Tonight I will light 5 candles with my family. One for each night of Chanukah and an extra called the shamash. The shamash is the “helper” or the “servant”. It is placed in a slightly exalted position on the chanukia, it is the bringer of light, used expressly to ignite all the other candles.
I’ve thought a lot about what to say these past couple of days as the night’s get longer, light is harder to come by and the moments of interpersonal violence mount across the globe. I’ve thought about how the main hermetic tenet of my work, as above so below, applies. As the mill of empire tries to grind our souls down to dust through mass acts of systemic violence, the interpersonal moments of violence also escalate. It all seems so inevitable.
And yet. Ahmed al Ahmed.
One man, against a Goliath of misdirected rage. One father who acted like the whole world was his family. One helper, one servant, one light.
While I will be eternally moved by his act of solidarity, the fact that he (and we) are all put in the impossible position of doing what our leaders won’t, enrages me. The problems we face are not ones that one person can solve. The intentional Hunger Games that we are made to exist within, the extreme wealth versus the extreme deprivation - a system that spans the globe, is one where we are all set up to fail. And if we so happen to triumph against evil, it is against all odds, at our own peril and on our own dime.
And yet, here we are. Individually fundraising to get food and aid to Gaza after our tax dollars are used to bomb and starve and decimate our kin because our leaders see us as chess pieces for them to move around as they wish. And yet, here we are. Trying to figure out what is going on in Congo and Sudan and how we are implicated and how we can divest from the same system that brought us the phones we are on while learning about the harm they cause in the first place. And yet, even though all of this is so far beyond fair it has rendered any course of measurement corrupt, I can’t stop thinking about the size of the soul that would risk everything to single-handedly act to interrupt violence.
Many people ask me about what the astrology says about 2026 and this is my response: 2025 was a game-changing year. What happened in it will grow and become more fully entrenched in 2026 — and for the next decade and change. When I say this, I understand that most people will think of all the evil that has been unleashed upon the world, but it is not where I am looking. To me, the fascism was always inevitable. In a world where we don’t evenly distribute wealth, what else could have transpired?
What I am looking to, what I am thinking about, are the mass acts of resistance that we have witnessed, been a part of, and continue to organize. What I am thinking about is how the people with integrity are dazzlingly bright against the dull depravity of greed and violence. What I am thinking about are all the ways in which we have flooded the streets, the world over, in solidarity with one another. What I am thinking about is how the people of this country have hounded ICE agents, corrupt politicians, and policies. And while these days are indeed full of despair, and while I do not have answers for our greatest questions, I know that this moment is an opening, a gateway and a portal to waking all the way up.
And while all the holidays surrounding the solstice basically say the same thing, which is “The light is coming! The light is coming!” The truth handed down through all the ages and sages is that the light has always been, and will always be, us.
Solstice and season’s blessings, against all odds and in solidarity,
