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.

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.