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Devotion – “Belonging to the Beloved”
“Before the world was I longed for Thee
I longed for Thee and Thou for Me
When two burning desires come together
Then is Love perfected”
Mechthild of Magdeburg
Devotion is the the fragrance of a burning desire for Union with the Beloved. I speak here not of a relationship with a Deity or Teacher or Transcendent spirit outside of yourself but of the very Essence of your Being within the very temple of your body – the One known as the Inner Beloved.
In the poem above the mystic Mechthild of Magdeburg receives this transmission from the Divine who is on fire for union with Her. What we are seeking is ardently seeking us and all of this alchemy is happening within us – with each breath we breathe in this Divine Passion which is here now – in this moment, in this place, at this time. It is this hunger and this longing that feeds the fires of Consummation in a field of Love.
“Devotion is the divine steaming through you
From that place in you before time.
Love’s energy flows through your body,
Toward a body, and into eternity again.
Surrender to this current of Devotion
And become one with the Body of Love”
Lorin Roche
Devotion is falling in Love with That Unspeakable Truth as the True Beloved of the Heart – it is forged in a fire that burns away your stories of limitation, your vain self images and the masks of your false identity. Sometimes we have to have suffered enough to reach this place, where the suffocating constraints of a limited identity forces you into the arms of this Infinite space of Love.
This dedication to the Holy Beloved is not a discipline but a soft fine tuned attention that flows with joy and a quiet bliss. The child of this Sacred Union is pure spontaneity. Life is lived as a sacrament – every action transmitting the beauty and love of this inner union. This is true reverence and true freedom.
When you embody devotion in this way and at this primal level you are no longer a person but a Living Library of Love – you are the vehicle for the transmission of Truth. Through your Presence the elixir of all the Sacred texts can be read all the Treasures of the Heart Revealed. You are the Radiance of Love this suffering world has been waiting for.
“Through your Presence the elixir of all Sacred texts can be read
….all the Treasures of the Heart revealed”
The Teachings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to the Red Goddess Lalita, Sophia, Mary Magdalene, the 64 Yoginis and The Red Priestesses from all Traditions throughout the Ages.
Prem Moodaley
Copyright 2018
December 2018
Resources:
Lorin Roche – The Radiance Sutras (his beautiful interpretation of the Vijnanabairava Tantra) Published by Sounds True 2014
Carol Lee Flinders (quote from Mechtild of Magdeburg) Enduring Grace – Audible Sounds True
Lovers – Union, Pure Awareness, Pure Love
“The minute I heard my first love story
I started looking for you, not knowing
how blind that was,
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere.
They’re in each other
all along…” Rumi
In this sutra I explore the Sacred Masculine and the Sacred Feminine and what it means to embody them. This sacred configuration can be seen in the Eternal Lovers – Christ-Magdalene/Shiva-Shakti and many other Divine/Ordinary couples throughout the ages.
The Lovers are the building blocks of the Universe and they exist in complete union within us. They exist as polarity and it is only in Union within ourselves that we discover the most sublime secret – that we are both – spirit and matter, light and dark, heaven and earth – all spiraling within and around one another.
The challenge of this human existence is to bring these lovers together and we do it within our own body temple. This is the alchemy of integration and the fuel of awakening into Love and Truth. So what then do these two forces represent?
“I have been listening to the love songs of
Form longing for formless.
What are these energies
Undulating through our bodies
Pulsing us into action?
And this “matter” out of which our forms are made-
What are these dancing particles
Of condensed radiance?
Lorin Roche
Union
Sacred Masculine
Spirit
The Witness
Being
Light
Transcendent
Unmanifest
One
Solar
Still point
The Seer
Divine
Heaven
Sacred Feminine
Matter
Embodiment
Becoming
Dark
Immanent
Many
Lunar
The Dance
The Mother
Human
Earth
I vow to never forget: I am You.
I vow to recognize: you’re right here,
in the cadence of my breath,
in the dull quiet ache, of wanting only more of you.
I vow to let our union guide me.
Not just your heaven, but also my earth.
Not just your strength, but also my weakness.
I vow to be a Presence of Love made more powerful because imperfect, faltering.
Made more powerful because my broken spaces are where you enter me.
I vow to be nothing more than I am.
This singular chance to marry your love to my humanity”
Meggan Watterson
The very essence of our being contains these divine energies and yet we continue to seek outside ourselves. The Divine Masculine and Feminine are not separate, they are eternal union. Even though the Feminine becomes the whole of creation She is in constant union with the ground of being – the underlying force of existence.
We have lost our connection to the realization and presence of these forces through our false identification with our minds. We get lured into the matrix of thinking and the drama of our lives, seeking outside ourselves for our validation, our completion, never looking within to where the true treasure hides.
When we empty ourselves of our personal story and become silent we are bathing in the realm of the Sacred Masculine/Christ/Shiva energies. We are surrendered into the Truth of our Being. We have detached from our mind with its stories and acquired conditioning, in essence we become spiritually naked. In this Naked space we have access to the Vastness of our True Self beyond the limitations of the form our mind identifies with.
From this place of Stillness – we birth the Sacred Feminine/ The Mother/Shakti. She is Love and this Love is the perfume of Pure Existence. It is from this wholeness and freshness that we engage with the world, we allow ourselves to know the miracle of existence within the human body vessel with its joy and its suffering. We engage in play, in creativity and in the sensuality of the human experience. We continually become – allowing more expanded forms of creativity and evolution to manifest through us. We become the Mother – holding and integrating all polarities within our vast Heart, we become Love in Action in Union with all of Life.
“Here sits the Holy of Holies.
The Secret, The Diamond, The Well.
We are Everything and each other.
The Light, the Dark, the Sun, the Moon.
The Mother, the Sky, the Father, the Earth,
The Orb of Light that orbits us.
The Dawn, the Daughter,
The fixed Presence that forgives us.
We are Everything and each other.
We can only heal if we see together
The Red Thread looped around the back of our Hearts.
No matter how separate we think we are,
No worldly knife or hardened words can break it.
No amount of our own humanity can untether it.
We cannot undo what we didn’t create.
And so Love is a bond that can’t be unmade.”
Meggan Watterson
Eternally One
The Teachings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to the Red Goddess Lalita, Mary Magdalene, the Yoginis and The Red Priestesses from all Traditions throughout the Ages.
Prem Moodaley Copyright 2018
June 2018
Resources:
Lorin Roche – The Radiant Sutras – Sounds True 2014
Meggan Watterson – The Sutras of Unspeakable Joy – 2016
Stephen Cope – Yoga and the Quest for the True Self – Bantam 1999
Surrender: Deep Unclenching, Acceptance, Unconditional Letting Go
“Deep Unconditional Surrender to Her is the Only way through”
In this Sutra I explore the topic of Surrender – which is the really the beginning and end of the Spiritual Journey. Nothing, nothing shifts without the ability to deeply unclench the strong hold of the egoic body-mind. The faster one learns surrender, the less resistance, and the path flows like a clear flowing river.
The Journey itself is the pilgrimage from “head” to “heart”. The journey from self-identification as a person with a “story” to becoming rooted in That which is Pure Love – Expansive – Silent – Present and Unfathomable. The mind can never perceive this Divine Love – it is a felt experience that is happening “Now”. It can only be described as Vast Empty Silence.
What is asked to be surrendered is the false ideas, beliefs, opinions, attachments, neediness, control and the ossified conditioning that makes up our human story. What is embraced is “no – thingness” – pure Awareness and Love embodied in a human form…. Pure Being embracing Pure Becoming… Pure Awareness embracing Pure Creativity – Shiva embracing Shakti – Christ embracing the Magdalene.
“Christ-Magdalene”
One of the most potent keys in the pilgrimage of surrender is deep unclenching of the body-mind – a deep relaxation to what is. You become soft and yielding, open and receptive, trusting and loyal to the Truth that exists within. You learn to lean into the invisible and allow its perfume, its fragrance to surround you, cocoon you in its Love – which is none other than who you are.
In deep receptivity – that is untethered from the noise of the mind – we receive the Grace which is ours to keep – our birthright – the deepest Love that we can know and in this we are free to be…We realize that what we have been searching for has been looking out of our eyes all the time patiently waiting for us to be present. We realize that we are Her temple – the Temple of the living Mother in human form.
Sophia
“Become the Living Temple”
In order to flow like a stream of living water there comes a time when we realise that the moment has arrived where what is required of us is to voluntarily to cut off our heads. In the Tantric tradition this is portrayed by the Goddess Chinnamasta – one of the Ten Tantric Wisdom Goddesses.
“Chinnamasta – the Goddess who offers up Her own Head”
“Having cut off her head, the goddess is able to offer everything to those who need it”
“Give yourself utterly…Even though the head itself must be given, why should you weep over it?” Kabir
Sally Kempton in her book “Awakening Shakti” tells the story of spontaneous awakening of English writer Douglas Harding. In his book “On Having no Head” – Harding describes a realization he had while trekking in the Himalayas…where he spontaneously had the experience of losing the sense of having a head – “Instead of feeling his “self” to be contained inside the small round circle of his skull, he was pure seeing, pure perceiving. His awareness was open to whatever arose, and everything felt as if it were arising inside him. Mountains, sky, his own body existed seamlessly inside a single awareness that included his physical self but also totally transcended it. With the disappearance of his head, he had also lost his personal ego. He was self-less: thought free, fully open, one with the universe around him.”
The question remains – do we have the courage to be that radical – offering our ego identity into the fire of illumination. Each of us will answer this question in a different way at different points on our pilgrimage, from head to heart, to complete embodiment. Who are we without that sense of personal identity – our self image, our accomplishments, our possessions, our education, our story? When all of that falls away – what is left? Who are we then?
To enter the river of life and enjoy its depths, its gifts, its peace and its freshness – we have to be naked. Naked of all that we are – to arise as Her from the depths of our Beingness – we have to let go. This is the secret of surrender. “Entering the Womb of Love is a striptease of the soul, letting go, stripping down completely, and surrendering into the vast naked wildness of the Feminine Dimension – knowing that we are naked and renewing in every moment, and that we cannot control this flow of life, only ride along in passionate wonderment and innocence. The moment we try to stop the flow, cover up, own or control anything, we begin the death of separation from life” WOMB AWAKENING.
Courageous One,
She has been yearning to undress
herself forever, to show you Shiva inside her own heart.
Of course She gets dressed again quickly;
she knows that it’s not proper to walk around with no clothes,
but the fabric is so thin–
can you feel it?
Just a deep breath, a laughter, a roar.
A letting go–
and the moment opens like a rose
(Chameli Ardagh)
“Shiva in Her Heart”
The Teachings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to the Red Goddess Lalita, Mary Magdalene, the Yoginis and The Red Priestesses from all Traditions throughout the Ages.
Prem Moodaley Copyright 2018
February 2018
Resources:
Sally Kempton – Awakening Shakti – Published by Sounds True 2013
Dr Azra and Seren Bertrand – Womb Awakening – Initiatory Wisdom from the Creatrix of All Life – Published by Bear and Co/Inner Traditions – 2017
Poem by Chameli Ardagh – Awakening Woman Institute
Black: Dark, Earth, Moist, Fertile, Mystery, Void, Ground of Being, Pure Potential, Shadow, Chaos, Madonna
The Black Mother Kali – the Destroyer of Illusion and The Weaver of Polarities
One of the most maligned colors on the spectrum is the color Black, black is the color of the dark as opposed to the light, the color of earth as opposed to sky, the color the night sky as opposed to day light, the color of indigenous people as opposed to white skinned people. Black is the color of fertile moist soil, the color of the dark womb, the color of death and the color of our shadow.
One of the legacies that Patriarchy has given religious world is the legacy of Transcendence. Transcend the Earth, the Body, the Messiness of Life. Very early on we imbibe the teaching to be attached to the light is good and to be on Earth a curse, a punishment for impurity rather than a dimension into which we journey in order to learn and grow and play. We strive to be released from the endless cycle of birth and death. We are not taught the blessing of having a human body, nor the joy of sensory fulfillment. We are taught to reach for the light, to strive, to push to transcend through the dimensions.
Even in the more evolved spiritual circles we reach for the crown and transcend the root chakra. Yet, the jewels of this human incarnation is hidden within the darkness of the body, and higher is not better than lower. The journey of Awakening is not only about reaching for the Light. The embodiment our Awakening is also about exploring the dark, the dark nights, and the fertile dark Earth, with Her hidden Gifts and Her Shadows. She is a Goddess in Her own right….and we live on Her body….within Her Sacred Field – but we have been conditioned out of this intimacy with Her, this Knowing, and so we continue to strive and deny the beauty and the gift of Her body/Our body with its pilgrimage places, its inner palaces and portals into Truth and Beauty.
Another aspect of the color black is the Shadow with its difficulty, chaotic nature and messiness. We have yet to embrace the messiness of life, its difficulties, its struggles and impermanence. We cling, we resist, we fret rather than embrace the polarities with their dark and light sides. Until we reclaim the dark we can never awaken to the Truth, The Love and the Beauty within us. Ascension without Embodiment is but a fantasy we need to awaken from. She – the Holy Mother is Everything, both the dark and the light….and we need to embrace it all in order to have a grounded awakening that is rooted in the Earth. One of my teachers speaks of embracing it all by asking “Can you see Goddess now? In this disease? In this chaos? In this difficulty? In this failure? In this struggle? Can you see Her in this?… Can you see Her in that?… Can you embrace it all – and invite it all in even when you don’t understand it all, can you live and embody this Mystery?
Amoda Maa – a contemporary spiritual teacher has this to say about awakening – “after awakening you continue to feel the waves of your human story, you are immune to neither the raging storm nor the scorching sun. You continue to feel the horror of the world, the unbearability of humanity’s suffering and humanity’s infliction of suffering onto other life-forms. You continue to experience failure, brokenness, vulnerability, and confusion. YOU – continue to be human”…..Awakening is not for the you – you think you are, my friend. It is for love. Because it is love that has been forgotten for so long. Because it is love that moves everything even when you have turned away from it. And because it is love that is attempting to evolve through us. Awakening is simply love recognizing love….so that love becomes the driving force of humanity, always. “
The Black Madonna – holds it all in Her Heart
“Forget me not!
For I am the First and the Last
I am the Honored One and the Scorned One.
I am the Whore and the Holy one
I am the Wife and the Virgin
I am the Mother and the Daughter
I am the Incomprehensible Silence –
I am the voice whose Sound is Manifold,
I am the Blessing of my Name.
I am Wisdom and Ignorance.
I am without Shame and filled with it.
I am Power, I am Fear.
I am Peace and War.
I am the Void in Fullness.
I am Oneness in Emptiness,
I dissolve all Concepts,
I Dissolve all Images.
Thus I am Limitless,
Thus I am All.
Forget me not,
Because I am the Outcast and the Long Expected one….”
(excerpt from the O Manuscript)
As life on Earth becomes more challenging with the immense global challenges that we all face – we are invited into an opportunity for Embodied Awakening, this is the greatest act of service, the most heartfelt response to the crisis we face. It is my prayer on this Holy Navarathri (nine nights of the Mother dedicated to Power, Grace and Wisdom) that we have the courage to be the Weavers of a New Earth.
“Be the Rose that blooms in the Heart of Darkness”
The Teachings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to the Red Goddess Lalita, Mary Magdalene, the Yoginis and The Red Priestesses from all Traditions throughout the Ages
Prem Moodaley Copyright 2017
Navarathri September 2017
Resources:
The “O” Manuscript ” by Lars Muhl – available at Amazon
Amoda Maa “Embodied Enlightenment”- available at Amazon
Trinity: Cycles, Synthesis, Birth, Sustainability, Transformation, Sovereignty, Freedom, Awakening
Yoni Mudra
The whole Universe cycles between the three principles of Creation/Birth, Sustenance/Preservation and Transformation/Dissolution. These triangular cycles are repeated throughout Nature, in our Physical Bodies and in the quality of our thoughts and emotions. This “apparently” chaotic dance exists throughout our bodies and our psychological nature.
In Tantric teaching the womb of the Sacred Mother is called Hiranyagarba – the Golden Cosmic Womb – it is from this womb that we are born and it is into this womb that we die. This womb is present within our bodies as a mirror/microcosm of the grandeur of the Cosmos. It is also inclusive of Nature in all Her magnificent diversity – dancing Essence into Form and Form into Essence.
Triangular Forces within our Bodies
In our Patriarchal modern world we are deeply disconnected from these cycles which is the fundamental blueprint of all Nature. We are rooted in survival and this results in clinging to that which we believe is indispensable to our survival. We have forgotten the True Source – the very Ground of our Being as resting deeply within this Cosmic Womb and have projected our Eternal Nature outside of ourselves. We have become co-dependent on the environment rather than rooted in our Omnipresent Eternal Nature residing deeply within our physical bodies.
Birth
We especially resist cycles of Transformation – these cycles represent Death and Change – of which the conditioned ego mind is deeply fearful. When we start the journey back to Her – who is the Essence of our Being – we encounter these triangular forces with increasing regularity. We are asked to become deeply aware of its play in our life. When the longing for our Eternal Nature becomes unbearable – we are willing to Trust and Surrender to the Cyclic Nature of the Mother within and not fear the journey into the Unknown. This is Her way and we Surrender into it….it is the way to Freedom and to Unity with all of Life from which we are never truly separated.
Mother of Transformation
“All form must end, departing through a portal into the darkness, so that new forms may emerge from the crucible of clear space. But what is emerging in the womb of Now is not knowable ahead of time, and is not subject to our hopes, fears, or fantasies of control. While the mind will struggle with the wrathful nature of this truth, the heart knows … the body knows.
See that the death of form is filled with erupting particles of life, with magic, and with the fragrance of the holy. You can relax into the very center of the death-rebirth journey, and rest inside the core of the contradictions. Here, the chaos and the glory are one.
There is nothing more alive than that.
There is nothing more sacred than that.
There is nothing safer than that.” Matt Licata
Many of us Long for Home and yet are deeply afraid of what will be required of us….the sacrifice of our false identities, our treasured beliefs, the attachments we may have to surrender as we journey on this path. The following poem by Rumi speaks of this journey home and the love and support we have as we walk the path of the razor’s edge….
LOVE’S HORSE WILL CARRY YOU HOME
“The whole world could be choked with thorns
A Lover’s heart will stay a rose garden.
The wheel of heaven could wind to a halt
The world of Lover’s will go on turning.
Even if every being grew sad, a Lover’s soul
Will still stay fresh, vibrant, light.
Are all the candles out? Hand them to a Lover –
A Lover shoots out a hundred thousand fires.
A Lover may be solitary, but he is never alone:
For companion he has always the Inner Beloved.
The drunkenness of Lover’s comes from the soul,
And Love’s companion stays hidden in secret.
Love cannot be deceived by a hundred promises;
It knows how innumerable the ploys of seducers are.
Wherever you find a Lover on a bed of pain
You find the Beloved right by his bedside.
Mount the stallion of Love and do not fear the path-
Love’s stallion knows the way exactly.
With one leap, Love’s horse will carry you Home
However black with obstacles the way may be.” (Rumi)
Flow of the Sri Yantra – the Geometry of the Sacred Feminine
The Teachings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to the Red Goddess Lalita, Mary Magdalene, Sophia, The Yoginis and the Red Priestesses from all traditions throughout the Ages.
Copyright Prem Moodaley 2017
Full Moon July 2017
Resources:
The Path is Everywhere: Uncovering the Jewels Hidden Within You. Wandering Yogi Press 2017 (Available in Paperback and Kindle at Amazon)
Descent: Going down, Under, Darkness, Tomb, Shadow, Alchemy , Death, Transmutation
Rebirth
Many, many times in our Journey towards Sovereignty we encounter what is known as a “Dark Night” or “Descent into the Underworld”. In the life of those that truly seek Freedom – this is a necessary Initiation into the Pure Love of the Primal Mother within.
Many myths portray this journey – particularly the myth of Innana – She who journeys into the Underworld at the behest of her sister Erishkegal – Innana passes through seven gates in the Underworld – and at each of the seven gates she has to hand over a piece of jewellery or clothes until she is stripped of her power. She is naked and vulnerable.
“Innana – Queen of Heaven and Earth”
A journey such as this is indeed an enormous crisis, a shattering of the old and a waiting for the new to arise as a rebirth into the world of form. With every crisis we have an opportunity for new life – we can either use this as a portal into a new way of being or we can choose to re imprint old outdated patterns. The choice is ours and requires the maturity of warrior to use this test and initiation as an opportunity for alchemy.
Marion Woodman in her book Dancing in the Flames writes: “Not until we recognize the Divine Immanence, the light of Goddess in matter, can we hope to establish a balance, a reconnection with our own deepest nature that can root us in a world of meaning and imagination. Perhaps we will have to face the darkness, walk out on the moor alone at nightfall, or dive to the bottom of the sea before the old ossified ego boundaries can be shattered to make room for the dance.”
“Making room for the Dance”
As we let go of the ossified patterns in the mind, we become empty and still. No longer bound to our inherited and self imposed limitations, clinging and attachments, we are as vulnerable and naked as a new born babe. We face uncertainty and the unknown trusting that we will be held and led as indeed we are. The Divine Feminine waits for this precise opportunity to enter into the crack of our shattered egos. We are protected by Her Love and Her Grace as we are remade by Her fierce Fire in the Darkness of Her Womb.
No-thing is certain anymore. We wait on the razors edge…we wait for Grace. We come to a deep acceptance of life’s polarities. We offer resistance no more. We realize there are no guarantees. No safe place where we can hide. We learn to live on the edge of Her Sword and lick honey from its razor edge.
“Licking Honey from the Razors Edge”
“What if you spent your whole life searching for love and all you found was emptiness
What if you spent all your days afraid of being abandoned and you ended up alone
You would have to make peace
You would have to walk barefoot to the ocean
and bow to all the Gods who have no names
and accept that all Great Mysteries swallow you whole
and Truth takes no prisoners
It just slices you open on Her Blade
But if you not afraid of
Emptiness…of
Loneliness
If you can accept that you were born naked and
not even the strongest bond of Love can protect you
from Death
Then you can begin to Love your precious Life
and Lick Honey from the Razor’s edge”
The Teachings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to the Red Goddess Lalita, Sophia, Mary Magdalene, The Yoginis and the Red Priestesses from all traditions throughout the Ages
Resources:
Marion Woodman: “Dancing in the Flames” – Shambhala Boston -1997
Poem by Psalm Isadora – barefootdiary.blogspot.com
Copyright Prem Moodaley 2017
February 2017
Alchemy: transmuting, transformation, blending, magic, third force, fire, chaos, base metals into gold, eternality
tapas
In the last sutra – I wrote about “The Firepit of Consciousness” – in this sutra, we explore alchemy, which is a stage of the journey where intense transformation takes place deep within and beyond the playground of duality. There is a beautiful Sanskrit word that describes “Alchemy” it is called “Tapas”
Shambhavi Lorain Chopra in her gorgeous book “Yogini” speaks about this fiery transformation – “Real tapas is more than any enforced asceticism. It is the heat that rises from a passionate form of the Divine energy seeking to transcend all limitations. Tapas is the heat of spiritual inquiry and aspiration that makes the sadhaka consume all the fleeting needs and desires in life. The fire in the soul connects with the life-fire in the body, finding expression through the heart, leading one to liberate or detach oneself from illusion, creating the way to self-realization. This is the real inner movement of tapas.”
“You are a Ruby in the Heart of Granite – how long will you try to deceive us? “- Rumi
Alchemy is the testing ground on the path of Sovereignty, Awakening and Freedom as it burns away all that does not serve the evolution of the Soul. For a moment, let me describe the three layers of the personality that I have encountered –
At the level of the first layer of the personality – we are totally hooked into the collective unconscious and our personal story. The collective unconscious – is the place where duality is most active, with its numerous distractions, pushes and pulls, stories and games. Everything is divided and separate – and “I”, “Me” and “Mine” is most important to the personality. Attachment and judgement underlies everything. There is a total identification with name, form and personal history.
The middle layer of the personality is less dense but there is still identification with name and form. This is the layer of the seeker. The personality seeks to discover the answers to the deeper questions of life. We explore who we are beyond our personality through teachers, workshops and books. This is a very tender and beautiful space but we still can get caught in the collective mindset, the values of the patriarchy and the “survival of me”
The inner layer of the personality is the most tender, vulnerable and naked space. In this space one has seen through the illusions, and the Soul has started to manifest on a conscious level in the life of the seeker who has had a glimpse of the treasure within. The Soul is now shining through the many veils and shrouds that has veiled its Luminous Presence and most importantly – the personality has chosen the Soul – also known as the “Inner Beloved”.
burning the veils of Illusion
Its at this inner layer where the process of alchemy ignites the fire of transformation and we are remade and reborn “In the Firepit of Consciousness”. We feel exposed, vulnerable and tested and it takes the courage and grit of the Spiritual Warrior to bear with the process of the heat of transformation. We are cleansed of all that is illusionary and there are whispers of the holy marriage within. Andrew Harvey speaks of this in his book – The Way of Passion – A Celebration of Rumi – “Purification is frightening, because in the fire there is a lot of spitting and black smoke, a lot of difficulty happens. Then, expansion: the fire enters the log and the Light enters, you burn in the fire and the blaze is without interference now because the impurities have been burned away.” You close your ears to the “noise” of the world and you claim your Sovereignty.
The writings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to The Red Goddess – Lalita, Sophia, Mary Magdalene, The Yoginis and The Red Priestesses of all traditions throughout the ages.
References:
Andrew Harvey: The Way of Passion – A Celebration of Rumi – Frog Ltd. 1994
Shambhavi Chopra: Yogini – Wisdom Tree 2006
Copyright Prem Moodaley 2016
Samhain 31 October 2016
Introduction to the Scarlet Sutra
Part 2
Sovereignty – to rule, dominion, authority, noble, honour, leadership, a force, brilliance, beauty, truth, strength, courage, vision, freedom
This first sutra gives an brief overview of Sovereignty. In the material world we associate sovereignty with royalty and material abundance and worldly power. This is not the sovereignty that this sutra seeks to describe. Sovereignty with regards to feminine embodiment is not about the “individual” or “becoming a goddess”. This sutra is not about serving the needs of a false self bound up with personal identity and serving the needs of that personal identity. Sovereignty here speaks deeply and lovingly to the Feminine Soul and Union with the Vastness of Existence. As one of my dearest teachers says…..its about “Having a love affair with Existence” When we journey into the depths of our Royal Sovereignty we let go of all the roles and identities that make up this small self we believe ourselves to be, and melt into the vastness of our True Essential Beingness which is Existence itself….Love itself….
A woman walking this path sets her soul free from the weight and baggage of her personal identity, her story, her cherished beliefs and opinions. She unchains from all that keep her bound to limitation within the ego mind and within the society in which she finds herself……She allows Existence in….
The Lalita Sahasranama – the 1000 Names in Praise of the Goddess Lalita ……….is a song encoded with the attributes of Feminine Sovereignty.
The first stanza translated describes the beauty of this Noble Feminine Presence, the very Nature of Femininity – this Sovereign Sacred Feminine encoded within us all.
“You are the Mother of All
You are a Great Queen
You sit astride the Lion
Born from the Firepit of Consciousness
You have come to Light the World”
“You are the Mother of All”——not just a Mother but the Mother of All….speaks to the universality of this all encompassing Blissful Nature of the Mother Matrix. It encompasses everything…..all dualities find a place of safety and rest here. All creation is fed at the bosom of the Divine manifestation of Motherhood that this sacred name is describing to us.
“You are a Great Queen”——we add the nobility and deep royal qualities of Leadership, of Presence, of Fortitude and Courage to our understanding of what it means to embody the feminine.
“You sit astride a Lion”——this line describes the Lion throne of the Feminine Soul. In tantric language, the seat is the place where the feminine sits, unshakable in the face of all the challenges in this dualistic world. Many female deities across all cultures are pictured sitting on the back of a lion. Linda Tucker in her book Mystery of the White Lions – Children of the Sun God writes “female deities such as Atamgatis and Cybele from classical mythology are shown astride lions, while the Great Mother of Asia Minor, Rhea goddess of the earth and wild beasts, is inevitably represented with lions at her side, seated upon lions , or in a lion-drawn chariot. The Japanese personification of ultimate wisdom and he mother of enlightenment, Mojubosatsu, rides the back of a lion. Similarly, the Germanic goddess Freyja, head of the Valkyries, is depicted astride a great cat, while her Babylonian counterpart, the Goddess Ishtar, rides a lion betokening her feline potency. Across the continents and the ages, this portrayal of female leonine figures is consistent.”
The Leonine Sovereign also alludes to the mastery of the instinctual nature. The wise instinctual nature is deeply integrated into the Heart. We see Her sitting on a seat of ferocity and wild instincts in perfect equanimity and mastery. She has not tamed her instincts but has mastery over it.
“Born from the Fire-pit of Consciousness….You have come to Light the World”——-Once we have gained mastery over our overwhelming need for survival and the insatiable desires of ego-mind then the deep soul femininity rises from the Fire-pit of Consciousness – an alchemical transformation takes place within the crucible of Fire…..from this we are born to “Light the World” as healers, teachers and wise-woman.
Sovereignty is intimately aligned with both Awakening and Freedom. Each primordial quality contains the other within it. Without Sovereignty you cannot awaken to the Truth and Infinite Love within yourself, and you cannot be free. Likewise you cannot be Awakened without embodying both Sovereignty and Freedom. And Ultimately you cannot be Free without establishing Sovereignty and Awakening in every particle of your being.
The Soul can be likened to a caged bird who sings a song dreaming of freedom….Of Union with Existence….
We might ask ourselves ——-What song is our soul singing today?
As we contemplate an increasing unstable world and the challenges that face us in our daily lives we might choose to remember the words from the ancient hymn praising the Sovereign Goddess Lalita:
You are called to remember that you are not just a Mother, but the Mother of all Creation….. Not only are you a Queen but you are a Great Queen……your Sacred Seat is the back of a Royal Beast…..the Lion…….and dearest sisters when all seems dark and lonely, remember…….You have come to Light the World.
The writings of the Scarlet Sutra is dedicated to the Sovereign Red Goddess Lalita, Sophia, Mary Magdalene, The Yoginis, and the Red Priestesses from all traditions throughout the Ages.
References:
Mantra and the Goddess – A Poetic Interpretation of the Sri Lalita Sahasranama by Swamini Lalitambika Devi – O Books 2010
Mystery of the White Lions – Children of the Sun God by Linda Tucker – Hay House 2001
Copyright Prem Moodaley 2016
September New Moon
Introduction to the Scarlet Sutra
Part 1
A Sutra is a Sanskrit word that means “a thread”. This “thread” weaves together a tapestry that leads to Wisdom and Deep Inner Knowing. A Sutra is really a Naked Idea that resounds within your Core.
When you reflect on this Naked Idea, it stirs up your consciousness, creating Inner Alchemical Magic that causes your own Awareness to be triggered and which leads you to the Love, Truth and Beauty that is your Inner Essence.
Why Scarlet?
The color Red or Scarlet is closely associated with the Feminine. It symbolises the Life Force, Blood Mysteries, Passion, Fire, the Intense and Pristine beauty of Blood Red Roses, Love, the Heart…It is the color that evokes Shakti – “She” – The Primordial word for Feminine Power, Love and Grace. Scarlet is the fuel that threads through the whole journey of Feminine Transformation into the Power of Sovereignty, Awakening and Freedom.
We are living in a time of unprecedented chaos and violence. Never before has the world known such darkness. Women are being denigrated, shamed and humiliated by various acts of violence as never before. In response, the Feminine is awakening in the hearts of women all around the world. Women are coming together in groups and in circles to heal their wounds, and to release their Sacred Power that has remained hidden for far too long.
In the Shaktisangama Tantra – The Divine Feminine as Woman is celebrated…..
Woman is the Creator of the Universe,
The Universe is her form.
Woman is the foundation of the world,
She is the true form of the body.
Whatever form She takes,
whether the form of a man or a woman,
is the superior form.
In woman is the form of all things,
of all that lives and moves in the world.
There is no jewel rarer than woman,
no condition superior to that of a woman.
There is not, nor has been, nor will be
any destiny to equal that of a woman.
There is no kingdom, no wealth,
to be compared with a woman.
There is not, nor has been, nor will be
any holy place like unto a woman.
There is no prayer to equal a woman.
There is not, nor has been, nor will be
any yoga to compare with a woman,
no mystical formula nor asceticism
to match a woman.
There has not, nor have been, nor will be
any riches more valuable than woman.
The writings of the Scarlet Sutra – the Yoga of Sovereignty is dedicated to the Sovereign Red Goddess Lalita, Sophia, Mary Magdalene, the Yogini’s and the Red Priestesses from all traditions throughout the Ages.
Copyright Prem Moodaley 2016
Posted Full Moon Winter Solstice June 2016