Netivat Sofrut: diary of a Soferet

Adventures of a female sofer learning to heal the world by doing Holy Work...writing a Sefer Torah

נחזיר את השכינה למקומה בצייון ובתבל כלה

"Let us restore the Divine In-Dwelling to Her Place in Zion & infuse Her spirit throughout the whole inhabited world."

So wherever we are, let us bring the Peace of G@d's Presence.

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Location: Vancouver/London, British Columbia/UK, Canada

SCRIBAL EVANGELIST As the only living certified Soferet (סופרת - female Jewish ritual scribe) & the first woman to practice sofrut (creation of sacred Hebrew texts) in over 200 years, I feel an obligation to blog about my experiences of The Work. I am also currently researching the foundation of a lost tradtion of women practicing this holy craft. For more on the services I provide, please see Soferet.com; Sofrut Nation. I am now available to engage with students, male or female, wishing to enter into the preliminary stage of learning sofrut. You are welcome to join me on this path. "Tzedeq, tzedeq tir'dof - Justice, justice you shall pursue." Devarim/Deuteronomy 16:20.

Monday, January 23, 2006

THE UNIVERSE IS TRYING TO TELL ME SOMETHING

בס"ד
23 Tevet


This is a time for me to reconcile/apologize/listen/open/accept/own/identify/persist/love.

Especially love.

I've always believed that our dreams are one of the innumerable ways that G@d tries to send us messages. Our tradition teaches us that dreams represent a commonly accessible level of prophesy. So I am moved to respond.

The night of January 6-7 I dreamt:
I was in a bedroom with a ceiling so low I had to sit. The wallpaper was old, beige & tan with sprigs of tiny pinky-red flowers on it. There were cobwebs up above my head in the corner I was sitting on one hip in. I had a feather duster, with which I gently whisked away the webs & dust. I was concerned I might be disturbing a spider's home & get bitten. Next to me on the floor was a queen sized bed covered with a messy solid bright blue comforter. Directly above that was a window covered with curtains the exact same colour of blue. I looked up & saw that a huge wave, stories high & the same colour blue again, towered up above me & came crashing down, flooding everything. I was afraid, but survived.

Dream Jan 12-13:
I had overwatered my cactus, the one my Dad bought for me at the Elk Lake Garden Centre on August 14th, 1975, the day we moved from Nanaimo to Victoria. The soil was wet - it was regular dirt as in real lif e& not cactus dirt - which holds more water than the sandy cactus variety. The branches which grow out of the base of the cactus (who I named "Major" the day we took him home. I liked the word - I'd heard it a lot from watching M*A*S*H as a kid). It was soggy because I'd accidentally overwatered it. I'd thought I was taking good care of it by giving it so much attention, but it turns out it didn't need exactly what I'd been doing for it. The bottom of the branches were too waterlogged to remain healthy & attached to the root. So they fell away in my hands. I felt so terrible. I really thought I'd been doing the right thing. But I'd innocently damaged the branches to the point where I'd lost them. This was an emergency. Luckily, as I dug down, the roots of the main trunk were kind of moist, but stable & fine. I breathed a sigh of relief. My naive clumsiness hadn't killed the whole thing & with a little re-education & new kind of care everything was going to be ok.
...& all I heard was "my full rose weeps sweet milk for you"

Dream January 20 - 21
I was wearing baggy orange pants. I had a new job. It had something to do with water, maybe on a boat, but I don't remember seeing a boat in the dream. But there was wetness. I was unsure whether I was doing well at this job & my confidence was shaken. I walked into a funky cafe-diner-restaurant & sat & ate with my nephew. It had orange walls & large mirrors & a black & white tile floor. We sat on high, chrome retro stools at a round table. They were all red vinyl on top. He was kind & encouraging to me. I felt somewhat comforted. I went to the bathroom & when I looked in the mirror, my hair had turned white. At the very bottom right of my hair there were thin horizonal/semicircular stripes, one each of black, pink & green. My eyes were huge & dark. They were still green, as they are in real life, but darker & my irises were fully dialated. So they were totally receptive.

Any comments before I record my interpretations?
?

Wish me a safe trip, as I'm leaving to teach in Florida in a couple of hours...

3 Comments:

Blogger Evenewra said...

What a lot of water. How interesting to bring this up as we are starting Shemot which is absolutely filled with water as both a life-giving and life-taking source.

I'm amazed that you remembered the colors (colours, for Canadians) so vividly. I find color interpretation to be so personal I don't wish to say a word about them.

Obviously a lot of themes with the spiderweb and the cactus of trying to be helpful and overdoing it. Too much love, too much care causing destruction, I think. But I agree with your comment to love more. My meditation teacher says, "When in doubt, love more."

How to do that effectively is a more difficult question. Roses and skunks both use the same hormone or pheremone or something for their famous smells. Love is so painful, even when everything is going right, because it seems to physically squeeze your heart so tightly. Sometimes love feels like a rock stuck in your chest or stomach. Sometimes like wind rushing through your body. The more the love can feel fluid (like water, a gentle river rather than a crashing wave, preferably), I feel the safer it can be, allowing for change and evolution.

I hope these help and look forward to your interpretation.

7:24 a.m.  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I think I know who can interpret your dreams!!!!

2:44 p.m.  
Blogger Soferet said...

בס"ד
Evenewra - I have SO much to say to you personally about the sanctity of water & its symbolism - emotion/rebirth. I think it's a conversation worth having on the phone!

B"H I never have trouble seeing the colours in my dreams - just sometimes with remembering the dreams themselves. But when I do remember them, wow - they're light technicolour full length motion pictures. Probably due to my growing up in cinemas as a child.

There is much to be said here about effective care & appropriate love. To give to someone or some thing because you feel the need is not acknowledging that they may not. Therefore, it doesn't belong.

But I still agree with your teacher. Somethimes I think the solution is how to love in any given situation.

& I agree with your comments about what love can feel like 100%. I'm simmering my own replies...

the fourth - really? who? do tell! is it Imam Fode?

11:56 p.m.  

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