I was born on the eighth and final night of Chanukah. My parents lit the menorah with its full array of candles, recited the customary blessings, and quickly left for Akron City Hospital where I arrived a few hours later. Why begin with this fact?
Chanukah, the holiday of lights and miracles, begins on the twenty-fifth day of the Hebrew month of Kislev. Hebrew months are lunar cycles about twenty-eight days long. Therefore, the last nights of Chanukah extend into the following month, Tevet. Because Tevet is the darkest month of the year it is associated with negative energy. I was taught that having been born on the eighth night of Chanukah, I was surrounded from birth with this consecrated light of protection, a light of miracles.
One miracle is that this book exists. Another is that I have been guided continuously, sometimes in very mysterious ways, to study both Kabbalah, the Jewish mystical tradition, and energy healing. It was certainly not I what set out to do.
In 1998 I was at a crossroads. I had been teaching dance for eighteen years on a linoleum floor and my feet hurt. Eighteen is the Hebrew symbol for chai, meaning life. I knew my life on linoleum was complete and I was ready to move on. I set an intention for my next calling to reveal itself.
I had trained to be a biologist but my professional path had never been direct. Right after college and grad school I had been a high school biology teacher and done medical research in endocrinology. I had left science to pursue my other love, dance. Now that, too, was ending. My dear husband, Marty, had always given me the space I needed to explore different aspects of myself. He was game for yet another ride but neither of us had a clue as to what was to come.
Strangely, it was through dance that Kabbalah entered my life. I choreographed and taught dance, primarily Israeli folk dancing and interpretive movement, to the children of the Solomon Schechter Jewish Day Schools in Chicago. When I was asked to choreograph the kabbalistic story of the creation of the world for a special presentation, I was at a loss. Despite my upbringing as a rabbi’s daughter with a good Jewish education, I had been taught absolutely nothing about Kabbalah. I was clueless as to what this story was, unaware that there even was a kabbalistic creation story. As luck would have it, my daughter Rachel was enrolled at that time in a Kabbalah class at the University of Michigan. She explained what she had learned about the story and even helped with the staging. My eyes were opened, for I loved this strange tale of creation. After that experience, if or when the door to Kabbalah study opened somehow, I was ready to enter.
… and energy?
In 1998, as I was preparing to leave dance for the unknown, I read Anatomy of the Spirit by Carolyn Myss, a renowned medical intuitive. Until then, I was unaware that people could possess accurate medical intuition. Carolyn’s insights thrilled me. The book contained a description of basic energy anatomy, specifically the chakras (special energy centers on the body) and their relationship to health and illness. The influence of energy had never been mentioned in all my studies of biology. I devoured everything Myss had written up to then. Her observations made so much sense to me.
When I discovered that my yoga teacher at the time, Carol Stone, was also an energy healer, I spent my birthday in 1999 having my first energy healing session. As I lay on my back, Carol simply held on to my ankles. My body shook and shivered for more than half an hour. What power had been unleashed? Was this normal? What did it mean? I had many questions and no answers. With my curiosity heightened, I knew there would be no turning back. But how to move forward was a bit murky.
To help gain some clarity I set an intention to begin a journey of self-discovery. The new millennium was coming which seemed like just the right time to begin. On January 1, 2000, I began preparing for a spiritual pilgrimage to Machu Picchu. I hoped that insights as to my future calling would be revealed to me there. For weeks I earnestly meditated, cleansed, studied, and prayed. Ten days before I was scheduled to depart for Peru, I was jolted awake in terrible pain. I had suffered a traumatic injury. Two discs had ruptured in my neck as I slept. The pilgrimage would have to take place in my own home.
At first, I worked with neurologists and other Western-trained physicians. But how this injury might have happened was a mystery. Having read Anatomy of the Spirit I felt there had to be more to this situation than they could see. As I lay in terrible pain, a friend called and enthusiastically recommended that I visit an energy healer who had just worked with her. That wise woman was Rev. Jacque Metheany. As soon as she laid eyes on me she exclaimed, “You belong in my school!” Jacque became my first teacher of energy healing. Her school, quite appropriately, was named “Crossroads.”
And what of Kabbalah? Again, the universe had been waiting for me to meet the right teacher. Another friend called to let me know that Dr. Jodi Shems Prinzivalli, a brilliant kabbalistic healing teacher, was coming to teach in Chicago. In 2000, I also began my formal studies of Kabbalah, with an emphasis on healing.
I was on my way. They say that when the student is ready the teacher appears. I was ready and many amazing teachers followed. As I traveled along the dual path of energy healing and Kabbalah, absorbing information like a sponge, I eventually found myself in an Eden Energy Medicine workshop taught by its creator, Donna Eden. Eden Energy Medicine offered a completely different way of dealing with the energy body than I had previously encountered. It was an approach that offered specific ways for individuals to move, balance, and connect their own energies, as well as those of other people. I began to practice on myself and could feel the positive shifts immediately.
I was studying healing from two different orientations, Kabbalah and energy, and I found it impossible to keep them separate. They seemed to complement each other and together provided a more complete way of experiencing the world. Kabbalah is essentially cerebral. The main focus is on revealing and understanding the mysteries of the cosmic plan through connection to God. Energy medicine, on the other hand, involves the awareness of physical sensation: tracking and experiencing energies with the senses rather than the mind. The focus is inward to the physical and emotional, and to the natural cycles of the earth rather than upward to heaven.
It is interesting to me, in light of this book’s underlying theme of balance, specifically masculine/feminine balance, that throughout its long history and until recently, Kabbalah study was restricted to men, while the vast majority of energy medicine practitioners and students are women. In retrospect I was probably drawn intensely to both fields because of the need to restore my own masculine/feminine balance.
The process of becoming a healer for others is facilitated by dealing with your own issues. Safe within the confines of a class, we students gave supervised treatments to each other and received them in return. Throughout my years of training and the years that followed, I experienced many different kinds of healing sessions facilitated both by my colleagues and my teachers. Among the issues that surfaced was the revelation of an intense inner struggle between my masculine and feminine aspects. Without my conscious consent, this struggle had impacted my life in some pretty detrimental ways.
Through both kabbalistic healing and energy medicine my masculine and feminine parts began to resolve their relationship struggles and integrate. It was as if heaven and earth, on a micro-scale of course, had come into balance in my psyche. Energy exercises offered a way to balance and connect to my physical body so I could safely rise to levels of higher consciousness and then easily return to reality. Kabbalah, with its layers of poetic symbolism, enriched and elevated my energy practices to the realm of the soul. The spiritual and physical together created a field of connection, a channel of love.
Throughout my studies of Eden Energy Medicine1 I would learn energy wellness exercises and see, often immediately, the connection with kabbalistic symbolism and even specific prayers. After I practiced what I envisioned, and experienced the ecstatic power and the positive effects of the combination of body and soul, I knew I wanted to share what I had found. These practices continue to enrich my life.
The synthesis of energy medicine and Kabbalah is a way to heal ourselves and our relationships at every level. The practices presented in this book enable the safe exploration of higher consciousness, and help to clear blockages to love. When love can be fully given and received its light radiates out beyond us as individuals. The love spreads to create a web of connection with others. As this web of love grows larger and larger we heal ourselves, heal our relationships, and slowly but surely repair the world. But the process must begin with healing ourselves, clarifying and manifesting our soul’s purpose. The practices presented in this book provide practical tools for personal growth and transformation.
Part 1, Background, presents a discussion and explanation of basic concepts in both Kabbalah and energy anatomy that provide the background for the practices in Part 2.
Part 2, the Practices help to restore and maintain balance for us as individuals and in relationships. This process can seem daunting in the turbulent times we are experiencing now. The energy componant of the practices relates mainly to the physical, emotional, and mental planes. The kabbalistic symbolism adds the spiritual plane of the soul.
Body and soul together are the co-creators of the entirety of our being. The practices are, in a sense, moving physical meditations that help connect to higher consciousness. The soul assumes its role as a partner in physical healing, and vice versa. In addition to the step-by-step photos of each practice presented in this book, videos of many of the exercises can be found at: www.energyandkabbalah.com.
Part 3, Kabbalistic Energy Healing, presents hands-on healing practices for self-healing or working with another person.
The last chapter of this book, “The Dragonfly,” is perhaps the closest to my heart. Early in my journey, during a combined Kabbalah/energy practice, I had the vision of a dragonfly.
Little did I imagine then the mysteries this symbol would lead me to discover. As this book unfolds, the dragonfly lies waiting beneath the surface. I reveal its secrets in the final summary.
I have presented aspects of this book in classes and workshops, to a wide range of audiences, for the past fifteen years. Once, I even found myself teaching energy/Kabbalah exercises to group of women in Safed, the center of the ancient kabbalist world. It has been an amazing and challenging process to put Kabbalah and energy together in a way that someone with little or no familiarity with either subject can understand and use. Creating a balance between body and soul, feminine and masculine has been a healing journey for me and my personal process underlies every page of this book. I am both humbled and honored to be trusted to bring these teachings to you.
My hope is that the practices will facilitate individuals in gaining further clarity as to their soul’s unique missions, come into greater alignment with their calling, and manifest their gifts for the good of all. For us to thrive and create societies based on cooperation, trust, and mutual empowerment, the connection and balance of body and soul is imperative.
May the physical container of love and harmony created by the practices allow you to safely receive the light of consciousness at the highest levels. May this light illuminate and heal your personal places of darkness, and clarify the choices you encounter on your soul’s journey in this lifetime. May we all be empowered to transmit safety and healing into the world.
Blessings on your journey through these pages.
1 www.innersource.net/ Eden Energy Medicine is discussed in chapter 11.