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moderndayruth

~ Tarot inspired essays and more

moderndayruth

Tag Archives: Kabbalah

Let’s talk about the Tower, baby, let’s talk about you and me…

01 Friday Nov 2013

Posted by moderndayruth in Essay, Tarot

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Albert Camus, Aleister Crowley, Binah, Kabbalah, Lon Milo DuQuette, Montenegro, Russian language, Tarot

Tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck; a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley  for the public domain

Tarot card from the Rider-Waite tarot deck; a 1909 card scanned by Holly Voley for the public domain

Tarot’s Tower does come across as a phallic symbol and in some interpretations it is read as such*; the Star accordingly could be read as female orgasm – and as connection to sephirot Binah and whatnot.

It’s one of the Major Arcanum I have working knowledge of, but can’t connect to on a deeper level, I don’t get it.

Yes, I know it all – the connection to even more confusing Biblical tale of the Babylonian Tower; for an uber-intellectual analysis of the Arcanum and references to anyone you can think of – from Nimrod to Plutarch, see “Jung and Tarot: An Archetypal Journey” by Sallie Nichols… It is a great book on theory of Tarot and I recommend it heartily, but I do doubt it will improve your practical reading skills even the tiniest bit.

It’s been said before that Tarot is a language – a system of signs in semiotic understanding. As such, it does need to be studied both theoretically and practically. To me personally, the two aspects of studying do go hand in hand, otherwise – theory without practice is abstract and dry, whereas practice without theoretic studying tends to turn the discipline into mere fortune-telling. (Nothing too wrong about it, except that on philosophical level it’s diametrically opposed to the doctrine of  free will, whereas in practice it too easily activates the notorious ‘negative self-fulfilling prophecy’, ie. negative predictions do influence sitter’s mind on various levels.)

I am not going to re-digest numerous valid and known interpretations of the Arcanum XVI, those didn’t do much for me. I did learn over years what Tower means in my readings – it’s usually denoting couple of days of stress and upset, but not more than that. (One of the cards I dislike getting way more is the depressing and dis-empowering Hanged Man, that energy for me is way more difficult to handle than shaky and unpredictable Tower.)

What I wanted to share is an unusual and non-deterministic take on the Tower to which I came during last couple of days, since I relocated once again from Montenegro to Moscow.

See, nevertheless we too speak a Slavic language and albeit my country throughout history had close ties with Russia – our own Balkan mentality and Mediterranean way of living has nothing to do with Russian ways. Italian mentality is close to ours – and no wonder, it is a neighboring country to ours and good part of Montenegro was historically ruled by Venetia. We get along with Turks very well – after all – as much as we fought throughout history, we did live in a close proximity for some 400 years and by now we do have a lot in common, taste in foods and similar cuisines among it. But Russians… as much as we love them, we have close to nothing in common with them – neither the system of values, nor the way of life. And it’s tough for me, every time I come here, to adapt and adjust to it all once again – and here we come to the Towerish experience which I wanted to share.

I wrote before on secondary linguistic personality and cultural adaptation ( you can read an excellent material – Russian source translated into English – here http://www.russcomm.ru/eng/rca_biblio/l/leontovich02_eng.shtml ), learning a foreign language is a profoundly transforming and deeply Tower-ish experience.

Leading kabbalistis of our times, such as Shaul Youdkevitch, say that the language we speak molds our personalities – and albeit I am a doctoral candidate in linguistics, I quote kabbalists way more gladly than linguists and philosophers. (After all, during brief 45 min of intro lecture to Kabbalah – which is mostly on what Kabbalah is NOT-  one learns way more than during hours long, boring and pretentious lectures by Slavoy Zizek for example, at least it is so in my experience.) The thing with me is that by now I speak Russian as a native and they don’t figure out easily I am a foreigner; but my attitude is foreign to them and that brings about a lot of confusion. Our society back home is conservative – and so is Russian, but in very different ways; I am from patriarchal culture, but I am not used to patronizing to which I am exposed over here due to my gender – and Russians are not used to women being as assertive as I am, at least not at my age (I look younger my biological age.) Back at home I don’t act from the framework of my gender – I am a responsible person, a member of the community and most often my gender is irrelevant to whatever I am doing or saying. It’s not so in mother Russia. I was told I speak too much for a woman (by a member of the academy of science, mind you.) I am constantly reminded I don’t need bother too much, it’s suffices that my looks are somewhat pleasing to the eye. That bothers me. I wasn’t raised as a girlie girl – I was raised to be a person, not a girl. More so that at my age and with social position I have back home it is ridiculous to be reduced to some kind of decoration… but it is what it is. I learned so far that there isn’t much point in arguing and explaining feminist premises to anyone, people get it or not. What’s important is that in my own microcosms – in academia and at my own Muscovite University it is NOT so; the treatment I – and most other women get out there… that I can’t change, as much as it bothers me. For the sake of the proverbial intercultural communication, you need to adapt- at least seemingly and temporarily – as difficult as it I; so, I learned a little trick, which makes my Towerish adaptation tad easier to bare – I introduced a heavy foreign accent which clearly marks me as an intruder. As soon as I step out from the comfort of Pushkin University, my faked accent distinguishes me as an outsider, a crazy foreigner, Albert Camus’ Meursault – by choice.

Meanwhile, I skyp with my family, so not to lose my mind completely 😉

my mom, my fur baby, my cousin Drago and sis in law Vanja

my mom, my fur baby, my cousin Drago and sis in law Vanja; father dearest on the snapshot bellow (he’s just back from a reception hence the tie & all that jazz ;))

Video call snapshot 48 Video call snapshot 50

* Lon Milo Duquette, Understanding Aleister Crowley’s Thoth Tarot; Weiser Books, 2003 (also Sexual Alchemy of the Thoth Tarot – DVD course by the same author)

 

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going listy: my top 10 oracles, besides Tarot

15 Monday Apr 2013

Posted by moderndayruth in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition

≈ 20 Comments

Tags

Brian Froud, daily prompt, DPchallenge, Fortune Telling, Germany, Hay House, I Ching, Kabbalah, Piatnik & Söhne, Tarot

Daily Prompt: The Satisfaction of a List

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Here they are, in all their glory:

1. First among equals: The Kabbalah Deck, Pathway to the Soul by rabbi Edward Hoffman – probably the only “kosher” Kabbalah deck around (besides KC’s 72 Names of God cards which are not exactly a deck, but a prayer in a form of cards.)

2. Beautifully illustrated and dead-on accurate Symbolon Oracle which comes with the creepiest little white book in existence!

3. I Ching by Klaus Holitzka, the Book of Changes illustrated in traditional Chinese watercolor paintings;

4. Law of Attraction Cards published by Hay House with great affirmations and even greater illustrations;

5. Moonstone oracle by my beautiful and talented friend from Germany – Morwenna Morasch;

6. Hard-to-find Lenormand, Baralho de Cartas Ciganas, a gift from Brazilian friend;

7. Piatnik’s Gypsies, Zigeuner Wahrsagekarten, the deck i inherited from my grandmother;

8. The Faeries Oracle by by Brian Froud and Jessica Macbeth:

capture of an actual reading i did for a friend

capture of an actual reading i did for a friend

9. Mindblowing Druid Animal Oracle:

Druid Animal Oracle by Philip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm

Druid Animal Oracle by Philip & Stephanie Carr-Gomm

10. And the latest addition to my All-Darlings Collection: an amazing Fortune Telling deck – Ryder’s Lenormand by genius eight years old artist – Ryder George who is visionary and a seer son of worldwide known spiritual counselor and a friend of mine – Rana George.

I am a third generation reader in our family – i’ve written on what is it like in The Fortune Teller – so i know what blessing it is… It’s not that we are passed some family secrets, unavailable to others – all hereditary readers i know of pass their knowledge to others happily, it’s that from an early age we are blessed to be free from fear.

In Ryder George’s case – this unlimited vision comes together with an amazing artistic talent.

Blessed Be

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The Incredible Tale Of The Hannukah Bush

13 Thursday Dec 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Essay, Photography

≈ 13 Comments

Tags

Christmas, Hannukah Bush, History of the Jews in Russia, Holiday, Jews, Judaism, Kabbalah, Moscow, Russia

Historically, Jews had it tough in Russia – and I won’t even go into the whole forging of the infamous  Protocols thing. Conspiracy theories aside – was it Czar ruling the country – or Stalin, Jews had it bad, pogroms (violent mobs) during Romanov dynasty were followed by purges after the WWII (that’s – immediately after the Holocaust.)

It’s the Holiday season though and i really don’t want to dwell on such subjects, in case you wonder how did this amazing story of the Jews in Russia end –  you can read the unbelievable grand final in The New York Time’s article from June 17, 2010.

Fast forward some forty two years since Yosef Mendelevich and his friends failed in their attempt to hijack their way out of tyranny – Judaism is blooming in Russia, there are synagogues and affiliates of all major Jewish streams, while local Kabbalah center is among the most attended in the world. Actually, without having precise data – i’d say that Moscow’s KC is the biggest and most populous one outside Israel and US; i used to study in London’s KC which was leading European center at the time – and despite all the wonders i witnessed there, myself i was beyond moved when i went to the local one; students are so numerous and their devotion to the wisdom of Kabbalah so strong, that for days after an event or class i would feel like in seventh heaven.

Recently, biggest Jewish museum in Europe was opened in Maryina Rosca – in a 50$ million facility (1) and Shimon Peres (himself of Russian Jewish origin), who arrived for the opening, was received not only with the protocol due to a foreign head of state, but also – as the talk of the city goes -with special attention, as he is said to be one of the leaders admired by President Putin.

More or less one month after the historical visit, in awful cold, i am desperately  searching Moscow’s malls for … a Hannukah bush decorations!

Yes, I’ve been doing all the kabbalistic connections, i even ate the traditional (greasy &fattening ) foods on the first night… yet, something was missing for my festive mood to be complete and Feng Shui decorations – as much as they improve the chi – are not quite the same thing.

Mine – and that of other Jews who grew up during communism – has nothing to do with  Christmas, as it’s usually presumed; we grew up without any kind of religious observance, so it’s not about attachment to the nativity scenes and Santa Claus, it’s way deeper than that. You see, during communism – the New Year was the only free of ideology holiday, the only one where there weren’t boring to death speeches and commemorations, there weren’t obligatory attendances of memorials and participation in recitals, typical of all other holidays of the time; the New Year was a personal holiday, spent with friends and family, usually by watching some movie classics and feasting on traditional foods like Olivier salad.

Those were usually one of the fondest childhood memories – and after our respective countries fell apart together with the old system – that was the only Holiday that remained, while an entire calendar was cancelled and erased.

In Yugoslavia, the National Day was November 29th, The Day of the Republic, and it used to be a major holiday; since the old country was finished in tears and blood, the holiday is, of course, non existent… The thing is that humans are the creatures of habit and if you lived some 20+ years with an idea, whether that idea was good or bad, i assure you that you too would get used to it.

And it’s not about the old country either – it’s about the fact that everything we knew, the life as we knew it with it system of values, its money, foods, clothing brands… all of it, disappeared in the blink of an eye…

I get irked when Russian Jews get bashed for celebrating the NY – as if that is some kind of self-hating act; it’s not, it’s merely the reaffirmation, on a personal level, that except belonging to nations, eras and other categories which by default tend to annul our individuality, we do have some kind of personal, genetic memory which makes us – if not much more than, then at least different from a mere grain of sand, carried back and forth by the various winds of changes.

Back in 1983, US educator E.D. Hirsch coined the term Cultural Literacy – familiarity with and understanding of a dominant culture; simultaneously, yet independently a researcher in Russia, Y.N. Karaulov defined what constituted the so-called ‘secondary linguistic personality’, ie. the diaspora-like mentality which students of foreign languages develop; in third millennium we are speaking of CQ – cultural intelligence which comes down to ‘attitudes of respect for other nations’ talents and traditions, of fascination with the variety of other worlds, readiness to revise one’s own prejudices, and of adjustment to local tasks and circumstances.’ (P. Kuin was speaking of succeeding in multinational companies, but it’s a basic formula relevant for any cross-cultural experience.)

History of humanity is basically history of adaptation – and, speaking of other than genetic change – there is a pattern to it which never seizes to amaze me; when facing tectonic changes in paradigms, humans ( known for their hatred of change), tend to simply rename things.

Origins of Christmas can be tracked back to Pagan Saturnalia; to ease the new religious paradigm on Romans, early Christians worked on transforming vicious Saturnalia traditions such as human sacrifice into innocent snacking on the Ginger man and December 25th, Saturnalia’s concluding day, was named as Jesus’ birthday.

The real date is more likely to be June 17th though – astrologists claim that the star which three kings are said to have followed,  was most likely a conjunction of Venus and Jupiter, so close together that they shone as a single ‘beacon of light’ which appeared suddenly; more so, the conjunction was pinpointed as having appeared in the constellation of Leo, to the exact date of June 17 in the year 2BC.

The commies had snatched the symbolism from Christians – and had turned it into the NY – I’ve  mentioned in the previous entry – Santa Claus had become Uncle Frost and had received a granddaughter, Snegurochka…

Not that any of it matters – or that it changes in anyway the spirit of the Holiday, it does not, but the truth is that since it’s dawn – overall humanity gets quite excited around this time of the year and for some reason it usually has to do with a tree, overeating and overspending.

Anyway it is, like it or not, politically correct or not – it’s Holiday Season, folks!

Whether you are celebrating Hannukah or Christmas, Kwanzaa, Yule, Festivus or the New Year, i wish you best of the moods and most joyous times!

Happy Hannukah!  Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

Channuka bush 2 Channuka bush 3 Chanukkah bush 1

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Kitteh Goddess &The Overlooked Power of Napping

14 Sunday Oct 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition, Photography

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

Bible, Elizabeth Gilbert, Hebrew, Hebrew alphabet, Judaism, Kabbalah, Tarot Six of Pentacles, Yesod, Zohar

There was that meme recently: internet is like ancient Egypt – there is plenty of writing on the walls and cat admiring involved! Right, Moses lead us out of Egypt and (said tongue in cheek) we are now going back there to the metaphorical land of bondage – by our own choice…

That being said, yesterday, in Jewish tradition, was the first Day of Rest in the new year and the part of the Bible that was read was Beresheet/ In the Beginning.

Of course, there all got lost in translation, as usually, and Beresheet does not mean In the beginning but (from the root rosh ) – at the head of things.

For further mind-blowing insights into the mystical etymology of the Bible and its connection to Quantum Physics  i strongly advice reading the unabridged translation of Zohar into English – this section is covered on some 600 pages in the first two books and is well worth it.

As a side note, for my Tarot buddies  – i believe reading that portion is the only way to really get Tarot Sixes which are related to the Sfirat Yesod.

“This is an immense reservoir that resides just above our physical dimension. All the upper worlds , or Sfirot, fill Yesod with their unique spiritual forces, where they are blended and prepared for transfer; Like a cosmic pipeline Yesod then funnels all this Light into our world which is called Malchut. We can arouse great Lights in the Upper Worlds through our actions, but unless the floodgates of Yesod are opened, the Light can never reach our realm.” (The Zohar, Unabridged English translation with commentary, KC International Inc.; Baresheet A, page 193.)

In my experience – there are two main ways to get your Yesod disbalanced – by not sharing with others, or – the other way around – by giving way too much of oneself; both lead to the depletion which Pixie depicted on the Six of Pentacles:

I don’t know of some other way of fixing the Yesod and opening this pipeline from the Upper Worlds – except for working with the very Book.

It’s not by chance either that Hebrew letter Bet starts the Bible – but to understand the magnificence of the Biblical code, and just before one dismisses its first level of interpretation as a bunch of (among else) Babylonian myths – it is indeed necessary to spend couple of days studying dozens of pages on which its commentary, the Zohar, expands merely on the opening letter…

Here it suffices to mention that letter Bet starts Hebrew words for  bracha/blessing and bayit/house and that meditating on it helps experience the true homecoming whenever we feel unsettled and uprooted in any way.

Kabbalah Deck by rabbi Edward Hoffman, Letter Bet; photo – courtesy of Vuk Vukovic

I actually re-read the whole thing yesterday – in addition to reading the Biblical portion first in Hebrew, then in English and Serbian translations; i also listened to Shaul Youdkevitch’s audio classes on Live Kabbalah for couple of hours and read Kabbalistic prayers… Actually, that’s all i was doing for 25h or so – interrupted only by occasional napping.

Those of you who suffer from insomnia do know how awful it is – and i contributed to my own because all the stuff i am busy with usually requires sleep denial; the Zohar is preferably studied at night and that’s how i spent years after i first got into Kabbalah over a decade ago; also – for my work, for writing, there is no better time than the silence of the night… Combined with hours of pc work which further messes with one’s sleep – i ended up with sleeping patterns which are least to be said – unusual; normally,  i get some rest in the early evening , like from 6 pm to 8 pm and i nap for couple of hours at dawn, that’s about it.

I gave up on counting the sheep and melatonin as it turned out that the only way for me to be functional is to nap whenever i feel like, in addition to meditating a lot.

I didn’t give it too much thought until stumbling upon an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert where she cites napping as her preferable spiritual tool – that’s after months spent in an Indian ashram, studying palmistry in Bali & all that jazz.

If you are surprised by my choice of reading, in  Bugger off, Nietzsche i explain why i’ll choose a memoir  like “Eat, Prey, Love” over what’s traditionally considered highbrow prose – any day. Thanks, but – no thanks, i have too much neurosis and moral dilemmas of my own, so to dwell on someone else’s, especially if the author of the presumably ‘serious’ piece was an as*le and clinically insane too, like Nietzsche was.

And when it comes to napping – like with numerous other important things in life, there are hardly more important role models than one’s own cat;  in words of another author whom i do like, Echkart Tolle: I lived with many spiritual teachers, most of them were cats…

 

L.R.S.

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9/11 In My Personal History

11 Tuesday Sep 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Coming of Age / Bildungsroman

≈ 18 Comments

Tags

Balkan, Balkan Wars, Chinese Philosophy, Kabbalah, Montenegro, United States, Yugoslav, Yugoslavia

picture taken in 2011

I lit a candle this morning and i prayed to God, silently, for heroes, for America, for all of us.

On this day in 2001 i had just returned from China, was watching a movie and getting ready to hit off to the gym… when they started broadcasting the tragedy.

I was taken aback.  My mother said: oh, this must be a movie!

I knew it, somewhere deep down, i felt that spasm in my stomach which told me that, sadly, this is for real.

Let me tell you what America means to me – beyond being a country where many people i love – live.

For an European intellectual – and an American intellectual as well, it’s rather customary to express certain cynicism when it comes to politics, especially to the politics of the only remaining super power (us having grown up under the threat of the other.)

As a linguist and as a writer – i use words as my primary tool of expression, as that very bridge through which i communicate with the world.

English language, which i started learning quite late in life, opened my mind for patterns of thought which were unknown to me in the culture into which i was born –  and which i haven’t known in the cultures where we lived, which languages i learned.

It’s the language – its richness, its warmth and its genuine, innate positivity that opened up my heart in the beginning.

I wanted to learn more about the people who spoke that language.

As my own country, former Yugoslavia, started to fall apart, my own identity did too; it turned out i belonged to a people, Yugoslavs,  who instantly went extinct , i remained without a citizenship, without cultural identity and even my mother tongue was not called the same any more.

As the remnants of former Yugoslavia were buried deeper and deeper, with them went down the communist system of values into which we were raised.

I turned to my Jewish roots to find meaning and personal salvation. It’s there that i understood what essential role US had played in the Jewish battle for survival.

I had studied literature under different system, so it’s later on in life that i came to  Kerouac, Carver and Ginsberg – and they have moved my world and shifted my perception.

The movies, the music – the more i learned about the culture, the more i loved its people and identified with them.

Whichever interest i’ve developed – Kabbalah, Tarot, and even Chinese Philosophy – it turned out that i was looking in the direction of US – first Kabbalah Center, outside Jerusalem,  opened in US and my teacher was there; people who wrote books on Tarot, from whom i learned – were there too, and even intellectuals from whom i was learning Chinese thought – were in US as well.

During the Balkan wars, my father being a dissident, we sought refuge in Montenegro, where his side of family originates from; during 1990ies  every single thinking Montenegrin understood that we have to regain state independence in order to reclaim our history that once was honorable – and in order to break out of the predominant back then Balkan hate for no reason.

In 2006, after years of struggle , Montenegro is free and independent – for which , i dare to say, political support of US administration, and thus, American people – was one of the main factors that made it come true.

Thus, on this day, eleven years ago, it was not some country overseas that was attacked. It was me and my own life that was attacked.

In my personal history, i had died once, when Yugoslavia died – was it a fake construct all together, did it turn out for the best at the end of things – i wouldn’t know, but i was too young then to have any relevant influence and for my voice to be heard.

Two decades later, the world has changed, my own life changed and grew in a direction of which i never guessed, i didn’t plan on becoming who i am today, it happened… But, big part of it, big part of who i personally am is forever intertwined with American people.

So, i stand with you today and always with my soul and with my life and i say, in one voice with you: ALWAYS REMEMBER. NEVER FORGET.

Lena Ruth Stefanovic

note: this essay was written last year, on the same day… dates were changed accordingly, but nothing changed in my heart, nothing ever will.

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Kabbalist’s Survival Kit for the Month of Virgo

03 Monday Sep 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

Baal Shem Tov, Elul, Gregorian calendar, Hebrew alphabet, Judaism, Kabbalah, Rosh Hashana, Rosh Hashanah

Solemn month of Elul is all about introspection, going through the last year’s events and getting ready for the new year ahead. There are as much as four New Years in Hebrew/Kabbalistic tradition and added the Western Calendar – all of it could just seem bit over the top… It is not so, there is enough room and it is indeed meaningful to be aware and prepare for all of them.

Personally, to me Civil NY by Western calendar is more like a mark of my work, what i do and where i am with my career, where as by Hebrew/Kabbalistic calendar i measure my inner, psychological time.

Rosh Hashana, accurately or not translated as a Jewish New Year, is a chance for all of us – regardless of the religious denomination, Jewish or not – to reset the movies of our lives, to write the new script if needed – and even to hire a new cast if the production so far wasn’t going as planned.

Do not forget that it is us who are the directors – the Light (kabbalist’s euphemism for Creator)  through outer circumstances provides us the movie studio so to say and the cast – but, at the end of things, it is us who direct the movies of our lives, so let’s get ready to make the next year’s movie – an Academy Award material!

The days of Elul are also known as the days of Teshuva or repentance, which etymologically comes from LaShuv לשוב – to return, meaning the return to our own selves and our own inner truth. There is nothing to lose on the way – except for suffering and pain which we hope to leave behind as we approach the new beginning.

It is said that at Rosh Hashanah planets align as they were in the moment of creation and that thus we are given the chance to start anew, from the scratch – it is here that we reboot our system and restart our lives.

Rabbi Nachman of Breslov was pointing out that Hebrew word for correction –  tikkun תיקון – has the same letters as  tinok תינוק – a baby; and that very state of innocence and purity is the one we are striving for on our journey through the Month of Elul… and that’s the purpose of creation itself, according to the Kabbalists.

As you probably know by now, in Kabbalah the 22 Hebrew letters are considered to be energies (angels) that created this world and letters.

Reish is linked to higher states of consciousness and it starts the word for Holy Spirit, ruach ha-kadosh; it also starts the word ruach, denoting wind and breath.

Rabbi Moses Luzzato pointed out that albeit it is ordained that one should naturally be able to teach himself, understand and reason with their intellect – there is another mean of gaining knowledge and that’s what we call ruach ha-kadosh – the way of gaining knowledge unattainable through logic alone.

Focusing on letter Reish and also setting aside some time every day to practice breath awareness will bring tremendous benefits during month of Elul and enable us to connect to these higher state states of consciousness where both prophetic abilities and spiritual bliss reside.

To study and practice kosher Kabbalah might seem demanding because it is a way of living, a way of eating, and – before all – it’s the very awareness, the consciousness one imbues into every single word that comes out of their mouth and, last but not the least – into every single thing they put into their mouth; it comes naturally though, usually – gradually, and for many it is the only way, because you feel it is the right way for you, personally.

That being said – not all will feel that urge and it simply means they don’t need it at this level of development or in this period of time, but there are still amazing benefits and advantages we can get from the Month of Virgo – even if we apply only some of the spiritual tools available in this month and even if we can’t really be bothered with somewhat complicated dietary laws and all that jazz.

There are two out of 72 Names of God – the sequence by which it is believed Moses had parted the Red Sea – that are recommended for this period (scanned from right to left):

1. Vav Hei Vav, Time Travel 2.Yud Lamed Yud, Recapturing the Sparks

An alternative way to practice Teshuva, as thought in tradition of the famed Kabbalist Isaac the Blind, which doesn’t involve the letters per se – is when you go to bed, to recall and remember every single event of the preceding day and all the things you said while – if possible, imagining that you are in the place of the person to whom you spoke, that you are them. Most of us go through life – better to say – schlep, in the perpetual state of dormita, asleep, not being aware of the effect of our own words and deeds; Teshuva is the way to reverse that and to become awaken.

I can’t recommend strongly enough the book by Catherine Shainberg PhD – Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming; beside detailed instructions for the above mentioned practice of Teshuva, it also includes what’s probably the best available manual for lucid dreaming and many other techniques to reverse the unwanted events and developments in our lives.

It’s being said that the name of the month is the abbreviation of אני לדודי ודודי לי “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine” (Song of Songs 6:3), because it is during this very  month that we can connect to the love story between the soul and the Creator. In words of Shaul Youdkevitch: “Since we all get some of Virgo’s virtues during Elul, it is the time to review, cleanse and redecorate our thoughts and feelings. Let us use Virgo to return to ourselves and gain freedom from all emotions and thoughts that keep us away from perfection.”

further reading:

 

Elul/ Virgo, Live Kabbalah

Zohar Study Ki Tavo with Shaul Youdkevitch

The Kabbalah Deck

The Hidden Treasures of Dreaming; article by Catherine Shainberg, PhD

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To Hell With Common Sense

27 Monday Aug 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Essay

≈ 15 Comments

Tags

Arts, Common (entertainer), Common sense, History, Imaginary friend, Kabbalah, Literature, Obama, Philippe Halsman, Philosophy, Real life

The Dali Atomicus, photo by Philippe Halsman (...

           Funny that while we were  raised under premise that it’s ‘inside that counts’ and given that most of the wars throughout written history were fought because of “imaginary friends”; nowadays it seems everyone is going to great lengths to persuade us that “real life” rocks and that your facebook friends and online romances are non-existent… Well, not really.

         Common sense is called common not because it will make one a torchbearer of the humanity and avant-garde – it will indeed keep you ‘common’ and it’s merely a know how for the masses – prone to entropy by definition – a working knowledge and a manual to navigate the uncommon territories of this rushing century… Those who are running in front of the rest of us and moving the time itself as they go, as they run –  they are never common and it’s us, who shclep behind them who need the “common sense” to explain to ourselves what the hell has just happened?!

        Just look at the history of science – or of the very religion, or fashion, and of course – the development of the technology; it’s always the unexpected, carried out by the most unusual folks, that constitutes the progress of the humanity; the rest is wallowing in the entropy of the common sense… Sense can’t be common, you see – because to be sound one has to think for themselves; what we can pick up from our surroundings and what we do get via socialization – is the working knowledge of life, how to adapt to the existing – and not how to create the new.

        It irks me when i read some self-righteous blockhead telling everyone their feelings are not real… Oh, really? It’s as if i know in person and went hiking or something with Clintons and Obamas, who did shape my actual life; it’s as if i know in person all the chemists and engineers who invented stuff that i now use in daily life… Neither have i met philosophers from the past, nor the classical writers – yet all of these folks together have shaped my life and made it what it is.

        I don’t get it where this obsession with the physical started –  we were thought it’s the spirit, you know, that makes the world go round… Now suddenly the rabbis are railing and psychologists are outdoing themselves to persuade you that what you get online is an illusion, while it’s the “real life” that counts… Sure, the “real life” – which at it’s core is equally fictional – only custom tailored according to the needs of governments, clergy and industrial lobbies.

         That would be my main rant of the day – i won’t even link to countless mediocre articles that sing praises to the “real life” vs online experience, it’s a waste of time – more so that these people would never get published, wasn’t it for www; it’s this very media – which they fail to appreciate – that gave them the possibility to voice their worn out ideas , in “real life” it takes much more than that to get published.

        By now you know i am for ever enchanted by Kabbalah – and i admire kabbalists for their use of internet too – i’ve never heard a kabbalist ranting against it; as they try to see the light in everything – they decided internet is a great opportunity to spread wisdom and started working hard; the result of it is that nowadays you get online for free knowledge and tools that only 50 or 70 years ago were  available only to the chosen few.

           In real life, personally, i interact with very few people on a regular bases – maybe it’s just the way i am wired, but i really don’t feel the need to spend extended periods of time in someone’s physical presence, in order to relate to them; i do have wonderful  neighbors and friends whom i know all my life, not to forget my extended family – i am part of their lives and they – of mine; but as genius Churchill put it: small minds are busy with other people, mediocre – with events, great ones – with ideas.

          I don’t really care what you had for lunch and with whom do you sleep, but i do care and would love to share the magic of your life, the extraordinary that you live in the ordinary – and that’s what i am willing to share of myself too; i follow numerous blogs and have numerous online friends – you, guys, make me happy and fulfilled by sharing your thoughts and artwork and sometimes just ramblings and miniature sketches of lives i otherwise wouldn’t get to know; in this dimension it’s highly unrealistic all of us will get together  in the same time at the same place – but, you know, it’s ok with me, the feelings i experience and the inspiration i get from you is real – and that’s just about all i need.

          For art is anyway deprived of the casual – in movies you don’t normally get to see the actors emptying their bowels and in books you’d hardly focus on food that didn’t turn out right or on days in which nothing special happens… Right, real life is made of hours and hours of maintenance of the physical, but i don’t need to share that part with you – in order to relate to your magic, or to your pain per that matter… And posting text after text on the subject of presumed illusion of the internet vs the reality … Sure, it’s as if these bores are historical Buddha himself and it’s as if they get to see the reality as it is… They don’t – and with their lack of imagination they can’t even enjoy the online experience, poor dahlings ( i do feel sorry for them, i just wish they stopped bombarding my inbox and my fb wall with their views as i find them utterly uninspiring, ’tis all.)

If you happen to be one of those people – please go back to watching reality tv or whatever you find a realistic and empowering thing to do, and let the rest of us enjoy what we find pleasurable and fulfilling, kay?

Photo credit: Philippe Halsman ‘s Dali Atomicus (1948), public domain

Visual archive of this picture taken by Philippe Halsman -28 jumps were necessary and a room full of assistants, cats and buckets of water

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Single Girl, the Skinny God and the Plague of Labeling

14 Tuesday Aug 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Essay

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Cosmopolitan, Helen Gurley Brown, Jewish American Heritage Month, Kabbalah, Karen Berg, Madonna, Marissa Mayer, Sex And The Single Girl

Helen Gurley Brown

Helen Gurley Brown (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Somehow I believed Helen Gurley Brown, the legendary editor of Cosmopolitan, was immortal.

In my twenties i was regularly reading all three editions of Cosmo i could get – US, UK and Italian one – and i did find there the answers i was looking for at the time.

I still know by heart good part of HGB’s best selling book “Sex and the Single Girl”.

I really couldn’t care less whether HGB is widely considered as having contributed to feminist movement and i am really sick and tired of this worn out discourse.

Firstly – please, define contemporary feminism for me, would you? Women’s rights is one thing, but now that we have them (bowing to all who contributed), isn’t it the time we left all this sickening paradigm behind?

I doubt anyone believes nowadays that working women “leave their husbands,  practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians”, but even if a lady chose to do so –  Wicca is a recognized religion by now, capitalism ate itself anyway and US has just promoted its first female and openly gay general.

Honestly, i couldn’t care less what anyone thinks of me personally – as long as my rights are guaranteed – mind you, i am straight and an observant Jew.

Why bringing up Judaism? Well, recently a dear friend of mine posted links on facebook where a right wing Israeli Rabbi has a heated discussion with some Russian nationalist, it made me sick – both of them and the debate itself.

My friend who is an intellectual  par exellance, listed several valid reasons for doing so – among them the fact that rabbi in question is one of the few respected by Russian nationalists… Listen, i can’t stand nationalist of any kind – and i don’t care at all what they think and whom they respect, as far as i am concerned, nationalist of all backgrounds are cheap demagogues and in my opinion are best kept in the basement, tied up,  with clothes sucked up in chlorophyll pushed into their mouths – BUT, the latter would breach their right to free expression, so as long as they don’t cross the line of hate speech, whenever i hear them, depending on circumstances,  i either walk out or simply turn off the tv.

Recently when Marissa Mayer became Yahoo CEO, upon her stating she wouldn’t call herself a feminist – there was a media outcry in the vein of GOODNESS, HOW IS SUCH HERESY POSSIBLE?!

Hear, she ain’t neither Secretary of State nor a spiritual leader, she is not paid to fight for someone’s rights – but to head a company; she proved that a ‘gal can do it, what else do you want? On what bases do you make your pretenses in the first place?

It’s really beyond my comprehension.

Same with Helen Gurley Brown of blessed memory.

I never asked myself was she a feminist – she was empowering women and that was good enough for me – more so, it won my eternal admiration for this small town girl who moved to the big city without having higher education or outstanding looks and who became one of the most influential women of 20th century.

HGB was restricting calories, believed that “Skinny is God”, worked out 90 minutes daily – even on the day of her mother’s funeral, she didn’t have children, she was not against single girls having sugar daddies – and she was brutally honest about it all, that’s the main objections most have about her; personally, i couldn’t care less about any of the above and it’s other ideas i picked up from her and find invaluable.

Don’t forget she wrote her book 50 years ago when sex was mostly unthinkable of before and outside of marriage, but even that doesn’t matter – what mattered to me was her work ethics and it’s there that i bow to her.

She was against intimisation with superiors, and so am i. She campaigned for women to invest into their knowledge and working skills and into making themselves irreplaceable in their careers, not in their lover’s beds – that’s my mantra too and it did wonders for me.

She was stressing all the time how important it is to have a good and supportive boss, one from whom a girl can learn and who will help her career. Fast forward 50 years – it’s still the most important thing, albeit now it doesn’t matter anymore whether the boss is male or female.

A proper superior is worth of gold – they become a role model and – from my personal experience – probably the most important influence in a girl’s life, after her parents’.

I worked both for men and women, and i was superior both to female and male interns – in my experience, the gender doesn’t matter anymore, but if you worked both for a psychopath and for a good guy/ gal – you’ll know exactly what i am talking about.

So these are the things where i agree 100% with HGB. Also, i agree on importance of protein intake (doesn’t have to be of animal origin – mushrooms, beans and tofu rock) and regular exercise as well; my mother being a certified and practicing nutritionist of  old school – i know how evolutionary Ms Gurley’s views were at the time.

Where i disagree with my own mother – yet agree with HGB is the ‘natural looks’- my own mother always went for au naturel look, while i personally dislike gray hair and adore make up.

Don’t get me wrong at 75 my mother is – thanks goodness – still going strong, regularly having her facials, her hair, mani and pedi done, she loves accessories and dresses up – think of Hillary Clinton style as of recent – with glasses and sans make up,  that’s my mother’s favorite look.

For myself – without imposing anything on anyone – i love meticulously maintained women, and i love being one, the class of (if speaking of role models from the past) Raquell Weltch who admits she needs three hours to get ready for going out.

Tastes vary, it’s as simple as that.

I am a big fan of Madonna Louise Ciccone and i adore her for all the age-defying thing that she does. Do i think she should sit at home so to get out of the way of the younger talents? Not at all – try dethroning her, if you can – and keep trying hard, as she raised the bar very high.

Not to forget the sheer horror Madonna’s own role model – kabbalist Karen Berg, author of “God Wears Lipstick” – causes among certain Orthodox Jews.

If you are interested in my scientific back up of the postmodern Kabbalah – look up among earlier posts here the notes from lecture “Everything you always wanted to know about Kabbalah” which i read in American Corner (cultural outpost of US State Department) in June this year within “Jewish American Heritage Month”, i won’t go into explaining it here.

I don’t label myself a feminist either, albeit i think by most i am considered such; the thing is that i simply don’t think in that terms.

My premise never was that i am a woman – i am a hard working, ambitious and goal oriented person, (spare couple of drunken hints by men to whom i was superior, which i dismissed as ephemeral stupidity) i was never sexually harassed at work and i never used cleavage or pouty lips to climb up; nevertheless i achieved the highest rank in a traditionally male job, wrote and published three books meanwhile, managed to pay off my own Mercedes-Benz at age of 35, i have my own place and am most happily unmarried at the age of 42 – in full honesty, i couldn’t possibly ask for more and it’s women like HGB, Madonna and Karen Berg i look up to.

R.I.P. Helen Gurley Brown, your contribution is immortal to me.

10 Best Tips From ‘Sex and the Single Girl’:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/08/14/helen-gurley-brown-10-best-tips-from-sex-and-the-single-girl.html

HGB, the Queen of Lipstick Feminism: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/helen-gurley-brown-the-queen-of-lipstick-feminism/article4479857/

An interview with Karen Berg: http://www.awarenessmag.com/janfeb6/jf6_kabbalah.html

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Chinese Curses, Costa coffee and the Meaning of Life

12 Sunday Aug 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in I Ching, Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

Ancient Greece, China, England, Facebook, Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, Judaism, Kabbalah, May you live in interesting times

SOURCE: Bernstein, Jüdische Sprichwörter und Redensarten. This is a free translation. The Yiddish word for "snail" (שנעק, shnek) does not occur in the saying. A more literal translation: Understanding (or good sense) is a creeper.

 

On occasions i feel overwhelmed and i start doubting everything i know and even my own experience.

At times like that, Tarot doesn’t talk to me. I look at the beautiful patterns in which the vegetation grows on Tarot de Marseilles cards, i gaze at the smirky Empress and elegantly crossed swords – and as much as i appreciate cards’ poise and grace, i don’t have the slightest idea what they mean.

Sometimes it is the same with life itself, sometimes it’s good , sometimes it is not – and the direct or even indirect cause escapes me, regardless the analytic skills , logical thinking and even despite the intuition and all the oracles.

Before, at times like that i would wallow in existential sorrow  for days and even weeks, but as of recently i have learned some kind of proverbial acceptance.

In terms of I Ching, it’s in the twelfth hexagram – Stagnation/ Standstill – when  “heaven is above, drawing farther and farther away, while the earth below sinks farther into the depths.” 

This shall pass too, everything does – but when i get this  feeling that all i do is in vain –  like this morning – i get together with some dear(est) to me people  and head for a coffee at local Costa cafe and some shopping at the nearest mall; when all else fails, these two activities proved to have the desired healing effect on my existential anguish.

They say the most powerful Chinese curse is ‘May you live in interesting times’ (alternatively – in the times of changes), albeit i never heard it from Chinese; after all it seems the saying  originated with an Oxford educated British gentleman, Sir Knatchbull-Hugessen – Her Britannic Majesty’s Ambassador to China in 1936- 1937.

In his memoir written a decade later this diplomat in career notes: Before I left England for China in 1936 a friend told me that there exists a Chinese curse — “May you live in interesting times”. If so, our generation has certainly witnessed that curse’s fulfillment  (Hughe Knatchbull-Hugessen, Diplomat in Peace and War, 1949.)

Sometimes i think of my own life in terms of a prolonged Zazen meditation for as the time passes by  i merely witness the impermanence of various doctrines,  ideologies and systems; most of them turned out to be more fragile than my grandmother’s porcelain – you see, i still have my granma’s hand painted figurines and bowls, while i left behind three state unions, several ideologies and a concrete wall – that of Berlin…

The aim of Zazen – as well as of other Buddhist meditation practices – is to  detouch from the thought process and stemming from it judgement by letting it all pass by, by observing without involvement or reaction. It’s easier said than done – but the results can be awe-inducing as in some moment of (presumably non-existing) time we might get to peek at the reality as it is, without all the layers of preconceptions, social conditioning and emotional baggage we normally carry around… It happens seldom, but it is indeed worth years of sitting in oblivion (alternative translation of Zazen being: sitting and forgetting.)

I think all Westerners*, my little self included are suckers for proverbial meaning, yet sometimes it is painfully lacking – or at least it seems so.

 *I use the term loosely for everyone who’s been born into or living within geographical confines of the vast area where the civilizations called by umbrella term Judo-Christian has been predominant.

Be it the religious zest, characteristic of conservative circles, or the hard work by which at the time Protestantism had replaced the traditional fasting and praying – we all by default expect some kind of meaning to surface from somewhere – and to justify it all, the effort, the pain, the restrictions and sleepless nights.

On the other hand – those who ‘play against the rules’, by default expect some kind of punishment, sooner or later – because that’s what education is all about: awarding the desirable behavior and punishing the behavior which is unacceptable for the given society.

Murder, theft, adultery etc. aside – as these by now are deeply ingrained as wrong in the collective unconscious – we’ve been conditioned in our formative years to believe all if it makes sense at the end and the life unfolds by some kind of rules… Kabbalists of course have their own idea of what these rules are – and these are not  very different from, lets say –  Platonism, where the meaning of life is in attaining the highest form of knowledge, (which would be the Idea of the Good and thus human are duty-bound to pursue it/ the Good), or other schools of Greek Thought to which Judaism and Kabbalah are usually juxtaposed.

Even nihilists and chaos magicians have pre-existing sets of believes and wherever we have those (read: everywhere), the door is ajared for disappointment which more often than not doesn’t make us hold the breath for too long before it arrives.

I must digress: certainly, Hellenism was a threat to Yiddishkeit and a lot of blood is spilled to preserve Jewish values – yet it is indeed difficult to explain  in a non-dogmatic way what exactly is at the core of these believes – even to someone like me who not only studies them at academic level, but also believes in this system and lives by it; more so – there probably isn’t even a need to do so, for those who are overwhelmed by desire to understand it will certainly look up some way more reputable sources. 

Bertrand Russell’s ‘History of Western Philosophy’ is often scorned at in academic circles as being overly simplified, but in fact this opus gives a pretty clear insight into the overall development of the human thought from it’s dawn to somewhere around/after Carl Marx.

I adore Russell for he was the first one to take down the philosophers from their imaginary pedestals and talk of them and their reasoning as it should be done – with a lot of common sense, without glorification and idolization;  it is definitely not the book recommended for PhD programs – yet i always go back to it for it succinct style and certain – albeit veiled – humor.

Anyhow, all good, until we get to Jewish thought – right, Russel does go to great lengths to introduce Maimonides for example, but he is very  honest in admitting  (paraphrasing) : I respect this people for fighting bravely and sacrificing all they had to stand up for what they believe in – and that’s throughout history , but why would anyone fight and even die so not to eat pork and to get circumcised – is beyond my comprehension.

What Jews believe is not the topic of this essay, but my point is that humans started thinking more or less at the same time – some six centuries before what’s commonly called the new era – in very different parts of the world – Ancient Greece, Far East (China) and Middle East – in the parts inhabited by Hebrews; all three came up with schools of thought that will rock the world ever since and i am not sure they are not somehow interconnected.

There is a mysterious verse in Genesis (25:6) which says: And sons of Abraham headed to the East, carrying the gifts.

It’s obviously about other sons he had, except Isaac and Ishmael , those of concubines, but whether the mysterious gift they took to the East indeed was the wisdom of Kabbalah – God only knows.

Anyhow, albeit the three great traditions can’t really be compared – there is some familiar feeling that arouses when prolonged periods of time are spent studying and living them, some common denominator does arise… and that very denominator, the pursuit of ultimate fulfillment which by default seems to be imbued by meaning – is indeed ingrained in all three.

If i had to do the improbable and retell the history of philosophy in one sentence, it would go something like this: people stood in gutter for quite some time, then some of them looked at the stars and the history of philosophy is down to how each one of them imagined getting out of that gutter and becoming – a star.

At times when gutter raises up to your neck and the stars hide –  keep calm and have a cuppa.

 

illustration adopted from: http://www.yiddishwit.com/gallery/snail.html

SOURCE: Bernstein, Jüdische Sprichwörter und Redensarten ; this is a free translation – Yiddish word for “snail” (שנעק, shnek) does not occur in the saying and a more literal translation would be: Understanding (or good sense) is a creeper

Hexagram 12, Stagnation, Wilhelm-Baynes translation: http://theabysmal.wordpress.com/2006/10/25/i-ching-hexagram-12/

 

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Living in No Man’s Land & the Usefulness of Useless

10 Friday Aug 2012

Posted by moderndayruth in Kabbalah & Western Hermetic Tradition

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

Abraham Flexner, Cognitive dissonance, Judeo-Christian, Kabbalah, Leon Festinger, Russia, Social Sciences, Woody Allen

Hasidic thought explores the role of the Sephi...

Hasidic thought explores the role of the Sephirot, Divine emanations of Kabbalah, in the internal experience of spiritual psychology (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“This shall be the reward when you hearken to these ordinances, and you observe and perform them; Hashem, your G-d, will safeguard for you the covenant and the kindness that He swore to your forefathers”  Parshat Ekev; Deuteronomy 7:12 

These are the words of Moses.

Todays is 21 Av 5772 by Hebrew calendar and Kabbalists are in the seven weeks long period of meticulous preparation for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.

I’ve been cleaning my place and planning the meals for Shabbat – the Day of Rest, which is the main measurement of my inner, psychological time.

Outside – it’s August10th, Montenegro is affected by tropical heat.  Last night  our national handball team secured the first medal by beating Spain at the Olympics, which is, naturally, a source of great pride.

August is the month of unbearable slowness of being in these parts, especially in the capital;  the government slows its activities during this time, schools are still in vacation and if you stroll in the city’s center around noon on weekends – you might think you are in a ghost city, often there’s literally no one around.

I can’t stand the heat – and even less so the crowded beaches – so i am spending time in the freshness of my place and, as usually, in my own world, living by my own time.

Those two worlds of mine rarely intersect, except in my writing – other than that these two realities exist in two parallel dimensions.

Sometimes i get stuck between the two – between these realities of two different calendars, inhabited respectively by people who don’t speak a mutual language.

On times like that i travel, usually to Moscow.

In October i need to pass the exam in methodics and prior to that to write a paper for the admission; as a topic i choose the development of so-called Secondary Linguistic Personality which presumably comes of age as we study foreign languages.

It’s an utmost intriguing concept of intercultural transformation, which so far has not been researched  extensively.

It’s been said that “to speak another language is to lead a parallel life” (Barbara Wilson), but these shifts in consciousness can be so profound that we could realistically speak of different personalities living those parallel lives.

You see, Russia has everything of  its own, in the same way as China does  – the realities of major cultures are indeed separate realities.

It’s not only down to language, for that is the easiest part – it’s the whole system of cultural references which natives of given language use to communicate and develop their respective discourses.

B. Wilson in ‘Trouble in Transylvania’ described it like this:
When I speak Spanish…I find my facial muscles set in a different pattern, and new, yet familiar gestures taking over my hands. I find myself shrugging and tossing my head back, pulling down the corners of my mouth and lifting my eyebrows…. I speak more rapidly and fluidly…. It’s the moment when you…allow the other language to possess you, to pass through you, to transform you… To speak another language is to lead a parallel life, the better you speak any language, the more fully you live in another culture. 

It’s only during last couple of decades that via internet these cultures started to interact, but still, the world is quite divided and cross-cultural understanding far from flowing.

According to Leon Festinger’s Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, which i am reviewing for the exam, an individual placed in alien to them setting experiences the so-called cognitive dissonance – “an unpleasant state of arousal created when a person becomes aware of inconsistency among his or her attitudes and behavior.”

The dreaded contradiction between self-identification (avowal) and the way person is identified by others (ascription)* is one of the major reasons for a cultural shock, caused by communication problems.

This dissonance motivates the person to modify their attitudes and behavior so to re-establish the lost consistency –  which is  – to adapt with time to a new cultural environment via discovering the forms and ways of self-expression by means of a new verbal and cultural code.

My first year in Moscow i shared a teeny flat with a postgrad student from China, thanks to her and to my very modest knowledge of Mandarin i got involved into yet another magical reality with its own social networks and just about everything else.

Certain versatility is needed so to shapeshift from one of these realities to another, and versatility itself can often get quite confusing.

Remember the case of Woody Allen’s human chameleon Leonard Zelig , who could mimic the facial and vocal characteristics of whomever he happened to be around at the moment? Something like that.

But mostly it’s fun – perpetual shapeshifting enables one to confuse their surroundings which ever demand  pragmatism and  thus spend prolonged times in no man’s land, acquiring “useless knowledge”.

For abstract knowledge – such as philosophy – in the rushing 21st century is widely considered useless, but is it so?

In 1939 an American expert in methodics, Abraham Flexner, wrote: We hear it said with tiresome iteration that ours is a materialistic age, the main concern of which should be the wider distribution of material goods and worldly opportunities. The justified outcry of those who through no fault of their own are deprived of opportunity and a fair share of worldly goods therefore diverts an increasing number of students from the studies which their fathers pursued to the equally important and no less urgent study of social, economic, and governmental problems. I have no quarrel with this tendency. The world in which we live is the only world about which our senses can testify. Unless it is made a better world, a fairer world, millions will continue to go to their graves silent, saddened, and embittered. I have myself spent many years pleading that our schools should become more acutely aware of the world in which their pupils and students are destined to pass their lives. Now I sometimes wonder whether that current has not become too strong and whether there would be sufficient opportunity for a full life if the world were emptied of some of the useless things that give it spiritual significance; in other words, whether our conception of what is useful may not have become too narrow to be adequate to the roaming and capricious possibilities of the human spirit. 

Fast forward to 2012 and the economical depression in which we are living – most didn’t get any smarter; it’s the perpetual obsession with doing – and if possible – doing something quite trivial, preferably buying or selling, that’s sadly still viewed as desirable occupation; never mind that the result of this idiocy is the backlash of the global financial crises.

So, i am really looking forward to lighting the Shabbat candles tonight and being officially exempt from all the other realities – except my own, which i live in no man’s land, spending the time in acquiring the “useless knowledge” of Kabbalah, which has been sustaining the Judeo-Christian tradition since its very dawn… as “useless” as such knowledge gets.

Shabbat Shalom

*Nota Bene: The contradiction between self-identification (avowal) and the way person is identified by others (ascription) in Tarot is denoted by positions 7&8 of the Celtic Cross spread, while the so-called objective truth, given that it exists, is usually found midway between the two:  http://www.psychic-revelation.com/reference/q_t/tarot/tarot_spreads/celtic_cross.html

Zohar study Ekev, Live Kabbalah http://www.livekabbalah.org/index.php/home/weekly-zohar/deuteronomy-devarim/ekev/

The Usefulness of Useless Knowledge (Brain pickings): http://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/07/27/the-usefulness-of-useless-knowledge/

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Lena Ruth Stefanovic

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