One of the things the kabbalists teach us about this month, the month of Shevat, or Aquarius, goes back to the Torah, where it says that on the first day of the eleventh month, the month of Aquarius, is when Moses began revealing the secrets that we call the wisdom of Kabbalah, the secrets of this universe. Therefore, there is an important awakening and connection to the secrets of this wisdom in this month.
Why is it important to continue to always delve deeper in our understanding, in our study? The kabbalists teach that if you are not pushing yourself constantly to gain a greater understanding - both of yourself in a deeper way, and also of this world and how it began and how it exists - then you will not be able to completely connect to the Light of the Creator, and as such, will not be able to completely receive the blessings that are meant to come to you.
The Zohar, to explain this point, tells the story of a man who lived by himself on the top of a mountain. He sustained himself by eating kernels from the wheat that he grew. One day, he decided to go down into the village at the foot of the mountain. He walked by one house and saw people sitting there eating bread, so he knocked on their door and they invited him in. He asked if he could taste their food, and after they gave him a piece of bread, he said, “Wow, this is really good! How do you make this?” They told him, “We take wheat and grind it down and make it into flour; we add water, bake it, and we create bread.” Then he went to the next house and saw people eating cake, and again, invited himself in. After he tasted their cake, he said again, “Wow, this is really good! How do you make this?” They explained to him, “We take wheat, grind it down and make flour, then we add honey and sugar, and it makes cake.”
So, he went on, from house to house, tasting all kinds of bread, cakes, and cookies. At the end of his journey, he said to himself, “You know, I eat the kernel of the wheat... I eat what they all make the bread, cake, and cookies from. I have everything they have, I do not have to learn to make anything else.” And the Zohar says about him that he is a silly man, because he did not feel the need or desire to learn how to expand his kernels of wheat. He lived the rest of his life eating just the kernels, without ever again tasting bread, cookies, or cake.
The Zohar makes clear that if we are not consistently pushing ourselves to delve deeper into the wisdom, then we do not allow ourselves to connect to the Light and blessings we are capable of receiving. This is one of the opportunities that we have in this month; as it says in the Torah, Moses opened up the gates of secrets on the first day of Shevat.
This month is unique in its opportunity to reveal secrets about who we truly are, and secrets about how this world that we live in began, how it exists, and how we perfect it. But all of that, the purpose of our own perfection, the process of this world's perfection and betterment, can only happen through those who are pushing themselves consistently to deepen their study, their wisdom, and their understanding. We need to remember the silly man in the Zohar story, thinking, as all of us do to some extent, "I have enough information; I have enough wisdom.” While it is possible that, yes, we do have enough wisdom for our lives, we most likely do not have enough wisdom for the greater blessings that are meant to come to us. And the push to deepen our understanding is important, because only through the accessing of that deeper wisdom, that deeper understanding, can we access and receive the great Light that is available for us forever, but certainly in this month.
So, one of the gifts that we have in the month of Aquarius is to re-ignite our need to deepen our study of the wisdom. When you learn to drive a car when you are 16, for example, you never study again; you know how to drive your car, and probably, if you are a good enough driver, you can go for the rest of your life without deepening your understanding of driving technique. But it is not true with regards to our connection to the Light of the Creator and drawing the blessings and Light into our lives that we are meant to draw.
Without a constant deepening of our search for wisdom and understanding of ourselves and the world around us, we will not be able to receive the complete and total Light and blessings that we are meant to have in our lives. And that is one of the unique gifts that is available for us in this month; for those of us who truly desire to understand more and in deeper ways about ourselves and this world, those gates are open for us during Aquarius.
