In the late stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, musician Ryan Hurtgen traveled to Holland to record and compose the music to accompany Mikael Spector’s teaching style and methods for Merkavah awareness. Thus the project Activating the Merkavah was born.
With Mikael Spector
The twelve sonic journeys contextualize a framework of 12 descriptions of One’s Self. Simply close your eyes, listen, and visualize. Activating the Merkavah is a chance to learn how to accept and navigate yourself, by learning refinement and generating will. The source is felt in surrendering to that which encompasses all life and existence. The interplay of these forces meet at a place of confluence which is you. It is your Mind, Life, and Body. This is the Merkavah. The ancient history of the Merkavah is a concept born long ago. It relates to living now, because it is part of you.
In the Merkavah, we are Earth, Fire, Air, Water, and Space. We are the inevitable combination of each of these with each other. As the Merkavah, we function in a matrix of spiraling conscious force that is at once empty and free (ether), full of movement (air), passion (fire), forming flow (water), and peaceful, solid, and detailed confinement (earth). This album for anyone who wishes to study, explore, and grow into a playful yet serious integration of meditative healing through bodywork and movement. The mystical tradition called Ma’ase Merkavah has always brought into human life harmonic, symphonic resonances of healing illumination, empowering you and inviting you to be fully who you are in body, heart and mind. If you would like to support Mikael for this offering, please consider a donation in the “contribute” button at the bottom of the series.
Generosity embodies a state of concentrated and abundant self-giving. In it we become grounded and fiery. Our awareness is structured, our energy is hard-working and radiant. It is an attitude rooted in the earthy, disciplined energy of Capricorn, which feels through the knees. Imagine yourself in a pyramid with a solid base supporting and enabling the pointed apex at the eyes. Here, we exude confidence and command respect, taking control with a no-nonsense approach, as if we are the CEO at the top of our game, inspiring others to look up to us as leaders and decision-makers. This practice invites you to Kingship, Malchut, a dynamic impulse toward “generating”. It starts in the knees; is felt in the muscles and bones, solidly, and generating outward. Your motto is; JUST DO IT. You have a ‘no nonsense” kind of approach and you mean business.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with fiery earth?
Strong
Dominating
Precise
Organized
What is spirit? How does it feel? What does it do? Where is it? And where am I in relation to it? In spirit, I am elevated and free, equally above and below, equally within and without, free to play, free to include, free to detach, free to be and not to be. Rising into infinity, descending into matter forever and everywhere, I am. Spirit and equality are felt in a sphere, where our being is like a vast orb, connected equally in all directions. Spirit flows through us as we become aware of the infinite consciousness most keenly along our vertical column—through the calves and ankles, which act as grounding points, rising up through the spine. In this way, our body becomes a conduit, a pillar that connects the earthly and the infinite. What sensations arise when you allow yourself to connect with the infinite, to feel equality within and without? Ein-Sof is a Hebrew term that means ‘vastness of spirit” and the freedom that comes with it—the essence of fluidity, rising in elevation.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with watery air?
High
Light
Gone
Vibrating
Where I am- What I am- How I am, is good enough. There is a way to rest, to be, to allow myself the softness and stability. Wherein my body, the earth beneath me and the space around me are all one place. Peaceful, supporting, open and safe as an innocent child, protected. Humility and grounded-ness flows through the neck, down through the body, and into the earth itself. The neck, as a conduit, links our inner presence with the stability of the ground beneath. Humility is more than a virtue; it becomes a posture, a poise where we are fully present, at ease, and comfortably contained. A hand holding a Mudra represents this perfectly. You have peace, dignity, and wholeness that doesn’t need to be anything more than it is. Binah, or understanding, is the solid poise that allows us to experience both stability and malleability, adapting yet grounded, firm yet gentle.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with watery earth?
Stable
At rest
Supported
At Home
I am a force- a presence- a power pressing, concentrating, radiating sun. My need to dominate and assert what I want most, delighting, reveling, animating myself, struggling, insisting to have, to give, to be all the beauty, love and power that I know I can be. In this world, here and now, because to excel and exceed is what I aspire to. The Leo archetype represents a heroic spirit, a figure who wrestles with life and asserts themselves with bold, almost theatrical confidence. Leo shows a blend of courage and vulnerability, sometimes posturing with ego, yet always fueled by a deep-seated need to impress. Gevurah is a term that signifies heroism, masculinity, and strength— not merely in terms of physical power, but in the depth of spirit and the courageous drive. You may feel it as a blooming lotus, growing from loins, from the water and rising upward to the heart, finally blossoming above the surface in radiant, unblemished beauty. This process mirrors the journey of personal aspiration, self-confidence, and self-realization.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with watery fire?
Ecstatic
Powerful
Sensual
Concentrated
Daring to be pointed. Daring to be passionate. Feeling the life-force in our depths, in our guts, in our loins. Stimulated, alive and vibrating. Courage means we are ready, responsive and willing to dive deep. There is an element of mystery and fluidity in dynamic motion. Do you have the courage to go where others may fear to tread? Can you cut through the superficial and embrace your powerful passion that emanates from deep within—guts, loins, and your very core? Life-force stirs us, urging us to awaken to the full range of emotions. Feeling glorious, Hod, energy is engaged, we feel alive and vibrating with vitality. We become activated through rhythm. Through the hips and sacrum, undulating, renewing and regenerating.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with fiery water?
Stimulated
Juicy
Passionate
Regenerated
What I see, I undergo. The will in me instigates. My gaze connects me with what I see and the energy inside me immediately meets the bjects and the circumstance. To see is to conduct. To conduct is to be in control of the situation. My eyes reveal my intention. The eyes are often referred to as the windows to the soul. They reveal everything. Can you feel how your eyes are the reflection of your will? How they conduct energy into the world with purpose and focus? Are you sincere? Find a truthfulness and emit it forward into the world without hesitation or deceit. Wisdom, Chochma is smart, intelligent, knowledgeable and earnest. It means to “undergo” what you see. There’s no dishonesty here, you see it and you are sincere.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with earthy fire?
Excited
Determined
Confident
In Control
Love gives direction. It hones and propels us towards all that is good, meaningful and happy. The bright romance, the fascinating journey, the great adventure towards the ideal beauty, truth and harmony, enthusiastically pursued, passionately achieved. It is this fire of love within that compels us towards our purpose. Aiming high, my soul creates and incarnates goodness. From the foundation, or Yesod, the force within the thighs propels. It rises through the
heart. It is with love that you pursue.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with airy fire?
Opened
Purposeful
Inspired
Propelled
Mother. She sits in our breasts and hearts, in our bellies, brains and hands, feeling, forming, giving everything. She is providing for all our needs and wants, pouring forth material and materials, nourishing and protecting all with her abundance. Her treasures, jewels and gems are felt as the aura that envelopes us. Explore the quality of perseverance by developing a maternal side. A mother which cares for her child at any cost or sacrifice. Grace or Chesed, is felt and distributed through the hands, breast, and heart, by feeling, forming, and caring for.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with earthy water?
Abundant
Sensitive
Maternal
Material
Myself with myself. Myself with you. Myself with all that is around me. Communicating
through gesture, expression, facial and bodily. As my arms move, as my lungs breath, as my brain thinks, as my eyes feel your presence, there is much to say. Be grateful for the intermingling. Your face is the very embodiment of gratitude. Smile and allow for the play of relationships, the giving and taking. Mutually receiving. This practice invites you to explore the mode of Gemini, becoming the dually connected person. Awareness, known as Daat on the tree of life comes by the breath, through the face, arms, throat, and shoulders, as relating, articulating, and saying something. It is you, speaking.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with earthy air?
Present
Responsive
Articulate
Intimate
All that is inside of us and around us hangs together. We are relaxed and feeling ourselves as one all connected, undivided fullness. There is no pursuit, and no effort. From head to toe and all around the presence of the eternal spirit contains us. A big sphere in which we float as one. From the crown of our head to the soles of our feet—turning around this axis. Your breath is like the ebb and flow of the ocean. When the water comes onto the shore, it equally recedes as a unified force. There is no need to rush, no worry in taking too long, never taking or giving less or more. It follows a sense of gravity perfectly.
This practice invites us to explore the essence of peace, central to the Piscean way. At the crown, or Keter, everything is united in peace. Here, the entire creation—light, love, power, and action—originates, connecting crown and feet in a state of absorption, inclusion, and unity.
Question:
How does it feel to be embodying the airy water?
Unified
Soft
Content
Floating
Finding my wings and the love that is between them. Progress means development, in this we feel the fiery air. Energy takes us forward, centers us with the fire of action and swings and undulates. It circulates wide, inclusive and in control, distributing awareness. In this celebration, my soul flows through me and around me, embracing possibility. I move, engaging, valuing, adrenalizing my heart, my waist, my whole nervous system in an ever-clear balance. Feeling a vortex in your center and feel how it rises out of you. Eternal Victory, known as Netsach, gives us the power to bring feelings into action and
ideals into reality.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with fiery air?
Inclusive
Focused
Animated
In charge
Precision, efficiency, clarity, beauty, proportionality, elegance, purity, care, order and organization… All of these belong to our receptivity. When we are quiet enough inside, attentive to the details of process and items we engage (e.g. words, food, clothing, tools, instruments, painting, composing music or a story, cleaning and tidying up) we want to be completely receptive and responsive with the perfection we wish to manifest. Making anything and anyone beautiful is
receiving the light from above and shine within the measures of its splendor. We receive from above and then embody the light in the belly and spine, where we refine, measure, and assemble with care. This practice invites you to explore the quality of receptivity and splendor. Tipheret is ‘beauty’ or ‘beatitude’. Receive the adorned, glorious, delightful throne of glory and embody it.
Question:
How does it feel to be filled by and identified with airy earth?
Beautiful
Luminous
Refined
Exact
