Shapeshifting to Expand Consciousness

In this video I share an example of an ancient shapeshifting practice from the Divine Feminine tradition. Shape shifting in Indian spirituality, like in many ancient shamanic traditions, was a practice of expanding Consciousness beyond the mind limited state of being. Here I share an ancient movement practice of the snake from Indian dance tradition. The aim of shapeshifting is to enable an experience of deep connection and unity with all of life and other life forms. It is the heart of the Divine Feminine principle of Consciousness being a continuum through all of Nature and the Cosmos. Shapeshifting practice invites us to step outside the limited definitions of our minds which imprison us with stories that separate humans from the rest of life and place us in a hierarchy as being above other life. This disconnection we have practised for centuries is at the heart of our isolation from Nature and Divine Consciousness.

Through shapeshifting we do not imitate another life form but we match its essence and consciousness. This expands our own state of being beyond the mind-limited paradigms of experience. We are invited to go beyond words and labels and to surrender to the mystery of the experience without judgment. Through this we viscerally connect with the sensation of how the life force that flows in us also flows through all other life forms and that we are the same as all life and not separate from Nature.

This practice is helpful when you feel disconnected at a human level from the flow of energy and Consciousness around you and you yearn for a way of being that flows with Life and Nature.

For the Pot Practice of coming into presence go to https://youtu.be/U8JtHxeJ8W4 For information about Goddess Matangi go to the playlist at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

Transcript for Shapeshifting to Expand Consciousness

Today I'm going to share with you the intriguing practice of shape shifting. And I'm going to do this through some of the Goddess Matangi practices-I have a separate playlist about Goddess Matangi. And I'll put a link to that playlist. So if you're interested to know a bit more about this amazing Goddess, very relevant to our times, I invite you to check out that playlist. 

So back to shapeshifting. Shapeshifting, as many of you know is a very ancient shamanic practice and can be found in Goddess traditions across the world. In this tradition, shape shifting means accessing the essence or Consciousness of another life form through embodied movement. So it's important to note that it it is not imitating or pretending to be or acting like, because many of the ancient shapeshifting traditions have been interpreted in those ways in our times. It is actually a much more deep practice of matching the Consciousness or the essence of another life form. 

So why shapeshifting? In many Goddess traditions, the invitation is to be able to step into an expansive Consciousness as that is the way of linking into that universal Consciousness, whether we call it Goddess, the divine, or however you call it. As humans, we live in our minds. So our Consciousness is really limited by the mind. And the mind has particular characteristics of rich narratives, story, definition, labelling, these are all characteristics of the mind. So the story of what is a human being what is a man what is a woman, all these limits our Consciousness. 

And the mind also separates. And that's a function of the mind, because you can't label and define if you don't separate, disintegrate and fragment. So we separate ourselves from the rest of life and the rest of Consciousness so long as we live in this mind-limited Consciousness. 

Shapeshifting is a practice of expanding into that Consciousness that is not of the mind. And that is beyond the mind. And deeper than the mind. We can't do this through a thought or a word, because as long as we do all that we are still in the mind. So this is why we do it through these embodied movements or dances, which were revealed to ancient practitioners. 

So the movement I'm going to share with you is an ancient revealed movement from Natya Sastra which is a text that dates back to at least 200 BCE. So that's about 3000 years old. And obviously, the practice was older than that. And in this movement, the invitation is that you drop out of your mind, you don't try and label it, you don't try and define the sensation, your feeling, but you just be with that sensation. And you move into the connection that that sensation offers to you. 

This is a movement of the snake. And this is a great movement to do o n the days when you are really feeling that as a human being, you are disconnected from the flow of life and the flow of Consciousness. This is so important in our times, because I think we have come to that moment in human history where all these ways in which we have separated ourselves and put ourselves at the top of the hierarchy are really bringing us into times of confusion and chaos. And here is this invitation to reconnect to the Consciousness of all of life and of nature. 

So I invite you to come and join me in this practice of the snake. I'll step back so you can see my lower body. So the first thing we do, which is always if you've been watching my videos, you'll know it's the first practice and that is dropping in into our lower body, from the waist down. So we drop our weight, you can put your feet in a V shape, and drop your weight all the way to the feet. 

There is a beautiful pot practice. And I'll put a link to that too. And that's a practice you can try. It's a really wonderful way of coming into that groundedness in your lower body. 

So here we are. And I invite you to just push into your hips as if you're about to sit on a chair. So you will feel your weight is in the hips, and mostly in your heels. And just loosen up those hips. Just losing I'll just go forward a bit, because we're going to move backward in the snake movement. So here we are. And just feeling and dropping into that weight. And it's like you, your lower body is a pot, and the water is moving in the pot through your hips. 

So move the hips. Remember, the hips are slightly weighted as if you're about to sit on a chair. The legs are soft. Everything else is soft, drop your arms, let them be soft, your fingers. And now we're going to start moving the lower body in the lower body movement of the snake. So shift the weight to one side and lift the other foot on the heel. And again, shifting the weight to the side, on the heel. So your weight through the hips, there's no weight on the heel, and it's initiating from the hips. So it's like you're pushing the hips and it just swings to the other side. 

Now we're going to retreat, we're not advancing as the snake, we are retreating. So when we move, here, we drive that like as if that's the tail of the snake, drag it back, then you shift and you drag shift.

It's a bit like the movement of those desert snakes know how they move from side to side, rather than straight through. So here's this beautiful truth about the nature of reality already here. You know, it's not linear. So what looks like advancing, maybe experienced as a retreating.

And again, so once you get that momentum in the hips, you can really use that weight in the hips to move. Have fun with it. Remember, we're not going to label this retreating. Okay, so let's now put some head movement in it. The head is going to make this outcome a bit closer to show you the head. It's making this movement like an infinity sign. You know those infinity signs. So it's the movement is so the head so obviously the eyes follow.

Breathing without tensing the neck. Easy, easy breathing again, There's a momentum here, you don't have to shape that whole movement.

In fact, if you go up to here, the head it will drop off its own accord. And draw in a little in a way, it's a bit like your hips are doing. So now we add the head to the hips. So here we go. And please, your mind is not going to be able to grab hold of this and fix it and master it, where it might feel messy, confusing. That's okay. That's all right. Yes. So here we go. Let's do that again. So you see, I'm not perfect, either. We cannot be perfect in these practices. It's just about meeting that movement, holding all those movements. And that's how we move out of this perfection which is also that limiting paradigm of the mind. So we move out of all that we just expand what's beyond perfection. Okay, what's deeper than perfection. So here we are.

Let's meet it and have fun with it. The hips,the head,retreating.

We're not done yet. We have some hands as well happening. So now the hands and I'll come close. It's like a little cupping movement with your ring finger up. Now if that's too difficult. Even this is okay. You know, you can just hold it like this, or this way. And what we do now is it's like we're just throwing up things. Throwing up things, very light, not effortful. Not at all effortful. It's like just throwing up things. So let's add all of these together. And if the mind is going, screaming and saying what on earth is happening, it's okay. We just want to drop beyond the mind. So, here we go.

Retreating, without resistance, drop the resistance. Just let it be what it is.

Shake it up. Let's do that. So I invite you to come with me. Do it with me a couple more times. So here we are.

Free it. Just have fun with it. We don't need to get it right. And one last time. Check it out.

And bringing that to a close. Come back to that pot that grounded position we started with and rest for a few seconds. Just close your eyes. Drop your complete attention, awareness Consciousness into the lower body.

Moving the hips, weight mostly in the heels. 

Just sensing, breathing.

And when you're ready, gently bringing that to a close at step, stepping out, just gently shaking out, releasing your arms and legs. So I hope that you enjoyed this practice, I hope that you were able to feel something that deeper, expansive, mysterious Consciousness or state of being, I say mysterious, because the mind doesn't know how to label it, what to call it. And that is that essential mystery of reality or of that Consciousness, which we don't need to solve or need to label but we just need to be in that sensation, be part of it, and be one with it and match it and not resist that sensation. So this is a beautiful practice, as I said to do in times when you're really feeling disconnected as a human being. I know that in these times I have heard people say the women that I work with, expressed to me that how they feel that this deep disconnection and this is a beautiful practice where this invitation to be at one with another life form, without any judgement about superiority about how much better human beings are, but just being one with humility, and with pleasure, and curiosity and an openness.