Week of the Hermit

It's Friday, and the time of The Hermit has arrived. Now we go deep within, directly through the shadow realms, and we thread them onto our golden path like a bead on a string. Indeed, by developing concentration and fortitude, our very terrors become our treasures. It is time, embark, lamp-carrier, embark.

There is a story told of a man who vanished into the wilderness after a tragedy that took his family. His name was Elzeard Bouffier. For decades he lived in such a way as to go unseen by others, but in this living, daily, he planted trees. Elzeard Bouffier planted trees in the wasteland, day after day for decades. He kept sheep, then bees, and he took care to foster and cultivate varieties whose needs would intersect. He was a permaculturist, before there was a name for it. For forty years he did this - and eventually retreated into silence, while all around him a magnificent forest grew - a miraculous forest that appeared to spring from now here, and brought a tremendous blessing to the barren space which it redeemed.

Your mission is to begin to plant your trees. Now here. This need not be literal, of course, but consider what it means. Little actions without a selfish purpose - taken in the moment to create a habitus of cultivating beauty. For the ages. This is tikkun. A spark rescued is a seed planted.

Go forth and bring secret blessings to our world. Today, today, today. Ohm Hah!