The Divine Feminine and the Chakras

The Divine Feminine tradition in Indian dance flips the usual understanding of the Chakras in the spirituality of India. Rather than aiming to rise through the Chakras, the Divine Feminine practice is about descending to the lower Chakras. This comes from the ancient and pre-Vedic spirituality of India which was women-led and where the Divinity was feminine. In the Divine Feminine practice of Indian dance, the earthen pot is used as a way of descending into the lower Chakras.

Through this simple practice, you connect with the earth, water and fire, which are the three lower chakras. The pot practice helps you connect with the earth and ground yourself. It connects your sensations with the elemental sensations of Nature. Through these connections, you are able to offer your actions without self-interest for the good of all of life.

If you are interested in trying the pot practice, please go to my practice videos at https://youtu.be/U8JtHxeJ8W4

Transcript for The Divine Feminine and the Chakras

SPEAKERS

Padma Menon

Padma Menon  00:00

Today I'm delighted to share with you how the ancient Goddess traditions completely flipped some of the very popular ideas we have about Indian spiritual practices, I'm referring to the practice of the seven chakras. 

Now, some of you may know that in the popular practice of Indian spirituality today, there are seven chakras, three lower chakras, below the waist and four above the waist. And the invitation in the spiritual practice, generally, is that you move from the lower chakras, through the upper chakras, and finally, you transcend the body because the last chakra is just above the crown of your head. So this when we reach the upper chakra, this chakra that's above the crown of the head is when it's called awareness or transcendence or coming into consciousness, or however you may wish to call it. 

Now in the Goddess practice, the invitation was quite the opposite. Here, the invitation is to drop into our depths. So in the chakra system, that would mean dropping into the three lower chakras. And there is a very simple practice—the pot—which is used in the tradition for this purpose. Now, you may know that the lower chakras are the earth, water and fire, the three elements that are also there in the pot, the synergy is beautiful. So what we were asked to do in the practice of the pot is to connect with the weight, which is the earth, so it's like the feet, or the base of the pot. So you bring the weight into the feet to connect with the earth, then the pot is filled with water. So the movement of the water in the hips, is the sensation. And the sensation is something that is deeper than our feelings and emotions. It is the elemental sensations. And it is what connects us to the elemental sensations like the sensuousness of the leaves moving in the wind, or the sensation of a thunderstorm. And so that is done through the water, practice the practice of water in the hips. And then the fire element is the element of where we offer our actions, our consciousness, our lives, as an offering to the world and to life at large. Just as when you offer things into the fire, you don't expect anything back. So we are able to offer without any self interest. 

So once you connect with the earth, not just materially through the weight, but even through our sensations. We know we experience viscerally how we are part of all these elements of nature, then we can offer a life unconditionally, without any self interest in the service of the harmony of all of life, and all of nature. 

So when we live in times, where most of the ways in which we practice or live are very linear, so there's a lot of emphasis on rising on advancing on going up getting better. And finally, even transcending the body. Here is this beautiful practice that asks us to come back to our foundations. And when we come to our foundations, it is like we build the foundation of the house. And on this foundation, anything else can be built, we don't need to take care of that. All we need to do is to return to our foundations. And that is the invitation of the Goddess practice. 

What I think is most beautiful about this practice is that divinity is intimately within you. It is not remote, it is not about transcending the body, but it is through the body and in the body, that we experience our own divinity.