A Temple of Female Consciousness

Tantra and the Fierce Goddess~ Fierce Thoughts

2010-09-16T16:23:00.000-07:00

After over a year of disappearing into my writing cave, I am happily teaching again! Oh, the ecstasy and Shakti this has brought! I find myself buzzing around, conquering long postponed to do lists, and having more energy and joy than I have felt in ages! My course, Tantra and the Fierce Goddess is being offered at Loyola Marymount University Extension in Los Angeles, and we have met the last two Tuesdays. Already there have been so many shaktified experiences and divine affirmations, that I am inspired to return to this blog after a long, long, long hiatus!

Tantra and the Fierce Goddess explores some of the more formidable manifestations of Goddess and calls into question what we consider to be "fierce qualities" of the Divine Mother. Is what is defined as "fierce" reflective of our creative, sexual, and independent natures? Or is it tied up with more stereotypical and often negative qualities of "femininity?" In my class, we look at the paradoxical nature of Goddesses such as Durga, Kali, Bhagawati, Kamakhya, the Matrikas, Yoginis and others and consider how socially-constructed contradictions are reflected in the status of women and girls around the world today.

For example, the Kumari or Living Virgin Goddess is considered an embodiment of a fierce form of Goddess Durga known as Taleju. The Kumari is chosen based on her "pure" and "virginal" status. In an earlier post from 2007, I discussed the original meaning of Virgin. Whole Unto Herself, however, in the case of the Kumari, her virginity is tied to a pre-pubescent/non-menstruating status. According to this tradition, this young girl (who is anywhere from 1 and 1/2 years to pre-teen/teen years) will serve as a living Goddess for the community from the time she receives the initiation until she has her first period, or bleeds from the loss of a tooth or injury. The Goddess that she embodies, Taleju, is a very esoteric and tantric Goddess in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. Despite Taelju's appearance through the vehicle of a virgin girl, her rituals and mythology point to her sexually empowered status and connection to ancient fertility rites. The paradoxical nature of this situation is rather obvious here--a wild, untameable, and sexually mature goddess appears in the body of a young and "pure" virgin girl!? And the "fact" that the Goddess leaves the girl's body just as she comes into her power raises many questions. For one, who decides that this child is no longer divine, especially within a religious worldview (Shakta Tantra tradition) that supposedly considers all female as inherently, Shakti, or divine? And why would a Goddess who "demands" blood as an offering, leave her physical "vehicle" at the first sign of blood? Why would such formidable Goddesses as Taleju and Durga be associated with young girls? Can young girls be strong and "fierce" through their own agency? And what does this look like outside of being mean girls or bullies?

And then virginity. Yes. I return to this once again. Virginity and Fierceness. Virginity = Whole Unto Herself. Consider the implications for young girls who are exploring their sexuality...consider the implications for those of us adult women who wish to renew our Virginity and embrace our natural and sacred fierceness...consider the impact this would make in our lives, and in our world.

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power

2010-07-02T19:01:00.000-07:00

Jai Maa! It is complete! Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power will be released October 1, 2010. Just in time for Durga Puja! Divine timing indeed! It has been quite the journey with this book. After ten years of working on it, I finished writing in August! I have not posted in the Temple of Female Consciousness because I have been deeply immersed in proofreading, wrestling with diacritics and other textual details and creating an index since September! So I have not been writing in that all-possessed way since last summer and I have missed that state of consciousness where everything was related to my book. No matter what I was doing or thinking about, I was writing. And I could hardly keep away from my computer. The words would flow, and sometimes they would get stuck, but each impasse ultimately led to a breakthrough in consciousness. The whole experience was very blessed. The technical details came with a strong Saturn transit to my natal moon and forced me to really focus on all the pieces. The index was quite a beast to tackle and proved to be a challenging learning experience. But I did it! And it helped me to see the book through another lens. It was a very insightful process. It has truly been a pilgrimage of mind, heart, and soul--one that has been both incredibly challenging as well as deeply liberating. I can't wait to share it with all of you, and I look forward to hearing about the myriad journeys Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power takes you on. Pre-order info is below!

Here is a short synopsis of my book:

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power is an exploration of the many faces of the Goddess Durga in ancient and contemporary culture. As we learn through a 5th century myth narrating Durga's victorious battles over corrupt forces destroying the equilibrium of Mother Earth and all Her creatures, Durga and Her entourages of South Asian Goddesses offer us the wisdom, grace, inner strength and divine power needed to restore balance to a conflict-ridden world. This book takes us on a pilgrimage to Goddess temples and natural shrines, to visit shamans and living Goddesses in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, and to India for the annual ten-day Durga festival. The mythology, rituals, philosophy, and spiritual practices of this distinctly female-centered and millennia-old tradition of Durga offer an alternative model of female potential and empowerment, focusing on peace, healing, spiritual liberation, and realization of inherent divinity.

JAI MAA!

PRE-ORDER INFO:

My publishing contract requires that I purchase the first 100 copies of my book. I would so appreciate your support in pre-ordering a book for $46.15. The pricing break down is below. You can send me a check today that I will put toward the order, and I will mail you a signed copy of Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power in early October. This is the perfect way for you to directly support the author, and I thank you.

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power by Laura Amazzone. ISBN # 978-0-7618-5313-8: Published by Hamilton Books, an imprint of University Pres of America d the Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, October 2010.

$37.50 List Price

$3.65 California Sales Tax

$5.00 Shipping and Handling ($1.00 per additional book if ordering two or more)

$46.15 Total

Checks can be made out to Laura Amazzone. Please contact me at laura@amazzonejewelry.com

Acknowledging the Call

2008-07-25T21:27:00.001-07:00

Here I am in L.A. Los Angeles. In my menstrual red cottage in Venice. A shakti hut. I took a leap, I dove into the unknown and surrendered. I let go of my life in Northern California. I followed Her flow. Her calling. And here I am.

Priestess of the Erotic. A yogini/living devi wrote to me today about this previous posting of mine. My sankalpa or sacred intention for 2008. I have lived the erotic life these past months. I have been so consumed I have neglecgted this blog, but all the while experiences were brewing. I have created, made Love, expanded and transformed. I have been embraced by Durga and Shiva and experienced the full force of my creativity. The nothingness, the void out of which it all comes transformed into a blazing light. Divine Radiance. And much still unknown. And I have felt lost at times. Confused. How can I be so happy here and yet struggling to survive?

A yogini or priestess of the erotic holds space. Both positive and negative. Dark and light. Joy and Sorrow. Suffering and Bliss. She serves as a vessel, a container through which tremendous amounts of sexual and creative energy blast through her. She has to learn to transform the energies, to help them manifest into form. And the form, the art must serve the community and express integration, transformation and potential. It is her calling, her duty to respond. Although it is not an easy road, the challenges help expand our consciousness.

As I navigate through the yoga, social, search for employment scenes here, I look for Durga. Remover of Difficulty, Goddess of Invincible Courage and Strength. I look for Saraswati Goddess of Art, Beauty, Creativity and Learning, Lakshmi Goddess of Spiritual and Material Abundance, Harmony and Love, Matangi Wild Goddess of Sacred Sexuality, Chinnamasta Great Ego Slayer, Varahi Fearless Matrika, Kali Fiercely Nurturing Mother-all of them. I want to experience their expression in the world. I want to draw from it. Live and Express. It is all Her. All Goddess. So how does She show up?
I am shown. In my exchanges, in people, in dreams, in observances. Various qualities of Goddess permeating through, revealing Herself as the fabric of it all. Sometimes fiercely, others with more compassion. Nevertheless, I just have to trust what I am shown. And follow Her lead.

Matangi

2008-03-08T12:36:00.000-08:00

MATANGI. Great Primordial Mother of the Forest. Elephant-headed Matriarch. You are autonomous, self-possessed, wild, seductive and passionate. You know freedom, how to manifest your desires, how to activate your will and lead. You know how to be nurturing toward your self and those around you. You are the dynamic force of expansion and contraction, evolving and becoming.

Matangi you are the absolutely awesome power of Woman. The primal power of instinct. The intuitive force of grace and mercy. The liberating knowledge of ancient female mysteries.

Woman listen to yourself, You whisper playfully in our ears. Woman, live your passion! Be fearless in your uniqueness! Be honest in your convictions and I will not lead you astray… What is it you have come here to do? Who is it that you have come here to be? What is stopping you???

Oh! Matangi, wild and ancient forest Mother-you are the creative power of Sex and Divine Love-that wondrous sensuous empowering reality that the patriarchs have tried to destroyed in us all. We, your devoted attendants-female and male are stripping off the chains that have oppressed us-the shame, the fear, and pain. We are surrendering to your teachings. Embodying your errant tempestuous force guides us into the heart of the sacrality of sex. We are re-membering you, Matangi. Supreme Mother of Tantric reality. You are the one who can transmute that which conventional society calls poisonous: menstrual blood, birthing blood, sexual fluids, excrements, dying decaying flesh and matter, bones and rot, muck and dirt and all that they call filth. You who bridge worlds between chaos and peace, you who leads us into the center of the darkness- that impenetrable, pregnant, and potent void that has so much to teach us. You dance seductively, calmly, assuredly through the unknown tempting all to taste of your power. You teach us how to face our fears and not abandon ourselves. You appear in our dreams and through synchronistic codes and symbols tell us how to come through the most frightening of realities.

They may come after our bodies with their violent religious wars, they may lie to us and try to mutilate us, to strip us of our power, to steal our fierceness and block our desires. They may try to beat your mysteries out of us- but if we align with You with full and utter abandon they will never ever succeed. Let us chant. Let us meditate. Let us pray, create, act and practice yoga. These are some of the tools that help us come into You.

Matangi you are worshiped at crossroads. At those betwixt and between places. The liminal realms where the magnitude of our yearning, of our desire to know you, to remember, to be free may at times overwhelm us. When we enter your realm we may lose our footing. We may be unsure of what road to take. Temptations may taunt us, teasing us toward unworthy desires. So how do we know what is real and unreal, how can we really hear? How can we see and feel the truth that you want us to know? How can we discern your voice when there are so many shouting, calling, demanding and yelling for our attention?

Matangi remains in our core-and to find that center we must drop into our self. We must sit quietly, with gaze turned inward, we must be still and listen to our heart beat, the pulse of our existence, the drumbeat that unites all life on this planet, the rhythmic dance of our Earthly and Cosmic Mother. She is inside us. We will find Matangi in our hearts and in our yonis waiting for us to listen to Her instinctual powerful call. With Her grace we manifest love that brings freedom. With Her love we actualize passion and fervor. With Her grace we merge tensions that have split and fragmented us for ages. With Her guidance we come to know our Divinity.

Matangi is the power of the sexually mature woman. The woman who is lover to herself above and beyond being lover to Other. She knows every union is a sacred Union with the One.. She is the one who makes choices based on the wisdom of her body, not out of fear of the consequences that patriarchal reality threatens her with. She is woman who is free. She is only waiting for the time when we can say:

I know You now, Matangi. I live You now. I am You now. Your powers activated in my being. Your mysteries shaping and influencing my life. Showing me the direction in which I have always been called. Defining the reality that I truly seek. I am not afraid of the dark or the chaos. I am not afraid of the unknown. I am not afraid to love fully. Of asking for, of demanding for what I want –with respect. I am only afraid of NOT listening to your call. I have known the petrifying reality of not living the life I was born to live -the life of the wild, uninhibited courageous yogini. Passionate lover of peace, of justice, of truth, of sex, of creative power. Woman who is authentic and real. Why should I any longer be afraid of the consequences of not conforming? How can I ever pursue endeavors whether sexual and creative or both with men and women who do not see me? Who do not see You? A life erotic, a life empowered, a life of service and freedom. A life where we can live in sensuous harmony with each other and the earth. With all of earth’s creatures. That is a life that inspires and nurtures. That is a life that enhances and improves all that S/he touches.

Matangi, may You guide us to our Divine essence. May we live and teach Your mysteries.

Sankalpa-Sacred Intention for 2008: Priestess of the Erotic

2008-01-06T15:41:00.000-08:00

2008 has brought a wave of sexual and creative energy into my life that is expanding and transforming my consciousness. As 2007 came to an end and many of us made resolutions to create a better life for ourselves and the world, I, too, focused on a sankalpa-or sacred intention for this new year. I made a commitment to myself, and to Durga, to fully reclaim and express my/Her sexual and creative power without fear and without judgment. Not an easy task in this patriarchal, sex-driven, female objectifying and exploitative world! But it IS possible. More and more of us are embodying the energies of the yogini- living embodiment and priestess of the Divine in all Her glorious forms. I have experienced firsthand the creativity, ecstasy and love that flow from such authentic female expression and its deeply healing, empowering and transformative effects! Who knows where we will be led, but I am willing and ready to heed the call of this very sexy unknown.

And I am not alone. There are many other women in my life who are doing the same. Many of us women who are heterosexual or bi are meeting reverent men who are guardians of the sacred female mysteries, men who wish to support us in our co-evolution. We are finding men who honor Goddess in women, who honor Goddess in themselves, who love Mother Earth. There are men who are willing, there are men who are reverent, and together, I am learning, we can create a reality where the Yogini, where Goddess has an honored and respected place.

While the orthodox world in both east and west does everything in its power to control the female sexual experience, Shakta Kaula texts hold female sexual mysteries at the core of their teachings. A male-dominated world is always fixated on sex whether it be through repressing natural desires, exploiting female body parts through pornography and the media, or restricting women from acting outside the lines that the male mind has placed around the female sex. Poet Audre Lorde notes that the female sexual and creative force, the erotic, “has often been misnamed by men and used against women. It has been made into the confused, the trivial, the psychotic, the plasticized sensation…pornography is a direct denial of the power of the erotic, for it represents the suppression of true feeling.” This world is dominated and permeated by male consciousness, which translates into linear ejaculatory reactions and the need to control anything that is other, that is chaotic, that is different. This is not to say that all men are guilty of this, but that both women and men suffer from the oppressive and controlling energies of such a limiting consciousness. I am interested in co-creating a Tantric space where both male and female consciousness can flow with the other and open us to unimagined realms of creative expression.

In 2008 I will embrace a life as a Priestess of the Erotic. And I will be part of a chakra or kula of women and men who redefine what EROTIC means to the status quo. By no means will I participate or even condone the porn industry nor will I fulfill or perpetuate any of the sexist notions around female sexuality. In fact, there are few living models of this consciousness I am being called to express. So we must become the models and look to mythological women in religion of past and present who have been erased and denied, to the historical madwomen who have been ostracized and murdered, to the witches and sacred prostitutes who have been demonized and tortured. I know that when women’s sexual energies are allowed to flow without fear or threat of punishment or pain, a different reality, a more integrated consciousness for women and men will emerge on this planet. It is difficult to even say what will come, but I am grateful to live in a society and age where I can at least exercise my right to this choice and see what kind of reality will emerge. Whatever is in my heart, I will dedicate myself to its creative expression. In whatever form feels most potent in the moment: writing, making love, ritual, yoga, chanting, cooking, activism, art, gardening-the creative possibilities are endless.

I hope that one day all women and men regardless of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and religion will be able to live freely, fully and without harm. For now, those of us who do are fortunate to not live under tyrannical and oppressive male control must begin to courageously open to the erotic force and allow Her to redefine what and who She is instead of having our sexual and creative experiences and reality defined for us.

Gratitude

2007-12-30T22:15:00.000-08:00

Tonight I am reflecting on the tremendous journey I undertook in 2007. I was led in directions I never would have imagined and taken to depths that totally stripped and transformed me. This past month has been one of celebration. Although, as if to hold it all in perspective and balance, death and dying have remained an underlying theme. In the beginning of the month I took a workshop at the Trika Institute/Yoga Mandala with Dharmaniddhi on death, dying and dream yoga. Numerous synchronicities occurred there-perhaps I can share them in another blog, for they truly were astonishing). Immediately this newly acquired ritual and mediative knowledge was called into use. There was the death I helped midwife the night the workshop ended, and then the oracles I received for days that death was around me- and it was. I received spiritual teachings I needed along this journey and then immediately an opportunity to apply them. Then suddenly, it all shifted and I was cast into realms of celebration, ecstatic ritual, art, spiritual initiation, and love.

Two Tori Amos concerts- Tori, a living goddess, whose performances expressed the essence of Goddess in her underworldly, seductive and earthly forms. My experiences at these shows, so profound- there on stage, my soul being expressed- my consciousness in the guise of greek goddesses. fat slut, teenage hustler, smokey joe-sonic embodiments of my reality. almost rosey, spell reminding me of who I am. Always through Tori I discover deeper pieces of myself and am able to integrate them and feel even more empowered. I could write blogs and blogs on Tori and her influence and mirroring, but for now, I will leave it at the depth of reverence and wonder I feel about her divinely creative genius.

Three Muses. I hosted an event at my home on the 13th of December- about 60 people came. 6 musicians performed- the amazing Anandalahari composed and directed it all - for days we set up the space transforming my home into a temple. A sound engineer came, a pujari to perform puja-ritual to Ganesh (to remove obstacles) and Durga, fabulous musicians and singers...Anandalahari wanted to honor the sacred adornment I create and asked that I do a performance piece about it. So I created an invocation to the Three Muses, three different goddesses that I invoked in the piece. Saraswati, Hulda- Frau Hoelle-Hel, and Kalliopeia. Three women wore a sacred Goddess amulet I had created and danced the Goddess as I read the poetic invocations I had written for the show. All the while the musicians played the most perfect accompaniments. It was amazing. We served sacred libations, divine sweets, I sold jewelry, and we celebrated! Alice Walker said it was the most soulful event she had been to in ages. That it transformed her. Everyone was deeply affected. We all felt the sweetly seductive & intoxicating energy of the Muses. It was truly a profoundly beautiful and sacred evening.

Days later I went to LA for the opening of The Color Purple Musical, an after party, then Tori Amos again-front row! The people, the conversations, the experiences were all totally magical. In the Shakti flow my gorgeous Shakta sisterVaschelle and I danced with all that came our way and it was totally blissful. Through some crazy synchronicities we were led to the Abbey, a fabulous nightclub... The night continued to be totally phenomenal and wild. I felt totally held by Goddess' grace...I had the time of my life!

And then there have been all the wildly ecstatic yogini kula celebrations our sisterhood has had!!! Ohhh, I feel blessed. Community.

To think, to remember-There I was for months confronting Ereshkigal-raw, bloody and vulnerable. Like Inanna, I was stripped of all I thought I was and felt as if I had been left to rot on the meat hook and would never ever recover. A dark night of the soul - darker than I have ever known. There were months when I thought I had lost all hope. But isn't life like that? Great trickster that She is. Parts of my ego were devoured by the Fierce Dark Mother. And now I feel like clay waiting to be reformed. I am only beginning to have moments of relief and astonishment that I confronted and endured all I had in the underworld. It is shocking really. Perhaps most profound is that I have realized how universal it all is. These cycles of depression, despair and pain, then joy, fulfillment and growth. We always come out of the darkness- and while the light may not be what we had hoped for or expected, it is nevertheless revealing and illuminating. We find unexpected treasures and can be who we were not able to be up till that moment. And so I feel I am coming into a new phase of being. Finally. The birth has been long and arduous. But totally worth it. May we all continue to ride these waves of birth life and death however they may manifest in our individual and collective lives. And may we continue to discover and embrace who we truly are.

The Solstice, that winter day of the longest darkness, the stillness and reflection that is demanded of us...I spent the Solstice listening to Kalli share how her dance of cancer has been an expression of Kali and Shiva (!!!such profound and esoteric teachings). I felt totally awed by the mysteries of the universe and how they are revealed to us. And then, the next day I made a decision I have needed to make for months. And the Shakti has flowed ever since.

Death, Sex, Mystery, Love, Abundance. I have had it all; I have worshiped and been worshiped. I understand how each moment of living is an act of worship. We always stand in the place of worshiper and worshiped, blessed one, and the one who blesses. Death and Life. Sorrow and Joy. Life is amazing.

I am filled with awe and gratitude.

Homage to Darkness

2007-11-30T21:07:00.000-08:00

Last night there was a blackout. The entire neighborhood pitch-black except for headlights of cars that would occasionally come down the street. Sweet darkness? I was sitting in it for hours. Darkness and silence. No music, no computer, no telephone. Instead of being bummed, stressed or worried, I felt content. Even the creaks and groans of this 100 year old house did not scare me. I felt strangely protected by this unexpected enigmatic visitor. My plans to be creative- to write and to bead were not going to happen, but I did not mind. Obviously these sparks of creativity still needed to gestate. I would chant and meditate instead. I lit the few candles I could find and made a mental note to stock up on more candles for the future, and then I reflected on how wonderful it felt to be in the dark. In the dark-often used to mean not knowing or ignorance. We are always at some life juncture of not knowing, are we not? Our life journey is one of removing the layers of ignorance our conditioning imposes on us. I have sat in the dark with so many different aspects of my life for months, for years. But eventually, some piece is revealed and I can finally understand what the waiting was for. The outcome, sometimes different than what my ego had desired, but always a much better manifestation than anything my limited mind could have concocted.

It was not until I realized that I had no heat and the temperatures were dropping outside and in that I became at all concerned. So I took my flashlight and went into my backyard to collect any left over firewood I could find from our fire puja. There was not much, but I knew that one piece of wood would be enough for a flame to cast light into my living room and bring a bit of heat, albeit temporarily, into my space.

For days I have been thinking of the yoginis and yogis who spend their lives in caves high in the Himalayas. I have wondered about their meditations in the natural cycles of lightness and darkness. I have considered what it would mean to be at the mercy of the natural elements. I have questioned whether it is a path I could ever embrace in this life. In my younger years I could have done it (and did on a 15 month journey through Southeast Asia), but these days I have grown accustomed to certain physical comforts. And regardless, it is my dharma to be in this world as difficult as it can be. To embrace all that comes instead of running away. Same last night- I could have left and stayed at a friend's, but would I have wanted to miss out on this opportunity? I was being offered a Berkeley-esque cave experience from the comfort of my beautiful house-a far cry from a Himalayan cave! But darkness. Darkness is darkness regardless of where one is. Can we just be with it without judging it as bad or good? Can't it be honored for the mystery that is its essence? Enough of modernity's overemphasis on light- the light of "reason" and "rationality" and all the blatantly racist metaphors around light being positive, dark being negative. Time to reclaim this language and its effect on our consciousness! The dark is too often demonized. Painfully so. But it is the dark mother from Africa who is the oldest divinity on the planet (See Lucia Birnbaum's work). And it is the dark fertile soil that grows much of our food, and the dark night sky, body of the Cosmic Mother within which our planet spins and resides, the dark of our mother's wombs where our physical forms were created. And what about those studies on the consciousness of dark matter- perhaps scientific 'evidence' of our beloved Kali Maa?? And there is the dark night of the soul that, although ruthless and excruciatingly painful, frees us from our past habits, conditioning, and delusions. It is time we reclaim the dark. The so-called dark 'other', the darkness that we fear around us and especially in ourselves. What lurks in those shadows? Why have we given it our power? How can we take it back? Remember- the light cannot exist without the dark.

I have learned to love the darkness. In darkness we have to see with our hearts, with our intuition and not with our eyes. Things are not as they appear and we must learn to trust our bodies, not our minds to discern what is real and what is unreal. Whether we are plunged into darkness or choose to surrender to it, whether our artificial sources of light wane from a power outage, or depression obscures the passion of our hearts, the Mystery is always the same. Darkness is a place of transformative and generative power. We must only learn to BE with it. No judgment, little fear. Patience. Trust. Patience.

The Ultimate Spiritual Teacher

2007-11-30T20:59:00.000-08:00

November Full Moon

Ammachi, Mata Amritameshwari is in town. Her ashram only twenty five minutes away in Castro Valley. I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to see this incredible saint/living goddess twice a year. Amma’s entire life has been of selfless service, of complete surrender to the divine. She has created countless humanitarian projects serving thousands of people. She has hugged-as her darshan- millions. She receives countless awards and presents talks on gender equality, spirituality, and unconditional love. She sits for 20 plus hours at a time hugging devotee after devotee and blessing them with the unconditional love of the divine mother. She is truly an exceptional being.

Five years ago I began seeing Amma and I have kept my vows to see her every time she visits her ashram the M.A. Center in Northen California-in June and November. Despite the sense of overload I have felt this past week and a deep desire to integrate all that has transpired in the last few weeks without any more outer input, I still felt there was one more ‘piece’ I needed to understand. There was something that I still did not quite ‘get’ about my spiritual journey and once again I found myself making a pilgrimage to a spiritual teacher.

As I was driving to the center I found myself weeping. Tears of sadness and frustration about the confusion around my spiritual beliefs that still remains. Tears of gratitude and relief to be going back to see Amma, who has nurtured me spiritually since my initial darshan with her five years ago. After all the intense Shakti I have been experiencing between Amma and Swami’s visit, the mystical experiences the Durga puja evoked, and the 7 months I spent in the underworld, it was deeply comforting to be going to see a “mother.”

When I went up for my darshan, Amma pulled me to her breasts. My friend C. and I had just been talking about the symbolism of breasts-nurturance, nourishment, abundance and our longing for the Mother, and here I was with my face nestled between Amma’s breasts! For a second I wondered if my head was supposed to be on her shoulder instead. But she held me tightly and I believed she had “heard” our conversation. She eventually guided my head to her shoulder for darshan and hugged me. I began to cry. Her hug called forth a somewhat lost and neglected part of myself that I immediately realized needed to be nurtured. It was almost shocking how obvious it is.

I do not need Amma Pratyangira or Swami, or Amma, or Nandu, or any of the wonderful teachers who have graced my life to lead me into my heart and soul and to confront and embrace the shadows and the light. I need to do this myself. And I am strong enough to do it alone. They all have been my guides, my mentors along with many other remarkable beings: Vicki Noble, Alice Walker, Kyle, my kula of Shakta and feminist sisters, Gypsy-- but the ultimate Spiritual Teacher is me. I am the one to lead me through the darkness, chaos, and disillusionment and to guide me toward decisions that are in my highest good. I will continue to turn to these sagacious beings for insight and guidance at times, but ultimately I must always remember that the Shakti that I seek and yearn for can be fully generated from within. This is true for each of us. A guru is there to initiate our awakening and evolution of consciousness, to help us tread the path. They are always with us, but we do not need to give our power over to them and rely on their Shakti to sustain and propel us. I fully believe they can help us in various ways. They can serve as role models and guides and remind us of the tools we already have. They can share the teachings of our ancestors and present horizons of expanded consciousness that are available to us. But at some point we have to let go of their hand and walk proudly and courageously alone.

I am a yogini. Unconventional and unfettered. Attendant of Goddess Within.

It is time I begin teaching.

Sweet Darkness

2007-11-29T23:25:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving my beloved friend, who is battling cancer and was recovering from chemo, chose a poem for me from a wonderful collection of poetry. It felt like an oracle to me:

Sweet Darkness

When your eyes are tired
the world is tired also.

When your vision has gone
no part of the world can find you.

Time to go into the dark
where the night has eyes
to recognize its own.

There you can be sure
you are not beyond love.

The dark will be your womb
tonight.

The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.

You must learn one thing:
the world was made to be free in.

Give up all the other worlds
except the one to which you belong.

Sometimes it takes darkness and the sweet
confinement of your aloneness

to learn

anything or anyone
that does not bring you alive

is too small for you.

~ David Whyte ~

(House of Belonging)

A few days later I attended a yoga class and the teacher read us part of a chant from the Brhadaranyaka Upanishad while we were in savasana (corpse pose):

yastamasi tisthann tamaso'ntrah yam tamo na veda yasya tamas sariram yastamo'ntaro yamayati esa ta atma-ntaryamy-amrtah

That which exists in darkness, and pervades it throughout, that which darkness does not know, whose bodily manifestations the darkness is, which controls the darkness from within, That is your Self, the Inner-controller, the Immortal One.

This upanishad is a preparation for death. Death is inevitable for each of us. Reciting this mantra is a tool for approaching death more consciously. Death is as much of reality as is birth. But this culture denies and represses darkness and death. And yet these are integral states to the cycle of existence. What happens to the soul when it leaves this physical body? Where do we go? Reciting this mantra expands our consciousness and helps us remain aware of our Self
during our transition.

I am thinking a lot about death these days. In part because it is the season of dying and one finds many religious holidays honoring of the death aspect of the cycle. And also because of my dear friend who is fighting for her life. It is no mere coincidence that I am being given such mantras to help midwife my friend's journey-- and my own. In the very least they are soothing. Pillars within our faith that keep us centered and grounded, open and free.

The Force of Ma Pratyangira and Swami

2007-11-16T23:52:00.000-08:00

She weaves the Shakti web in mysterious ways. I am having countless mystical experiences. It is difficult to write about what is happening. But it feels important to express what I can, to share the Shakti that has graced my life from Amma and Swami's visit.

On Saturday night Amma and Swami gave darshan at a local Unitarian church. Despite the inclusiveness of this denomination of the Christian religion's views, the energy in the church felt cold and oppressive. Despite its openness, its roots lie in a patriarchal institution that has excluded women or demonized them for centuries. And even where women have been included, they have been de-sexualized. When the Divine Mother arrives in one of such places, the energies are inevitably formidable. And She, Durga can certainly slay the demons. While Ammas embodies Pratyangira other goddesses like Durga, Kali, Varahi, Lalita all come through her. The Goddess whose qualities are needed comes. And Amma is the blessed receptacle for these energies that are available to all of us. Amma always reminds us that She has come here to help us recognize Goddess in ourselves and each other. We too can harness such amplified energies, but serious yogic practices are necessary in order for our physical bodies to be able to contain the energies.

A workshop on the Sri Vidya tradition and practices to Pratyangira was offered on Sunday. Amma commented on how strong the force of Goddess was in my temple space. How all those that were present had brought Her there, and how because of the devotion I have for Durga, Durga in Her various forms is coming through me and opening my home to others who share this path. We all received an initiation that evening and five us were invited to go deeper into the tradition and to be initiated at another level.

And then Amma went into her bhava. We had put a large mat in the center of the room. It has the yantra or geometric form of Goddess painted on it in orange, red and yellow. This yantra is a portal into other forms of consciousness. In this tradition the yantra is Goddess Herself. Amma and Swami performed a puja, offering water, rice, incense, fire, sandalwood oil, red vermilion paste, tumeric, bhajans, mantras, and prayers . Amma called us up to the center of the mat, one by one. Her devotees would stand on the bindu of the yantra while Amma would place her finger on their third eye. Two of us initiates were asked to stand on either side of the devotees receiving darshan. We needed to catch them if they started to fall and help those who needed it to their seats. And people would fall back, their eyes closed, and we would be there to push them upright until finally Amma reached for them (with the aid of Swami as She was totally in trance) and hugged them for darshan. Her hands perform mudras or sacred hand gestures that invoke and honor divine energies. Her tongue stretches out and her eyes roll back. She mutters mantras or cackles . Some devotees She locks in the fiercest embrace and they shake, laugh and sometimes cry. All in my living room. Standing in the mat for the entire darshan was intense. The energy was electrifying.

How can I doubt the forces that have guided and informed my life, especially what I felt while Amma and Swami were here? What really happened this past weekend? Will I ever know, or can I just shed the mind that is trying to rationalize and explain? How can I even explain these extraordinary experiences and feelings?

Goddess was here. Goddess is here. Can you feel Her?

The Divine Mother

2007-11-15T23:20:00.000-08:00

The Shakti. Five days with two saints has transformed my life. I feel more integrated and aligned. I am aware I could very easily fall out of this state, but for the moment I surrender to it and ride the waves! The Divine Mother was here. She is POWERFUL! We all felt Her. In Amma AND Swami. I am struck by how familiar they are to me, and how human. Divinely human. A state of consciousness that is available to all of us. It is truly amazing. The synchronicities that are flooding my life right now. Profound. This Shakti web is very real, yet ineffable. Extremely mysterious...All I can think about is Goddess. Every experience, every thought, an expression of Her.

Amma Pratyangira and Swami

2007-11-13T21:11:00.000-08:00

The Divine Mother was here. In amplified form. I have spent the last five days with Amma and Swami. The homa or fire puja, Diwali celebration, Amma's Bhavas, 100 devotees-so many beautiful and powerful experiences. Mata Pratyangira is a living force!

On Friday evening Swami and Amma Pratyangira performed a fire puja in my back yard. 108 sacred herbs and plants went into the flames, the fire itself worshiped as Goddess. Sweets, incense, ghee, coconuts, honey, 9 different grains all were offered. From my stereo placed on the back deck, the Lalita Sahasranam-1000 names of the Goddess came resonating through our circle. Amma chanted along while 50 of us were held mesmerized by the energies. For about an hour Amma played her favorite bhajans or devotional hymns and sang along with sheer devotion while Swami performed the puja.

Many of the photos (to be posted at a later date) show Amma and Swami in their bliss bodies or ethereal bodies. They appear translucent yet a smoky veil infuses parts of their physical form. In some certain body parts disappear completely into the ethers. In one of the photos Swami takes on the form of Chinnamasta for it appears his head hovers over his shoulder. Photo after photo shows some divine expression of energy. And the 'fairy' lights around them along the fence continuously shape shift into various forms. The fire itself takes different guises and the entire aura of the evening is infused with the Divine Mother's Love.

After the homa we all went inside for darshan. For days I had prepared the temple space. An altar with many different murti (divine images) was placed around the fireplace. Diwali candles lined the mantel. Amma began performing darshan. Calling out Jai Bhuvaneshwari Ki and everyone would cry out Jai! (Victory to Goddess Bhuvaneshwari). She would then ask the name of each devotee and call out their name with this reverent chant: Jai ______Ki... Jai! the rest of the room would shout. Anandalahari and Francesca played the most divinely melodious music for Amma's darshan. Again Anandalahari's Han drum transported me to another realm. And Francesca's kirtan was haunting-beautifully so. On this sacred holiday Diwali, my house was graced with devotional music, reverence, and love.

Being the hostess I missed much of the darshan and was involved with other sacred interactions. After a couple hours I suddenly knew I needed to go into the living room and be with Amma. I was immediately called up to her. The last to receive darshan. She was already in her Bhava. Fierce and wild-like Kali Maa. Her tongue stretched out, her eyes bulging, her hands in various mudras, until she raised one as if she was holding a sword. She pulled me to her and started chanting. She named the fierce goddesses I worship in my ritual practices. I had not told Amma about my devotion to these goddesses when she was in "normal" consciousness, and here she was embodying some tremendous force and reciting mantras for Varahi, Chamunda, and Chinamasta. I was blasted with energy. My muladhara or root chakra experienced a fiery surge of energy that traveled up my spine and made my entire body shake for minutes. Amma Pratyangirae held onto me tightly and continued to chant and occasionally cackle (!) while my physical form trembled and shook. The kirtan music died down and the room became perfectly silent except for the Divine Mother's breathing and sacred utterances. It was sublime. After she released me I fell back onto one of my sister's knees and grabbed onto another sister's hand. I needed to share the powerful currents of energy that were coursing through me. I could not hold all that energy in my body and indeed experienced a headache all through the night. (Om Namas Chandikayay- She Who Tears Apart Thoughts). Nor could I sleep. So much Shakti! But I also continued to experience sheer Bliss. Devotion. And Love. The evening ended with Amma feeding about 10 of us from this endless pot of savory Indian prasad. She had cooked for us right before the puja-in an hour she had created 8 different dishes that were truly sublime.

Amma does not remember what happened in her bhava state. So after the puja we sat in my living room and shared as best we could- words really can not express the Shakti that blazed through us all that evening. Jai Maa!

Mata Pratyangirae and Diwali

2007-11-04T11:50:00.000-08:00

Amma Pratyangirae is coming to my house for Diwali. Diwali is known as the festival of lights and will take place on the dark moon on November 9^th this year. At this time Goddess Lakshmi, the Goddess of Spiritual and Material Abundance, Harmony, and Beauty is celebrated and worshiped in the homes. People pray for the success of their businesses and peacefulness in domestic life. Hundreds of candles of lit, footsteps are drawn on the path leading to the front door, and inside flowers, sweet foods, incense, music, and devotees await Her…

Mata Pratyangirae is a fierce primordial goddess of over 2000 lion heads. She is ancient and all powerful. She has appeared to us in the 21^st century in the body of a Tamil Indian woman from Singapore. While Durga removes difficulty and fear, Lakshmi brings abundance, and Kali helps us deal with our anger, Pratyangirae is the Goddess we call on to help us remove negative karmas. She has come in human form to "eat" our fears, worries and problems and help us to find and live our true light. It is not that she takes all the difficulties away from us, but with her guidance a challenging situation may suddenly be less formidable, or a bad habit may release its hold on us. We cannot sit back passively waiting for all the stress to dissipate from our lives even when we are blessed to be in the presence of a realized being like Amma Pratyangirae or Swami. We must also do the Work and we can begin with opening our hearts.

Diwali is the perfect ritual for accessing the blazing radiant light of our souls. The candles we light are symbolic of the flames that burn within each of our hearts. This is yet another sacred time in the autumnal season of death and decay, where we have an opportunity to dispel the darkness of our ignorance and suffering through ritual practices. Such rituals teach us of the inherent cycles in our lives. Everything has its season. Life is a constant battle-
or it is a dance between the tensions of opposites that are continuously at play within our lives. All things that are born will eventually die. This is a seemingly simple truth, and yet most of us in the West have trouble accepting the reality of death. We run from it, deny it, repress the fact of its inevitably. We do so much to try to prolong and enhance this life and to keep a firm hold on all of our attachments. What if we took a different approach? What if we understood our lives as a preparation for perhaps the greatest spiritual initiation there is, death of our physical bodies? Our physical death is going to happen to each of us, so how can we live more consciously, so that in the end, we can die more consciously? Every day we experience death-whether of the moment, a feeling, a relationship, time, or even a loved one. In this season of lessening light, rituals like Diwali help us to stay connected to our inner light.

During the Durga Puja and fall equinox we celebrate the fruits of our labor from the past 9 months. But the bounty of the harvest too will pass. Fall is a season of celebration and letting go. Here in the Northern hemisphere as the days get shorter and the nights longer, a ritual like Diwali or even sitting in the presence of a Spiritual Teacher can aid us in preparing our hearts and our minds to approach death in her myriad guises in a more present way. To me this season is a time of preparation for dissolution. I may or may not be conscious of what I need to release, but I have come to respect the often cold harshness of these days as a time to go within myself, to hibernate and reflect. A sacred time when the veils between the worlds are thin and messages from our ancestors come streaming in...I I take comfort in fall's cold inky darkness and these opportunities to contemplate the mysteries of death and life. It is a wondrous blessing that Amma and Swami are coming here to perform these rituals.

Over the past several weeks, I have experienced numerous synchronicities pointing to Amma Pratyangirae’s arrival. Too many to share, but they continue to occur whether through 'out of the blue' phone calls, seemingly random encounters, or 'odd' experiences that have a numinous essence. I merely observe and surrender to them- trying not to judge or interpret. A female saint is coming to my home, but not as an award nor as a punishment. I, my ego mind has no idea why we are hosting the ritual gatherings here, and it does not matter. I am not sure what it all means and hope to be able to open to the spiritual potential for deeper awakening. Still, I remain awestruck by the blessing that is being presented. Being in their presence I have the sense of being with two very wise and realized souls. Grace, peace and love permeate my experiences with them. May this be true for all who encounter them.

Last Friday I saw Amma Pratyangirae in San Francisco. Swami, Amma’s Shiva (for they are indeed the embodiment of Shiva and Shakti!), performed a flower puja and Amma went into her bhava or “mood.” When someone enters a bhava they usually exhibit mystical qualities, signs of spiritual states of consciousness. Amma’s eyes roll back till only the whites show between her trembling eyelids, her voice changes, she performs mudras in a trance-like state, then gives darshan-or a blessing, and sometimes offers prophecies. The energy in the room intensifies. It feels hot, electric, enlivening. Everyone present is captivated by the sacred play or Lila. Amma is here to awaken our own divinity, which she describes as Love. One by one we sit or kneel before her and she presses sacred ash on each devotee’s forehead-right between the eyebrows. Sometimes she mutters mantras to various goddesses like Aum Bhubaneswaryay Namaha or Kali Kali Kali Kali, or She emits a deep throated AUM whose resonance seems to shake the walls! Occasionally she cries out, PHET! in a very fierce deliberate tone—for cutting or severing emotional and mental afflictions. This one is quite startling as the vibration of the syllables coming from Amma cut through the thick waves of Shakti circling around us and for a moment I experience a state of dissolution. Hearing PHET! makes me shudder—perhaps my own negative tendencies do not want to be banished and are raising up in protest. Nevertheless almost instantaneously the Shakti resurges and continues to stir the energies within and around us. Sometimes the energies make us cry, others laugh—we never know what to expect. These Shaktified experiences truly are different than ordinary reality. And yet it is pretty amazing how “easy” it is for us to access the Shakti. Ultimately it is within each of us, waiting to be stirred and awakened.

When it was my turn to kneel before Amma, I began to cry (which does not happen to me out of sadness or joy, but out of a profound sense of recognition and relief). “Hey Mata”, Amma said to me. Hello Mother, which she has called me from the moment we first met. She has greeted many women I know in this way-to Amma we are all the Mother. Amma tells us she is here to help us find Pratyangirae in our self and all others. It was such a relief to be in her presence again. Everything around me dissolved and for a moment, I found a refuge from the chaos of life. Amma placed her finger on my third eye and my head fell back. All my thoughts disintegrated, crumbled and collapsed. There were things I had wanted to pray for, offerings of gratitude I wanted to give, blessings I had hoped to ask to receive, but no words came into form, all of my thoughts turned to dust. I became part of a vast blanket of emptiness. I felt deep peace and tranquility. Tenderness and sweetness. There was nothing to do, I could just Be. I drank it all in and a part of my consciousness clicked in and made an imprint of this serene awareness that I would call forth in stressful times in waking life.

After many seconds (that to me had stretched into hours), I heard Mata Pratyangirae chanting, Ambika-Durgayay, Ambika- Durgayay. I was called back to ordinary consciousness. When I awaken from such states it takes me a moment to remember where I am. My eyes rested on Amma's physical form. Beautiful Amma Pratyangirae standing before me, beaming. It felt as if we had never been separated even though a year had passed since we last met. I cherish such moments of ease and freedom. Presence. I moved away filled with sweet gratitude and then received a blessing from Swami.

On Diwali, people begin new business ventures, and this year I will begin one too. A couple weeks ago I began making special amulets out of silver and glass boxes and circular lockets within which I secured two different images of the Goddess. I wanted to talk to Swamiji and Amma about selling them and donating a percentage to the Ekatvam organization, so I wore one the night I went to their puja. Swami noticed it right away and was astonished that this locket held an image of Mother Pratyangirae. When I showed Amma, she was very excited. She told me the Mother had just been saying three days before that they needed to have an amulet of Her image to sell on the website and at events. And here I was wearing the amulet. We had both received the same guidance. Here is a sweetly divine opportunity for us all to invoke more Lakshmi energy into our lives.

***My dear new yogini sister, Sri Acala called just now! I must share this synchronicity as this is exactly the kind of thing that keeps happening. These subtle, yet powerful messages of alignment, of flow. SriAcala was the lead priestess of the Durga Puja I attended. A CLEAR EMBODIMENT OF DURGA MAA HERSELF. This woman has SHAKTI. Her friendship has been one of several great blessings that have evolved since the Durga puja. Acala called as I sit writing about Mata Pratyangirae to tell me how one of her jyotish teachers just emailed his list of 2000 people about how powerful Amma and Swamiji are and how they must try to meet them in Berkeley. He also had tremendous experiences with them. This, yet another fabulous synchronicity in a mala of Goddess-infused prayer beads…Jai MAA!

If you live in the Bay Area and wish to join us on November 9th and 11th, please email me and I will send directions. For more info on Mata Pratyangirae and Swamiji go to www.ekatvam.org

Tantra as Spiritual Practice

2007-10-24T19:51:00.000-07:00

How can tantra help a woman enhance her inner qualities?

Thank you, Bobbin Cat, for posting this question. I have been thinking about it since last night and want to respond in this blog. In short, Tantra is a mystical path of commitment, devotion and dedication to transformation and liberation.

Tantra is about harnessing and amplifying our inner power, our Shakti. The word tantra means to weave and involves a process of weaving/blending opposite qualities or tensions and experiencing the unity of their common essence. There are various forms of practices in Tantra: mantra, yoga, pranayama, meditation, yantra worship, ritual. Through these practices we learn to experience our mind as a stream of thoughts and emotions. A yogini (or yogi) learns to break the thought patterns through repetitious chanting, focusing the mind on a deity or sacred symbol. Sometimes emotions or thoughts become amplified. Whether one considers them bad or good, one needs to approach them consciously, looking for the root of the feeling/thought, then once it is discovered, holding it with reverence. Tantra teaches us many tools to engage in this process. The energetic properties of mantra, for example, stimulate us on a cellular level and balance and synchronize our energies. Yoga helps open our nadis or energetic channels and leads us to conscious embodiment. Ritual and deity worship help us align with the divinity and find Her/Him within ourself. These practices take us out of our daily often unconscious routine. Our approach to life deepens and becomes imbued with meaning. The universe responds and we notice how It reflects our thoughts and desires. (see www.suddenlyhersoul.blogspot.com Mystery: Death Happens) Signs and synchronicities abound, thereby strengthening the qualities within us that know and remember our divine interconnected essence.

Nandu told me that a yogini does not react to a difficult situation, but responds. She learns to stay balanced and calm in the face of any adversity. And as another one of my teachers told me this week, sometimes a yogini retreats. Periods of meditation, contemplation, solitude and creative expression are necessary. What we need to access our power within varies at different times. Most important is that we do not become all consumed or obsessed with the emotion/experience and do practices to remain conscious of the lila or play we are experiencing.

To enhance my positive inner qualities, or my Shakti, I attempt to confront and embrace any negative thought or emotion. Sometimes I sit with it and let it run its course for days or weeks, but then eventually I do sadhana-spiritual practice to work with the energies that are inhibiting me from accessing and expressing my Shakti. As the remover of fear and difficulty, Durga teaches us not to run away from that which is difficult, but to face it with composure. Yoga, meditation, mantra, ritual all can help. By transmuting the negative charge of certain mental and emotional experiences we inevitably empower ourselves. When we live in accordance with our intuition, when we have focused our intention on releasing any binding thoughts and commit to transforming limiting patterns, we are able to shine as the divine beings that we are.

Nandu Menon (or Amarananda Bhairavan, author of Kali's Odiyya and Medicine Wheel of Light) teaches about four fundamental principle of Tantric Mysticism.

1. Non-violence and non-judgment

2. Humility and surrender

3. Unquestioning faith in the Goddess within

4. Unconditional Love for the Goddess within

Embodying these principles leads us to the enhancement of our most beneficent inner qualities.

VIJAYA DASHAMI!!!! Durga's Victory Day!

2007-10-22T10:38:00.000-07:00

And Devi (goddess) said: Whoever with a concentrated mind shall pray to me constantly whether through recitation of my bija (seed) mantra, my sacred hymns (the Devi Mahatmya), singing my name in any of its forms, or chanting any other mantra asking for my protection, I shall, without a doubt, remove any trouble or problem from which you are suffering. Surrender yourself to me and I will lead you to the bliss of Self-knowledge.

10 days of continuous worship, unyielding reverence, unwavering devotion, and Mother Durga has liberated me from some severe mental and emotional afflictions. I am coming back to Life after 7 1/2 months of a very very very dark night of the soul, where I was pinned to the shifting floor of the underworld, where every belief, idea of who I am and what I want, when even my relationship to Her was stripped to its core and called into question. I relived every single disappointment I have ever felt during this time. I felt as if I was drowning in grief. I spent almost three months in bed with bronchitis and pneumonia, my lungs, the seat of our grief, could not function for my sadness about life and the state of the world was too deep and overwhelming. The suffering of women, children, the animal world, the Earth Herself. All the ways societal conditioning traps and limits both females and males from living authentically, freely. War and violence, conflict and pain. For over 7 months I sat as witness and victim to pain, pain, unrelenting pain. My own and others. And I almost lost my faith.

From the bowels of my ignorance and despair to the heart of self-luminescent brilliance and wisdom I have journeyed. My heavy, congested heart that was filled with uncertainty is now filled with LOVE, awe, and longing. Deep deep longing to stay in alignment with Her. To remember She is the force behind and between, within and without ALL EXISTENCE. Even when we do not feel Her, She is here. At times Her Shakti is only obscured, our consciousness cluttered, fragmented, so She can tear it all apart (OM NAMAS CHANDIKAYAY) and lead us from the unreal to the Real. All the things my ego desires, all the ways my thinking inhibits me, all the times I feel so utterly lost and alone-all of this I offered to Her flames and asked for annihilation and liberation. I chanted as if my life depended on it. Because it did. And now, ten days later, I feel Her victory in my own body. I know, again, I am Durga. I know She is every woman and man who I see. She is stronger, more awakened in some of us than in others. But She is in all of us. I know my journey will continue-through darkness and light, suffering and joy, pain and bliss. At this moment, I remember who I am and what I am here on this planet to do. To be in Service to Her. I may forget, I may become lost, I may fall into the underworld of despair from time to time. But this pilgrimage has been a true victory. The spiritual path leading me back to the illumined temple of my heart. The mantras and recitation of Her glorious name have freed me from the severe misery I had become lost in. I may cycle back to those spaces of sadness, for Her nature is both wrathful and benevolent, nurturing and fierce, but I know the journey is a continual process of becoming more aligned with Her. Each experience stretching our consciousness so we can open to experiencing more of Her ecstasy and radiant Shakti.

Mother Durga, the Remover of Difficulty and Fear, Great Goddess who rescues the distressed and afflicted who take refuge in You. Reverence to You, Reverence to You, Reverence to You.

Vijaya Dashami. Thank You for this Victory, Maa Durga. Jai Maa. Jai Jai Jai Jai Jai DURGA MAA!

Astami and Navami and Living Goddesses

2007-10-21T15:32:00.000-07:00

On her ninth day, Navami, we ask for blessings for our tools and instruments. It is still one of Saraswati’s days and all the implements She inspires us to use are worshiped. Books, pens, my computer, beads and jewelry tools, anything that is necessary for my Work goes on the altar.

Saturday was the last morning ritual of the festival. I felt a little sad to know this daily ritual that has brought such a deep sense of power and grace to my life, is coming to an end. According to Durga’s myth, after the victory celebrations on the tenth day Durga returns to Her sacred abode in the mountains. It is not that She is no longer with us, She will always come when called. However, every year after the puja, the intensity of Shakti wanes, and we are asked to integrate the myriad lessons, insights and feelings we have opened to during the puja. Durga reminds us that She will always return-all we must do is call out Her name. I know this is true, but I will miss the warmth and empowering resonance that these rituals have provided. I will miss the mystifying ways the various Goddess energies and mantras have felt in my body. It has been very healing and restorative. For the past 9 days I have woken before dawn and have fully offered my Self to these pujas. I have felt Her strongly. She comes through in so many awesome ways. I sense that because of this regular worship I am more aligned and conscious of Her different expressions. I am deeply amazed by the ways Her energies are playing out in my life.

On the eighth and ninth days the battle Durga is fighting heats up. The myth tells of Her battle with Mahisasuramardini, the shape-shifting buffalo demon. In Nepal, these final three days belong to Kali (while Saraswati receives homage during the first three days). In any case, we must battle the remaining asuras or vestiges of negative thoughts, and open to the tremendous wisdom that Saraswati promises us.

On Friday, the eighth day after puja one of the devotees at this local temple gifted me with a copy of the Mahisuramardini Strotram. A wonderful chant/song narrating Durga’s battle with the demon. Actually, She is called Ambika, Chandika, and Parvati before She takes the name Durga, the Invincible One. Durga is the name of the demon She slays and liberates to its essentially divine essence. By assuming the name of a demon, Goddess shows that even that which we consider bad or negative is ultimately a part of Her. Like Durga, we can free ourselves from its limiting stronghold. Every morning we have sung this 15 minute chant and some have even danced. The words themselves induce a trancey energy. I find it impossible to sit and just read the words to the music. My body instinctively moves, sways, pulses with Shakti. This is Saraswati’s grace. Music, art, dance. The gift of this music from a sister devotee really touched me. I can now listen to it whenever I like. Although I do not know this woman, I have seen her almost every morning at the ritual and we both have recognized Durga in each other. It is an honor to make these connections with women, especially when I consider how a significant theme of the Durga puja in South Asia is that it is a reunion between mothers and daughters. Despite the patriarchal brahmanic overlays, I have experienced this festival as a ritual celebrating the bonds between women-which my own research has shown is its true origin.

A few minutes later, on this same day, another woman, who has been one of the main priestesses for the puja (and who looks like Durga!!! She is radiant with Durga’s energy!), invited me to help build the Sri Yantra for the Vijaya Dashami-Durga’s Victory, the tenth day. Synchronistically, I was wearing my Lalita necklace (the Sri Yantra is a manifestation of Lalita) and knew I needed to invoke some of Her delightful energies into my life. These necklaces are not your every day adornment. They are sacred, imbued with Goddess energy, and have continuously offered me and my clients who wear them many mystical and spiritually affirming experiences. It was no coincidence that the first day I wear a Lalita necklace to the puja I am invited to co-create a Sri Yantra out of colored rice. The Sri Yantra is Goddess Herself. And this Durga priestess, L. is truly an embodiment of Her.

On one of the first mornings of the puja I looked at this priestess and saw Her as a living emanation of this beautiful Chandi/Durga mask a friend in Bombay had given me. She has Shakti, and her presence has felt very familiar to me. Something I can only ascribe to Maa. Then on the evening of the eighth night I learn that this priestess, L, works in a crematorium! How Kali-esque! Kali and Her bevy of fierce goddesses frequent and perform ritual practices in the cremation ground. On the Tantric path we learn and experience how life and death walk hand in hand. Death, like life, is merely a state of being. Every moment we are experiencing death, whether it is of as thought, or experience, or something larger like the loss of physical body or forms. Many of the rituals revolve around confronting those things/people/places that we fear most. When L. told me how She burns bodies and how beautiful the experience is to her, I was deeply moved. It is a tremendous blessing for these souls, who are leaving this world, to have their physical forms offered to Her sacred flames by a priestess of Durga and Kali.

One of the many gifts I have received during this puja time is to continue to recognize Her in living women. I know many women in my own chakra of yoginis who are embodiments of Saraswati, the Black Dakini Throma, Lakshmi, Chamunda, Tara, and other Goddesses. And over the past week I have been exposed to many many more living women who are integrating goddess energies into their lives and consciously living Her myths. The myths have come even more alive for me. It is clear that these stories must have been based on women’s lives and expressions of femininity/female experience. For those of us who live unconventional lives, it is especially heartening to not only hear stories of unfettered yoginis, but to actually know them and witness their radical liberated and fearless dance within this world.

Astami and Navami have brought a multitude of rich blessings this year. Before Durga's mythical battles were won during the ninth night, before the rituals commemorating Vijaya Dashami, Durga's victory day, I have personally experienced a major shift in consciousness that consequently has attracted even more profound experiences around the power of women, especially women in groups. Last night at the Bioneers conference I had the great honor of having dinner with Alice Walker and the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers. The conversations, the heart opening, the teachings I received are something I must write about soon - but at a later time as I am too bleary eyed from lack of sleep and all the blazing Shakti. Tonight is Her great Victory Celebration. I must prepare for the final puja and open my heart to the victories and awareness that are still to come.

Saraswati Puja Day Seven

2007-10-18T22:21:00.000-07:00

Om. I worship the incomparable Mahasaraswati, who holds in her lotus-like hands the bell, trident, plough, conch, mace, discus, bow and arrow, who is effulgent like the moon shining at the edge of a cloud, who is the support of the three worlds, and who came from the body of Gauri to destroy Shumnba and other asuras.
(In Praise of the Goddess: The Devimahatmya and Its Meaning, Devadatta Kali)

I meditate upon the Goddess Matangi, the Embodiment of the Mother (of Saraswati). Sitting upon a throne of jewels, She is listening to the sweet sounds of parrots. The color of Her body is dark. She has one foot resting upon a lotus, and She wears a half moon upon Her head. Wearing a garland of flower buds, She plays the strings of the vina. She covers Her body with a blouse and a red colored sari. In Her hand is a cup made of conch shell. From Her face comes a slight sweet scent which causes intoxication, and a brilliant spot of vermillion shines on Her forehead.

These are Goddesses I love and adore. Saraswati, Goddess of Creativity, Dance, Music, Poetry, all the Arts, Wisdom and Learning; Matangi Elephant-headed Goddess of Female Sexuality and Mystical Power. Today at the morning puja we worshiped MahaSaraswati. One Her devotees played a beautiful tin drum like instrument ( I wish I knew its name!). The notes sounded like water gently cascading over river rocks in a brook or stream. I wept from the resonance I felt in my heart. Saraswati, Goddess of Flow, of all the Waters, and Goddess of Music, Her essence merging and expressing itself in this puja through Her devotees. We chanted to Saraswati. We prayed. Some of us dance to the recitation of the Mahisuramardini-the trancey chant about Durga's battle with the shape-shifting buffalo demon. For almost two hours every morning we praise and worship Goddess. We ask for Her blessings. We say Her mantra 108 times and float in Her energy, my own consciousness merging and expanding.

This evening I had my Sanskrit class. My teacher is a tantric scholar and practitioner. He is very well-educated and funny. And he clearly knows how to dance with Saraswati. The Sanskrit alphabet is truly a science that expresses the spiritual patterns of our manifest reality. The phonemes of Sanskrit are building blocks of manifestation. The Goddess Vac, an earlier form of Saraswati, is the Goddess of the word-the word whose vibration brings the physical realm into manifest reality. The alphabet itself is a sacred act. There are even practices of mapping phonemes on the body. Language creates consciousness and the vibrational, linguistic and mystical properties of various letters and words in Sanskrit attest to language's influence on consciousness. (May I just remind us of my previous blog on the word guys...women are not guys. To call women in a group "guys" only perpetuates the patriarchal paradigm on many unseen levels...)

To continue with tonight, the first of Saraswati's three days, I attend class and receive teachings on the Sanskrit alphabet, one of Her domains. On these final three days Saraswati's gifts are that of illuminated wisdom, discernment, and clarity. It is wonderful to be able to live my life in such a congruent way with Her during these puja days. It is as if every aspect of my life reflects some of the qualities of each of these Goddesses on their particular days. I cannot see Her as separate, nor do I forget about Her after puja. She permeates my entire life and being, and I am grateful for the recognition of Her constant presence that I am experiencing.

We learn a beautiful chant to Saraswati. The tune has floated in and out of my consciousness since I first heard it sung in this rhythm four weeks ago. It is called Sardula-Vikridita, Tiger's play meter. Indeed the low notes could be the tiger's paws pressing heavily on the ground, and the lighter notes the times when the tiger is rolling and frolicking, then coming to her feet to pounce, then dive in play again. So many layers of consciousness are intentionally integrated and experienced as One through various modes of expression within this mantra. All the while the tiger plays, we clumsily try to pronounce the mantra while visualizing Saraswati and asking for Her blessing on our learning endeavors.

Hareesh, our teacher is extremely knowledgeable. He tends to go off on these fascinating esoteric tangents on tantric mysticism, linguistics, yoga, the Vedas, spiritual experiences, philosophy, mythology, ritual practices and more! All 8 of us students love it. What a wonderful way to learn the language. Although I studied it before, I never could get excited about it. We were translating texts on the warrior caste and rarely focused on pronunciation or spiritual philosophies. But now the language has come alive. The alphabet IS the Goddess. How wonderful to really see and feel this on Saraswati's day.

One of the teachings Hareesh shared tonight is a central aspect to the Tantric path. He described a path I embrace and was grateful to be reminded of. Desire.
Desire is Matangi's domain...The Tantric path teaches us to use sensual means to attain divine consciousness. In ritual worship Matangi is offered pollutants, things deemed taboo and unclean. She can transmute their energies into Shakti and so within Tantric circles these offerings hold much power. From the Tantric perspective, no desire is bad, when approached in moderation, any desire can be used as a tool to help us achieve union with the Divine. And the attainment of Divine union is the ultimate goal of every practitioner. What if we were to see every desire as a microcosmic manifestation of the divinity? What if, instead of coming from a place of lack, we realized that we are already complete and will enjoy the sensation of our own divinity through a catalyst-the desire. Awareness of our Divinity. To know that I am the One Who is aware of this 'chocolate', craving, experience. The joy of obtaining our desire is not really inside the thing itself, but comes from following joy back to its source. Who is the one experiencing the joy? I actually am the instrument of the joy, not the desire itself. Here we find the bliss of our self-awareness. As the sensation subsides once the desire has been used, the mind too has the opportunity to dissolve into pure awareness - if one can stay conscious through the practice.

Jai Matangi Maa! Jai Saraswati Maa!

MahaLakshmi Puja Days 4-6

2007-10-17T21:00:00.000-07:00

Om. I revere Mahalakshmi, who holds in her hands the prayer beads, ax, mace, arrow, thunderbolt, lotus, bow, waterpot, staff, lance, sword, shield, conch, bell, wine cup, trident, noose and the discus Sudarshana; whose complexion is radiant like coral; who is seated on a lotus; and who is the destroyer of Mahisasura.
(In Praise of the Goddess: The Devi Mahatmya and Its Meaning, Devadatta Kali)

The last three days, days four through six of the puja, have been devoted to Mahalakshmi. During the first three we worshiped Maa Durga. We sang to Her, offered flowers, rice, coconuts, and fruit. We offered all of our "demons," our self-limiting ego perceptions. We asked Her to clear our karma and prepare us for the abundance that Lakshmi has to offer. And She did.

Mother Lakshmi is the goddess of spiritual and material wealth, harmony, plentitude, and generosity. Her seat is the lotus; a sacred symbol of the initiate's journey. As the Goddess of fruition, She is celebrated as the rajas, the fertile passionate life force. During Lakshmi's days we see the first tender green shoots of the jamara or barley plant sprout. The blades represent the swords Durga uses in Her battle with Mahisasuramardini and the other demons. We will continue to chant to them for the next three days. The blades remind us that although we have come to a place of abundance with Lakshmi, there are still shape-shifting "demons" in our own lives to slay.

I continue my pilgrimage, waking before dawn and walking to the temple, half-asleep, but filled with awe. I make my way through the rainy dark streets and enter the temple just as light is breaking-every day. Lakshmi is rain and She is earth. She is light and She is darkness. Every act and experience is infused with Lakshmi's energy. It is not hard to get up so early. This energy is soothing to my mind, heart and soul.

The morning puja is exquisitely beautiful. I could not have ever asked for more of a reverent and authentic Durga puja in the States. The women pujaris are embodiments of Maa. The male pujaris give me hope of a world that honors the female divine. We chant and pray, give offerings and receive. I feel transported to another realm and cherish these moments of profound connection. I am still in awe of this blessing of daily puja to Durga so close to my home. I can dress in my saris, a different one for each of Her days, and immerse myself in the energy of each particular aspect of Her. Each Matrika, Durga, Kali, Lakshmi and beginning tomorrow, Saraswati, are manifestations of female consciousness. I am living these various expressions through my body. A part of me wishes I did not have to work or be in the every day world and could fully surrender to the states of consciousness I feel pulled toward. But this Work is about divine embodiment and there is no separating any part of life. On the third day of Lakshmi puja clarity about several aspects of my self and life comes to me. Suddenly, with MahaLakhsmi I feel Oneness.

1998 Darshan with the Kumari

2007-10-13T23:48:00.001-07:00

In April I traveled to the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal. As the pilot maneuvered the body of the plane through the narrow gap between mountains and onto what is known as one of the most precarious landing strips in the world, my heart raced with excitement. While the other passengers clapped and sighed with great relief that the plane had safely touched ground, I experienced a strange feeling that if I died at this moment, I would be content. Later, looking back at this uncanny sensation, I realize that I was about to experience a death, a death of how I had known and thought of my self. My understanding of my existence in the universal scheme of things would be challenged and – over the next nine years— deeply transformed.

I had intended on doing a month long meditation retreat which began the afternoon of my arrival, but as I surrendered to the Shakti, the divine female energy that permeated the Valley, a different path began to unfold and I found myself wandering down the infamous Freak Street toward Durbar Square— the heart of Kathmandu. The medieval red brick buildings and streets bathed in the glow of the South Asian afternoon sun were strangely familiar. Immediately I was drawn to the temple of the Kumari, who, at that time was a seven-year-old living incarnation of Goddess Durga. I entered Her temple courtyard wearing red, (which signifies the life force energy specifically known as Shakti), without realizing until later that this is part of the ritual custom in approaching Goddess here. I stood there in awe of the intricately carved temple struts, the small deity plaques above doors, the yantras (geometric forms of the goddess) carved into the ground. Within moments She appeared wrapped in red and gold glittery robes and laden with necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings.

The Virgin Goddess, who within the Nepalese political structure has even more power and authority than the king, is chosen around the age of two, put through a series of tests that only a physical body spiritually fortified for a divine being can conquer, and searched for thirty-three auspicious marks on her body. The process of choosing male lamas in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition is similar to the initiatory rites around selecting a Kumari. The power of Durga remains within the young goddess girl until she begins to menstruate. I later learned that women who have menstrual disorders go to the Kumari and pray for help. Despite her virgin purity, reproductive illnesses are part of her domain. It was no wonder that I had instinctually gone directly to her temple upon arriving in Nepal for I had been suffering from endometriosis for three years.

I was not prepared for the arresting sight of a young girl decked in rich crimson robes, and bejeweled with gold necklaces and amulets. Her forehead had been painted bright red and traced with yellow to accent the rest of her face. In the center was a carefully-placed glittering gold and black eye. Around her human eyes were thick black lines, used to ward off evil spirits. She leaned out the intricately carved window frame, held up by two attendants on either side of her, and watched me, the only person in the courtyard, with all three eyes.

Her stare went right through me; rearranged and removed some of what was inside. I received her darshan, an auspicious and very potent blessing from the deity. In many respects, darshan, which means to see and be seen by the deity, is the ultimate goal for a pilgrim. At the time I had no conscious understanding of any of the ritualistic or even spiritual significance of this. I felt Her energy and knew she was different than the other humans I had met. This young embodiment of Durga has undeniable power.

To me the Kumari is a living goddess, and yet the qualities of her human life trouble me. She is not allowed to be educated, for she is believed to be omniscient. She is not allowed to play with other girls for she is the Goddess and all reside in Her. Her feet are not allowed to touch the ground for it is deemed polluting to orthodox Hindus and Buddhists and so she is carried everywhere. Even more concerning, after her short “reign,” the menstruating girl or now, young woman, is returned to her village and essentially ostracized by the entire community, mainly out of fear that they somehow may incite the wrath of the Goddess she once was. The status of the ‘retired’ Kumari tells much about how the status of women is still maligned. There is much to be said about the fear of menstrual blood. A topic for another time. However, it is fascinating to think that in the Kathmandu Valley, even today, there is universal acceptance of this female child as divine if only for a ten-twelve year period. Since my initiation with the Kumari, I have often wondered, how my life and every other woman’s I know would be different if we knew from an early age that we are not separate from the Divine, but like the Kumari, hold this sacred power within our female bodies?

Durga's Tools and Weapons

2007-10-13T23:32:00.000-07:00

The sacred objects Durga carries in each of her eight to eighteen hands, like the Great Goddess herself, carry the power to create and destroy. Symbolically they serve as guides and tools we can use to help us get through the inevitable cycles of death, destruction and suffering as well as life, blossoming and joy. For example, Durga’s knives are not to be used for violence, but are a symbol of liberation. The knife is a tool that cuts away; it severs or excises that which no longer serves us whether it be a destructive belief, an unhealthy relationship, or a toxic situation we find ourselves embroiled in. Her sword also points to the focus and discriminating wisdom that is necessary in life – particularly to those committed to a spiritual path. All the sharp weapons Durga carries cut through obstacles that impede our progress and clear the path for spiritual growth.

Often she carries a shield for protection, a bow for determination and focus, and an arrow for penetrating insight. When she holds a bell it is to be used to invoke mental clarity and to clear the air of negativity, when her fingers play with a string of beads (mala) her worshipers are reminded of lessons on concentration and spiritual growth. The club she wields can be used to beat a new path, and the three pronged trident pierces through the veils of the past, present and future and teaches us about birth, life and death. The conch shell represents the vibratory powers of manifestation, while the lotus refers to both spiritual and material abundance. The skull or severed head, a common motif also associated with Durga in her fiercest of forms, represents the ego and all the ways we become slaves to our egos. The ego mind conceives of situations as bad or good, positive or negative, while Durga is here to show us the paradoxical nature of our reality and the divine unity behind all existence.

Chandika-She Who Tears Apart Thought- 2nd Day of Puja

2007-10-13T16:23:00.001-07:00

It was difficult getting out of bed this morning. Only the second day and already my mind balks at the thought of getting up when it is still dark, cold, and wet outside. As I hit snooze on my alarm, I thought, Maybe I could sleep in today and go again tomorrow? Hmmm...already my ego is making a fuss. No. I tell that part of myself. But you are not in Nepal, this asura (demon) counters. Well, I ask her, Why should I limit the extent of my devotion to puja experiences in Asia? Aren't I trying to live a more integrated life? A life in balance and sacred union regardless of where I am and what my mind tells me is and is not sacred?

While there is no drumming beginning at three a.m. to rock me out my sleep -- and no roosters telling me that light will soon come and it is time to get up, there is the thought of a temple room filled with Durga devotees and the vibratory hum of mantras to Goddess only a short walk away. Being here in Berkeley and waking before dawn to attend worship of Goddess is as much of a pilgrimage as attending those 2000 year old sites abroad.

I had planned to go back to Kathmandu for Dashain this year, but a revelation that came to me after the September lunar eclipse told me I needed to stay home. Earlier this week I had begun to feel sad that I had not made the decision to go, even though all the signs were clear that it was not to be. This morning I am suddenly struck by what seems almost miraculous -- I can attend puja in my neighborhood. And here I can actually chant along with the priestesses, priests, and other devotees. In Nepal I made the rounds to temple after temple, but rarely sat and chanted with the priest for a couple hours every day. This is a different opportunity to experience Her. Staying in my warm cozy bed does not even compare with the fiery Shakti radiance I feel when I chant to the Divine Mother.

While a part of me longs for the familiar pre-dawn sounds and smells of the Durga puja in Kathmandu, I focus my thoughts on what is around me here. As I make my way in the chilly liminal light, I notice that I am not distracted by the environment here and so I can go deeper within. I become more of a witness to Goddess within me, than how She manifests in the world around me. In Nepal, the temples, the dogs, the offerings --everywhere, chai sellers, and prasad vendors, marching musicians, rik shaw drivers-even in the dark the world is abuzz with Shakti. But here in these early twilight hours, She is still quiet, pensive, reflective. I need to know Her stillness in order to do the work of this day.

On this second puja day, we offer harmful, self-defeating, self-negating thoughts that bind us.
Om namascandikayai. We bow to the Goddess who tears apart thought.
Yikes. My thoughts have been on a rather negative course lately. My mind needs some major purification. I have become obsessed with the suffering of my past, too pre-occupied with my fears of the future. Thank Goddess I can offer my negative thoughts to Durga and Kali. But the Work feels rather daunting. I notice how I am attached to some of the stories and perceptions of my self and the world that these thoughts generate....

Rather than allowing myself to freak out by naming and judging all the afflictions in my mind, I decide to chant and allow questions to arise. Be fierce but with compassion. Durga tells me. I can try that out. What are my doubts? When have I lost my concentration and conviction? How have I become lazy in my worship? How have I not honored myself? Who is this demon of self-loathing and shame that creeps in every now and again? How is my rage directed at myself rather than channeled into constructive means of transforming self and the world? What is it that keeps me from manifesting my desires?

It is painful to witness my mind. Shocking to think how easily I stray. How do I stay committed to this path and allow myself to confront and embrace the asuras, the demons that seem to continuously appear within and around me? I struggle with thoughts of how I think my life should be. I worry about other's judgments. At times I fear the repercussions of speaking my truth. Sometimes I speak my truth and am shocked, hurt, even devastated by other's reactions. Being devoted to Her is not always the easiest, most gentle of paths. Still, it is the only path I truly know. It is a path I know I must not resist, but surrender to with an open trusting heart. But my heart feels broken and just too congested right now. It is obvious I have a lot of work to do. My mind starts to feel overwhelmed by my thoughts and the feelings that arise. I call on Chandika. The only thing I can do is chant and pray. Om namaschandikayai. Please tear apart my thoughts, Great Goddess, till only Your luminous wisdom remains.

Maha Durga She Who is Indomitable

2007-10-13T15:00:00.000-07:00

Om. I revere MahaKali, who holds in her hands the sword, discus, mace, arrow, bow, club, spear, sling, human head, and conch; who is three-eyed, adorned on all her limbs, and sparkling like a sapphire; who has ten faces and ten feet; and whom Brahma extolled while Visnhu slept in order to slay Madhu and Kaitabha. (In Praise of the Goddess. The DeviMahatmya and Its Meaning by Devadatta Kali)

Today, Friday October 12th begins the Durga Puja. Although technically, in California we should have begun our worship on Thursday morning, since it was the first dawn after the new moon. Local yoga studios and ashrams seem to be coordinating their puja schedule with the South Asian dates, so I am willing to let go of this technicality and surrender to the truth of time being truly irrelevant. After all, Durga Kali, who is worshiped these first three days, is beyond time and space.

There is another difference in the puja practices here that my mind has had to come to terms with. In Kathmandu the first three days are acknowledged as Saraswati's days and the Goddess of Creativity, Learning, Poetry, Music and the Arts is worshiped on these first three days. But here (and in some parts of India and Nepal) it is KALI who is worshiped first (and Saraswati is worshiped the last three days). This year beginning these rituals with the fierce Mother feels in alignment with my own needs. It is during these days that I am offering all my negative tendencies, all my inhibiting karmas and preparing the ground of my being for the Goddess energies that are to come. A different approach to Her, Durga, who is often described as being inapproachable. This alternative approach is not right or wrong, merely a shift in perspective. Yes, that is something I need to invite in my life right now as I see how my thinking and some of my judgments have become stuck and are limiting me.

I have not participated in Durga puja in the US in any formal way, so the fact that daily pujas are being held at 7:00 a.m. every day during this ten day ritual period only five blocks from my home (and performed by priestesses!) feels like a tremendous blessing and invitation. An invitation to what? To entering a realm of Goddess consciousness, to experiencing a vibratory level of being in a group setting in the west. I have shied away from groups for various reasons. I have lived my life as an independent yogini for years. I have found my Matrika kula, my intimate clan group of Shaktas, but we dance in and out of each other's lives. Our devotion, although deeply shared, is often expressed through personal rather than communal experience. And my relationship to the land in South Asia defined my connection to Her. For years I felt the electrifying Shakti at the thousand-year old sites of worship that I visited in India and Nepal. I would return to the States feeling fragmented, disconnected, no longer tuned in as fully as I had been in Asia. Sometimes I would access Her realm at my altar, alone, or with my teacher, Nandu, but rarely out in the western world.

In Tantra our bodies, our being is a reflection or aspect of the macro-cosmic whole. I want to really know that HERE in my home town. If Devi is everywhere, then we should not have to travel to India or Nepal just to get those Shakti jolts. For years I have been frustrated, angry and depressed by how maligned, feared, marginalized the Divine Mother is here in the west. I have loved traveling abroad and witnessing the millions who love and adore Her. But it seems that with the beginning of this Durga puja She is revealing that there are more of us here in the west that worship Her fierceness and Her grace than I realized. She has come to us here in the west because we have called Her to us. We know She has much to teach us about justice, equality, peace and inner strength. Although I may continue to maintain my independent path of worship after this puja period, a part of me keeps thinking how I may not be as alone as I often feel and think I am. She is here. Outside of my shrine room, within myself and in every other devotee at the puja. In every tree, cat and stone.

Durga, whose name means fortress, is the Invincible One. She is unconquerable, indomitable, and fearless. In Her manifestation as MahaKali, She destroys our delusions, She pierces through the veils of our ignorance, She annihilates our arrogance. She frees us from our pain. Her eight to eighteen arms carry the tools and weapons we need to approach any conflict and challenge in our life with conviction and composure. She teaches us to enter life's struggles without losing our center. She reminds us that we are all embodiments of Her. I do not want to forget this, and yet it is a teaching that continues to unfold for me.

"I meditate upon the three-eyed Goddess, Durga, Reliever of Difficulties; the luster of Her beautiful body is like lightening. She sits upon the shoulders of a lion and appears very fierce. Many maidens (Matrikas or Mother Goddesses) holding the double-edged sword and shield in their hands are standing at readiness to serve Her. She holds in Her hands discus, club, double-edged sword, shield, arrow, bow, net and the mudra connecting the thumb and the pointer finger, with the other three fingers extended upwards, indicating the granting of wisdom. Her intrinsic nature is as fire, and upon her head She wears the moon as a crown."
(Chandi Path by Swami Satyananda Saraswati)

Simple Acts of Reverence, Durga and Her Festival

2007-10-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Durga Puja, the harvest festival in celebration of Goddess Durga begins the day after the new moon this week. Here is a piece from my book about my experience during Durga Puja in Kathmandu in 2000.

At the autumn equinox, the annual worship of Goddess Durga begins on the dark moon. For nine days and nights daily recitation of the Sri Sri Chandi text invokes Durga’s victory over demons that are destroying the precious equilibrium of the earth. The Chandi serves as a mythological guide demonstrating the immeasurable powers Durga embodies, which, from a tantric perspective, are inherent in each of us. The ritual re-enactment of this epic myth expresses a deep reverence for earth as Mother and honors the inseparable connection between divine and human existence.

On each morning of the nine day festival, Durga’s devotees go to one of the hundreds of Goddess temples in the Valley. They bathe in the river at a tirtha or sacred place of the Goddess to cleanse themselves of negative thoughts and emotions. Then, they collect sand from the river bank to place on their home shrine. On the first morning of the ritual, after the sand has been added to the family altar, a priest invokes the Goddess Durga into the seeds of the barley plant. The sprouts that will appear over the next nine days become symbolic of the sword Durga uses to cut away destructive forces.

On the first morning of the Durga festival in 2000, I dressed in red and went down to the river with several other women from the pilgrimage I was co-leading. We bought an offering plate of woven leaves filled with rice, red and yellow powder, oiled-wicks in ceramic cups, coconuts, flowers, especially marigolds; a favorite of Durga, rice, and ropes of incense. I soon became lost within this world. Beyond the bounds of time and space, immersed in the sacredness of every act, I found myself going from shrine to shrine as if I had done it hundreds of times before. All my senses were utilized: the act of darśan— seeing and being seen by the deity, touching their feet or foreheads, listening to chanting and bells ringing, the smell of incense and flowers floating through the air, and the taste of consecrated food.

Our small group followed the procession that wound throughout the temple complex. Inside the central gates there is an elaborate medieval pagoda style temple that houses an image of Durgā as Bhagawati. In this manifestation Her name refers to the creative power of women’s yonis or wombs/vulvas. This power does not necessarily manifest in a physical child for goddesses like Durga and many of her counterparts are, in fact, not biological mothers. Her power is the force of creativity in all its forms, but especially art, music, dance and literature.

To the right of Bhagawati’s temple, fifteen people were playing instruments and chanting to Devī under a roofed, but open-walled pavilion. The sounds of devotional music reverberated throughout the compound. We went down to the end of the line, which reached the riverbank. Women and men must wait in separate lines, and as is common in most religious rituals I have attended, the women outnumber the men two to one. A long line of vibrant red saris flowed through the temple. I entered the blood red stream and awaited my turn with Bhagawati.

In the main courtyard a group of Goddesses, the Nava Durgās, nine fierce manifestations of the Goddess Durga are carved into niches along the walls. Flowers and rice coated in blood and red vermillion paste carpeted the temple grounds. Sweet mystifying whiffs of incense filled the air. Red, orange, and yellow powder stained my fingers and was smeared on my face from brushing my hair back every time I knelt down to rest my head on a deity's smeared crimson feet. A vibrant array of colors and offerings were all over the ground and covered every deity and divine icon along the way.

Even though I am not Hindu, I was allowed inside the temple. The inner sanctum is dark, moist, and pungent with smells of the many offerings to Goddess. After placing my head on Bhagawati’s sticky red feet and giving Her my offerings and prayers, I went outside to light a butter lamp, burn incense, and ring a bell as a means of communicating with the Divine. Such gestures signal our devotion and reverence, as well as our acknowledgement of being in sacred space. I stood there in prayer for a few moments, then turned to see a middle-aged Nepalese woman warmly smiling at me. Her eyes met mine, “Jaya Mata, Victory to the Mother" she whispered to me as she touched my hand. Two women from different continents, worlds and languages apart from each other, and yet despite the superficial unfamiliarities we share, there is a deeper bond of love and devotion to Goddess. I have found unity, if even for a brief moment.
Jai Bhagawati Ma.

Pilgrimage to the Matrika Varahi

2007-09-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

We drive for hours through the blistering heat. Bouncing along the heavily pot-holed roads, trying to find the turn-off based on natural markings in the landscape- three stones stacked upon the other and the roots of one of hundreds of banyan trees painted in a special configuration of yellow and red. How will we know which tree it is? How will we know that these are the right triad of stones? These are not easy markers as there are many such shrines along these Indian country roads. We surrender to Devi, to Goddess to lead us there. And She does. After hours of driving in the sweltering Orissan heat, we pull up to the Candasi temple. It is a sacred Tantric temple to one of my favorite aspects of Goddess Durga, Varahi- the boar-headed Matrika or Mother Goddess.

Entering a Tantric temple is to enter the womb of Goddess—literally, for the Sanskrit name of the inner sanctum is Garbha Griha or womb and temples are considered microcosmic embodiments of the Goddess’ macrocosmic Reality. Upon entering, I find the narrow vulvic passage, which leads to a small opening through which one must bow their head in reverence and essentially crawl into the pitch back inner sanctum. To me it feels like I am re-entering the womb of our Mother and yet what I discover within her stone temple body is always a mystery. This particular space exudes a mysterious somewhat frightening aura. Frightening only because this sacred womb space is pregnant with the unknown and much that is unfamiliar to this contemporary initiate. What awaits me here? I wonder.

Cautiously, I slide deeper into Varahi’s dark chambers. My eyes, accustomed to the blazing sunlight, have difficulty adjusting. Having left the security that comes with the light of day, I now feel like I have been cloaked in the darkest of night— that time just before dawn. I feel nervous and a little afraid. Varahi has a formidable presence, and I have the sense that she is watching me through the thick black silky air. All I can see is the strong, powerful outline of her huge commanding body and the piercing glare of her metallic eyes as a sliver of sunlight slices through the blackened chambers and shoots off two newly placed metal eyes.

Varahi is not delicate. She is not graceful. She is not even sensual or seductive in the way the other goddesses I have seen have been. Instead She is fierce, immense, tough—and alluring. Intimidating, yes. And even totally captivating. I become rooted to the earth before her. I want to give her the offerings I have brought, the sweets, the kum kum powder, the jasmine incense, but for several minutes I cannot even lift my arms. She has possessed me. And I must wait and listen. No one fucks with Varahi at this temple. She can rip them to shreds with those tusks, and She will.

“Merge with me.” She whispers in a gravelly voice. I cautiously place my hand on her nostrils and can almost feel her snorting warm breath. She is covered in a sari, and my hands move down her neck and onto her chest. I rest my hands on her pendulous breasts, the thick cotton fabric beneath my finger tips. Tears fill my eyes as deep longing envelops me. If only I could rest in her lap and have her cradle me in her arms…I bow my head and lean against her. I can now hear her grunting with content, love and affection for her devotee. It seems as if her warm moist breath swirls from the back of my neck and up through the air. My consciousness follows and is taken to memories of the distant past.

I hear cries of ecstasy and devotion from tantric rituals that have been performed here for centuries. My head begins to ache as I try to take it all in. Visions of fire, of healing and sexual rituals come flooding in. My hands instinctively move to her full round belly. This belly is pregnant with creativity, abundance, knowledge and wisdom. The folds of her fat, although made of stone, seem to meld into my hands. My hands continue their journey to her valiant thighs and knees. I stand before her, my eyes now having adjusted to the darkness, gazing into her eyes, smelling the musty moist scent of the chamber. This is the sweetened wet fragrance of Her womb. Remembering. I cry and pray. I miss Her. I miss this place. I know this place deep in my bones. I know the worship that goes on here. It is my spiritual heritage. It transcends lifetimes.The longer I remain within her chamber, the more intense the pounding in my head becomes. It feels as if I cannot contain all the Shakti that is coursing through me, the vast energies that are being provoked, stimulated, called back to memory. My fingers fall to her feet and feel the sweet outline of several toe rings on the very same toes as my own toe rings. Sisters in adornment, I think. Perhaps my love for jewelry in this lifetime comes in part from these rituals where Devi must be adorned. It is a deep comfort to know of any symbolic as well as esoteric connection between my contemporary western life and Varahi’s age-old divine presence.

I want to be fierce like her. I want to be fearless and free. I long for her confidence and conviction. I need her strength, her unconditional love, her unwavering stamina and discriminating wisdom. I offer my body, my heart, my mind and my soul. Let me be in service to you, Varahi Maa. Please help me to always remember who I am. I bid my farewell and enter out into the blinding sunlight. Using the outer temple walls as a crutch, I stumble to the back of the temple to rest my head and hands against the wall right behind where She so authoritatively resides. I slide to the earth and rest my body against Hers. My head and heart pounding. My soul feeling free.

(Excerpt from my forthcoming book on Durga based on my pilgrimage experience in India, February 2002.)

Are We Divine?

2007-09-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

This past week I attended an event where Alice Walker spoke about her newest 'children's' book, Why War Is Never A Good Idea. This book is an evocative poem that personalizes the horrors of war and the devastating effects it has on our Mother, the Earth. She questioned why, through war, we would destroy the only home we have. She reminded us that this planet is our home, a magnificent house that every single one of us shares. If we poison the earth in the Middle East, we are polluting the water and air we ourselves will eventually drink. Everyone of us must drink from the village well for we live in a global village.

During her presentation she talked about how each of us has an essential question, a question that walks beside us throughout our lives. A question that is always being raised in our every act, our every thought and experience. Our question and the answer to our question is our offering, our medicine or wisdom for this planet and all Her inhabitants.

Alice's question, which she writes about in both "Possessing the Secret of Joy" and "Warrior Marks" is Why are the children crying? When I heard this I caught a glimpse of my own question. I felt her tiptoeing around me, waiting for me to notice her and to take her by the hand. And although my question's subtle movements had not yet settled into a form I could fully articulate, I knew that the reason why children are crying and my own question were related. Would we be bombing children in Iraq or Afghanistan or Palestine or Israel or Iran if we truly knew that they, like ourselves, are divine? Children are crying because we adults have forgotten our inherent divinity. God is not some transcendent notion, some all-powerful, judgmental and punitive being who resides up there in the sky. No. God/Goddess/Spirit/Love/Divinity is in each of us. It is not something we have to search for outside of ourselves. Most of us humans have forgotten that. Instead the quest for whose God is most powerful, whose one God is the ultimate Truth has produced centuries of violence and bloodshed, of fear and rage, of terror and trauma. Considering the current state of the world with its senseless wars and vicious brutality, it is no wonder that children are crying.

In the Tantric tradition there is a concept called Nyasa, which refers to the process of becoming divine. Becoming divine is actually an endless act of remembering, of awakening and reawakening to our inherent wisdom, to our Shakti or power. It is not like we will wake up one day and forever thereafter think, Oh yes! I am God! I am divine! Rather, it is the evolution of our consciousness that happens gradually. I believe that we are here to learn to integrate our energies in a way that allows us to live in balance and harmony within our self and with all beings on this earth.

Seven years ago I went on pilgrimage to the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal for the annual Durga puja or ritual. When asked why I was there, I would initially respond with the same answer: " I am here to pay homage to Goddess Durga." Much to my surprise, I began to have a similar experience with many of the Nepalis I met. "No, you are not here to worship Her. You are becoming Durga," I was told this again and again. "You are here to learn to embody Her." "You are here because you ARE Durga." My initial reaction was embarrassment and extreme discomfort. How could I be a Goddess? How could I, with my tendencies towards depression, with my fiery Hungarian and Italian temper, with all my insecurities and fears, be a Goddess? What could they possibly mean?! And if what they said were true, what would I tell my friends and family when I returned? Hi, I had a great trip. By the way, I am God....They would surely think I was crazy, or ?

In her essay called "Divine Women" Irigaray writes, " Divinity is what we need to become free, autonomous, sovereign....God forces us to do nothing except become. The only task, the only obligation laid upon us is: to become divine men and women, to become perfectly, to refuse to allow parts of ourselves to shrivel and die that have the potential for growth and fulfillment...And yet, without the possibility that God might be made flesh as a woman, through the mother and daughter, and in their relationships, no real constructive help can be offered to a woman (or a man). If the divine is absent in woman, and among women, there can be no possibility of changing."

During that pilgrimage I became conscious, for the first time in my life, that my life's journey with its tremendous challenges and hardships, with all the suffering I have had to endure, and with all the wonder, love and blessings I have experienced as well, was transforming me in order for me to remember who I am. Durga is not outside of me. She IS me in all my anger, sadness, ecstasy and bliss. And I am Her. Sometimes I feel more aligned with Her than others. Some days I cry like a child and feel like my tears will never end. Some days I embody Her and see Her in every being I meet. She is me and She is you.

"Are We Divine?" That is the most essential question of my heart and soul.

What is yours?

Essential Sexuate Difference

2007-09-17T12:33:00.000-07:00

Sexual or Sexuate difference? Irigary has coined the term sexuate to refer to the biological differences between women and men that are not of a strictly sexual (pertaining to the sexual act) nature. What is an ethics of sexuate difference? In part, it is the recognition of the biological differences between women and men without reducing us to restrictive, oppressive and traditional notions of femininity and masculinity. It is our very sexuate differences, namely the female capacity to menstruate, to create life through birth (and if we choose, end it with abortion), and the power of the female orgasm/female sexuality that lie at the heart of female oppression and male dominance and control. However, by mentioning our obvious biological differences, some would criticize me as being essentialist. Within this viewpoint, essentialism is erroneously believed to mean that women are restricted to and defined by their biological functions of birthing and mothering, when it is quite the contrary. Instead it is an honoring, a deep recognition of the profound relationship between women’s menstrual cycles and the lunar cycle, tidal ebb and flow and agricultural cycles. It is an expression of the deep interconnection between women and the cosmos.

The hormonal reality of our female natures are essential issues. (In fact, even the biological structure of a female hormone resembles a yoni!) And yet, essentialism has become an ugly, virtually forbidden word within many feminist circles. I choose to reclaim the essence of this word and embrace and celebrate the hormonal reality of my female body.

Female biology and physiology gives women entrance into states of awareness that are not accessible to men. This does not mean that men do not and cannot have their own altered states experiences, but there needs to be a respected, female-governed space within society where strictly female biological or physiological experiences such as menstruation, the power to give (pregnancy) or take (abortion) life that shift our consciousness and deeply influence the ways we as women see and experience the world are under the control of women and not the government or even our fathers or husbands. Whether or not women choose to have children, each month we are deeply affected by our hormonal cycles. Experiencing altered states naturally opens women in ways that go beyond rational thought and logical explanations for life. Menstruation, pregnancy and birth, quintessentially female states, can heighten intuition, induce visions and premonitions, bring tremendous healing powers, and allow one to communicate with animals, and even spirits and beings from other realms. This is female power. These are some very essential sexuate differences…JAI MA.

Woman as Woman

2007-09-16T12:08:00.001-07:00

From the time we are born the society, the culture, our families all condition us into believing we as women have essentially two potential life-style choices as adults- and both are roles in relation to men. Storybooks, films, TV shows all perpetuate this male-centered heterosexist reality: One day, girl children will grow up to become wife and mother....blah blah blah. Are we ever even asked if this is what we want??? Like the virgin/whore dichotomy set up in Christianity, the wife and mother paradigm is exclusive and limiting. While it seems obvious that women who choose to marry and/or have children are much more than that, other realms of female experience are rarely acknowledged let alone respected.

For example, you go to a party and meet someone for the first time. Trying to gauge where you fit in the social order they (male or female) will inevitably inquire about your work and, perhaps "most importantly," relationship status -are you married? Single? And if single, it is assumed you must be "looking" for a partner (presumably male). If you are married, they will want to know if you have children, and if you do not at the moment, it is assumed you will want them eventually. Those of us who do not have children will certainly be asked why we do not have children-or why we do not want children. Often these questions are posed somewhat defensively and cautiously. What kind of woman would not want to get married and have babies? All too often it is assumed that those of us that make those choices must hate men. However, how many mothers are ever asked why they CHOSE to have children?

Irigaray notes that within western patriarchy culture, women are “force(d) to make murderous choices: either mother (given that a boy child is what makes us truly mothers) or woman (prostitute and property of the male)."("Women, the Sacred and Money" in Sexes and Genaologies). Women are presented with the choice of being either this or that. Women who do not choose the patriarchal model, are, like Lilith who was exiled from the Garden of Eden for refusing to be Adam's wife and subordinate, deemed a threat to the patriarchal order. Something must be "wrong" with such women.

What about those of us who want something outside of patriarchy? To have both this and that, which is modeled within the non-dualistic Tantra tradition, is structurally prevented through our isolation, through the visible and invisible restrictions placed on women. However,some of us do not want to be mother to human children (but maybe we want to mother/create books, films, other expressions of art). Some of us do not want to become the wife, a role where we often lack societal agency. Some of us may indeed want to be a wife, but have a different definition of partnership than the one we were taught as children. We need other choices, and we must not be limited to them alone. In this culture, there is no notion of women constantly becoming, rather her identity is static, fixed, pinned to one aspect of existence.

In contrast, goddess in the Shakta Tantric and other matriarchal traditions is constantly in a state of flux. As Irigaray notes in her essay, “Divine Women”, for women, “the goal that is most valuable is to go on becoming, infinitely.” (in French Feminists on Religion, 41). When will women be able to freely be both mothers, (if they consciously choose to be), partners (rather than wife), artists, sexual beings and professionals? When can women who choose to be celibate still have their erotic energies? When will little girls grow up knowing there are thousands of models of femaleness? If she wants to marry a man and be a mother- great! If she wants to love women, wonderful. If she wants to love women and men-fabulous! If she wants to be an artist, professional, healer, mystic, _______,_________,_________ or any of infinite possible modes of female expression- then, yes! What kind of social structure would be necessary for women to be able to flourish most freely and have a structural support that encourages them to continuously evolve?

Women need to be reinstated at the center of the web of meaningful life-giving activities. We need to demand and expect nothing less than absolute wholeness, sexual and social empowerment, and a wide range of choices that allow us to continuously evolve and express our true natures. Is this some far-fetched feminist utopian notion? I do not think so. What do you think?

I Am NOT A Guy-What is Sexual/Sexuate Difference?

2007-09-16T11:25:00.000-07:00

What is authentic female experience? How can we know when we must live, think and breathe in a patriarchal world that is dominated by the white male perspective? In the West white male as subject is taken as universal truth, while women are relegated to the status of other and object. Our female bodies-our breasts, our menstrual cycles, our yonis (vaginas), our ability to conceive if we so desire- our entires bodies have become the battleground for religious and political control. Virtually every female body part has been compartmentalized, eroticized, objectified, commercialized, exploited, feared, lusted after, abused.... Under patriarchy our choices around sexuality and reproduction are under constant threat, and in most cultures have long been controlled by misogynistic and tyrannical men.

The writings of Luce Irigaray discuss the need for a a reinterpretation of every discipline, experience, ideology, and system. Experiencing female as subject - as agent of her destiny rather than passive observer or victim is essential to the liberation of women AND men. In An Ethics of Sexual Difference Irigaray writes, "Sexual Difference is one of the major philosophical issues, if not the issue of our age....Has a worldwide erosion of the gains won in women's struggles occurred because of the failure to lay foundations different from those on which the world of men is constructed?.....A revolution in thought and ethics is needed if the work of sexual difference is to take place. We need to reinterpret everything concerning the relations between the subject and discourse, the subject and the world, the subject and the cosmic, the microcosmic and the macrocosmic. Everything, beginning with the way in which the subject has always been written in the masculine form, as MAN, even when it is claimed to be neutral or universal."

Here is one example: If language influences consciousness, how does a word like guy, which is over-used by women and men to refer to boys and girls, men and women, affect our female sense of self in this world? I am NOT a guy and yet everywhere I go I hear women referring to groups of women and girls as guys. It is so disturbing to me that I have a visceral response. My body tenses and I feel a rush of blood and energy to my breasts and yoni (vagina) as if my distinctly female body parts are screaming I AM NOT A GUY!!!

I was heartened to hear, then later read Alice Walker address this very issue:

"It has been despairing to see the ease with which women, after over thirty intense years of Feminism, have chosen to erase their gender in language by calling each other, and themselves, "guys."…. Are we saying we're content to be something most of us don't respect? Conjure up an image of a guy. What attributes does it have? Is that really you? Is this a label you gave yourself?

What does being called "guys" do to young women? To little girls?

Isn't the media responsible for making it "cute" to be a guy, as if that's all the Women's Movement was about, turning us into neutered men, into guys? For guys don't have cojones, you know. They are men, but neutered, somehow. So if you've turned in your breasts and ovaries for guyness, you've really lost out.

(See Alice Walker: We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting For: Inner Light in a in a Time of Darkness, "The Pause")

The Virgin

2007-09-13T09:00:00.001-07:00

Now that the Sun has entered the sign of Virgo, I have been thinking a lot about the virgin. What does it mean that Goddess Durga cannot be reduced to being the virgin (or the whore)? What is a virgin? I remember being a teenager and not wanting to be a virgin any longer. Having no pubescent rite of passage rituals in this culture, on an unconscious level, I think I was longing for an initiation into womanhood. But, of course, I did not know that then. All I knew is that I needed to "go all the way." And yet, would having sex with a man (or teenage boy) really truly initiate me into being a woman?!! At the age of 16 I was ashamed to have not lost my virginity. I had 'lovers', but I also had a tyrannical father, who at the age of 12, before I had even kissed a boy had already called me a slut (I had to look up the word in the dictionary!). Given his dictatorial presence, I lived in an almost constant state of fear of being caught and then grounded for the rest of my life! Nevertheless, being a virgin was, in my mind, a state of being that made me an outsider-I was not part of the 'cool girls club' because I did not have the sexual experience that I was made to believe they had.

Let me pause for a moment to reflect on the language- to lose one's virginity? LOSE?!!! Indeed, what are young women losing when they have sexual intercourse for the first time-AND how heterosexist is this whole concept?!!! A woman can only lose her virginity to a man- not to a woman, and not to herself...hmmm...so the virgin is a state of being that has to do with being in relation to man-in patriarchal consciousness. (Consider the sex trafficking of girls and the ridiculous amount of money that is paid for having sex with (raping) a 'virgin'...) In the Judeo-Christian tradition our model of virginity is Mary. It is interesting to note the patriarchal co-option of Mary's sexual and spiritual power. Although she is the Virgin Mother of Christ, Mary lacks divine status.

In the Goddess traditions the word, virgin takes on a whole other meaning. In fact, the word virgin, means WHOLE UNTO HERSELF. A woman can have sex with man or woman and remain whole. She does not lose anything. She does not give herself away. Instead sex is a ritual act. Sex is sacred. It is a celebration of the wholeness of two beings coming together in ecstatic union. Luce Irigaray writes “Virginity must be rediscovered by all women as their own bodily and spiritual possession, which can give them back an individual and collective status…becoming a virgin is synonymous with a woman’s conquest of the spiritual” (p.116-117 “How Old are You?” in je, tu, nous: Toward a Culture of Difference)

We need to reclaim the word virgin and create rituals that honor and celebrate our virginity-at all ages, whether we are sexual with another being or not. What would a woman who was truly virginal, fully complete within herself, living in and from her own center sexually, spiritually, emotionally, and mentally actually be like? What kind of changes could possibly take place in ourselves, and in the world?

Goddess Durga

2007-09-11T09:23:00.002-07:00

Goddess Durga is a sight to behold! One hand bears the mudra, Fear not, I will protect you while Her 17 other hands hold tools and weapons to liberate us from that which binds us into thinking we are smaller and less significant than we truly are. Durga sits confidently astride Her majestic tiger, a being who reminds us of our instinctual, powerful, and playful nature. With the aid of Her devoted feline companion, Durga fearlessly rides into any situation that needs Her discriminating and severing wisdom.

Durga embodies the paradoxes of our very existence: she is both warrior and divine mother, both death bringer and creator. She defies western concepts of femininity, her presence expressing the full spectrum of the female psyche. She cannot be reduced to either virgin or whore, but rather is a complex and paradoxical divine model of female empowerment. Durga transcends patriarchal definitions of femininity as passive and submissive and masculinity as active and dominant. She is Shakti-the dynamic creative female force of unbridled power. Durga represents unabashed female embodiment. She teaches us to take up space, to love our bodies and menstrual cycles. She is a passionate lover unafraid to claim Her sexual power and channel its energies towards planetary healing and transformation.

Through Durga we may understand the complete picture of human existence: that fierceness coexists with tenderness, death walks hand in hand with life, that pain and suffering are the complementary realities of joy and ecstasy. She teaches us to confront our fears and transform life’s difficulties. She guides us toward strength and spiritual empowerment. She is the liberator of the oppressed and the marginalized. No problem is too great for Durga to solve. Durga comes to our aid when life is out of balance. However, She is always with us, in peace and in turmoil, for She is the force behind all existence.

Jai Durga Ma!

Why a Temple of Female Consciousness?

2007-09-10T20:38:00.001-07:00

Why a Temple for Female Consciousness? What do I mean by female consciousness? (And can consciousness even be gendered? More on this in upcoming posts!)? Is this a space intended exclusively for women? No. Not at all. In fact, over the past decade of my life I have come to know an ancient spiritual tradition, the Shakta Tantra tradition of South Asia, where male and female energies are viewed as complementary, not competitive or hierarchical. These energies are experienced not only as equal, but equally vital to our existence. Shakti, the dynamic, creative animating force that permeates all existence; and Shiva, the passive, receptive, quiescent force that is the ground of all being… these beings, these forms of consciousness provide a totally different understanding of the workings of the world and what is possible. Over the coming months, those of you who visit this Temple of Female Consciousness, will, hopefully, experience this other reality. Each entry will be a journey into the temple of my soul, into the luminous as well as shadowy souls of others, and countless sacred sites and realms of consciousness. We will begin with Goddess Durga, Goddess of Invincible Strength, Remover of Fear and Difficulty. The quintessential role model of Female Consciousness. This is Her Temple. And we will pay homage to Her very soon….