Living aligned with time: Reflections on the Jewish New Year
Little did I, or any of us, know what a shit-storm 2020 would descend to when I wrote this piece for Wrapt almost two years ago. The start of a most disastrous year. A most disastrous time.
Yet here we are, in the Jewish lunar calendar, heading towards another New Year. In many ways, things do not seem to be getting any better. Confusion still reigns, and I am still asking myself - what do I need in order to thrive in these bizarre times? How do I support my journey to becoming the fully expressed woman I strive to be?
Living Jewishly, in many ways, means living aligned with time. We sanctify and celebrate her cycles, seasons and significant events that took place for our people throughout history. As such, some of the more mystical Jewish wisdom teaches us that each lunar month is imbued with certain qualities that facilitate our spiritual journeys and guide our growth. The power contained within each moon cycle promotes different areas for healing and transformation.
We are now in the month of Elul, a month of divine compassion, forgiveness and potential for physical and spiritual breakthroughs. The Elul moon’s light simultaneously shines back into our past year, highlighting all the areas we seek change and out towards a new space and time of limitless possibilities. Before we embark on this journey to newness, Elul invites us to pause and take stock. To investigate our role in the year gone by and explore our prospective for the year to come.
She asks us to ask ourselves, how did we show up? How do we want to show up? Where did we succeed, and how did we not quite get it together? She wants us to know what our needs are or aren’t. Do we have healthy boundaries? Where do our strengths, passions and talents lie? She calls us to see how we can experience and express our creativity. Are we striving for authenticity? Vulnerability? Can we invite more forgiveness, compassion and responsibility into our lives and relationship with self and others?
And at the end of the month, the beginning of the new month and year, Rosh HaShana. The head of the Year (Rosh, the hebrew word for ‘head’, HaShana, ‘the year’) has many names in the bible. She’s ‘The Day of Judgment’, ‘The Day of Remembering’, ‘The Day of The Calling ' (of the Shofar’ - a ritual Ram’s horn) and also, 'The Day the World was Conceived’.
Unquestionably, it’s a monumental moment in time in the calendar. One that calls for awareness and presence. One that beckons us closer to the essence of who we are and the potential of who we can be. The deeper we delve into our past year, the more we can launch ourselves forward into a limitless future.
This is the time to own who we are and all that we have accomplished. It is time for us to stand proud and humble, aware of our gifts and how we may be of service. To ourselves, our families, our communities. Our world. A time for re-creation and co-creation. To show up and show ourselves what we are really capable of, no matter how crazy things seem to get out there.
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To read more from Charlotte, click here or you can find more of her on facebook, twitter and Instagram, or at her current project Geula.