Embracing Healing: Taurus and Tiferet

This article was previously published in 2015.

"The color green of life, of healing, of nature and of balance is connected with both Tiferet and Taurus."

We are nearing the third of the seven weeks of the Omer and it corresponds to the Sefira of Tiferet, the expression of beauty, balance, and healing in the universe. Not coincidentally, we are also nearing the New Moon of Taurus, the zodiac sign that is also associated with these same energies.

The color green—the color of life, of healing, of nature and of balance is connected with both Tiferet and Taurus

The chakra associated with Tiferet is the heart chakra. When this chakra is balanced within us, we feel joy, gratitude, love, and compassion. We trust and forgive freely. Imbalances and blockages in the heart chakra give rise to jealousy, anger, cynicism, bitterness and feelings of abandonment.

The truth is that most of the human population has issues with this chakra, no matter how spiritual, loving, or open we are. Each one of us has those little areas inside where we hold anger, bitterness, loneliness, or resentment. The question is how can we use the energy of this month to heal it for ourselves?

The answer lies in our ability to embrace a simple, yet profound, personal understanding: the world around me and all the individuals in it are a part of a magnificent symphony playing in MY orchestra. And just as an orchestra conductor is responsible for how the music sounds, we, too, are 100% responsible for everything that we experience.

Everything.

Period.

Now a lot of us—possibly even most of us—think that responsibility for what happens to us lies with other people. We think: “I was hurt; there was an issue; I was stolen from; I was gossiped about; I was blamed for something, but hey, it’s not my fault; I didn’t create the problem – he did.” Moreover, when we see someone fighting or suffering, we think, “It’s not my problem. I’m not responsible for how they feel.”

"The world is our mirror."

But the truth is that, whatever it is, if it is in our experience then at some level we have some shared responsibility for creating it. This doesn’t mean that we are here to take the fault of the world on our shoulders, but rather that you, me, all of us can become active participants in healing the world through the power of our own consciousness.

As the great 18^th century kabbalist, the Baal Shem Tov, said:

“Every single thing that a person sees or hears, is an instruction to him in his conduct in the service of God.”

The world is our mirror.

If I am hurt, then I need to ask myself how and where I was hurt and whether I have hurt others, so that now the consequences of my actions are appearing in my experience. And then I have to ask how I can look inside myself so that I don’t inflict that hurt again on somebody else.

Each of us is both a teacher and a student, and everything that happens within our life is a lesson or a teaching for us, not for the other person. Yes, others have their own work to do, their own learning, their own experience. But they wouldn’t be there in our orchestra unless we shared a spark of whatever energy they are bringing to the table.

The more we incorporate this consciousness into our experience this week and this month of Taurus—the month of healing—the more we can achieve at-one-ment with the Infinite Force of love and life in this universe.