Eight Mystery Nights

o’ nobly born,
it's in the darkness that magic happens and creation occurs
who we each are is nothing filled with everything
nothing is the womb of creation
in the darkness is the hidden light

Eight Mystery Nights

First day, grey cloud sun white cloud mountain
Looking down into a dark valley
Speckled with Hanukah and Christmas lights.
Cold north wind blowing south
The wind is a messenger calling out:
"All instruments, come forward"

Second night, three lights burning.
The server light illumines the others and is not diminished
Go into the Tent of Meeting. How? Offer yourself up
And keep your eyes open for miracles
The everyday becomes miraculous

Third night. Four angels visiting.
The miracle of planning a future together
'Stead of "just goin' along"
Choose the life you want to have

Fourth night we're served wine while the candles are burning
Fifth night miracle: As the last light extinguishes
A great mystery becomes clear:
The Hanukah candle and the light in the fireplace
It's all the same light

Sixth night visions in the flames: the teacher's face
Becomes a black goddess with fire eyes
Leaping-mountain-fire-ram, the sixth day
A ram caught in the thicket are we

Seventh night, eight candles burning, including the shammos
The Illuminator, the remover of ignorance.
Eight is infinity.These are the mantras:

Seven years of plenty
The land produces in abundance
Lay open all that is within

New moon, new beginnings
Eighth night a palace of light. If I haven't told You already
Thanks for guiding us to kindle these lights of peace
Let's sound the cymbals, the loud-sounding symbols
The message: How to purify the sacred temple within
Simply re-dedicate our lives for everyone's benefit

With Your light, we see light. But You are not diminished. Look -
A bush is burning, but the leaves and branches

Are not consumed. Let's check this out ...

* * *

When I first approached my teacher, he was seated on a carpet
A flower arrangement and a bowl of fruit beside him
I went forward to offer a tape cassette I'd made
My knees buckled; I fell headfirst before him, Abrech
One is simply moved to kneel
We celebrate the light and the dark for without the dark
We cannot discern the light

I lit two menorahs and two Sabbath candles
Twenty angels in the living room
Twenty-seven Buddhas in the flower blossoms
The serving candle is now a small red coal

There beside the menorah and the flowers is his photo
He’s sitting beside a tiger
His hand gently resting on the tiger's paw
Once he put his hand on mine the same way

Smoke shoots up; spirit flying free. Even in the dark it's visible
The Server returns to the all

My teacher is gone like the shammos
His light is in me now and he is not diminished