The T'li in The Sefer Yetzirah : The Karmic "Hook" in Your Natal Chart

I've been looking at the astrological materials in the Sefer Yetzirah. Of particular interest is the T'li, (  תלי ), the celestial dragon which is said to be "like a king upon his throne" in the universe. T'li is the Lunar Nodes, the North/South Nodes, which in Kabbalistic Astrology are indicators, by Sign and House, of the soul's primary Tikkun in this current gilgul (incarnation). 

Using A. Peter Hayman's critical edition of the Sefer Yetzirah, which examines the three medieval recensions  (K: Short Recension, A: Long Recension, C: Saadia Gaon's Recension), I looked at  Section 59, the only place in the Sefer Yetzirah where the T’li is mentioned in all three Recensions. With only very minor variations in one word, Section 59 as follows:

There is a law of ten, three, seven and twelve. They are (K: “Officials over”, A: “Present in”, C: “Have command of”) the Hook the celestial sphere, and the heart. The Hook in the universe is like a king on his throne, the celestial sphere in the year is like a king in a province, the heart in mankind is like a king at war.

חק עשרה ושלושה ושבעה ושנים עשרה ופקידים בתלי ולגלגל ולב

תלי בעולם כמלך על כםאו גלגל בשנה כמלך במדינה לב בנפש כמלך במלחמה

The striking thing about the T’li here is the power ascribed to it.  The T’li here is positioned as greater than and in fact encompassing of both the Gilgul (“Wheel”, translated by Hayman as “celestial sphere”) and the Lev (heart). The T’li in the universe has power over / controls all, like a king on his throne. The Wheel (the celestial sphere, or the array of constellations around the earth) controls time, which creates boundaries, divisions and sub-divisions indicating ownership, like a king in a province (“medina”, country, state, or sovereign province characterized by a distinctive or singular ruler, bounded by borders). The heart in mankind controls his actions, like a king at war who must focus all his strength and effort to overcome an enemy.

Speculation about what the T’li might be abounds in medieval commentary. Scholars and commentators don’t even agree on the source of the word itself. The word t’li seems to be related to the verb TLH ( תלה) – to hang. In the Torah it is mentioned in the context of Esau’s hunting gear, as Isaac asks Esau to “take your gear, your t’li and bow” (Genesis 27:3). The chief baker is told he will hang on a tree (   תלה), cursed is the one who is hanged on a tree (Deut. 21:23), Absolom was seen hanging in an oak by his hair (2 Samuel 18:10), etc. In these and the rest of the some 28 uses of one or more verbal stem versions of the root TLH found in TaNaCH, always in the context of hanging, being hung, dangling, etc. The translation of T’li into “hook” follows that meaning.   

Physician and commentator Shabbtai Donnolo, born in 913 at Oria in Byzantine Italy, discusses the T’li in his Sefer Hakhmoni, his commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah, written between 946 and 982 [i]. “And what is the T’li? When God created the firmament above us, which is divided into seven heavens, He created the T’li from water and fire in the shape of a great dragon, like a great twisted serpent, and made for it a head and a tail and put it in the fourth heaven, which is the middle heaven, the abode of the sun …it is…through learning handed down through ancient books that we can get to know the T’li, its power, its rule, how it was created, its goodness and its malignancy” [ii]. Donnolo’s T’li is the cosmic dragon, possessor of great power and dominant in the universe. Scharf states in regard to Donnolo’s interpretation of T’li as that of dragon:  “‘Tli’ is a word of doubtful etymology and several interpretations. It is comparatively rare; there are less than a dozen sources where it occurs instead of, or in addition to, the common words for a dragon – nahash or tannin” [iii].

Saadia Gaon, writing in 10th Century rationalist Babylonia, views the T’li in purely astronomical terms.  “I understand this to be a place where two orbits intersect …It is not a constellation resembling a dragon or any other creature” [iv]  Saadia’s perspective on the Sefer Yetzirah is a philosophical one, informed by the Muslim Kalaamist thinkers of his milieu, and in line with the prevailing doctrine of divine incorporeality seeks in his commentary on the Sefer Yetzirah to neutralize any magical or astrological elements, and proceeds to discredits the theory, of which he is apparently well aware, that the T’li refers to the celestial dragon.[v]

Donnolo’s T’li is “The Dragon, and it governs all the planets and constellations. The (celestial) sphere turns the planets, the constellations and the luminaries. This sphere is set within the depths of the firmament, and the constellations re permanently attached to it, never straying from their fixed position. This sphere surrounds the firmament to the south, the north, the east and the west, and the Dragon stretches within it from end to end, like a cross-beam…and it is stretched out in the middle of the sphere, from the central mid eastern point to the central mid western point” [vi].

This T’li, the “hook” upon which the universe itself hangs, is depicted as a serpent eating its own tail in illustrations, such as this one taken from the 9th Century aggadic Pirkei de Rebbe Eliezer.

Figure 2. T'li and Serpent Pole, R'Eliezer of Worms

Some have speculated that the T’li might be a reference to the axis mundi [vii], the Ptolemaic system’s imaginary line bisecting the spherical universe, which turns on a fixed axis (axis mundi) connecting the two terrestrial poles (north and south), passing between them through the center of the earth. Donnolo in his Sefer Hakhomi describes the Dragon’s position in the “Fourth Sky” which contradicts the Ptolemaic definition of the axis mundi [viii].  Donnolo’s dragon “darkens the light of the two luminaries and the five planets, it moves the luminaries forward and backward and the planets and constellations from east to west and from west to east; it draws the planets back and holds them in one place, preventing them from straying either forwards or backwards…it cannot be seen with the naked eye but rather it is by the study of ancient texts transmitted to us that we gain knowledge of the Dragon…and how the twelve constellations are attached to it” [ix].

The idea of a serpent connecting and controlling the universe and the importance of the North and South Lunar Nodes in predicting eclipses is illustrated in “The Dragon of the Lunar Nodes and the Eclipse Points”, from Kircher's Ars Magna Lucis et Umbra.

Figure 3 “The Dragon of the Lunar Nodes and the Eclipse Points”, from Kircher's Ars Magna Lucis et Umbra.

Looking at the text with an astrologically trained eye, the Dragon appears to be none other than the lunar nodes themselves.  The lunar nodes are not planets. They are points in space indicating the intersection of two orbits, the points where the orbit of the Moon crosses the ecliptic. The north node (“dragon’s head”) is where the moon crosses from south of the ecliptic to north of the ecliptic. The south node (“dragon’s tail) is where it crosses from north of the ecliptic to south of the ecliptic. Their glyph (symbol) recalls the tail-eating dragon in form:

Figure 4 North / South Lunar Nodes (Glyph)

The function of the Lunar Nodes in astronomy is to predict the path of the annual eclipses through the constellations. Eclipses occur only near the lunar nodes. Solar eclipses occur when the passage of the Moon through a node coincides with the new moon; lunar eclipses occur when passage coincides with the full moon.

Of the entire celestial phenomenon, eclipses are the most important and significant in Jewish understandings of astronomy and astrology (indistinguishable in their ancient, historically undifferentiated phase). Eclipses are tied to the fate of nations as well as of individuals. These beliefs are detailed the Talmud: “At the time when the sun is eclipsed, it is an unfavorable period for the world. A parable: This can be compared to a human king who made a feast for his subjects, and placed a lantern before them. When he grew angry with them, he told his servant, ‘Take away the lantern from before them, and place them in darkness!’"  (Talmud Bavli, Succah 29a). Succah 29a also says that solar eclipses occur for four different reasons: 1) If a Torah scholar is buried without being adequately eulogized; 2) If a betrothed girl is raped and nobody responds to her cries; 3) Homosexuality, and 4) Two brothers being killed at the same time. The Talmud in Succah 29a continues:

When the sun is in eclipse, it is a bad omen for the nations of the world.  [When] the moon is in eclipse, it is a bad omen for Israel,^. Since the gentiles reckon their calendar by the sun, and Israel by the moon. When it is in eclipse in the east, it is a bad omen for those who live in the east.  When it is in eclipse in the west, it is a bad omen for those who live in the west. When it is in eclipse in-between, it is a bad omen for the whole world.  When it turns red, it is a sign that punishment by the sword is coming into the world.  When it is like sack-cloth, it is a sign that punishment by pestilence and famine are coming into the world.  If they are smitten at its entry [into sunset], the punishment will tarry. [When they are smitten] when they rise, the punishment is coming fast.  And some say matters are reversed.

Just as the path of the lunar nodes predict the constellation and the degree therein an eclipse will occur, and in Jewish thought the eclipses are tied to the fate of nations, the function of the Lunar Nodes in astrology is tied to the fate or destiny of the individual.

Although references to the nodal function of predicting the fate or destiny of an individual abound in modern astrology [x]  and are used by many modern astrologers to describe the evolution of the soul in the present incarnation, Donnolo may well have been aware of ancient Arabic astrology’s teaching on the caput and cauda, the two lunar nodes described by Abu Ma’shar (787-886) who wrote extensively about their function in his Kitab al-mudhal al-kabir (“Great Introduction to Astrology”) and in Kitab tahawil sini al-alam (“The Book of Revolutions of the World-Years”), works that were greatly respected by the Byzantine astrological tradition in which Donnolo operated during the 10th Century [xi]. Whether Ma’shar drew on knowledge of Sanskrit (Vedic) astrology’s Rehu (“Dragon’s Head”) and Ketu (“Dragon’s Tail”), which may have reached Arabic astrology via Alexander’s foray into India (my speculation), which in Vedic astrology the lunar nodes take an even more prominent and important position than they do in Western astrology, is impossible to ascertain. Nevertheless, whether the association of the lunar nodes with the dragon originated with Ma’shar or if he derived them from a Vedic source, their function is the same: prediction of and control over the fate, “karma”, and destiny.

The celestial beast whose body twists and stretches across the universe, holding the stars in place, are seen through astrological eyes as “Caput” and “Cauda” in Muslim astronomy and “Rehu” and “Ketu” in Vedic astrology,  the means by which eclipses are predicted and tracked for the purpose of determining whether misfortune is about to befall the nations or Israel. The dragon upon whose undulating scales the starry universe is hung, holds the fate and destiny of all creation between his head and tail. “The T’li in the universe is like a king upon his throne” – sovereign over all, as the North and South lunar nodes in astrology are sovereign over human fate.

---

[i]Andrew Scharf, The Universe of Shabbetai Donnolo, (Warminster, England, Aris & Phillips LTD, 1976, p. 11)

[ii]ibid, p. 34

[iii]ibid, p. 34

[iv]Sadia Gaon, Commentaire sur le Sefer Yetsirah, translated by Mayer Lambert (Lagresse: Verdier, 2001), p. 73

[v]Marla Segol, Magical Letters, Mystical Planets: Magic, Theosophy and Astrology in the Sefer Yetzirah and two of its Tenth-century Commentaries, (Societas Magica Newsletter, Issue 21, Spring 2009), p.2

[vi]Piergabriele Mancuso, “Shabbatai Donnolo’s Sefer Hakhomi”(Studies in Jewish History and Culture, Boston, 2010, Vol. 27), page 348

[vii]Karen Silvia DeLeon-Jones, Giordano Bruno and the Kabbalah: Prophets, Magicians, and Rabbis, (University of Nebraska Press 1997), p. 175 (among others)

[viii]ibid, p. 344, note

[ix]ibid, pp. 344-345

[x]For a modern look at the ancient esoteric belief about the lunar nodes, see https://classicalastrologer.me/2012/12/14/head-and-tail-of-the-dragon-the-lunar-nodes/ and http://www.astro.com/astrology/tma_article160706_e.htm . While no ancient esoteric astrological “cookbook”-style texts exist to my knowledge which describes the karmic functions of the lunar nodes, the internet abounds with modern astrology’s “New Age” version of the ancient belief. 

[xi]Examples include: https://cafeastrology.com/nodesofthemoon.html  

Chodesh Iyar and Chodesh Cheshvan: “Incepted” Mysteries and Midrashic Insights

Iyar and Cheshvan, opposite each other in the Zodiac and the Jewish Year, are both “incepted” months. Iyar is incepted by the Sefirot haOmer period, which begins on the 15^th of Nissan and ends on the 5^th of Sivan. Energetically, Iyar is encompassed by the Sefirot haOmer. 

Cheshvan is “incepted” by the holiday and festival cycle. Notable for being “the only month without a holiday”, Cheshvan is incepted by the Chaggim of Tishrei, specifically the final holiday of Simchat Torah, after which there are no holidays, feasts or fasts until Chanukkah on 25 Kislev. 

"Issachar" by Lynette Joel

Iyar is associated with the Tribe of Issachar and the Zodiac Sign (“Mazal”) of Taurus, the Bull. Taurus is the Fixed Earth (Establishing Manifestation) Sign, whose energetic task is to take the great passion and love and freedom of Nissan and establish it, laying the groundwork of manifestation by deep thought and discernment. 

Opposite Iyar in the Jewish Year is Chesvan, associated with the Tribe of Menashe, and Scorpio. Scorpio is the Fixed Water (Establishing Emotion) Sign, whose energetic task is to take the love and intimacy initiated in Tishrei during the Chaggim (Rosh HaShanah through Simchas Torah) and establish it, manifesting it through hidden, secret, powerful, mysterious and sexual means. 

The birth of Issachar was a “supernatural” birth, as was the birth of Menashe, in an opposite and yet complimentary way. In Parshat Vayeitzei, Leah had left off bearing children after already giving birth to Reuven, Shimon, Levi and Yehuda. Her handmaiden Zilpah had also given birth to Gad and Asher on her behalf. At that point, Leah’s sister Rachel had not yet given birth to any children herself; only her handmaiden Bilhah had born Dan and Naftali. 

Bereshit (Genesis) 30:14-18 reads:

Reuven went out in the days of the wheat harvest; he found dudaim in the field and brought them to Leah his mother; Rachel said to Leah, “Please give me some of your son’s dudaim” But she said to her, “Was your taking my husband insignificant? – And now to take even my son’s dudaim!” Rachel said, “Therefore, he shall like with you tonight in return for your son’s dudaim.”

When Jacob came from the field in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said: “It is to me that you must come for I have clearly hired you with my son’s dudaim.” She he lay with her that night.

God hearkened to Leah; and she conceived and bore Jacob a fifth son. And Leah declared: “God has granted me my reward because I gave my maidservant to my husband.” So she called his name Issachar.”

Issachar was conceived “supernaturally”, in that his birth was the result of a trade or exchange – Reuven’s dudaim (which were fertility herbs) went to Rachel, to help her conceive Joseph – in exchange for Issachar’s birth, which was “supernatural” in that Leah had left off bearing. Her eldest son Reuven’s intention in gathering the dudaim was to give it to his mother to help her bear more children. Instead, the dudaim went to Rachel, and Leah was assisted “supernaturally” in conceiving Issachar by G*d, who “hearkened to Leah” (v. 17), granting her another son.

The birth of Menashe, Joseph’s firstborn, also has “supernatural” undertones, understanding it in the context of Joseph’s great efforts to resist Potiphar’s wife and to guard his sexual purity, even to anguishing lengths. The Midrash relates that the difficulty of resisting the sexual lure of Potiphar’s wife was so intense that Joseph plunged his fingers, out of which came semen, into the very earth itself of Egypt itself, rather than succumb to the powerful, overwhelming sexual urge with Potiphar’s wife. 

When at last Joseph was married to Asnat, his first :permitted" or sanctified seminal emission brought about the conception and birth of Menashe, his first-born. 

From Midrash Rabah:

"Rabbi Isaac states: ‘His seed is scattered and leaves his body through his fingernails, as it is written, 'and the arms of his hands were made supple,' which could also be interpreted as 'and the arms were spread.'" Rabbi Isaac, also citing Jacob's blessing, says that Joseph's sexual desire is liberated not sexually, but rather via his fingertips. Thus, in this view, Joseph is prevented from relations with Potiphar's wife not because of impotence, but rather because of the wondrous sublimation of his sexual power that is forced upon him.”

Menashe is the Tribe associated with Scorpio and Chodesh Cheshvan. Scorpio is legendary for being the most sexual of all the Zodiac signs. Scorpios energetically “Establish Emotion” (Fixed Water) through sexual intimacy. Menashe was the product of permitted and therefore holy sexual union between Joseph and Asnat, but his father Joseph’s initial seminal emission (through his fingers into the earth of Egypt) carried with it an energetic charge as well. This tremendous effort to "do the right thing" is the universally cited reason Joseph is called "Yosef haTzadik", the righteous one, who overcame overpowering sexual urge and therefore elevated the "Yesod" (foundation), symbolized by the Sefirot "Yesod" in Sefirot haOmer and personified by Yosef (as the Tzadik and the Ushpizin of Sukkot's "Yesod" night).

Menashe is, in this sense, the “exchange” or “reward” or “trade” Joseph received for his great effort in sublimating his sexual desire, just as Issachar is to Leah the result of her great effort to increase her portion of the Tribes of Israel. The dudaim which Leah exchanged for Jacob’s company were the fertility herbs that helped Rachel eventually give birth to Joseph, who would become the father of Menashe. The linking of Issachar, the son Leah bore as a result of the exchange of her son’s dudaim for the right to lay with her husband and conceive, to Menashe, the son Joseph bore in exchange for guarding his sexual purity, even to the point of excruciating anguish, is one of the deepest secrets of Torah. 

An even more subtle and powerful level of this linking exists in the person of Asnat, the wife of Joseph and the mother of Menashe and Ephraim. Asnat was the daughter of Dinah and Shechem ben Hamor, the product of Dinah’s abduction and rape. After Dinah gave birth to Asnat, the child was left under the shade of a bush by the roadside (“Asnat” is a version of the word for “bush”), wearing a bracelet which identified her as the grandchild of Jacob. The child was rescued and adopted by Potiphar and his wife, and raised in the royal palace of Egypt. 

Some years after the incident with Potiphar’s wife, after Joseph had risen from a prisoner to Pharoah’s Prime Minister, he was walking through the streets of Egypt and women were throwing tokens at him  - jewelry and such – begging for his attention, for he was very handsome (the son of the beautiful Rachel and the image of his father Jacob). Asnat was watching him from the rooftop of her home, and threw her token to him in the street – the very bracelet which had been with her since birth, signifying her as a grand-daughter of Jacob, and in fact, Joseph’s niece, the daughter of his sister Dinah. Joseph recognized the token, and married Asnat, bringing her back into the family of Jacob by marriage. 

Menashe then, the Tribe related to Scorpio and Cheshvan, comes from the deepest and most mysterious strain of the personal histories of the sons of Jacob and his wives. Joseph, who guarded his powerful sexuality, was able to “redeem” his niece Asnat and complete the tikkun which began when Joseph’s soul and Dinah’s soul were prenatally “switched” between their mothers, Rachel and Leah, and the consequences of that “switch” – one of which was the taking on of seeming sexual impurity in the event of Dinah’s kidnapping, rape and impregnation by Shechem ben Hamor. The birth of Menashe was the manifestation of that tikkun.

Similarly, Issachar, the son of Leah and Jacob, related to Taurus and Iyar, comes from the most hidden convolutions of the personal histories of Jacob and his wives, the mothers of the 12 Tribes. The conception of Issachar was a supernatural exchange in the same way the conception of Menashe was a supernatural exchange.

Both Issachar (Iyar) and Menashe (Cheshvan) are related to the “incepted” months. The Sefirot haOmer which surrounds Iyar (Chessed Sh’b’Tiferet through Gevurah Sh’b’Malchut) reflect the qualities of Joseph haTzadik, and the “lack” of holidays from Simchat Torah/Isru Chag through Chanukkah which “incept” Cheshvan is prophetically speaking, the “placeholder” for what will become the biggest holiday of them all: the dedication (Chanukat haBayit) of the third, final and Messianic Holy Temple in Jerusalem. 

Midrash Yalkut Melachim 184 as cited in Bnei Yissaschar:

“The Tabernacle of the desert was completed by Moshe in the month of Kislev, however the Holy One, blessed be He commanded him to wait until the following Nisan to inaugurate it. The month of Kislev was embarrassed, and so G-d rewarded her with the rededication of the Second Temple, during the era of Chanukah.

The First Temple built by King Solomon was completed during the month of Mar Cheshvan (the month known as ‘bul;’ see I Kings 6:38) however through Divine Inspiration, King Solomon knew that he was not to dedicate it until the following Tishrei. So, the month of Mar Cheshvan was embarrassed... and G-d promised to repay it in the future, with the dedication ceremony of the Third Temple.”

The energetic reciprocity between Taurus and Scorpio, Issachar and Menashe, Iyar and Cheshvan is evident by these examples. Each month of the Jewish Year is a particular manifestation of the cycle of sacred time, and with the coming of each new month, opportunity arises to apprehend that particular energy and apply it to our own lives and spiritual development.

Issachar has been associated with Torah scholars, “Talmudim Chochamim” and those whose lives revolve around and draw their sustenance from the study of Torah.  There are some (myself included with such great company as Rashbam and Ibn Ezra) which see Issachar as the archetypical Taurus personality – solid, thoughtful, earthy, loving the soil and the land, hard-working, steadfast (stubborn, certainly “fixed” as his sign indicates), a lover of beauty and order (ruled by Venus (“Noga”) and concerned with the sensual (Earth) delights and rewards of a well-lived life. This too, may be “Torah”.

In David S. Zimburg’s “Re-Imagining Issachar”, the author writes:

“Orthodox Judaism promotes neither a single religious archetype, nor an ideal “Torah personality,” nor a monolithic economic theory. Over the centuries, our religion has accommodated multiple paradigms for all aspects of life. There are many great and varied figures in our history and in our literature from whom we can draw inspiration. The Issachar most of us know -- the full-time scholar -- was never held up by our Torah or our Sages as the one and only model of authentic Jewish living. His image has taken on other, no less ideal, forms in biblical and rabbinic tradition, including that of a man who loves to work the soil under his feet and returns home daily soaked in the sweat of physical labor. That Issachar is no less a ben Torah than the one who has never left the beit midrash. With a sense of responsibility stretching beyond his own borders, the Issachar we have described is the one the Jewish people can look to for support and for leadership, on and off the battlefield. It is time to rethink our fixation on the two-dimensional Issachar, to the exclusion of all others. The others, on closer examination, may be even more inspiring.”

The symbols and archetypes of Jewish Astrology are rich and varied. Each of the 12 Tribes, as well as the months, the “Mazalot” (Zodiac signs), the Planets associated with them, and the various other “characters” that inhabit both the pantheon of symbolic imagery and Jewish history, both literal and figurative, imbue particular qualities and characteristics which exist to help us understand ourselves, our world and our spiritual destinies in a deeper and more profound way. Just as Avraham is both the human progenitor of the Jewish people as an historical figure AND the embodiment of the Sefirotic archetype of “Chessed”,  the Planets themselves are both physical objects made of identifiable matter with observable and predictable behavior, AND energetic lenses through which particular archetypes are channeled and focused “as above, so below”. Jupiter is both the largest Planet in our Solar System, AND the “great beneficent” of the Zodiac, acting as an energetic lens for expansive generosity.

With this foundational understanding, we can see the beautiful function of Issachar and Chodesh Iyar in the cycle of sacred time which is the Jewish Year. Iyar’s “incepted” position allows it to gather, refine, establish and lay a foundation for the Spring-like rush of spontaneous growth, newness and rebirth that characterizes the Month of Nissan which precedes it. The Rashbam and Ibn Ezra’s Issachar as the powerful, physical, earthy and wholesome “farmer”, sowing his land corresponds to the classical description of Taurus, the bull, who derives great joy from his physicality and the work that a healthy, well-developed and balanced body might do with the land he is given, bringing forth abundance and “shefah” to share with his brethren.

Of course it’s widely known that Torah study is compared to a field in which the laborer toils and brings forth abundant fruit as well. Not that one need be exclusive of the other, and in a way, it’s the balance between the mental and the physical where Taurus and Issachar reaches his perfection. A Talmud Chocham was never meant to be a pale, sickly, emaciated scholar, bent over an open book for 70 years, his frame distorted and bent from study, his limbs wasted from ignoring exercise in favor of “learning”. A true Torah scholar must find his balance and his physical strength by connection to the Land, and sow not only in the field of Torah but in the literal field itself, by his very labor. True vitality, true health, true beauty lies in the art of bringing heaven to earth, and earth to heaven – and Chodesh Iyar, which begins on Chessed Sh’b’Tiferet (Generosity/Kindness in Beauty/Balance – the “Venus” manifestation in Taurus) and ends on Gevurah Sh’b’Malcut (Strength of Manifestation  – “Establishing Manifestation” function of Taurus, the “Fixed Earth” Sign ) opens the energetic doorway to be able to access the strength, wisdom and endurance to be able to access this potentiality and fulfill it.

Chodesh Elul Tov! Separate the Wheat from the Chaff

1. 

   Chodesh Elul Tov!!! Virgo/Elul is so important it even got it's own Israeli stamp - gevaldt!

   The Hebrew Month of Elul is associated with the Tribe of Gad. Gad was the 7th Son of Jacob, the first-born of his mother Zilpah (Leah's handmaiden).

   
   

   
   

   "Gad" is, according to Rashi, a shorthand for "Mazal Tov" ("good fortune") deriving from a root meaning cut/divide, in the sense of divided out. 

   Virgo/Elul is the opposite of Adar/Pisces in the Cycle of Sacred Time as illustrated by the Jewish Year/Hebrew Calendar. In Adar/Pisces everything dissolves and we drink "ad lo yodeah", until we can't tell the difference between one thing and another.

   The Mazal (Zodiac Sign) of Elul is Virgo, whose function in the Zodiac is indeed to divide, portion out, separate, analyze, discern and decide whether or not something is simply wonderful fluff or something actual useful. Will it serve? Then it can stay. If not, it has to be put aside. 

   

   
   Virgo is the action of "borer" - separating, sorting - which we are forbidden to do on Shabbat. Elul is when we organize, analyze, and "sort out" our lives prior to Rosh HaShanah.  

   
   

   The Transformative (Mutable) Earth Sign, Virgo enables us to change our Tachlis, bottom-line reality by showing us in the cool, clear light of the Harvest Moon what things we've accumulated that will serve our growth and development, and what things we've carried forward that are impeding us, and need to be discarded.

   
   Cleaning out the closets of our lives, finding stuff that we're carrying around that no longer serves us, lightening our load, purifying our head-space and our heart-space is the work best suited to the Month of Elul.

   
   During Elul we say: "The King is in the Field". Perhaps no other Month is the "King" as obviously accessible to us, energetically - for if "the King is in the Field" and so are we, He is right there with us to help us with the challenging task of knowing what to hold on to and what we must let go of.

   
   Chodesh Elul Tov, happy sorting, cleaning and preparing for Rosh HaShanah, and don't try to do it all yourself - let "The King" help you out!

    EVERYBODY had Virgo in their personalized natal charts... in fact, everybody has all 12 Zodiac Signs in their charts. Where Virgo is in your chart depends on your Ascendent (Rising Sign). To find out about how this plays out in your life and in what areas you need to let Virgo's "clean up crew" remodel your cosmic clutter, be in touch with me. 

   Chodesh Elul Tov!

   Lorelai

   lorelaikude@yahoo.com