An Inside Job

Feeling Fierce.

A rabble.

A rant.

Recently, I wrote on the way desire has been distorted. Today I write about power. The phrase that has turned up in recent classes is Power, Heart and Vision. Heart and vision seem to be socially acceptable, but not power. Especially with women. My heart always sinks when women wont hold the sword and develop a relationship with power. When the power that is our source is denied we deny the whole foundation of who we are as women. I especially want to pull out my hair when the power is diluted with conceptual language.

I see so much Goddess reference these days. Be a Goddess in your business, be a Goddess in the bedroom, be a Goddess by using this product, be a Goddess by eating this, be a Goddess by taking a spa day. What the HECK?! Has anyone taken the discipline and developed the fortitude to find out who She is? I see advertisement after advertisement that says if you are successful in all the above ( business, bedroom, food, relaxation) then you will be a Goddess. In my opinion, this does not mean you are a Goddess. You are, perhaps, a functional human being.  Her title has been co-opted as another frozen perfection for women to have to fit into. Another veneer. Case in point, just saw a book titled, "Goddess on the go, a Guide to Being Irresistible." Now don't get me wrong. I have not said there is anything wrong with the aforementioned.  Having it all can be an immense satisfaction. Being lucrative can certainly able one to serve their community with more ease. A passionate relationship can certainly be a vehicle for Divine love. But the hard truth is that an intimate exploration and relationship with Goddess does not guarantee these things. Most likely She will "play" with all that is fixed in ones life and at one time or another all these things will go. If the "goddess identity" has been so wrapped up in these veneers, then where does the Goddess go? Again we are regulating her to an external identity. Relegating ourselves to external identifications that "prove" we are Goddess. I say that these things are hidden disguises of the "good enough" button for women. "If I am just good enough then I will have all the love, worship and admiration I desire."

We even have to be "bad" in the right way.

In Tantric tradition, Shakti is power. As in "IS". Nothing can happen without Her. Nothing. For those that ask, "Well, what about the heart?" Yes, yes, to the heart! But what makes the heart beat? Power. Energy. Electricity. All the different aspects we see of Ma, all the different Goddesses, are different movements of the same power. And until we understand how this power moves within us and how consciousness flows from this power we are denying the primordial building blocks of who we are as women, the physical emanations of Shakti. A practitioner explores this power deeply and their own relationship to power. Everything has power. Plants have their shakti, emotions have their shakti, even our own physical organs have this shakti. There is even power in our higher perceptions- Drishti Shakti.

If we do not develop a relationship with power then we do not come into relationship with all that is. The web of life. All that is. Many of us subscribe to these belief systems. We hold them as wonderful ideals. But how does it become a real experience? Power is that which animates everything. Shakti/power is the power which links all things together. When energy flows, this is power, and this is Shakti. We cannot think this into being. I see many women sidestepping this power through the vehicle of "good enough" and "being good." By not wanting to create waves, by grasping at external identifications, and believing that a woman's return to power is just patriarchy in reverse. Not so. When we stop referencing patriarchy we will understand that women wielding power is not even in the same paradigm as patriarchy. Women wielding power from the developed nuances and awakening of Shakti is a power for victory over that which represses. A liberation for all. Not the patriarchal paradigm of collecting power to repress and control. Developing an intimate, unafraid, exploration of how power and consciousness moves within us takes us back to the original definition of power and energy. The flow of power between things. The inclusiveness of power.

Empowered.

This empowerment does not source from a perfection of functioning in society. Not from empty product and promises. It sources from a deep surrender, deep devotion, and "tasting" in all ways the subtleties of consciousness as it moves within us and feeling the nuances of her AWAKENING.

Its an inside job.

 

Comments

[Jennifer]

Wow - this is so true and the defintion of Goddess has been played out by the media and exploited in the wrong way. The only way a woman can know herself is to explore the inner depths of her pain, sorrow, attachments and desires which can only lead to her own liberation and empowerment. Free from the external ideals of a false identity of "The Goddess" Thanks Nita - great for bringing this to the forefront!! Blessed be!

[Ava Park]

Thank you, Teacher Nita, for your wisdom. --Ava, Presiding Priestess, The GODDESS TEMPLE of Orange County

[Larise Kia]

Thank you Nita, my beloved teacher for placing your eloquent and deep revealing words that has and continues to illuminate the meaning of the Goddess.