Thursday, October 06, 2011

Tashlich - Wipe Your Slate Clean the Israelite way

The ten days between the Jewish New Year, Rosh HaShana and the day of Atonement, Yom Kippur is a powerful time. The new has been celebrated and ushered in with joy. The soul inventory of the Day of Atonement begins not on Yom Kippur itself, but in the in between time, through a sacred ritual called Tashlich.

Tashlich is a ceremony by which you cast your sins into the sea. The negativity gets washed away. You get to clean your slate and start all over again.

I am in my native Los Angeles, visiting my family for the holidays. This morning I will go with my mother to the beach and we will have our own Tashlich ceremony. You don't have to be Jewish to perform this ceremony. There is no right or wrong way to do it.

You can write whatever it is you are wanting to release, on a piece of paper, and tear it up. Go to the ocean, or to some body of water, and throw something symbolic into the water once you have determined to let it go. If you don't live by a body of water, take a glass of water, and sprinkle some drops outside, to represent throwing out whatever no longer serves you inside your beautiful soul.

When we cast off our heaviness, it allows for the brightness of our beauty to shine through. This is what I wish you for the New Year.

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