Friday, September 05, 2014
Rakha: Goddess of Romantic Longing
Radha: Goddess of Romantic Longing
Sally Kempton and Ken Wilber
Audio, 12 minutes
"The Radha energy is present wherever there is passionate love and the wish to merge with the beloved. She can manifest (and often does) through a teenager's romantic fantasies or in the delicious experience of being immersed in a beloved other. She might also show up as a reckless compulsion to follow your erotic impulses despite all reason and practicality. As a divine archetype, however, Radha's Shakti goes far deeper than the human impulse toward romantic passion. Tuning into the Radha Shakti can uncover the burning heart of universal Eros—the radically impersonal life-force energy that creates life's sweetness—within your desire for a human lover. At the spiritual level, when Radha's energy awakens within you, she can transform a mild interest in inner practice into a wildly personal love affair with the inner beloved. She is one of the secret Shaktis who transmutes ordinary desire into longing and passion into fuel for the spiritual journey.
Teresa of Avila, who carried on a life-long inner love affair with Jesus, was infused with Radha energy. So were John of the Cross, Thérèse of Lisieux, Mirabai, and generations of Hindu and Sufi mystics. Radha's energy is imprinted so indelibly in the collective psyche that to this day she remains one of our great mythic models for passionate devotion."
From Awakening Shakti by Sally Kempton
In this 13-part Goddess Returns series, acclaimed teachers Sally Kempton and Ken Wilber discuss one of the most powerful ways we can reconnect with a crucial aspect of feminine wisdom that has largely been lost in today's world: by invoking and internalizing the energetic qualities of eleven different Hindu goddesses.
As a way to honor the sacred feminine, Integral Life will be publishing discussions of each of these goddesses over the next couple weeks, with a different "Goddess of the Day" featured every few days.
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