Entering The Cloud of Unknowing
Sat Nam
The number 40, in the science of many religions relates to the essence of initiation.
Initiation is a rite of passage.
The initiation we relate to is not an initiation into some secret society, or into a group. We refer to it as a conscious participation in one’s transformation into a new stage in our individual evolution, in our becoming.
It seems like the crisis that humanity is facing is a potential collective initiation. This will manifest in a change on the level of relationships – with ourselves, with each other, with the natural world and with the divine.
These 40 days could be dedicated to expanding awareness on all these levels.
It could manifest in different ways, as there are various methods that could be applied, and the fact that we are now forced to be somehow isolated, invites us to tune in, be attentive, and create it in our own spaces, according to our capacities, needs, tendencies, intentions, choices, etc.
SACRED TIME & SPACE
Firstly, it is inviting us to define this time frame as sacred, and to apply sacredness to everything we do, everything we say, every input and output.
when you are participating in a sacred ritual, there are things that are welcomed and belong into this space, and things that are not. It is up to you to decide how to actualise it, within the environments and circumstances you are in; it could be in a city apartment, a village house, alone, or with family.
You are invited to create your own ritual, your own sacred process of initiation.
A big part of an initiation process is our willingness to not know, as we meet the unknown. We might not even know what is it that we are initiated into, we might not know yet what it is that we are becoming. And this is what we praying to be reviled to us.
EXODUS
Tonight is Passover night, when in the Jewish tradition, the story of the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt and the end of hundreds of years of slavery, is remembered and told.
This liberation takes the Hebrew people into the desert, where they are initiated as a collective.
Exodus /Bob Marly
Men and people will fight ya down
When ya see Jah light
Let me tell you if you're not wrong
Well, everything is all right
So we gonna walk
Through the roads of creation
We the generation
Tread through great tribulationIn this exodus
Good god almighty
Movement of Jah people
Exodus
The movement of Jah peopleOh, well, well, well
Open your heart, uh!
And look within
Are you satisfied
With the life you're living?
We know where we're going
We know where we're from
We're leaving Babylon
We're going to the Father's landIn this exodus
Movement of Jah people
Exodus
The movement of Jah people
(Movement of Jah people)
(Movement of Jah people)
(Movement of Jah people)
(Movement of Jah people)
(Movement of Jah people) c'mon, c'mon, c'mon, c'mon
Move
Move
Move
Move
Move
Move
Move
MoveJah…
40 DAYS AND NIGHTS ON MOUNT SINAI - ENTERING INTO THE MIST
The initiation of the collective of the Israelite people, was completely merged with the initiation and revelation of one individual: Moses
In the Jewish Tradition, the Collective Seminal Event of the collective becoming (Spiritual birth of the Israelite people) is encompassed within the event of the giving of the Torah to Mosses at Mt, Sinai.
This constitutive and Essential Happening - the revelation in the Giving of the Torah, has been the beginning of all that there is along the Jewish Collectives' path to this day.
Moses has ascended the Mountain for forty days and forty nights, where he had had a Revelation and was initiated into the highest level of his role as a mediator (between the divine and the people) and leader.
This event is written in the Bible in the book of Exodus.
God is revealed to Moses in the “ Thick Cloud”
״ויאמר יהוה אל משה, הנה אנוכי בא אליך באב הענן״
it is also described as: Moses enters into the Mist, in which God resided
״ויעמוד העם מרחוק;ומשה ניגש אל הערפל אשר שם האלוהים״
There is a lot to explore regarding these phrases: The Thick Cloud and The Mist.
Lets focus now on one aspect:
Moses has been said to have entered "The Thick Cloud". Such a term is endowed with a rare focus of meaning.
The simple interpretation of the term is just about entering the depth of a cloud. The Mystics, however, interprets this entrance as an entrance into the core being of not knowing from the deep as when entering the essence of mist.
In Christianity this term is encapsulated as "Cloud of Unknowing"
As long as the mystic shuns from entering into the cloud of unknowing, the pure essential being of knowledge will not be revealed to him.
This concept is an Oxymoron, it is a paradox - the negative and positive come into being in one occurrence time and space.
One should know both knowing as well as unknowing in order to know that which is and that which is not, to know the positive as well as the negation of the positive.
Let’s surrender to the unknown and enter into the mist of the think cloud.
It could be scary, but aren’t you curious?
