Tara is a frightening Goddess to behold.
She appears only at night, like her name, which means Star, implies.

She has the wisdom of converting poison into medicine. Just as the story tells, when the mighty Shiva suffers great turmoil for drinking the Halahala poison. Out of maternal compassion which she offers to the courageous, she fed Shiva from her breast and healed him. Tara fed Shiva with the healing blue twilight milk of her starry breast. The twilight milk that dissolves the sharp definitions of dark and light, of pleasure and pain. Tara’s Puja takes place upon the April half Moon. The half illuminated and half darkened Moon reveals the balance of the opposites.

Tara is the middle line
where dark & light,
life & death meet.

Her residence is where death is present, in Tantric initiation into Tara the aspirant is to live for 9 months in a cremation ground, confronted starkly with the reality of life and death at once. Tara is a confronter. She wears a necklace of skulls, sometimes she is distinguishable from Kali Ma by this detail alone. It is a subject of meditation as to why she has skulls as opposed to freshly cut heads as a necklace (which is worn by Kali).

On this ritual we shall investigate pleasure and pain and apply her mudras. Tara’s mudras are challenging physical and psychic maneuvers. They can reach into far off places in our being and help in melting the most tenacious of Granthi‘s (psychophysical knots).

Tara is the grand Witch
who looks into the unseen.

Her Mudras are many and involve some of the most challenging aspects of Hath Yog, as the body is twisted and the gaze is taken to the most unusual and unfamiliar places, both physically and psychically. Through the law of reflection the gazing into unfamiliar physical places is transferred into the revealing of the unfamiliar psychic levels of our being.

Tara will teach us
the wisdom of seeing
through the eyes of the Witch.

That which is hidden comes into view. The Mudras of Tara, involve twisting and backbending at the same time, they confront the places where our inner worlds meet and divide. Tara Mudras open up the Kala Bhand – (literally the dark bridge) this is the diaphram area of the body, a major junction of psychic energies that unites the instinctual chakras below with their reflections above. Tara mudras are greatly challenging but they are the mudras that make us acutely aware of opposites and the place between.

Tara dwells on the outskirts, like a star in the sky on the edge of the spherical canopy of night. Always there, but only seen fully in the natural and unpolluted darkness. Tara is the Mistress of the starlight, and the natural dark.
Her annual Jayanti (birthday) is Ardha Chandra, the April half Moon, for half of it lies within view, whereas the other half stays hidden in the shadows. Her Puja (ritualistic worship) works with the star portals that shine between the known and the unknown.

Tara practices
involve working with stars & star portals
& the secrets of dark & light,
of life & death.

In appearance Tara looks like Kali Ma, there are a few differences that can be discovered by the vigilant. For instance, Tara is often depicted holding the mystical blue flower of Neelkamal, a flower that if prepared in a specific way and imbibed, gives admittance to secret places, both terrestrially and ultra-terrestrially. The blue flower is the star flower, around which this healing ritual will move.

Tara gives the scent of the mystic blue flower when she is approached. The flower that only blooms at twilight assists us with looking into those spaces where we don’t usually look, forgotten and out of sight places. What is perceived and easily disregarded as poison turns into medicine under the twilight gaze of Tara. Just like the witch who dwells on the outskirts and is feared and disdained by convention, sometimes even burned. Tara is the she who holds the magical lore of lost and unfamiliar remedy. The remedy that the straight eye of common convention fails to see because it is not directly in front. On this ritual night we will be looking round long lost corners for the blue magical flower.

This year, Tara’s Jayanti, falls under the Lunar House (Nakshatra) of Pushya, the start god of nurishment. To find out how this star constellation can bring us healing through its influence, read our latest blog entry.