Shivratri, Valentine's Day Newsletter
February 13, 2006

by Curtis Lang		print version
		print version (graphics)

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the February 13, 2006 edition of the Satya Center  newsletter. Warm greetings from your Editor, Curtis Lang.

Today is the last day of the three-day Aquarius Solar Festival, celebrated at the time of the Full Moon in Leo. Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day, and the Hindu Feast of Shivratri, on February 25, is fast approaching.

Today’s newsletter provides a spiritual perspective on current events, astrological influences and seasonal festivals that are shaping the world we inhabit. Another newsletter, dealing with the latest news from around the world, will be published later this week.

Valentine’s Day

Tomorrow is St. Valentine’s Day, a celebration of romantic and courtly love in the West for hundreds of years, and a time for soulmates to ponder their great good fortune in sharing an earthly journey that accelerates their spiritual evolution and provides them with countless opportunities to open their hearts and become One with a Love Divine.

For those who wish to explore the ancient Roman and medieval origins of this Love Festival and to connect with traditional Valentine’s Day rituals please see our story on the St. Valentine’s Day Festival from 2005. (http://www.satyacenter.com/valentine-2005-newsletter)

If you are interested in finding your soulmate, learning to live compatibly with your soulmate, or in learning to achieve loving Union with the Divine as an individual, you might enjoy learning more about the Spiritual Laws of Love on this St. Valentine’s Day.

Jane and I are writing a free online e-book, Back to the Garden: Cultivating Love in Our Lives (http://www.satyacenter.com/relationships),and the first several profusely illustrated chapters are online now.

In our book, you will read the true story of the Garden of Eden, explore the true nature of the original sin of egoism, and discover how to surrender to the Higher Self. Find out about the root cause of the war between the sexes and how it is fueled by karma, egotism, and the tragic nature of romantic love. Discover strategies for building love partnerships that last, based upon equality and unconditional love. Learn about the pathway back to the Garden of Eden and uncover the hidden mythology of sexual balance and sexual partnership that provides the spiritual foundation for the dawning Age of Aquarius. It’s a Valentine’s Day treat for lovers everywhere.

Shivratri

In Hinduism, February is the month for celebrating Divine Love manifested in the creative energies of male and female union, represented by the Divine Soulmates, Shiva and Shakti.

Saturday, February 25 is the Hindu Feast of “Shivratri”, which means, “The Night of Shiva”. Shiva is the third person in the Hindu Trinity of Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva.

Brahman is the name for the transcendent Divine principle, the ultimate, unchanging reality, composed of pure being and consciousness. Brahman lies behind the apparent multiplicity of the phenomenal world, and is ultimately identical to the “atman” or inner essence of the human being.

Vishnu is known as the Preserver and is identified with his many Avatars, who incarnate as human beings over many lifetimes, to protect humanity from its own folly and to provide help and guidance in furtherance of humanity’s spiritual evolution. These Avatars include Krishna, Ram, Buddha and others.

Shiva is known as the Destroyer, and he is the Deity who is responsible for the destruction and creation of the Universe.As the primordial Deity, he is responsible for creating the other members of the Hindu Trinity by his thoughts during meditation. He is also the patron Deity of Yoga, and as such he destroys the illusions of the mind, purifies the heart of all negative emotions and grants Enlightenment to his devotees.

When Shiva was born from the Void, he immediately appeared as twin manifestations, both male and female. Shiva is and always has been inseparable from his Cosmic Consort, known as Parvati, Devi or Shakti. Shiva represents form, Shakti represents energy. Shiva represents consciousness, Shakti represents bliss.

The Cosmic Marriage of Shiva and Shakti sustains Universal creation. For the yogi, the cosmic marriage is the Union of the mind with the Higher Self, the moment when the Shakti energy known as kundalini rises from the base of the spine and enters the head, conferring enlightenment.

Shiva and Shakti are the First Soulmates, and their Eternal Dance of Joy is the ecstatic playfulness that continuously propels creative evolution in all its manifestations in all the worlds.

On Shivratri, devotees of Lord Shiva, the Lord of Yoga, Sexuality and Transcendence, stay up all night, deep in meditation and prayer. They make offerings at their home altars, and ask the Lord of Creative Destruction to fulfill their heart’s desire. Although fearsome to the uninitiated, Lord Shiva is known to his devotees as a kind and generous deity, open-handed with those who acknowledge him and ever-ready to bestow great boons upon all those who approach him with an open heart.

In the Puranas, a collection of Hindu sacred texts, Shiva tells the Divine Mother, his wife Parvati, that Shivratri is particularly dear to him, and that those who perform the prescribed austerities on this day will be freed from all sins.

“The 14th night of the new moon, in the dark fortnight during the month of Phalgun, is my most favourite day,” Shiva told his wife Parvati. “It is known as Shivratri. My devotees give me greater happiness by mere fasting than by ceremonial baths and offerings of flowers, sweets and incense.

The quintessential story about Shiva’s gracious nature is told on Shivratri. There was once a poor hunter named Suswara who lived in Varanasi. Situated on the crescent shaped left bank of the holy Ganga, Varanasi is one of the ancient seats of learning in India. Varanasi is a great religious center for Hindus and one of their most sacred places of pilgrimage, being visited by millions of people every year. At a distance of 12 km from Varanasi lies Sarnath, where Lord Buddha preached his first sermon. Here he revealed the eight fold path that leads to the attainment of inner peace, Enlightment and Ultimate Nirvana.

Suswara, however, was no Brahmin citydweller; he lived a simple life with his wife and children in a small hut. Suswara was no vegetarian, and therefore certainly no yogi, for yogis are vegetarians. Suswara fed his family by hunting small game in the forest surrounding his home.

Hunting small game means you have very little to put by for times when hunting is bad; it’s a hand to mouth existence. One day, when Suswara had some success hunting, his bag was growing full of small birds and animals. Wanting to extend his successful day, he wandered deeper into the forest, until darkness found him many miles from home. Suswara decided to climb a tall tree, in order to hide from predators during the long and dangerous night.

Attracted by his scent, some carnivorous beasts surrounded his tree. Suswara threw twigs down at them to discourage them, but they remained close by. Suswara was understandably nervous throughout the night, and couldn’t sleep a wink. He continued to toss leaves and twigs down from his perch in the tree, hoping to discourage the beasts below. Meanwhile, he cried from time to time as he thought of his family with great love and devotion and hoped to be reunited with them.

Unknown to Suswara, he was fulfilling the requirements for an exacting form of Shiva puja (or offering) on the sacred night of Shivratri. The tree Suswara was camping out in was a Bilva (or bael) tree, sacred to Shiva. The tripartite leaves of the Bilva tree and the fruit of the tree are part of well-known cures used in Ayurvedic medicine.

Suswara was unknowingly tossing these sacred leaves, dear to Shiva, down on a Shivalingam, or sacred oval stone, which lay at the base of this sacred tree – all night long. Suswara had been watering the Shivalingam with his tears.

Thus Suswara was unconsciously performing the ceremony of Shivratri,making offerings to Shiva all night long. Shiva appeared to Suswara at dawn.

The story is an allegory of the search for enlightenment. The hunter represents the devotee searching for enlightenment. The forest represents the jungle of the egoistical personality, containing the mind, with its conscious and unconscious desires, which can lead a man to act like a wild beast in pursuit of transitory pleasures, and the jungle is also the home of the untamed emotions, lust, envy, greed, jealously, anger and pride, which can consume a man’s heart and soul like wild beasts. These wild beasts living within the human being must be subdued by transcending the egoistical personality. In the allegory, Suswara performed this difficult feat by climbing the sacred tree. There is yet a deeper esoteric meaning to this story.

According to Sri Swami Sivananda, “The tree represents the spinal column. The leaves of the tree are threefold. They represent the Ida, Pingala and Sushumna Nadis, which are the regions for the activity of the moon, the sun and fire respectively, or which may be thought of as the three eyes of Shiva. The climbing of the tree is meant to represent the ascension of the Kundalini Shakti, the serpentine power, from the lowest nerve centre called the Muladhara (the base of the spine) to the Ajna Chakra (the third eye). That is the work of the Yogi.”

The spinal column is identified with Shiva in yogic texts, and the kundalini energy which rises up the spinal column during the process of yogic enlightenment is identified with Shiva’s wife, Parvati, also known as Shakti, or Devi.At dawn, Suswara achieved enlightenment as a result of his performance of the nightlong Shivratri puja, although he had no conscious awareness of what he was doing. Similarly, spiritual aspirants must workdiligently throughout their lives, responding to the necessities of live, and through the grace of the Divine, they may achieve enlightenment, despite their ignorance of Divine Wisdom.

Sri Swami Sivananda says that Suswara’s “wife and children are none other than the world. One who seeks the Grace of God must become an embodiment of love. He must have an all-embracing sympathy. His shedding of tears is symbolical of his universal love. In Yoga also, one cannot have illumination without Divine Grace. Without practicing universal love, one cannot win that Grace.”

Suswara went home the next day, and when he arrived he sold the animals he had killed and obtained food more suitable for a yogi, with which to feed his family. In doing this, he accrued more spiritual benefits for himself and his family. Before he could sit down to eat, a stranger passing by asked for something to eat. He fed the stranger, even before feeding himself and his family, and achieved yet more spiritual benefits by this act of generosity.

When Suswara died, he went immediately to the abode of Shiva, and enjoyed divine bliss for long ages. Then, thanks to the grace of Lord Shiva and because of the spiritual benefits he had obtained through his Shivratri puja and his generosity, he was reborn as King Chitrabhanu of the Ikshvaku dynasty, who ruled over the whole of Jambudvipa.

Those who wish to participate in a Shivratri ritual, should remember that Lord Shiva finds the offering of an open heart in meditation more valuable than any ceremonial offerings of precious liquids, herbs, gemstones or gold.

There is a simple Shivratri meditation that anyone can do. Simply sit and calm the mind. If you like, light a candle to symbolize the fire of the Holy Spirit, Mother Kundalini. You may also light some incense as an offering to the Divine, and to create an energetic pathway to Higher Worlds so your meditation will be heard.

Breathe in deeply from the diaphragm to the count of five. Breathe out deeply to a count of seven. Continue doing this several times, until you can simply breathe deeply in and out without counting.

Recite the mantra, “Aum Namah Shivayah”, pronounced “OM, Nah-mah, Shee-VY-Yah”. Chant, “OM, Nah-mah, Shee-vy-yah, OM, Nah-mah, Shee-Vy-yah, OM, Nah-mah, Shee-VY-YAH, OM, Nah-mah, Shee-vy, OM, Nah-mah, Shee-vy, OM, Nah-mah, Shee-vy”. Then start over.

Aum Namah Shivayah means, “Adoration of Shiva”, and is also translated as “I honor the Divine within”. Om (Aum) means universal truth and knowledge. In saying Om, everything is encompassed independent of time. Om is the essence of all that is sacred. Nama means to bow or honor and Shivaya refers to Shiva. Shiva means purity and as we chant his name we are purified.

The sound of this mantra is said to emulate the sound of Spirit rushing down from the Higher Self into the mind. Chanting the mantra creates a channel so Spirit can flow into you from the Source of all creation. You can float upstream on the stream of sound created by chanting this mantra, and eventually you will wind up at the Source itself.

If you would like to learn more about meditation, please visit our Meditation Resources Homepage (http://www.satyacenter.com/health/meditation). If you would like to learn more about yoga and yogic wisdom school teachings, or if you would like to discover more about the spiritual path of yoga, about yoga teachers or yoga schools, please visit our Yoga Resources Homepage (http://www.satyacenter.com/health/yoga).

May each of you receive the Grace and Guidance you require to achieve your highest spiritual goals, just as Suswara did on Shivatri thousands of years ago!

Top Satya Center Stories

In “Aquarius Solar Festival 2006” (http://www.satyacenter.com/aquarius-full-moon-2006), Esoteric Astrologer Malvin Artley discusses the true nature of Aquarius, known to spiritual students in the West as the World Server. Malvin describes the zodiacal influences prominent in 2006 that will influence each one of us in our efforts to follow the path of Spirit, and to be of service to others in our lives.

Malvin also explains that for those who wish to be of service to others, and for Aquarians in particular, it is of paramount importance to cultivate present moment awareness.

“’Service’ itself, as a concept, is an urge to better conditions,” Malvin explains. “It impels us to seek to make life better in some way for people. The thing that tends to get in the way of true service, though, is that people often think of service as having to do something, wherein often the best possible service one can render is often simply just to be there for someone — to be one’s self in any given situation.”

“What we do not realize is that it is the higher Self that actually does the serving, not the persona. The persona serves by doing. The Soul serves through enlightening. But the true service comes from the Highest — the higher Self — and that is through Being. So, what is the highest possible service we can render? It is simply to be. All we have to do as people to serve effectively is to keep ourselves aligned with the highest aspect of ourselves we can imagine at all times and all else comes clear, all action is decided in an instant — ‘in the moment’ — and all else falls into place.”

This week, Shamanic Healer and Personal Life Coach Kimberly Errigo offers us instructions on how to conduct “Four Ceremonies” (http://www.satyacenter.com/four-ceremonies) for personal healing. “During the healing process, there is a time and place to rely on practitioners and a time and place to rely on ourselves. Both are part of the sacred hoop. These four ceremonies are meant to be created by each individual,” Kimberly says. “They will heal old wounds, replacing the resulting weakness with light and power.”

Flower Essence practitioner Steven Horne shares his personal journey as a healer and his experiences using herbs, flowers and flower essences for healing in a beautiful article (http://www.satyacenter.com/practitioner-steven-horne) that includes some interesting case studies and some very specific information about resources and individuals that helped propel Steven toward his goals as a healer.

Steven has studied the inter-relationship between the “Emotional Anatomy” delineated in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life and the action of herbs and flower essences for the last nineteen years. All of us who are interested in herbal healing and flower essences might benefit from Steven’s expertise and his recommendations.

For example: “My hairdresser friend and I had another friend who was such an empath that she would get physically ill when someone in her family was sick,” Steven recounts. “She’d wake up in the morning with a slight sore throat and call around to see which of her brothers or sisters had a sore throat that morning. She could ‘tune in’ to other peoples emotions and energies very easily, but had no way to tune them out.”

“I made a blend using Yarrow and Pink Yarrow flower essences and gave it to her. The problems stopped in a couple of days and never returned.”

New Satya Center Contributor and Healer Theolyn Cortens has penned a winter poem that encapsulizes the current fear, loathing, hope and determined compassion felt by all Lightworkers concerning the Iraq war. It is entitled “Angels Over Babylon”. (http://www.satyacenter.com/theolyn-cortens-angels-babylon)

It gave me chills. We will be presenting more of Theolyn’s work as a poet and healer in the very near future.

New at the Satya Center Store

Lightworkers and crystal lovers -- take a look at our new Amethyst Druzy Hearts! (http://www.satyacenter.com/store/crystal/amethyst_crystals)

The term "Druzy" refers to the small crystals that are usually formed on the inside of geodes. These large heart-shaped pieces are composed of geodes that have been precision cut to form unique gemstone creations that will enhance the energy surrounding your altar, in your living room or at your office. They are also great conversation pieces.

These gorgeous Brazilian amethyst druzy hearts have scores of good sized raised amethyst points rising up out of a natural quartz matrix. They exhibit a vibrant color palette ranging from “deep purple” to “ethereal violet” with pale & dark facets, all reflecting and refracting light.

Also, please check out our new polished and unpolished Lemurian seed crystals. (http://www.satyacenter.com/store/crystal/Lemurian_crystals) Lemurian seed crystals were first collected at a mountain top mine in Brazil and were immediately recognized as a unique new type of healing stone. The mine in Brazil providing these powerful crystals is almost played out, according to our wholesale sources. These increasingly rare Lemurian stones often have a matte finish, and many have a pink to reddish glow when in the natural, unpolished state. We have been scouring the country for sources for new Lemurians, and we are pleased to offer you some truly amazing pieces.

We are proud to offer for sale a 44.65 oz. magical "keystone" Lemurian seed crystal (http://www.satyacenter.com/store/crystal/Lemurian_crystals/286) that is truly a one-of-a-kind collector’s item. Because this piece has a very rare "crystal within a crystal" penetrating it like a key in a doorway, it is called a "key" or "keystone" crystal, and has unique metaphysical properties, which are enumerated on the crystal’s product page on our website. Energy workers and meditators alike will appreciate the power of this large crystal. After personal experience with many Lemurian seed crystals, I can tell you that this stone is ideal for use as an altarpiece and as a power-wand, especially for connecting with the Earth grid and transmitting energy over a distance to large areas or groups of people.

Top Stories from Around the Web

[Note: these stories are excerpted from published stories on the internet. They can be viewed in their entirety by clicking on the linked titles]

The New Yorker
Mary Magdalene: The Saintly Sinner
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060213fa_fact2

. . .Magdalene goes to the tomb in darkness, before dawn, and she goes alone. We feel her hurry, her sense of danger. To her astonishment, she finds the stone rolled away. She runs back to the disciples and tells them, “They have taken away the Lord out of the sepulchre, and we know not where they have laid him.” Peter and another disciple take over. They rush to the tomb; indeed, they race to see who can get there first. (This exemplary male competition became a favorite scene in medieval morality plays. In John’s Gospel, it adds a bright little note of comedy to the otherwise dark tale.) When they arrive, they see that the Magdalene was right: the body is gone. They go back home, presumably baffled, but the Magdalene stays behind, weeping. She looks again into the tomb, and now she sees two angels dressed in white. They ask her why she is crying, and she repeats her simple complaint: “They have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him.” Even with angels, she’s still looking for the body. But then she turns around and sees another figure, who says to her, “Why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou?” The tomb is in a garden, and the Magdalene thinks this man must be the gardener. A third time—it’s like a song—she repeats her complaint: “Sir, if thou have borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him.” Now comes the stab through the heart. “Mary,” the “gardener” says to her, and instantly she knows. “Rabboni” (roughly, “My dear rabbi”), she replies, and apparently she reaches out to him, because he says, “Touch me not.” (This is the Latin Bible’s famous phrase “Noli me tangere.”) “But,” he tells her, “go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father.” He then vanishes, and she is left by herself.

This scene is the New Testament’s most powerful statement about the confrontation with death, about losing forever the thing you love. The setting is beautiful: the green garden, the morning light, the angels. Then we hear the cruel words: “Don’t touch me.” He was there; he had called her name; she had reached out to embrace him. Now she must stand back, let him go, and make her way alone. The young Bible scholars should have all our support, and we should agree with them that the energetic, far-seeing Magdalene of the Gnostic texts is good evidence that the Church should ordain women. But that is not the evidence of the Magdalene’s authority on matters of the soul. John’s story is the evidence.

Religious Progressives, the Next Generation
Published on Sunday, February 5, 2006 by the Los Angeles Times
by Diane Winston
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0205-24.htm

With the passing of Coretta Scott King comes a hard question: What new vision will stir religious progressives?

The revolutionary potential of religious ideas was certainly evident in the civil rights movement. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision — that all people are equal in God's eyes — helped overturn segregation. One result was that people of color gained greater access to housing, education, jobs and elected office. That was just the beginning. Both Kings believed the faithful could transform the world.

Their movement stalled. But in the weeks between the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and Coretta King's death, I've seen a spike in simpatico activities.

Today’s Meditation: The Art of Peace

Zen (a Path to Wisdom) Daily Dharma

"When we are training in the art of peace, we are not given any
promises that, because of our noble intentions, everything will be
OK. In fact, there are no promises of fruition at all.

Instead, we are encouraged to simply look deeply at joy and sorrow, at laughing and crying, at hoping and fearing, at all that lives and dies.

We learn that what truly heals is gratitude and tenderness."

~Pema Chodron

From the book, "When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice For Difficult
Times," published by Shambhala.