death
Death – “Alchemical Initiation into Wisdom”
“She dances wildly with Death and Births the alchemy of deep wisdom”
When we dance with the Feminine – we are constantly confronted with the Death Mother. This Dark Mother is an alchemical energy that seeks to bring the force of Her Nature into our lives for change to occur, and for deeper wisdom to manifest through us.
Never have we been so confronted with the Death Mother as we have in this last year. She is everywhere – calling us to a deep attunement to the rhythms of Life and to the ever present opportunity for rebirth and renewal.
We have been taught to fear death to wildly resist its presence in our lives. Oftentimes we miss its gifts, these opportunities to grow through a deep pruning of what has been before. We complain, we fight, we distract ourselves endlessly hoping, just hoping that its dark presence will go away and we can go “back to normal” often times burying and denying the opportunity for new life, that is begging to come into being/form.
“I find the happiest wild women are those who relish the opportunity to let entire phases of their lives die out, like flowers withering under the first frost.”
Danielle Dulsky
When I speak of Death here, I am not merely speaking of physical death, although this too is an opportunity for renewal and regeneration, I am including here the psychological deaths that are really the jewels in the mud of our lives, the ones that bring us to our knees, the situations we face that cry out for change, for the release of our neurotic attachments and illusions. This is I believe the death we most fear – the death inherent in the alchemy of change and the rearranging of our carefully constructed comfortable static lives.
“I am a daughter of some ancient Black Madonna
who brings new life through shaking our bones.
Even the chaos of a storm has a logic.
A tornado turns to a secret clockwork, that comes from the Creators hand.
You, simple woman, cannot see what is:
coming in the midst of the storm.
Just lay low and take shelter and then when
the calm comes
walk into the light.
Open your eyes in amazement at what the dust was covering from your sight before the storm came.
Rebirth is a shedding of your illusions.”
Psalm Isadora
In the feminine motifs – there is the imagery of the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone. All three of these aspects are initiating points in the cycle of our lives. The Crone particularly is a Death Mother, teaching us of the transience, the effervescence of life, she is the Wisdom holder, gathering the seeds of our many life lessons and preparing us for a new cycle, a new birth into deeper love, wisdom and truth. She initiates us into Bone Wisdom – the bare naked truth of our Being. She is ancient, has been around for a very long time and knows “the way” and will allow no less than the sacred engagement with the flow and cycles of our lives.
In Tantra – the initiate is often instructed to meditate in the cremation grounds so that this death wisdom is deeply integrated into the body. Oftentimes we are instructed to “die before we die”. Kali, the Baba Yaga, Calleich, Ceridwen, The Norns, the Morrigan, Hekate, Sekhmet are among the Crone Goddesses who invite us into newer ways of beings, encouraging us to allow the old to die so that new life, new vision, new possibility can come into being through the alchemy of death.
“The Crone Mother – offering the Pomegranate, symbol of Fertility and New Life”
Die to all that has gone before. Let go of the limited, the small, the cramped spaces of your mind. Rest in the velvet black darkness of the Mother’s embrace. Who are you now? Dissolve into the infinity of Her deep and abiding Love and Support. Be still and know.
She Invites you to:
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.
Copyright
Prem Moodaley
Easter 2021
Resources:
Danielle Dulsky: Woman Most Wild: Three Keys to Liberating the Witch Within 2017
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