SUTRA: Shiva-Shakti (SHE-vah SHOCK-lee)
I am giving birth to the gods and goddesses inside me; they express all their attributes and powers through me.
THE SIXTH PRINCIPLE encourages us to live life fully by embracing both the masculine and the feminine aspects of our being.
One way to embrace both aspects of your self is to call upon both masculine and feminine archetypes. According to Carl Jung, archetypes are inherited memories represented in the mind as universal symbols, and can be observed in dreams and myths. They are states of awareness. Archetypes are universal concentrations of psychic energy.
Archetypes exist as potential and lie dormant in your consciousness. Everyone has at least one archetype, which stays dormant until triggered by some situation in the environment or in the conscious or unconscious mental life of a person. Once triggered, the archetype will manifest its powers and attributes through you. What you do with your life is usually a representation to some extent of the combination of your archetypes. For example, a person who wields exceptional power in the world, such as a king or a president, will likely have Zeus or Hera as archetypes of power and leadership. But if that person is also exceptionally wise, he or she might also have Athena as an archetype of wisdom.
It is possible to consciously trigger your archetype through intent. Once you discover your primary archetypes, you can begin to call them to you daily. Surround yourself with symbols, words, or representations that remind you of your archetypes. With such symbols next to your bed, let these be the first things you look at when you wake up in the morning. Ask your archetypes for their guidance and wisdom, and ask that they become part of you and work through you. This can be as simple as saying, “I ask that you become part of me and work through me. Guide me through my life.”
If you invite your archetypes in this way just after your daily meditation, you will start to feel their presence more strongly and more directly. They can provide access to the hidden strengths within you.
Read this into a tape and play it to yourself.
Sit or lie comfortably with your eyes closed. Quiet your internal dialogue by observing your breath.
After a few minutes put your attention on your heart. Visualize your heart as a pulsating sphere of light. In this sphere visualize two or three divine beings or archetypal energies. These could be angels, gods, or goddesses. Now visualize the rest of your body also as a body of light. Now slowly imagine this light body with its pulsating sphere of divine beings expanding so it fills the entire room in which you are sitting or lying. Allow the expansion to occur beyond the confines of the room so that you are no longer in the room but in fact the room is in you. Continue the process of expanding your light body so that the entire city in which you live exists in your being—the buildings, the people, the traffic, and the countryside.
Continue to expand your sense of self to include in your physical being the state in which you live, your country, and ultimately the entire planet. Now see that the whole world exists in you—all the people, all other sentient beings, trees and forests, rivers and mountains, rainfall and sunshine, earth and water—these are different components of your being, just like different organs in your body.
Now quietly say to yourself, “I am not in the world; the world is in me.” Whatever imbalances you see in this world of yours, ask the divine beings still dancing in your pulsating sphere of a heart to correct them. Ask these divine beings to fulfill any desire you have and to bring harmony, beauty, healing, and joy to the different parts of your cosmic self. Continue to expand your sense of self to include planets and moons, stars and galaxies.
Now say to yourself, “I am not in the universe; the universe is in me.” Slowly begin to diminish the size of your cosmic self until you can once again experience your personal body. Imagine trillions of cells in your personal body—all part of a dance, each cell an entire universe unto itself. Remind yourself that your true being inhabits all these levels of creation, from microcosm to macrocosm, from the atom to the universe, from your personal body to your cosmic body. Remind yourself that at each of these levels of your existence you have available to you the divine energies that nonlocally orchestrate the cosmic dance to create the harmonious interaction of elements and forces that can fulfill any desire. Express your gratitude to these archetypal energies.
Now just remain sitting or lying quietly, feeling all the sensations in your body. You may feel tingling or exhilaration. After two or three minutes, open your eyes. The exercise is over.
Sutra Statements for the Sixth Principle
Imagine that you are a shape-shifter.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you can be both masculine and feminine if you choose.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you are strong, decisive, courageous, articulate, and powerful.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you are beautiful, sexual, intuitive, nurturing, and affectionate.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you are as stable as a mountain.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you are as flexible as the wind.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you are an angel with wings.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you are an enlightened being with infinite compassion.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you are a divine being of God playing in celestial realms.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine once again that you are a shape-shifter, that you can become any animal, any bird, any insect, any plant, or even a rock.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that all the mythical beings reside in you, although there are some that are your favorite archetypes.
(Shiva-Shakti)
Imagine that you can become the heroes and heroines you most admire.
(Shiva-Shakti)