Breathing Peace and Healing…

I just watched a video ​here, called The Moses Code.

To clarify:  NO, we’re not gods. No, we’re not God.
YES, we DO have a Breath of Life from the Almighty.
YES, the Breath is powerful.
YES, focusing on our breathing is healing– I “breathed through” labor contractions, and a LOT worse when I was sick.

YES, we do have the capacity to “be the healing” for others. My husband carried me, and “saw” me healed until I became well. His Breath of Life has led me out of slavery.
YES, YHWH is in everything– even Pharaoh. In the original language, YHWH doesn’t say, “Go to Pharaoh.” He says, “Come to Pharaoh.”
YHWH is already there.
YES, we are designed to be a vehicle for YHWH’s healing. Yes, the Breath of Life is for healing. How powerful is it? May YHWH be merciful to show us.

YES, the idea of separation between “good and evil” (“function and dysfunction” is a better translation of the original language) was what originally moved us away from perfect harmony with YHWH and “the garden,” or Nature. Finding the unity of function in whatever our personal “Pharaoh” may be is crucial to restoration.
The Name isn’t really best-translated as, “I am that, I am.” A better translation would be, “He exists”, with the potential use of “exists” in the sense of having a direct object: “He exists it” or “He exists all that is.”
We need to be careful not to put ourselves in a position of idolizing ourselves, but YES, we do have a responsibility to learn to use the healing power YHWH has designed into our Breath of Life, and to recognize His hand in everything– even in Pharaoh.
My personal “Pharaohs” right now are Monsanto and the Petrochem gods / corporations, and the financial and educational oppression these have on our health care and shelter, food & water systems.

“Be the change you want to see.”

OK… breathing Freedom, Sufficiency, and Healing. In a word, ​Shalom.

(click here for details on that ancient word for peace)

We All Want Peace*

Everybody’s running around with two fingers up– if they aren’t busy lifting just one finger at the driver that just cut ’em off. Even so, that driver really just wants peace. We want to know that we’re going to get to work on time, that rent will be paid, that our electricity won’t be shut off, and that we’ll be able to put gas in that car so we can do it again tomorrow. (I use “we” loosely, here– different folks have different struggles) At the core of our beings, we want to feel “secure,” knowing that we’re protected from hunger, cold, and loneliness.  We want peace.
What’s funny is that our language doesn’t tell us what peace is just by looking at the word. It’s kind of a nebulous “good thing” out there somewhere that nobody seems to have (unless they happen to smell like weed, and even then, it’s only for as long as the high lasts).

Shabbat Shalom!

A few thousand years ago, and still today in some places, the word for peace was a real, concrete picture of that nebulous thing we all want. Originally, the Scriptural, Hebrew word was “Shalom,” spelled “Shin-Lamed-Vav-Mem.” (second word in the pic)

The Shin is the picture of the two front Teeth. Lamed is a picture of the Shepherd’s Staff. Vav is the Tent Peg, and Mem is Water. The Teeth is an image of protection and defense. The Shepherd’s Staff provides guidance and direction, pointing the way out for the sheep to find everything they need. The Tent Peg is the picture of securing or “nailing down.” Water is our source of life. Shalom is defined in Jeff Benner’s Ancient Hebrew Lexicon of the Bible , word #2845, “Complete: Made whole or complete by adding or subtracting. ‘To be in a state of wholeness. Also to restore or make right through payment or restitution. ‘A state of being whole, complete, or full. Also an offering of restitution or payment. ‘A greeting as a desire for completeness to another.”
Shalom is “The protection of the Shepherd, nailing down the water.” We are at peace when we are protected and provided for by our Creator, and when we are made “complete.” In order to be “complete,” we need air, water, food, and shelter. Without land to grow food on, we are incomplete, and the land is incomplete without the humble people who care for it, watching over it with sensitivity to see that seeds sprout in it. Finding those humble people gives the rest of that picture of completeness– we’re no longer lonely 🙂

*Originally posted January 28, 2010 on my old blogsite

YHWH, Judge, and grant Peace!

Ancient Pictures of Healing, and Solutions for Peace

Caution: Find the place where you want nothing more than Truth and Peace, or do the world a favor, and don’t read:

I’m not one of those folks who can watch a news program about someone getting hurt and walk away and go on about my day, unaffected. I am physically ill when I see suffering– my body processes other people’s trauma. I wouldn’t call me an empath, necessarily, but if there were such a thing, I might be a half-breed LOL! So when I see folks being hurt in protests on Wall Street, and hurt in wars overseas and hurt over things that really shouldn’t matter… or even if they do matter… I want to fix it– to make it right– to make PEACE(see definition here). Empath or not, maybe there are a lot of other folks out there who want the same thing… and maybe we can work together to help heal each other… Maybe some illnesses aren’t our fault, or our parents’ fault. Maybe some hurts, illnesses, and wars are here only for the purpose of motivating us to find the Source of healing.

Ancient quarrels have built modern wars… or so we’re taught in our various religious schools and through the media… but what if there were more modern reasons why these wars continue? What if those same ancient stories about ancient struggles could contain pictures of how to resolve these modern conflicts, and we’ve all been programmed to ignore them?

To clarify:

I’m not Muslim, not Jewish, not Christian, and not Atheist.

Clear as mud, right? Good– that’s about where I’m at, too LOL!

I’m not interested in starting up arguments, but boy, I’d love to see some comparisons of territories as described in Torah (first 5 books of the Bible), and means of acquisition from the current population occupying those territories as described there, too…

I see pictures of Jacob giving Essau gifts of material wealth– pottage for the birthright, and cattle & sheep when he comes back to his father’s house in TaNaK (Original / “Old” Testament) after having been exiled at Laban’s house. Then I see in Sefer HaYashar (Jewish history book, thought to have been written by Joshua after the death of Moses) where, after their father, Isaac’s death, Jacob also gives Essau a choice between all of the material wealth of their father’s estate, and the land. Essau chose the material goods, and left Jacob with the land. Then Essau goes off happily to Mt. Seir. So somebody educate me on modern history– did the Muslim people ever get any sheep & goats & cattle & money & stuff in 1948? Is the UN the “power” / god / elohim of the Promised Land?  If there was payment of any sort, did it really go to the people, or did it wind up going to governments / “powers”  (the same word, “elohim”, translated “gods” in the original text)? I’m seeing a distinct picture of Jacob as not wanting to be a man  of war –wanting to resolve this thing peacefully, without anyone getting killed– and of Essau choosing, of his own accord, to live in Mt. Seir. No war necessary. In fact, war averted!  Jacob comes home from exile with his family, and meets Essau with a bunch of his guys, ready to do battle, but in stead of ending in bloodshed, Jacob sends droves of cattle ahead of him as gifts for Essau, bows down to the ground before him, and the brothers embrace, and part on friendly terms. I want to know what the modern equivalent of those droves of sheep & cattle are,? …and how Israel can give them to the Arab nations? …not the governments / “powers” / idols, mind you– the people!

Where is Mt. Seir??? According to Google maps, it’s the Mt. of Olives, but that would put it North of Mt. Zion by modern geography and understanding of which mountain is which. Is there another potential location for one or both of these mountains? –’cause that doesn’t fit with the way I’m reading the text: the children of Israel were told to turn Northward to get out of Essau’s territory.
Found this note:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hala-%27l_Badr
That would put Mt Seir / Sainai well-South of Mt Zion, but finding a way for Essau to be able to live in that territory happily is another story… Maybe a place for this tool:
www.thoughts.com/Hojasanan/blog/cultivating-fulfillment–547896/
… but then there’s still the issue of payment– how do we get payment out of the hands of oil gods and warmongers, and into the hands of the Arab people (read, Essau) who have occupied the land in Jacob’s absence, so that both sides can occupy their territories in peace???

Joshua / Yehoshua 1:5
“No man will be able to stand before you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not fail you nor forsake you.”
These words were spoken to Joshua as he was being sent out to abolish human sacrifice in the land. Deuteronomy / Devarim chapter 2 describes, in detail, which places were not their responsibility. I don’t understand the directions about turning Northward, with the current “Mt Seir” being north of the current “Mt. Zion” (two names for the same mountain) from what I can see on Google maps. Maybe some of my scholar friends out there could help me out with that… or maybe we’ve been taught wrong (dare I say, “yet again…”?)
I’m very interested in the possibility… probability that all of the answers to today’s Middle Eastern issues (and the subsequent financial and social issues exacerbated, or maybe even caused by those issues) are already provided in TaNaK and other history books / Sacred Texts referenced in it… I realize it’s complicated, and that money and “powers”/ gods and incessant wounds get in the way, but I’d love to get a more firm grasp on these things. I have some theories, but nothing workable… yet… at least not with the resources I have available to me right at the moment… which is why I’m writing. Maybe someone else out there can figure it out from here…