Cinderella, Rosh Hashanah, and One Headlight.

The seed level for miracles.

Dear Diary,

When I was studying at the Kabbalah Centre in New York City from 2008 to 2012, I learned about and participated in the jewish holidays. When I left the Centre, I took these precious jewels of wisdom with me.

During the Jewish New Year, we took stock of the past year in deep reflection and prayed for a sweet year ahead. When the shofar (the ram's horn) was blown, it was like the wailing of our souls to invite God closer. There was an elaborate ritual steeped in ancient biblical stories and traditions.

When I wrote Rosh Hashanah as 'holiday of miracles' I was forgetting that this was an actual nickname for other Jewish holidays, such as Chanukah, and sometimes Purim. But for me, Rosh Hashanah remains in the category of a miraculous time of the year because the "head of the year" (the "rosh ha-shanah") is when we set the intention to let go and renew our minds so miracles can form in this world. To submit to the awe inspiring power of God.

“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.” - Isaiah 43:18-19

And Cinderella is an amazingly spiritual archetype. Like most fairytales and fables, the characters represent parts of our psyches that we share across the collective unconscious.

Cinderella embodies the essence of the pure heart. She has the essence of God within her. All of her actions come from a place of love and healing as she has a profound awareness of truth and faith. This is the secret as to how and why miracles come into her life within this story. She is an example of maintaining a closeness with God, with Love, no matter the circumstances.

It's hard to be a Cinderella "in this world of ugliness and greed," as the lyrics by Jakob Dylan describe. My interpretation of this beautifully sad and poetic song by The Wallflowers is a metaphoric illustration of what life is like without that closeness with God.

The song starts off at the cemetery. He's remembering his friend, his Cinderella - a symbol of optimism and love - who died long ago of "a broken heart disease.” 

I think the shadow side of the Cinderella archetype believes too much in the physical world, this temporal world, where you can "try a little" and "nothing is forever" and where you always end up somewhere "in the middle" - living a sort of liminal existence that feels comfortable, familiar, orderly, structured, but ultimately unfulfilling. Because to only know this physical world without the spiritual is like driving a car with one headlight. Only half of the road is illuminated. The spiritual path is unseen.

And the true essence of the Cinderella archetype is to feel love and faith against all odds - no matter the ugliness and greed - to let go and completely free fall into the arms of God. Free falling into God doesn't look rational or logical. It doesn't conform to the ways of the physical world. It rebels against the constructs in order to build faith. In God's world of love and healing - the everlasting spiritual side of existence - all things are ever-changing, always surprising, incalculable, and moving in blind faith. So it is the only place where miracles actually happen.

"Do not conform to the patterns of this world. Instead be transformed by the renewing of your mind" - Romans 12:2

In Jesus' name.

Amen.