Monday Night Meditations - Tara

Traditionally, a mantra has been described as a sacred utterance, a numinous sound, a syllable, word or even a group of words in ancient Sanskrit believed by practitioners to have psychological and spiritual powers.  A mantra may or may not have syntactic structure or literal meaning. 

 

They come in many forms from single words or sounds such as the familiar Om (or Aum) mantra, through to complex requests and prayers.  In more sophisticated forms, mantras are melodic phrases with spiritual interpretations such as a human longing for truth, reality, light, immortality, peace, love, knowledge, and action.  Other mantras have no literal meaning, yet are musically uplifting and spiritually meaningful.

 

Encountering the Shadows and the Realm of the Dark Goddess

The shadows have always been a source of mystery. Often, fear and terror rule the dark places, holding our imagination captive and sometimes paralyzing us with the horror of the unknown. The shadows hold the secret to our own rising rebirth, the secret of the wisdom of ourselves. The ultimate mystery is that of knowing oneself. This is the lesson the Dark Goddess teaches.

 

The Dark Goddess is the Crone aspect of the Triple Goddess. However She does not always take the form of the older, wiser sage. She can appear as the Maiden, the Mother, and the Crone. Many associate her powers with the underworld and even evil. But the darkness was not always seen in that way, the way of polarity, black and white, good versus evil. The darkness was just that, the absence of light. The way of the Dark Goddess is the way of the mirror, truth and reflection. She is not the kind and gentle Mother Goddess, who coaxes us to explore our lives.

    

The Wonders of Meditation on the Body

In this day and age it is well known how beneficial meditation can be to our mind, body and spirit.  It has been proven that meditation can make us happier, improve our concentration, lower our stress levels and blood pressure, and even decrease chronic pain.  More importantly however, the practice of meditation brings us inner peace and freedom, two tools that are often overlooked in our over chaotic modern society which we all desperately seek.

 

Through the regular practice of meditation we find that we need fewer outward distractions to keep us happy.  This is because we begin to identify more and more with our inner self as opposed to our physical appearance.  This is because meditation is powerful tool for spiritual growth and essentially takes us beyond the limitations (and therefore obsession) of the body as well as the mind.