Jewish Wheel of the Year Guides

Explore the Jewish Wheel of the Year – Free for 5771

Month-by-month the wheel of the year turns, and Judaism has a rich tradition of honoring the wheel of the year. Each month , as the wheel turns, we honor the new month with the holiday of Rosh Chodesh. It is a time to release the old month and prepare for the new.

Each month you will be emailed a guide to the Jewish month, from an Earth-based Magickal perspective, which includes key dates, themes, Torah readings, rituals and activities, and more. Details on the contents of the monthly guides are below.

Also included in your annual subscription is the ritual framework for my monthly Rosh Chodesh ritual and one private consultation to help you it adapt it for your own needs, if requested. I’ll also host a conference call or chat each year so all the subscribers can discuss their experiences with each other.

To get the most out of your subscription, I also recommend using Seasons of our Joy by Rabbi Arthur Waskow as primer to the Jewish wheel of the year.

Refund Policy: You may cancel your subscription within 10 days after receipt of your first Rosh Chodesh Guide, for a full refund. You may cancel the remainder at any time, but no refund will be issued.

Details of Rosh Chodesh Guides

1. Basics
2. Readings
3. Important Dates
4. Rituals & Activities
5. Learn More

1. Basics

The basics section covers includes several key points:

• Insights:  All of the “basics” on their own may provide information, but not knowledge.  Along with the “stats,” there is also an essay intended to try and draw insights from all of this information.   The essay utilizes many of the basics and the monthly Torah portions and weaves a picture of the month.
• Linear Month and Torah Month: The month in linear time begins the calendar with Rosh Hashanah as the first month of the year. The Torah has a different order of the months than the modern Jewish calendar. In the Torah, the month of Nisan is the first month of the year. We look at both to see the circle within a circle of Jewish time. The Torah months more closely follow the natural cycles, but it is important explore how both affect the ways with which we interact with the world.
• Netivah: The Netivot (plural Netivah) are the pathways of Shekhinah according the Kohenet theology. I include this so we may explore how the faces of Divine Feminine appear to us in each month. For more on Kohenet or the Netivot, see www.kohenet.org.
• Holidays: Simply a listing of the holidays both large and small that occur each month.
• Offerings: This is directly tied to ritual framework. Each month can have unique herbs, foods, and other items that are tonally synced with the theme of the month. I include offerings as they were part of Hebraic ritual for thousands of years. In ancient times, they would have primarily been animal sacrifices or food offerings. When the temple fell, physical offerings were no longer considered to be possible and prayer offerings replaced them. As a practitioner of an “embodied” Judaism, I look to reclaim this practice. If you have never explored a practice of physical offerings, I hope this helps you to find a new way to connect to your ancestors and the Divine. Offerings, depending on the materials, can be ingested, left on altars, buried, burnt or thrown in a living body of water. Actually, offerings can also be used in a combination of ways. In the Temple, no sacrifice was allowed to sit over night. The priests had to consume it before sunrise. While in the ritual I tend to use a standard set of offerings, olive oil and wheat, I also encourage you to explore how you can connect more personal items to this practice and the ritual.
• Constellation: Yes, there is a Jewish astrology. The signs are the same as the ones you know, but the names and symbolism are different. Each month the mazal (star) sign will be included, for your reference.
• Letter:  Each month has a specific letter of the Aleph-bet associated with it with a mystical meaning.
• Tarot Card: While not inherently Jewish, Tarot can be a useful tool for personal exploration and development, and it is derived from Kabbalah.  Each letter of a month is also associated to a Tarot card.
• Tribe: The months are associated with one of the twelve tribes of Israel.

2. Readings

• Torah Readings: Your Rosh Chodesh Guide will include the weekly “Parshat” and a very brief description of the primary theme of each. The intent is to allow you to see what the Torah considers to be the themes of the month, as well a quick reference for each Shabbat.
• Netivah Reading: As part of including the Shekhinah (Divine Presence) in our monthly study and awareness I am including a Netivah related reading from the scriptures, as well as a kavanah, spiritual intent, to consider while reading it. For more on the Netivot see www.kohenet.org.

3. Important Dates
Key dates in Jewish history for the month.

4. Rituals and Activities
Brief and/or in-depth ideas for how to prepare for Rosh Chodesh and explore the themes of the month.

5. Learn More
Each month a list of key resources will be included so you can learn more about:

• The Month
• The Netivot
• Jewish Astrology
• Holidays and Customs
• and More!

Resources will include a variety of sources including websites, books, and magazines. The resources will range from Earth-based Judaism (www.telshemesh.org ) and kabbalistic perspectives (www.inner.org ) to traditional Orthodox resources (www.ou.org ). This way you are sure to see a variety of different view points and be able to develop a well-rounded perspective for each month.

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