Reclaiming Our Primordial
Feminine Force
BY MAYA TIWARI
The principle of Shakti (primordial feminine power) as set forth by the Vedic Rishis offers a revolutionary solution to restoring wellness, wholeness, and harmony in our world. To heal and make whole the maternal life force, each and every woman must reclaim the feminine energy necessary to restore health, wholeness, love, and joy within. In doing so, we reclaim our cyclical rhythm with Mother Moon, as ancient women did. Long before modern science learned how to control a woman’s sacred reproductive function and manipulate her intrinsic rhythms, the ancient cultures recognized that a woman’s fertility, abundance, and splendor were tied to the movement of the moon, and along with it the vital energy of her Shakti, our maternal life force that sustains nourishment on earth. They knew that her physical body, mind, womb, and spirit grew out of the sacred essence of the Divine Feminine, or the Mother Consciousness, as I call it.
From time of yore, the female of all species carried magical energy within their wombs—the cosmic imprint of the creation’s birth. The Shakti energy circulates through and around the womb, a woman’s area of delicacy and vulnerability. Unfortunately, we do not recognize the sanctity of the womb or the great responsibility that comes with this power. As profound as the feminine power is, it is also equally as vulnerable and fragile. For this reason, we are more susceptible to disease and distress and to intuiting the anguish of Mother Nature. When you learn to care for your womb by recognizing your Shakti energy, you heal your feminine life force and protect yourself from illness. Disease can only take hold in the female body when her Shakti energy is impaired and runs counter to the rhythms of Mother Moon.
At present, we are witnessing the breakdown of the maternal memory and therefore the erosion of the Shakti force, that regenerative power that safeguards our ability to heal our wounds and maintain our creative force. Packed with immense levels of stress and pathology, women and daughters are largely unaware of our powerful feminine nature. The well-being of Mother Nature, every species, our forests, rivers, sky, and earth all depend on the restoration of this primordial feminine power vital for the wellness of women, children, men, and community at large.
Shakti energy is the central focus in women’s consciousness, wellness, and happiness. It contains the memory imprint of the Divine Feminine, and it is carried in its active state in the womb of every female species in the universe. Much more than the ability to give birth, the Shakti compels us to create and protect the sacred, whilst we nurture life, gather food, worship nature, and give birth to humanity through our work, ideas, art, creativity, music, dance, and so on. Through the powerful essence of Shakti, women are appointed the direct emissaries of the Divine Feminine. As women learn to redirect the understanding of their womb toward its divine function, which is to bring nurturance and healing powers to planet Earth, they will discover wondrous health, and influence the well-being of the family, community, and the earth herself. This is not to say that men are not blessed with Shakti, but this energy exists in its awakened state in women. They possess the power to recreate, reveal, and express the Shakti energy.
The Hindu tradition has an unbroken energy of embracing its Goddess (in manifold forms and through millions of temples). India has also been known to foster men whose hearts are more awakened to the Divine Feminine. Throughout time, these men have been some of India’s greatest saints, sages, and mystics—they have blessed the earth with divine love—they recognized the Shakti power within themselves and have invoked this energy to create profound healing miracles.
Our maternal instinct comes directly from the Goddess of the Universe, Sri Maha Lalita Ambika, as she is called in Vedic tradition. Through her 16 nityas (lunar deities), she controls the wheel of life. Infinite venerations are offered to the exquisite Goddess, honoring her in all of her forms, earthly and celestial, each nitya representing a notch of the waxing moon (bright moon). By venerating each of the moon deities, women regain their prowess of memory of the Divine Feminine force seeded within. Appropriate meditation, mantra, and yantra practices are performed by women at each notch of the moon. For example, the first notch of the moon, Kameshvari, the deity who grants fulfillment to our womanly desires, loving relations with our spouse, and harmony in our heart, is invoked. Shakti energy is replenished by the moon, and each emissary or deity gives tremendous power to us for the transformation of our feminine energy necessary to heal ourselves, be whole, and be blessed.
Ayurveda informs us that women naturally possess a delicate equipoise within the body due to the extensive force of their Shakti-prana (feminine life force). The primordial feminine power moves within the body and psyche of every woman through this specific prana that circulates the two lower chakras located around the perineum and sacrum. When the balance of this prana is disturbed, it results in long-term challenges relating to the maternal strength of the woman, negatively influencing all aspects of her life. The ancients protected what we have neglected to preserve—a woman’s creative primordial energy—the Shakti prana that manifests as the pro-creative energy circulating the genitals, womb, and belly of a woman. Indeed, the health of the earth lies in honoring the female energy and its interconnection to nature’s rhythms.
The primeval rhythm of our womb is maintained by our menstrual cycle. In days before modern living where we spend much time indoors, a woman’s biological and psychic rhythms were nourished by the moonlight. The principle is guided by the understanding that moonlight provides the necessary synchronizing signal, which scientists refer to as “zeitgebers.” For menstrual cycles to remain in tandem with the influence of the new moon, we have to restore our connection to the lunar turn of the moon. For example, during the full moon, women naturally feel fullness of the moon in their bellies; we feel aglow with ojas, beauty, and radiance. It is with the full moon that we ovulate and send the alluring, vibrational signals to attract our mate. On the other hand, during the new moon, menstruation is organically set in motion by the sun absorbing energies from the earth, which in turn draws the menstrual waste from the body.
In this process, the womb becomes revitalized with fresh energy of the new moon that creates the magic of sentiency within our womanly blood. In this process, which I call “shaktification,” we are generating new life within the mystery of the womb—that power that produces new life, and the ability to nourish, nurture, and heal life. Once we regain our natural connection to both the lunar and solar cycles, we set our intention to love and care for our Shakti prana. In doing so, we stay clear of conditioning and habits that tamper with our most sacred inner feminine rhythms. When our monthly cycle is not vitiated by the use of contraceptive pills and other birth control devices, harmful foods and activities, and disruptive sexual activities, we keep in harmony with the new moon. Through Wise Earth Ayurveda education, I have restored the long-forgotten therapy critical for women’s health and wellbeing, Uttara Vasti. This is the single most essential Ayurveda practice for maintaining our reproductive health.
I call on women to reclaim our primordial feminine force. Once more, we stand at the dawn of time, when we must take back our prowess as women. Each one of us must recognize the supreme challenge of wounds that women bear as the rite of passage to the Divine Feminine. We are intimately connected to womb of the Goddess. We experience her pain and anguish caused by war, violence, economic disparity, impoverishment, environmental disaster, and otherwise lawless disrespect for Mother Nature. Our sacred primordial power as women gives us the extraordinary ability to process and transform pain and anguish into wellness and joy, violence and abuse into peace and compassion, betrayal and deceit into kindness and gratitude. This is our innate, Goddess-given power. We need to invoke these powers within ourselves and apply their practices to heal the living environment of the Mother Love within and without.
Maya Tiwari is a spiritual pioneer who has been praised as a “world peace leader” by the Parliament of the World’s Religions. She is a cancer survivor, an acclaimed author of several best-selling books, and the founder of Wise Earth School of Ayurveda and Mother Om Mission. MayaTiwari.org • WiseEarth.com
SHAKTI MUDRA
Bring rhythms in balance with lunar energies
Shakti Mudra is recommended only for women to help restore their vital energy to the womb and bring its rhythms in balance with lunar energies. This is an especially excellent practice for women who are looking to conceive, or have had a miscarriage, abortion, recent divorce, disillusionment with love, or problems relating to reproductive health. This mudra enhances a women’s sense of self, reinforcing her femininity and self-esteem. Done on a daily basis, this practice will help to revive memory of the Shakti Power within, strengthen Shakti prana, and heal the womb space.
- » Sit in a comfortable posture in a quiet space in your home or outdoors, facing east.
- » Bring the palm of your hands together and then separate them slowly.
- » Place the tips of your ring fingers and little fingers together.
- » Rest the thumbs into the palms of your hands by bending them; fold the other two fingers over the thumbs.
- » Breathe deeply into the pelvic area and breathe out slowly, tracing the exhalation from the base of the perineum, circulating it through the uterus and belly.
- » Maintain Shakti Mudra for approximately 15 minutes.
- » Take a deep breath and make a commitment to a life of non-hurting.
- » Engage your spouse or partner, and follow this mudra practice to fortify your Shiva-Shakti energies.
YONI MUDRA
Revitalize with circulation to the womb
In the Tantric Sri Vidya tradition, the goddess is invoked through 10 hand gestures, the most powerful being Yoni Mudra (womb seal). It strengthens Shakti prana and redirects menstrual flow to the new moon and balances hormones. In this practice we gather Shakti prana within the womb/belly; like a bandha or lock it intensifies circulation to the womb area. Practice three days before new moon or anytime you want to revitalize.
- » Sit in a meditative posture and cup your hands together, palms facing up.
- » Intertwine the little fingers and fully extend the middle fingers, which meet at the tips to form a pyramid shape.
- » Cross the ring fingers behind the extended middle fingers and hold them down with the index fingers. Tuck in your thumbs to touch the base of the middle fingers.
- » Hold the hand gesture for 5 minutes. Allow your breath to flow freely by taking quiet inhalations and exhalations while holding the mudra pose.
- » Visualize your breath flowing freely throughout your body, keeping your mind cantered on mudra. This mudra will bring your mind to a deep state of calmness.