pure potential
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