Miracles and Light

Welcome to the month of Sagittarius—a month full of miracles and Light.

Often described as lucky, people born under this sign like to live on the edge. They tend to find themselves counting on miracles because they are known to put off obligations till the very last minute. With their interest in learning things simply for the sake of learning, Sagittarians have a hard time following through on what they learn and finishing what they start. Nevertheless, with their free-spirited nature and light-hearted approach to life, they are able to navigate through life quite successfully.

At the same time, Sagittarians love challenges and are very competitive—so competitive, in fact, that it can be difficult for them to bounce back after a perceived failure. In this situation, however, we should all heed the wisdom of Winston Churchill this month: “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”

In Kabbalah, we learn that the Hebrew letters are not just part of an ancient language, but are actually the building blocks of the spiritual universe. There is a Hebrew letter that “presides” over each one of the planets in our solar system, and each planet, in turn, controls one of the twelve months of the zodiac.

This month, Jupiter presides over Sagittarius. For us, this is significant because of all the planets in our solar system, Jupiter is by far the largest and is powerful is because it provides balance for the rest of the planets; in fact, without the gravitation pull of Jupiter, our solar system as we know it would collapse.

In addition to its physical power, Jupiter possesses spiritual power. It is associated with miracles—those occurrences that we perceive to be “above” nature. Miracles are available to us this month, especially during Chanukah, the eight-day window in time that is the storehouse for this miracle-energy for the whole year.

The letter Gimmel (shown in the image above) is the third letter of Hebrew alphabet and is the letter that presides over Jupiter. The number three is connected to the kabbalistic concept of the three-column system, or the three forces that exist in this universe: the force of Sharing (known as right column), the force of Receiving (known as left column), and the balancing of these two energies, which is the Desire to Receive for the Sake of Sharing (central column). This month, we must remember that it is through the energy of the central column—that is, through our ability to Receive for the Sake of Sharing—that we can alter the chaos that surrounds us. We’ve all heard about the flood that destroyed the world in the time of Noah. It is said that the reason there was a flood was because the people did not treat each other with human dignity and thus, through their Desire to Receive for the Self Alone, created an imbalance in the cosmic energy.

Today we don’t have floods (or at least not floods of the epic proportions of Noah’s flood). But we do have chaos, and we do have anger, and we do have greed. I want. I need. What about me? That constant thought of “me, me, me” creates a hole in our protective shield. Selfish thoughts, actions, and deeds all act as a sharp pin to puncture both our personal protective aura and, in a global sense, the ozone layer, which is designed to protect us all.

There is a direct connection between the environment and us. The more we disrespect nature, the more nature reflects this toxic state back at us. Even seemingly insignificant selfish or negative thoughts or actions on our part will affect the world at some point, even if they don’t have (or we don’t see) an immediate effect from them.

This month, however, the Light of Sagittarius can help us to reverse this spiritual imbalance through our collective effort to inject and restore balance to our lives and the universe.

All that is happening in the world today has a purpose: to get us to the place where people will understand how to open their minds and their hearts to a consciousness that we—all of us—need to change. Not to change who we are and what we are, but rather to be who we are- a part of a unified spark of God. We must allow our “dearest foe” to have his opinion as long as that opinion is something that is in harmony with sharing and human dignity.

Chodesh Tov (Have a great month)…