The final installment of the 5 element series of Panchabhoot brings us the annual Fire festival of the Horse God Hayagriva. Hayagriva is the horse god of the wisdom of shadow and light. The element here is Fire, and deals with the solar plexus chakra and its opposite at the third eye.

The solar plexus is the chakra of the burning fire of Agni and its opposite at the third eye is the Ajna chakra that creates Soma elixir by the cooling fire known as Tejas. The story of Hayagriva tells of 2 horses, both of which were called Hayagriva. One was the burning black horse that for Tantrics represents the solar plexus. The other horse was a silver colored lunar horse that represents the third eye Chakra.

In Tantric subtle anatomy, the opposite of the solar plexus chakra is the third eye. The solar plexus is the colour vibration of yellow in the colour spectrum and the opposite colour of Indigo rules the third eye. The third eye reflects the shadows of the sun ruled solar plexus – by working with the fires of the sun chakra we affect the third eye.

The solar plexus is connected to the destructive fire of Agni and the Third eye is connected to the cool fire of Tejas. A balance between the two fires is important in both physical and psychic balance. This balance between the cooling and heating fires is what the Annual Jayanti day of Hayagriva represents. The ritual of balancing fire is what we shall look into on this night. This is reflected in the fantastical story of the Two Hayagriva horses (see blog). We see that one of the Hayagriva horses was possessed of the destructive raging solar-plexus fires of unconsciousness and the other Hayagriva horse came to balance this burning rage by adding the cooling lunar consciousness to the mix. Together the two Hayagriva horses represent the balance between the fires of creation and destruction.

We will give focus to the chakras of the solar plexus and its opposite at the third eye. In this ritual we will practice the mantras that cool fire. The practice of such sound formulas can offer a profoundly cooling remedy to the fires that rage in our body and spirit. We will be practicing the horse breath pranayama techniques – it is perhaps of note to mention that the horse is a creature that can travel at great speed without becoming short of breath – it is an unparalleled creature that channels breath into the fire of action.

The Chorrah Chalanas are the galloping and trotting moves of a horse that will also be ritualistically practiced upon this ritual night in the horsey quest of finding our balanced power. May all creatures live in the power of Love.