On Goddess Bhuvaneshwari and Her Loving, Spacious Embrace
“Your hand opens and closes and opens and closes. If it were always a fist or always stretched open, you would be paralyzed.
"Your deepest presence is in every small contracting and expanding, the two as beautifully balanced and coordinated as bird wings." ~ Rumi
Outside the birds are chirping and the buds are slowly but surely opening up to a new cycle, a new season. I smile as I feel the warmth of the sun on my face and the promise of warm evenings to come.
Two nights ago it was the new moon. The darkest and most potent time of the month. Full of possibility. We gathered in sacred circle and practiced with Bhuvaneshwari, she who holds the cosmos in her embrace. Bhuvaneshwari creates the universe out of her own body and hence is the void out of which all manifests. She is vast and spacious and has the capacity to simultaneously hold the entire spectrum of being woman; from the dark, painful contractions to the ecstatic, joyful expansions..with love and tender care. You can offer her your entire experience and she will hold and transform it in her cosmic womb.
Like the moon, Bhuvaneshwari is a mistress of change. She embodies the cycles of creation, fullness and dissolution. So as I sit and listen to the birds singing, I tap into my own cycles. I feel into the new moon and my own moon-time (menses time) and feel the void of potential. I feel into what is dying and plant the seeds for a new chapter, a new lunar cycle. Then I tune back out and feel the fertile springtime. Her sensual invitation to open up my body and heart, expand and dance. I call in the Goddess Bhuvaneshwari and offer her my entire experience. The contracted parts and the expansive ones. Close. Open. Close. Open. Like the heart in my chest, like wings of a bird. I relax into the deep knowing that I’m held by something great and vast. I’m held by the Goddess who can simultaneously hold two opposite experiences and reminds me that all of my experience is welcome. And for a few breaths, I feel infinite.
What in you is dying? What are you letting go of?
What are you birthing? What in you is blooming?
Can you feel Bhuvaneshwari’s loving embrace as you explore these questions?
A meditation to feel Bhuvaneshwari’s loving embrace
- create a cozy nest to lay your body in (blankets and sheepskins are lovely)
- lay on the ground and place your hands on your womb
- inhale all the way into your womb
- exhale, soften your entire body
- repeat 5 times
- close your eyes and imagine you are floating in a vast and tranquil ocean
- the ocean is red, the color of creativity
- the temperature of the water is warm and feels lovely on your skin
- Inhale and bring your attention to the places in your body that feel contracted, tight, in pain
- exhale and visualize the water penetrating and soothing these areas
- repeat 5 times
- with each exhalation, visualize the warm, red water softening and opening the contracted areas
- stay with the feelings that arise, offering them back to the water and bring Bhuvaneshwari’s loving presence as witness
- relish in the experience of feeling deeply held and opened by this vast ocean of love
- you are held
In service,