Awakening the Divine Feminine

Embodying Lakshmi: The Hindu Goddess of Abundance

Within all aspects of nature two forces can be found.  These two forces have been referred to as masculine and feminine energy; God and Goddess; Yin and Yang.  All aspects of nature contain some combination of these two creative forces.  These forces are always at work to balance one another.  Our earth has been dominated in the past by the masculine, by our belief in an all powerful Father God.  The time has come to open ourselves up to awakening our feminine energy to bring balance into our lives and healing to our planet.

The energy of God is recognized to be an active energy.  Gods have the power to do anything imaginable.  We have been surrounded by this energetic force as a people since the beginning of time on this planet.  The creative energy of the Goddess is receptive in nature, present in every moment, accepting all aspects of life and open to surrendering to the power greater than itself.  This feminine energy embodied in the Goddess has been with us since the beginning of time. 

Today we are moving through a time of great transformation and change.  Many cycles of death and rebirth are overlapping in the consciousness of humanity and within the evolution of the planet. With this rebirth comes a shift in perspective; a shift from how we have seen the world, to embracing new ways of being.  The shift in consciousness that our planet is calling for is to embrace the wisdom of the goddess.

“Those animated by the Goddess, in her many forms, are concerned with all world problems: economy, justice; racial, sexual and species equality; education, ecological balance and many other concerns. To acknowledge the Goddess is to open up immediately to issues which threaten our total existence. For we cannot deny our common heritage of life which the Goddess safeguards” (Matthews, 1991)

Honoring the wisdom of the goddess is essential because as humans, when things are uncertain in our lives, we have learned to take action, to ask for more answers and to try to do more.  When in actuality, the exact opposite is the most beneficial path to take.  It is during these times of uncertainty that we need to embrace our feminine receptive nature like no other time.  It is the time to slow down, to listen, observe, and to allow ourselves to be led by the inner voice, instead of trying to find the voices on the outside to lead us. 

Each goddess embodies a creative life energy that we can work with to transform our lives.   In order to awaken the divine feminine energy within us, we can connect to the image of the goddess and meditate on her purpose.  Exploring the many manifestations of divine feminine energy as embodied in goddess imagery can be a powerful way to awaken that same energy within yourself.  Spending time daily in reflection of one or more of these aspects can heal, strengthen, clarify and awaken our connection with the essence of life itself.  May your communion with this goddess energy inspire you embody all that she is, and recognize your deep connections to her.

Lakshmi: The Hindu Goddess of Abundance

In order to bring abundance into our lives, it is essential to reflect on the abundance that already exists in order to keep from focusing solely the lack that we have.  We are emerging out of a time of deep struggle in the human experience.  It has been the experience of humanity to view our world in light of what appears in front of us; when we do not have what we need, we observe that lack, when things are plentiful, we observe that plenty.  Envisioning abundance despite our external environments is the key to bringing it into our lives.

There have been countless histories written and myths recorded about Lakshmi.  Through a careful examination of these words one can begin to understand the energy that Lakshmi has held over time.  All gods and goddesses are simply human depictions of a collection of energies.  These energies present themselves in the form of universal images to peoples over thousands of years.  Through understanding this energy, you can begin to embody any god or goddess of your choice.

Lakshmi is the Hindu goddess of wealth, prosperity, fertility and power and is one of the most popular of the Hindu goddesses.  She has been known also as the goddess Sri who was the wife or consort of one of the eight Hindu gods, Vishnu.  It was the energy of sri from which Sri the goddess was born.  She embodied power, fertility, physical health, material prosperity.

Through examining the relationships that Lakshmi had with male deities, a deeper reflection of her energy emerges.  Lakshmi was the wife of Dharma, through her relationship with him we see Lakshmi’s virtuous conduct.  She also demonstrates good conduct, virtuous behavior, truth, activity and strength through another relationship with male demonic deities.

 She is depicted primarily and over thousands of years in myths and philosophical thought movements as the wife or consort of Vishnu.  Through her relationship with Vishnu, we see the essential relationship of man and woman.  The couple is often depicted holding each other, gazing into one another’s eyes and touching intimately often.  The unity of Lakshmi and Vishnu is most clearly shown in images in which they are merged into one bisexual being, Vishnu created the right half of the figure and Lakshmi the left.  In an ancient Hindu text,

“Vishnu is speech and Lakshmi meaning; he is understanding, she is intellect; he is the creator, she is the creation; she is the earth, he is the support of the earth; she is a creeping vine, he is the tree to which she clings; he is one with all males, she is one with all females; he is love, and she is pleasure.”

Lakshmi is depicted wearing jewels and sitting on a lotus flower with coins falling from her hands into a vessel beneath her.  Hindu imagery often marries the symbolic aspects of nature with symbolic aspects of human existence.  Through an examination of the symbolic imagery that surrounds Lakshmi in most depictions of her, we can begin to understand her energy in more depth. 

The lotus that Lakshmi sits upon holds a dual meaning.  The lotus is first is a symbol of divine fertility and spiritual power in that, it is rooted in the mire and takes its strength from the primordial waters but is unstained by the muddy waters.  Just as humans are first held in the waters of their mother’s womb, and come into live with wounds to heal, the lotus is held in the dark water of Mother Earth and then birthed into existence.  The lotus is a symbol to humanity of our ability to be born a human birth and have the ability to transcend our limitations and faults and raise our mind toward enlightenment. 

The lotus, circular and symmetrical like a Mandela, is also held as a symbol of the entire universe.  Giving birth to a goddess in human form, the spiritual perfection of the lotus is a reflection of the spiritual perfection of the goddess that it has birthed.  These symbols are depicted to help us each remember our own spiritual perfection.  For we are born from the same earth as the lotus flower, remembering our roots will help us as we learn to embrace the energy of the goddess, knowing that she is actually already a part of us.

Lakshmi is often shown with elephants flanking her side pouring water from their snouts.  The elephants also hold several meanings.  In ancient Hindu traditions, elephants had wings and flew above the sky.  They were one with clouds and showered the earth with rain.  Today elephants are still seen as the cousins of clouds and their presence is said to attract fertilizing rains. 

Elephants also suggest royalty.  Kings in India often traveled upon elephants in ceremonial processions and kept armies of them.  Kings are also known as holding the energy of fertility and they believed to be responsible for the rain.  In depictions of Lakshmi, elephants are seen pouring water down from their snouts and standing on lotus flowers.  The high concentration of lotus symbolism coupled with the powerful energy of the elephant brings a high vibrational charge to Lakshmi’s image; there are few images in the world that bring together the energies of fertility, purity, royal authority like the depictions of Lakshmi.

The essence of Lakshmi is repeatedly reported in early myths to have come from the primordial waters of the earth.  The primordial waters of the earth are waters that were described in ancient Indian traditions as the waters of all creation from which our world and it’s multitude of universes came from.  These waters sprung from the seed of God and birthed all of creation.  Lakshmi was said to be a part of the primordial waters.  She therefore holds at her core, this all powerful original universal energy.  On earth she is understood as containing the sap of existence.  In the Lakshmi-tantra a popular early tantric text, Lakshmi is described as creating the universe with only a one-billioninth fraction of herself.  In this text, she describes herself as all energy manifest and unmanifest, she is part of every aspect of energetic matter and non-matter.  She says she creates herself through manifesting occupies herself with activity to fuel this creation and dissolves herself as needed.  She is the creative energy, and she has the ability to bring it forth and destroy it.  She describes herself as mother earth, capable of pardoning all good beings from sin.  She is the process and the contained.

What these early myths and philosophical texts show us, we must blend with our current understanding of ourselves, our planet and the divine feminine within our universe.  Our universe and our earth were created through a cosmic explosion of energy.  This energy contained both masculine and feminine energy, divine and pure.  The merging of this energy created a multitude of universes, their beauty and magnitude beyond our wildest dreams.  It also created the planet we live upon. 

Our planet is made primarily of water.  This water is in a constant cycle -- it evaporates from the ocean, travels through the air, rains down on the land and then flows back to the ocean.   About 70 percent of the planet is covered in ocean; the rest of the water on the planet is either floating in the air as clouds and water vapor, or is locked up in plants and animals.   Our bodies are 65 percent water.  The water of the earth is known as the womb of Mother Earth, and inherently holding the feminine energy of the vessel of creation.  All goddesses are thought to have emerged from this womb of Mother Earth, and many goddesses are specifically depicted as having some significant connection with water.  Therefore, Lakshmi holds an aspect of this universal primordial energy from which everything emanates.  Her energy is one that embodies power, fertility, physical health, material prosperity, good conduct, virtuous behavior, truth, activity and strength

In order for these energies to come alive within your life, you need to first bring attention to them and then tend to them.  Take time to reflect on each of these qualities every day.  A simple way to create a place in your life to reflect is to create an alter with a picture of Lakshmi and visual reminders of the qualities.  Spend a few moments sitting or standing in silence with these images daily.  As you tend to your alter and bring attention to these qualities, they have the opportunity to take root, grow and cultivate within you.   For just as the energies of the Goddesses lie outside of us, each of us also holds each of the energies of these goddesses within us.  We are all one, and contain small divine sparks of every part of the universe.  So, we are not only calling on a power outside of ourselves, but we are simultaneously awakening that same power that is lying dormant within us. 

Aimee R. Shea, M.A., CCHt is a Holistic Counselor and Healer in Glendale, CA helping children, teens and adults come into alignment with the live they were meant to live.