Dasha Mahavidya

A new online series of sacred feminine ritual-ology that will follow the Tantric calendar and will span across the whole of 2021. The ten Mahavidya Goddesses are the ten faces of the Feminine. Dasha means the ten mothers, and Mahavidya means ‘great wisdom’.

Together they are the “ten great wisdoms of femininity”. Some of their faces and gazes might look outside of standard displayed convention, but they are faces and gazes of the Goddess nonetheless. Each Mahavidya has her own ritual date in the Tantric calendar. These nights align – through astral and lunar forces – to the energies of each Goddess.

Through this series, the Tantric practitioner will undergo a path of acquainting themselves with the energy of each of the Dasha Mahavidya Goddess energies. This Mahavidya series consists of 10 Goddess Rituals. Working with the various faces of the Feminine is a healing and empowering pursuit of restoring the feminine power to her full dimension within ourselves, irrespective of our gender and relationship to the femmine.

Some of the Mahavidya Goddesses tear apart our ideas of civilised and established standards, they challenge the socialised mind to its very boundaries by courageously venturing to the borders of the known. The Tantric practitioner on the Goddess path opens doorways of liberation, freeing the Soul from subservience to the established and constraining energy of psychic norms.

If you undertake the path of the Mahavidyas,
you will confront established norms
of consciousness within yourself.
This is a challenging endeavour
& a deeply liberating experience.

– Boonath

In the Tantric calendar year, each Goddess has her Jayanti, which can be translated as birthday or commemoration. These days correspond with Lunar tides and astral forces that support the energy of each of the Goddesses. The Lunar cycles are ever moving and transport energies to the earth realm that yogins have tuned into since time immemorial and attempted to work with in the rituals of Tantra.

We offer this year an ongoing study course along with home Nuskha (meditations) for venturing to face the feminine power in all her expressions: the mother, the lover, the maiden, the crone; the princess, the queen, the witch and the temptress – just to name a few. And we shall meet Shakti in her many manifestations, whether sublime, beautiful and attractive, or repulsive, feared and even loathed.

That which repels us has power over us;
yet, if we face it, it can give us power.

– Boonath

These rituals can be attended individually or all together as part of a series, which will run through the whole of 2021 in accordance with the traditional Tantric lunar calendar. Together they present us with the ten aspects of Shakti. Fitting together as pieces of a puzzle, they will reveal to us the true face of Shakti in all her wholeness.

We will work with the mantras and yantras of each Goddess. The inner and outer mudras that support each Goddess energy will be practiced within ritual context within the Hatha Tantric Puja. By coming to know each of the Goddesses through concentrated ritual work, we come into the unfolding and healing of that particular energy within ourselves.

This will be a profound initiation into journeying to the face of the Goddess, that reveals her distinct features expressed by the ten Mahavidya.

WHEN YOU SIGN UP IN ADVANCE FOR ALL TEN SESSIONS

You will get instruction into working with the Mantras and Yantras
as part of home study between some of the rituals.
You will also take part in additional online group sessions
aimed at guiding you deeper into this process of self-study.

01 | 30 December 2020 | BHAIRAVI JAYANTI

Goddess Bhairavi is the mirror of how we treat our life power.
Bhairavi Jayanti Puja is the study of that which we give our power away to: the corpses that we feed with our life power! She is the destroyer of the three worlds of Earthly, Conscious & Unconscious illusions. The more of our power we give away in life to things which do not feed our Soul, the more ghostly her form becomes to us. Bhairavi is she who can reveal to us our unconscious strategies that keep the Goddess power out of our lives.
Read More

02 | 27 February 2021 | LALITA JAYANTI

Lalita’s wisdom is in the beauty of her simplicity. Her mantras, which we shall practice on this ritual, are soothing; the opposite of her sister Bhairavi’s, which are heating. They are cooling and softening, as to melt into the magical corners of our being. Yet, her Darshan (vision) of the simplicity of receptive being can not be captured through the fires of ambition and urgency that may surround us. Active energies and impulses may well be grabbing our attention in our lives, but if Lalita is to reveal herself to us, such fires must first be balanced and cooled to make way for her.
Read More

03 | 21 April 2021 | TARA JAYANTI

Tara is a frightening Goddess to behold, she appears only at night, like her name, which means ‘Star’, implies.
She is the wisdom of converting poison into medicine. When the mighty Shiva suffers great turmoil for drinking the Halahala poison, Tara fed Shiva from her breast and healed him out of maternal compassion – which she offers to the corageous. 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).
Read More

04 | 15 May 2021 | MATANGI JAYANTI

Matangi is the Goddess who is most pleased when we offer her the parts of our Soul that are no longer edible.
Those parts of us that are old and rotting and are offered to Matangi on this Ritual night.If we have habits that are standing in the way of our progress and polluting our lives Matangi is the Goddess to approach. She is the outcast Goddess worshiped with leftovers. Matangi worship goes deep into inner taboos and denied and swept aside aspects of our soul
On this ritual we shall meet to feed her from the scraps that might be rotting inside us.
Read More

05 | 20 May 2021 | BAGALAMUKHI JAYANTI

Bagalamukhi is the Goddess force that draws the gold out of the swamp of habitual murky dwelling.
When we see the Goddess Bagalamukhi in pictures, she is portrayed as pulling out the tongue of a ghoulish looking little man with bulging eyes. Upon this Half Waxing ritual night, we shall approach Bagalamukhi with the prayer of receiving Kechari Vidya (wisdom of speech). This is a ritual of working with the solar forces as mirrored in the rising half moon. Studying the impact of our active words, not only the spoken words, but also the words that resound and colour our innermost being and impact the course of the events in our outter life.
Read More

06 | 25 May 2021 | CHINNAMASTE JAYANTI

Chinnamaste is a Goddess of sexual energy flow. Study of Chinnamaste teaches us about sexual energy and it’s three fold nature. Chinnamaste is a nourishing Goddess. She nourishes the three channels of the spine, known as Ida, Pingala and Sushumna: the active, passive channels, and the balancing power between the two is what Chinnamasta nourishes us with. She nourishes these three aspects by three distinct forms of desire. Chinnamaste represents the work of the Kundalini channel with its threefold movement of energy.
Read More

07 | 18 June 2021 | Dhumavati JAYANTI

Dhumavati is the intensely ugly Widow Goddess, bitter, barren and bereft of Beauty.
Her nose is beaklike, her countenance inspires disgust. Dhumavati has no peer and is distinct among Goddesses as having no opposite. She is a Shakti that is self contained and stands alone. She is the grand Widow. She holds the deep wisdom of age and loss. She is an elder Goddess, regarded as the elder form of Kali. She holds the secrets hidden by the smoke of time. Dhumavati teaches us of the wise acknowledgment of that which we have lost over the span of our lives.
If something is lost or dies, it is often a cause for lament. But it also holds the seed of rebirth of another mode of being.
Read More

08 | 30 August 2021 | KALI JAYANTI

There are many tales which tell of Kali’s indomitable nature. She often tries and succeeds in leading Shiva astray into further levels of crazed madness.
Wherever Kali Ma appears, there is discord, disorder and destruction. She destroys established order and structure.
The destruction that Kali Ma brings is the death of the known and the rigid structures that imprison the wild feminine.
She is the dark eclipsed feminine that lives in the dark shadows; she rules the places where secret life grows. She is the hidden power within the dark womb.
Read More

09 | 18 September 2021 | BHUMESHVARI JAYANTI

Bhumeshwari is the Shakti that generates the 5 elements (Panchabhoot) and brings them into harmony with each other. Work with Bhumeshvari is the work with the 5 elements. Physically it is a grounding work of manifestation of our spiritual powers into the garments of matter. It is a work of preparing the body to contain the voltage of Shakti. The right balance of elemental energies ensures health and harmony in our physical lives. Conversely, the imbalance of elemental spirits can manifest as all manner of disturbance in both the physical and psychic aspects of our lives. Tantra works on balancing the Panchabhoot, through different mantras and mudras that affect the different Panchbhoot energies directly – the focus of this online ritual.
Read More

10 | 04 November 2021 | KAMALA JAYANTI

She is the Woman of boundless beauty, Love and sensuality. She is the Woman of all Women that we can never take for granted. When she is taken for granted, she will be lost and only be there in form, but the elixir of Love will long be dead. Kamala Jayanti is the birthday of the Goddess of Love, yet it is more than just a celebration of her presence: it is also a recognition that she may be absent in our lives. When Kamala is absent, our energies can be poured away from Love and into things that have nothing to do with our immediate situation. In her absence we can waste our lives in loveless pursuits. Tantric practice concerns itself with these unconscious mechanisms on the path of Love. The Ritual of Kamala is the way of Heart. Love is grounded desire and Kamala is the Goddess of grounding desire into Love.
Read More