The presence of Shiva and Shakti permeate the Indian (Hindu) culture with ease. Daily, lamps and incense are lit, flowers and fruit offered with various chants and prayers observed in recognition of the dance of creation. Throughout India and other Eastern tradition countries, there is a deep resonance with the play of destruction and creation. The mythology expressed in the epic writings (Mahabharata, Ramayama) and deeply symbolic teachings (Puranas) is an expression of the relationship between destruction and creation.
How you were raised and your ‘creation story’ is both personal and communal. In today’s world as the boundaries, physically and metaphorically, are being broken down traditions are overlapping and influencing one another. Maintaining distinct boundaries requires a significant mindset. Did you see this last week that the Greek Orthodox Church deemed yoga incompatible with the Christian faith? Announcing that yoga is not a physical exercise, rather a tenet of the Hindu tradition. Indeed, yoga originated in the early Vedic teachings however, todays yoga has morphed into a multi-faceted activity. Interesting, right?
What I would like to address is the manner in which the Shiva Shakti relationship has permeated the world stage in unspoken ways and how that might inform our Western perspective at this time.
It is useful to understand, from an Eastern perspective, Shiva is part of the triple deity of supreme divinity in Hinduism. This triad includes the deity responsible for higher order creation (Brahma-God), maintenance of the system (Vishnu), and destruction of old paradigms (Shiva). Shiva is understood to be formless, nameless, and to hold emptiness. The caldron for unmanifested possibility.
Shakti intersects with Shiva as creation potential moves into form. She is the energy, ability, strength, effort, power, and capacity which represent the dynamic forces moving through the entire universe and that which brings creation potential into form. In other words, Shiva is the unmarked, limitless stage for the unmanifested form which Shakti brings into being. They work in tandem. Shiva is known as Ardhanareshwara; half man and half woman. See image above. Both Shiva and Shakti are required in the process of creation to perpetuate the wheel of unmanifest potential into manifest form.
While we were not watching, Shiva Shakti slipped into our reality. As we sat and sheltered in place, isolated and barricaded we found ourselves in the DISSOLVING of our rhythms, patterns and the systems we had concretized. Shiva in action. This has been both painful and liberating. And it has not been an overnight process. We have been in this dissolving for months. Now in the caldron of unmanifest possibility (Shiva), as we are about to open the floodgates to our lives, we have the opportunity, NO the RESPONSIBILITY to ask ourselves, “What did we drop from our lives during this dissolution/ destruction that can be permanently cast aside as we move into a new world, a new paradigm?” Shakti is poised to create anew. Your slate is clean, the emptiness is palatable. The choice is yours. Take this time to reflect before you enter the world with abandon. Use your Shakti energy to manifest your deepest alignment with the universe. BE CONSCIOUS. BE AWARE. BE RESPONSIBLE. You are in the beautiful dance of Shiva Shakti. Blossom, explode and manifest beyond your craziest dreams. Now, at this time, the window is open. Blessings.
FINAL NOTES:
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