Make a peace sign in your hands! Now, place your index and middle fingers down over your thumb, and lift your ring and pinky fingers up; bring these two hands to meet and you now have Shakti mudra! Shakti Mudra. This was our “Mudra Dance” that opened most of our practices this past week. Breathe in Peace, and breathe out Love. Hold the shakti mudra at your heart center and physically snuggle it into your chest. Sit quietly, breathe, and feel the energy.
Rumi: “Weeping, then laughing. The power of love came to me, and I became fierce like a lion, then tender like the evening star.”
It was one year ago that everything shut down in New York City. I remember the date was actually March 14th to be exact. I had not read my emails and had boarded the A Subway train South to go teach a class in the afternoon. When I arrived at the studio, I was met by the beautiful Adina, only to hear the words that I would be teaching to an empty room and a screen. Sadly, that beloved studio, Mind Body Soul Yoga studio, has now completely closed. Our community stays strong.
It’s been a year, needless to say, of great transformation and change. I thank Goddess that I was teaching the heart chakra the week that things closed down. I know it helped me, and others, through that immediate shock.
Sometimes I perceive this pandemic as shedding a Light on many things that needed to change. Both within myself, our country of the United States, the Yogic world, and the world at large. And then other times, I deeply wish it had never happened. The loss is unbearable.
Energy that creates change, even when the change feels hard and difficult, is the energy of Shakti. Shakti is “energy”. This energy is in us, and it’s all around us. Shakti is the personification of energy and power for good within us, around us, in the world, and beyond(Universe). Personification is used in stories to make complex ideas more easier to understand. Shakti has many various forms, and many different names. However, Shakti is depicted as the Divine Feminine. She is the Divine Mother. This Shakti energy is a power of love. It’s the power of the heart, and it nurtures and supports. Even when the energy and the power pushes us, or challenges us in ways that we don’t like and that we are uncomfortable with, this change is inevitably always for our own betterment and the world. There is always a deep lesson that Shakti is showing us.
“What will you do if you discover you have real power? If all power is transitory and ephemeral, what effects do you want to leave behind, both within and without? While we are each individuals, we are also one. That which binds us together is love. It seems to me the important question becomes: How can you achieve a state of Love other than by Loving?”-Thomas Ashley-Farrand, ‘Shakti mantras’. I feel what Thomas is getting at here is, how will you Love? What energetic essence of yourself do you want to leave in the world when you leave your body? What essence of energy do you want to touch others with, thru words, actions, thoughts? How can you be giving your energy more lovingly to yourself and others?
“Shakti leads to the Divine Beloved within, where all questions are answered, all tears are dried, were all Love resides, all Knowledge is contained.”-Thomas Ashley-Farrand
I invite you, dear reader, to remember that you are this love. Repeat within yourself now, “I am Love”. “Aham Prema.” (Listen to the gorgeous singers below!)
Allow yourself to enter into the present moment. “I live in the present, I can only touch you now.”-Dr. Edith Eger. How powerful the doctors words, it feels as if Shakti is speaking to us through her, and Shakti is, because we are all Shakti.
Much love,
Shawna
Breathe and Believe.