The journey with the 10 Great Macrocosmic Powers continues. This month our wonderful Tantra and Shaivism student, Cintia gives us her reflections on a day with Chinnamasta:
With Chinnamasta we arrived at the sixth face of the goddess and as we came together it was as if we suddenly came to a gathering of Amazon warriors.
We drew our swords and in a few minutes we all seemed to bring a fiery knowledge of how to use them as we walked in our warrior queen mode, with our weapons for truth, high principles, justice and what is right.
The teachers felt like Chinnamasta Herself, manifested in our presence.
For those who have seen the Wonder Woman movie, it felt exactly like those early scenes with female warriors practising together and teaching other female warriors how to battle, as they guided us through the many exercises on a journey of touching our own courage. We saw our strength, that it is ok to stand up for what we see is not right in the world, that we can be fighters, speak up, and be assertive instead of damsels in distress, passively looking at what we clearly see to be wrong, that we don’t have to accept absurd rules, injustices.
The real fight starts within ourselves, with our own fears, our own inhibitions, our own limitations, our own tendency to stay and live small, of hiding and running away, and losing ourselves in confusion, letting ourselves be controlled by erratic states of mind and emotions that makes us reactive to whims of irrationality and lack of clarity…
That is why this magnificent, terrifying goddess is represented as cutting her own head off… an exercise we all did, as we each picked up our own swords and severed our heads (not literally of course), but as we did this in the space of profound silence, we met Grace and power as if Chinnamasta was birthed in us, through us, we could all feel Her presence in the room.
It’s that absolute focus that comes when we save a life, that complete clarity that knows exactly what to do in a crisis, that shamelessness to be completely who we are, to be wholesome in our femininity, when we forgive the unforgivable, when we face our fears and move ahead anyway.
A Goddess that at first glance seems to be about war and fighting, actually is about a profound state of peace, a core certainty from the heart of what is right, a firmness that is aligned with the godly Mind, with godly Justice and Wisdom, the highest of principles, the courage to love fully, unabashedly, and completely, and be fully in her own power and strength, to be who She is …
A lightning moment when we completely forget about ourselves and in a state of natural authenticity walk into the fire of a situation to do what we are intuitively guided is the right thing to be done. It could be to protect an innocent, or defend those who can’t, or make a wrong right… we have all had such moments in our lives when we are taken by a godly force of complete alignment, and in that moment there is no doubt or question, we know exactly what needs to be done and it comes from deep within… I guess the simple example to relate to is that of a mother who will do anything to protect her children, but there are many examples through history: Joan D’arc, Lady Godiva, Sojourner Truth, Mother Theresa, Princess Diana, Aung San Suu Kyi, Malala Yousafzai etc…
After this powerful workshop training on bringing out our warrior goddess, we were ready to face anything!
Feedback from the workshop series:
The great goddess Chinnamasta – the one who allows for the lightening transcendence of any state. She who gives detached contemplation of even life’s most intense experiences.