Parvati is the goddess of sacred marriage.
Her body is golden, the color of a dawn sky. She has large, bare breasts and long, well-muscled limbs. A red silk cloth is twisted low around her limbs. Her belly is well-defined yet sensuously round. Her body radiates warmth. The gold of her skin is illuminated by her inner power, her yogic fire. She is smiling. Her smile radiates playfulness and love. Inhale her warmth and light as red and golden sparkles. Feel yourself immersed in red and golden sparkles. Let this golden radiance show you what it wants from you. What do you truly desire from your life?
Parvati is the patron deity of yoginis.
She represents our commitment to practice intensely in yoga, meditation, pr athletics.
She represents a dance between movement and stillness, strength and softness, masculine and feminine.
Parvati is married to Shiva and they are the power couple. They complete each other. Parvati is utterly devoted to shiva but maintains her individuality.
She is the model of strength and love. She is the ultimate yogini and the ultimate wife.
The Parvati myth is about the inner journey to wholeness. Uniting the masculine and feminine sides of ourselves. Parvati is a mother and a yogini. She's strong as she's tender. She's willful and she's playful.
She's beautiful and athletic.
Parvati is the incarnation of focused will. She WILL be united with shiva. Shiva makes her whole. What is your deepest desire? Which desires will take me closer to my true self?
The Shiva-Parvati story is about the integration of spirit with form, freedom with fullness, knowledge with love.
Parvati's yoga isn't about self-cultivation, it's about love.
Recognize Parvati in the energy of a group that allows boundaries to come down and transformation to take place.
Find Parvati in yoga studios, unusual domestic situations, forest groves and mountains, peacemakers, sensuality, fertility, sunlight, and dance.
Invoke Parvati for willpower, strength and commitment, finding a mate, bearing a child, will and power in athletics, commitment to practice, balancing the worldly and spiritual sides of life.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Sunday, September 15, 2013
Kali
Kali is the Goddess of Revolution
She has blue-black skin, wild hair, red eyes, fangs, and four arms. She wears almost no clothes. In one of her hands she holds a sword, a symbol of her ability to cut through ignorance, delusion, and ego. Another of her hands gives blessings.
Kali challenges us to find the love in the pain of life.
Kali represents the "audacious fierceness" that has historically been denied to both the divine feminine and individual women. Kali helps us stand up for ourselves, discover our inner fierceness, or to express the "outrageous side of [our] sexuality".
"Kali is the force many young women call on in those moments when they courageously face and move beyond their own trauma, or when they want to break through sexual shyness, politesse, insecurity, and discomfort."
"Kali's power, suppressed, will often turn in on us, fester in the form of rage, attack our bodies in the form of illness and accidents, and surface in ways that can destroy our love and the love others have for us. It was not until the 1980's that clinicians realized that many women suffering from depression and eating disorders had been the victims of rape or sexual abuse of different kinds. Their raw and pain had been "stuffed inside," and needed to be expressed as well as cleared in order for the women's bodies and psyches to heal."
Inhale freedom, exhale anything that is getting in your way.
Blackness: night, space, depth of ocean, void
Kali's power is that which dissolves the feeling of separateness and helps us see we are one.
Kali's power is in volcanoes, tsunamis, tornadoes, childbirth, lightning storms, wild outbursts of ecstasy, and sudden enlightenment experiences.
Quotes taken from "Awakening Shakti" by Sally Kempton
She has blue-black skin, wild hair, red eyes, fangs, and four arms. She wears almost no clothes. In one of her hands she holds a sword, a symbol of her ability to cut through ignorance, delusion, and ego. Another of her hands gives blessings.
Kali challenges us to find the love in the pain of life.
Kali represents the "audacious fierceness" that has historically been denied to both the divine feminine and individual women. Kali helps us stand up for ourselves, discover our inner fierceness, or to express the "outrageous side of [our] sexuality".
"Kali is the force many young women call on in those moments when they courageously face and move beyond their own trauma, or when they want to break through sexual shyness, politesse, insecurity, and discomfort."
"Kali's power, suppressed, will often turn in on us, fester in the form of rage, attack our bodies in the form of illness and accidents, and surface in ways that can destroy our love and the love others have for us. It was not until the 1980's that clinicians realized that many women suffering from depression and eating disorders had been the victims of rape or sexual abuse of different kinds. Their raw and pain had been "stuffed inside," and needed to be expressed as well as cleared in order for the women's bodies and psyches to heal."
Inhale freedom, exhale anything that is getting in your way.
Blackness: night, space, depth of ocean, void
Kali's power is that which dissolves the feeling of separateness and helps us see we are one.
Kali's power is in volcanoes, tsunamis, tornadoes, childbirth, lightning storms, wild outbursts of ecstasy, and sudden enlightenment experiences.
Quotes taken from "Awakening Shakti" by Sally Kempton
Saturday, September 7, 2013
Lakshmi
Lakshmi is the goddess of wealth, prosperity, and success.
She is tall and beautiful. She wears a pink sari, has beautiful, almond-shaped eyes, and her skin has a golden glow. She has four arms. Lakshmi holds a lotus flower, symbolizing beauty and fertility. One of her hands spills good coins, symbolizing wealth, prosperity, and abundance. She is often pictured with two elephants behind her, spraying water. She is also often pictured massaging Vishnu's feet. She symbolizes the dutiful, loving wife.
Lakshmi's shadow side is greed and over-consumption. She is not pleased in these situations and will not bestow her gifts if asked.
In the story of the Churning of the Milly Ocean, Lakshmi was displeased and exiled herself in the milky ocean. The land became barren, as Lakshmi is responsible for fertility and abundance. The gods began churning the ocean to bring her back, and it took 1000 years. She rose out of the ocean on a lotus flower and abundance and beauty returned to the land.
Lakshmi is related to inner sweetness and to soma, the elixir of the gods. She is related to beauty and radiance. She is related to lush landscapes and beautiful gardens. Lakshmi is related to roses.
In India, many businesses and households make offerings to Lakshmi so that she will bestow success and abundance on them. Especially during Diwali, the Festival of Lights, Lakshmi is honored and invited into people's homes.
http://www.koausa.org/Gods/God6.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/deities/lakshmi.shtml
She is tall and beautiful. She wears a pink sari, has beautiful, almond-shaped eyes, and her skin has a golden glow. She has four arms. Lakshmi holds a lotus flower, symbolizing beauty and fertility. One of her hands spills good coins, symbolizing wealth, prosperity, and abundance. She is often pictured with two elephants behind her, spraying water. She is also often pictured massaging Vishnu's feet. She symbolizes the dutiful, loving wife.
Lakshmi's shadow side is greed and over-consumption. She is not pleased in these situations and will not bestow her gifts if asked.
In the story of the Churning of the Milly Ocean, Lakshmi was displeased and exiled herself in the milky ocean. The land became barren, as Lakshmi is responsible for fertility and abundance. The gods began churning the ocean to bring her back, and it took 1000 years. She rose out of the ocean on a lotus flower and abundance and beauty returned to the land.
Lakshmi is related to inner sweetness and to soma, the elixir of the gods. She is related to beauty and radiance. She is related to lush landscapes and beautiful gardens. Lakshmi is related to roses.
In India, many businesses and households make offerings to Lakshmi so that she will bestow success and abundance on them. Especially during Diwali, the Festival of Lights, Lakshmi is honored and invited into people's homes.
http://www.koausa.org/Gods/God6.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/hinduism/deities/lakshmi.shtml
Sunday, September 1, 2013
Durga
Durga is the "warrior goddess of protection and inner strength"
Durga is one of the most popular goddesses in India and has become an icon of liberation and power.
When you welcome Durga into your world, "she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas"
Durga is often pictured riding a lion (or a tiger). She has flowing dark hair and dark, intense eyes. She wears a red sari, a crown, and lots of gold jewelry. She has eight arms and carries many weapons.
She is the deity to call upon when you're in deep trouble.
Because she is hidden, the goddess needs us to call on her when we need her help; we need to ask. We can use meditation, mantra, chanting, prayer, etc. to call on the goddess.
Durga also represents the power of the environment. She is in crashing waves, high winds, mountains, earthquakes, etc.
When you feel stuck, when you need a change in your life, considering calling on Durga for help. Visualize her and ask " What is the major inner obstacle I have to face now? What is holding me back? What do I need to let go of?
Durga lends you strength to do what you need to do. She is especially available when you're struggling to right a wrong.
A Durga woman might believe her job is to hold up the world.
Durga's shadow side is harshness and the need for control. She needs to shine, even outshine. She can be a relentless inner critic.
Durga energy is often behind a woman's instinct to organize for large-scale change; to fight social and political change.
To get a felt sense of Durga energy, remember a moment when you recognized, from deep inside you, that something had to change. Durga's transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep within the body. When that knowing is strong enough, it is followed by action. Before the Durga energy is activated, we often feel powerless, confused, and unable to act.
Durga energy is in truth-telling, ending a relationship, political power, standing up for yourself in an argument, willpower to create positive habits, starting a project, completing a project, rescuing someone in trouble, protecting other people, fighting injustice, personal empowerment, etc.
Consider calling on Durga when you need her power and help in a situation.
-- from Awakening Shakti, by Sally Kempton
Durga is one of the most popular goddesses in India and has become an icon of liberation and power.
When you welcome Durga into your world, "she can empower your most radical aspirations and guide you through your most conflict-ridden life dramas"
Durga is often pictured riding a lion (or a tiger). She has flowing dark hair and dark, intense eyes. She wears a red sari, a crown, and lots of gold jewelry. She has eight arms and carries many weapons.
She is the deity to call upon when you're in deep trouble.
Because she is hidden, the goddess needs us to call on her when we need her help; we need to ask. We can use meditation, mantra, chanting, prayer, etc. to call on the goddess.
Durga also represents the power of the environment. She is in crashing waves, high winds, mountains, earthquakes, etc.
When you feel stuck, when you need a change in your life, considering calling on Durga for help. Visualize her and ask " What is the major inner obstacle I have to face now? What is holding me back? What do I need to let go of?
Durga lends you strength to do what you need to do. She is especially available when you're struggling to right a wrong.
A Durga woman might believe her job is to hold up the world.
Durga's shadow side is harshness and the need for control. She needs to shine, even outshine. She can be a relentless inner critic.
Durga energy is often behind a woman's instinct to organize for large-scale change; to fight social and political change.
To get a felt sense of Durga energy, remember a moment when you recognized, from deep inside you, that something had to change. Durga's transformative power carries a conviction that comes from deep within the body. When that knowing is strong enough, it is followed by action. Before the Durga energy is activated, we often feel powerless, confused, and unable to act.
Durga energy is in truth-telling, ending a relationship, political power, standing up for yourself in an argument, willpower to create positive habits, starting a project, completing a project, rescuing someone in trouble, protecting other people, fighting injustice, personal empowerment, etc.
Consider calling on Durga when you need her power and help in a situation.
-- from Awakening Shakti, by Sally Kempton
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