chaos
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
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