‘Shiv only knows himself through Shakti’ is a well known Tantric saying.
Shiv without Shakti is Pardesi (the lost wanderer) looking ever looking for the rose of Shakti.
Oh but Adiparashakti also looks for Shiv…
The love of cosmic yearning is the union of Yog that their hearts beat for.
It is that very Yog that makes separate hearts into one.
Tadaroop is the Tantric union of two forms with one heart.
On this ritual night we will attempt inner and outer Pardesi Mudra of eternal wandering and lostness.
But we will also attempt the sacred ShaktiShiv Challana of inner and outer unification.
The form in the picture above represents the union and completeness of Tantra
On the Moon path, Shakti is worshiped.
Balance of the feminine and masculine principles are envisioned on al, levels by the Tantrika.
But when we observe with a natural vision of realism, where is equality and balance really.
For most of us, light is more of a reality than darkness, action may play a greater role than receptivity.
Is the feminine represented as much as the masculine?
Is matriarchy really honoured, or does patriarchy dominate?
The deep dark Kali Mandir is the dark womb temple of deepest internalisation. It is tge place from which all form comes. It holds inner receptive lunar mysteries.
The eyes of the Goddess reflect the deepest concealed mysteries.
That which is hidden has more potency than that which is revealed.
Ponder on this.
Patriachal traditions often place the man at the forefront,
This is also true in many of the hierarchical Tantric orders where male Gurus are predominantly adored and the woman does not get place on the throne of Mahant.
The Shakti line of the Moon of Chandra Parampara Tantra that is a very feminine hidden tradition is internal just as the Yoni… ever changing with the fluidic Shakti dance of Chandra (Moon)
The Shakti line of Tantra is not hierarchical and so dissective, but rather inclusive and absorbing… as is the Kali Mandir that absorbs all forms and definitions.
Shiv is the greatest devotee of Shakti, but even the stories tell of him trying to evade her…. what a paradox to ponder upon.
Herachical patriachal structures are all around us, and woven into the fabric of many things. This is something that the Tantric keeps an eye upon.
Tantra is something to weave into all aspects of our lives.
Doing Tantric practices as a separative measure certainly has potency.
But bringing Tantric awareness to the things we do, empowers the Shakti generated by such practices.
Dharaan is a Yogic term that represents the weaving of Tantra into all areas of our lives. Dharaan is the caring for the tender subtle flower.
The fruit of Sadhana is known as the Shakti Sadhia.
She can easily get dispersed if she is not cared for… even in the most mundane corners of our lives.
Just as in life and love – if her flower is to bloom – Tantric practices take preparation of body, heart, mind & soul, and then are also cared for after their execution.
The process is akin to planting a flower.
The soil is prepared, the sapling is watered appropriately and sheltered from the storm. Only then can the fragrance and beauty of the flower of Shakti be known.
This ritual will also be followed with written practices that can be woven into everyday awareness without extra time out of the schedule really needing to be taken.
We all probably wake up and go to sleep, a certain state of awareness at these times has a big effect in shaping reality.
The first moments of waking and the last moments before sleep are a secret time to apply awareness.
Often we might empower these two opposite poles with all sorts of things.
How do we wake up and go to sleep?
Perhaps try to observe the first and last thoughts, feelings and sensations attentively at these two times.
To wake in love and devotion, and to go to sleep in love and devotion is a state of awareness that to some extent might not necessary even be dependent upon our circumstances.
Looking out our first and last moments upon waking and going to sleep is like the process of birth and death. It is a massive Tantric undertaking to keep Shakti near enough that we be in her embrace at these times.
Waking is birth, falling asleep is death. our life stands in between.
Honouring the poles at each end by this awareness of waking and sleeping allows Shakti to seep her way into living.
Through her embrace, living is made into loving.
If we do not keep Shakti near, then we might live a life of chaos and then be taking time out for separate spiritual practices.
How do we keep Shakti near?
It’s a secret of awarness that can be nurtured by inner Mudra and awareness.
Such inner Mudra is possible even while engaged in the most challenging or mundane of undertakings.
Perhaps we must not fight natural feelings and inclinations to keep the devotion and love of Shakti near.
But then, how can we keep her near if, even like Shiva, we push her away and at the same time long for her?
This is the question to ponder in soul.
Sometimes everything matters and is given importance above love and devotion. What we nourish grows and creates reality.
The Tantric attempts to keep Shakti near… they might indeed fail, but the very attempt is the essence of Tantic Sadhana.
What would be the effect of nurturing love and devotion?
This is the Tantric undertaking!
The practices of Tantra, whether simple or extreme, are all a play towards the nurturing of love and devotion.
What would be the effect of
nurturing love and devotion
That which is hidden
has more potency
than that which is revealed
In the Tantric calendar, the day of Ardhanareshvhar Puja is constellated in such a way that the energy of the deity of union that is Ardhanareshvhar, is strongest in the cosmos of being.
That is the being of the union of ShaktiShiv.
This is a night and day for union and balance.
How have we been balanced in our lives?
Do we give as much time to internalisation as we do to externalisation?
Is there a balanced exchange in our relationships?
Do we receive as much as we are active?
Do we balance the hot and the cold, the feminine and the masculine?
Opposites attract to meet and balance… this is the secret of Ardhanareshvhar.
The Spring Equinox is an annual cosmological event when the day and the night are of equal length. The words Balance and Transition sum up the Equinox.
The Spring Equinox will shift the poles and the days will thereafter begin to be longer than the nights. This night’s ritual will be a healing voyage into the art of balance and transition.
The Equinox comes to reveal
the hidden unity
in the meeting of opposites
The Equinox is the night
of the Androgynous deity
who brings a state of balance.
Contacting the balance of our inner woman and man with the assistance of the alchemical healing formulas of Tantra will be the occupation of this evening’s Tantric Yogic ritual.
But, what is balance and how can we find it?
To answer this, let us become aware of the characteristics of the opposites existing within us.
By identifying the character of our own unique dualities, we build a magnetic connection between them – this is a secret of Tantric Magic and healing.
In our human world, we see the opposites starkly in the forces of day and night and in the dualities of gender. Opposites however, are not always clear cut things. Female and Male divisions are often socially constructed and culturally relative.
Societal stereotypes of gender
can impose a place of constraint
on the androgyny of the soul.
Relinquishing the cultural and ancestral imprints that we carry and attach to gender becomes a way to inner balance on the path of Tantra.
The ritual path of Union and Transition is a rite of passage in Tantra sacred to the androgynous one.
The shift of nature is coming, but not before this point of balance that stands poised for a night, just before the active day forces take precedence over the forces of the night.
We will entering into the point between the dualities of honouring that which is passing and that which is coming.
The Equinoctial night and day of balance belongs to the sacred hermaphrodite known as Ardhanareshwar
Ardha implies ‘halves’ and Nareshwar implies ‘the sacred union of opposites’.
The perfect balance of opposites is implicated in the form of the half woman/man deity.
We have a being that embodies androgyny on both physical and psychic levels here.
In Ardhanareshvar, we find the mystical balance of the things that are usually exclusive to each other.
The solidity & softness of body
is a merging of opposites
in a physical sense.
Heart & mind kissing each other,
the merging of opposites
in a spiritual sense.
The receptive creative mind and feeling faculty balanced with the agility to move within established mental constructs could be said to bring the opposites together on the psychic level of our being.
The Equinoctial work with Ardhanareshvar is about becoming aware of our own particular expression of halves.
A perhaps self-confronting work that can reveal our imbalanced tendencies as well as our desires for unity.
Ardhanareshvar ultimately represents an embodied healing energy of balancing and unifying the disparate parts within ourselves. Ardhanareshvar is unified love.
HARA RING