By Parashakti Alsultany on April 21, 2009

Walking in the Footsteps of our Ancestors

It is a hot summer day, eleven years ago. I am a twenty-three year old Israeli woman who, along with other seekers, is on a trek into the Judean desert, south of Jerusalem. Our guide, a thin bearded man with intense, burning, blue eyes, is a Haredi, a “trembler” — the Hebrew word for an ultra-Orthodox Jew – and a Hasid, one immersed in the mystical traditions of Judaism. Within the Hasidic world, spiritual leadership was traditionally transmitted from generation to generation, from fathers to sons. Our guide’s own great grandfather was a Rebbe, a Hasidic Rabbi, and the son of a Rebbe, spiritual teachers and leaders of their community in Jerusalem.

We are filled with eager yearning to hear the profound silence around us as a higher calling for each of us. Our guide shares with us that he wandered the deserts of Israel for many years, until he heard the revelation of his own true path; until he heard the voice of God. The revelation led him to give up his life as a writer, actor, husband and father and to dedicate himself to the study of the Torah. And he knew, too, that he wanted to help others find their way to holiness by going deep into the Israeli desert – as countless generations of spiritually serious people have done from many of the world’s great religious traditions.

As our guide told us his story, we all felt both humbled and awed, for we all felt we too were seeking to be taken by the hand of the Holy and led into divine light.

Where does that search begin? In the womb? Is it a Call, a Vision, a Quest, a Mission inscribed in our being before we’re ever born? The Babylonian Talmud tells us that before we are born an angel teaches us all the wonders and secrets of the universe, and then, as we tumble into life, the angel touches us just above our lips – in that indent we all have – and we forget everything. Perhaps that is why we are all born with a longing, a dream, the sense that we have a path, a mission, we need to fulfill. For some of us that path is clear early in life; for others, it remains elusive for many years.

And finding that path can be such a scary process. We have so many defenses and fears to give up! On the other hand, perhaps if our individual truths, the bumps of the journey we have to walk, became known to us too early, we would never build the strength of character, never discover the emotional wisdom, never become the “heroes” we need to become to fulfill our destiny in life.

In fact, we who were so eager to discover the magic wand that would transform our lives were only in our twenties; when our guide was still wandering the desert in search of his destiny he was already forty years old.

I watched intently as our guide, like a shaman, skillfully drew on the forces of nature to help awaken the spiritual energy within each of the pilgrims. And the experience not only touched me deeply, but helped me to grasp a truth about myself. This is your lineage, said the voice within me. Understand it. Begin to dis-cover yourself.

For our guide on that desert journey was my father, Yisrael. And I realized that, just as Hasidic dynasties were passed from father to son, so this dedication to the spiritual life was passed from my father to me. My 94-year-old grandmother, Savta Ida, told me that my life task, serving as a vehicle of spiritual energy, chose me when I was just four years old and offered to lay my hands on my Zaydie, my grandfather, to relieve him of his pain and worries.

If my dedication to a spiritual path is in my very genes, my expression of it has been very much my own: as a little girl in a pink tutu, I danced freely, joyously, even ecstatically, as if I were in tune with living energies in our universe. I believe deeply that when the body dances freely it generates a sacred medicine never to be lost, an energy in tune with the natural world and able to open us to new visions. Over the years, I came to dedicate myself to the Dance of Body and Spirit as a way to discover one’s inner truth, just as my father dedicated himself to journeying with Torah into the desert.

I follow the call of the Spirit Dance with a deep knowing and a deep sense of trust that it is my task in this world to guide others into its embrace. I believe that it opens us up to dreaming big, to walking in the footsteps of our true calling, to listening to our inner Liberator, the child within that will show us as our deepest fears, the very ones that can turn into our greatest teachers. Yes, I am my father’s daughter. Today, more than eleven years after that desert trip, I am leading “Dance of Liberation”/TranceDances all over the world, and I am guiding men and women into the rich world of their own spiritual potential.

Join us for in 2010:
A Spiritual Pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Israel. Guided by Parashakti, Zohar Zemach Wilson, Tamar Adi from the Chandra Yoga Center and with guest teachers, Rabbis, Shamans, and other religious cultures and backgrounds. April 5-20. A great opportunity to experience the land, community, culture of Israel and discover our authentic walk. If this adventure interests you, please write a letter of Intent to Liberation@parashakti.org

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