December 23rd 2007
Full Moon in Cancer
The 14 of Tevet
In Service
Dear Fellow Pilgrims,
When I was inviting people to come on this trip, there was one woman who said, “No, I couldn’t go without my husband because I would come home transformed and that would put a distance between us.” That made me start thinking about an important aspect of Pilgrimage.
We journey for those we love; we journey for our community; we make our pilgrimage on behalf of others. We journey so that we might bring back the riches, the wisdom, the treasures of new perspectives that might benefit and honor our partner, family, friends, neighbors, and communities.
In 1980, when I traveled through Jordan, I stayed in the ancient and mysterious city of Petra. Before the government turned this place into a tourist attraction, it was populated by Bedouins who made their home in the caves of this beautiful hidden city that was carved out of the red rock. My traveling partner and I were offered one of the caves as our home. While we were there, the Bedouins invited us to a festival, celebrating the safe return of someone who had made a pilgrimage. They slaughtered a goat and partied through the night, honoring the pilgrim who had traveled to a holy place on behalf of his community. They expressed their gratefulness and received him back as a hero who had brought honor to them through his journey.
For whom do you journey? Is it possible to dedicate the efforts, adventures, pleasures and discomforts of this journey in service to those you love?
Sometimes I feel a greediness in me, a desire to consume the world, take in the sights, “have” amazing experiences, be filled with the exotic. I find that the energy of this desire can be transformed by a sense of service. My beloved husband Rachmiel will not be traveling with me on this journey. I would like to receive his blessing, allow him to send me and then I would like to bring something back to him that represents my love, a love that has been expanded by what I have seen and felt in the holy places we are visiting.
When I told Reb Zalman about our Pilgrimage, he instructed me to go to the elders of the Jemez Pueblo and ask for an Eagle feather that would represent the people of this land. He said to bring our Eagle medicine to the people of the south and receive their Condor medicine in return. In this way I would be journeying to unite our tribes of north and south in peace and generosity.
In the Torah’s commandment concerning Pilgrimage we are told not to come empty-handed. What will you bring? What is your offering? I have learned that the only true gift I have to give is my Self. Our challenge is to give ourselves consciously and generously.
(In profound understanding of this aspect of sacred travel, Hune has set up opportunities, optional of course, for us to be of service to the people of the land we are visiting. He will tell you more about this in time.)
Meanwhile, at this time of the full moon I ask you to contemplate and begin building the kavanah, the intention for your pilgrimage. Will you journey to offer praise and thanksgiving for the fullness of your life? Will you journey to ask for healing for yourself or others? Will you journey to remember what you have forgotten in your busy-ness? Will you journey to ask for guidance and receive your mission? For whom do you journey?
If it feels right, you can begin to talk with those for whom you will journey, offering your intention and asking for their blessing.
In grateful anticipation for our journey together,
Shefa
©2007 Shefa Gold. All rights reserved.