Rock Your World with the Divine Mother: Bringing the Sacred Power of the Divine Mother into Our Lives By Sondra Ray

The Divine Mother is known by many names and takes many forms. In Christianity, she is the Virgin Mary. In China, she is universally loved as the goddess of compassion, Quan Yin. In Hawaii, Pele, the goddess of fire, manifests in the form of a woman near the volcanoes. In India, she is embodied by Kali, Lakshmi, Tara, and other goddesses.

The fusion of feminine qualities from all religions and traditions, the Divine Mother can be a nurturing presence and a powerful guide along your individual spiritual path. Through stories, prayers, and teachings, Sondra Ray enthusiastically escorts you into the profound reawakening of the sacred feminine in the hearts and minds of seekers throughout the world.

Ray describes her pilgrimages to holy places where she has sought the divine feminine, from the revered Baca Valley in Colorado to the Himalayan foothills. Her reflections on Amma (the hugging saint), Mother Teresa, Mary Magdalene, and other Divine Mothers, as well as men like Shastriji and Babaji, who embrace the feminine aspect of divinity, provide insight and inspiration as well as suggestions for worship and renewal. Ray’s delightful and awe-inspiring adventures, coupled with insightful teachings and prayers, show how embracing the Divine Mother can help attract more love, abundance, clarity, and wisdom into your life. In Rock Your World with the Divine Mother, Ray demonstrates that the Divine Mother’s presence is essential for both inner peace and peace in the world.

Sondra Ray on Quan Yin

Sondra Ray presents the Quan Am Buddhist Monastery and Sculpture Garden of New Zealand in this beautiful video of these Quan Yin statues of the Divine Mother. Joined by Patricia Wylie, she comments on the importance of the Divine Mother in these times of global change.

ROCK YOUR WORLD WITH THE DIVINE MOTHER

AN INTERVIEW WITH SONDRA RAY
by Randy Peyser

Sondra Ray has been at the forefront of personal transformation ever since she first introduced the practice of rebirthing to the New Age movement back in the ‘70’s. She is the author of many books, including, Loving Relationships, Volume I and II.

In her new book, Rock Your World with the Divine Mother (New World Library), she talks about the power of the Divine Mother to help you create miracles in your life.

Sondra leads 3-day “God Trainings” focused on spiritual practices related to the Divine Mother, Babaji., and A Course in Miracles. She also leads rebirthing workshops and trains rebirthers all over the world.

Randy Peyser: In your book, you share many experiences you’ve had with spiritual teachers who you perceive to be an extension of the Divine Mother. One of those people is Ammachii, who is known as “the hugging saint.” Years ago, I had an experience of meeting her. I was surrounded by hundreds of people who were chanting, but I wasn’t feeling particularly moved. At one point, though, I closed my eyes, and within seconds I was blasted with white light. It kept coming in big waves. When I opened my eyes, I saw that Ammachii was extending her arm like she was throwing this light, and she was laughing. Can you explain what was happening?

Sondra Ray: Ammachi is light. She is able to handle more light in her body than most people. She is probably the highest female saint on the planet today in a body that is alive. She can extend this light anytime she wants, anywhere.

Because she is total light, she doesn’t have an ego, so there is nothing to interfere with her light. We all are light, but most of our lights are dimmer because we have an ego and she doesn’t. She has no separation from God. That is why she is able to perform miracles and hug 15,000 people in one sitting, which no ordinary person could ever do. Her light is constant and it never diminishes.

So she gave you a big dose in that moment. I can’t say why she gave it to you individually in that way, but it’s a blessing for you. When we are surrendering in that moment, we can feel it. So, somehow in that moment you surrendered enough to feel it. If we are always surrendered to the Divine Mother, maybe we’d feel it in that way, too.

Randy: You are known as an expert in the realm of relationships and rebirthing. What led you to the Divine Mother?

Sondra: I was traveling all over the world. At one point, I was in Santa Fe and someone told me about a spiritual guide, named Beth. So, I went to see her, and even before I sat down, she said, “Oh you! ‘They’ want you to create something beyond the feminist movement.”

I asked for more information, but she had no further information for me. All she said was that I would have to decide if I would accept this mission. She advised me to create an altar and make my decision. I wrote to the Spiritual Hierarchy: “If I am born to this, I accept, but can I have more information?”

Suddenly, a wind like a ‘cyclone’ went through the house. I felt afraid. I didn’t know what it was. My left hip started hurting badly, too. Finally, I went to India. I did a ceremony with my girlfriends in the Ganges, and as we prayed, I looked toward the Divine Mother Fire Temple and I got it: “It’s the Divine Mother movement, and the reason it’s beyond the feminist movement is because it includes men!”

I realized all the great yogis and masters I had studied with in India were males. The reason they were able to perform miracles is because they were all joined to the Divine Mother. My gurus were praying to the Divine Mother for hours every day. I started going to Navaratri, which is a festival of the Divine Mother, and we did nine days of ceremony devoted to the Divine Mother.

Randy: Is the Divine Mother specific to any one religion?

Sondra: The Divine Mother is beyond all religions. She is the feminine aspect of God, or you could say she was the original spark of creation or life force, which is also a feminine aspect. In India, they say there is nothing higher than worshiping the Divine Mother, because you are worshipping the life force itself with the spark of creation. Or you could say she’s the intelligence behind matter.

Many miracles happened when I asked to understand the Divine Mother. I hadn’t asked for miracles. I just asked to understand the Divine Mother, and for a couple of years, miracles kept happening, which explained to me all the power she has.

Randy: Can you give an example of a miracle?

Sondra: I had commissioned a painting of the Divine Mother from one of Babaji’s temple painters. She spent months on it in a little hut outside of Seattle. I got nervous about this painting because I had ordered a really big picture and I thought it might not go with my décor. Even though I hadn’t seen it, I thought it would be best if I just gave it to an ashram, and I told my decorator to do that. But he had a dream that he should hang it, so when I came home, it was hanging in my house.

As soon as I saw it, I gasped and said, “Okay, I surrender.” No one had been in my house for over a month, and the whole house suddenly smelled like roses for fifteen minutes. I fell on the floor and cried and apologized for my resistance.

Then the miracles got even bigger. Ash would come out of my Divine Mother pictures. Then there was this really huge miracle with the murtis, which are these statues in India – like the Virgin Mary statues – that cry real tears. Murtis have the living presence in them. I went to India with my students and I was in the caves when Babaji materialized. During that day, people all over offered milk on platters to the statues of the Divine Mother, and on that day, all the statues all over India drank the milk, which is not possible. The people rushed to get more milk and they ran out of milk all over India. This was reported on the BBC.

I asked my guru, “What is that?” He said this was the kind of miracle you see once every four thousand years. After that, I didn’t need to see any more miracles because I understood that the Divine Mother could do anything.

Randy: I’m intrigued by the statement in your book that “to be able to write this book I had to be shattered.”

Sondra: I meant my ego had to be shattered and all the things I had built to be in control. I had to go through the death of the ego and it was shattering. My mother died and I went into a dark night of the soul kind of depression. I was stuck in guilt. I had a thought of religious guilt.

Ammachii says you have to process your family shadow, your personal shadow, and your church shadow. That is what I had to go through – those shadows – which were like a dark side of one’s consciousness. The personal shadow would be your karma and past lives. The family shadow would be all the stuff from the past that you’d been taught by your parents that was wrong. The church shadow would be the ego of the church, which tells you, you are a sinner. I had to go through all three shadows. There is so much liberation, joy and excitement when you get through all of that. I felt like a new person. It was so wonderful to be liberated from the past. I don’t regret it.

Randy: You’ve used the word, ‘surrender’ a number of times. What do you mean by that?

Sondra: Surrender doesn’t mean giving in. It means giving up your resistance. Resistance is our ego, which is a false self that we made up to replace God. It is based on the thought that we are separate from the Source, the Mother, God, the Holy Spirit. You cannot surrender when you put up a wall around yourself. For example, are we keeping our errors, our negative thoughts? If we are keeping our errors, then the truth cannot come in and heal us.

The Goddess will solve all our problems if we surrender to her. She will create a huge transformation from the harsh patriarchy to a more gentle feminine spirit if we surrender to her. She will deliver us. The ivory towers we’ve built have to come down. The symbolic thing about the 9-11 towers coming down was very significant. Those two towers represented the ego, or our masculine side, or greed. As a nation we are going through a shattering. Maybe it’s good that as a nation we are finally going to melt down, and not know, and not be so cocky. With the Divine Mother, we’ll head toward more harmony, instead of war.

Randy: In your book, you observe that there is more sweetness in countries that worship the Divine Mother or Virgin.

Sondra: Right. Cultures in Spain and South America are steeped in Catholicism, but they have preserved the Virgin Mary in that religion. I noticed that in places where they really honor the Virgin – like in Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru and Spain – or in Portugal where they honor Fatima, I felt a real sweetness.

Randy: Can you talk more about your experiences with the Virgin Mary?

Sondra: The most profound experience was when my guru, Babaji, asked me to go to Medjugorje. This was in 1987 around the time of the Harmonic Convergence. In Medjugorje, the Virgin was materializing her body to a group of children. By the time I got there, it had been going on for quite a few years.

Everybody was Catholic, except for me. There was no town. A boy drove me to a farm. Some people were expecting me, but they couldn’t speak any English and I couldn’t speak any Croatian. I was there for ten days. I’d walk down to the church every day. It was three miles away. I would sit under the window where the Virgin Mary was appearing. Then a priest invited me in.

I was one of the few people who actually got to go inside. There were 20 Catholic priests in the apparition room from all over the world. The energy was so strong, one of the priests fainted, so they pulled him out and shoved me in, in his place. I got to sit right next to the children.

Imagine if the Virgin Mary appeared to you for eight years every day; you’d be vibrating at a pretty high level. These children were vibrating at such a high level they could actually see her. When they saw her, they went into rapture. Their eyes all went up at the same time and they started crying in ecstasy. Finally, all of us, including the priest and me, started crying.

The energy was just amazing. It entered my uterus. The pain was so sharp I thought I might faint. When I came out, people wanted to touch me. It was very intense. For four days, I tried to give as much energy as I could. Then I had to go into seclusion. I couldn’t even talk about it for a year without shaking. I finally wrote the book, Inner Communion, which helped me to integrate that experience.

The energy in that room was the same energy I felt in the ancient Divine Mother temples in India. Those temples were 5000 years old. I learned to recognize different aspects and forms of the Divine Mother, like the Virgin Mary in Christianity; Madame Pele, the Fire Goddess of Volcanoes; Quan Yin in Asia; and Durga and Lakshmi, among others, in India.

Over thousands of years the Divine Mother has taken form, but then she was suppressed. We’ve all suppressed our inner feminine way too much. We went into the patriarchy. It’s not men’s fault; it’s the fault of our society, and we all got addicted to the patriarchy. So now we are totally out of balance, which is why we have all these wars going on. There were cultures who worshipped the Divine Mother who weren’t a matriarchy. There were men and women, as equals, ruling together and there was no war. For example, they can’t find any war objects in Crete.

Randy: So, the new movement of the Divine Mother is not the same as the reconstruction of the matriarchy?

Sondra: No. We wouldn’t want that. That would be going to the extreme out of balance again. We must all honor the Goddess Energy – the life force – and we should honor that part of ourselves that is compassionate, soft and tender. This energy is within all men and women. To honor the Mother is ultimately to honor the life force. And when you honor the life force you don’t kill people. You don’t have wars. It’s a whole different framework. The old systems are going to have to unravel. They are the old paradigm.

Toward 2012, the planet is going to a new dimension, so the energy over these next five years is going to be very strong and a lot of things are going to change. The whole planet is going through an ascension process, which means more light and a higher vibration and quickening. If the planet is ascending, we have to be ascending with it. So we have to change.

Randy: How can we best work with the Divine Mother or invoke her?

Sondra: There are 108 names for the Divine Mother that you can recite. They are listed in my book. You can create an altar. Get a picture of the Virgin Mary, or Ammachii or a Goddess. Say the 108 names and offer a petal after each name. Every day, offer fresh fruit and wave incense in front of the altar. That will invoke her. Ask Her for guidance. When you get up in the morning, say, “Divine Mother, how can I serve You today? How can I learn about You today?”

That’s what I did. I never asked for miracles, I just asked, “What is the Divine Mother?” because I didn’t have any idea. Miracle consciousness is available to everyone, but miracles cannot be performed in a state of doubt or fear. I didn’t doubt or fear, so I could experience miracles, but they are possible for anyone.

Planting the Seeds for Change ~ Vandana Shiva

Vandana Shiva is one of the world’s most powerful voices for global environmental justice and cultural and ecological diversity. She is the founding director of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology in New Delhi. Vandana Shiva is also the author of numerous books including Stolen Harvest: The Hijacking of the Global Food Supply. Series: “Walter H. Capps Center Series”

Joy is in the Infinite – Mother Divine

The Vedic Literature proclaims,

“There is no joy in smallness. joy is in the infinite, joy is in Brahm — Totality.”
Chandogya Upanishad, verse 7.23

True happiness lies in freedom, fullness, and all possibilities, the state of enlightenment, or Brahm—Totality. In this state of unbounded awareness one experiences and perceives infinity in everything. This song and slide show illustrate this reality of Totality, where infinity is found in every point, joy is in everything!

Poets have also perceived and proclaimed this truth:

“All finite things reveal infinitude…” Theodore Roethke

“To see a world in a grain of sand/ and a heaven in a wild flower/ Hold infinity in the palm of your hand/and eternity in an hour…” William Blake

How can everyone realize this truth for themselves? It is as simple as diving within to the infinity of your own inner consciousness, which is easily, effortlessly accessible through the practice of Transcendental Meditation

Chief Golden Light Eagle at the Topanga Canyon Film Festival

Chief Golden Light Eagle speaks at the Topanga Canyon Film Festival in California.

Becoming a Universal Species by Barbara Marx Hubbard

Every personal crisis is an opportunity to change, to grow, to evolve. We all face crises. We have deaths in our families; friends become ill; we may lose our jobs. Each of these crises is necessary to jolt us from our daily routine, our planned path, and give us the chance to move to a new level.

Every crisis a species faces is, similarly, an opportunity to evolve. Our species was faced with a crisis millions of years ago when our ancestors’ environment changed from forest to grassland. Our ancestors took the evolutionary leap and learned to walk on two legs. This freed hands for tool use, and that resulted in larger, better brains.

As we approach 2012, humanity faces crises related to
global warming and climate change, world economic systems,
nuclear arms–and the list grows.

The great difference here is that we are the first species that knows it is facing crises of its own making that could render us extinct or empower us to evolve. This awareness marks the beginning of the first age of conscious evolution.

We belong to the first generations to face crises that could destroy our own biosphere. As a species, we have faced that possibility since the development of the atomic bomb. But at the same time, many millions of people are waking up, asking, “What can I do?” The answer does not lie with old governmental systems or educational institutions, nor with religions, but with innovation and creativity in every field.

As the danger accelerates, innovation grows.

The crises now converging can bring an end to the dominator culture–with its over-population, separate-mindedness, environmental abuse and weapons of mass destruction–as our species makes its first conscious leap to our next phase. We have been told that we are at a bifurcation point, where the human species can either go down to further collapse, or make a positive shift through collaboration and connectivity. It depends on what we do.

We are at a “chaos window.” The system is out of balance. It can not continue by doing more of the same. We must innovate and transform, or we will devolve and self destruct. And there isn’t much time to make this choice.

The key to our possible rapid evolution is to connect what is working in every field and function toward a sustainable and evolvable world. It is to learn “social synergy” through collaboration and co-creativity. The very effort to connect the positive will evolve us toward the next phase of our species. We could become a “universal humanity,” capable of co-evolving with nature and co-creating with Spirit.

Our conscious evolution is being accelerated by the non-linear, exponential connectivity of what is emerging, through social networks of all kinds, driven by sacred activism, that is action from the heart for the common good.

I believe that, by 2012, we can share together a “planetary birth experience,”
the awareness that we are one planetary body with the technology,
resources and know-how to make it through these crises together.

Already we see enough innovations in technology, in health–in every sector–to give pioneering souls the vision of our birth as a universal species. Such innovations are breaking through in every area, but they are not visible in the media, or in our mainstream politics. You can see them with “evolutionary eyes,” that notice what is breaking through out of what is breaking down.

Our new capacities, especially in science and technology, make our next evolutionary leap very different from past changes. The next stage will be born not from random selection and survival of the fittest, but from the conscious choice of creative people working in synergy, integrating and applying our spiritual, social and scientific capacities.

Technologically, we’re gaining the powers once attributed to gods. Advances such as biotechnology, nano-technology, robotics, artificial intelligence and worldwide communication through the Internet put us on the threshold of no longer being creature humans.

We are going to be co-creative humans, universal humans, and I think eventually
we will be a universal species on this earth, in the solar system, and in the galaxy.

Our spiritual capacities are ancient, but in the past people projected their own innate abilities onto gods, masters or institutions. Now, millions of us are now feeling the spirit within ourselves, becoming spiritually activated: co-creative humans. We are bringing the gods home as our own evolutionary potential.

We can appreciate our challenges without judgment. In the social realm, no one has ever before been asked to evolve a planet. There are no experts. Nobody on this earth has seen a co-evolutionary, co-creative society. We are being asked to divine the design of social evolution–to design a world.

What is forming right now is a worldwide community of pioneering souls, a communion of people attracted to expressing and giving their gifts to the world. When we meet each other there is an instant rapport. The connectivity of such evolving humans is rapidly creating a resonant field, and a new critical mass of coherence and creativity that can shift the direction of human history.
listen

As we probe into matter we find, through quantum physics, that there is no matter, that underneath energy there is a field, and underneath the field there seems to be an ordering process. It looks as though the most advanced scientific research is tapping into the mind of the cosmos–seeking to understand the way consciousness itself creates.

I am a proponent and practitioner of sacred activism, the sacred part of conscious evolution. When I ran for the Vice Presidential nomination in 1984, I proposed a Peace Room that would identify the work of sacred activists. It would scan for and map connections and communicate what is working in the world to mobilize for constructive action. This is beginning to happen now. The Foundation for Conscious Evolution is working in collaboration with others to bring the Peace Room, now called the Synergy Engine, into reality. The worldwide web, which was in its infancy in 1984, gives us the tools to scan for what’s emerging and bring people with ideas together. Scaled-up synergy and fast connections will let us show people how to apply conscious evolution in their own lives, for their own benefit, and for the greatest good of their neighbors and all of humanity.
listen
The greater the emergency, the faster the emergence.
The situation itself is empowering.

The new society will involve people who see common goals and then match their talents with the needs of others. While we are increasing global intelligence by making creative ideas available for synergistic cooperation, we will also re-localize, as each person gives their gifts where they are needed.

We have the most wonderful opportunity humanity has ever faced. Without crisis, humanity would not make the leap to evolve into a new culture. As a species, we would remain in our fairly comfortable rut, fearing the unknown effects of change. The crises surrounding 2012 force us to change our society and ourselves. The new social structures we consciously create will not encourage survival of the fittest, in the old evolutionary paradigm. Rather they will free each of us to make our own unique contributions. It will be what Jonas Salk called “the survival of what fits best.”

As a global society, we will experience more synergy, as people with varied skills make vital connections. But that society will also be localized, as people share the results of that synergy where they are most needed. I envision local synergy centers, so people can connect with one another where they live and act based on local needs. These centers would help people develop alternative currencies to empower them to go beyond over-monetization to support collaboration and co-creativity.

It is important for us to share our visions of a universal humanity. This much we can already see: If humanity succeeds in moving to the next evolutionary stage, we will have expanded, and extended, intelligence. As members of one living planetary body, we will have matured into a consciousness of the whole system. We will have longer life spans. We will have powers we once projected onto gods, but those powers will be our own.

We will restore the Earth, free ourselves from deficiencies, develop synergistic social systems, release untapped human potential, inhabit the solar system and eventually become galactic humans. We will be born as universal persons.

A noted futurist, author, social architect and speaker, Barbara Marx Hubbard is a founding board member of the World Future Society and co-founded the Foundation for Conscious Evolution. Barbara is the producer and narrator of the award-winning DVD series Humanity Ascending: A New Way Through Together. She’s written five books: The Hunger of Eve, The Evolutionary Journey, Revelation: Our Crisis Is a Birth, Conscious Evolution: Awakening the Power of Our Social Potential, and Emergence: The Shift from Ego to Essence, Ten Steps to the Universal Human.

Barbara earned a BA in political science at Bryn Mawr College and studied at L’Ecole des Sciences Politique and the Sorbonne. She earned the first Doctor of Conscious Evolution degree awarded by the Emerson Theological Institute. She currently lives in Santa Barbara, California. To learn more about Barbara, visit www.BarbaraMarxHubbard.com.

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power By Laura Amazzone

The research and writing of this book is a personal journey that not only brings together forgotten wisdom about the origins of sacred female power and Durga, but changes the author in the process. Her personal story is compelling and it shows us that this ancient myth and Goddess are a living, transformative power that is completely relevant to our daily lives and a much-needed guide at this time in our history.

Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power explores the many faces of the Goddess Durga in ancient and contemporary culture. This book takes us on a pilgrimage to goddess temples and natural shrines, to visit shamans and living goddesses in the Kathmandu Valley of Nepal, and to India for the annual ten-day Durga Festival. The mythology, rituals, philosophy, and spiritual practices of this distinctly female-centered and millennia-old tradition of Durga offer an alternative model of female potential and empowerment, focusing on peace, healing, spiritual liberation, and realization of inherent divinity

We are at a global crossroads. Environmental devastation, economic upheaval, political corruption and unconscionable acts of man-made violence threaten the precious equilibrium of our planet. Racism, sexism, homophobia, war, violence, genocide, human trafficking — it is hard not to feel overwhelmed by the massive injustice perpetuated by humans against our own species and ultimately the fragile web of all life on this planet. How do we make sense of the destruction? When all seems futile, how do we approach formidable life experiences from a place of compassion for both self and other? To whom do we turn for guidance?

To many in the West, the orthodox religious traditions we grew up within have failed to provide solace. Many of us are looking for a spiritual model that addresses the needs of the tumultuous 21st century and yet is grounded in respect for the interconnectedness of all life. While some have found guidance in indigenous beliefs, western mystical traditions or eastern philosophy, the ululating call of the divine feminine seems to be making itself heard across the board.

Most of us are familiar with Greek mythology and its pantheon of goddesses and gods; however, fewer are aware that there is a thriving tradition of goddess worship in South Asia where devotion to the divine as Compassionate Mother and Fiercely Protective Female Warrior has existed for millennia. In fact, there is not one, but thousands of manifestations of goddess in South Asia. In Hinduism human diversity is expressed by this vast pantheon of deities; and yet, as one of the most popular goddess myths reminds us, despite our differences, we are indeed all One.

The Devi Mahatmya or the Great Glory of the Goddess is a 5th century myth that offers potent teachings relevant to this day and age. The heroine of this story about the victory of good over evil is Durga, Goddess of Divine Justice, Invincible Power, and Impenetrable Compassion. Her name, Durga, means fortress, and speaks to the unassailable essence of our inherent nature. Durga is also known as the Remover of Fear and Difficulty for she always comes to the aid of any who call on her in distress.

According to the myth, demonic forces are threatening to conquer the world and take down any who do not agree with their agenda. Despite the gods’ intentions to stop the demons, the methods they use only perpetuate the violence. Moreover, this demon king has received a boon from the creator God Brahma, which makes him undefeatable by any man, god or demon. When Brahma asks the demon if he wants to be exempt from defeat by a female as well, the demon’s inflated ego puffs up with pride. To the demon, battling a woman is an easy win — he declines.

After eons of senseless violence, the male gods convene and call forth the Supreme Mother Goddess behind all existence. Only she is powerful enough to stop the bloodshed. The initial chapter of Durga’s mythic journey of restoring harmony to the world tells how the demon king learns a beautiful female is waiting to engage in battle with him. He orders his two favorite demon generals to bring her to him so he can force her into wedlock. However, the generals do not have a chance against the all-powerful goddess. As they approach her, the composed goddess emits a flame from her finger that restores them to a state of tranquility and compassion. Outraged, the demon demands that the goddess engage directly with him in battle. She does.

The demon becomes more and more furious as he faces the great goddess. He hurls mountains, uproots forests and causes earthquakes with his all-consuming anger against the possible loss of power and control. Every time one of Durga’s arrows flies at him, the demon changes form from water buffalo, to tiger, to man until finally she grabs him, pins his neck down with her foot and sends a spear through his heart.

Metaphorically, we can consider Durga as the wisdom of the heart, untainted by cultural, religious and societal conditioning. The buffalo demon symbolizes our ignorance, reactions and ego attachments. The constantly shifting appearance of the demon speaks to our irrational behavior and the need to pin down the destructive causes of our negative emotions: anger, jealousy, pride, greed and delusion. His shape shifting is symbolic of the grasping ignorant mind that continuously jumps from one desire to another.

The demon’s uncontrollable rage, destroying everything in its path without regard for the consequences, is a fitting analogy for the violence we face today. This myth asks us to consider how we choose to express our anger — whether we will use our rage against injustice in constructive ways, or if we will be divisive, fearful and blaming, thereby poisoning our environment. The fiercely compassionate divine feminine nature will help free us from the afflicted ego and return to the penetrating wisdom of divine love. Goddess Durga may not solve all the world’s problems at the moment, but as this ancient scripture teaches, she is the impenetrable place of calm within our hearts from which we can choose actions that promote harmony and unity rather than selfish harmful acts.

In the myth, after the demon has finally been defeated and the gods gather to celebrate, Mother Durga promises to return whenever any of her children are in distress. As we face crises on both a personal and planetary level, might we call on this ancient divine female force of compassion and courage to help us confront and transform that which threatens the well being and contentment of all beings on this planet?

The Devi Mahatmya teaches that the grace of goddess is unconditional and will never be withheld from anyone — ego demon or not. Through her fierce love toward self and other, harmony will be restored within and around us. We need only invoke Durga to help us remember our true nature and that divine love conquers all.
Happy Navratri – Durga Sooktam (Sanskrit Hymn)

Durga Sooktam
(Lyrics with meaning)
Jatavedase sunavama soma marathee yatho nidhahadhi veda,
Sa na parshadathi durgani viswa naaveva sindhum durithathyagni. 1

Our oblations of Soma to the fire god,
May he, the all knowing one destroy all those who do not like us,
May that divine fire lead us out of all perils,
Like a captain takes his boat across the sea,
And also save us from all wrongs.

Thaam agni varnaam thapasa jwalanthim vairochanim karma phaleshu jushtam,
Durgam devim saranamaham prapadhye, sutharasi tharase nama. 2

I take refuge in the divine mother Durga*,
Who shines like a fire due to her penances,
Who resides in actions and their fruits and makes them effective,
And I salute her who helps us cross our difficulties.
* It could be translated as Mother of difficulties also

Agne thwam paaraya navyo asmaan swasthibhirathi durgani viswa,
Pushscha prithwi bahula na urvee bhava thokaaya thanayaya shamyoh. 3

Oh God of fire, you are worthy of praise,
For by novel methods you help us cross,
The difficulties and make us happy,
May our land in this earth become extensive,
May the land for growing crops become large,
And be pleased to join our children and,
Their children with joy and happiness.

Vishvaani no durghaa jathaveda sindhunaa nava durithathi parshi,
Agne athrivan manasaa grina no asmakam bodhayithwa thanoo naam. 4

Oh Jatha Vedas who is the destroyer of all sins,
Make us cross all our troubles like a boat,
Which takes us to the other shore without problems,
Oh Fire, protect us like the sage Athri, who would take care of us,
Mindful of our safety and our happiness.

Prithana jitham saha mana mugram agnim huvema paramath sadhasthath,
Sa na parshadathi durgani viswa kshamaddhevo athi durithatyagni. 5

We invoke the fierce Fire God who is the leader of us all.
And who is the killer of all our enemies from the highest place,
To take us across all difficulties and all that is perishable and protect us.

Prathnoshika meedyo adhvareshu sanacha hota navyascha sadhsi,
Swacha agne piprayaswa asmabhyam cha soubhahya maya jaswa. 6

Oh Fire God, you are praised during sacrifices,
And always increase our happiness, and exist as sacrifices,
Which are olden and those which are new,
Please make us, who are only yourself, happy,
And grant us good fortune from all our sides.

Gobhir jushta mayujo nishithktham thavendra vishnor anusancharema,
Naa kasya prushtam abhisamvasaano vaishnavim loka iha madhayantham. 7

Oh Lord, you are not connected with sin and sorrow,
Permit us to always serve you who pervades all wealth,
May the Gods who live in the highest region make me,
Who adores Vishnu, delighted and happy and grant my wishes.

The Dance of Stillness – by David Rivers

Interviews with Four Authentic Western Spiritual Teachers Exploring the Nature of Spiritual Energy and Fundamental Realisation

This book features intimate conversations with four unique Western spiritual teachers who have each undergone a radical process of spiritual awakening. Some describe it as the unleashing of the divine current within.

As the interviews progressed, a unique pattern emerged. During pivotal periods of their spiritual journeys, each was graced with a profound encounter with the Divine Feminine. While the Divine Feminine is not the specific focus of this book, it does surface as a theme in the lives of the teachers featured herein.

About the author:
An urban Tantric Yogi, David Rivers is also a writer, an artist, and a spiritual journalist. In his early twenties, David was profoundly impacted by a sudden and unexpected spiritual awakening, and with it a powerful flow of subtle life energy known as Kundalini.
His spiritual journey has been filled with paradox, a kind of dance between darkness and light, pain and bliss.
He currently resides in rural Australia, where he continues to deepen his spiritual practice.

Interview with Dr Richard Moss for the book – The Dance of Stillness

Devi Prayer – Hymn to the Divine Mother /Light of the Presence – God the Mother

Many have wondered who the Divine Mother is, yet she is part of all spiritual traditions as a Presence. This video was created as a communication of her Being.

Light of the Presence – God the Mother

God the Mother manifests as the fabric of time itself and as the light within all things. Inseparable from the Oneness, she is the Oneness in manifestation. A sequel to “Devi Prayer – Hymn to the Divine Mother.”

Invoking the Divine Within

As the Sun Lotus in Heaven, as the delightful Moon in the clouds,
The Fire on the summit of the human world,
Such is Mother Prachanda Chandika.
Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni

The Mother Goddess opened up the windows of my heart to her beatitude and grace. The Goddess gently drew me into a mystical world of amazing marvels, where I met beautiful people with deep resonances in the inconceivable surroundings of her sacred creation. There arose a profound awareness along with a worldly intelligence at viewing life’s larger picture, seeking divinity within the throes of Mother Nature.

One soon realised that the reality of Shiva, the ‘Transcendent Being’, is seeded deep within us. The eternal presence of Shiva’s mystic light rests at the core of each soul. It is not something one needs to reach out for, as if it were apart from ourselves. Shiva’s divine light is not circumscribed or restricted by any effort or design. An assertive or desperate approach to a spiritual life loses its effects, for Shiva and Shakti must be experienced through Bhakti, ‘profound love’ and fervent invoking. The Divine forces are not available for our personal demands. Clarity of thought, astute awareness and shraddha ‘deep faith and confidence’ must be invoked in tandem with the universal energies that pervade even our ordinary lives. Then the grace can descend in its own way and according to its own wisdom.

A Devi or ‘Goddess’ energy guided me in seeking out the purity and mystique of one’s essence, allowing the bliss of Her eternal presence to illumine my prevailing awareness. Life never changed, but my approach to its myriad experiences took on a new mantle. Through the Devi’s grace one embellished the fabric of this sacred mantle with rich hues of varied designs and motifs of larger spiritual experiences.

Mother Nature continued for me as the support of a veritable Guru, unravelling her wonder and beauty where ever I chose to be. Mother Nature has no religion, just as she recognizes no national boundaries. Her scriptures are open-ended and flow with the benevolence of all life. Sacredness cannot be limited to the pages of a book. Our inner consciousness spontaneously relates to the abundance and beauty of Nature’s world through our ability to sense the Divine spirit existing in a tree, the mountain rock, flowing rivers, or whatever our senses partake of in nature’s mysticism surrounding us.

The female sadhak ‘spiritual aspirant’ who embraces Mother Nature from within is the true Yogini. The Yogini abounds in the sweet bliss of Nature’s mystique and lives in her sacred aura. The Yogini yields to the gentle strains of the inner guru. One who inspires us from within is the real guru, removing the veils of darkness which cloud our thoughts and actions, not simply the one who teaches or preaches. The Yogini sustains the flow of inner joy that is the true form of Guru Shakti. The Yogi can only provide the space and the presence for Shakti to flow; the Yogini herself carries the powerful currents of its celestial energies.

However, before embracing the Mother Goddess’s Shakti sadhana, we must create the appropriate vessel to allow her Divine Grace to be held. For this we need to first deal with our own mental and emotional unrest and turbulence. All the emphasis on psychology dominating our thought today, even in the spiritual realm, has driven people into analysing their suffering and attributing it to others , rather than learning how to catalyse it into something positive and sacred. Through sadhana one learns not to condemn others and dwell on our emotional hurts and traumas; instead we must transform our personal psychology into a deeper love and joyousness, embracing both ourselves and others with compassion and understanding. We must be willing to move forward and shift our energy to higher planes of nirvana, where all can dissolve into an abiding peace.

Life is not meant to be a saga of sinful acts, for which we are continuously punished and left guilt ridden. Life should be an incessant festival of joyousness and vivacity as is the Lila ‘Divine Play’ of Shiva and Shakti. Every moment can unfold a deeper experience of the Divine presence, whether cooking food in our kitchens, doing our work in our offices or our sadhana in our meditation space. Once we awaken the inner flow of grace through our deeper seeking, the Divine guides our hearts and mind.

The mystic spirituality of Rishis ‘great seers ‘of ancient India, is not a faith veiled in sin, condemnation, judgment or damnation. It is the cosmic truth which leads us to the transcendental reality of life as a celebration, where every experience holds universal blessings through the grace and abundance of unbounded divinity. Our celebration rests in the beneficence and freedom of Nature which is an expression of a higher consciousness and joy.

My sadhana transpired amidst the blissful throes of Nature’s abundance, in the sacred shadows of India’s great Himalayan ranges, opening up vast vistas within, unveiling the secrets of the Supreme Spirit. My traverses into sacred precincts of ancient temples like Shiva’s Kedarnath in the snows of 13,000 feet, Shri Durga’s Jhoola Devi nestled in the beatitude of Kumaon hills, or Kalika beckoning the mystic night amidst Deodar forests, all enkindled the embers of inner fires, drawing me into mystical realms of the universal sacred powers.

What the western mind calls Hindu Gods and Goddesses, we refer to with reverence as Devata, ‘Divine principles’, sacred aspects of Brahman, the impersonal Godhead reaching beyond the manifest universe. The Devi or Deva manifest as powers of Bhakti Yoga or Divine love and Jnana Yoga or ‘sacred wisdom’. The Devata symbolises Ishvara, the ‘Cosmic Lord and Creator’, which is why their forms and powers symbolize the extraordinary, supernatural, paradoxical and mystique.

Sacred symbolism unravels the subtleties of Tantra. Symbols unveil the imagery, allegory and metaphors of deep hidden secrets. The ancients called it ‘Gupt Gyan’ ‘deep hidden sciences’, where only the Tantric adept could practice the sacredness of divinity. The Tantrika or ‘sacred adept’ sifts through the veils of mysticism opening the doorway to higher truths and sacred realities. Ancient cultures used symbolism to communicate with Divine Powers relating to profound wisdom through myths and stories.

The sadhak with an inner vision and deep devotion realises the Divine currents of the Devata working through forces of light, fire, time, space and all of Nature. He experiences that Brahman manifests as the unchanging ground of being within the entire cosmic revelation. Brahman prevails in the Devata, God, the Guru, and the sadhak’s own self. The Deva and Devi are two aspects of this supreme Brahman as its Shiva or ‘supreme will’ and Shakti or ‘feminine power and energy’.

The Devi’s Grace, through devotion, prayers, sacred rituals, and the maintenance of a pure sattvic lifestyle, transforms our individual personality into a vast impersonal, balanced nature of equipoise. Divine Grace energises and personifies the Infinite, allowing us to move through the entire gamut of life, death and rebirth. In experiencing the Divine forces as Brahman, we truly allow ourselves to envision the powers and characteristics of their divinity through the yearnings of our spiritual heart. We discover the Divine Person who is not limited by the taints of any human personality, who has the peace of the impersonal but, can manifest it through Divine love.

Not bound by limitations and prejudices of the human mind, one can experience the deeper meaning of the entire cosmic play of innumerable Devatas or Gods and Goddesses. Paying reverence to these Divine forces by relating to their powers through mantras, meditation, yoga asana and Pranayama drew me into their flow of grace. Through spirituality, the devotee relates to the Divine as the mother, father, the consort, child, ideal companion or friend – through every possible human relationship or mode of devotion. Even Hinduism is not about mere idol worship; the image is but a conduit of sacred intimacy to specific Divine powers of deep love and wisdom beyond our human consciousness. Hindu dharma is based on recognition of the One, the All-pervasive Supreme Being, both as Creator and the Unmanifest Reality beyond creation.

Inner Yoga

In inner Yogic practices, one learns to resonate with the sacred name to the nameless; through the sacred form to the formless. Vibrations of the sacred mantra lead us into a deeper silence and transcendental bliss pervading the Absolute void. The sadhak associates himself with human factors in his worship of the Devata. Yet the Devi-Deva, ‘goddess or god’ gradually merges into the one Godhead, the Absolute Brahman beyond all personality and form. The human heart understands and responds easily to the expressions of Divine love and emotion held in such visionary forms. The deity is propitiated in the form of a living or manifest divinity with rituals, sacraments, ceremonies and celebrations. In reality it is the Divine within ourselves which we are propitiating, celebrating and consecrating.

For Shakti-sadhana or Devi spiritual practices, one needs to cultivate the quality of a Vira, an heroic, valiant and fearless approach. Only a courageous soul can perform the internal and external puja, or worship of the Goddess’s supreme power, in Nature’s profoundness. The Vira seeks the truth in every sphere of life unfolding the higher ideals of a spiritual existence. Life plays out the sacrificial Yajna, ‘sacred ritual’ with every simple act of worship in every living moment of our existence, in which we learn to offer ourselves to this higher unknown power.

Sacred rituals hold a deep meaning, symbolising Nature and the Cosmic Reality. Yoga itself is an internal ritual of worshipping the Divine within. Propitiating a Divine form with flowers, incense, fire offerings, sacred chants, food and prayers, we initiate the sacred rites into our own consciousness. Bathing in the waters of sacred rivers purifies our inner and outer being. Through fire rituals we burn away impurities in ourselves and in the environment. Residual sensory impressions, mental agitation and emotional anguish are purified through using incense, the sattvic ‘pure’ bounty of nature’s food, mantra, meditation and a Yogic lifestyle.

As an expression of deep faith or ‘shraddha’ sacred rituals, unfold Mother Nature’s subtle nuances through the language of transformation, divinity and purity. Vedic and Native traditions use certain sacred materials, which enhance the power of our senses unfolding their inner potentials through Nature’s symbolism. The distinctive nature of the offering of incense, food, wood, flowers, oil ,water, and fire consecrated with sacred chants employed, all create vibrations which resonate with the subtle bodies of both the Devata or ‘divine form’ and the person partaking in the practices. Our inner divinity resonates with the Divine in the universe.

The sacred space of worship is fortified with mantras ‘sacred chants’ against all negative influences, drawing lines of protection in the form of fire and water. Through sacred rites of Prana Prathistha, specially designed to bring the divine spirit into the object of worship, the form, image or picture, is induced with Divine life energy. It is worshipped and consecrated with great love, adoration and tender care; through offerings of food and clothes, bathing and shringar or ‘adorning with ornaments’.

Puja involves placing Prana, the life force, into the deity form. The Devata, deity, icon or form, remains inert unless energised with love, life and a consciousness. The image is no longer of simple clay, stone or a mixture of metals; it embodies the spirit, throbbing with the pulse of life, love and higher consciousness, resonating with our own individual being. Prayer alters the vibrations and resonances of our body, mind and spirit.

With sacred rites, I learned to perceive the wisdom beyond worldly appearances, experiencing an unlimited space of the Goddess’s divinity. The whiff of incense impregnated peace and a higher consciousness, the mantra recitation and music sung in praise of the Devi’s glory, unveiled the light of my own human limitations. Through this sacred honouring, the seeker aspires to traverse beyond all outer forms, names and rituals, ultimately realising the Devi energy in the all-pervading Absolute Consciousness and the Self.

The true sadhak awakens various energy centres or Lotus Chakras in his being, invoking the Supreme Spirit into one’s own heart. All ritualistic worship aims towards drawing the Divine into the inner seat or throne in the small flame of the spiritual heart. The sadhak must realise the absolute truth of worshipping the transcendental reality within the core of his own being, allowing divinity to unravel its mysticism and deeper potential in our own lives.

Prakriti, ‘Nature’ in herself, is an expression of divine dance. Her inherent charisma interacts through the passion-play of butterflies with flowers, bees and pollen, the awesome silence of mountains with the echo of a stream’s ripple, the romance of wistful clouds and their odyssey in space, the tempestuousness of ocean waves with the winds, and the electrifying dance of lightning through the void. Is this not the Goddess’s dance, which permeates the rhythms of our lives in tandem with Mother Nature? We must gravitate towards the sensuous movement of all sacredness celebrating life through a cosmic dance.

Since millennia human life has intimately interwoven with the sacredness of Nature’s play, such as the sacred rituals that we find in all traditional societies. Nature holds its sacred intelligence in our very being, despite our forsaking its power with modern day technology. The same Prana ‘life force’ and energy exist in its rhythmic cycles where Nature plays to the symphony of the cosmic fire in every soul. Our innate wisdom remains inseparable from Mother Nature’s sacred wisdom or ‘Jnana’. Vedanta, Ayurveda, Jyotish (Vedic Astrology) relate to this prevailing universal sacredness that is inherent in the cosmic movement itself. These are not topics of mere curiosity; they hold the cosmic wisdom for our future healing, well-being and Global harmony.

The secrets of Yoga rest in the beneficence of Mother Nature and her universal energies. These ancient secrets divulge their potent powers through the wisdom of the ‘Inner Yogic Eye’, our intuitive perception and insight. The elements of Nature play a pivotal role in creating a deeper awareness of this Yogic Reality. Each element, be it the stability of Mother Earth, fire’s flaming rage, the magic wisps of air, cooling waves of water or the atmosphere’s ethereal hint, all serve to unravel an inner sacred reality. Nature encodes every cosmic reality for our inner unfolding of divinity.

The yogic vision finds its poetry in the gentle flowing waters of our minds, the rushing blood of our hearts, the pure effervescence of a waterfall, the vibrant spirit of rivers, the whirlpool of an ocean and the deep stillness of placid lakes. Sacred waters hold the essence of all divine grace, the Soma, the honey nectar of life, the ultimate Ananda of immortality. Sustaining and energizing these Pranic waters in our global world and our personal lives revitalises the soul, allowing the being to traverse the hidden delights of our universal existence.

May our prayers seek the art of flowing with the sacred waters through life’s surging streams invoking the divine grace of the Goddess within!

Jai Ma Guru!

By Shambhavi Chopra, adopted from Yogic Secrets of the Dark Goddess (Wisdom Tree India, 2007)

The Return of the Mother by Andrew Harvey

(excerpted from The Return of the Mother by Andrew Harvey)

AT THE END OF HIS LIFE, the great Indian mystic Aurobindo is said to have said, “If there is to be a future, it will wear the crown of feminine design.” Unless we awaken to the mystery of the sacred feminine, of the feminine as sacred, and allow it to glow into, irradiate, illumine, and penetrate every area of our activity and to create in them all harmony, justice, peace, love, ecstacy, and balance, we will die out and take nature, or a large part of it, with us. Unless we come to know what the sacred feminine really is—its subtlety and flexibility, but also its extraordinarily ruthless, radical power of dissolving all structures and dogmas, all prisons in which we have sought so passionately to imprison ourselves—we will be taken in by patriarchal projections of it. The Divine Mother, the fullness of the revolution that she is preparing, will be lost to us. We must understand that comprehending the sacred feminine is a crucial part of surviving the next terrible stage of humanity….

I have often said that I think we are in the last twenty or so years (originally written 1996) of this civilization and quite possibly of the planet itself. If we don’t make major decisions—economic, political, and environmental, we will simply create an uninhabitable world and go on feeding those powers of destruction that are already threatening to ravage nature. We are certainly at the end of so-called “civilization,” and we are possibly at the end of the world. The facts of our global crisis, a crisis at once political and economic, psychological and environmental, show us clearly that the human race has no hope of survival unless it chooses to undergo a total transformation, a total change of heart. What is required is a massive and quite unprecedented spiritual transformation. There is no precedent for what we are being asked to do. Only the leap into a new consciousness can engender the vision, the moral passion, the joy and energy necessary to effect change on the scale and with the self-sacrifice that is essential to save the planet in the time we have left.

The message we are being sent by history can be summed up in four words: Transform or die out… Teilhard de Chardin wrote, “Humanity is being taken to the point where it will have to choose between suicide or adoration.” I have no doubt that we are now at that point. Human survival depends on whether we are brave enough to face the full desolation of what we have done to our psyches and the planet, and wise and humble enough to turn to the divine insight inside us to learn what we need to go forward. This is not an apocalyptic scenario—not a scenario at all, in fact. It is fact. This is where we are, this is what is happening, and it is terrifying. Anyone not in a trance of denial knows it. No amount of wishful thinking or sophisticated pseudo-historical parallels can make this agony go away.

It is hard enough for a human being to face the facts of his or her own mortality. What we have to face now is not merely our own death, but the possible death of everything and everyone we love, the holocaust of nature herself, the mother we have ignored and betrayed for so long. If we do not face up to our present danger, in all its horror, without consolation and without illusion, in the full glare of Kali’s terrifying mirror, if we don’t gaze deeply into the mirror of the goddess and see our faces, we will never find in ourselves the passion and courage necessary to change. Catastrophe can become grace, and disaster possibility, only if we transform their energy by accepting what they have to teach us and acting with complete sincerity to transform ourselves.

ANDREW HARVEY, Oxford scholar and visionary, believes that our survival depends on Sacred Activism, a fusion of profound mystical awareness, passion, clarity and sacred practice with wise, dedicated, radical action. This fusion, he warns, may be the sole key to preservation of man and nature.

Om Ram Ramaya Swaha (OM RAHM RAHM-EYE-YAH SWAH-HA)

From the CD Deva Premal Embrace.

“Thomas Ashley-Farrand in “Healing Mantras,” writes that “Ram… is the seed sound for the manipura, or solar plexus chakra. Tremendous healing energy lies dormant at that chakra. Mantra can help you get at that energy. This mantra begins to awaken and activate the entire chakra. It specifically prepares the chakra to be able to handle the inflow of kundalini energy that gives the chakra its power.” Ashley-Farrand breaks down Rama into its two syllables and describes their influence. “Ra is associated with the solar current that runs down the right side of our bodies. Ma is associated with the lunar current that runs down the left side of our bodies…. By repeating Rama… Rama… Rama over and over again, you begin to balance the two currents and their activity so that they can work with the higher stages of energy that will eventually come up the spine…. Om Ram Ramaya Namaha begins to clear the two currents with a slight emphasis on the right or solar side, which is needed in this age of darkness… After the age of twenty-nine, the ending of the mantra should be changed to Swaha.”