The Inner Work of the Merkava
There are times in life where there is a conflict between what you WANT to do and what you feel you HAVE to be doing. This conflict is represented in the ancient Hebraic Kabbalistic Shamanic way as the conflict between the two sacred power animals of the Merkava (the holy chariot) — the Lion who guards the South and the Ox that guards the North.
The lion is the king, the one who will not be told what to do. The ox on the other hand is the one who takes the burden, carries the yoke, and plows the field, walking in the rut. A lion will never do so…
The only way to create peace between the lion and the ox is by finding your vision. Your vision is symbolized as the eagle, which rises high from the East, spreads wings to both sides, and sees the world from a higher perspective.
It is very simple: there is a conflict between what you have to do and what you need to do ONLY when you are working for someone else and not for your own vision. When you have a vision, a real vision, then you WANT to plow the field… and your lion will not be lazy or wild but will be on the mission together with your ox.
If you have a conflict — go inside and check if you lost your vision and you are working for someone else’s will. Your lion is a king and would not be enslaved this way.
When you work for your own vision, your ox will put all the power of discipline to what you want to do, because guess what: What you want to do IS what you need to do!
When we walk forward we always leave things behind our back. These are issues we leave in the shadows, out of our awareness. Love and sacred union of our inner masculine and feminine powers are the cure for those aspects of ourselves that we tend to leave behind when we move forward, whether we move forward with great vision or because we just do what we think we need to be doing, it doesn’t matter — there are always some neglected parts that are left behind. The way to heal those is by being simply human. Being human… accepting our shadows, the darkness where the sun sets down, the deep emotions of the West where for the ancient Hebrews the sea was located, with its unexplored abyss.
Finding our vision (eagle) and healing our shadows (human) are the two most important aspects of our inner work, so we can be a holy chariot — a Merkava — for the heart of the universe to be present and alive through us.
Ohad Pele / September, 2019
