Reciting the Canticle of Canticles or Song of Songs (שיר השירים – Shir HaShirim), the Bible’s great poem about the soul’s longing to return to its Source, and be whole again. Not only as achieved in death, but here, in life on this Earth. Our desire to be in perfect alignment, centered, in tune with our inner guidance, our highest inspiration, and deepest knowing.
Every night as we sleep, we reunite with our Source, and before we are fully awake, we try to clutch at the hem of its robe before it vanishes, leaving its slight traces in wisps of dreams.
These moments of grace, whether in the twilight of our consciousness, or in waking states of clarity and presence, when we receive the power and knowing of something greater than our self, but which is also our deepest, truest Self, are described in the language of the Song of Songs as the transcendent union between the Lover and the Beloved.
Similar metaphors can be found in Roman mythology – in the myth of Cupid and Psyche, and in its Greek predecessor – the myth of Eros and Psyche. The Greek word Psyche (ψυχή) means Soul. It’s where we get the term Psychology from. The word Eros means Desire, and it’s where we get the term Erotic from. Psyche and Eros – the Soul and its Yearning.
In his great spiritual poem, The Dark Night of the Soul, the Christian mystic Saint John of the Cross (San Juan de la Cruz) borrows a lot of the imagery of Lover and Beloved and other meaningful symbols, found in the Song of Songs. This utterance of the Soul’s deepest intimacy.
Many of the images appearing in the Song of Songs, this biblical verse, are sensual, verging on the erotic. The French call sexual climax La Petite Mort – the Little Death. The Talmud says Sleep is a taste of Death, and Dreams are a taste of prophecy (or clairvoyance). While Buddhism also makes parallels between sexual ecstasy, the soul’s journey at night, and its transition between the bardos of this life and the afterlife.
There is a story in the Mishnah describing the momentous debate that took place about whether or not to include the Song of Songs, with all its lush sensuousness, in the Holy Scripture. And the greatest rabbi of all time, Rabbi Akiva, declared: “All Scriptures are holy (קודש – Kodesh), and the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies, Sanctum Sanctorum, (קודש הקודשים – Kodesh HaKodshim)”
Triggers: starts soft-spoken turns to whisper, feather on foam windscreen, fluffy windscreen sounds, mic brushing, face brushing, face stroking.
