Goddess Kali: Own Your Power
/At this most yang time of the year when solar energy is at its peak we look to the great Goddess Kali to explore our relationship to power.
Kali is the ferocious warrior who will do literally anything to wake us up. But hers is no gentle wake up call….
On the battlefield her wild dreadlocks flail like snakes over her blue skin, awash in blood. Naked save a necklace of skulls, her tongue dangles with her fierce battle cry as she hacks the heads off demons with a machete. Triumphant and victorious, she is the fierce compassion within you that is not willing to settle for a life lived half awake. She drags us into the dark night of the soul until we cease our fighting, finally surrendering those parts of ourselves that have closed off to love.
Her sword of power slices through the delusion that we are separate from all beings in the vast ocean of consciousness. The demons she demolishes are the ego’s attempts to run our lives.
While the ego is a crucial element of our psyche, worthy of respect, the purpose of self growth and spiritual practice is to place the ego-mind in its proper role - passenger seat - and the soul or highest self in its proper role - driver seat.
The ego is here to survive, the soul is here to live.
When the ego is in the driver’s seat we are, again and again, the victims of our own delusion. Reactionary, impatient, confused, angry, anxious or depressed, we continuously recreate patterns of suffering for ourselves and others. Letting the ego run the show is like letting a child do the grocery shopping or letting a college intern run the company.
Through movement and breath-work we cultivate the self discipline, self-compassion and discernment required to place the soul on its rightful throne back in the driver’s seat.
With soul as our guide we are raw power, a radiant and unstoppable force for love.
What would you do with such radical power?
Instead of being a victim of our ego-mind, which is conditioned by the past, particularly by past unconscious trauma, we are empowered make choices that shape our lives to their highest potential. Immune to the inevitable fluctuations of our life circumstances, we shine from the inside out.
Decisions and actions made from the soul will always empower, not only ourselves, but others.
The hierarchical paradigm we’ve lived in for far too long is dying.
We are shedding the “power over” model in favor of a “power together” model. In the words of Marianne Williamson, "as we let our own light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
Kali will stop at nothing for your liberation. Until she has triumphed, the battle isn’t over. Anything is possible when she is victorious. And, in the end, she’s always victorious.
Her home in the body is manipura, the third chakra, our deepest core. When excessive in this chakra, we are arrogant and judgmental of others, when deficient in this chakra we feel unworthy and hopeless. When balanced, we know that we are spirit embodied and that the sky is the limit.