Tevet - Tending to the Sacred
When we approach Jewish ritual as a vehicle to prepare for, or support, psychedelic exploration, how might we transform a major hinderance which many people experience with regard to spiritual practice, that of routineness, into a meeting point with the Sacred?
This does not seem to be a new question with regards to Hanukkah, as it was mentioned by the Piacezner Rebbe in his discourses on the holiday and Torah reading cycle: “Every Jew lights Hanukkah candles for the miracle God did for us then, but if they do not have a conception or mental visualization in their thought, then it will be difficult for them to feel what the soul ascensions are, and they merely light a simple candle remembering the miracle, as is sometimes done for their own celebrations, as well.” Renewing the intense potency latent within a practice begins with the imagination, to activate that which is already easily catalyzed by plant medicines and other modalities, and to embody and enact this visualization throughout the practice.
When learning how to do this for ourselves, it may seem that each sacred moment, perhaps, requires a new strategy or approach, given the uniqueness of every ritual and its moment in the seasons. In her book “Tending to the Sacred,” Ashely River Brant, a ceremonialist and healer, identifies four pillars for deepening ritual work to honor and ground ourselves into the Sacred at play in our lives, regardless of the ritual or occasion. Brant encourages us to approach our ritual work as “the bridge that guides us home to the Sacred…we find home by reaching within and honoring our core desires for pure loving truth.” The essential qualities for this work, then, are intention, space, love, and belief. Intention cultivates meaning in the mundane, space provides the inner and outer ground for those intentions to unfold, love is the quality which affirms us as we are and gives us the opportunity and dignity to change, having the belief that while our rituals are powerful, we surrender our ultimate control to the Spirit.
So universally insightful are Brant’s four pillars that they are evident in even the most particular place—even in the Hanukkah teachings of the living tzaddik Rabbi Itche Meir Morgenstern. Rav Itche Meir, a Kabbalist and community leader in Jerusalem, puts out voluminous works each year, synthesizing the greatest Hasidic and Kabbalistic teachings of the last six hundred years or so. His series on the holidays “B’Yam Darkekha” reveals deep meditations and spiritual practices to accompany festive rituals. As the Piacezner taught above, a simple thought of approaching our Hanukkah lighting can shift the entire ritual moment.
Rav Itche Meir identifies four unique moments that constitute the act of lighting Hanukkah candles: placing the menorah, pouring the oil or placing the candle, preparing the wicks, and lighting the flame. Placing the menorah as a vessel to receive intends our own quality of openness toward unique revelation in this moment. When add fuel to the menorah, we gesture to the space in which we often meet Divinity, through the embodied wisdom we call Torah. As we place or prepare the wicks to receive the oil or wax, we feel our own yearning for that closeness of receptivity and inspiration. Gazing at the dancing flame, we have faith that all perceived separateness is held by a wider field of unity. All our strength and abilities are derived from the Source of our lives and dances through us.
In this way, whether on a Jewish occasion, or by some act of self-love and care, we tend to the altar of our own simple, sacred existence.
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Chag urim sameach—for a wondrous end of your Hanukkah,
Z
