Making Room for the Shekhinah
A Via Negativa New Moon Devotion of Clearing, Seeing, and Welcome
Opening the Circle
Blessed are you, O Yah, the Shekhinah, Spirit of the World.
Make way for her presence.
Make space for her work.
Clear a path so we can go out to greet her.
Clean the floor so we can join in her dance.
The Glory of HaMakom breaks the horizon. She approaches.
Wisdom, compassion, joy, and mindfulness dance with her.
The Power of God and the Name are with her.
Her song sings of wonder, peace, wholeness, and freedom, which are the four ways of life.
She approaches like a cloud, and strength is with her.
May we join this cloud of witness.
May we sing the song of life.
May we dance the round of liberation.
The Sacred Moment
Today, the new moon veils the sky, cloaking the heavens in silence and shadow. May we feel the call to surrender, to sacred unknowing, to the holy hush that dwells beneath words. In the deep darkness of the New Moon, we walk the path of the Via Negativa: the way of release, of letting fall what no longer serves, of listening for the presence hidden in absence. Our souls ache not for answers, but for peace within the questions, for a love that meets us in the void.
This is a moon to release, to empty, to rest.
Path Illumination
The Shekhinah is the Presence of God, felt within and around us. She is the Presence that flows through us and through whom we live a full life. To welcome her into our lives, we have to make space for her to inhabit. We must cleanse the altar of our heart and offer the sacrifice of mindfulness, joy, and service. We make way for her coming and going. We dance with her as she goes. She is the presence that we feel so deeply in moments of contemplation, prayer, and solace.
In the shadows of the new moon, we recognize that we are enshadowed by her presence. She does not leave us. We only choose to ignore her presence. Sometimes this is through an active choice on our part, but more often it is because we have filled our lives, our hearts, and our minds with so much that we no longer see her.
Sometimes we have to clear out what is there, so that there is room. Most of the time, though, we only need the clarity to see through what covers our vision of the presence of God. That clarity requires us to release the hold that we have on our present troubles and open ourselves up so that our focus can see what lies beyond them. It is like when we stub our toes. Suddenly, the whole world is that pain that we feel in that small part of our body. If we focus on it, it is all that we can feel, and our field of vision narrows down to just it. If we open ourselves up and realize that it is only a small part of our experience, then the entire world comes back into focus.
This is how we open ourselves up to the presence of the Shekhinah. And this is how we learn to dance, sing, and live in her presence. We open ourselves up. We do not shut down. We find clarity without shutting ourselves off. We release our gaze from what binds it so that we can see the space around us.
The Sacred Question
What space in our lives has become so cluttered that we can no longer see or feel the presence of the Shekhinah?
Embodied Practice
Cover your eyes with your hands. Make sure to cup your hands and do not press in on your eyes, but close your fingers so that you can no longer see beyond them. Now see the room that you were in.
First, you might think, “I cannot see what is there because I am covering my eyes.” Yes, your hands may be covering your eyes, but they are not obstructing your vision. You know what is in the room with you. Allow yourself to see it. Even if you cannot picture it in your mind, state what is there clearly and plainly. Who and what are in this space with you?
Now take a deep breath and dig deeper. What is in the room that you could not see even if your hands were not covering your eyes? The first answer is easy: the air. Even if your eyes were not covered, the air is clear and you cannot see it. Do not stop there. Go deeper. Name the relationships, the meaning of the objects around you. None of those can be seen by your eyes, but they can be beheld by your vision.
Ask yourself, “What is in this space with me that I have refused to see?” This could be clutter or schmutz that you know needs to be cleaned up, but go deeper. What else is here that you have refused to acknowledge and see? Is anger, fear, or resentment in the room with you? Is loss a cloud that fills the room, keeping you from seeing what is there?
Behind your hands, open your eyes, and then quickly move your hands away and notice how bright the room feels. Your eyes are overwhelmed by the light denied to them once it is restored. We experience that overwhelm anytime the scales fall from our eyes and we see something anew in a way that we had not before.
Take a deep breath. And now, with clearer vision, see what is in the space with you in all of its intricate interconnection and spacious opening. This is the world you live in. This is the world that has space for the Shekhinah.
Blessing of Becoming
Blessed Shekhinah, Spirit of the world, open our eyes so we might see. Hold our hands as the new light blinds us, and help us to walk in the new world open to our vision.
Blessed Wayfarer, as you walk the paths, know that you are not alone. We are never alone. With each step that we take, an untold cloud of witnesses and relationships come with us. We walk the narrow way not because of our virtue or its rightness, but because many turn away from the work of clearing the heart and the eyes so that they can feel and see.
Make way for the presence of God.
Make way for the spirit of truth.
Make way for the heart of the world to ever beat and be strong.