SOMA
July 15, 2020
THE FORGOTTEN JEWEL OF TANTRA
Dear Friends of the Healing Circle,
This coming New Moon (Monday 20 July 2020 )is under the rulership of Soma. In Tantra, Soma refers to the Moon and carries several connotations.
Soma refers to the sacred and Healing Moon fluid.
It is subtle psycho/physical compound that is the essence of Tejas: the cool fire of psychic and spiritual power.
The opposite of Tejas is the hot fire of Agni.
Tantra is concerned with bringing both the cooling and the heating fires into a balanced dance with each other.
Soma vivifies and creates, whereas Agni consumes and destroys.
Both of these fires are needed in the correct proportions in the constituents of our body and spirit.
A balance of colling and heating forces (fires) is required to open the subtle portals of awareness. An abundance of Agni fire in our psycho/physical mechanism is the ill of modern times.
PASSIVITY
The forgotten Jewel
The overemphasis of Agni not only consumes the finer currents of awareness but creates stress in the system and ages the body.
Soma on the other hand is the juice of eternal youth.
There are many forms that Shakti (life energy) expresses herself as, and there are many forms that we live out and are occupied by in the fabric and weave of our lives.
We might be expressing or being impressed upon by a particular form of Shakti at the expense of another.
This depends on the karmas (actions) that we are involved in and creating.
Some forms of Shakti consume Soma and some forms of Shakti vivify the Soma fluid of the Moon within us.
Heating pursuits and emotions, extroversion and over activity consume Soma.
Introversion, rest and slowing down the currents of being nurture Soma.
Noise and speech create Agni – which is hot and active.
Silence and stillness create Soma – which is brewed in passivity.
Passivity is a quality that might have disappeared from our lives and a rare jewel of even rarer inaccessibility.
Passivity is a secret Moon-type state of consciousness that the Yogis venture to know in the midst of the fires and actions of life.
The Yogis prize Soma and are cautious and careful to nurture, cultivate and preserve it.
Soma is psychic power. Soma is the cool healing fire that melts the obstructions in the way of our Shakti life energy.
The cool fire of Soma is not as obvious as the active expression of Agni.
Soma lives internally and signifies and is experienced as a magical inner life. Perhaps even independent of external factors.
NIRAMBALA
& the Astral Level
Nirambala is a name of Shiva that implies the independent self-nourishing and self-supporting one.
The introverted fire of Soma is an internal glow that gives one strength of focus and ‘awake-ness’ upon the astral levels ( an aspect we shall explore in more detail on Naaga Panchima on our 25th of July ritual ).
By awareness and being awake in the astral layers of our inner life, we are able to undo knots of karma and unconscious shadows in the Granthis.
Granthis are the psychic and physical energy knots that the Yogis open by the science of a Tantra.
The Granthis are tightened by Agni and loosened by Soma. That is why Soma is known as the soft fluid.
Cultivating Soma creates liquid softness in both the body and the psyche.
Over-stretching Agni creates heat and dryness.
It goes without saying, that an overemphasis on heating practices popular with modern styles of Yoga consumes Soma.
The yoga practices for a woman are radically different than those for a man, as the constitutions are different energetically. The man has a different relationship to Agni and Soma than the relationship a woman has two these two fires. This line of Tantra addresses the subject profoundly.
In present times we live in the Agni fire burns strong and stands in a predominant place. This makes the cultivation of Soma most applicable and most important.
SOMVAAHR
The Day of SOMA
In the Tantric calendar, the year is divided into two.
We are presently in the half that brings lengthening nights, this half of the year follows the solstice. It is the half of the year that belongs to Soma – as nature is on her introverting darkening journey towards the next solstice switch.
This coming new Moon is the first new Moon embedded within the darkening half year of lengthening nights. It is the Moon of Soma and falls on Monday which is known to the Tantrics as Somvaahr, literally: the day of Soma.
Giving strength to the God of Softness and simplicity that Soma is. Soma is cultivated in simplifying our lives.
Somnath is a name of Shiva the eternal Yogi that wears the moon in his hair. Somnath lives in the spirit of all souls who tread the path of shining in the dark. The path of the Magic Moonlight.
CHANDRA PARAMPARA
New Moon Sequence
Like the moon that shines brightly in the night sky, Soma is cultivated in the dark.
The practice of Kechari Mudra has several preparatory stepsand we will practice some on this ritual. It is initiated and practiced when the Soma Moon is at its strongest.
This is a secret science of Mudra that activates points of energy in the system that releases Soma in the form of a hormonal substance that creates profound softness and trance.
The new Moon sequence of Chandra Parampara supports this and is ritualistically practiced by the tantrics at this Moon junction.
Chandra Parampara is the Yog sequence of practice that among all the practices of Yog creates the greatest softening and flexibility in the organism, both psychically and physically.
Prayer and ritual under the Soma Moon is a time of opening body and soul towards the deepest levels of softness. Simplification is the way to Soma… and the way of Soma.