Farewell… accompanying the dead on her last journey…
by Bat-Sheva Koren PhD,
BRACHA, ברכה- means Blessing, on her way…a path, cycle is ending…starting a new…
The body has indeed stopped. The rhythm of life’s beat…silenced. The Soul in remembered cycles, journeys back to the end of time…departs from the body and her life here…into the timeless spiral of Ein-Sof, the Shechina, שכינה…
The one listening, perhaps a Seer…in a Void…hearing heavenly and earthly constellations of harmonic coded music, the universe’s Song of Songs…
Only a month ago we had a long conversation…we knew it was farewell… Bracha was already surrendering…
When I heard her heart had stopped…I was called from within…accompanying her from afar surrendering three nights…
Lighting a candle, purified through smudging, focusing on life’s Breath…calling and thanking the Spirits who come to lead me, assist, from the six directions of the universe. In stillness I held…entered Ecstatic Trance Postures (Cuyamungue Institute)…accompanied by drums and cymbals, a ritual serving the departed…as is the custom of the “People of the Earth” when taking leave of the dead.
On the third evening, I was “moved by” the spirit, away from the Posture’s stillness.
The postures, “Direct Experience”, arising from within, resonate in sacred letters… written originally in Hebrew, immediately after. Later an echo is noted. If you the reader can stay open, listen to your heart’s reading…perhaps, together we may hear, enter, the authentic drums of ecstatic stillness…NOW.
First night…In stillness
Who shall accompany her…if it so pleases her… I shall request…
The Realm of the Death Posture
Barking from afar, wolves? Waiting for me? Calling me?
A smooth snake with no scales appears inviting, hugging…lying on him, hands holding… the snake leading beneath boulders and over olive trees, changes color to green, guides me…
A lioness arrives…I mount her as she saunters happily leading me through swerving tunnels to an open world beneath the crust…a wild wide river where water falls flow down…streams leaving them…shining sun…
Suddenly…a noise…as though trees being felled…is someone building a boat? Getting off the lioness, walking along side…water calling me…an elephant making his way through the forest to reach the water…
Calling Bracha…wondering which animal she met, which is supporting, leading her, to her destination… I shared with her the friends I met along the way…
The elephant and its trunk linked us
…and echoes…
The wise elephant, symbol of earthiness is waiting for Bracha to carry her along if she so decides…the snake, healer who cures, is willing to serve … Bracha is sure of the road ahead, she is not alone.
I feel contained, awakened, the snake is not repulsing me… perhaps scorpions will appear as well?
Second night…In Stillness
A ferocious storm, rampaging, everything drawn into it…needs release, still it abates, and from the stillness…renewal…
The Princess of Malta Posture
The Dry Bones parable…awaken…awakening
A Great RuacH, a Spirit, rises…
gathering me up…ready to be carried…merging in the great wind, circling round…
Carried…
Taken for a last round…a visit…re-visit the planet above…wholeness,
sharp glance of a bird’s view, a spider’s vision…Oneness…
Asking the goddess of Malta to purify me, be with me, so I am ready for the coming…
calling to the angel Renanel (רננאל), to Neder (נדר)…requesting they guide me along the way.
Bracha, ברכה…calling her, will you come along? No answer…
Silence…Presence
Wisdom of Nothingness…Presence…
…and echoes…
Humble in wisdom. No beginning, no end, only continuation… all endings are beginnings, Bracha knows… Farewell to earth a moment before transition, an invitation…
Third night…In stillness
The Psychpomp Posture
Standing…
Listening…attending…
From the depths, a deep low sound capturing space, widening horizons…emerging, pushing, slowly making its way, a note sounding through an expanding chest, birthing…hhhh, celebrating the vibrating vocal cords…in the opening sunrise, dew.
A swirling rainbow appears…creating a new realm, in a spiral dance of colourful ocean waves, departing the world…moving up, unheard, but responding.
Ships return to their home ports…monks’ prayers raise roofs…beasts of the forest stop, join in…aaaaa… rising through the open crown…the sound arrives, is heard…
And here…a shofar blowing…still unheard, but it shall come…a loud blast…clear…
Standing, shining, wrapped in purple light, edges olive green, gold… a golden whiteness… neither blinding, inviting, supporting cradling…seeing with the creation’s eye…a mirror…witnessing, oneness. The veil is lifted…seeing a connection in the trembling warmth of the Ein sof… infinity, the sacred spirit resonating. Arms being moved upward, stepping out of the Posture, creating a triangle between the hands, the fingers… a center in stillness.
Sounds of the shofar, ascending and descending from groin’s depths. A pure clear deep purple sounding, descending to mother earth, to the center of the universe…and once again born between my legs…rising, coiling within…disappearing in the heavens above… in the showering stars, tears of love, joy, sadness…
*A white light wrapping, moving the hands back to the Posture… silence…clarity…cradling Bracha to my chest in a golden light, giving her away, resting head to head…above, an arrow shooting to the sky.
The one’s legs planted in the earth down to the center of the planet…the other, her legs energy beaming up, hands held at her sides…pulled up and up…an offering of love… accepted…
*אור לבן עוטף… בו ידיים נפתחות מעלה… נכונות להגיש מנחה
האחת רגליה נטועות בקרקע למרכז היקום…השניה רגליה אנרגיה שלוחה מעלה באהבה
Gathering from all corners of the earth…streaming behind the whales…in the shofar’s notes, rays of sun…multitudes waiting for the naked old, newcomer, in the royal clothes of light…
A white shining light marching, trembling, witnessing…a soul returning to the Shechina… United. The body served as a gift…released…
No memory needed to remember existence…only to live it.
…and echoes…
Awakening
Wholeness…
in humility, simple and naked, meeting magic, life and death…purified…
בענווה , פשוטה וערומה, מכוסה ועטופה , פוגשת קסם ,החיים והמות, אחד הם…זכוך…
אך …אל זחיחות…הקשבה מלאה…בחירה
Clarity, not heedlessness…a total openness in listening…Choice
In the white light uncovering my nakedness…
Wearing my nakedness as needed…
Is there such a Listening?
Tovanah, Wisdom, Truth, as One calls. One note, clear Void
Bracha, ברכה…you who heard, listened… ההה…ייי … yyyy…aaa…hhhh …
Thank you for being, for sharing a life of simplicity
Farewell…Love
Re-Calling…
Seer… The purpose of life & in life, TachliT – תכלית.
Between Taf to Taf (last letter of the Hebrew Aleph, Bet), a full cycle of life, is unfolding,
In the mystery of one’s Birth, one’s Death…
A decisions to translate, is a choice in bringing myself fully as an active participant member into the world.
Thanks to Dr. Gila Strauch for her sensitivity & attunement in caring patiently through the translation process together.
Bat-Sheva Koren PhD, BC-DTR, ICET, DMTO, DMTCA
Life member & instructor of the Cuyamungue Ins. Author “From Golem to White Eagle:
A journey into through and beyond life” (2006)
For more info- koren.batsheva@gmail.com