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Grounding Desire

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The month of October ushers us into the second Full and New Moons of the darkening half of the year (31 of October and 14 of November respectively). Two is the number of dualities upon the physical and psychic plane.
The number two is the number of the polarity of Love. This Lunar phase explores the dualities and their meeting in great detail. These dualities are expressed as Kumari and Kumar, they are the inner archetypes of the princess (Kumari) and the prince (Kumar). In this dualist world, Kama (desire) becomes the mysterious urge of Nature to unite between dualities.

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The Yogi seeks
the secret of nature’s unification
by stopping to oppose her,
and Tantra is the subtle study
of all the places where we oppose nature
within and without ourselves.

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Kamala is the Goddess of Love to whom this Lunar cycle is dedicated. It is Kamala who presides over this lunar month. Kama is the God of Desire, the raw principle of desire. Kama is known for shooting his 7 arrows into the seven chakras and cause infatuation and longing.

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Tantric wisdom shows us that
grounded desire is nothing but Love.
This is the secret implicit
in the name of the a Goddess of Love:
Kamala.
To whom this lunar month belongs.

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The last Bija mantra ‘La’, in the name of Kamala brings grounding to the desire principle. The La grounds desire – La being the Bija (seed) syllable for the Kunda, that is the pot that houses Kundalini Shakti at the root of our body. It is the very base of our being.

Addiction. Obsession.

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Ungrounded desire, on the other hand, becomes restless ambition.
It is represented by the archetypal figure of  The Sick King, full of hot air and hope but no Pyar Shakti (Love Power).
We will come to the king very soon in our narrative here.

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Ungrounded Desire/Love turns into
addiction, obsession, co-dependence
born of an inner unfulfilled neediness.

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Ungrounded Desire plays out in spending our energies in things that have nothing to do with our immediate situation in life and love. Tantric practice concerns itself with the most immediate feelings of the heart, and the nearest matter at hand, that is the best focus for our resources.

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If we are to be truly effective
in the meeting of the sacred heart,
immediate concerns
must be addressed & not avoided
by going into extraneous involvements.
This is the grounding of desire.

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To ground our desire becomes a fortifying and nourishing way towards the fulfilment of Love.

Princess & Prince

The need of the inner neediness’ is to ground desire. The unfulfilled hunger at its root seeks ‘the grounding of longing’. This is the concentration of spiritual focus. Tantric science is built upon this concentration of our inner force. By grounding the desire within ourselves, the vessel of the self becomes full and rich with life power. This is known in Tantra as Pyar Shakti which, as stated above, translates as ‘the power of Love’.

Chandra Purnima (Full Moon) arrives on the last day of October. She is also known as Kumar Purnima to Tantrics. Purnima translates as full and total.
So this is the Full Moon of Kumar. Kumar means prince, lover, and also bridegroom. In the orthodox celebration of this day many thousands of maidens in India perform worship, fasting and rituals in the hope of welcoming a beautiful lover into their lives.

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The Tantric rite upon this full Moon
has been kept since ancient times
as the secret work with the inner prince.

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Remember that Tantrics have very detailed rituals for every Moon phase. By making every Moon a sacred day of honour we open our life to magic.
Our time here on earth is but a few steps between life and death, we might involve our heart and mind in many things at the expense of magic.
The Tantrics adhere strictly to the currency of magic.
The Tantrics take the seat of femininity at the Shaktistan chakra in this full Moon ritual of Love.
Shaktistan, as this chakra is known to the Tantrics, translates as the place of the Goddess. It is the second chakra of creation, the seat of Kama (desire).

Kama is grounded in the chakras within this ritual.

The Tantrics on this ritual night identify with the inner Kumari (princess) and rise to meet the Kumar energy of the prince who dwells in the chakras above.
Like a battery circuitry, Shakti is one pole and Shiva is the other pole.
Kumari is the princess Shakti, and Kumar is the princely Shiva.

Queen & King

Rani and Raja are well known designations of royalty.
A Queen or a King, in the mundane sense, have been given this title in India since time immemorial.
The marriage of the inner Kumar (prince) with the inner Kumari (princess) is the inner yogic unification of the battery-like energies of plus and minus in the circuitry of our inner universe.

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The inner marriage results in a circuitry
that unites and heals divisions
between our feminine and masculine parts.
This is then reflected in our outer lives.
Resolving things inside resolves issues without.
This is the wisdom at the heart of Tantra.

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The meeting of the inner Kumari (princess) and the inner Kumar (prince) gives birth to the Queen and King.

The innocence of the prince and princess within ourselves, when brought together, create the power of Queen and King.
Princess and Prince are the potentialities that are yet to unite.
The Princess and Prince are not yet united in their power as Queen and King.

VULNERABILITY
The unbirthed potential

We must not necessarily think in fairy-tale terms of man and woman, although this is also implied.
The princess and prince archetype spans across designations of gender.
The macho man has a princess within him. He may reject her, he may oppress her, or then again he may honour her with dignity and grace – whatever his inner contact to his inner princess may be, it will be translated to his dealings with princesses in the outside world.

The sentimental flamboyant one, might praise the princess in his thought and action, he may affirm to himself that he curtseys gracefully at her court, when in actuality, he might be drowning her in stifling garments… too rich and weighty to allow her to move in an innocence of being.

The dealings with princesses in ourselves and others may well be in the romantic sphere, whether in a woman or a man.
Both woman and man may also meet the princess in their dealings with the princesses in their children, associates and animals.

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A princess is a subtle energy of maidenhood,
she holds a yet un-birthed potential.
One cannot jump over the princess to the Queen.
To meet the princess takes gentleness and grace.

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Many might jump to address the Queen, or princesses may prematurely pose as Queens.
This is the path of pretence and disempowerment, it reflects the deep inner impatience that casts the Kumari into the cold before she has the warming mantle of the Queen.
This has disastrous consequences for all.
The self-care and honesty to face oneself as one is, creates nurturing and growing power.
Time and again, the practices of Tantra, show us how impatience, ambition and force do not serve us.

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The woman touches her innocence and youth
by taking the seat of Kumari,
the vulnerable place is the place
or rebirth that her seat presents.
Indeed it is the place of power and healing.

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By stepping over the magic of vulnerability, we banish love from our lives and move into the energy of the vain Queen that folk tales the world over mention.
The man humbling himself to take the hand of the princess within his own heart becomes gentle.
Rigidities melt aside in a psychic and physical melting of the wax that we are made of.
Melting in the flame of Love, which Tantra whispers of.
Whether we are man or woman in gender, we are both in the spiritual sense.

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The study of this Moon phase
is about looking at the state
of our inner princess & our inner prince.
Kumari and Kumar.

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THE SEAT OF POWER

The prince within us all is the grand Kumar.
If he assumes the throne of a king prematurely, he will have dominance made of empty power.
The prince who assumes too early the seat of the king rules in sickness and impotence.
His seat may cause others to tremble but this position drinks from him as he uses power that he has not earned.
He will be impatient and violent, bullying the Kumari within into submission.
Of course, she may obey but the prince who’s not won the heart of his inner princess and earned the king’s boots will lose everything and dry up bitterly without Love.

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The Tantric studies such things
and inner constellations of energy,
and brings healing salve
to the wounded princess and prince.

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The Tantric codes have much wisdom to impart in regard to the multi-faceted connections and interrelated links between princess & prince, queen & king.
The science of Tantric mudras that pertain the these subjects and positions reveals the inner world of our psychic royal court.

The Indian folk tales and written epics, deal greatly with royal archetypes and their connections, sometimes having very intricate plots that span across different lifetimes and parallel universes.
Romantic love goes through the princess and prince.

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This work on the Kumar Purnima ritual
is profoundly healing
for our past, present and future encounters
between the princess and prince,
both in an inner sense, and an outer tangible sense
manifest in our relationships.

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On Saturday night we shall gather to practice in the age old Tantric ritual. We will work with and honour the spirit of Love on the October’s Full Moon.

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We will practice the royal gestures,
both in an inner and outer sense.
to one’s countenance
They bring grace
comprised of physical & psychic gestures.
These are royal mudras
which lead onto the Raj & Rani Mudras.
the Kumar & Kumari Mudras.

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The antar (inner mudras) that we shall work with at this time comprise of what is known in Tantric science as Gupt Mani Karana mudras. This translates as the work with the inner jewels, or the secret of the seven jewels (Saptmani).
Gupt means secret, mani is a jewel, and Karana means to do.

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On this sacred ritual night
the tantrics do the doings
of the seven secret inner jewels.

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The different jewels relate to different planetary energies, as they vibrate in accordance with planetary vibrations. The jewels have relation to the chakras and we will explore this relation as part of this new four-part series rituals dedicated to Kamala…

To find out more about this current Moon Phase, read also our posts about Diwali, the festival of lights, and Shaadee Ardha Chandra Puja…

Conclusion of the Navaratri Festival

“If we are to connect
to the deep nourishing forces
of femininity and nature within and without
we must open our ear to hear her voice.
The voices of patriarchy
may deafen the tone of her wisdom.
The yogini is one who listens
to her mystical song.”

The Legend of Mahishasura

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The Legend of Mahishasura is where the story starts.

Mahishasura was a powerful yogi who’s powers went to his even more powerful head.
He became powerful through yogic austerities that gave him the power to call forth Bhrama, the creator. He earned a wish by the power of Siddhi.
Mahishasura demanded power and immortality.

He had earned great power and was initiated to something equally great. But Mahishasura overestimated his power. He assumed a greater height that he actually had.
In his self-satisfaction he was not careful in his wish before the creator.
He proudly proclaimed his wish to the creator that no God, Demon, Ghost, man or animal would be able to ever defeat him. He wished for absolute dominion over all of creation.

His wish was granted!

As the creator parted from Mahishasura,
he said: “watch out for a Woman,
you only said no man!”.

Mahishasura, fumbled for words and wished the wish to be rectified but it was too late to go back.
The creator left with a smirk…

Mahishasura did not believe a woman would ever have the power to defeat him.

He had great siddhi and thought he should not worry about it, and rather get busy in playing the new god to the creation that he believed was now in his hands. 

He swam in the sea of self-aggrandisement and got busy in oppressing the beings of the three worlds to satisfy his will. 

The three Worlds are known collectively as Triloka. They are the three worlds of the under, upper and the earth between them.

Mahishasura’s desires were perverse.

The once upon a time most dignified gods were now abjectly oppressed to do his instant bidding. Because of the blessing of the creator Brahma, Mahishasura was unstoppable.
The Gods surrendered and Mahishasura’s hideous guttural laughter could be heard echoing through the three worlds.

The Gods approached Shiva the destroyer who did not wish to be disturbed from his meditation. 
Shiva’s samadhi kept the 3 worlds in order, and he didn’t feel compelled to do anything. They continued to agitate him until he opened his third eye for a second and said: “my wife will sort it out.”

Man and woman alike had been oppressed and made subservient to Mahishasura’s perverse rein of patriarchy. Cruelty and the rape of nature ensued, humans became drones to the mantras that he commanded them to recite.

Mahishasura enjoyed rapturous pleasure and did not keep to his Yog austerities and practices anymore. He grew pleasantly fat with a perpetual soft smile upon his cheeks. Shiva telepathically from his mountain heights asked his wife to go and look into the situation. She set off to meet Mahishasura.

When the beautiful daughter of the mountain king arrived in her innocent apparel, the great Mahishasura had no idea of the extent of her feminine power.

He invited the beauty to drink wine, he had only one thought on his mind that he believed could be accomplished with a click of his fingers.

He thought to himself, why not relax from all this oppressing and terrorising for a moment, and play a game of cat and mouse for a bit?
He thought he was the cat. 
But soon he would learn who really commanded the game…

As he made his advance, he was thrown back with extreme force, his golden goblet dribbled it’s wine like scattered essence.

Never in his life had he been moved by anyone.
He advanced again with more ferocity.

This woman was a match!

Mahishasuras was a shape shifting yogi, and so he shifted through numerous forms to try and subdue to Goddess. The Goddess simply moved with him, matching every move.
He became a Giant, and the Devi became a vast Ugra Devi. He changed from animal to ghost in order to subdue her, but nothing worked!
He tried all the tricks he knew, even appearing as Sundernath, the beautiful form of her husband, nothing could get past this woman!
He tried the old trick of multiplication… as drops of his blood flew around he became many from each droplet. Still, nothing worked.

The great Mahishasura was impressed by such a woman, her power awakened deep perversity in him, he wished to conquer her with his manhood.

He saved his main trick till last, the trick of tricks that could never fail.

Mahishasura, it is to be remembered, derives his name from Buffalo, a creature of huge weight.
Mahish means buffalo and Asura means perverse.
In full blooded arousal he charged to mount the goddess who’s sari had fallen for an instant. 

In the air he changed form from man to buffalo.  Alas, the Trishul (trident) studently appeared from beneath the silken folds of Durga’s sari, bursting Mahishasura’s heart. 

He gazed at her as he took his last breath, bewildered by the fat that a woman had defeated him.

He had not even had the change to shapeshift fully. His naked body splayed over the floor, only his head had turned to that of a Buffalo, his tongue rolled out of his mouth and lopped to the side. The Lion upon which Durga rode, sunk his fangs in, just to be sure!

FEMININE TRIUMPH OVER PATRIARCHY

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Durga is the most Ugra of all forms.
When she is angry, all the Urga Devi’s shoot from her third eye.
She is Mother of the World.
She is at once nature and protector of nature.
She is a favourite to the Yogins.
Ambarani is the name of Durga as Queen of all the 3 worlds.

The trident that pierced Mahishasuras heart struck his being in all 3 levels, till not a trace of his oppression over the feminine remained. 

The Goddess festival is concluded upon the defeat of the patriarch by the feminine.
The 9 nights of Navratri reach their climax on this night.
The feminine is victorious.
This Tantric teaching story has many connotations upon which to mediate.
Each Navaratri night has built up to strengthen the feminine principle (see our facebook page for a daily post featuring wirtings about each of the goddesses).

The star forces are there to absorb by those who have quieted the other forces that oppress the voice of the Goddess.
The Goddess who keeps the heartless patriarch in his place is both an inner watcher and an outer necessity in our lives.

DURGA PUJA

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If we are to connect to the deep nourishing forces of femininity and nature within and without we must open our ear to hear her voice.

The voices of patriarchy
may deafen the tone of feminine wisdom.
The yogini is one who listens
to her mystical song.

Upon this night of Tantric ritual the age old circle practitioners meet to work with and to celebrate the feminine power.
The Tantrics have kept this ritual alive for aeons.
Through patriarchal rule of missionary religions, through the British and other male oriented  empires upon the soil of the mystical culture, the Tantra has never been lost, it has lived on secretly on the outskirts and in the shadows.

The sacred feminine ritual of the Mother of all worlds.

Tantrics practice the Mudras and Mantras of Durga.
The Ugra mantras translate as the terrible sounds.
They are part of the Gupt (hidden) practices.

They are techniques that create sound
while subtlety choking the throat
through an inner contraction.
They produce fear and passion simultaneously
in the practitioner and raise inner substance
to work Tantricly with.

They raise the Prana and create great heat in the system.
A heat that feeds Kundalini with one’s Shakti, if it is concentrated.
The Maage mudras of the Buffalo and Sheer mudras of the Lion comprise a great part of this ritual.
Above all, it is a ritual of working with, empowering and celebrating the feminine power.

Lakshmi & Alakshmi Ritual

A FREE MEDITATION

“This Full Moon meditation comes from the pantheon of secret tantric practices that work powerfully to reconcile the opposites within us.”   – Boonath

Death and Life are two sides of the same coin.

There is no living without dying, and there is no dying without living. Living and dying go together.

Where Lakshimi is life, Alakshmi is death, where Lakshimi shines like a star of vision, Alakshmi consumes like an enveloping night of creeping blackness.  

This meditation that is about to be presented, is linked to the two sisters in question. It is a ritualistic practice that pertains to the Moon phase we are working with tonight and on the 16th of October.

This ritual comes from the pantheon of secret tantric practices that work powerfully to reconcile the opposites within us.

Though this practice be most simple in appearance, it brings about profound power and insight to the one who practices it diligently between the first Full and New Moon of the darkening half of the year (that is, from tonight and for the next fifteen days).

The practice brings about deep insights into the nature of wealth and poverty and our relationship to these forces.

Just as the Tree is fruitfully in bloom in one season and then barren and leafless in another, the movements of these two energies comprise the vision of the nature of reality ‘with’ its fluctuations in the psychic seasons of the soul.

Object of Power

A coin is a Tantric object of power and symbolically represents the currency of the soul: Shakti.

Some tantrics keep a coin, sometimes it is worn around the neck on a string.
Amongst some yogis it may be a mere convention, but in the lines of Tantra, a coin is often handed down the line from elders to apprentices, having acquired power from decades of ritualistic use.
When a disciple has sufficiently learned about the laws of the exchange of energies, then they are given the coin as a mark of initiation, one amongst the 3 metal objects of power: trident and copper pot being the other two.
In tantric culture a yogi who has gained a high degree of wisdom about energy cultivation and preservation is privy to receive such a coin as a mark of initiation.
The learning of the laws of energy exchange implies that one knows of ways to keep a steady degree of energy, without the common fluctuations between tiredness and excitement.
This meditation is a great psychic instrument towards helping one towards such an attainment of equanimity.  

Law of Exchange

The practice can be dipped into superficially or one can immerse their whole being in it.
The practices of Tantra only give back in return what one gives themselves to them.
Time indeed can help one in gaining focus, but beyond the amount of time spent in such practices, is the quality, and intensity of devotion and focus, this plays a more important part than anything else.

We may approach Tantric subjects with the hope of gaining something, for example, health, peace of mind, healing or power.
These things come at a price and can’t be expected.
We only gain to the degree to which we have given, when we go into the mirror of Tantra.

If we use the practices in a casual way, spending minimally, holding back or withholding the currency of our Shakti, then Tantra will take from us in the same way that we have hoped to take from Tantra.

Life itself is a Tantric mirror, if we meet the reflection without smears upon the mirror we naturally meet balance, karmic smears upon the screen through which we live life are a Tantric concern.

In the spiritual world, there are no cheap deals, or two for the price of one offers. In the law of exchange there is no grasping for abundance with a poor hand.
Taking a lot without giving might be the perverse privilege of humans, but this is at a crippling price, often to others, but in the spiritual sense… where there is only one heart, we bear the consequences ourselves.

‘Time is money’

Those corporations that roll in big amounts of money are those that occupy a big place in the space/time continuum. Take corporations such as Amazon or Burger King, Facebook or tabloid newspapers.

Corporations occupy the space/time continuum in both a collective and an individual sense. How? by latching onto the unresolved archetypes that burn in the recesses of the soul.

Until a symbol that consumes us is embraced in both its dark and light aspect, it is an open door to disempowerment by ‘unowned’ forces that can ‘enter’ invisibility and unnoticed within us and steer the engine and direction of our spiritual focus.
By aquatinting oneself with the timeless realm that the soul inhabits beyond the space/time continuum, the ‘time is money’ or the ‘time is power’ principle is known in more than a theoretical way.
Tantrics say that soul of every human is Maha Kaal, (the one beyond time) beyond birth and death, beyond coming and going.
The Yogis’ vision has been to touch the timeless, through working with time in the realm of time that we inhabit in parallel unison to the timeless realm.

Meditation

Take a coin. It can be specially selected, perhaps bought from a collectors shop. You may have a treasured coin among your keep sakes and trinkets already.
Or you may simply take the first coin that comes to hand.

One side of the coin is painted black by you.
You can use a wax crayons for this, or children’s hobby paint, or even black nail polish.
The other side is polished for a period with a cloth or a tissue, you might even like to use metal polisher to bring out a shine.  

The coin is tossed and lands upon the floor, and you make circles around it.
If it lands shiny side up, you circle it in the attitude of Lakshmi, in the Surya chakra (clockwise Solar direction) walking round and round the coin until you feel yourself to be the Goddess of fortune herself. Notice your outer countenance and align it to one of royalty and grandeur, whilst inwardly summoning and visualising the prosperity Goddess, you can feel yourself to be Lakshimi in your own psychically creative way.

If the tossed coin lands black side up upon the ground, you circle the coin in the Chandra chakra (counter-clockwise Moon direction)
You take the walk of poverty, summoning thoughts and feelings of poverty, walking with empty, impotent countenance of hungry and tired poverty.
Align yourself to an inner attitude of Alakshmi, ugly, sour and barren.
Align to a grief-stricken reality and as you continue to circle, go deeper and deeper into this.

Flip the coin until you have done both sides, you may get a few tosses of one Goddess in a row, keep going and doing the practice.
When both sisters have shown their face by the magic of the coin, then the circling is complete.

Afterwards, sit on the floor with the coin between your palms.
Go into the centre that exists between the extremes of the two expressions of Lakshimi and Alakshmi.

The practice can be done anytime, upon awakening and before sleeping is recommended.

To find our more about the myth of Lakshmi and Alakshmi, read our blog post!

We hope you will find this meditation useful.
Hara Ring,

Boonath & Kim