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Kabbalah: Ancient Practices to Illuminate the Soul
- Catherine Shainberg
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Welcome to Healing From Within with your host Sheryl Glick RMT Reiki Master Teacher and author of a trilogy with the newest edition A New Life Awaits: Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening which shares stories and messages from Spirit showing us our challenges are not merely economic political or societal but a deep disconnect from our inner soul wisdom. Today we welcome Catherine Shainberg Ph.D. author of The Kabbalah of Light who is an internationally renowned transpersonal psychologist, lecturer, and author. The Kabbalah of Light integrates timeless wisdom with modern Western traditions in order to facilitate or catalyze creative manifestation at all levels in all areas of life.
As listeners of Healing From Within are well aware, Sheryl and her creative guests share intimate stories that reveal we are spiritual beings having a physical life to refine our inner soul energy and improve human conditions. By fully recognizing our duality of spiritual and physical energies, we can know ourselves with more awareness and answer the important questions Who are we? Where do we come from? What is the purpose or scope of this life?
In today’s episode of Healing From Within Catherine Shainberg shows us that from her early remembrances of childhood, she was aligned to spiritual guidance and functioning by downloading information from Spirit. In The Kabbalah of Light, she shares an approach and body of techniques using dreams, images, and inner gazing to communicate with our subconscious, connect to Spirit, and make advantageous changes to our lives.
When Catherine thinks back to her childhood to remember a person, place, event, or interest that may have alerted her to her path in life or destiny, she tells us that she always knew she was here in this life to help others remember their soul and the connection they had to the universal eternal source of life. Catherine tells Sheryl that when she lived in England as a little girl, every night she saw a homeless person outside her window and she imagined that woman being covered in a blue, warm, and comforting blanket that would help her sleep at night. Catherine might not have known it at the time, but she was actually sending Distant healing and helping that woman heal.
Catherine writes, “I have always been fascinated by the subconscious. At first, I didn’t know what the word meant—but I knew I was more interested in following what my imaginary friends were doing, than what was happening around the dinner table. In fact, I saw no difference between the angels and fairies that populated my world, and my little friends I played with in Hyde Park. It was my mother who persistently reminded me to pay attention to the real world, and not to dream my life away. I developed many strategies to remain aware of what was happening around me, and so I was able to accomplish the many tasks that were required of me at home and at school. But at the same time, I couldn’t ignore the goings-on in my other world. It took me years to understand that most people simply lived in the real world and paid scant attention to the other world. To me, this was a terrible loss. The flow of my imagination was varied and quick, and endlessly entertaining. It also educated me. A large dry leaf could be restored to the soft green of early spring, the leaf still attached to its branch, and the branch to a centuries-old tree whose wisdom I could hear booming in my inner ear. Souls required me to accompany them to their heavenly rest. I lived a life of richness and beauty I couldn’t get enough of. I devoured fairy tales and mythological stories. Voices spoke words in my ears that I generously transmitted to my playmates. This led to me being accused of lying and then punished. I soon learned not to communicate what I heard and saw. I became secretive and mute about my inner world, but the lure of the inner world was too powerful.”
Catherine goes on to tells us about the origin of life and writes, “When I go to sleep, this is exactly what I do. I hover over the subconscious and I create light. Have you ever wondered how this inner illumination works? The sun’s rays do not penetrate inside your body, and there are no electric bulbs to illuminate the space within. Inside of you it is dark. And yet, each time you turn your eyes inward, light goes on and forms appear. The Kabbalists call this light the “light of creation” to differentiate it from the light of the sun. They say that God created with this light, but that it was too strong for the vessels that held it and so they shattered. (So,) Then He created the sun and stars‡ to channel the light so that we could be shielded from his naked light and not be destroyed. It is said that only Moses, the greatest of Biblical prophets, had a clear mirror reflecting the pure light of God. We are not Moses, but our work is God creates light on the first day, but the sun, moon and stars only on the fourth day. Kabbalists call the light of the first day the light of creation to slowly acclimatize our eyes to the true light. We start with one sixtieth of this light, the light that we create, like God, by looking into the darkness. Think of it: Each time you turn your eyes inward, you create more light. Of course, unless you consciously pay attention to its appearance, that light won’t stay. If, on the contrary, you make turning inward a conscious practice, the more you look in and create light, the more light coalesces within you. I am talking of a very practical concrete technology of creating light and becoming in effect ‘enlightened.’ Dreaming is not only one of the great paths to enlightenment, it is your path to manifestation. God looks into the chaos and creates light, and out of this light, forms emerge.”
Catherine also tells us about a cultural Dream Field, a national Dream Field, and a universal Dream Field. Carl Jung called our universal Dream Field the “collective unconscious”. “Others have called it the Akashic records. All these different dream fields are interacting networks of experience, cauldrons of images that make us who and how we are. Your subconscious is a container, impressed by the experiences it is filled with. It has no power to change those impressions. Because it is part of your subconscious, your body cannot change itself unless you consciously look into your body and allow it to show you its dreaming. Your experiencing body interacting with your conscious looking is your dreaming. Not all dreams are the same. Some dreams are clues to the next part of your life’s journey. Other dreams fall straight into the source, and like the hero Perceval, you are given a glimpse of the treasure. But, like him, you may not be able to grasp it. We will examine what the different kinds of dreams are in the next chapter, and how they fit into a rising ladder of dreaming that leads to enlightenment. First, we must accustom ourselves to recognizing the storyline, the pattern, and the main question of the dream. If we succeed, the golden fish or secret treasure will jump. This is what is called revelation. Revelation brings greater clarity and power. The dreamer will be shown what the next step is.”
Catherine has created something called Saphire Imagery. Catherine tells us, “Your night dreams and daytime visions are the result of these two activities- the first activity— storage—happens subconsciously, without your active participation. The second—induction—requires a stirring of the subconscious soup. An unexpected jolt or shock may set off a dream or daytime vision. Or you may consciously induce a jolt to provoke a dream or vision.
There are two types of induction: the night induction that is called incubation, and the daytime induction that is specific to Saphire, the ancient Kabbalistic lineage I belong to.
Let us first look at the narrower definition of incubation, as it was practiced in classical Greece, and later across the ancient Mediterranean world. Most of the examples of dream incubation that have come down to us are pleas for healing. Asclepius, son of Apollo, was the god of healing. His temples, called Asclepions, were dedicated to the practice of healing through dream therapy.
The pilgrimage, the sacrifice, the sleeping in a sacred place, are all steps that must be modified in a modern context. What do pilgrimage and sacrifice imply? A burning desire—a willingness to “sacrifice” your all—to get an answer. What do you want to know so urgently today, that you are willing to dedicate all your time, energy and resources to it? While most examples we have from the ancient world were requests for healing dreams, your questions can be more far reaching. A modern day example of a priest-interpreter of dreams is Edgar Cayce, with the difference being that he did the dreaming for his patients, using dream incubation to read his patients’ bodies, and then suggested a remedy.”
Catherine shares with us how she found her spiritual teacher in the Middle East and the coincidence discovered later on that her teacher actually knew her mother and aunt from childhood at a school in Algeria. Catherine writes, “I describe my meeting with Colette Aboulker-Muscat, who was to become my Kabbalah teacher and spiritual mother, in my first book, Kabbalah and the Power of Dreaming. A year after meeting Colette, my aunt came to visit. I took her to meet Colette, and to my amazement, the two ladies fell into each other’s arms. They had gone to the same school in Oran, Algeria, where they grew up, as had my mother. My mother at the same school as Colette? In fact, she lived across the street from her! The voice had led me across the seas and all the way to the door of a lady who, while definitely not accessible to my conscious mind, was known to my subconscious mind. How was that possible? I will tell you more about how this amazing story unfolds in the chapter on ancestry. You will find out how my all-knowing subconscious spanned eight hundred years to link my present incarnation to Colette’s ancestors.
Who was Colette? To me she was one of the great loves of my life, my teacher, my spiritual mother, my home. When I was first introduced to her, I had no idea that she was a teacher. She sat me in front of her, looked me in the eyes and said, “What do you want?” To my utter surprise, unrehearsed and unexpected words came out of my mouth, “I want you to teach me how images move and transform people.” This is what I had been pondering since childhood. She smiled and said, “I have waited for you a long time!” Colette was one of the most notable female Kabbalists living in the land of Israel at the time. To the many who came from all over the world seeking consolation and enlightenment she was a revered spiritual teacher. For those of you who wonder about a woman teaching Kabbalah, it is true that Ashkenazi rabbis* required those studying Kabbalah to be men, over forty-years-old, and married. No women were allowed to plunge the depths. But Colette was from a Sephardic family and so no such restrictions applied. Her grandmother had been a famous teacher to the rabbis Ashkenazis were originally Jewish settlers in northern and eastern Europe.”
Sheryl says there really are no coincidences and nothing is random. It was in Catherine’s life plan or destiny to meet this spiritual teacher at the right time in her development. Perhaps the connection to her mother and aunt made her realize that indeed it was a divine plan at work for her empowerment.
Catherine goes on to write “Today an Ashkenazi is one who follows Ashkenazi practices and customs. The rules for teaching Kabbalah have been loosened and there are contemporary rabbis (even orthodox ones) who teach Kabbalah to women and people under forty. Jews living around the Mediterranean sea and Jewish community in Algiers. Her granddaughter was simply following in her footsteps. Colette was the last lineage holder of her family’s ancient Kabbalistic tradition, a tradition that dated back to the thirteenth century, but was said to go back to the patriarchs and prophets who roamed the land during biblical times. Colette restored my joy and trust in the power of dreaming to lead me to myself. Who was I? I was going to find out, and the truth was grander and more magnificent than I had ever dared hope for. I was going to find out that dreaming is a royal road to enlightenment, and that our subconscious holds the key to our true meaning and destiny.”
In The Kabbalah of Life, Catherine shares guided imagery exercises that you can practice on your own. Exercises called “formal” build new habits. They are practiced differently, depending on your gender and age. If you desire to continue a formal practice, vary the exercises. Practicing a different formal exercise each cycle can help your subconscious catch onto the rhythm and incorporate the images.
Breathing is an important aspect of formal exercises. Three exhalations are needed to reach the depth of the subconscious. Most of the exercises are very short and give you thirty seconds to a minute or two to look through the metaphoric window into the subconscious created by the words of the induction. When you go fast you have no time to indulge in fantasy. Breathe out, look through the window, see what you see, and open your eyes.
Here is a practice or exercise that can help you find answer to any question.
“Exercise 10 The Question Banner: Close your eyes. Breathe out slowly three times, counting from three to one. See the one tall, clear, and bright. Gather all the different strands of your question into your hands and roll the strands up into a ball. See the color of the ball. Breathe out. Throw the ball into the sky. Watch it disappearing into the blue sky. Breathe out. On its return, see the ball unfurling like a banner over your head. What color is the banner? What image or words appear on the banner? Breathe out. Open your eyes. If the question does not call for yes or no, try asking for a dream to narrow down the issues for you. You could use this formula: what is the advice of my dreaming on the true question concerning my issue? Your question is the arrow that stirs the subconscious soup and jolts it to respond. “
“This work helps us know that “The unconscious has no hypotheses; it is a cauldron of “swirling experiences.” Tap into it, and up pops a dream image. The unconscious deals only in revelation, and revelation, being an experience, is, by definition, true. If I turn a corner and am suddenly faced with a blazing sunset over the ocean, my heart moves not to the “fact” of the sunset, but to the wondrous experience. The conscious mind deals in facts, the unconscious deals in truth.” Catherine goes on to define the conscious and unconscious mind.
“The conscious mind is naturally antagonistic to the unconscious. It prides itself on its precise observation and objectivity. It likes to separate, analyze, categorize. It uses its powerful logical thrust to establish scientific proof of things that it calls “facts.”
The unconscious has no hypotheses, it is a cauldron of swirling experiences. Tap into it, and up pops a dream image. The unconscious deals only in revelation, and revelation, being an experience, is, by definition, true. You may not mentally understand your image, but the powerful experience energizes and enlivens you. Now you are furiously writing, and your ideas are unexpected and fresh. The Hebrew Bible tells us that on the seventh day, God stopped creating in order to la’asot, to make.1 In other words, stir the pot, but then stop to let the food cook to perfection. When you stop agonizing over your report—through sleep, rest, or simply entering into an empty state of mind—your creative magma can coalesce, and it will manifest one aspect of you, the leopard springing to the task. “The soul never thinks without an image,” says Aristotle, and your leopard proves his point.”
Catherine tells us if we want to means to get to the truth of what you really want, you will tap into the unconscious. The unconscious makes up 95% of our brains activity; a “fact” verified by experimental psychologists and researchers. Our carefully analyzed and agonized choices are mostly decided by the unconscious. Our creative innovations rise up, fully formed from the unconscious, and yet most of us have no clue how to access this great power. Unlike the conscious mind, the unconscious cannot be worked out, analyzed, or pinned down, it can only be received. It will come in whatever form it chooses.
Kabbalah, which means receiving, is the science of letting the unconscious speak. To learn who you are, to discover your hidden motivations, and to speak to your body and cells, you will have to leave behind what you perceive as the safe shores of the conscious mind. When Sigmund Freud coined the words “unconscious mind,” he may not have realized that the concept of a vast unconscious part of ourselves, submerged like an iceberg beneath the surface of what we commonly call the conscious mind, has existed since time immemorial. The ancients were well aware of an unconscious realm populated by dangerous or godlike characters, fierce animals, hybrids of all sorts, and mind-boggling obstacles. What Freud understood as the unconscious mind was a store of memories, repressed emotions, and other mental complexes that remained trapped in a no-man’s-land and could negatively affect our everyday life and behavior. He believed that these repressed emotions and memories should be brought to conscious awareness in order to be cured. He interchangeably used both terms “unconscious” and “subconscious,” until he finally settled for the word unconscious. Today psychologists are still debating the differences between the two, but the word subconscious is rarely used. The preferred term is “unconscious” for all of our “other than conscious processes.”
Catherine writes, “Will you find the light? Yes, you will. This is a tried and true path to enlightenment, based on the knowledge of thousands of years of studying the plunge, and verified by many initiates’ successes in attaining light and what Jewish sages call dveikut, the cleaving of the self to the divine. This Kabbalah of dreaming is also called the Kabbalah of light or Saphire. Saphire is unique among other forms of Kabbalah, in that it limits its practice to the imagination and visualizations to access higher levels of consciousness. Whereas other schools use letters and chanting or mediations on the void, Saphire only works with dreams, day visions, waking dreams and guided imagery exercises to climb the ladder to dveikut. While the practice incorporates Jewish concepts, you do not need to be a Kabbalist, or even Jewish to do this practice, everyone dreams. “
In the practice of plunging, methodologies have varied slightly. Shamans put more of an emphasis on rituals, or chanting. In their mystery rituals, the Greeks liked to embody their gods’ myths, employing theatrical illusions, and rituals. Tibetan Buddhists use very rigorous and specific forms of visualizations of the Buddhas. The Sufis still practice the movements of the dhikr dance to induce mystical visions and heart-to-heart devotion to the teacher, representative on Earth of the perfect man. Jewish, Sufi, and Christian saints and mystics all over the world, throughout time, have plunged into waking dreams to imagine their emotional connection to world alignment. The Kabbalists, like other secrets of light, use visualizations, chanting, movements, and permutations of letters to bring Heaven on Earth.
In the Kabbalah of Light Catherine provides a step by step guide helping readers to tap into their subconscious to activate powers of manifestation and creativity using a practice passed down over eight centuries. The book and Shainberg’s method, the Saphire Imagery is based on the first Kabbalah of Light originated by Rabbi Issac the Blind of Posqjierres, France (1160-1235).
Now, Shainberg’s book draws on this ancient work to help readers discover their path to transformation. The Kabbalah of Light includes 159 short experimental exercise and practices to begin dialoguing with the subconscious through images. Beginning this productive dialogue with our inner world leads us to uncover our soul’s purpose and manifest our dreams in the outer world. Fast and simple, the practices can help readers discover their areas of “stuckness”- releasing past traumas and ancestral patterns, free the imagination, and open the way to the bliss promised by ancient traditions.
We thank Catherine Shainberg author of The Kabbalah of Light for a complete and detailed book of becoming aware of the light “within” or the unconscious mind and connections to layers of life that inform, encourage, and guide us to illuminate the soul and live lives of manifesting which is meaningful and purposeful.
In summarizing today’s episode of Healing From Within Catherine Shainberg begins a productive dialogue that can help readers tap into the inner world of energy and light to uncover our soul’s purpose and manifest our dreams in the physical outer world of our human pursuits.
Catherine writes, “The sign of a creative mind is the leap, the ability to find unexpected links between apparently disparate elements. “There is nothing new under the sun,” says Solomon, the wisest of men. But we can play with all the forms we do have. There is an inexhaustible cornucopia of possible new configurations. We often hear that many people can reason, but few are creative. Is that true? Creativity can be activated. The ability to know is a gift all men and women have been endowed with, but most adults have lost. As children we all have it—we play, we invent, full of joy and vivaciousness—until we are reined in by linear thinking. Now, as adults, how can we recover our lost joy? How do we open the floodgates of creativity? “The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge, but imagination,” says Einstein, and he should know. He saw himself riding a beam of light when he was a child. His insight was the impetus that led to the theory of relativity. Like Einstein, we do not have to go to sleep to access our creative subconscious. Many people have had sudden flashes of insight, but what brought them on? Is there another way to incubate, one that doesn’t require falling asleep?”
Catherine and Sheryl would have you rediscover the wisdom of your childhood and the dreams and creation of love beauty, kindness and hope, that allowed you to travel, view, touch, and see the world of physical beauty as well as the inner soul world of eternal infinite possibilities. By quieting our physical senses then dreaming, meditating, praying, listening to quiet music, takes us within to the world of silence, knowingness and to the creative forces of Life.
I am Sheryl Glick RMT Reiki Master Energy Teacher and author of the newest book in a trilogy, A New Life Awaits:Spirit Guided Insights to Support Global Awakening and invite you to visit my website www.sherylglick.com to read about and listen to my guests authors metaphysicians scientists spiritualists medical professional energy workers and those in the arts and music fields who search heaven and earth to know more about life here and beyond. Shows may also be heard on www.webtalkradio.net and www.dreamvisions7radio.com.
