So, here we are, at the tail end of the gregorian year and way into the lunar month of Capricorn… Let me start by wishing everybody a very Happy New Year!
Having said that, seriousness and good work are indeed on the menu since the chart of this week displays four Capricorn planets - the Sun, Pluto, Mercury and Venus are a big bundle on top of each other, and all in Capricorn! Pluto will considerably slow down our actions; thank God we are on holiday at the moment.
The first thing we notice about this week’s chart is actually the incredibly strong amount of water energy, since the Moon at the beginning of the week is in philosophical Pisces, as well as Chiron and Neptune. Pisces is the sign of unconditional love, wisdom, and ending cycles (Pisces is the last of the 12 signs).
The strongest houses in the chart are the 9th house, the one of learning and ideals, as well as the 6th, the one of service to others.
There are 2 very important lessons and ideas the cosmos is blessing us with this week:
The first one is definitely humility. Many spiritual leaders were born under the sign of Pisces; Moses for one, as well as Jesus according to the tradition, and Rav Brandwein, the teacher of Rav Berg. This week, our challenge is to first realize how much we still don’t know!! When we start learning, especially spiritual teachings, we all have a tendency to want to talk about it with everyone, forgetting how "green" we still are.
Kabbalists ask: "who is a wise man?" They answer,"the one who knows he doesn’t know!"
This week is a great eye opener as to how much can be learned from the simplest of men!
Since it’s the holiday season, take a quick look around yourself and ask: what can I learn from my sister, my mom, the butcher, or the fisherman? What can I learn from my dog? What can I learn from the chicken I am about to eat tonight at dinner?
I know that sounds really funny, however, when we look a bit closer, amazing answers are waiting for us! We learn from the kabbalists that every animal, let alone human being, is teaching us one positive attribute we should integrate. From the dog we learn loyalty, and from the ant, efficiency… Who would have known!?
So, this week, we should observe the good behavior of others and learn from what they say, even when we feel that there is nothing we can receive from them. We can never fill up a glass that’s already full!
The second important lesson of this week concerns the idea of appreciation and blessings. According to the kabbalists, we don’t appreciate enough the great things life sends our way. Why? Because when it’s all good, we humans feel that it’s kind of normal, and that we’ve worked for it… but when it’s not that great, suddlenly it’s the cosmos' fault - something is going awfully wrong up there!!
Of course, we know deep down in our hearts that this isn’t the case; kabbalistically, WE are responsible on a soul level for everything that happens in our lives. Yes, this is really hard to hear, and sometimes even harder to understand. However, a very good consequence of this is that we CAN do something to make things better! It is in OUR hands - and that’s great news!
A simple exercise we can do this week is to wake up every day thinking about one person we have in our lives today who we are thankful for, as well as one attribute that person has which we would love to import into ourselves . This is a good enough exercise for our "appreciation brain muscle" which in most cases is quite atrophied!
So, guys, this week we are consolidating with great seriousness our love and appreciation, and we are strengthening all the good lessons that are coming our way.
There are so many gifts life has given to us, and it’s about time to rejoice in them!
Much love to all and a wonderful week!
Yael
