Healing the Mother in Me

At our Here Now Workshop a full moon ago, the participants requested a Mother's Day session. So today we met at darling Cathy's beautiful place in Kommetjie to Heal the Mother that's in us all. 

Thank you for this lovely pic Susana Esteban

There were so many gifts given so freely by this generous circle, including astrologer Ilona's insightful Moon write ups for each individual, offering so much wisdom and understanding into our mothering. Thank you! Penny provided everyone with the pure Young Living Essential Oils. Anna brought each of us a protea and dear Hella offered some guidance from her deep knowledge of Alexander technique. And absolutely everyone showed up whole heartedly which is a beautiful thing indeed.

So many gifts

We warmed up under the beautiful heavens to Om Shakti -- enjoy our playlist. 

We vocalised, tapped, shook, and nurtured our Inner Smile. 

"Deep down within each of us here is a child who is joyful to simply be alive. A child who is excited for everything that life has to offer. A child who wants to simply “play” through life. Embrace that inner child. Be present. Express yourself. Let yourself play."

~ Jennifer Wardowski

 

Breathing in

I invite the Mother in me to breathe with me 

 

Breathing out

I surrender to the Divine Mother 

 

"The all-pervading energy source of existence or Shakti manifests itself as creation. Shakti is the divine mother who gives birth to and nurtures the newborn - whether it is a newborn baby, a brand new relationship, a fresh idea, or a magical manifestation. Although Shakti is beyond the boundaries of gender, form or color, we call It Mother because of its mothering and creative qualities."

    ~ Deepak Chopra

 

We discussed what we were not doing during the session -- reopening the often very deep Mother Wound, or retraumatizing the Inner Child. Instead we dedicated our sādhanā, or spiritual practice, to celebrating the Divine Mother. This does not mean we were spiritually bypassing the necessary Work, rather we were compassionately supporting that ongoing process of acknowledging and healing all that lives in the shadows.

 

Using Goddess Cards and personal photographs of our Mothers, Grandmothers and Children, we embraced free writing, or as I like to think of it, writing as a meditation. 

Allowing words to be made manifest through us. Thereby arriving at an intention, or Sankalpa. 

 

 

“How dare you talk of helping the World? God alone can do that. First you must be made free from all sense of Self; then the Divine Mother will give you a task to do.”

— Ramakrishna

 

“The ripples of spiritual practice and prayer touch and influence EVERYTHING and EVERYONE: human hearts and ocean creatures; the stars and the trees; generations behind us and generations to come. We are all creating and being created by each other.”

~ Chameli Ardagha

 

Mantra practice is a deep science of frequency and sound vibrations. Mantras are Sacred words that hold powerful vibrations that positively influence our energy system, our brain waves, our environment and even our DNA.

 

“You are chanting mantras to clear duality from your consciousness. It broadens your scope of understanding and wisdom. Wisdom emerges when your mind isn’t full of projection, biases, judgment, insecurities, and unnecessary fear that we tend to get bunched up in. Mantra loosens all of it. You don’t have to have a good feeling when you are chanting; the mantra is doing very deep work in your body, in your psyche.” ~ Shanti Mayi

 

“One thing that became clear to me is that images of a divine mother are surprisingly important in the psychological wholeness of women, especially in the process of women taking up residence in their own authority.”

— Sue Monk Kidd

 

Parāśakti is that energy that connects us all. She is the greatest and most pure form of śakti and thus contains all other forms of śakti. Accessing parāśakti is accessing highly concentrated and harmonious (sattvic) energy to guide you through your karmic patterns (samskaras).  She’s like going directly to the sun for inspiration, for heat to burn through your samskaras, and for light to see clearly.

 

"In creating this universe God revealed two aspects: the masculine or fatherly, and the feminine or motherly. If you close your eyes and visualize vast, illimitable space, you become overwhelmed and enthralled — you feel naught but pure wisdom. That hidden, infinite sphere wherein there is no creation, no stars or planets — only pure wisdom — is the Father. And Nature with her diamond-dazzling stars, the Milky Way, the flowers, birds, clouds, mountains, sky — the countless beauties of creation — is the Divine Mother. In Nature you behold the mother aspect of God, full of beauty, gentleness, tenderness, and kindness. The beauty in the world bespeaks the creative motherly instinct of God, and when we look upon all the good in Nature, we experience a feeling of tenderness within us — we can see and feel God as Mother in Nature." ~ Paramahansa Yogananda

 

Harvey reminding us to just BE

 

Om and Aum

Om is the prime mantra of the Cosmic Being, the Atman or higher Self. As such, it attunes us with our true nature and higher reality.

 

"To reach your heart, as every indigenous tribe I know has told me, you must first remember your Divine Mother... Your Mother is alive and very much conscious... Earth is not a rock, she has a name and a personality in the cosmos. And believe me, she knows your name."

~ Drunvalo Melchizedek

 

Generally, Om is divided threefold as A, U and M, with A referring to creation, the waking state and Brahma, the creator; U as sustenance, the dream state and Vishnu the preserver; and M as dissolution, the deep sleep state and Shiva the transformer. Om relates to Shiva, the cosmic masculine force.

 

Chant OM SHAKTI OM 108 x

 

 

Yoga nidra relaxation & visualization – 

For Inner Child Visualizations: https://defoore.com/pdf/icscript.pdf

 

"There are two kinds of seekers: those who are like the baby monkey and those who are like the kitten. The baby monkey clings to the mother; but when she jumps, it may fall off. The little kitten is carried about by the mother cat, content wherever she places it. The kitten has complete trust in its mother. I am more like that; I give all responsibility to the Divine Mother. But to maintain that attitude takes great will. Under all circumstances — health or sickness, riches or poverty, sunshine or gray clouds — your feeling must remain unruffled. Even when you are in the coal bin of suffering you don’t wonder why the Mother placed you there. You have faith that She knows best. Sometimes an apparent disaster turns into a blessing for you….

Gloom is but the shade of Divine Mother’s hand outstretched caressingly. Don’t forget that. Sometimes, when the Mother is going to caress you, a shadow is caused by Her hand before it touches you. So when trouble comes, don’t think that She is punishing you; Her hand overshadowing you holds some blessing as it reaches out to bring you nearer to Her."

~Paramahansa Yogananda

 

 

"The Sea calm is the Absolute; the same sea in waves is Divine Mother."

~Swami Vivekananda

 

I spent the afternoon with my children and on our beautiful Noordhoek beach practicing Qi Gong and giving thanks for my good fortune to be able to meet in a kind circle for mutual support and deep deep healing.

 

“We have to get to the self beyond its physical and mental instrumentalities to realize we are not fragile mortal beings; there is an unbroken link between ourselves and the beloved Mother of the Universe, the Divine Consciousness flowing through and permeating infinity.”

— Daya Mata

 

Me & my mom, my paternal & maternal grandmothers & All the Lives

 

“Always remember, wherever you are, whether near or far, you had a mother who really, really loved you. The original mother. Once you've found your true inner guru you can never again be divided. Perfect union with the divine, through the grace of your real teacher, transcends time, space, death and all worldly limitations. Your real teacher is the original mother - regardless in which manifest or non-manifest form, or gender, she appears. The one who nurtures you and the one who also, out of wisdom and compassion, corrects you if you are misguided.”

— Zeena Schreck

 

 

Please come and join me on Retreat in the Cederberg in the most extraordinarily healing space 21-23 May 2021.