earth
Slow-Magic – Deep Elemental Harmony with all Life
“With all my body, I touch the earth.
My hands touch the earth.
My face touches the earth.
My breasts touch the earth.
My heart touches the earth.
My belly and genitals touch the earth.
My thighs and knees and toes touch the earth.
I breath deeply and my breath is united with the earth.
The whole earth breathes. Breath is everything.
I delight in the earth, its presence, its energy.
The earth is real!
Only your superficial contact with the earth is not real.” (1)
In the book Tantric Quest the yogini Lalita Devi introduces her student Daniel Odier to the magical “tattwas”. The tattwas are the basic building blocks of all of existence – its the Earth, our bodies, air, fire, water, space and ether. It is the whole living, breathing, erotic reality of all existence.
This vital link between humans and the elemental nature of life has been broken down because of the weight of the patriarchal lens of separation and gratification that has seeped into the very fabric of our living and has co-oped our senses and cut us off from the intrinsic sensuality of living gracefully and graciously in harmony with the phenomenal world.
“When was the last time you felt the deliciousness of water caress your skin?”
The soul strives to experience its erotic nature – it is its reason for being, for incarnating into the world of form. Slow-magic happens when we are committed to restoring this deeply intrinsic holy relationship with the sensual nature of the elements – uniting our being with Earth, Human and Life Divine.
To do this we have to slow way, way down. It is in our soft steps, our breath and our attention to the completely innocent moment, empty of conceptual goals that we can truly grasp this magic with its offering of beauty, of love and of grace. This is the magic that is all around us, woven into the very fabric of creation, the Mother Herself – awaiting our recognition.
It is in these sacred pauses that we can truly access this Heavenly love that is all around us. We begin to foster a deep love of the ordinary day and the living of it becomes a sacred feminine art. Each day becomes a celebration of the erotic present in the ordinary. When we restore this curiosity – this innocence, this wonder, this awe, we begin to release ourselves from the imprisonment of our jaded worldview, our senses over stimulated by “too much” and we tap into a field that is overflowing with simple abundance.
“The bliss of taste”
“The Sun and Moon and Earth
Danced together
To bring you this delight.”
We begin to truly connect to the Earth, and her vast veins of sensual magic. We become transformed, pared down to that which truly gives our soul joy. We live generously in the moment. The Mother of Life takes her place in the center of our lives, gushing forth Her Love and we having slowed down are open to receive Her.
“The art of making a cup of tea”
The priestess, wild women and mystics of old truly knew how to do this, how to live in harmony with the elemental nature of life – and it is from this matrix that they could weave their tapestry of magic. They mined each slow moment for its gifts with the alchemy of intention and attention and because of this they could heal, soothe and bring forth their wisdom and their visions. They truly lived and died with this reverence, completely satiated, overflowing with life, their soul dancing in ecstasy.
“Tasting dark chocolate,
A ripe apricot,
A luscious elixir –
Savor the expanding joy in your body.
Nature is offering herself to you.
How astonishing
To realize this world can taste so good.
When sipping some ambrosia,
Raise your glass,
Close your eyes,
Toast the universe.
The Sun and Moon and Earth
Danced together
To bring you this delight.
Receive the nectar on your tongue
As a kiss of the divine. (2)
“Slow-Magic”
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
May 2020
Resources:
(1) Tantric Quest – An Encounter with Absolute Love – Daniel Odier – Inner Traditions 1997
(2) The Radiant Sutras – Lorin Roche – Sounds True 2014
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