Taurus Full Moon, 27 October 2015 (3 Taurus, 12:05 UTC).

Blessings! I’m going to keep this short and sweet as the Taurus Full Moon brings out the philosopher in me yearning to write a book on the various attempts at bridging the spiritual with the material. In a nutshell, that is the key theme of this Lunation: How do we, as Beings of Energy-with-Consciousness, relate to the experience of Physical, Material, Embodiment?

In less jargon-laden language, basically, this Full Moon asks us to understand what grounds us, how, and why. All of us look to certain material relationships, people, experiences, memories and sensations that permit us – at a deep level – to not only occupy physical space, but even to enjoy that process. It can be the memory of a nurturing mother, a lover that let you feel loved even when you felt very unloveable, the smell of a meal that makes you think of the grandmum who held you when you were little – or anything of that ilk.

If it’s not a memory, then perhaps it is the belief or aspiration to find something that will ground you, hold space for you, and allow you to simply experience this physical world – and Be.

Scorpio’s role in this configuration asks you to look at the roots of the anchor(er). It wants to the know the source of this strength and to question – whether it is an appropriate attachment – whether this energy is freely given – and how, if you want to, you can find the same strength within yourself without having to find your rootedness in another person, experience, or thing.

Scorpio doesn’t lay low on the tough questions. It’ll knock you straight in the face if you’re playing the denial game. Taurus has it’s own way of delivering a swift kick to the behind when absolutely required.

But where the question of who/what grounds you, and why? is answered in a way that resonates with your sense of integrity and,your capacity for joy, magic happens.

Taurus brings the soft vibrations of sensual joy, playfulness, and a relatively care-free approach to enjoying this material life. It doesn’t mean you have to be a glutton, or nymphomaniac. It simply means that you can take pleasure in the very, very, physical process of ‘being alive’. Even the act of breathing can turn into a very sensual, pleasurable process when you know how 🙂

Scorpio’s energy, on the other hand, leads to the waters of deep regeneration, alchemy and the inner reserves of power. It’s a lot more intense, but when balanced, can lead us to a Rebirth of the Self. This is not to say that all of our wounds magically disappear, it is to say that we may find ourselves re-cognizing the powerful, beautiful, authentic Being-in-Flesh-with-Emotion that we are. The role of a shaman, intimate and/or sexual partner is strongly highlighted here – if you’re working with another person through whatever process that comes up for you.

Looking to the asteroids – again – keeping a long story short, it seems to be a time in which we look back to the Shadow/Underworld and re-connect with allies we thought we had lost, and sources of nurture we thought we had forgotten.

It’s quite a profound energy to work with at this time, and I wish you all the very best in doing so. How this energy moves through/as you/with you depends entirely upon how you choose to let it.

Some of you will need to shed tears, others will seek out holy places (with Neptune Retrograde at 7 Pisces trining the Sun and sextiling the Moon). Some of you will turn to healers, others will face the inner self in isolation. Some of you will do one of these, all of these, or none at all. It’s really your path and your individual pattern of spiritual growth that will determine the road you choose to take at this time.

Bear in mind that we are all strongly influenced by the opposition between Jupiter-Venus-Mars at 15-17-20 Virgo and Chiron Retrograde at 17 Pisces. In more ways than one, it is truly a time for us to balance our spiritual lives with our material ones, hopefully seeing that one cannot exist without the other as long as we remain in human form.

Blessings to All ❤ 🙂

Bairavee Balasubramaniam

The Sky Priestess

PS – Kudos to my epic brother Ashoka Mohannan for teaching me stuff as part of our ongoing pilgrimage in Nepal. Today, we went to a very sacred place that had water from Himalayas running through as part of an underground stream. We also found a hidden pool of water devoted to the Goddess Parvati, tucked away behind an ancient shrine to Lord Pashupathinath (Shiva). This was a location that was revealed to me purely through spiritual means in February 2014 and is still relatively unknown to most Nepali people (there’s a signboard and all, but it’s not written about anywhere). It is a very sacred place to me and I am glad to have had my brother there at a key moment of re-birth for myself. ❤

1st Image: Lele Temple rearview by Ashoka Mohannan, 2015
2nd Image: Me and my Brother by Gautam, 2015. 
Post © Bairavee Balasubramaniam, 2015. All rights reserved.

THE PATH OF FORMLESSNESS: BEGINNING A NEW CHAPTER

Recently, someone asked me what I meant by ‘Formlessness’ – It’s come up a lot in my ongoing pilgrimage.

I understand the Path of Formlessness as something that detaches from a particular fixation upon form. It does not negate the fact that spirit can move and work through matter, but that it can and does constantly shift its form of expression. Spiritual energy, Divinity, our connection with some sense of Cosmic Consciousness does not have to be held down and exclusively confined to material objects, ideas and practices – be it a statue, temple, ritual, religion, ideology or spiritual world-view.

Formlessness in other words, honors the various material expressions of Divinity but does not see the need to confine itself to one in particular. One can find the sacred in a blade of grass, a lone puppy wandering without food on the street, the smile of a friend, the glorious statue of a Goddess, an ancient temple, your reflection in the mirror – and more (or nothing at All).

I would however draw the line at claiming that material forms are somehow … lesser or impure. They are channels of expression, the canvas through which we see the movement of spirit. – in the same way that you can see the movement of the wind across the lake by observing changes at the water’s surface, or the presence of force by the changes it can exert on objects.

And that is where – for me – The Dark Goddess comes in. She teaches me to honor Her, and all Things in All Forms, and to detach from my preconceptions of what an expression or experience of Divinity must look and feel like. And at the end of the day, I know that that construct too will one day give rise to a perspective that transcends even that.

As She takes me through the different levels of consciousness, she ensures that I arrive at – time and again – in the space of Compassionate Detachment. Where I find Her, so too do I find the Compassionate Masculine.

When someone asks me what my spiritual path is — this is the answer I give them – I am a Daughter, Priestess and Embodiment of the Dark Goddess, on the Path of Formlessness. (And at some point, even that answer will dissolve).

Now, some people find the idea that they-you-we-me-everyone ’embodies divinity’ as problematic. Part of that comes from the elevated status that we ritually ascribe to The Sacred. But by going on the Path that allows you to realize your inner Divinity, you often lose any interest in any kind of pomp, ceremony, title, validation or any kind of special treatment for realizing it. You might still need some ritual forms and understandings to express your sacred energy, but there is … a detachment to that expression.

In other words – We are all expressions of Divine Energy. And when one begins to realize that at a deeper level, any idea of ‘grandeur’, or superiority on account of that Divinity flies out the window.

This reminds me of a line from one of my favourite films (Baba, 2002) where a disillusioned seeker meets Mahavatar Babaji – a great spiritual presence who is said to remain eternally young in the Himalayas – and asks him –

Are you God?

Mahaavatar replies. I am God. You are God. All things are God. The only difference between you and I is that I have realized that, whilst you haven’t.

This is the lesson that my pilgrimage has been.. teaching me at a cellular level. I’ve been visiting my favourite temples, and finding myself disillusioned with the physical trappings.. It’s a good kind of disillusionment. I’m still going to keep going with the pilgrimage, but it feels that the purpose has shifted.

Believe me when I say I’ve felt this overwhelming urge to simply give up all of that (the title, the path, the constructions, the explanations, the words) and sit somewhere and just be. I still have certain responsibilities and duties that I chose to fulfill, though I await the time where that complete surrender can happen.

It’s one thing to read about how we are all Divine and understand the philosophy behind it – and I assure you, it’s a very different thing when you begin to feel that in every fiber of your being. In some sense you crave disembodiment, what the ancients called ‘Jeeva Samadhi’, where the Soul returns back to the Elements and is at One. It remains alive in some form, but without the physical body to house that consciousness.

It’s a very different idea than dying, suicide, or anything of that sort. Attaining that state requires great discipline, unconditional love and absolute surrender – Of Everything. Even the Ego that would like to believe that you’re doing that already.

Being in the land of my ancestors, Tamil Nadu, I find myself less and less fixated upon defining myself in terms of any identity. Be it a national, ethnic, religious, spiritual, gendered, or in fact – any identity.

The interesting thing is that it doesn’t feel like I’m having an identity crisis, but am stripping away the various attachments I had to certain ideas, and a more … eternal sense of Self is beginning to show itself.

As the Soul begins to remember its origins, such definitions generally dissolve. For we have all cycled through various lifetimes of being men, women, different genders, of living in various cultures, of learning so much that it seems pointless to have a definition of the Self confined to the present lifetime.

At least that is where my journey is taking me. I expected to learn and feel something completely different on this trip, but I’m glad I’m being guided in the way that I am.

At some point, the external search simply comes to a halt.

Gattam Gattam; Mudinjithu Mudinjipotchi (What is done, is done – In Sanskrit and Tamil)

And one finds, that at the end of the day, you and your Beloved, you and your sense of Divinity have always been One and the Same.

And the next chapter begins.

Blessings to All,

Priestess Bairavee Balasubramaniam PhD
bairaveebalasubramaniam.com

I will be speaking more about my experiences on this pilgrimage at 4 pm Tuesday (Central US/Chicago Time) on The Dark Mother’s Children. Tune in if you’d like to find out more – www.wgtrlive.com

Image: Bairavee with Bhairavi at Thanjavur Art Musuem (13/4) & Text and Linked Content © Bairavee Balasubramaniam, 2015. All rights reserved.

THE ENERGY OF 21.12.12 AT GLASTONBURY TOR, SOMERSET (Part 1)

Blessings All. I was privileged to be at Glastonbury Tor, Somerset during the sunset of the Winter Solstice in 2012. Many of us in the spiritual world celebrated this date as the beginning of New Age, according to more commonly accepted calculations of the Mayan Calendar. There is a general agreement that we are certainly, if not already in,  at the brink of the Age of Aquarius.

Some believe Glastonbury to represent the Heart Chakra of the World, specifically the High Altar of Glastonbury Abbey. Many associate this land with Avalon and the energies of familiar archetypes such as Merlin, King Arthur, Queen Guinevere and so on. Other accounts link the energies of the Magdalene and the Knights Templar to this land – and many other ancient spiritual traditions. A land shrouded in mystery, magic … and oh so palpably powerful.

Glastonbury Tor is a hill which overlooks Somerset Levels, Dorset, Wiltshire and Wales. It is topped by a roofless Tower dedicated to St. Michael – a now iconic landmark. It’s not terribly high, it doesn’t have a very sharp slope or inclination (there’s a steeper path you can choose to take if you like) – though it can be daunting the first time you go. The Tor, along with Chalice Well (the Red Spring), the White Spring, Glastonbury Abbey are some of the more well-known landmarks of this profoundly spiritual and mystical land. There are other places of interest and a lot of deep magic in the countryside to be found – as well as a Glastonbury Goddess Temple which holds events of various kinds.

At the time of sunset, on 21.12.12 , I recall looking at the air around the Tor and the scenic views it afforded of the low-laying countryside around it. The air was alive, electric. So electric that you almost see flashes of yellow, pink, green energies dancing together and crackling! A local resident brought a drum and people began dancing rhythmically, powerfully during this intense energetic transition. I shall never forget one dancer: a beautiful middle-aged woman with wild, long, flowing gray hair. Before she began, she looked just like any other person. But as her body began to shake and quake with the rhythms of the drum, she transformed – in my eyes – into a mythical Goddess in a human body. She didn’t look real somehow, but there she was – dancing Divinity. As was that primal beat – I swear I heard that beat the day prior on the bus to Glastonbury, miles away from the Tor itself. But I knew it, it had called to me. And I’d listened.

(To Be Continued …)

Priestess Bairavee Balasubramaniam, PhD

http://www.bairaveebalasubramaniam.com

 

Image Sources and Factual Reference: http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/glastonbury-tor/