Autumn Equinox 2022 - Kali

» In a climate of fear and doom, how can the Hindu goddess, Kali, aid us? «

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Kali: Embracing Death & Trusting Life

Theme » Complete Surrender and Destruction

Enquiry » Can I trust the wisdom of Life and the process of death?

Invocation » I offer all personal and collective fear into the fire! SWAHA

Mantra » OM KREEM KALIKAYE NAMAHA

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A Climate of Fear and Doom

Throughout history there have been many periods of time that have felt apocalyptic, and in my lifetime, this year, this moment in fact, seems to have the psychological imprint of urgency, desperation, fear and domination equal to an apocalyptic threat.

It seems, no matter which way I turn, a dooms-day prophecy is festering behind the curtains. Not only do we have to navigate the threat of an impending climate disaster mass extinction event, but we're all going to die from COVID. Not only that, but we're all going to die if we don't all take the V. Or we're all going to die if we do take the V. We are becoming battle-hardened, it feels like war, but it is psychological and deeply personal.

I can feel my whole system repelled by the​se narratives, the spreading of fear, judgments, division and divisiveness. My body signals are on high alert. 

My intention is to soften. But how? In such a climate of fear​, ​a climate of death, a climate of doom​, how does one soften?

Kali!

If ever there is an invocation that can meet the huge energy of our age, Kali is ​S​he.​ 

Kali, the Hindu Goddess of death, destruction and resurrection​. It is for good reason that She became the avatar of ​o​ur time by the filmmakers of Racing Extinction, a documentary about the environmental catastrophe now upon us.​ 

I have just finished ​​listening to a podcast with Vera De Chalambert​ describing her initiation with Kali, the Dark Mother, ​which in her case, took the form of a broken marriage​/betrayal, car crash and death of a loved one​. 

I wasn't sure I wanted to draw in what I perceived as catastrophic destruction.​ 

But from this initiation came a deep wisdom from within the darkness. You can hear it in Vera's voice as she shares her story, from the folds of her vocal cords to the cells in her body comes a passionate sensual embodied surrender to Life. Vera writes... 

Before we rush in to reanimate the discourse of hope prematurely, we must yield to what is present. Receptivity is the great quality of darkness; darkness hosts everything without exception. The Dark Mother has no orphans. We must not send suffering into exile — the fear, the heartbreak, the anger, the helplessness all are appropriate, all are welcome. We can’t dismember ourselves to feel better.

​Holding the olive leaf of hope in our Equinox ceremony felt premature. I wasn't sure if we, as a society, would make it through our own collective-yet-personal apocalypse, yet, I knew that what was in the field collectively needed to be devoured, to be brought back into the whole, that only She could do.

I have to admit I ​h​ad some ​trepidation ​going into our ceremony, invoking such a furious, leave-no-prisoners energy. Am I playing like a toddler with big guns? Will She descend and destroy what is precious to me? ​Was I up for the full impact of her presence in my life? My whole system was activated. I felt like a fraud holding space, invoking who-knows-what-life-will-look-like-afterwards!

​If ever there was a before and after auric-photo that we could look at to see the effects of a Havan, I wish it had been taken this night. I imagine my auric field to have been jagged red, spikey, with a veneer of yellow calm going in. 

​Afterwards. Afterwards, just soft mellow white-yellow. My whole system was resting in, what I felt to call an unreasonable-peace. That is; a peace beyond what I could reason. From this came trust, hope, and surrender. The world looked completely different from here on in. 

​I saw our time not as an apocalypse, but rather a spiritual crisis. Vera lends her Kali-wisdom to this topic by saying ... 

The mystics tell us that we need spiritual crisis. That we must enter the Cloud of Unknowing, the deepest despair, the most profound darkness within, without hope, in order to grow spiritually. They call such a time of deep crisis, of great uncertainty, the Dark Night of the Soul. There, in our radical desperation, in our absolute abandonment, it is said, the Divine Doctor awaits. Holy Darkness was Her medicine all along.​Darkness heals us without a spoonful of sugar; the wound is the gift​.

N​ow we must rest here in the darkness, to lay our heart to the ground, feel the Dark Mother in that gesture, feel the intimacy of being unraveled. Afterall, says Vera, "every seed must go into darkness, must turn inside out, must break open in order to grow.​"

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The Power of Ritual: Amplifying Intentions with Cacao, Fire, Mantra, and Meditation

Using the heart opening technologies of Cacao, Mantra, Fire Havan & Kirtan to clarify our intention and bring it forth into the world

In these power-filled ceremonies, we create space to get clear on our personal and collective intention; and then we amplify this by opening our heart with the aid of the cacao elixir, purifying our mind with the fire havan and sacred mantra, and shifting into heart-mind coherence using the practice of kirtan and meditation. It's quite the formula!

We offer invocations to welcome, or call upon that particular aspect of divinity within our Self and within the cosmos. As above, so below; what is within the whole is within us also.

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Email havan.ceremonies @ gmail.com for more information.

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