It's The Choices We Make that Makes Us Who We Are

It's the choices we make that make us who we are. Elul is all about choosing, sifting, separating, discerning. Elul gives us the opportunity to choose authenticity.

Not surprising that "borer" (separating) is a key attribute of Betula (Virgo the Virgin), the aspect of the Zodiac associated with the Hebrew month of Elul.

The virgin is pictured sifting through handfuls of wheat - perhaps this wheat has been gleaned from "The Field," that place where The King has been walking to and fro, seeking an opportunity to be close to us, on our level.

What does it mean to "choose authenticity"? To be authentic is to be original, real, true to your own true self. That definition is not a free pass to self indulgence ( "I'm not an alcoholic, I'm just being true to my real self by getting drunk all the time" ) - far from it. To know how to choose authenticity is to know the truth about yourself, to be able to discern - right here and right now, for today this very minute - where you're at. You've got to sift through a lot of wheat to get to the real thing - and there's a whole lot of chaff that gets discarded in the process. That's the messy stuff - and nobody hates a mess more than Virgo, and no one is better equipped to clean it up.

Which is why we have the power right now to choose, if we want it. Choice is responsibility, it's saying "this is mine" - my values, my truth, my goodness, my strength - and saying, this is NOT mine - this sleepy blindness, this half-hearted commitment, this restless ego.

We're not alone in making these choices. The King is in The Field and wants to kneel beside us, thrust His hands into the basket and hold our stalks of wheat up to the light. He says - let's look at these together, let's decide together.
Maybe He's here right now.