Total Eclipse/ Full moon of Elul/ Ani L'Dodi

We are now in the eight day period of time where the planet nogah/venus is gone from the sky and in conjunction with the shemesh/sun and shabbatai/saturn in the aryeh/lion. We are in the great Hebrew month of Elul, the month of compassionate return in our relationship to the divine Mystery, the source we call HaShem. The signs are always everywhere for the initiate on the journey within the temple/school that is our olam/world and our olamot/universes. There are great planetary and lunar changes this month as well as the ongoing trembling of the winds, oceans and earth's crust. The acronym that is the letters for the month of Elul, aleph-lamed-vav-lamed, is taken from the holiest of Songs, Shir HaShirim chapter VI verse 3; "Ani l'dodi vedodi li, I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine". The Earth and the lovers who find themselves here in this sacred house are being shaken awake. The verse from the holy song ends with haroaah be'shoshanim. The traditional shepherd among the roses is also the powerful shout-roaa-among the flower of the omakim, the ten depths/omakim that make up the olam/world of the individual within the creation. We are to be shaken in this month of return as each moment we face the reishit/beginning that is "aleph be'Tishre", the first of the month of Tishre(Rosh HaShanah) having the same letters as the first word of Torah- Bereishit - in the beginning. In these seven weeks from Tisha'B'Av to Rosh Hashanah that hold the seven "lower" sephirot/directions we have the reappearance of the planet Nogah/Venus as morning star this week the fourth which corresponds to the depth Netzach/Mosheh Rabbeinu and Nogah/Venus. The following week on Elul-14 we have a very long total eclipse, over an hour of totality, of Levunah/moon which week corresponds with the sephirah Hod/Aaron HaCohen Gadol and the priesthood that uses the moon for establishing the priestly sacred calendar dance of time. This eclipse is an awesome sign of the marriage of the depth and silence - sun and moon- within the succah-tabernacle of living Earth. The following week then corresponds to yesod/foundation which holds the moon herself who is the foundation being of the seventh week and sephirah/Malchuth- Earth/Adamah. So where are the two lovers in all this, that this month is about? We have mentioned them as the gnostic bythus/depth and sige/silence. These two in the eternal embrace as the Hebrew omak/depth and domiyah/silence: Keter/crown and Malchuth/kingdom. As above/so below; as outside and inside. I am hers and she is mine. He reddens the moon in eclipse and she shakes the Earth with tempest and earthquake. The Sepher HaZohar begins with a verse from Shir HaShirim about the Shoshanah, the Rose flower of the human being and dance of the Habanot, the maidens, the initiates in this growing vine of love and adventure."As a rose among thorns, What, he said does the flower symbolize? It symbolizes the community of Israel. ...as the flower possesses thirteen leaves, so the community of Israel is vouchsafed thirteen categories of compassion which surround her on every side."Zohar I-1a. This very month of compassion where we are to bring the ending, the acharit to the reisith, to the beginning in every moment. It is within this month of compassion that the first "day" of the olam/world began with the 25th of Elul. The first of Tishre being the sixth "day" and appearance/creation of the Adam, male and female. And here the "lovers" appear again in the numbers(the 25 letters of the shema) of the great Mathematician - the kamea of me'adim having the 25 boxes with the 13(petals-mercies/echad=13) in the middle and the kamea of Nogah/Venus with the 25 in the middle box. I am hers and she is mine, wheels within wheels and an unfolding flower of the depths, HaShoshanat Haomakim, on every human journey. The Shalom Shalem is being born from this flower.

the season of the trumpets/ 49 days again

As stated earlier we are in the 49 day count(7 weeks of consolation) from the ninth of Av to Rosh HaShanah that does in a sense track all of the history of the priestly people wandering over the entire Earth and "walking in beauty", as the Navajo prayer goes. Making this a holy Makom as it was stated in last weeks torah parsha-Eikev, "Cal HaMakom", every place you walk will be made sacred. This 49 days we are in now are also coinciding with the important cycle of Nogah/Venus moving from the evening star phase to the dawn star in the fourth of the seven weeks. Rosh Chodesh Elul, the new moon of Elul comes during the special eight days when Nogah is in conjunction with the Shemesh/sun in the aryeh/lion, and not visible in the sky. During that week we read the parsha Shoftim and in the Sepher HaZohar we have a brief part of the Reeh Mehemnah/Faithful Sheperd ZoharIII-274b-275b concerning Shoftim/Judges. here the Zohar tells us that the number 49 is equal to the prayer of the Shema that unifies the worlds, the 25 letters of the six words of the Shema and the 24 letters of the Baruch Shem Cavod....equaling the 49. Here we are again in the seven weeks/49 day walk from destruction to the ingathering of the dance of history. The sacred walk away from Har Sinai to the return of Sinai by the building and revealing of the sacred temple who is the Mother Earth. At the beginning of the moon of Elul, the moon of return, we sound the shofar every dawn till the festival of trumpets. This is actually another 49 day count if we extend it to Hoshanah Rabbah during the feast of Sukkoth when we celebrate the Temple earth whose vault is the starry sky and whose walls are the tree boughs and leaves and fruits. The Zohar in this part reminds us that the 7 midot/sephirot of the Etz Chaiim/tree of live hold the 248 limbs of the complete human(also the number of words in the vahavta/shema) that reflect the positive mitzvoth. Our individual walk builds the tabernacle, a sacred temple of the trees and sky and Earth. " Blessed is he/she who is attached to the Tree of life, with his/her body and limbs, for they are a candle. Each branch is a candle of a mitzvah with the 248 positive mitzvoth."Zohar III-274b. The individual walk and the journey of history, the 49 days, have lighted that sacred fire of emunah/faith that is being felt through a shuddering planet Earth. We are to feel, see and hear the awe. The Zohar on Shofitim speaks to us about the sanhedrin/council of the 72, how this is the value of the word Chesed/compassion. ""the greater light to rule the day", it says, HaShem will command steadfast love/Chesed in the daytime. "and the lesser light to rule the night" means: and in the night HaShem's song shall be with me", the song of the levites that is the yesod/foundation. The son of Jesse/David lives upon the adamah/sacred Earth. "Zohar 275b. The living adamah/Earth joins the chai/life of the holy tree, the limbs of all humanity and the plants and the animals and the rocks, in the mystery dance that this ingathering is all about. The Zohar ends here by telling us about ten types of shirim/songs. With our ten fingers we build this pleasant tabernacle and holy temple whose vault is the starry night sky. With our ten toes we have walked through all of history and made this tabernacle a place of celebration. A dwelling for song and dance.

PS-long time friend of this blog, JS asked me about using the kameas/magic boxes. the book "Secret of the Torah" by Ibn Ezra has a good commentary about using the square of 3X3/9 and how it relates to the names. These grids reveal patterns in the continuum of being/heavens and how these patterns may manifest in the physical creation. Our sacred seven day week is directly related to the seven boxes. Time is holy. the 49 day counts are therefore always somehow related to the 7X7 grid of Nogah/Venus. That box has the number 25 in the central square which relates to the Shema and the grid of 5X5-Me'adim. If we study the interrelationships of the seven boxes we have a path of bringing in the chockmah conciousness beyond regular thinking. HaShem is the supreme mathematician. This brings awe into our life. American baseball fans may connect to how "we are all related" if they know who is wearing the number "25" in the center spotlight these days.