Changing Fear to Gratefulness

Fear appears in layers. There is fear tied to lack of safety, when the fabric of order feels thin and unstable, and there is a higher trembling fear that comes only when one begins to see. In this time, with the COVID pandemic, uncertainty, and the collapse of familiar structures, fear rises strongly in human consciousness. Yet this moment of fear is not only something to hide from. It can also be understood as a soft calling, not yet a deluge, like the call in the Garden of Eden: Where are you? The last ten thousand years on earth, with their balance and opportunities, were like a garden entrusted to humanity, yet damaged in deep and obvious ways. The ecological crisis is only one sign of this condition. The deeper issue is the ecology of spirit and soul.

The descent of the light is exposing everything that was wrong in the way humanity arranged itself. Injustice, cruelty, lack of mutuality, and the rule of the will to receive for oneself are being revealed. If this is understood correctly, fear can turn into gratefulness, because something gracious and compassionate is allowing humanity to see what was hidden. Then comes trembling, like leather stretched over a tambourine. When struck, it gives sound. The measure of the stretch becomes the power of prayer. Before this, humanity was loose and unable to respond. Now the stretching creates the ability to answer. From that same tension comes joy. Binah comes to the aid of those who are frustrated enough to see what was wrong in themselves and in how they treated others.

Fear then becomes a different interpretation, a different seeing of what is happening. Even the deluge was not punishment but salvation, a clean slate for a new beginning. We stand again in the portion of Noah. To reform Noah means not to build an ark only for oneself and one’s family, but to ask for all humanity. The Creator is looking for those who pray for others, not only for themselves. Fear becomes a soundboard for prayer, asking that humanity reform itself and recognize that everything that comes is for its benefit. Trembling and joy, fear and gladness, are opposite qualities that can be joined.