Mahashivaratri: The Great Night of Shiva (video)

Mahashivaratri, Arunachala temple, Tiruvannamalai

This weekend welcomes the New Moon in Pisces and tonight is the great night of Shiva – lord of creation and destruction and preservation – all in one.

Shiva is not only considered an incarnate god. Shiva is Oneness, Consciousness, All that Is. It truly depends on whether one is speaking of manifestation, or the plenum. Even to speak of Shiva, is too much. You lose it straightaway in the naming. The best we can do is recite the name – Shiva, Shiva, Shiva, Shiva. I Bow to Existence.

I honor Shiva as grace on his Big Night, realizing that arises in whatever way Consciousness deems – no hopes, no expectations, Nothing. There is nothing and everything in the fullness of What Is. This evening, I’m going to soak up the sounds of a Piscean-led jazz trio in an intimate venue with my Beloved, his son, and son's girlfriend. Music is a great way to celebrate this lord of the dance, Nataraja. And jazz does a fine job of capturing the beautiful chaos of tandava, dance of creation and destruction. Shiva, Shiva, Shiva…

Shiva tandava with damaru drum, Rishikesh

THIS IS SHIVA

A few words from my satsang teachings to kick things off this weekend:

The non-dual. Consciousness. Beyond the Beyond. You are That. You must know this now. You must know that what is happening, is the Truth. This is beyond anyone's individual will, power, or comprehension. This must be understood. Any ego inclination of separation, of belief in separate intention or causality, is ultimately false, or an appearance.

How does this help right now? To know that there is nothing that can ever be done, or that will possibly happen, good or bad, positive or negative, that is not the perfect will of God, aka Cosmic Law, aka Existence. This removes any shame or guilt of what is occurring. Rest in What Is. That which you are is eternal. It is untouched by this play. Rest there. Even while taking apparent separate action, in duality. Consciousness is running the whole show - cause, outcome, all of it.

PILGRIMAGE (video)

There are no words to describe my connection to India. I’ve thought about reposting a few Mahashivatri stories from my past. I wonder if they will have any impact, or why I should repost. They hold so much shakti (energy, power) and I get emotional and start to careen internally when I reread them. I’ll suffice with an old-school video I made on one of my pilgrimages circumambulating Arunachala, holy mountain of Shiva, on Mahashivaratri.

Here you are:

Travel writer Erin Reese, author of The Adventures of Bindi Girl, takes us on a journey around the holy mountain of Shiva, Arunachala, in Tiruvannamalai, India. This 14 km pilgrimage is called "girivalam" (circumambulation) or Pradakshina (the Hindu rite of going round the object of worship).

With love and a deep bow to the Oneness

of which you are always a part of

and never not connected,

Erin

Erin Reese, M.S. is a spiritual teacher, author, and intuitive consultant based in the SF Bay Area. Visit her website at erinreese.com for more information on her intuitive readings, counseling services and non-dual wisdom.

Notes from India 🇮🇳 follow me on Twitter

Hello beloved friends and clients!
Writing from Mother India with a few images to share..one more day in the north and then heading south. I am traveling sans laptop and thus posting occasionally on Twitter is much easier! If you'd like to follow my travels through images, please follow me on Twitter here:
@erin_reese
Check out Erin Reese (@erin_reese):
https://twitter.com/erin_reese

Sending you all so much love from the holy Ganga Maa!
Thank you Maa India 💖
Namaste and Hare Om
Erin 🙏

Rajasthani sweets

Local wedding procession

Travel and Soul writer on the Ganga

Jai Kali Maa

Shiva tandava

Jai Hanuman!

New Moon Eclipse in Pisces: Ocean of Emotion

Tomorrow, March 8, we have a Total Solar Eclipse, a New Moon, in the mutable water sign of Pisces, the Fish. Attempting to write about this lunation as the energy crests is like trying to write a manuscript 20,000 leagues below the sea, wearing full scuba gear. It honestly feels impossible to engage the rational mind long enough to convey a coherent thought. With the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Neptune and Chiron all lining up in the most sensitive, spiritual, transcendent of signs, we are drawn deeper into our very selves, our souls, and our hearts.

This is a time when emotional and spiritual intelligence run the show. Probably the most ineffectual use of this energy is to struggle and fight to accomplish, to achieve, to push. We can let the limbic system lead, and trust the intuitive, vast wisdom of the body.

So much is occurring below the surface right now, in the collective consciousness. Two weeks ago, you may recall, I wrote about preparing for this time. I advised taking care of some essential business details where possible, because this week and through much of March, we can only flow. We cannot force. There is tremendous power available, and we are not separate from it.

At this time, yogis around the world are celebrating the great night of Shiva, known as Maha Shivaratri. Shiva is the god of creation and destruction, a fitting ruler of Pisces, the grand finale of astrological signs. Shiva carries a trident staff, which is also the glyph of Pisces’ planetary ruler Neptune, lord of the oceanic depths.

Neptune dissolves. Neptune shape-shifts. Neptune changes form, an endless dance known as tandava. Shiva’s power animal, the cobra, winds around his body, reminding us of the power of kundalini life force as well as endless cycles of rebirth. The skin is shed, and a new shape emerges. Endlessly changing according to the perception of the moment.

On the exoteric level, Shiva is the “Hindu God,” (the Supreme Deity for many) who superintends the forces of dissolution. In esoteric and tantric traditions, Shiva is seen as All Pervading Consciousness, the One Reality that we are all part of (or that we actually are). As “destroyer,” Shiva the energy that releases the burden of the ahamkara, the “false ego” that experiences itself as separate from everything and everyone. As the great or Maha Yogi, Shiva embodies the power to break out of illusion and become free from “grasping” or “dependency.” ~ Rick Jarow, author of In Search of the Sacred and Creating the Work You Love

Imagine: you are surfing the Ocean, and you ARE the Ocean, simultaneously. There is a direct, fully conscious perception – a knowing – that there is no separate central operating mechanism running the show. Everything is occurring as a conglomeration of an infinite number of causes and effects, a collision of past, present and future, over which no one single person – no single perception – has ever had entire control.

 

The ego is the appearance of a me, a “doer,” which is a drop of water in the entire Ocean. Whatever the “me” is doing, or not doing, arises out of the entirety of Consciousness. When the ego makes an illusory attempt to usurp the power of the limitless ocean of consciousness, suffering is experienced. The end of suffering, here, is the end of the belief in the separate volitional power of a separate "me."

So, whatever happens at this Piscean eclipse time – welcome it. Know that is Evolution ~ Shiva dancing his tandava ~ doing its thing, of which you are a part of, not separate from it. Whether the cresting wave is a surprise to you, or you had a hunch all along, know that it is exactly perfect. You are the participator and the co-producer, along with Existence. Individual agency is not problematic so long as it knows it is part of the collective.

If we listen closely, if we lean into the wave, we experience the thrilling ride of the dissolving separation between self and other. There is seeing, a feeling, a visceral knowing of the boundless capacity for unconditional love - a universal love that encompasses the personal, familial, worldly, and divine. Resistance is futile. Open your heart, and let it flow.

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com.

Spiritual Awakening and Piscean Power

Spiritual Awakening and Piscean Power

There is a great deal of spiritual power available to us over the next month. We are under the auspices of last week’s fascinating New Moon falling on the very last seconds of the final degree of Aquarius. This New Moon was so cusp-y that astrologers the world over debated whether it actually fell in Aquarius, the futuristic visionary, or Pisces, the sign of ultimate dissolving. In my direct experience and intuitive downloading, I have come to understand that it is BOTH.

Pisces is the non-dual, mutable water sign of the Fishes where All Is One – no joke – and where Ultimate Power lies. The New Moon tone of Aquarius brings the straightforwardness that can help us see the truth; the Water Bearer gives us the models, the tools, to surrender into Oneness without losing the plot. In the heavens right now, the major theme is surrendering the ego to What Is. And, on February 25 we have the Sun conjunct Neptune, ruler of Pisces, also in the non-dual sign of the Fishes, pointing to more letting go into the numinous plenum.

Make no mistake: Pisces has an incredible amount of power and energy available as a mutable water sign. Think of the sea, her tides, and the force of a tsunami. It’s all fine and dandy in oceanic Oneness but put a monumental push behind it and you’ve got yourself a major life and earth-changing event. This prepares us for the ultimate evolutionary ratchet forward as we are building up to the final exact square of Uranus-Pluto on March 16. Remaining in the non-separate Cosmic Flow will make it much easier to accept the stretches, changes, and challenges this cardinal square summons in our individual and collective consciousness. As a result, a tremendous amount of spiritual power is in our midst, available to us when the small “me” simply gets out of the way.

Clearing the Kundalini Pathway

Sadhu temple, Ayodhya, India

Apropos of last week’s Aquarius/Pisces New Moon theme, on Monday, February 16, we had the 24-hour celebration of Maha Shivaratri – great night of Shiva, one of the most important festivals on the lunar calendar. Shiva is the ultimate All-That-Is deity, dancing his eternal tandava of creation and destruction. With over one billion individuals in the world identifying as Hindus or followers of yogic traditions, even if we don’t know about Shivaratri, the impact of the festival is going to ripple out through the airwaves and reach our collective unconscious.

One of the main legends of Shivaratri is the night of the marriage of Shiva to his consort Shakti (Parvati). This is often symbolized by the intertwining of serpents, the Kundalini energy coiled at the base of the spine, in the root chakra. Kundalini rises up the spinal column through the sushumna nadi, which flows between the ida (related to yin) and pingala (related to yang) nadis. These are the male and female energy lines, or meridians, represented as serpents.

The rising of the Kundalini is a healing force in our body-mind and it is essential to spiritual awakening, which is why the caduceus symbol of medicine shows this very union. When the Kundalini completes purification of the energy centers, or chakras, in the body-mind organism, the two energy lines culminate in a marriage of Shiva Shakti at the Third Eye. At this point, enlightenment is available to the individual, and the crown chakra can open to receive graceful union with the divine, or cosmic consciousness.

To facilitate the healthy flow of Kundalini energy – symbolized by this marriage of Shiva and Shakti, the intertwining serpents – we can clear out whatever is in the way of optimum flow in these energy columns. This increases the amount of spiritual power AND protection. During Shivaratri, and anytime it is intuitively needed, devotees and yogis often fast for one to several days to increase the amount of energy available to them to connect to the Divine. Cleansing is a great way to reboot the connection to Spirit, and to give the body a break. What is important is that you clear out whatever is in the way of creating space in that main central energy column – the shumana nadi – literally or symbolically. Take out the garbage – address relationships, finances, health, and household clutter. Consider it the most important spring cleaning you’ll ever do in your life.

Once we have mastered physical and psychological well-being, life is more satisfying with more spiritual power available to us. The human striving toward self-actualization and transcendence is totally natural and ultimately fulfilling. What awaits you? Liberation. It is so worth the striving. Spiritual Awakening is completely available to those who surrender totally. If you are ready to meet awakening, to be free from suffering, know that it is totally possible in this lifetime.*

As Aquarian philosopher Ken Wilber says about authentic transformation: “The self is not made content; the self is made toast.” Surrender the small self to the Self – let go completely – and gain the Universe in return.

Erin Reese is an author, spiritual guide, astrologer, and modern psychic reader based in the San Francisco Bay Area. She works with clients all over the world. For readings and spiritual counseling by Skype, phone or email, contact her directly. She can be reached at erin@erinreese.com. *If you’re feeling a sincere pull toward awakening as discussed in this article, I’d be thrilled to support your calling. Find out more about my Spiritual Counseling series here.