I am convinced that I was a scribe of the Torah in a past life.

Since I was a boy in high school, I have been a perfectionist when it came to writing things down. Whether this was class notes, letters, or reports everything had to be perfect and I really did not like to use white out. I wrote and rewrote everything until it was just right. Yeah, I know a little obsessive compulsive. At this point, I am sure you are wondering what this has to do with being a scribe of the Torah. Well, the scribes of the Torah had to write everything down to perfection. This was an extremely tedious task that took 1-3 years to complete. Every single spot, every single letter, every single nuance had to be precise and perfect. If it was not, then the scroll was considered invalid, and had to be rewritten. Could you imagine, getting halfway through a scroll and have to throw it out and start all over again because of a tiny little error? No correction tape, no spell check, no word processing programs to fix it! Crazy to think about isn t it? In the portion of Pinchas, there is an exception to this rule. There is a cracked letter in the Torah scroll, and it is the only place in the whole Torah where this occurs. What would be the purpose for this? The secret lies within one of the Major Arcana cards of the Tarot! But, as always you will have to wait The Astrology: I don t know about you, but after a month and a half of nonstop aspects including 3 eclipses, I am sighing with relief with the lack of astrological aspects. We all need a cosmic break! This week we have only two astrological aspects (although there is a Full Moon in Capricorn this week, which puts the focuses on business affairs and the public eye) Mercury sextile Mars and Venus square Saturn. On Monday, Mercury in Leo will sextile Mars in Gemini. This is a great aspect if you need to communicate ideas, write, or for sales activities. Our ability to observe the obvious is at an alltime high at this time. Mars gives Mercury the ability to convince anybody of anything, and the tenacity to get the job done. Under a hard aspect, (square or opposition) Mars revving up Mercury could lead to knee jerk reactions to outer stimuli; however with this being a sextile there is minimal amounts of friction creating obstacles to derail our goals. Take advantage of this energy while it is available, because Mercury will go into its shadow cycle later in the week. This leads us to Wednesday when Venus in Cancer squares Saturn in Libra. In my experience as an astrologer this is one of the most difficult aspects especially for those that are more emotionally sensitive to the outer world. Venus is our ability to relate and enjoy our connections with others. When Venus becomes afflicted by Saturn, Saturn exposes Venus emotional vulnerability and we often close down emotionally. In many cases, we begin to

isolate and disengage from our social circles. It is necessary when Venus is square Saturn for us to develop self-confidence and a feeling of personal self-worth. This will allow us to build our current relationships with more reliable structure. Your Cosmic Weather Forecast: Now back to the fun stuff! The reason I do the Cosmic Weather Forecast is because there are 52 different energies that are allocated to the 52 weeks of the year. This week the energy is called Pinchas , which is the name of the central figure of this week s story in theTorah. The primary kabbalistic message in the story involves the power of healing, and is one of the most significant kabbalistic portions of the year. Healing is such a tricky word. How many times have you seen people in your life who are just fine, they go for a random checkup and then they find out they have some illness, and they go downhill from there? It is amazing what happens to the mind once it believes something to be true. As I mentioned earlier, there is an interesting occurrence that happens in this portion that does not occur elsewhere in the Torah. There is a crack in one of the letters (in the word SHALOM) that normally would invalidate the scroll. However, in Pinchas the crack is put in purposely. The letter in Hebrew is called VAV, which means nail . All of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet have a corresponding Major Arcana energy attached to them. In this case, the letter VAV corresponds with the controversial Hierophant. According to Kabbalah, everything originates at a seed (thought) level. It begins in the upper worlds (thoughts) of Kether and travels down the tree to physical manifestation in Malchut. The Rav states that the cracked letter VAV leaves enough space for us to go back and heal any form of illness at the seed level. In essence, it provides us an opportunity for correction. So, what does this have to do with the Hierophant? In most books written about the Tarot, the Hierophant in some manner has to do with beliefs. Whether it is religious beliefs, dogma, or the institution of religion the word belief is hovering around this card like a bee around a beehive. C.C. Zain in his book The Sacred Tarot (Church of Light Press) simply refers to the Hierophant as meaning religion or law. For many, the fundamental issue of belief involves their spiritual or religious ideologies, which is why the Hierophant in modern new age circles brings forth feelings of the dogmatic institution of the Catholic Church and fundamental Christianity. These feelings many are repulsed by due to the vast amount of repression that has been inflicted on many by the Church.

If we take the Hierophant to be connected to the letter VAV, then we must also consider that the Hierophant itself (this week) has a crack in it. What does this mean? It means that we are granted the energy to change how we believe and how we think, and begin the process of reversing any damage that has occurred as a result of our belief system. This healing is all healing whether it is mental, spiritual, physical or emotional. Take some time out this week to truly think about what you believe. Do you find that your beliefs limit you? Do you find that you re too rigid in your thinking? Do you find that you believe things simply because others believe it? Further, what does the Hierophant mean to you? By exploring our inner ideologies and expanding our beliefs we activate the true power of healing. Tarot Tune-up: Pull your Hierophant card out of the deck. Shuffle the deck and ask yourself the following questions. What can I do to bring forth mental healing? What can I do to bring forth emotional healing? What can I do to bring forth spiritual healing? What can I do to bring forth physical healing. Lay down the cards in front of you. Pick up your Hierophant card and look at it for a few minutes. Get the image of the card implanted in your mind. Now, close your eyes and ask the Hierophant if he has any further information that can help you with your healing. Write down what he tells you on a sheet of paper. Let me know what you learned!