This is Elul

She's a little different. For one thing, her name has almost nothing to do with the meaning that the artist who made her was picturing.

Another thing is that she was an unexpected gift, a happy consequence of an action taken. A reminder that just because you aren't looking for things doesn't mean they aren't going to happen anyway.

The giver of the gift would not have thought of her having this name. Sometimes when the poppets arrive they wear their names themselves - The Coffee Poppets, The Greys, the Reds. Sometimes they acquire their names through acts - The Embarrassed Ambassador, The Most Adventurous Red. Sometimes they come from their creator because she needed to fill the space where their names were - Storm or Wind and then Lisa created what needed to be in the Storm space or the Wind space.

But this little one is Elul, and no one knew at all until she nudged along the edges and made it clear.

So she's the only Poppet in the House with a Not-Poppet name. At least so far.

Elul is the month before Tishrei, in the Hebrew calendar, the word derives from an Akkadian word for Harvest. Elul is when you wake up every morning to a warrior cry and open your soul prepare yourself for the 10 Days of Awe.

It is the month you visit the graves of loved ones to remember their spirits and inspire you to be more fully in the world now because time here is fleeting.

During Elul you prepare yourself to repair the things that you have broken and take stock so you can be honest with yourself and others about actions and consequences. Interestingly, although it is religious, it is not preparing yourself for being worthy of God's love, it is preparing yourself to be worthy of those who are around you here.

It is preparing yourself to be worthy, period.

I will be writing about religion for the next couple of days. It's my religion so there's no magical sky fairy or shiny castles on hills, or magical lands where dead people are happy or miserable. If you're looking for me to believe that you've got the wrong religious person - there is a really rough bar exam though.

If you're not into that you can skip me until next Tuesday. Yom Kippur will be over and the need to do this will be done.

Because I think in a very real way, this year the Poppets kept me from drifting away entirely. You cannot lie to a Poppet. So if I'm going to be real about this I shouldn't keep it separate from the blog and the poppets. If you liked the Passover with the Poppets entries, this will be similar, I'll share the history of what I'm doing, and the heresy of what I'm doing and why it matters.

Real-time atonement - and this year is different. Just like Elul - a reminder, a messenger, a different little Poppet who I wanted to join us, but I wasn't sure I would be able to get her to come.

A harbinger of harvests and souls. Bring in your crops, take stock of your actions, judge your own soul.

The word for angel in Hebrew is the same word for messenger in military and civillian human terms. There is no differentiation in Torah between the two types so some translations made every messenger divine and some translations tried to figure it out from the text.

So is Kelly who sent me the poppet the angel, or is it the Poppet herself? By correct interpretation the answer would be both. Elul is your wake up call that Tishrei is coming.

Thank you Kelly, for sending her.

My angels are tiny, dressed in black, carrying the harvest calling for my soul.

Perfect.