Her Door is Always Open

Image: Siddhalakshmi, Goddess of Power (Nepal, 1694)

Her door is always open. The power of yoga. Invincible. Ineffable. OMG(oddess)! Ever-healing, ever-awakening. Mysteries emptying out into mysteries. Ever-allowing, ever-inviting. OMG(oddess)! Rivers of amber. Seas of opal. Do you understand?

Exhale the finite, inhale the infinite; exhale the infinite, inhale the finite. Oh, yes, and the in between. Where ceaseless motion and utter stillness become lost within each other. OMG(oddess)! Her door is always open. Dawn at midnight. Midnight at noon. Endlessness. Do you understand? 

Storm raging. Sun blazing. Simultaneity. Do you understand?

Ever-leading, ever-listening, ever-learning. OMG(oddess)! Her door is always open. So grateful for all those who fearlessly unroll their mats of fire. So grateful for all those who led the way into the transformational flames. OMG(oddess)! The great serpent blossoms, the great lotus coils.

Do you understand? Her door is always open. Yes, the power of yoga. Indomitable. Inexhaustible. Mysteries emptying out into mysteries. Oh Yoga. Goddess! 

Dear Messirs Higgs-Boson, when you find that "God Particle," I want you to split it open, and look "inside." You will behold a Goddess dancing madly. And if you attempt to split her in two, you will find yourself transformed into a doe drinking spring water from the palm of a blue-skinned shepherd boy who is in turn held in the palm of one of the eight hands of the madly dancing Goddess you attempted to split in two. And you will wonder if you were always the doe, or were you once the physicist. But you will soon lose interest in the answer to that question, and will want only to go deeper into the sublime unknowing that has risen up to engulf you. 

OMG(oddess)! The power of yoga. Invincible. Ineffable. Do you understand? 

Her door is always open. 

Samhain 2014.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

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Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

A Veiled Synonym for the Truth of Space

Anselm Keifer - Nagflar. Brooklyn Museum of Art. Summer Solstice, June 2015.
NOTE: The boat that carries warriors into the battle with the gods at Ragnarok, the end of the world.

The yearning for peace is actually a groping for space, inner space. Because "peace" is in reality a veiled synonym for the truth of space. The peace that is hoped for, the peace that is strived for, whether "in oneself" or "in the world," is unattainable.

The truth of peace is that it is the very nature of space, nothing less, nothing more. As such, it is all-pervading, everlasting, utterly unalterable, both beyond and before; and it is through and through, here, and there, and everywhere, now and forever. What is asked of us is simply to realize this truth; yes, to open to it, to let go into it and in turn to reflect it outward in our relationships, our attitudes and our creations. No matter what the cost, no matter what the price.

Rely on this truth, that the actual nature of peace is the ever-present reality of all-pervading space. Live a life from that apex of clarity, and nothing that befalls you will defeat you, even in defeat. Live life from that apex of clarity, and nothing that breaks your heart will break you, even when it does.

(The problem of violence is downstream from the puzzle of peace. Solve the puzzle of peace and the clarity required to truly understand violence comes. Peace is not the antidote to violence. it is a requirement for the understanding from which genuine antidotes arise. I will write more about the problem of violence separately. It is complex.) The peace that is hoped for, the peace that is strived for, whether "in oneself" or "in the world," is unattainable.

The truth of peace is that it is the very nature of space, nothing less, nothing more. This is the secret of real meditation, that meditation that does not begin when you sit down, or end when you rise up. Peace is space. Only space. It is all around you always and forever. All is upheld by it. What we are called to do in this life is to realize this, to open up to it, to let go into it, and (MOST IMPORTANT) to reflect it in our relationships, our attitudes and our creations. No what what is thrown at us. No matter what we are challenged with. No matter. Peace is space. Only space.

It is all around you always and forever. All is upheld by it. What we are called to do in this life is to realize this, to open up to it, to let go into it, and (MOST IMPORTANT) to reflect it in our relationships, our attitudes and our creations. As such, this utter peace is at one with the pure dynamism of the universe that dances upon it. Siva and Sakti!

The utter stillness is the divine pulsation, the divine pulsation is the utter stillness. Spanda. It is never absent from your life. You are never removed from it. You just have to remember. But this kind of remembering is somatic, not conceptual. It is your birthright. It is yours to claim.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

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See Also

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com

Archangel

Giovanni Piccirillo (a cura di), La chiesa dei Santi Michele e Gaetano, Becocci Editore, Firenze 2006.

A young friend who I care for deeply, recently said, "You're like an archangel." This sweet observation led me into a rumination about my life-long relationship with the archangel energy.

In early childhood, even before my pronunciation caught up with my runaway vocabulary, I would tell people about the symbolism of the fierce St. Michael statue that watched over me. "He wields the sword of truth and goodness," I would declare, but it came out like "truth and doodedness." Because I had gotten as far as the "do" sound but not as far as the "goo" sound.

A few years later, still a prepubescent child, but raised Irish-Catholic, I was told to pick a "Confirmation Name," i.e., the name of some saint who would be one of my patrons. I was torn between Archangel Michael and John the Baptist. John appealed to me because, after all, he had lost his head over a beautiful stripper (even then I knew I would), and he was, in the end, a "voice crying out in the wilderness (one of Kierkegaard's "stormy petrels"). But I decided on Archangel Michael, and so I became Richard Gerald Michael Power, III.

Throughout the long adventure of this life, the energy of Archangel Michael has moved through me and for me in many ways. Iconography depicting his war against evil has always found its way to me, seemingly "randomly." And on my Shamanic journey, in the most dangerous of places, in the most hopeless of places, it was often the Archangel Michael who would overshadow me from inside myself. I have always been able to draw on that power.

It has never failed me and never will. It is part of myself.

For me, in a very real way, Michael is synonymous with the Bodhisattva King Chenrezig. And indeed, when at my request a great shamaness (with no prior knowledge of my inner iconography) visited that desolate place in which some dismembered parts of my "soul" had been strewn long ago, she discovered that those lost parts and the trail that led to them had been guarded over all of this time by, yes, Michael and Chenrezig. They took shifts.

So when my beloved young friend said, "you're like an archangel," it resonated with me in a deep, pure quadrant of psyche. Of course, I almost hesitate to evoke the being of Archangel Michael. He has been so madly misappropriated by so many, as a foil for their fantasies. ("Astral real estate," Joe Miller used to call such phenomena.) So much nonsense has been offered up in his name. He is like the Pleiades in that respect, there are so many "messages" from both Michael and the Pleiades.

And so much of it is just phantasmagorical spam. Not all of it is false, of course. I will leave it to time to sort it all out, which is ironic, since so much of this phantasmagorical spam is supposedly telling us what will or should happen to us all.

My guess is that the Pleiades (all seven gorgeous sisters) visit Archangel Michael's "crib" frequently to watch the reality TV show that is the chain of human events. (Of course, the remote for his sky/wall-size HD TV is powerful, and gives them the capability to pause, mute, rewind and fast-forward in real time.) No doubt, one of their favorite sub-plots is that flow of phantasmagorical spam perpetrated in their names. (BTW, the Pleiades have also played an important role in my journey, but that is a different tale.)

Concerning the iconography of Archangel Michael (yes, even unto and prior to his Zoroastrian roots), I am particularly fond of this 17th century painting, Jacopo Vignali's San Michele Arcangelo Libera Le Anime Del Purgatorio, "Archangel Michael reaching to save souls in purgatory." No sword, no shield, no armor, no vanquished demon. Although I do not have a problem at all with the warrior image of Michael. He is like the Blue Tara, the vital wrathful aspect. The fierceness is a powerful element of his story, and a palpable expression of his presence in this twisted world.

Nor do I have an issue with Michael being depicted as vanquishing the evil one. The truth isn't that there is no evil here, the truth is that evil more often than not presents itself as the good and seeks to turn us against what is truly good. Jesus, the son of the Goddess knew this, and so the other John warned of it in Revelations, i.e., the "Antichrist" would come disguised as a prince of peace.

And so it is, so much of what is truly evil presents itself as "religion," particularly among the three Abrahamic religions (although not exclusively). But I enjoy this kinder, gentler, rarer image of Michael. It is as if an extension of Tara, the great green goddess emanation who is always depicted with one foot rising from her meditation pillowing. She is ceaselessly rising to respond to the cry of suffering sentience. Michael is an extension of her.

Michael and the other archangels come from before and beyond patriarchy, they and their legions are a heavenly multitude of Ardhanaris (with their inner male and female halves awakened and integrated), and yes, they serve the Madonna, the Great Goddess of Heaven and Earth (as did Jesus and the Madgalena and *some* of their immediate circle).

These are just some ruminations about the energy that is Archangel Michael and what it might actually mean to some of us on this plane at this time in human history, and I thank my young friend for inadvertently causing me to reflect upon it all.

-- Richard Power, Author, Speaker, Yoga Teacher (RYT500)

http://words-of-power.blogspot.com

http://twitter.com/wordsofpower

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See Also

Richard Power's Primal Reality Quadrilogy Available Now from Amazon.com