Month of Av – Leo: The Temple Within Us

The Temple Within Us

Month of Av – Leo

We have entered the lunar month of Av – Leo, a time suspended between fire and water, sorrow and radiance, collapse and concealed redemption. In the Aramaic and Hebrew mystical calendars, Av is one of the most paradoxical and potent spiritual gates. It is the heart of summer, ruled by the constellation of Leo, and yet it carries a memory of great loss that echoes across generations.

In the month of Av – Leo we feel a sorrow that cannot always be named.
A sacred ache.
A feeling that something beloved was once whole…and fell.
And yet, even as the structure crumbled, something luminous began to stir beneath the ruins.

The 9th day of Av (Tisha B’Av) marks the collapse of foundations, both historical and spiritual:

• The destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians (586 BCE)
• The destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans (70 CE)
• The expulsion of the Jewish people from England (1290), France (1306), and Spain (1492)
• The beginning of World War I (1914)
• The approval of the Final Solution during World War II (1941–42)

These events are not coincidences. Time is not linear—it is cyclical and encoded. Lunar months are energetic portals, and the 9th of Av is not merely a day of grief. It is a portal of transformation, where the soul meets its own fall, and from that place, awakens the seed of return.

The Temple was the axis mundi, the meeting point of heaven and earth.
It was a symbol of the world in harmony, of the Shekhinah (the Divine Presence) indwelling among us.
It was the body in devotion, the soul in radiance, the moment we knew we were home: in God, in Love, in Truth.

But when the Temple fell…
something in each of us fell too.

The mystics say: We all carry a Temple within us.
Made not of stone, but of breath, of memory, of sacred longing.
When we lose love, when trust shatters, when we cry out and hear no answer—this is the Temple falling in our inner world.

But Av doesn’t ask us to look away.
It asks us to remember with reverence, to sit with the ashes, to gather what broke, and to prepare the ground for something entirely new.

It awakens the remembrance that we are not ruined, we are being reshaped.

The ​m​ystics teach that the destruction of the Temple on the 9th of Av was not only an event in history, it is a spiritual pattern that repeats in the human soul. When the physical Temple crumbled, so too did humanity’s direct experience of the Shekhinah, the indwelling feminine Presence of the Divine.

When Mary Magdalene speaks in her Gospel of the seven powers—Chaos, Craving, Ignorance, Intoxication, Enslavement to the Flesh, False Wisdom, and Wrath—she is not naming external evils or punishments. She is speaking of the internal fragmentation that occurs when the Temple within us falls.

Each of these seven powers reflects a way the soul becomes separated from its divine design:

• Chaos is the shock of collapse—when what you built, trusted, or believed in suddenly disappears.
• Craving arises from the emptiness left behind when the sacred center is lost.
• Ignorance veils your inner light when you forget you are Divine.
• Intoxication is the attempt to numb pain instead of transmute it.
• Enslavement to the flesh is when you mistake survival for identity.
• False wisdom is what rushes in when true knowing is buried beneath grief.
• Wrath erupts when the wound cannot find voice or integration.

These powers are not demons to be feared, they are the fallen aspects of our own Temple. And just as the mystics say that the Messiah is born on the very day the Temple is destroyed, Magdalene teaches that wholeness begins in the exact place of fracture.

This is the true alchemy of Av:
Not avoiding the fire, but allowing it to purify.
Not erasing the past, but transforming it into holy presence.

In the Magdalene Myrraphore tradition, we work with the biblical oil of Cassia during this month.

Cassia was one of the sacred ingredients in the Temple incense and anointing oil. It was used to sanctify altars, to anoint high priests and kings, and to restore what had been desecrated. Its scent is bold, earthy, and enduring. Cassia is the oil of resilience, used in times of rebuilding. This oil brings  dignity restored after the fall.

​We must rremember that the  destruction of the Temple mirrors the inner collapse we each experience: the moment we lose trust, direction, or connection to the Divine. And just as the mystics teach that the Messiah is born on the 9th of Av, Cassia becomes the oil that prepares the soul to rise again.

When using Cassia for anointing during this time, you may speak this Aramaic invocation:

“B’shem d’Malka Kadisha, d’nahir b’gaw nafshi.”
In the Name of the Holy Sovereign, who shines within my soul.

I am wishing all of you a blessed Shabbat Day. It is a blessings to receive this new lunar month on Shabbat.

This year the 9th Day of Av is on August the 2nd.

A Simple Practice for the 9th of Av: Sitting with the Broken Stone

1. Prepare a Space of Reverence
Find a quiet space. Light a candle. If you wish, place a small stone or broken object before you—something that symbolizes loss, sorrow, or something you once loved that has ended.

2. Sit in Silence for 9 Minutes
In honor of the 9th of Av, sit in silence for 9 minutes.
Breathe gently. Let your breath soften what is tense.

As you sit, reflect:

• What part of me has fallen?

• Where have I felt exiled from myself, from God, from love?

• What is still sacred, even now?

 

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Thank you for your presence in this Community.

AHAVA,

Ana Otero

Image by Lars Dowervald

Ana Otero