One of my favorite meditations

A class I taught yesterday at the Center for Relaxation and Healing in Plainsboro, NJ, centered on one of my favorite meditations to share with people.  It is from the Kabbalistic tradition and is 200 years old.  

My first exposure to this particular meditation came 15 years ago.  Rabbi David Cooper included it in his book, God is a Verb:  Kabbalah and the Practice of Mystical Judaism.  I encountered it again perhaps seven years ago when Rabbi Laibl Wolf, a fellow Australian, was teaching a class in Yardley, PA.

The meditation is named the Archangel meditation and is attributed to Rabbi Nachman of Breslov.  It is a practice that brings comfort and peace to those who work with it. 

Archangels represent attributes or qualities of Divinity.  They have no will of their own and exist to carry out God's instructions.  According to Kabbalistic thought, when a human calls upon an angel, that angel (attribute) must appear. 

The process of the meditation is to call upon the four primary Archangels one at a time.  So we place the qualites of loving-kindness, strength, healing and Divine light around us. The last step is to allow ourselves to be surrounded by Divine femine presence. 

The people with whom I share this meditation often report vivid experiences.  This practice is not passive and yet we have the sense of being held in deep peace and nurturance.

The task of preparing material for the class brought delight and fascination as I delved more deeply into the background of the meditation than I had before.  My knowledge was expanded and I believe this translated into a more rich experience for my students who were certainly enthusiastic in their feedback after the class.

Now to prepare more classes.