Sing to the Mystery

Hi, I'm so glad you're here. I thought we could practice a little bit with one of our feminine archetypes, Lalita Tripura Sundari, and the practice that we'll do will come in several parts. First, we'll talk a little bit. Then we'll settle into a seat and we'll make some sounds. We'll sit a little bit more and I will give you, my darling, my sweetheart, some homework. Sound good? So, what about this archetype, this charming beauty of three worlds, if we were to translate her name literally. What about her is relevant to our practice? Well, for me, this archetype, this goddess, this Mahavidya, one of the wisdom goddesses, the essence is to make love to the mystery, to make love and to experience what is actually happening. The sun, the wind, the ocean, the earth beneath you, and to let your experience as you're walking through the world be a sensual experience, be a spiritual experience. And I think it's useful to note that even though this is a feminine archetype, this is work that anyone can do, whether you identify as a man or a woman or in between. And what we're working with is this essence, this nectar. This is the energy of a waxing moon rising toward fall. This is powerful. This is counter-cultural when you think about it. When you're having a sensual experience with what is, there is nothing to buy. There is nothing else to grasp for. So, there are people and there are things and there are forces out there who will try to keep this from you, but you in your yogic wisdom know better. So, that's sort of the idea. It's sort of the essence behind this work and what has drawn me in particular to this archetype, this goddess. So, what we'll do is we'll settle into a seat and then we'll sing. And if you've tuned in at all to season one of Practical Magic, you might remember that we did a whole video about what we're really doing when we work with mantra. And what I'd like to encourage you to do is to be really experimental and let this be like a full body experience of the mantra, of the sound. Nowhere is there a requirement for you to do anything perfectly or any way at all. You'll notice when I start playing this jam that there's a lot of dissonance, there's a lot of discord already happening. So, if you happen to be, you know, tone deaf or something like that, there's lots of room for you to like really get in there and needle around. So, there's that. We'll settle into a seat and we'll start making the sounds. And the sounds that we'll make are really seeds of sounds, bija mantras. And the work that we'll do is centered around the words sa, ka, la, cream. Super simple, right? Sa is this seed associated with creation, with rajas, with starting, with moving. Ka is the seed for time. La is the seed for bliss. And cream is the seed for transformation. Now, the tune that I will be playing lends itself to also tossing in some lyrics from Crazy in Love by Beyonce, which you might do as well. You don't have to. If something else strikes you, then do that. That's sort of like, you know, a second subset of this making love to the mystery is Crazy in Love. So settle into a shape that makes sense for breathing and for making sound. It could be lying on the floor. It could be in legs up the wall. It could be sitting in any configuration. And let your body be received by your lover, the earth. Feel that connection. Let the sacrum get a little more watery. And then relax into this natural elegance that is the length of your own spine. Notice the softness of your own skin. And how the sky, the air and space is right there to caress it. Begin to notice the miracle that is your breath. And I'll start to play the harmonium, our companion. And as you make this connection with breath, body, earth, and sky, begin whenever you're ready to sing, sa, ka, la, cream, Crazy in Love.