Category: Femininity

Bagalamukhi

In the Bagalamukhi workshop we learned about the Power of Stopping and Fascination.

In this goddess we realised the incredible power that resides in moments of hiatus, of stillness, and in breaks… How can we drive a car well without breaks?
We cannot… Even our breathing has a pause, to be able to continue pauses are needed.

It is in these pauses, this stopping of Bagalamukhi that we can re-focus, gather our potentiality, remember who we continuously Are, the unfluctuating essence of (our) being(ness). Those moments are filled with tremendous power – power to create, to change direction, to become aware of something we didn’t before… where epiphanies can suddenly sprout from our inner wisdom, that we can appreciate and make sense of an experience… it’s the full stop at end of a sentence, or the page break that allows us to change the chapter and start a new one.

It is also in Bagalumukhi that we understand the beauty of the eyes, the eyes that make us become lost in a fascinating Universe, perhaps our beloved, perhaps the eyes of a stranger that absorbs us into a painting, or a piece of art where our mind just stops, fascinated by the beauty of something we can’t quite grasp that took us over, onto another dimension for a few moments… and time just… stopped. Where did we go?

During the workshop we did some exercises that help us realise that stopping is not always so easy, especially with the experiences in which we feel pleasure, we tend to want to keep that pleasurable moment going… stopping in the middle of an exciting conversation, stopping when our stomach is full but that delicious dessert is just calling us, stopping when our soul is asking us to stop, but the world wants us to keep going. The most interesting thing is the peace we experience when we do stop, when we consciously stop. It is also the power to say “No”, where a boundary can be traced, but not as rigid rule, but as a natural response from our soul.

At the end of the workshop we were gifted with the fascinating beautiful dance of Catherine, who left us all speechless, lost and fascinated with her incredibly feminine energy, transpiring through every move, look, gesture. Somehow she reflected a power that we women naturally possess, but are not usually so aware that we have when we just allow ourselves to completely embody and relax into our femininity.

Bagalamukhi is that goddess that makes you want to find out more and more, to discover more and more as she keeps you lost in her the gaze of her eyes, taking you into infinity…

The journey with the 10 Great Macrocosmic Powers continues. This month our wonderful Tantra and Shaivism student, Cintia gives us her reflections on a day with Dhumavati:

Like an invisible ghost we realised was always there, we could see the constant silent presence of Dhumavati in every moment of our life… for no second is the same, and when there’s an end, there she is, pointing towards the silent observer in us that is unchangeable

… and in those moments of the most agonising of pain, when we reached rock bottom, and life seemed to have no way out… Dhumavati came, and in her wisdom, showed us the light at the end of the tunnel. In each women there She resides, in every turn around moment just before – and even after – the fatal fall, then a moment of stillness where somehow we reached a profound wisdom, an incommensurable power within. We cannot explain where it came from, but it is not of this world.

She is also present in moments of profound pleasure, and of happiness, that we tend to want to grab on to and want to make last forever… and as we practised conscious touch and we became aware of her silent, vibrating yet still wisdom, we all seemed to reach a deeper level of our being, bringing us to a fullness of presence that we so easily forget, but that is filled with life, but not quite the way we feel life normally… and with awareness.

The very silent, still, and almost invisible presence of Dhumavait, touched our group of women deeply, and somehow we knew that none of us left that room the same, something had been profoundly changed, but there seemed to be not much we could say about what exactly…

The journey with the 10 Great Macrocosmic Powers continues. This month our wonderful Tantra and Shaivism student, Cintia gives us her reflections on a day with Chinnamasta:

With Chinnamasta we arrived at the sixth face of the goddess and as we came together it was as if we suddenly came to a gathering of Amazon warriors.

The teachers felt like Chinnamasta Herself, manifested in our presence.

For those who have seen the Wonder Woman movie, it felt exactly like those early scenes with female warriors practising together and teaching other female warriors how to battle, as they guided us through the many exercises on a journey of touching our own courage. We saw our strength, that it is ok to stand up for what we see is not right in the world, that we can be fighters, speak up, and be assertive instead of damsels in distress, passively looking at what we clearly see to be wrong, that we don’t have to accept absurd rules, injustices.

The real fight starts within ourselves, with our own fears, our own inhibitions, our own limitations, our own tendency to stay and live small, of hiding and running away, and losing ourselves in confusion, letting ourselves be controlled by erratic states of mind and emotions that makes us reactive to whims of irrationality and lack of clarity…

That is why this magnificent, terrifying goddess is represented as cutting her own head off… an exercise we all did, as we each picked up our own swords and severed our heads (not literally of course), but as we did this in the space of profound silence, we met Grace and power as if Chinnamasta was birthed in us, through us, we could all feel Her presence in the room.

A Goddess that at first glance seems to be about war and fighting, actually is about a profound state of peace, a core certainty from the heart of what is right, a firmness that is aligned with the godly Mind, with godly Justice and Wisdom, the highest of principles, the courage to love fully, unabashedly, and completely, and be fully in her own power and strength, to be who She is …

A lightning moment when we completely forget about ourselves and in a state of natural authenticity walk into the fire of a situation to do what we are intuitively guided is the right thing to be done. It could be to protect an innocent, or defend those who can’t, or make a wrong right… we have all had such moments in our lives when we are taken by a godly force of complete alignment, and in that moment there is no doubt or question, we know exactly what needs to be done and it comes from deep within… I guess the simple example to relate to is that of a mother who will do anything to protect her children, but there are many examples through history: Joan D’arc, Lady Godiva, Sojourner Truth, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai etc…
After this powerful workshop training on bringing out our warrior goddess, we were ready to face anything!

The journey with the Maha Vidyas continues. This time we explored space, the spiritual heart, expansion, and so much more with the beautiful and gracious goddess, Bhuvaneshwari. Here our wonderful student Cintia shares some reflections from a day that seemed to touch on infinity….

In the Bhuvaneshwari workshop we met the primordial mother, who holds the immanence of knowledge and wisdom, and we were taken on a journey into the depths of Space, aided by the sublime background images of stars, constellations and galaxies. Being a space geek that used to stare and speak telepathically to the stars and cosmos at night in the sky, I was immediately surrendered to this Goddess.
It’s so rare to think about space, the space surrounding us. As one of the woman who attended said, “We are so used to touch what we consider concrete, solid, but very rarely do we touch space… – yet we are in Space, we are space, and space is in us too.”
Our planet stands suspended in a vast infinite Space.
Our body is only 1 percent solid and 99% space.

And then our heart is also Space, space that holds the vastness of Universes, the infinitude of love, the eternity of Spirit and the deepest unlimited truths, and like the primordial mother we hold life in the womb, also an empty space filled with life, magic, alchemy, the mystery of where we came from, and our mother came from, and her mother, and her mother before… and as the teachers guided us through this meditation we were suddenly connected to all our thousands of ancestors, who have created the magical portal of life and love through which we came.

We also expressed ourselves through dancing in space, find one another in the space inside our hearts with practical exercises, and we tasted the sense of freedom that expansion creates. Also how bringing to the heart all that we are about to take into our bodies, adds so much more flavour.

We explored the meaning of holding space in our hearts through kindness, like the nurturing mother who loves all of her children and there are no limits to how much she can love… In Bhuvaneshwari all humanity resides in the womb of Her heart, and when we treat others and ourselves with kindness we are embodying this great Cosmic Mother.

And what better way to manifest this than by melting in the affectionate touch massage each woman was able to offer to another, diving deeper into the essence of Bhuvaneshwari in our femininity that so naturally receives and so generously gives…
We also learned the importance of creating space, space to be creative, to stand still, to listen to our own heart, to our essence as a womb that envelops us, allowing us to expand, to manifest the fullness of our being, our gifts, the magnificence of our femininity and the Cosmic Goddesses that reside in the sacred spaces within each one of us.

Over the past few months, the Ten Faces of the Goddess workshops have been moving and touching the souls of the women in our community.

Here are some reflections from one of the particpants, Cintia:

These workshops introduce the ancient Tantric knowledge of the Mahavidyas, the ten facets of the Divine Feminine that are expressed in many of the traits present in every woman.

Each workshop feels like a unique mysterious enticing dance of the Goddess touching each woman, who finds their own reflection in each Mahavidya, as they manifest the Divine Feminine qualities to life and unveil endless treasures within each of them.

As every session comes to a close, there is a feeling of bonding, sisterhood and for many a sensation of being part of the magnetic entrancing dance of the Goddess – part of Her body, and Her many faces.

In the Tara workshop each woman delved into a journey of love and compassion.

We were able to look deep inside the souls of the other women, and find a mother, a sister, a friend who is there not just to help those she loves, but the whole Universe. That was the face of Tara. That was the face inside each of us. That was the face reflecting back to us in the eyes and hearts of each woman; our own essence…

We found the power of the feminine in holding each one of us in love, support and presence… in holding a space of compassion, empathy and forgiveness for every sister, mother, daughter, wife, lover in each season of life, in times of smiles and times of tears… we felt like this for each other… we felt this Goddess power of Tara emerging in us, naturally uplifting each woman, bonding us naturally together as cells of Her Spirit and extensions of Her unconditional love, to all the beings in the Universe.

In Tripura Sundari women found the meaning of true beauty, love and harmony.

Women discovered that True Beauty is an Universal truth, that is essential to the growth and evolution of Humanity. When it is present it brings a sense of Harmony, elation, of reaching a higher ineffable understanding…it touches the soul. We witness the beauty that exists inside ourselves with a mirror exercise, and in every woman who allows herself to shine from within, in authenticity and the embodiment of her core feminine essence. We experienced how beauty is not only interior, but is present also externally in every feature, in every curve, in every unique feminine body, as all are manifestations of the Eternal Goddess.

In Tripura Sundari we also explored how beauty is also what animates art. Who has never been touched by a piece of art, poetry, a book, by music that brought tears to the eyes?

And love! Love… that takes us to the heights of human experience, that makes humans feel invincible, through which the most incredible miracles, the most unbelievable selfless acts became a reality. That love starts inside us first. And love is what unites us, what makes us whole, alive and what makes life possible and the Universe one!