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moderndayruth

~ Tarot inspired essays and more

moderndayruth

Monthly Archives: June 2012

‘A canoe, mixed sun and cloud, no deadlines in sight.’

29 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in I Ching, Satire

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

Benjamin Hoff, Chi, Margaret Atwood, Tao of Pooh, Taoism, Vanity Fair, Winnie-the-Pooh, Zhuangzi

source: http://history.cultural-china.com/en/38History1143.html

“A canoe, mixed sun and cloud, no deadlines in sight” – that’s how Margaret Atwood described her idea of perfect happiness, in answer to Proust’s questionnaire for Vanity Fair.

Before heading for the coast the other day for the book launch, i did I Ching reading on how it will go and to my utmost relief got Hexagram 58, the Joyous.

Now, the book (Devil, unauthorized biography) was published six months ago, launched in the capital at the Winter Book Fair and has received rather remarkable publicity meanwhile – still, i am yet to meet an author who’s launching his book in cold blood.

I had other concerns too –  to get to the coastal city of Budva, you need to take the mountain road, steep and very curvy while putting up with local drivers’ attitude which an obviously enraged poster from UK described as “a demolition derby conducted by the drunk and suicidal.” Someone afh100 vents on at the Lonely Planet forum: “what I quickly learned on the roads of Montenegro is that it helps to imagine everyone is trying to kill you. It’s certainly going to feel that way… People will routinely overtake blindly at over 60kph on a bend. On a bend on a mountain pass. They don’t use the horn to indicate they’re about to round a blind corner. Therefore it helps to drive as every moment on the roads might be your last: get ready to brake, change gear or slip into the tiniest space to get away from the madness.”

That’s an exaggeration, of course, but let’s say that it’s not totally inaccurate, the truth is that unless you learned to drive in Kabul, you’ll have a hard time driving here during first couple of years – then it gets somewhat easier due to the proverbial human adaptation.


When i  got the driving licence at 18 and my first car soon afterwords, my father would routinely see me off with the dramatic exclamation: “Remember, you are going to battle for survival!” Fast forward 20+ years, it still pretty much feels like one. More so, in the car with me were two dear friends of mine – both notorious backseat drivers and my dear mother. The perspective didn’t seem promising: an hour and a half to get there,  then meeting with the organizer, the launch itself, dinner and driving back in the night.

So, i did breathe a sigh of relief upon getting one of the most encouraging hexagrams in the Book of Changes!

Words “the joyous mood is infectious and therefore brings success” sounded like a music to my ears! There is plenty of Confucian moralization added to the original text – one, of course, needs to interact with others , restrain from frivolity etc., but still – the main message of the hexagram is that of great success and feeling of bliss.

As a side note, what’s true happiness ?
Zhuang Zi, one of the most influential Chinese philosophers who lived around the 4th century BCE — claimed that  that people are (relatively) happy, according to their natures and to different extents; thus, to create a society of relative happiness uniformity in political and social philosophy needs to be abolished. Thus, if people were allowed to express their natural abilities fully, according to Zhuang Zi, there would be no need for government, by the law of nature the people would find their own levels of (relative) happiness. That, i guess, would leave the government in the state of absolute unhappiness, as they would find themselves on the lookout for real jobs – but that’s a topic for some other essay (or two.)
Absolute happiness would be for those individuals, who – transcending the ordinary distinction of things – could melt into life’s infinitely changing process; the sage presumably loses his/her sense of self and from there melts into the infinite.

In Chapter 48 of the Daodejing is described the process of achieving wuwei, the state of least interference*:

He who seeks learnedness will daily increase. He who seeks Reason will daily diminish. He will diminish and continue to diminish until he arrives at non-assertion. (Susuki)

He who attends daily to learning increases in learning. He who practices Dao daily diminishes. Again and again he humbles himself. Thus he attains to non-doing (wu wei). He practices non-doing and yet there is nothing left undone. (Goddard’s translation)

Needless to say, a common westerner needs to do a lot of cognitive reframing, so this shift in consciousness can happen.

I say “happen” – because it is not something we can win in a battle – Zhuang Zu also said: Happiness is the absence of the striving for happiness. So, somehow one needs to do plenty of work, without doing any and needs to be unfocused and  focused on it at the same time. Right, sounds like some mambo jambo, but actually it’s simple – Daoism is basically the way to  appreciate, learn from and work with whatever happens in everyday life. From the Daoist point of view, the natural result of living this way is -happiness.

That brings us to the Daoist concept of P’u, the Uncarved Block – the primordial condition of the mind before the arising of experience –  and to Benjamin Hoff’s Pooh, the very epitome of the Uncarved Block.

The Tao of Pooh is a book of didactic  purpose where the characters from Winnie the Pooh explain the fundamentals of Daoism and it contains pearls of wisdom such as: ” From the state of the Uncarved Block comes the ability to enjoy the simple and the quiet, the natural and the plain. Along with that comes the ability to do things spontaneously and have them work, odd as that may appear to others at times. As Piglet put it in Winnie-the-Pooh, “Pooh hasn’t much Brain, but he never comes to any harm. He does silly things and they turn out right.”

So, after the 1.30h long drive which the most resembled a combo of amusement rides – the roller-coaster and swing-a-round with elements of kamikadze, we arrived to Budva in state of total numbness, which i believe is the closest to proverbial “state of the Uncarved Block” because it indeed predisposes you to enjoy things “simple and quiet, natural and the plain”… like being alive, having made it to your destination against all the odds – and more so – in one piece. Having left the car at the infamously overpriced parking lot, the four of us melted  into the ever growing tourist crowds, where you can’t keep the sense of self, even if you wanted to.

After that experience, the launch itself did feel like a piece of cake.

*for the lack of more adequate equivalent, i came up with the ‘state of least interference’ to substitute the widespread &dreaded term non-action which sounds as an euphemism for couch-potatoing

Hexagram 58, Wilhelm’s translation:http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/2006/10/24/i-ching-hexagram-58/

Margaret Atwood answers Proust Qestionnaire; Vanity Fair:http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2006/10/proust_atwood200610

Driving in Montenegro: a guide for the unwary http://www.lonelyplanet.com/thorntree/thread.jspa?threadID=1974057

The Tao of Pooh: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Tao_of_Pooh

A video from the launch, courtesy of Butua.com portal (in Montenegrin) :http://butua.com/izvjestaji-reportaze/lena-ruth-stefanovic-zbirka-pjesama-djavo-jedna-neautorizovana-biografija/

Illustration of Shi Wai Tao Yuan (A Haven of Peace and Happiness), source: http://history.cultural-china.com/en/38History1143.html

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Rhubarb pie and Fellowship with Men

25 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in I Ching

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Book of Changes, Chi, Ching, Hexagram, I Ching, Jonas Ridderstråle, Kjell A. Nordström, Middle East, Rhubarb, Rhubarb pie, Taoism, Wilhelm

English: A page from a Song Dynasty (960-1279)...

English: A page from a Song Dynasty (960-1279) printed book of the I Ching (Yi Jing, Classic of Changes or Book of Changes). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A friend of mine, author Bonnie Cehovet, wrote an amazing piece of microfiction titled ‘Rhubarb pie’. I don’t know what’s rhubarb, it doesn’t grow here, but i kept reading.

In only 118 words, regardless of mine not knowing neither the taste nor the smell of rhubarb, Bonnie made me recall the early morning smell of my grandmother’s  garden, the dew drops on the pansy flowers planted on its edges; the crowing of the neighbor’s roster who once again overslept the dawn, the bells of the Church across the street that rang and made the pigeons that had rested there fly away hastily…

My grandmother was from a prairie, where corn grows and the magic made from a scratch, kneaded of white flour and baked on a wood stove is something i grew up with.

My grandmother was a lot on my mind today – she often is, she comes to my dreams and is a part of my life, albeit it’s over two decades that she passed away.

A remembered all of it and it’s as if i felt the smell of rhubarb pie, and it’s as if i even tasted it – albeit i do not know what rhubarb is.

Later on, i searched rhubarb online and stumbled upon a blog by a chef from NYC, who is originally from the old country where my grandmother was from. I was moved to tears when i read the story of his mother who had passed him her love for the magic of cooking, who lost the battle with cancer and to whom he devoted his blog.

It’s past my bedtime, yet i decided to write down the thoughts i had today, related to the I Ching reading i casted earlier.

I wondered what would The Book of Changes say on the concept of identity and all the various labels we misuse thus risking further segmentation and separation of the humanity.

I’ve never heard of any kind of religious war between Daoists and Confucianists or their armed clashes with Buddhists – due to differences in doctrines, it seems to be a thing in which Abrahamic religions have sub-specialized.

What exactly prompts entire nations to go to war over deceptive concepts such as ethnicity or religious affiliation, is beyond my comprehension; geographical borders are an quite illusionary human invention and religion is most often just a matter of social conditioning. However, at age of 21, those have left me “orphaned” in terms of my own identity, the only one i had known. One day i was Yugoslav, belonging together with other 22 million people to a certain country and speaking a language i believed to be my mother tongue – next thing i know i was deprived of my nationality, my country and the language i spoke as well. Never mind that the land we called such and such did not go missing, it’s still here, never mind that i still speak the language i always spoke, never mind i still relate to all the same people. Regardless that meanwhile that poor land was cut in pieces, borders re-assigned and once-brethren proclaimed enemies.

Thus in one dimension everything changed, while in other everything had remained the same. Ever since then i am very careful with this tricky concept of identity – it turned out to be the ultimate slippery slope in my experience.

Identity comes from Latin identitas (“sameness”), and in philosophy is defined as “the relation each thing bears just to itself.”

Philosophers have been bashing their heads  against the wall over the questions like:

f x and y are identical (are the same thing), must they always be identical? Are they necessarily identical?
What does it mean for an object to be the same, if it changes over time?

And i don’t think anyone came up with a definite answer, or at least an answer that would make sense to the most of us.

Myself, i could say i am an European. But then Balkans is not really Europe, except geographically – it’s a complex culture unto itself. If speaking in terms of continents  i could say i belong to European continent, albeit that too is rather an arbitrary concept, as the physiographic definition “continent” can and often does incorporate cultural and political elements. On a personal level, i adhere to system of believes and values that was developed once upon a time in the Middle East; i am profoundly influenced by Eastern philosophy and that reflects in my work by which i personally identify myself the most. It’s been said long ago that studying a foreign language develops so-called secondary linguistic personality, a kind of substitute-self which presumably reasons in terms typical of the native speakers of that language; given that my Russian is on the level of a native speaker and given that i write in English, what does it make me? Everybody. And at the same time – nobody. I believe we all are – everybody and nobody at the same time.

I’ll quote Zion, whose amazing blog i discovered recently: “We are all humans. We all breathe the same air, have the same blood, require the same nourishment, are born with same flesh, and face the same fate as we grow older.”

And here is what I Ching has to say on the above: Hexagram 19.4 Approaching (Lin) changing to Hexagram 51.

(By the way, it’s not true that when casting an I Ching reading the question should be worded meticulously and for what i know there is nothing in classical texts to support that claim; it suffices to focus on the situation on which the Book is consulted, more so – such unfocused focus  predisposes the answer to be more comprehensive. We usually don’t see the big picture and by limiting the question the narrow the answer too.)

The Chinese word lin has a range of meanings that don’t have an equivalent of a single word in any other language. The ancient explanations in the Book of Changes give as its first meaning “becoming great.” Originally it meant overlooking and implies leadership and control. In The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation by the Taoist Master Alfred Huang the parallels are made between Chinese character (ideograph) for Lin and that of gua 13, Tong Ren  translated among else as Fellowship with Men and People in Harmony.

Taoist Thomas Cleary in his translation The Taoist I Ching adds meaning of joyfully following truth.

The changing line, Six in the fourth place says (Wilhelm): Complete approach. No blame.

Cleary explains it in terms of spiritual alchemy, where  ‘being weak yet preserving rectitude, refining oneself and mastering the minds, thereby awaiting the newborn positive energy, is called consumate overseeing.”

The Judgement of Hexagram 51 is expectedly cryptic:

Shock brings success.
Shock comes – oh, oh!
Laughing words – ha, ha!
The shock terrifies for a hundred miles,
And he does not let fall the sacrificial spoon and chalice.

Its Image is dreary:

Thunder repeated: the image of SHOCK.
Thus in fear and trembling
The superior man sets his life in order
And examines himself.

In my understanding, I Ching at the dawn of the humanity has predicted a phenomena to which we will come only by the end of 20th century: the grouping of people in so called “tribes”, according to their interests, hobbies and affiliations; for what i know,  the phenomena for the first time was analyzed in depth in the book “Funky Business” (2000) and its sequel Karaoke Capitalism (2003) by genius Swedish neo-marxists of unpronounceable names:  Kjell A. Nordström  and Jonas Ridderstråle.

Such “tribing” would be the ultimate empowering of people who “become great” by “joyfully following (their inner) truth” and gather together with other people “in harmony”.

The aspect of leadership is quite important and accentuated – and Wilhelm in detail explains the ideal attitude of the high ranking commander towards the capable people of lower class… Right,  that would be the rule of democracy.

(As a side note: how timely, in view of US 2012 Presidential Elections which by default will impact the entire world for better or for worse.)

By Shock and Thunder oftentimes is depicted intervention of (for the lack of better term) Divine Will, when it has to correct something that got out of balance – quickly and most unexpectedly.

The people laughing is a bad omen – they heaven’t learned the lesson. The wise man withdraws and reexamines himself.

I think we should do this inner searches quite often, examine ourselves and check are we personally and our respective tribes on the right path; are we following the truth and are we happy. I think we should choose leaders who are capable of justly “overseeing” the progress of such ‘fellowship of men.”

I believe the shock of the wars fought in our lifetime is a warning not to take it carelessly and lightheartedly.

What prompted my musings on this topic?  You see, when i started blogging some said i don’t stand a chance – a female author, from one of those teeny-weeny countries that best part of humanity has no idea where exactly it’s located; they told me no one really cared what was going on here, they told me ours was a marginal culture, they told me our language was of too limited diffusion… 4,231 hits on my blog in only six months proved them wrong. Yesterday i received the following notification from wordpress: “On Sunday June 24, 2012 you surpassed your previous record of most follows in one day for your blog moderndayruth…” Among them fellow bloggers – a kabbalist, a daoist, an atheist, a cat lover, an expert in embroidering and a sewess , people from all walks of life and from just about anywhere in the world. I’ll quote Zion once again as that’s the main identity  i personally recognize:”We are all humans. We all breathe the same air, have the same blood, require the same nourishment, are born with same flesh, and face the same fate as we grow older.”

We are all in this together, so lets make our choices wisely.

Rhubarb pie, flash fiction by Bonnie Cehovet: http://theworldofflashfiction.wordpress.com/2012/06/24/rhubarb-pie/

Wiki article on I Ching:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Ching

Text of the Hex. 19, Wilhelm’s translation: http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/2006/10/27/i-ching-hexagram-19/

Hex. 51: http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/2006/10/28/i-ching-hexagram-51/

Zion’s blog, the essay on compassion  http://iamzion.com/2012/06/22/an-aspect-of-compassion/

Chef Milan’s blog: http://www.izmojekuhinjice.com/p/o-meni.html

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The Tao of Ruth

22 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in I Ching

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

China, Chinese Philosophy, Confucianism, Daoism, I Ching, Tao Te Ching, Taoism, Zohar

I overdosed on Daoist texts yesterday. Say what you will, but those texts (any, generally considered ‘holy’ or ,as Chinese elegantly put it, ‘classical’ ) have huge impact on the consciousness. Try studying the Bible or Dao De Jing or Upanishad or Zohar, to name just a few,  for couple of consecutive hours, with an open mind and without expectations and you’ll see for yourself. In my believe, those are – for the lack of better phrasing – living beings. Wise, humorous, entertaining and on occasion satirical and even bitchy living beings. If your beloved Book of Changes has called you sometimes ‘The Young Fool’ by throwing hexagram number four repeatedly to your face, you know exactly what i am talking about.

Both main traditions of Chinese thought – Daoism and Confucianism – stem from the Book of Changes, but it is quite challenging to speak of those in Western terms.

We could say I Ching to China is what Bible is to the West and we would be both – quite right and terribly wrong as well. In the same vein, it is quite difficult to juxtapose the two schools of thought – because you can be perfectly Daoist in some aspects of your life and absolutely Confucian in others, whereas, for the sake of comparison, you could hardly be Christian in some views and Muslim in others.

Risquing the dreaded oversimplification, i’ll try to differentiate the two most generally – at least in the ways they are generally perceived in the West.

Confucianism is focused on the past and looks for guidance in the traditional, conservative ways. It’s about morals and rituals and the proper way to do things, as learned from ancestors; it is communal, active and engaging.

Daoism is way more individualistic, self-focused and unpretentious; it advises simplicity and non-judgement so to avoid polarization and stemming from it imbalance.

Too much knowledge is viewed as counterproductive, too much involvement with the society – fatal for one’s true self.

While putting away social conditioning and traditional ways of doing things – the sage focuses on his or her own inner calling and turns off the ‘human mentality’; there the mind of Dao steps in.

What is Dao exactly – nobody knows, those who know don’t speak and those who do speak – do not know it.

(Both renounce the after-life discussions though – saying that we don’t know people, so can’t know Gods and that we don’t know earthly ways, even less so the ways of heaven.)

We could look at it this way, using the parable of a storm, which could be found in most traditions. (If you recall, in Christian Bible Jesus was sleeping when the storm began, oblivious to it and thus unaffected.)

Seeing the approaching waves – Daoist would basically try to keep his distance, but if for some reason he had to to get in, he’d get his surf promptly and, ideally, would enjoy the ride.

Confucianist would first call all the emergency numbers. Then they would organize the rescue operation, put on the life west and jump in to save the drowning victims. It might turn out there were no victims in the first place. The reward for his courage might be that he drowns himself. It all might have been nothing but a bad dream. We can’t know that.

I think in such occasions most don’t reason, but simply act in accordance to their nature.  My own impulse is to jump in and i inevitably do. I’ve never “drown”,  but i don’t think i saved many (if anyone) either, i was simply acting according to my basic nature. And then one can’t go wrong, whatever they do; if in tune with inner self , there is no corruption or immorality.

But, if speaking of non-emergency situations, my own experience is that it is better indeed to keep away.

I believe i am Daoist by birth and Confucian by conditioning. My own, intimate perception of the outer reality is indeed that of something quite impermanent and illusionary; i believe it is I who validate the outer by getting involved, and not the other way around.

It’s being a while now that i am aware to which extent the outer reality is overestimated and prone to manipulation; more so there isn’t one single definition of it that philosophers (or scientists ) would agree on.

Right, evening news are reality – but only as long as you don’t turn off the tv. Some people are very real – and beside you, as long as you don’t get away from them and their words and deeds.

Having relocated often during my formative years – i can attest to that.

In my view – people from our surroundings always have expectations of us and that’s a preset pattern almost impossible to avoid, it is a trap.

Some are expected to be successful, some are expected to be loosers, some are expected to be good looking, some are expected to be drunkards and so on. On an everyday level – there is very little room to change, within those preset expectations; as we know, people instrictively hate changes and will push you with all their might not to change. Mostly unconsciously, but the effect on you is the same. It is not good or bad per se – everyone is on a stormy ride of their own and they need ‘reppers ‘; if you succumb to that, you become merely a road marker for somebody else, equally lost as you are.

Reinventing oneself through changing surroundings is thus crucial to survival. I believe literal relocation, at least temporal,  is the best; as they say – no one is a prophet in his own land.

If that for some reason is impossible, focusing on different activities and switching back and forth between various groups of people is, i believe, second best. Otherwise we are stuck in other people’s expectations and drown in by inertia.

If twenty people or even five mentally have set their own limitations for you – breaking away from those is alike to escaping the infamous Shawshank.

Because – that’s what it is, a mental prison of highest security, that of others, not your own.

As much as we are debunking prejudices and stereotypes, those were crucial for human survival. It would be impossible to conduct daily living, if we dealt with everyone and everything as if they are first of a kind we encountered.

If we contemplated for hours whether a chair is indeed meant for sitting, why some food is considered poisonous, if we gave a chance of a doubt to someone approaching us with a knife and a mad spark in their eyes – our existence would end pretty soon.

Our ancestors have survived because they learned to differentiate between a friend and the enemy – and they learned to do so fast, otherwise you and i wouldn’t be around nowadays.

Thus, while we are “breast-fed” into a way of stereotyping in order to survive – and these preconceptions are necessary for everyday living, it’s not only that we need to learn over time how to debunk discrimination, but we also need to learn how keep away from others’ preset patterns – and how to spare those others of our own limitations that we projected on them.

It is not easy, more so that these ‘preset patterns’ are indeed a part of common sense.

If your parents are wealthy and educated, chances are you’ll get a decent education and make it as well;  dysfunctional families by default grant their own offspring significantly less chances. It takes a lot to an addict to renounce their addiction, whatever it is; it takes… a lot, and it is tough to change one’s ways. But it is possible, indeed. We do have Free Will and as long as we breath, we can change.

From experience, it’s way easier to do so away from others, at least – from the usual surroundings.

What they expect of us – usually has very little to do with who we are, that’s from experience too. Also, keeping up with others and their expectations is draining, and the energy needs to be focused on the inside, so the change can be effective.

I know it’s usually believed one can’t do so if they have family, but it’s not true – take Leo Babauta’s of Zen Habits example.

So, while i can’t know what is the way to go for everyone else – or for anyone else per that matter – i do know for myself that i have to chill out. If i was left alone, i’d hardly ever get involved, i don’t strive for recognition and my own ambitions are pretty much down to my own being undisturbed and let alone in doing whatever makes me feel fulfilled. Of course, over years there were clashes with my family and friends who had very different view of what i should be doing – and as every well-meant tribe they did not save efforts and manipulation to make it be the way they thought best.

Again, i am not judging – i know it comes from the best of the intentions, but the thing is that no one can make decisions for anyone else, passed the time of their legal adulthood, and it is very wrong to do so, for numerous reasons.

There can’t be coercion of the will, nothing good ever came from it.

It’s been discussed before and there are researches and publications about differences in Western and Eastern child upbringing – basically the former is presumably focused on child’s well-being and happiness, while the latter focused on the achievements and external validation.

My own parents seem to be hidden Chinese , most parents in Balkans are. I don’t think it’s good.

Of course that everyone sane wants their children to make it, you are responsible for your children until certain age and all of it is common knowledge, but if you are pushing like mad while your grown up offspring is screaming, then something is very wrong… yet that’s common in Balkans. Manipulation, verbal harassment, intimidating – i think more or less all of us around here were subjected to that – so we’ll do what’s right.

Except universally accepted moral postulates – i really don’t know what’s right, what i do know is that most of us have been leading unwanted lives, the lives that were forced on us.

That sucks, as successful as it might come across. I do not see the point in being externally validated as successful , if you are falling apart inside.

Again, i do not see the point in external validation in the first place, as myself i accept the outer reality – to say the least – with a pinch of salt.

I went through a rough patch recently because i was for too long pushed into circumstances which i abhorred; before you ask why didn’t you simply leave, i’ll tell you that where i am  it is not that easy, more so, due to our sociohistorical background it’s close to impossible.

Of course, all things change sooner or later, but some changes do take time and usually, just before the very change occurs – the things reach extremes. That’s what’s been going on with me and it almost resulted in nervous breakdown. And it’s true what they say – it’s darkest before the dawn…

Anyhow, all of it made me once again realize we can’t change anything and anyone, but ourselves. That’s truism of course – yet what is way less known – is Machiavelli-like ways suggested in Dao de Jing for ‘the sage’ (aspiring Daoist that is) to avoid oppression, and sometimes the time is just right to apply them.

Not to forget that traditionally I Ching was mainly consulted by scholars, while in royal service – and there is plenty of advice in the book how to keep one’s head on its shoulders, while still not losing one’s personal dignity.

I apologize for being so cryptic, yet revealing personal names and concrete issues is not my stile; after all – probably every single thinking human being, balancing between what’s due and what’s one’s inner calling – has been through something very similar.

And open opposition and frontal attacs are often not the best way to proceed – that i learned the hard way, sometimes one just has to be smarter than that.

I believe these are not concepts easily accepted by a Western mind, but then the West has traditionally being way more free and democratic than the East; if stuck in the latter – a classical text The Art of War, alongside the above mentioned I Ching and Dao De Jing, might be crucial for one’s well being and on occasions – the mere survival.

Attached is the image of a reading with Osho Zen i did for myself this morning, after the above mentioned Yixue marathon; the Emperor and the Empress (Rebel and Creativity respectively) can pretty much denote Yang and Yin aspects of one’s own being; the New Vision is more so appreciated and welcomed if keeping in mind that traditionally it’s the card of the Hanged Man – denoting a new perspective of course, but not one which is quick, willingly achieved or pleasant. “Totality” would be traditionally the conflict of the Five of Wands and “Completion”, where last piece of the puzzle falls into the Brow Chakra, would be the traditional ‘Judgement’ with it’s metaphorical resurrection and healing…

Have a great weekend everyone, to those who observe – Shabbat Shalom!

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Corruption

18 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Essay

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Montenegro, Wikileaks

English: Flag of the Principality of Montenegr...

English: Flag of the Principality of Montenegro (1878-1910) Español: Bandera del Principado de Montenegro (1878-1910) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Your country is listed as a mafia ran state. Former US Ambassador in documents that leaked calls you the most corrupted nation in Balkans and states there is no political will to fight it.

What are we going to do? Can we live in a country where there is one law for you, some other law for them and no law at all for some? Are Pakistan and Afghanistan the countries we are looking up to?

I am one of those who believed at the time that state independence was more important than reforms of institutions. I am one of those who gave money and volunteered work over more than a decade for Montenegro to become independent.

Anyone who said something against – we considered our enemy. Probably they were. I am more than happy we are in power to make our own decisions. I never considered us to be a marginal culture , it’s idiocy to think we are some kind of second rate (or first rate per that matter) citizens of some other people, we are an autochthonous nation.

It doesn’t matter what you call the language you speak, all the languages in the region are similar anyway. It doesn’t matter to which church you go to pray, God is one.

It doesn’t matter if you are right or wrong. Don’t silence your neighbor, make sure he has the right to speak up – no matter what.

Don’t be intimidated by bullies, they can’t break us if we unite. We must fight for our right to disagree. We will express our disagreements in referendums and elections – and the majority will win. The majority might be wrong, but that’s democracy. We can not patronize an entire nation, believing it does not have awareness it takes to make decisions (and thus turn the blind eye to manipulation.)

I was disheartened lately, i had lost hope. Albeit i am a public personality, i never supported openly this or that party and never went against anyone personally – i supported ideas and fought against chaos. It’s time to call a spade – spade.

Christian, Muslim, Jews – we are all Montenegrins. No one has a spare nation. To me my religion is that – a religion, not a second nation i keep in my pocket and will take out when the time is due. Both sides of my family fought wars and spilled blood for this land – and i am not going anywhere.

I came back when almost everyone ran away. I was thought to think in terms of my people first. I am not giving up now.

I am very sad to witness system after system, doctrine after doctrine falling apart – i attended funerals of three countries, but i am not burying Montenegro – if she dies, i am going down with her because my life will prove unworthy of living.

Our country is ill. I hope it is not fatal. The open wounds are infected and they are bleeding. Do not pretend you don’t see it. We must clean the wounds and work on that which was spoiled.

Don’t forget that there isn’t a single family which was in power in Montenegro for longer than a single generation. Things will change. Tomorrow you will be the underdog. You will want then to have strong institution that you can rely on. Start building them now.

Start from yourself. Do not resort to connections, do not take over your unprivileged brethren. Do not pay for things you are never supposed to pay. Report corruption. Don’t let our leaders get away with empty speeches. It’s time to act.

If you are a writer – do not publish your books without a contract; demand a contract, and royalties too. Claim the copyright. Do not let them fool you there is no money in it – of course there is, otherwise why would they bother?

Don’t let us being ripped of in the name of Montenegro. WE ARE MONTENEGRO, we are this country. If they are oppressing us – they are working against the country, not in its interest.

Don’t work for free , do not volunteer your time and effort for fake causes. For every minute you volunteered, someone has cashed in money. On each and every Don Quixotism of yours, some crook has earned good standing with the government. And money and privileges that go with it too.

Do not comply. Do not agree to the farce so you will be awarded. Don’t put up with things to get an award. If you are a lousy writer or can’t really paint, if you suck as a diplomat – live with it, your vocation is elsewhere. Do not let the corruption rule so you can be in a position which you did not deserve. History will laugh at you. Future generations will bring your name down to dirt – and they will be in their right to do so.

Do not close your eyes to the can full of warms. If your doctor asks bribe – report them. If you are paying for your kid to attend a state funded school – think twice is that the right thing to do. You will realize it is not. You are feeding the dark side, it will never turn out right, it can not.

If you got job through connections – think twice. It is not the way to go. I saw an institution i worked for over a decade fall apart. I am witnessing another one i was involved with going down. Think five years in advance. There are no shortcuts. You can’t have the corrupted leading the blind and unconscious, because all of us will fall off the cliff.

We are an insular nation, who for centuries lived isolated, high up in the mountains.

We have our ways – and there is a lot of good in those. But, do not let them disguise corruption as Montenegrin tradition, it is not. We are a poor nation, albeit with a great history. There was never such social and economic division between us. They are not a different class. They were not born into money. Ask your grandfather, everyone was poor like a church mouse after the WWII.

Don’t let them get away with this, or live with the choices you made – and know that the future generations will curse you. It is not worth it. With a nation whose memory extends centuries back – Montenegrins never forget – it is not worth it.

There is a forest behind these trees, there is a future for Montenegro. Better future, less corrupted. Do not give up, do not comply.

Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18237811

Mafia States: http://carnegieendowment.org/2012/04/25/mafia-states/artl

Wikileaks on Montenegro: http://www.flarenetwork.org/learn/project_echo/croatia/article/montenegrin_govt_was_involved_in_organized_crime.htm

EU update on Dr. Moses Naim report http://www.neurope.eu/article/europe-hosts-mafia-states

BBC refuses to aplogize to Montenegro for calling it Mafia State

http://macedoniaonline.eu/content/view/21175/46/

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Daily Draw: The Daughter of the Firmanent

11 Monday Jun 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Tarot

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

Crowley, Frieda Harris, Joseph Campbell, Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Tarot, Thoth, Thoth tarot deck, Yom Kippur

English: High priest offering a sacrifice of a...

English: High priest offering a sacrifice of a goat, as on the Day of Atonement, Yom Kippur; from Henry Davenport Northrop, “Treasures of the Bible,” published 1894 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Every man and every woman is a star. The Book of the Law 1:3

Crowley’s own description of the Star in the Book of Thoth (1) is completely useless  in terms of card’s working knowledge; as brilliant as most of his other observations are , here he sounds as a baffled newbie who,  not knowing how to interpret the card in a reading, starts describing its artwork ad nauseum.

It is possible that Crowley didn’t get it – after all, he was (as arrogant as he is presented usually) humble enough in his correspondence with Frieda Harris  to admit that he personally did not grasp all of the cards, and the confusion arising from his infamous Emperor/Star swap (2) makes this explanation sounds even more logical…

Usually enlightening Lon Milo’s book here is merely paraphrasing TBOT and Waite, in his ‘Pictorial Key’ is , if possible, even more vague: “The summary of several tawdry explanations says that it is a card of hope. On other planes it has been certified as immortality and interior light. For the majority of prepared minds, the figure will appear as the type of Truth unveiled, glorious in undying beauty, pouring on the waters of the soul some part and measure of her priceless possession. But she is in reality the Great Mother in the Kabalistic Sephira Binah, which is supernal Understanding, who communicates to the Sephiroth that are below in the measure that they can receive her influx.” (3)

The thing is that Waite (un)necessarily mystified his writings, Lon Milo has kept a lot of what he had to say for his course “Sexual Alchemy of the Thoth Tarot” and as per A.C., he actually puts it all there, albeit veiled: “I give unimaginable joys on earth: certainty, not faith, while in life, upon death; peace unutterable, rest, ecstasy; nor do I demand aught in sacrifice.”

Because the Star is the female orgasm,  her male counterpart being the ejaculation  depicted on the Tower.

Observing the sperm being formed in goat’s testicles on the card numbered XV, the Devil, the ejaculation of the Tower (XVI) and, following the Star (XVII), womb-like Moon (XVIII), some go as far as to name it ‘The Sperm’s journey’…

I guess that’s tongue in cheek to the usual combining the elements of Joseph Campbell’s ‘Hero’s Journey ‘ with Tarot, which to me is equally inapplicable to it as Jungian stuff is. (I dare you to do a Tarot reading using Sallie Nichols’ “Jung and Tarot”! )

Which is – i do think that any story can be told through Tarot – and more so any mystical  or philosophical system can be applied to it – but does it have anything to do with Tarot itself, and more so – with Thoth Tarot, is all another story.

Apropos, Joseph Campbell knew close to nothing about Tarot, and as erudite as he was, Tarot has never been his main focus.

Anyhow, back to Thoth. Whether it’s actually The Star that goes attributed to Sephirat Binah or it’s the Empress, is anyone’s guess; to me, for various mostly intuitive reasons, it does make sense that it’s the Star that’s related to the Supernal Mother – and to me personally that’s exactly why it is so difficult to explain.

According to Kabbalists, the only they day in the year when we can experience this energy in its totality, is Yom Kipur, the so-called ‘Day of Atonement.’

Traditionally, one is repenting for the transgressions during the process of ‘Teshuva’ – asking forgiveness from other people – while Yom Kippur is the day  crowning the process when the forgiveness is asked from God.

Kabbalistically, Teshuva is a process of returning to one’s own unadulterated self and in many ways it resonates with Crowley’s ‘do what though wilt’, probably one of his most misinterpreted concepts.

In this vein, i must add that what’s usually labeled in Kabbalah as ‘desire’, the driving force behind all our actions, is what’s Crowley names “will”; more or less it is the things to which we are naturally drawn to and feel attraction for. Usually, these are distorted by  socialization and i believe that by late adolescence most of us are pretty much at loss about what we actually want.  Thus our most important choices are mostly conditioned by outer circumstances at the end usually have little to do with our own affinities and preferences.

Teshuva, mystically, is the way of the Kabbalist to re-discover his own Self.

Yom Kippur is a full fast, from sunset to darkness the following night, and, besides all the restrictions of Shabbat, it carries four additional ones – washing and bathing, anointing one’s body (with cosmetics, deodorants, etc.), wearing leather shoes , and engaging in sexual relations are prohibited.

One would say – what a challenging day it must be! The truth is that it is the only day when we can ascend to Binah – and experiencing its energies does feel (for the lack of better comparison) as a prolonged orgasm. It’s the only day when we can free ourselves from the domination of the physical body and other conditioning – and i must say that nothing can beat the experience.

That’s the very feeling i recall as i am watching the Star which choose to come out for me in the Daily Draw, as i start remembering what my own soul’s urges were once upon a time…

Copyright © L.R.S., All Rights Reserved

(1) TBOT, XVII The Star http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/crowley/libro_thoth05.htm

(2) Why did Crowley switch the Emperor and the Star?  http://www.psyche.com/psyche/tarot/RevivedTarot/crowley.html

(3) The Pictorial Key to the Tarot http://www.sacred-texts.com/tarot/pkt/index.htm

(4) Kosher Torah, the Secret of Yom Kipur http://www.koshertorah.com/PDF/yom-kippur.pdf

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The Lord of Swiftness and The Secret Service

10 Sunday Jun 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Tarot

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Aleister Crowley, Crowley, Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Lon Milo DuQuette, Sephirot, Tarot, Thoth, Tree of Life

English: Aleister Crowley's unicursal hexagram.

English: Aleister Crowley’s unicursal hexagram. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am drooling over my new Giant Thoth and i must say that to me personally there is no deck like it!

It’s been a while now – a decade or so – that i didn’t do daily draws for prolonged periods of time, these scattered thoughts are mostly about enjoying on a daily basis the amazing artwork of Lady Harris, backed up with genius Crowley’s thought.

It’s interesting how these images – and their derivates* speak to the observer when he is unfamiliar with all the nasty myths related to Crowley and, more so, when he is not familiar neither with Tarot nor with Qabala…

With a friend we’ve been working on a project – i am completing the cycle of Thoth inspired poems and she is doing the illustrations; the teasers, selected poems and illustrations, were just published in June’s edition of Ars Literature Magazine.

It’s freshly out of press and i haven’t seen it yet, but today a life-long family friend, whom i hold in high respect, Mr Vladimir Kekovic, has called me to share his impressions, he happens to be one of the people on whose judgement of my work i rely the most.

Mr Kekovic is an amazing gentleman, a polymath, a popular and somewhat controversial public figure, author of several non-fiction bestsellers, famous art connaisseur and collector, father of the famous Montenegrin painter Biljana Kekovic and former Minister of Internal Affairs, which would say – chief of the secret service  during the times of former Yugoslavia when this very service was ranked among the world’s top four, together with CIA, KGB and Mossad.

Someone with such references and public standing mazel tov-ing you on your work makes it up for the countless hours of research, for sleepless nights spent penning, for the whole process by which a poem is born into this world – which, as rewarding as it is, oftentimes is downright painful.

So, Mr Kekovic says he is moved by the poems and he shares with me what impact they had on him… and as he speaks, i bless god because that’s exactly why i spent the last year studying Crowley’s thought and O.T.O. materials religiously, performing the rituals, scrying andmeditating up to 16h a day! Last summer (2011), upon passing my PhD exam in philosophy in Moscow, i had returned to Montenegro, my mind still ‘trained’ from the seven months long preparation for the exam, i stocked up on all available materials on Thoth and locked myself with it in my apartment for four consecutive months – that is, during that time i focused exclusively on this deck of cards… (Since then, after managing to grasp an overall idea of the system, i devote to it some time every single day and at least one whole day of 8 effective working hours a week.) And it’s a tough cookie, i must tell you.

To get Thoth, one has to un-learn all one knew about reading RWS or Tarot de Marseilles. One needs to get beyond the urban myths about Crowley and their own fears – that’s not easy – and it’s just a first step.

Basically, Crowley and Lady Harris crammed all occult knowledge in existence into these 78 images – there are plethora of Greek myths included, the sacred geometry, biblical hermenautics, Qabala, Astrology and pretty much anything else you can think of.

Not to forget that both Crowley and Harris were geniuses in their own right, so getting their work takes much more than mere intellectual understanding; the images , with their meticulous selection of symbols and colors, when scryed on in preset combinations   – have an expanding impact on the consciousness, which by far exceeds both verbalization and logic.

I do not think theirs can ever be surpassed; what can be done though – and what my friend and i tried to accomplish while working on this project – is to present your own perception of the deck and the ways it has impacted you.

For that purpose, i can’t recommend highly enough “Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot” by Lon Milo DuQuette, which i believe to be essential in Thoth studies – alongside with Crowley’s “Liber Theta” and Jim Eshelman’s “Liber Theta: Tarot Symbolism & Divination”. (Wang’s “Qabalistic Tarot, a Textbook of Mystical Philosophy”  is an excellent source too, albeit often hard to follow and, to my view, excessively detailed.)

Lon Milo gives the qabalistic formula behind 8 of Wands aka “The Lord of Swiftness” : 8 (Hod) of Wands (Aziluth) + Mercury in Saggitarius;  Harris’ design depicts the way in which energy becomes matter.

Crowley, without mentioning Einstein or mass-energy equivalence (E = mc2), states that: “this card, therefore, represents energy of high velocity, such as furnishes the master-key to modern mathematical physics. ”

Let’s try to understand what does it mean. (If you are not so much into Kabbalah and it derivatives, do skip the text in italics.)

Essentially , there are two ways of approaching the Tree of Life:  from the “top-down” and  from the “bottom-up.” “Top-down” is the analysis of the process of creation, beginning with what we can know about God, descending through the heavenly realms, down to earth and man himself. In Kabbalah it’s called the Work of Creation, and stems from the first chapters of Genesis.

“Bottom-up” begins with man and continues “up Jacob’s Ladder,”following his spiritual journey into the spiritual realms, towards God. This method is based on the analysis of Ezekiel’s vision, and called the Work of the Chariot.

Generally, the Sephirah on the right “pillar” of the Tree of Life are “active”  and those on the left a “passive”. The outer pillars are also associated with the ideas of “force” and “fire” (on the right side) and “form” and “water” (on the left side). The central pillar is balancing the two, and is associated with “air” or “spirit.”

“All the Sephirot on the passive pillar are receptive and have the qualities of Form, in the Understanding (Binah) is the formulation of ideas, Judgment (Gevurah) is exercised in response to something, and Reverberation (Hod) is the echo to an impulse coming from any one of the other Sephirot. It is the same with the active pillar. Here the impact of revelation is seen in Wisdom (Hokhmah), while the power than must be behind Mercy (Hesed) is enormous. Eternity (Netzah) is the principle of repetition, the incessant input necessary to make the world go round. The central pillar is concerned with Will and with the Grace which descends from the Crown (Keter) through Knowledge (Da’at) to Beauty (Tiferet), which is the Sephirah which reflects the top to the bottom of the Tree. Foundation (Yesod) and Kingdom (Malkut) are respectively the manifestation of an image plan and the actualization of it in the Divine material.” (1)

(It should be noted however, that as the Sephirot interact with, and contain aspects of each other, that any of the ones on the passive side can act forcefully, and vice-versa. For instance, Gevurah (Judgment) can be “passive” in terms of mediating between understanding and truth, or it can be “active” in terms of meeting out punishment in the face of continued evildoing. )

The Four Worlds of Kabbalah, the stages of the “creation process”are read out from Isaiah 43:7, “Every one that is called by My name (Atzilus “Emanation/Close”), and for My glory I have created (Beriah “Creation”), I have formed (Yetzirah “Formation”), even I have made (Asiyah “Action”). 

The simplest way of understanding the four worlds and descending chain of Existence is to compare it to someone building a house:

The person determines that one day they would build their own house (emantion);
they plan the style they would design it to (creation);
they draw up the specific blueprints to fulfill this design (formation);
they acquire the materials and construct it  (action).

Hod is the eighth sephira of the Kabbalistic tree of life; and, mystically, as a placement 
on the roadmap to higher consciousness, it’s the key to the mystery of form.

In Western Esoteric Tradition (Hermetic Qabala)Hod is viewd to be the sphere in which the magician mostly works. Dion Fortune gives example of a primitive man, meditating in the wilderness, who comes in contact and begins to understand some energy that surrounds him. To grasp it better, he creates some form, perhaps the form of a god or a symbol, so he has something he can relate to. He uses that statue or symbol in future ceremonies to contact that intangible energy once again and this is the role that Hod plays in magick.

Long story short – it’s somewhere here that the word is imbued with its creative powers and charged  with whatever it takes to manipulate the outer reality.

Astrologically, according to Marcia Moore and Mark Douglas, “Mercury is in detriment in Sagittarius because of the disproportion between the planet of specific facts and the sign of general possibilities. Sagittarian expansiveness stimulates Mercury to a fitful brilliance which may be alternately superficial and inspired… The mind darts from one conclusion to another but, unless it is deliberately reined in, continuity and judgment are lacking.

At best, the Mercury-Sagittarius blend gives a profound sense of purpose and the ability to focus on distant goals. A far-reaching ambition to comprehend the mental and moral laws of the universe and to reconcile scientific and religious approaches to life results in a tendency to study several subjects simultaneously, to carry on more than one occupation, and to become involved in a number of different but related projects.” (2)

Lon Milo compares 8 of Wands to two people who spend the night drinking coffee and talking tirelessly – adding that obviously there is a lot is to be learned, yet that ultimately they’ll crash. (I say – that’s unless those two switch to drinking herbal tea, munch on a healthy snack and get a nap – very little can be understood in a single night, albeit a lot can be said.)

As per the working use, the main Key Words for the card are ‘hasty communications and messages’.

As we know, Lady Harris among else used her knowledge of Decans* in choosing the colors and those are all but accidental.

As i look at the planetary Glyph of Mercury depicted on the card, i think to myself how was blessed i was to spend this Saturday on my own, in gracious presence of my fur baby, Manya, who is mostly minding her own business.

The yellows and reds of the card remind me of the burn out and exhaustion i felt ever since last Tuesday, when i got back from the most demanding and tiring work trip to Brussels – it did feel like being in the sun way too long.

Communicating extensively, giving speeches and participating in conferences for several consecutive days for me is an unusual and extreme mode of being and as i look at these red arrows zig-zagging from the center outwards – i do feel how i am retrieving my own energies the other way around, being on my own, centering and enjoying the silence; going deeper from the upper fiery colors – towards the bottom of the card are the blue shades of spirituality and the green of rejuvenation.

Copyright©20012 Lena Ruth Stefanovic, All Rights Reserved

Thoth Tarot scans (all cards) http://www.tarot.com/tarot/decks/index.php?deckID=5

O.T.O. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis

Lon Milo’s Book on Thoth – Review http://supertarot.co.uk/wp/2009/06/understanding-crowleys-book-of-thoth-review/

Liber Theta: Tarot Symbolism & Divination (free download) http://www.thelema.org/publications/

Alester Crowley , The Book of Thoth (free download) http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/crowley/libro_thoth.htm

The Four Worlds of Kabbalah http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/361902/jewish/The-Four-Worlds.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Worlds

* The Golden Dawn Minor Arcana, Mary K. Greer’s Tarot Blog:

http://marygreer.wordpress.com/2008/03/04/the-golden-dawn-minor-arcana/

(1) A Kabbalistic Universe, Z’ev Shimon Halevi, Samuel Weiser, Inc., York Beach, Maine, 1977, p. 16.

(2)Astrology, The Divine Science. Marcia Moore and Mark Douglas: Arcane Publications; 1st edition,1978 (OOP)

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the 25th hour, going vegan and other adventures of mdr in the black mountains

08 Friday Jun 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition

≈ 11 Comments

Tags

Abraham Abulafia, Hebrew alphabet, Hebrew language, Hong Kong, Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Koach, Resh, Zayin

pic of meditation setting for the new moon of gemini

This month i celebrated 42nd birthday – and that number is big in all the traditions; according to Kabbalists the world was created by 42-letetrs name of God , the main kabbalist prayer is Ana B’Koach – built around the sequence of 42 letters, encoded within  first 42 letters of the book of Genesis etc.

The only two decks i use for kabbalistic connections are The Kabbalah deck and 72 Names meditation deck; among all the Kabbalah-inspired decks on the market and among numerous decks of a kind i own – these are the only two i find ‘glatt kosher’ and fit for the purpose.

The former was recommended to me by great Bonnie Cehovet – and i didn’t regret the effort and funds to acquire it in the distant land of Hong Kong; the 72 Names deck is published by Kabbalah Center, was gifted to me by a dear friend and fellow Kabbalist, Eliyahu – and i can not recommend it  strongly enough.

The Hebrew letters of the month of Gemini are Reish and Zayin (see the pic of meditation setting, from right to left).

Reish starts Hebrew word for holy spirit (ruach ha-kadosh) – the divine attributes of prophecy and wisdom – available to each and everyone of us depending on diligence and effort; Hebrew words for healing (rafooah) and healer (rofeh) also start with Reish and both are connected to ruach, breath.

Throughout history, the mystics of Kabbalah such as Abraham Abulafia, thought methods to achieve higher consciousness by combining Hebrew letters, breathing exercises and  body postures – and that’s one of the practices which i personally intend to commence.

The letter Zayin starts the word zachaer, to remember – the mystics contemplated on it so not to get overwhelmed by the mundane tasks and forget the soul’s real purpose on this earth; letter Zayin is also a reminder to slow down and introduce ‘spiritual time management’ into one’s daily life.

The Hebrew letters that correspond to my current birthday – and a meditation that is strongly advised on the occasion of it – are Mem (numerical value 40) and Bet (numerical value 2).

Bet starts Hebrew words for home and blessing (respectively: bayit and beracha) and Mem, among else, denotes the cycles and periods of time necessary for human efforts to reach fruition and manifest.

So, anyway you look at it – this year is big for me and there are several most important areas i need to focus on.

Those of you who are my facebook friends probably know i decided to go vegan; i don’t believe anymore in ritual slaughter (kosher/halal thing);  and, in full honesty, i believe that whomever buys into “certification” thingy after Rubashkin and alike cases – videos were taped at plants of cattle stumbling around, their throats cut, their windpipes pulled out – is naive (cruel?) by choice. And i do hate watching the fish dying in agony when it’s taken out of water. So… vegan it is.

I don’t like the taste of products of animal origin, and that’s not my concern the least – the only thing i need to find an answer to is the ritual foods and how to substitute them.

The thing is that many Kabbalist/ Jewish holidays and connections revolve around food and big part of it is meat – think of the inevitable lamb for Pasha and the red meat which we are commanded to eat on Shabbat; the story behind those ritual foods is amazingly profound, basically it is believed that human souls  might be (for this or that reason) trapped in an animal, the ritual slaughter presumably agrees beforehand with the animal that after being killed it will go to the higher planes of existence, it doesn’t suffer the least during the very brief procedure and, after it’s meat has been made fit for human consumption – the kabbalist by reciting the blessings and consuming the meat, frees and elevates the souls trapped in it .

It’s a nice theory – but after seeing in practice how those animals actually suffer, and knowing that many (most?) ritual slaughters do not have the needed level of consciousness, i refuse to be part of it.

It was a difficult decision for me to make, because i firmly believe in the tenets of the tradition to which i belong, but i feel i need to rely on my own judgement here.

As per per the time management – there the situation is way more complicated; basically i’ve never learned to manage time and the only way i found so far to juggle my numerous professional goals and hobbies is – to get OCD about one thing at the time; like for couple of months i’d write manically; then for some period i’d exclusively work on my thesis , then i’d focus on fitness – i can say it did give me good results so far and the possibility to pursue very different interests and careers; but i think i can do better than that – and less stressful too.

I presume becoming a minimalist of a kind is necessary for that – albeit i prefer the term ‘elitist’ – minimalist reminds me of medieval asceticism and that’s not my thing definitely; to me that means engaging into activities and being involved exclusively with people who  at the end of things contribute to my own ultimate fulfillment – as selfish as it might come across.

There are many philosophies both to support and to deny such choice – and, no, i do not think of Ayn Rand who’s odious to me, both as a person and as teachings.

I rather think of Crowley and his ‘will’ philosophy which i personally found true – only that which is shared from pure heart and of true desire – at the end does good both to the giver and the receiver.

I passed the external validation phase – mostly, i can’t be guilt-tripped that easily, if at all and, basically, in my 42 years i did realize i am best off when i think for myself.

Wish me luck.

Bonnie Cehovet’s review of the Kabbalah deck: http://www.aeclectic.net/tarot/cards/kabbalah-deck/review.shtml

72 Names meditation deck : http://store.kabbalah.com/72_Names_Meditation_Cards_Deck_p/t-medc-72.htm

Abraham Abulafia: http://www.learnkabbalah.com/abraham_abulafi/

Ana b’Koach prayer: http://www.kabbalah.com/wisdom/anabkoach

Why number 42 matters: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/42_(number)

42 according to Kabbalist http://www.inner.org/names/nameloka.htm

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Lena Ruth Stefanovic

Lena Ruth Stefanovic

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Recent Posts

  • Tri boje: bijela, crna, crvena
  • Nevinost sa niskim zaštitnim faktorom
  • Mrlja u mojoj svijesti
  • RETURN
  • Spavaćica moje majke

  • moderndayruth
June 2012
M T W T F S S
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
252627282930  
« May   Jul »

Top Posts & Pages

  • Skinny gossip, Kate Upton and the Suckling Piglet

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