FREE RITUAL
Tantra & The Goddess
Goddess Worship
AN INITIATION INTO THE WISDOMS OF THE GODDESS.
09 MAY
21:oo-23:oo CET | 20:oo-22:oo GMT
*A recording will be made available,
if you were unable to make the exact date/time.
Just get in touch.
Between the 15th of May and the 18th of June the Tantric Calendar presents us with four weekly Mahavidya rituals dedicated to the Goddesses Matangi, Bagalamukhi, Chinnamaste, Dhumavati.
On Sunday the 9th of May, we shall gather in ritual to prepare the ground for the month before us, that the Tantric calendar dedicates to 4 of the Mahavidya goddesses of feminine wisdom. On this Free Ritual night we will spend two hours moving through four faces of the feminine, from Matangi, the outcast woman, to Bagalamukhi, the teacher of sacred sound, to Chinnamaste, the wild one of bloodthirsty lust, concluding with the ancient smokey crone known as Dhumavati.
Regular students, beginners and newcomers are welcome to join us in ritual.
On this night we will provide a ritual introduction to Tantra and its approach to working with the Dasha Mahavidyas, before proceeding with a guided meditation and physical Mudra practice for each of the four Mahavidya Goddesses. The aim will be to help us familiarise with their qualities through story and by working with their yantras, mantras and mudras. Additional exercises will be shared with the participants so that you may continue working with these goddesses and their energies in the following days in your own time.
This meeting will provide a general understanding of the journey we will embark on through the series of Mahavidya rituals, and it will lay the foundations on which the four rituals, described below, will be erected.
Suffice it to say, at this point, the proximity of the rituals pertaining to these four goddesses, invites us to see them as strongly interconnected, as four phases of a single journey.
When we move beyond the layer of iconography and myth, which encapsulate the energies and qualities of these Goddesses, and look deeper into their meaning, it is possible to see how Matangi, Bhagalamuki, Chinnamaste and Dhumavati take us through a process of separation, discernment, awakening, and death, as four necessary steps in our spiritual journey towards the great feminine power that the Tantrics call Shakti. See the FULL SERIES.
WHERE & HOW: It’s all Online.
MUST REGISTER IN ADVANCE
The ritual will take place ONLINE, from 9pm until ±11pm Central European Time (CET).
A recording will be made available, should you be unable to make the exact date. Get in touch with us if this should be the case.
To find out how to register and what you will need to follow the practice online, click on the button below.
WHAT IS 'WORKING WITH THE SHADOW'?
A short interview with Boonath.
ANCIENT & SACRED
On these healing circles you will practice a form of Yoga that is rarely available and accessible even in India today. You will take part in a sacred Yogic tradition that roots itself in India’s native shamanic wisdom & Tantric lineage handed down orally between generations of Yogis, Babas, Sadhus and Fakirs.
You will be exposed to the old tantric ways of seeking profound healing and spiritual awakening, including practicing in darkly-lit spaces to quieten the mind and awaken the senses to the body’s subtle energy currents, holding simple postures for long periods of time, and engaging in powerful breath-work to open-up the body and take the mind into altered states of consciousness.
GENTLE
The practice draws on postures seldom used in modern styles of yoga, ancient sequences that honour the mother and the divine feminine, gently opening-up the body to its highest levels of flexibility through minimal effort.
Integral to this experience will be the exploration of sound-currents present in the body (Nada Yoga) – perhaps one of Yoga’s greatest secrets and one of the most powerful vehicles through which the karmic patterns stored in the chakras can be accessed and released in pursuit of profound healing.
UNIQUE
Unique to this tradition is its simultaneous employment of Asanas (postures), aerobic & anaerobic Pranayam (breathwork), Mudras (gestures), and Mantras (sacred sounds).
The synergy created by the employment of these various yogic tools will lead you into altered states of consciousness and dream-like experiences aimed at facilitating a greater openness to inward journeying and an easier access to your subconscious.
UNBOUND
Because we are going to play with shamanic yogic traditions, the practice will take place outside of clearly time constraints. Generally, the practice will last about 6 hours, but if the group is ready to practice longer we might carry well into the night.
INCLUSIVE
The Circle is open to those interested in the healing path.
Tantra and Yoga practitioners, and those seeking healing, practitioners of the mystic arts. Both advanced and beginners will find a place in this circle.
If you have had or are having psychosis please get in touch directly with us as this is important to know about in this work. The same goes for those with strong mobility issues. Drug and alcohol users also need to inform us of their condition. Thank you.
The practie usually takes place in the dark or darkly-lit spaces.
The pictures below were taken in daylight to capture the flow of a practice.
BOONATH
BOONATH was born into a life of yoga. He grew up between Europe and India and was introduced as a child to yoga through his grandparents who were on both sides yoga practitioners.
His grandparents took him on his first Himalayan pilgrimage when he was just seven years old and he has been exposed to the world of yogis ever since.
Boonath has taken initiation into the left hand path (that’s the path of the heart) and specialises in the branch of Chandra Parampara, that is a secret style of Moon practice that works with the night forces. It is a style of tantra that goes very deep into the subconscious roots It is first and foremostly a Healing System. Most of his family still lives in India and he has been travelling there regularly throughout his life in pursuit of yoga. He has worked closely in apprenticeship with elders in the line of Siddha systems of healing and holds much knowledge in the use of rituals, mantras and body/spirit healing methods among other things.
Boonath has been working in this line and helping people with the implementation of these techniques for over 25 years to successfully overcome mental and physical problems, from chronic pain to addiction.
Boonath’s healing and yoga work sees him travelling across the whole of Europe to give workshops and healing sessions. His travels and yoga workshops continue to benefit people in deprived circumstances.
In recent years Boonath has been living and teaching yoga in Germany where he has a network of students. It was in Berlin that Boonath met Kim, with whom Boonath co-founded Working with the Shadow in 2014.
Formal studies and encounters have all left their impression on Boonath, but his teachings are deeply rooted in the Shamanic traditions of the mystical Babas and Fakirs of India, with whom Boonath has been studying closely since childhood to the present day.
KIM
KIM is an Eco-Activist turned Yogi and the founder of Healing in the Willows, the retreat company hosting Working with the Shadow, which he developed in 2014 in collaboration with Boonath, who he assists with the teaching. Kim discovered Yoga in 2005, following a burn-out at work that brought him onto the path of ‘Yog’. Kim had spent over 10 years coordinating international environmental campaigns in Brussels, Amsterdam and Berlin for major environmental NGOs, including Greenpeace, WWF, Friends of the Earth, ActionAid, and many others.
Kim practiced Yoga with many teachers from several modern styles of Yoga (including Iyengar, Astanga, Vinasa, Bikram, Sivananda, Scaravelli, Kundalini) all over Europe, India and further afield. In 2011 Kim set up a first yoga collective in Berlin, which he then expanded to a new location in 2013, in one of the economically deprived areas of town that was undergoing gentrification. The collective brought together a variety of local teachers to promote yoga on a donation basis within the surrounding community unable to afford the increasing cost of living. It was there that Kim met Boonath and, through Boonath, that his understanding of what Yoga is and what Yoga can do shifted entirely. Boonath’s rare and ancient Tantric lineage revolutionised Kim’s understanding of Yoga and initiated him into a mystical healing journey that impacted strongly also on Kim’s activist work.
Since then Kim has been collaborating with Boonath on developing Working with the Shadow through the retreats, workshops and online classes.
“It shifted my understanding of what Yoga actually is,
on a fundamental level”
Joe
Farmer & Activist | UK
REGISTRATION.
TO BOOK A PLACE ON THE ONLINE SESSION…
STEP 1 | Send us an email to
info@healinginthewillows.com
STEP 2 | We will send you a confirmation email confirming your registration.
STEP 3 | The day of the event, we will send you an email containing:
– all the technical details to connect to the class online,
– suggestions on how best to prepare for the practice (foods and drinks to avoid),
– how to set-up your room for the practice,
– props you might need during the practice (blankets, cushions, etc).
THE SESSION WILL HAPPEN ON ZOOM
We will send you the links and passwords necessary for joining the practice.
All your need your end is a computer / tablet with a camera (preferably, but not essential – it’s important that you can see us), a microphone (so that we can hear you, but it’s not essential) and good speakers / audio,
as it will be fundamental that you hear the instructions.
*
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS
T: +39 3298456532
@: info [at] healinginthewillows.com
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