A Journey through the Mahavidyas ~ the 10 wisdom goddesses

There are journeys we choose, and there are journeys that seem to call us

I was called by the Mahavidyas quite some time ago, and eventually, I decided to follow this call ~ a journey that brought me to Portugal.

At the beautiful Monte da Orada, a place holding layers of history and a very special energy, I joined a Non-Dual Shaiva Tantra Training focusing on the ten wisdom goddesses.

Non-Dual Kashmir Shaivism, also known as Trika Shaivism, offers a non-dual perspective on the nature of reality and consciousness. At its heart is the understanding that everything emanates from, and is an expression of one field of consciousness and energy. Subject and object, you and me, individual and universal, are ultimately not separate.

Mahavidya literally means Great Wisdom or Great Knowledge. Each goddess embodies a distinct expression of Shakti, the divine feminine force, and offers a different doorway into the recognition of consciousness, our own wholeness, and life itself.

Over the course of this journey, I was invited to explore the ten Mahavidyas and immerse myself in their different qualities, expressions and energies.

It became a journey not only into the wisdom of these powerful goddesses, but deeper into myself.

I believe we have to meet ourselves, over and over again. There is no beginning, there is no end. But sometimes there is a gap ~ the madhya ~ to rest in. To simply be and listen.

A conversation with the Mahavidyas began.

The 10 Mahavidyas: 

1. 1. KALI ~ the dark mother, the Shakti of time and transmuter of Karma
      

   2. TARA ~ the fierce and compassionate mother, the saving grace and the guiding star, she is the sound of OM, representing cosmic affirmation

   3. LALITA TRIPURA SUNDARI ~ expresses the desire of the cosmos, she is the expression of will (iccha shakti), Lalitā invites us into the beauty of creation ~ the unfolding, expansion and play of consciousness as life itself

   4. BHUVANESHWARI ~ „Queen of the Universe“, she is the vast, spacious, cosmic womb

   5. BHAIRAVI ~ she is the fierce one, she embodies the dual power of destruction and creation

   6. CHINNAMASTA ~ she is the radical transformation of the ego self, she is the embodiment of the cosmic spanda ~ releasing oneself to remember true nature

   7. DHUMAVATI ~ the crone, she represents the dark void of disappointment, rejection, loss, and outcast, she reminds us that even the void can become a doorway

   8. BAGALAMUKHI ~ she represents the power of stillness when we surrender to the void, and the invisible pauses between end and beginning

   9. MATANGI ~ she is the goddess go the outcasts, inviting us to look beyond the limitations and boundaries created by society

   10. KAMALATMIKA ~ she is the exquisite explosion of divine forms, often associated with the goddess Lakshmi

The path of the Mahavidyas invites us into self recognition

The path of the Mahavidyas invites to look beyond the stories we have created about ourselves and the ways we have learned to divide the world ~ good and bad, right and wrong, light and dark.

Through self-practice, sādhana ~ spiritual practice that may include meditation, mantra, pranayama, prayer, ritual and contemplation ~ and somatic movement practices, I was given the opportunity to meet the goddesses and, at times, embody their qualities.

Each goddess carries her own qualities, her own energy, her own way of revealing something to us.

There were goddesses I deeply understood and resonated with, and others I could barely sense or understand. Some felt familiar, almost as if I had known their energy before. Others challenged me, confronted me, or simply remained beyond my understanding.

And perhaps this is part of the beauty of working with the Mahavidyas: they do not necessarily arrive in the ways we expect them to. They may not always feel comfortable, familiar or easy to understand. Sometimes, the goddess we are drawn to is the one who mirrors something we already know within ourselves. And sometimes, it is the one we resist ~ the one who asks us to look somewhere we would rather not look.

Through meeting them, we are invited to turn inward. To listen to what is moving within us. To meet parts of ourselves that may have been forgotten, rejected or pushed into the shadows.

And perhaps the invitation is not always to understand her, but simply to stay present, to listen, and to allow the relationship to unfold.

To be and sit with her. And integrate that:

~ nothing has to be excluded from the experience of being whole

~ everything flows back into the vast ocean of consciousness from which it all arose

~ nothing is ever truly separate

~ there is nowhere the divine is not

What I love about this path is that it doesn’t ask us to become someone else or to renounce everything. It invites us to embrace life in its fullness and to discover the divine and the sacred within all of it. It asks us to unravel. To peel away some of the layers and beliefs that keep us from recognising what is already here.

And this is also where the work with sound meets the path of the Mahavidyas.

Listening deeply and allowing ourselves to sense and feel isn’t always comfortable. When we become quiet enough to truly listen, we may encounter things we have been too busy, too distracted, or simply not ready to feel. Sound can gently bring us into that space ~ beneath the noise of the mind, beneath our usual stories and patterns, and closer to what is actually present within us.

And this is also part of the invitation of the Mahavidyas: not to turn away from what arises, but to stay, to listen, and to meet ourselves in all of it.

Some of the goddesses may take us into places we would rather not look. Into our edges, our fears, our pain. But perhaps this is exactly where the practice becomes real ~ when we stop trying to separate what feels good from what doesn’t, and begin to listen to all of it, creating space for wholeness. 

Because what if nothing within us is actually outside of the whole?

What if even our pain can become an access point?

What if the shadow is not something we have to overcome, but something we are being invited to meet?

There is guidance when we commit to our sādhana, when we are open and ready to offer and receive, and when we allow devotion and reverence to grow.

And ONE thing is for sure: there is nowhere SHE is not.

And SOUND can be a doorway to this remembrance. 

JAI MA!