But when thou fast anoint thy head

This last year has been filled with too many wonderful experiences to count.  I continue to recall the first 40 day fast in which I participated.  It has beautiful reminisces. There was a level of knowing that came to me through it.  I desire a greater understanding in my life of all things spiritual.  I seek that knowledge and wisdom through the fast.

During this last year I felt prompted to study olives, olive oil,  and olive trees.  I learned much about the product of the tree, the soil and temperature the trees grow in, and above all else, I gained for myself an understanding of the power of pure virgin, cold pressed olive oil.  If nothing else, I have begun the habit of daily drinking 2 tablespoons of the pungent dark green oil.  Regular ingestion of olive oil helps to prevent dementia and can reverse the process of brain decay. There are lists of benefits from exposure to olive oil, both inside and outside the body.

What, you might ask, does this have to do with the fast.

One of the things instructed by the Savior while he gave the information we have coined as the Sermon on the Mount was in preparation of the fast.

But thou, when thou fastest, anoint thy head, and wash thy face.

I have learned much through my preparation for fasting.  The lessons go deep. The fast usually happens days before I begin the actual process of focusing on Heaven and my communion with the Lord; it is long before I cease the food intake.  On the day I begin my fast I have already prepared by envisioning  myself in prayer when the thought or temptation of a meal takes over. That's another subject, but I digress.

I want to focus on the part about anointing the head.  But first I will take a minute to explain the ritual performed in the temple for anointing the head.

When a blessing is given with oil set apart for that purpose, it is placed on the crown of the head.  When the other anointing is performed in a temple today, different parts of the head are anointed.  The eyes, ears, nose, mouth are also anointed along with the crown or the forehead.  There are promised blessings that are pronounced on each organ. These are gifts to the individual who is being anointed.

I have spent a great deal of time over the last 4 years studying gifts, and especially those of Charity, being the pure love of Christ, as well as the other gifts of the spirit.  I have also learned for myself the great gulf, or perhaps in better words, the lack of understanding that we have in the Christian world for the Divine Feminine and the connection of the gifts with Her.  This Divine Feminine has many names: The Queen of Heaven, El Shaddai, and Eloah to mention just a few. All these names indicate the Divine Feminine as the consort of God, His wife. She is called Wisdom.  Evidently, and more obviously, it is due to our lack of understanding of her existence, her presence, her greatness, and her characteristics that cause us as humans on this earth to be in a most sorry state.

Most of the writings describing her and her place in the Heavens were purposely extricated by the Deuteronomists. In place of the mention and love of the Heavenly Mother, a book of rules, called Deuteronomy, were put in place of the book of Enoch, and a darkness came over the minds and hearts of the people.  Artifacts in the temple were destroyed by the young and easily manipulated King Josiah. Jeremiah talks of the evil and destruction that come upon the people because of the removal of her in the temples and scripture. Isaiah speaks of the lack of blessings, even the cursings that follow the people because of this act of wicked and conspiring men.

It has been a tragic loss, but thank goodness for Bible scholars who have made it their lives work to comb the other books of scripture that are missing from the Bible to teach us more about Wisdom, and her far reaching love and effects.

You can gain this knowledge for yourself, if you desire.  One of the best books to begin this research is called The Mother of the Lord, Volume I, by Margaret Barker.  It is a very well researched book, and may become your pillow for a season.  At the very least, it will open the eyes of your understanding to a situation that you may not have known existed for millennia.

Back to the anointing before the fast.

Olive oil was the oil used for anointing. It has some very amazing properties. On page 191 of The Olive Odyssey, by Julie Angus, we learn:

Olive oil has the same fat composition as mother’s milk. The ratio of essential fatty acids, linolenic, and linolenic acids is nearly identical.  Italian mothers feed their babies olive oil. . . . Pregnant and lactating mothers who consumed olive oil had bigger and more coordinated babies.

Olive Oil has a greater purpose than we pronounce upon it.  And it is interesting that it has corresponding gifts that a mother would provide to her child. Any nursing mother would have her baby be comforted, fed, nourished, and loved each time she feeds the babe.  This same list of feeding and nourishment is also attributed to the Lord, but He is only doing what he has seen done by his parents, particularly a Heavenly Mother.

Wisdom is a feminine virtue, and receiving wisdom has been the saving grace for all people on the earth at all time. 

The gifts conferred with anointing all transformed ways of knowing and perceiving. Vision is the first effect from anointing.

Isaiah speaks a great deal about the inability of people looking and not seeing, listening, but not hearing.  He speaks of fat hearts, and other supposed physical maladies.  But he is not referring to congestive heart failure, nor prescriptive lenses; he is referring to a condition that makes people less able to understand and comprehend the word of the Lord.  He is talking about people in a condition of the carnal man.  Nothing removes this situation as quickly as a heavy dose of Wisdom, and that can be achieved with a fast unto the Lord.

I have inserted pages 104-106 of Mother of the Lord, by Margaret Barker to give a greater understanding of the power of the anointing.

In his (Jerome on the Gospel of the Hebrews) commentary on Isaiah 11:9 he also noted that in the Gospel of the Hebrews, Jesus spoke of ‘My mother the holy Spirit.’ The early Church then, understood the manifold Spirit, which Isaiah calls ‘the Spirit of the Lord’, not as a spirit from the Lord, but as the Spirit that transformed the recipient into the Lord, or, as here, the son of god who reigned forever.  The Spirit was his Mother, and the imagery is from the royal cult.  John’s Jesus spoke in the same way, about being born from above, [or born again] to be able to see the Kingdom, and being born of water and Spirit to be able to enter the Kingdom (John 3:3-5).

The manifold Spirit gave wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  It transformed human perception and would reverse the punishment described in Isaiah’s temple vision: minds and ears and eyes that could no longer understand and hear and see.  The Targum described the Spirit bearer as the Messiah, and even though anointing is not mentioned in Isaiah 11, this passage does describe the effect of anointing.

A line omitted by the AV and said to be an addition due to dittography describes the perfume of the Spirit bearer. ‘And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord’ (Isa. 11:3, RSV) should be, ‘And his perfume shall be the fear of the Lord.’ The word translated ‘delight’, normally means perfume and in some instances, the perfume of the anointing oil. . .The most likely origin of this imagery is temple ritual, where anointing conferred the Name, and so the Spirit/Name bearer had the perfume of his anointing.  Then he no longer judged with his own (human) eyes, and did not make decisions after hearing with (human) ears (Isa. 11:3).

The gifts of the spirit are the elements of Wisdom (see Moroni 7:45).

*The first gift to the Anointed One was Wisdom, which speaks for itself

*The second and fifth gifts were understanding and knowledge, which were the definition of wise teachings to know, wisdom, and instruction for understanding

*The third gift, counsel, looks very like the word for tree.

*The fourth gift was might, almost the same as the title ‘Great Lady’ usually translated queen mother.  The spirit of counsel and might was wordplay on the ‘the Spirit of the Tree and the Great Lady.’

*The sixth and last gift was the fear of the Lord’, a phrase that occurs many times in the Hebrew Scriptures, and is appropriate in this context.  It is found in parallel to ‘good understanding’ (Ps. 111:10) and is in parallel to ‘the knowledge of the Holy One is insight’ (Prov. 1:7) The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge (Prov. 14:27).

Now, ‘the fear of the Lord’ may mean exactly that, but it is possible that the phrase in some instances has replaced a similar but controversial phrase, ‘the vision of the Lord’.  In Hebrew, these two words are very similar.  The gifts of the Spirit would then include the greatest gift of all: the gift of vision, especially the vision of the Lord.  In fact, ‘vision’ is a conspicuous omission from this list, since vision was the first effect of anointing.

I can tell you with plain language that my desire to fast for this blessing was not well defined to my spirit.  But as I have sought an audience with the Lord, I have been led closer and closer to the blessings of the fast and the preparation thereof.

I now must be patient and endure it well.  I will anoint my head with oil and begin.