Guardian Angel. Shekinah feels to me to be watery/airy, transcendant, pervading, animating and animating all; the aspect of God that is very real, accessible and all but tangible, usually described as feminine. The Holy Guardian Angel seems very similar, but expressed in Western Yoga, i.e. Golden Dawn and other mystical schools, as the closest manifestation of Kether in Malkuth. This is most often, in my experience, described as feminine, too. To me both wear many guises and have infinite names and are as close as breath or heartbeat.

Well, I suppose being Jewish is not at all different from being a Pagan panentheist. YMMV.

Bill

Bill and David’s Wedding

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Wedding

How to scare people

Saturday, November 8th, 2008

Oh, fuck Proposition 8. Fuck the Mormons, the Knights of Columbus and all other outside agitators. Most of all, fuck the “reasonable, intelligent pro-gay” asshole fuck-ups who voted for Prop. 8.

I’m damned glad, for our family for several things: Domestic Partnership, full rights within California, our beautiful Jewish wedding, our Ketubah, our rabbis and beloved friends. Our bubble of comfort is really very big and, for us, safe.

Still, that’s not enough. I really want full, nationally-recognized normal life and will settle for nothing less.

Well, I think that Prop. 8 may not survive long for technical reasons. At some point the link between religion and marriage must be examined in Constitutional terms, CA and US.

Anyway:
On to the subject!
Anyone with any degree of political and social sophistication must surely know that: the root of homophobia is the fascination of others surrounding gay and lesbian sex. Hey, I remember Penthouse Forum letters way back in the 1970’s– almost as much gay, lesbian and bisexual stuff as all the rest of the topics. Lipstick lesbian stuff makes big bucks and causes foaming at the mouth among the most hateful homophobic rednecks.

If we’re smart, we must stop calling it, “Same Sex Marriage.” Marriage, of course, includes a degree of sex [and most of it is for recreation and bonding, not reproduction!]. But the term in common public usage is really what deeply scares our enemies and not-so-much enemies: it makes them think of sex, which brings up lewd images of eating pussy, pinching nipples, cock-sucking, butt-fucking, bondage, leather, Dore Alley, Folsom Street Fair, dark alleys, rest stops, bowling alley bathrooms, truck stops… and on and on.

I propose the terms, “Gender Neutral Unions”, “Same Gender Marriage”, or stuff like it.

That’s just what I think. I know that I have more wisdom and sense than most people.