"Farewell to the Sukkah"
In the past week I have invited seven foremothers in my blog to celebrate the Jewish festival Sukkot. You can read more about this custom at the entry of October 6th.
I have learned a lot from them each day. They have put me out of my usual ways, and habits, more than other themes have done in this blog. They have confronted me, challenged me and given me new ways to experience situations in my life that are difficult for me. Especially Miriam has done that, and Sarah as well.
I choosed to use the “Tarot of Doors” for the whole week. This past week, the theme of opening and closing was prevalent, which is the most important theme of this deck. This issues of past week circled around setting boundaries, opening my heart, keeping distance, releasing responsibility, and seeking entrance. Funny is that, how the theme of the deck fits in my week. Of course, I make up my own story with the cards, but it felt as a true one.
Today I leave my virtual Sukkah, and I break it down. How sad…, but that is what Sukkah’s are: temporary houses. I leave my Sukkah with a traditional blessing for the last day of Sukkot: “Farewell to the Sukkah”. I pull a card alongside the blessing with a question to the tarot inspired by it. First the blessing:
May it be Your will, Lord our God and God of our ancestors
That just as I have stood up and dwelled in this sukkah
so may I merit next year to dwell in the sukkah of the hide of the Levitathan.
Next year in Jerusalem!
This blessing needs a little explaining. Here is the wish is expressed for an eternal Sukkah in Jerusalem. Implicated, not mentioned, is the hope that the Messiah will come in the following year. The Leviathan is a monster, a sort of dragon, and an image of evil. When the Messiah has come all evil (the leviathan) is conquered, and the hide of the Leviathan is used for the wall of the Sukkah.
My question is alongside this blessing is: “What does it mean for me in to dwell in the Sukkah of the hide of the Leviathan, what do I long for?”
The image I have received is a counter image for the card which I pulled last week at Tifaret, the centre of the Tree. I had pulled the High Priestess there, the teaching of Deborah. She teached me to stay in my centre.
The card I have pulled here is the Inventor, Man of Crystals, equivalent of the Knight of Swords. This man invents things. But as I see him right now he is worrying his head off, not living out of his centre, nor acting on his instincts and intuition. This man is me. I am worrying my head off at the moment about an issue. I know I must do what my intuition says, more, what my instincts say, but I’d rather not want to do that. I want this worrying to be over. To be honest, I do not want to live in my worries as the walls of the Sukkah, but I do want to conquer them, that is for sure, in order to live in peace in the eternal Sukkah.