(Source of picture, HERE.)
Odelia Drugu, a Facebook contact was shared today a link to a very interesting article that could offer those interested in a year-end spiritual check a few useful hints.
The author, connects, following the kaballa, the ten commendments to the ten plagues in Egypt and suggests, implicitly, ways of removing ten most important obstacles in the way of spiritual progress. Here they are, in summary:
1. Blood — Destructive Confidence
The waters of the Nile turning into blood reflected the perverse state of a nation which turns its confidence into blood, using its position of strength and power to slaughter and butcher countless innocent human beings.
2. Frogs – Cold Intimacy
…frogs came to reflect in the Kabbalah an emotional state of apathy, detachment and coldness… This condition robs a human being of the ability to experience genuine emotional intimacy with any other person…
3. Lice – Unhealthy Submission
The attribute of “submission,” like all attributes of the soul, can be productive or destructive. To forever remain a humble student of life’s lessons is one of the noblest character traits an individual can possess… Destructive “Egyptian” submission is a humility that crushes one’s spirit and dulls its zest for life. In this type of submission, where one thinks of himself as a worthless creature who doesn’t matter…
4. Devouring Beasts — Wild Ambition
The fourth plague, in which a swarm of devouring beasts attacked Egypt, is the physical symbol of unhealthy ambition.
5. Epidemic — Sly Compassion
Compassion, on the other hand, takes into consideration all the flaws of the individual in need of compassion and extends a helping heart and hand regardless… “Egyptian” compassion is sly, shrewd and deceitful. This well-finessed and seductive compassion is employed in order to exploit other people’s weaknesses for selfish purposes and destructive goals.
6. Boils — Brutal Rejection
In Kabbalah, fire embodies the emotion of rejection, the soul’s capacity to refuse a person or a thing. …a healthy soul needs to know how to reject as much as must know how to embrace. One is often called upon to refuse a destructive urge, to sever an unhealthy relationship, to say no to a spoiled child or an unethical business offer… However, when our inner capacity for rejection turns into hate, bitterness and cruelty, the embers of our soul become a destructive force.
7. Hail — Frozen Love
If fire symbolizes rejection, it is water, naturally descending from a higher plane to a lower plane, that embodies the qualities of generosity and lovingkindness… Yet, a person who finds himself in “Egyptian” bondage knows only an icy love–a love that is based entirely on self-seeking motives and self-centered considerations.
8. Locust – Perverted Intelligence
The ability of intellectual inquiry and scrutiny remains the singular most precious gift of the human race. It allows us to explore the universe, improve our lives and discover the higher moral calling of the human family. Yet the very same power may serve as a tool to rationalize every evil practiced under the face of the sun, and to justify every destructive lifestyle or habit.
9. Darkness — A Locked Mind
The power of conception is the ability of one’s mind to conceive a new and original idea that was previously inaccessible… When a person is arrogant and smug, he denies his mind the ability to experience illumination. He forces himself to remain in darkness, constricted forever to his own narrow vision of life.
10. Death of Firstborn — Death of Identity
In the Kabbalah, the first-born member of a family is symbolic of the first-formed instincts and motives of a soul that lie beneath the surface of the conscious self. That dimension of the personality is usually more difficult to violate because it is hidden and inaccessible. But a lifestyle of ongoing addiction and abuse will ultimately bring about the death of the first-born, or the death of the super-conscious element of one’s soul.
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You may read HERE the entire article. It is really worth it. Enjoy! And thanks, Odelia, for the link.
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