This Saturday there will be an annular solar eclipse and new moon. This will mean that the moon will pass between the earth and the sun, partially obscuring the sun for a while in parts of North America and South America and I have written more about eclipses here. This is a time when the moon really demonstrates her power, yet there is always a need to be humble about this feminine energy and use it in balance.
This will be a good time to set intentions for the coming month and sow some seeds particularly in regard to themes of the system (government, work) as well as the rising of the divine feminine on our planet. This new moon will be in Libra, occurring at 18:55 BST in the UK on Saturday the 14th of October 2023 and Mercury will also join her in Libra along with the sun at 21°07. Mars will be in his rulership in Scorpio, allowing for powerful, transformation.
Feminine Healing, Earth Energy and the Middle-East
Black Moon Lilith (wounded feminine and hidden power) in Virgo has been opposing Saturn in the opposite Pisces. Venus has recently been conjunct with Black Moon Lilith, offering love and compassion for any wounded feminine issues which may be brought to the surface at this time and allowing space for healing to happen if any emotions have been triggered, allowing us to rise in vibration.
The Garden of Gethsemane on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem.
Saturn is the father and rules Capricorn (father, government, systems and work) so if we have felt any feelings of injustice, playing small or giving our power away, this may be highlighted at this time, so that we can heal these programs and transcend them - particularly in regard to our feminine wisdom which deserves to be heard and respected in our systems. In this post, I am going to share some messages I have received in regard to the recent Israel-Hamas conflict and ideas and prayers which may bring healing, moving forwards, in order to restore the feminine wisdom there of the land and bring timelines of harmony and balance for the people. This is such a huge and vast topic, and I can't include as much in here as I would like, but if felt important, due to the current conflict, to share these words and prayers now.
May balance be restored between the left and right hemispheres and may our society and systems reflect this sacred balance. I write this post with love for both Israel and Palestine and the city of Jerusalem.
The Throat Chakra of the Middle-East
The 5th Chakra (throat) is found in the Middle-East covering Egypt, Palestine and Israel. It is profound that so much conflict is happening there and could be said to mirror the expressions of our planet as a collective. Are our expressions hateful, complaining, critical or abusive? Or do we allow only truth and loving tones to emanate from our throat chakra?
The earth chakras - map by Robert Coon.
Just as Glastonbury, for example, is a land temple, so too is Israel and Egypt. When areas of land hold potency and sacredness and contain a lot of earth energy, earth channels, or ley lines for example, they can heighten our spiritual growth and as such have potential to become places of conflict since beings will try and gain stronghold or power there. We have seen this over the centuries in the UK with many invaders and wars - invading peoples may not have been aware of the powerful earth energy running through these lands at a conscious level, but at a subconscious levels they knew that there was something potent here worth going to war for. Similar patterns can be seen in the Middle-East which has experienced countless wars and invasions over the centuries.
Yet how is it possible to break these conflict cycles?
Nothing is worth killing others for - if an external attachment has led us onto the path of conflict then we have externalised our divinity. Although these sites are sacred and have value - it is vital to remember that nothing is more sacred that the divine within. When we touch that place of peace inside of us, the external begins to mirror this beauty and divinity. We may find that we are naturally drawn to sacred sites, but it is no longer from a sense or urgency or attachment, but part of the natural flow. If we place the divinity within ourselves above anything on the external, then we start rising in vibration, out of states of apathy, fear, desire (attachment) and anger into higher states of forgiveness, acceptance, trust, love and peace.
Whether they are conscious of it or not - the people of these regions are fighting for external attachments (sites, land and boundaries) and have forgotten the main principles of the cosmos and that the most important thing is to connect with your Self - the divine within. If we are lost in lower vibrations such as apathy or denser emotions, it can be hard to release it all and connect with the Self, but it is a vital part of the healing process and allows different timelines to emerge. I feel deeply for all the dense emotions of the people involved in this conflict and pray that they find the strength to face the underlying pain of these old ancestral patterns and rewrite a future which they truly wish for.
Centuries of Fighting for Jerusalem
The Old City of Jerusalem, (a walled city and sacred site,) has been fought over through the years including in the recent 1948 Arab-Israeli war. Even in the Bible its strong wall was described and in c. 1,010 BC, the Siege of Jebus occurred in which King David and the Israelites conquered the Canaanite city of the Jebusites and the city became known as the City of David. The David mentioned in the 'Star of David' (the symbol of the Jewish people) is this king.
"And David and all Israel went to Jerusalem, which is Jebus; where the Jebusites were, the inhabitants of the land. And the inhabitants of Jebus said to David, Thou shalt not come hither. Nevertheless David took the castle of Zion, which is the city of David." From 1 Chronicles 11:4-5
Mount Zion
Mount Zion and the Land Temple
The etymology of Jerusalem is thought to possibly descend from the Canaanite god, Shalim, who represented Venus as the evening star at dusk and his twin Shahar represented Venus as the morning star at dawn. Both were children of the father god El who was the king of the gods in early Mesopotamia. We will speak about El later in the post.
The castle where King David supposedly lived was found on Mount Zion, yet this word (Zion) eventually was used to describe all of Jerusalem (and Israel as a whole.) The hill is found just outside the Old City and is part of this greater land temple of sacred earth energy which also includes the nearby Mount Olives. The Flag of Israel portrays the 'Star of David' as a blue six-pointed star and it was adopted on the 28th October 1948 on the flag, five months after the country was established. It is also known as the 'flag of Zion.'
Six pointed stars (hexagrams) have been understood in many esoteric traditions and religions with some interpreting the upward and downward triangles to represent sky and earth, masculine and feminine, or fire and water.
Crusades & the Knights Templar
Jerusalem was eventually conquered by the Muslims at the Siege of Jerusalem in 636-637 and the land fell under the control of the Arabs until the Christian Crusades, (religious wars conducted between 1095 and 1291) with the intention of conquering Jerusalem from the Arab rule of the time. It is believed that the Knights Templar were most likely founded in 1,119 on Temple Mount in Jerusalem - French knights gave vows to protect the Christian pilgrims on the roads and in Jerusalem. Much of the knowledge and symbols of these orders were incorporated into esoteric groups such as the Freemasons - the Templars were said to have found sacred objects in Jerusalem and in the mythology of the times, this included the holy grail.
Richard the Lionheart on his way to Jerusalem, by James William Glass (1850)
A Jewish State
The Ottoman Empire (Turkish Empire) later ruled this area from the 16th century until the the Arab Revolt of 1916 of the Arab people who wished to create an Arab state and the British promised to help. With support from the British Egyptian Expeditionary Force, the Ottomans were expelled from the area, yet following the secret 1916 Sykes–Picot Agreement, the British and French partitioned the land into territories and there was no unified Arab state as promised. In 1917, the British foreign secretary, Lord Arthur Balfour, expressed support to Baron Walter Rothschild (the British head of the Jewish banking family) regarding the creation of a Jewish state there. The Rothschild family were of German-Jewish origin and established European banking in the eighteenth century. They expanded across Europe growing in power and entering the nobility and politics - they owned manor houses and castles across Europe.
This letter was a public declaration from the British government known as the Balfour Declaration and it declared that "nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine" which included around 80% Muslim people at that time. In the following decades, particularly during the war of Nazi Germany, many Jewish people immigrated to the Middle East.
Fighting on Temple Mount
It was after the second war in 1947 that the United Nations General Assembly announced the Resolution 181 that two states should be established - one Jewish and one Arabic, with mutual administration of Jerusalem. The Arab side rejected this however due to their majority population and that the proposed plan included giving the best agricultural land to the new immigrants. In May 1948, the state of Israel was declared, yet they were attacked the following day by a coalition of Arab states in the first of the Arab-Israeli wars. Israel gained the upper hand in the conflict, gaining even more territory and 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee and many went to the area now known as Gaza. It was a terrible outcome for the Arab side.
Al-Aqsa Mosque on Temple Mount. this site was used as a palace when it was captured by the crusaders in 1099 and was the headquarters of the Knights Templar. The Dome of the Rock, a seventh century construction is believed to be the place where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.
In 1967, during hand-to-hand fighting on Temple Mount, Israel captured the Old City and the rest of East Jerusalem and the modern-day Israeli government now controls the whole area. In this war, Israel took control of the West Bank, Sinai and the Gaza strip. Gaza is home to around 2 million people and thought to be the third most dense place in the world.
In 1973, Arab forces led by Egypt and Syria launched an attack on Israel, known as the Yom Kippur War, which had heavy losses on both sides.
In 1980 the Jerusalem Law annexed East Jerusalem to Israel, which was later declared null and void by the UN. It was intended to be an international city - both the Israelis and the Palestinians consider Jerusalem to be their rightful capital - wherein lies the problem. Both Israel and Palestine publicly proclaim that Jerusalem is their capital, although this has not been recognised largely by the international community. Israel now controls both East and West Jerusalem since capturing East Jerusalem from the Arabs in the war of 1967.
Wailing Wall, Jerusalem by Gustav Bauernfeind, 19th century.
Problems in Gaza, the 'Strong City'
In the 1990s, Israel handed Gaza to the Palestinian National Authority, as part of their disengagement from this area. Living conditions are not good in this area with overcrowding and water, medicine and electricity shortages. Since 2007, the area has been ruled by Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement.) There have been many conflicts and riots over the years as well as peace agreements.
The word Gaza comes from the Hebrew word Azzah meaning 'strong city' and the area has been destroyed and conquered many times over the centuries - it was in a strong trading position between Egypt and the Middle-East with a busy trading port historically. It was originally also a Canaanite settlement before being taken by the Egyptians. It was then taken by the Philistines and then was part of the Assyrian Empire before being taken by Alexander the Great. It was later besieged by the Hasmoneans in 96 BC and then rebuilt by the Romans; it then became Christian before becoming an Islamic area under Amr ibn al-'Asin in 637 CE. The Crusaders who sought to control the Holy Lands then tried to take Gaza but failed to conquer Saladin, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty. By the 13th century, Gaza was controlled by the Mamluk and belonged to the Ottoman Empire by the 16th century.
These are holy lands and many have sought control over them. Yet who will live in co-creation, harmony and peace with the the powerful earth energy there? I am sure that many are holding this intention in their hearts. It will require a lot of shadow work - particularly around power and control and the ability to trust and surrender to the heart rather than living in fear and ego. Nowadays though in Gaza, many are fighting for basic living needs - there are 8 refugee camps there and it is believed that there are around one million registered refugees in Gaza, a number which will likely increase during the war. Israel has received a lot of criticism internationally regarding these poor living conditions of Gaza and the impacts on the physical and mental health of the people.
Jabalia refugee camp in Gaza destroyed by Israeli bombing in 2012. In 2014, Israeli artillery killed 15 people sheltering in school there while they were sleeping, including children.
The tension has been building and on October the 2nd 2023, (just before the conflict broke out on the 7th.) Palestinian women were heard chanting nationalist slogans on their way to the mosque at Temple Mount in the Old City and were consequently pushed to the ground by Israeli police. Hamas broke over the Israel-Gaza border and killed civilians and kidnapped people beginning on the 7th of October and Israel declared war. It must be remembered that this conflict was instigated by the illegal entity of Hamas rather than Palestine and the term Israel-Hamas War has been used.
Benjamin Netanyahu became prime minister in 2022 and critics say that his government has been exacerbating the problem by encouraging expansion of settlement in occupied Palestinian territory. This is provocative, not respectful of boundaries and not encouraging of a two-state solution. In January 2023, there were raids from both sides with deaths involved and Israel launched airstrikes on Gaza in May and the conflicts continued until war was announced in October. Thousands have gathered in London recently at pro-Palestinian protests and vigils for Israel.
I pray that racist attitudes, particularly towards Jewish people and Arabs, diminish on this planet as we remember that we are all consciousness, having experiences in a body and I hope you will join in with these prayers. A recent survey of Jews in America showed that half of them viewed the prime minister Netanyahu negatively and that 63% felt a positive outcome could eventually be found for two independent states to co-exist peacefully.
Fighting for the Holy Lands
This sacred land temple holds earth energy and these temples and mosques have been built on top of them - the land is steeped in sacred energy, story, myth and sites. In our modern world, we have fallen into the trappings of religion and forgotten the core essence and principles behind the religions - the esoteric side. Here we remember the divinity within everything and that must always come first. The religions however have got lost in power games which have divided the people and they will need to come back to the simple principles which are behind all things which actually unite people. The land is sacred and it wears no religion, but at the same time, it is not against the vehicle of religions which are used to spread 'the word' as long as there is no abuse of power - the land energy comes first, the building comes after and sacred sites are usually built on potent spots. The problem right now is the abuse of power, control and manipulation found in religion which has been deceiving people, keeping them lost in programming, dividing them and not sharing deeper esoteric wisdom. True spiritual figures remembered the divinity in all things - in themselves, in the people, in the land, and in the cosmos and as such naturally practised kindness. They remembered the formlessness of consciousness, which is beyond words to describe and beyond any religion.
The Room of the Last Supper on Mount Zion - the site is traditionally thought to be the place of the last supper of Jesus.
The Fertile Crescent
The 'Fertile Crescent' in 7,500 BC showing sites of Mesopotamia.
This sacred land temple is also part of the 'Fertile Crescent' - a moon-like crescent covering the areas of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine Jordan, northern Kuwait, southeastern Turkey and western Iran. It is rich land and considered by some as the cradle of civilisation, home of ancient Mesopotamia and ancient sites such as Göbekli Tepe and the place was believed to be home of the first settled farming in the world. At one point, this whole crescent was roughly contained within the Ottoman Empire. Synchronistically perhaps, the crescent moon is a powerful symbol in Arab culture - many flags portray a crescent moon with a star including the Turkish flag. This is believed to go back to the founder of the Ottoman Empire, Osman, who had a dream in which he saw a crescent moon stretching from one end of the earth to the other and he took it as a good omen and used the crescent moon as a symbol of his empire.
The crescent moon symbol was also adopted by the Knights Templar and many of their seals had an upside-down crescent moon too with a star, influenced by the Muslim world. Yet the symbol is actually ancient and goes back to Mesopotamia in Sumerian culture with the moon representing Sin and the star was thought to be Ishtar or Inanna (Venus.) Other common Templar symbols included the fleur de lys which can be seen at many old homes or churches - the signatures are there to see.
Image from Britannica.
Isis, Ra and El
The word Israel reflects the beauty of this land temple which stretches from the Old City of Jerusalem to the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt - it contains Is, Ra and El and we will have a look at how this name actually reflects this vast temple of the land - which we know as the 5th Chakra.
The earth chakras - map by Robert Coon.
Thomas Spivey, in Christianity and Mythology, stated the following about the etymology of Israel with El meaning god or first cause (El was the old king of the gods in Mesopotamia, as mentioned previously):
“Is = light + Ra = sun + El = first cause. Israel = the church of god.” From the following article.
Isis (Sirius) and Ra (sun) were deities of Egypt and El was a god of Mesopotamia. Collin Bowling wrote, in 2011:
"“The word Israel is another representation of past themes. Isis was the Egyptian moon goddess. Ra was the sun god of Egypt. Saturn was the god of the Elohim. Isis (Is), Ra, and Elohim (El) - IsRaEl.”
This is knowledge for the initiated (aware of consciousness) - if you look online you may see content about this but you may also see people who rebuke syncretism and are not ready yet to receive it. Please be mindful that there is a lot of content on the internet all coming from different levels of awareness and initiation and to be discerning about what you consume.
Lion's Gate, leading into the the Muslim quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem.
Healing the Shadow
Please be open-minded when you read the following - you may disagree with the messages here and that's totally ok, please trust in what is right for you and your path, but please check whether there might be very old programming or conditioning influencing you and preventing you from questioning something. We may hold ancestral filters in our mind which we are so accustomed to that we follow them without question. This can be fear-based - we may fear what our community may think of us if we question the status quo.
I am going to speak about some shadow in the culture of the Middle-East here where teachings have become corrupted. If we speak about these issues we may get labelled as racist or antisemitic and the issue can get swept under the carpet - yet there are clear concerns and it's not ok to keep perpetuating ancient patterns without any questioning of them. If so, a culture can remain stuck in the past and unable to evolve and grow. It is vital that we keep deprogramming ourselves and connect with simple and pure truths of divine consciousness, beyond the corruption within the recent patriarchal ages. Certain texts reveal the abuse of power that has happened within organised religions and that it is vital we question what we give our power to and what has been corrupted. I am sharing the following with compassion so that we can reflect with open minds and contemplate ways of healing, moving forwards.
Babylonian Talmud
The Jewish culture has a connection with Babylon - after the Jewish-Babylonian war, and the destruction of Solomon's Temple, a large number of Jewish Judeans were held captive in Babylon. The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar II, after the Battle of Carchemish in 605 BCE, took over Jerusalem and the city was destroyed at the Siege of Jerusalem and many Jews were exiled from the city. The captivity in Babylon had a strong influence on Jewish culture and the Hebrew alphabet was adopted there, (replacing the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet,) - it was a form of the Aramaic alphabet used in the Persian Empire of the time. Exiled from their temple of Jerusalem, the Jews developed a strong cohesion together using the Torah. After the Persian conquest of Babylon, the Jews were freed from captivity, with some returning to Jerusalem, the land of Judah, yet the majority remained in Babylon. The event was known as the 'Return to Zion.'
The Ishtar Gate of Babylon which was restored in Nebuchadnezzar's reign.
Later, when the Roman's occupied Jerusalem and destroyed their temple there, the rabbis were forced to unite the people without a temple again and the rabbis began to record their teachings in writing to be shared. The Talmud was a collection of writings of their oral Torah composing of two parts - the Mishnah, written in c. 200 AD and the Gemara written in c. 500 AD. This collection is usually referred to as the Babylonian Talmud and there is an earlier Talmud called the Jerusalem Talmud. The study of Gemara was conducted in Galilee and Babylon and the writings were completed in c. 500 AD in Babylon, whereas the Jerusalem Talmud was written in Galilee in the 4th century AD. Most scholars believe the works were written independently, yet since both Talmud editors were aware of the other communities, this could be unlikely.
The Babylonian Talmud composed of the Mishnah and the Babylonian Gemara and included opinions of the Babylonian rabbis regarding philosophy, law and the bible. It is likely that these rabbis would have been influenced by Babylonian culture which had a lot of perversion - the temples of Inanna had 'sacred prostitution' and male prostitutes and slave prostitutes were also described - their sculptures sometimes depicted sexual acts or nude prostitutes. The Babylonian Talmud became the version of greatest influence and is considered to be one of the holiest books in Judaism. Yet critics have noticed the questionable ethics in this text in regard to immoral sexuality and there have been criticisms over the centuries. Be mindful that some quotes have been fabricated online - however it could be argued that some of the concerns regarding genuine quotes are valid. The following quotes are taken from the Sanhendrin and relate to questionable sexual practises of young children. I have taken all quotes from this website if you wish to check their authenticity.
"Rabbi Yirmeya of Difti says: We learn in another mishna (Nidda 44b) as well that one follows the majority even in cases of capital law: A girl who is three years and one day old whose father arranged her betrothal can be betrothed with intercourse, as, despite her age, the legal status of intercourse with her is that of full-fledged intercourse."
"The Sages taught in a baraita: If a woman was acting lewdly with her minor son and he performed the initial stage of intercourse with her, Beit Shammai say that he has thereby disqualified her from marrying into the priesthood. And Beit Hillel deem her fit to marry into the priesthood, because they maintain that the intercourse of a minor is not regarded as intercourse."
The following quote seemed to state that only sex with children over the age of nine was a punishable offence:
"both Beit Shammai and Beit Hillel, concede with regard to a boy nine years and one day old that his intercourse is regarded as intercourse and disqualifies a woman from marrying into the priesthood as well as results in her liability to receive the death penalty, even though he himself is not liable to receive it. And they also all concede concerning a boy less than eight years old that his intercourse is not regarded as intercourse vis-à-vis these halakhot."
A Controversy Whatsoever on Talmud [121] by Carl Schleicher (c. 1859 – 1871.)
There are many quotes regarding girls who are "three years old and one day" who could be betrothed through intercourse - it is too disturbing to include the quotes here since references to the hymen are also made and that intercourse with a girl less than three doesn't rupture the hymen which supposedly returns to its original state and therefore it is not uncertain that she engaged in intercourse before or after betrothal. This seems to suggest that it would be ok to get away with it since they are reassuring people in many places of text that the hymen restores itself before the age of three and why would they need to speak about this? Quotes regarding the intercourse of girls of the age of three years and one day can be found in the Kiddushin, the Yevamot, the Ketubot, the Niddah.
It goes on and on....there are many quotes of similar material and it is shocking.
Jesus, the "sinner," is even quoted as speaking from the afterlife with a warning to not follow his path but to listen to the "Sages" instead:
"Onkelos said to him: What is the punishment of that man, a euphemism for Jesus himself, in the next world? Jesus said to him: He is punished with boiling excrement. As the Master said: Anyone who mocks the words of the Sages will be sentenced to boiling excrement. And this was his sin, as he mocked the words of the Sages. The Gemara comments: Come and see the difference between the sinners of Israel and the prophets of the nations of the world. As Balaam, who was a prophet, wished Israel harm, whereas Jesus the Nazarene, who was a Jewish sinner, sought their well-being."
The Sex Industry
What affect does this kind of material have on the subconscious mind and the shadow? Does it endorse healthy sexuality? The large involvement of Jewish people in the porn and sex industry (and sex therapy) is often dismissed as antisemitic for example. Notable examples include Reuben Sturman ('the Walt Disney of Porn',) Steven Hirsch, Ron Jeremy, Al Goldstein, Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Nathan Abrams, lecturer in Modern American History at the University of Aberdeen, has done a lot of research regarding the high level of Jewish involvement in the porn industry. There have been many incredible Jewish thinkers on this planet including Albert Einstein, Erich Fromm and Sigmund Freud, yet we are just looking at the shadow aspects here in terms of healing movement forwards and what any underlying programming may be connected with.
""The only reason that Jews are in pornography is that we think that Christ sucks. Catholicism sucks. We don't believe in authoritarianism." Said Al Goldstein, publisher of Screw Magazine. I think it's fair to say that many Jewish people would disagree with these words, however it is important to look into the shadow elements here.
Porn is a big way in which many are giving their power away and getting lost in lower vibratory states of consciousness - especially on the 'dark web' which is full of the lowest forms of depravity and abuse in sexuality. We may disagree with others' views, but it is vital that we encourage safe societies where people are not afraid to speak up and address areas of concern, particularly in regard to cultural patterns or religious postulates which may be absorbed without question and given so much authority. They need to be questioned point by point in order to meet current needs and ethics in modern-day society and we will examine a pertinent issue now.
Circumcision in Israel (and Palestine)
The Talmud endorsed circumcision and it was stated that the soul of an uncircumcised person was cut off from his people and failure to circumcise was punishable by kareth, meaning to be "cut off" from the state of Israel.
Talmudic School by Samuel Hirszenberg, c. 1895–1908.
This is a controversial subject and I really don't wish to offend anyone here. I am just going to focus on some negative issues surrounding this subject so that there can be more open discussion in this area, rather than fear-based closed-mindedness of questioning ancient patterns. There can be a fear of being accused of being antisemitic for simply raising questions and having a healthy debate according to free speech. Reasons for circumcision in Judaism include that it marks the covenant between the man and God and it must be done on the eighth day - it is an Abrahamic practise since it was believed to have begun with Abraham as a token of his covenant with God. The oldest evidence of the practise goes back to Egypt found in Sixth Dynasty (2,345 - 2,181 BC) tomb artwork.
Yet why would God ask someone to endure a lot of pain by cutting away something that God created? We will look into this.
Controversial Sucking and Herpes
By 140 AD, Rabbis made the circumcision process stricter and asked for more to be cut away including the inner preputial epithelium of the penis. And the Talmud described a final step involved in the circumcision called metzitzah, which involved squeezing blood from the wound and sucking it at the mouth to clean it by the mohalim. Recently some babies have contracted herpes from this practise in which the practitioner passed on the virus from their mouth into the wound. The practise is painful and has risks - people have died during these procedures. One study revealed that just over 100 babies die in America every year from circumcision and that sometimes the true cause of death is not recorded but simply called 'bleeding' or 'infection' for example.
Deaths from Circumcision
"But another part of the answer lies in the unique place that circumcision occupies in American medical culture, as an entrenched cosmetic ritual that many parents feel they have to submit their baby boys to, and as a lucrative sideline that doctors are reluctant to abandon. American obstetricians can’t seem to rid themselves of the notion that circumcision of boys is somehow an integral part of childbirth. The study points out that “These boys died because physicians have been either complicit or duplicitous, and because parents ignorantly said ‘Yes,’ or lacked the courage to say ‘No.’” It further points out that 1/3 because circumcision is a completely unnecessary operation, all these deaths are easily avoidable, and thus characterises the annual loss as neither a beneficial surgery nor a beneficent rite of passage, but as “an unrecognized sacrifice of innocents.”
"...Bollinger argues that the scale of the problem remains unrecognised because of the inadequacies of the death-certificate system and unwillingness on the part of the doctors who performed the surgery or the hospitals where it took place to admit responsibility, or even to acknowledge that circumcision is a surgical operation which, like all surgery, carries real risks" From the following article. Bollinger's journal research can be found here. This recent article talks about a recent death in Australia from circumcision - a procedure which is banned in public hospital unless it is for medical reasons.
Reform leaders, who advocate for the evolving nature of Judaism, called the practise barbaric in the 19th century. The Humanistic Judaism group has argued that circumcision is not essential for Jewish identity. The usual reasons given for circumcision include cleanliness and reduced transmission of STDs - yet the research seems mixed on the latter.
One Danish research study revealed that the problems may also persist in adult life with impacts on the sex life: “Circumcised men are three times as likely to experience a frequent inability to reach an orgasm.” This is due to a thin layer of skin which develops on the head, decreasing sensitivity. Female partners of circumcised men were also described as being more likely to be sexually frustrated and of experiencing pain (from dryness) during intercourse. The study did reveal however that this didn't apply to everyone who was surveyed and many didn't have problems with their sex life, although there was a "significantly larger group of circumcised men and their female partners who experience frequent problems in achieving orgasm, compared to couples where the man is not circumcised." There are many who claim no problems at all in regard to sexuality, however, so it really seems to be individual cases here.
Cycles of Lost Power
When energy and power is taken from a child, they have subconsciously given their power away at an early age - they are easier to control. It is also puts people in a constant state of lack and 'searching' for something outside of themselves rather than looking within. This also enables that a population can be dominated since power has been given away at such an early age. The pattern repeats itself, with no-one fully knowing and experiencing their true power and needing to take it from others. The cycle continues and requires someone to say no. I believe that something happens at an energetic level regarding the circumcision and that energy cords are attached at the trauma site - a power is given away. The following passage is quite revealing and shows that even in cases where circumcision couldn't happen, a rite was still performed involving extracting blood, creating an energetic cord from the wound site:
"When a convert enters the congregation of Israel, he is obligated to undergo circumcision first. If he had been circumcised while he was a gentile, it is necessary to extract the blood of the covenant on the day that he converts. Similarly, a child who was born without a foreskin must have blood extracted for circumcision on the eighth day." From the Mishneh Torah.
The following article speaks about Jewish people in Israel who are questioning the practise of circumcision and the consequences they have faced. One man didn't hear from his father for two years after he refused to have his son circumcised:
"The pressure to conform propels droves of parents who would otherwise reject the ritual to go through with it, according to Rani Kasher of Rosh Pina. He produces a Hebrew-language publication, Af-Mila (which can mean both "No circumcision" and "Say nothing"), for parents who are considering skipping the snipping." From this article.
Imprints of Trauma
Many people may carry trauma without even realising it is there since they have carried it in the nervous system for so long or even from very young childhood. There is a lot of trauma and abuse patterns on this planet, but many may go into denial and not look at what patterns they might be carrying in their subconscious to attract this and how to heal it. Patterns could for example include a doctor handling a newborn roughly and quickly and without love, due to being over-worked. This could leave an 'imprint' in the nervous system of not wanting to take up people's 'time,' rather than feeling rejoiced, loved and welcomed by the community.
Although babies do not have words to express or think, they still are Consciousness and these are feelings they experience - words just describe how we feel, but the feelings come first and memory is somatic. Babies know exactly when they are being treated positively or negatively and all of this leaves imprints in the nervous system. I have written on this topic in this blog about research which has been done regarding the affects of negative behaviour on the development of young children.
After I learnt the energy healing modality of Reiki, I was guided to send healing for someone who had had an operation in his childhood. Every operation can create a trauma for the body and it is vital that these experiences are integrated well into the nervous system. This is why it is vital to discuss this topic regarding a procedure which is practised on young boys as early as 8 days old for many Jewish people and the affects of having such an early trauma which may go 'under the radar' in the subconscious for a whole lifetime.
That being said, others have felt a positive experience from their circumcision and so it is important to be discerning and consider all views.
The Garden of Gethsemane in 1914.
Circumcision in the Arab World
This practise is not unique to Judaism and circumcision is also practised in Palestine and the Arab world and the subject is of some debate since it is not mentioned in the Quran. There are four major schools of thought with some stating that it is recommended only, while others state that it is a legal obligation. There is no fixed age for the practise which is often performed in later childhood or early adolescence. The following article described a woman, Mireille, whose marriage with her Muslim partner ended over the issue of circumcision:
"I disagreed, arguing it would hurt our child. I asked whether washing was not better than cutting off part of the body to be clean and whether it could be dangerous to believe oneself safer from STDs. As the argument became more polarised, I played for time. I knew my husband to be open-minded, and while his religious belief was strong, he did not follow all the basic Islamic prescripts...We finally agreed on a compromise that our son would, at an age when he could be aware of all the issues, decide for himself."
Mireille ended up leaving to the UK with her sons, since her husband changed his mind and continued to push for circumcision. Some countries are questioning the practise and proposing to ban it, such as Sweden. In Germany, non-therapeutic circumcision was made illegal, but in 2012, after many hearings, certain non-therapeutic circumcision was permitted under certain conditions. Other religious cultures have differing views on the practise. Hinduism for example doesn't encourage the practise and some Hindu teachers see that it goes against nature and God's design.
Somatic Memory of Trauma?
""They cry anti-Semitism and this is the end of the discussion," he says. "It allows them not to deal with the issue of mutilation and the right to have an intact body."
The issue, according to opponents of circumcision, includes the moral ramifications of cutting one's child and the psychological impacts stemming from the trauma. They claim that the level of discomfort experienced by the child increases his later response to pain and hurts the bond between the baby and his mother. They also maintain that circumcision diminishes sexual pleasure and that there is no medical reason to remove the foreskin." From the following article.
Whereas some claim that they would have felt robbed if they hadn't had the practise and that after being hurt, the child is shown care and love. Yet what would it be like if the child didn't need to be hurt and conditioned at an early age in the nervous system to endure pain and trauma? Do these feelings get repressed? Are they difficult somatic feelings to connect with or recognise because it happens at such an early age? I have written about somatic memory research of preverbal infants in the following article here.
""I'm here. I've lived through a brit mila, so I don't feel traumatized by it. I'd feel really robbed if I hadn't had it.
"It's one of the strongest identity marks of being a Jew. If you talk about being Jewish, that's one of the things that's synonymous with who we are as a people and our relationship with God," he explains. "I want to be a Jew. I'm really proud to be Jewish and I don't want that taken away from me."
The Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives, in East Jerusalem.
Autonomy of the Body and Personal Sovereignty
I understand that this is a challenging topic to discuss and that many people have different views on it. I am just sharing some aspects here which might get swept under the carpet which may have real implications for the child. It is all connected with this pervasive theme of people looking outside of themselves instead of connecting to the divine within. No child should have any energy taken from them at a young age and I do not believe that ancient cultural practises should be conducted without question for fear that you might be called a racist. If you disagree with these words then I totally respect that, but those aware of energy cords and trauma sites in the body will be able to see that there is more going on here than meets the eye. There is a lot of programming here which may make people overly identify with the body and forget that they are consciousness, their true nature is formless consciousness and they are having experiences in a human body. We are so much more than the body. A baby is pure and immaculate consciousness, joyful and free from conditioning - do we remember to honour them as they are and nourish their joy or do we immediately project things onto them?
"And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.
2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
5 And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.
6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." Book of Revelations, 21:1-6
New Jerusalem
The 'New Jerusalem' is only mentioned twice in the bible in the Book of Revelations which represents the time of change, repentance and atonement in preparation for a new era. 'New Jerusalem' represents the city in harmony - where all beings have awareness that the divine is found within all beings and the journey in 'finding' it, begins by going within, first and foremost and not giving power away to anything on the external. I would like to finish this blog with a prayer - I do believe that two independent states, peacefully co-existing, can be manifested and I pray that all beings will remember themselves.
May there be justice for both sides, so that there may be shared administration of Jerusalem and understanding in the creation of two states. I hope you will join in with these prayers and many blessings.
14th-century tapestry depicting John of Patmos watching the descent of the New Jerusalem by God.
""The ransomed of the Lord return
And come to Zion
With everlasting joy upon their heads."
And all over and about
The air is full of the scent of flowers,
And the trickling fall of fountains,
And free men and women have started on the Great Adventure
To find God.
* * * * * * * *
"And I saw a New Heaven and a New Earth,"
The old has passed away and the sun of righteousness arises with
Healing in its beams."
From George Carey's God-Man.