Kundalini Splendor

Here is a notice of a formal devotional online series beginning February 23.  It requires a very serious commitment of time, for it is based on the repetition of a special mantra for many thousands of times.  However, even the description is interesting as a representation of the kind of devotion practiced in India and nearby regions for many centuries.  It also represents the highest exaltation of the divine feminine in all of her aspects.  (A Sadhana is simply a spiritual practice.)
As the description below explains, during the monsoon season in India, the river that runs through Kamakya's temple runs red, as the goddess menstruates.  Her sculpted images portray her with her menstrual blood running down her thighs.  Many many gather to witness this phenomenon.
Aditi Devi is an authentic priestess of this order.  She is also a profound scholar in this and related traditions, and in addition is a wonderful friend whose presence I love  (though I am not a practitioner in this (or any) lineage.)


Jai Ma! This is a reminder that you're receiving this email because you have expressed an interest in Aditi Devi Ma. Don't forget to add info@aditidevi.com to your address book so we'll be sure to land in your inbox!

Announcing a new online sadhana

Kamakhya and the Worship of Women

 Through Mantra Accumulation
and the Celebration of Spring Navaratri

 An Advanced Online 64 Night Sadhana for Returning Yoginis

Monday, February 23 ~ Friday, May 1, 2015

with

Aditi Devi Ma

kaamaruupam deviksetram kutraapi tatsamam na ca |
anyatra viralaa devii kaamaruupe grhe grhe | |

Kamarupa is a field of the goddess
and there is none other equal to it.
In other places, Devi is rarely present,
but in Kamarupa,
She is in each and every house.                                                            
~ Yogini Tantra


Dear Yoginis of the Womb,

In our recent online sadhanas, we have moved from the outer edges of the mandala into the bindu and back out to the edges again. It is time for us to take what we have learned and enliven the inner landscapes through feminine embodiment sadhana with our great mother, Kamakhya Ma, an ancient Shakta yoni Goddess whose temple is in Assam, India.

This online sadhana is open to any female practitioner who has sat with Aditi Devi Ma in person or participated with her in any of the previous online sadhanas.

At the beginning of the monsoon season in northeast India, the Shakta mother Goddess Kamakhya menstruates, and the river that flows through her temple runs red. To mark this auspicious event, tens of thousands of devotees celebrate the Ambuvaci festival, during which the earth, the body of the Goddess, women, and communities are all regenerated. Based on my participation in community and ritual life at this temple over many years, focusing on this rare yoni Goddess, we will learn about what are known as the Kali Practices: contemporary worship of women as embodiments of the Goddess across a woman's life cycle (young women, married women, and widows) and how this expresses itself in the richness of feminine embodiment sadhana focusing on non-dual ultimate reality Kali-Brahman. Along the way, we will deepen in our sadhana abilities (and link ourselves to the Goddess Kamakhya) by accumulating, or perfecting, one of Kamakhya's mantras during our night-time practice sessions. There are three options for accumulating the mantra depending on your time commitment (see below). In addition, we will celebrate the spring Navaratri festival in the unique style of the northern Kalikula.

What You Will Receive
* Ten live group telephone calls led by Aditi Devi lasting approximately one hour;
* Recordings of all calls to download and listen to later, should you be unable to attend the live calls;
* Membership in a private online community of women to connect with during this online sadhana;
* At minimum, you will receive one weekly content-rich emails from Aditi Devi. Emails will include an introduction to the online sadhana, shrine set-up, stories, myths, sadhana suggestions, poetry, images, and other musings;
* An exploration of the yoni Goddess Kamakhya from living Tantric lineages in the northern Kalikula including history, cultural background and more;
* A chance to deepen into your personal feminine embodiment sadhana with Kamakhya including material from the northern Kalikula lineages; this includes our ongoing focus on Yoni Crucible Sadhana (kalasa, ghata);
* An opportunity to accumulate, and thus perfect, one of Kamakhya's mantras (108,000 recitations if you choose the fullest sadhana option);
* An opportunity to sit with Kamakhya-Kali during the spring Navaratri festival and celebrate using the unique northern Kali-Kula style;
* We will also continue our focus on Tantric Offerings from the yogini's point of view.

Important Kamakhya Sadhana Dates
First email: Monday, February 23, 2015
First phone call: Tuesday, February 24, 7pm MST
First day of sadhana recitation: Friday, February 27
Second phone call: Tuesday, March 3, 7pm MST
Full Moon ~ Purnima: Thursday, March 5
Second email: Friday, March 6
Third phone call: Tuesday, March 10, 7pm MDT
Third email: Friday, March 13
Fourth phone call: Tuesday, March 17, 7pm MDT
Fourth email: Friday, March 20
Spring Navaratri begins and Amavasya ~ Dark Moon: Friday, March 20
Fifth phone call: Tuesday, March 24, 7pm MDT
Fifth email: Friday, March 27
Spring Navaratri ends: Saturday, March 28
Sixth phone call: Tuesday, March 31, 7pm MDT
Sixth email: Friday, April 3
Purnima ~ Full Moon Eclipse: Saturday, April 4
Seventh phone call: Tuesday, April 7, 7pm MDT
Seventh email: Friday, April 10
Eighth phone call: Tuesday, April 14, 7pm MDT
Eighth email: Friday, April 17
Amavasya ~ Dark Moon: Saturday, April 18
Ninth phone call: Tuesday, April 21, 7pm MDT
Ninth email: Friday, April 24
Final phone call: Tuesday, April 28, 7pm MDT
Final email and final sadhana recitation: Friday, May 1

For Traveling Yoginis
It is not necessary to be online or have computer access for the entire sadhana; I know that some of you will be traveling, offline, or entering into silent retreat with these practices. I will also be traveling during a portion of our sadhana. As you travel, or practice in retreat, you will be asked to keep up your daily Kamakhya Sadhana, even if you are not able to receive the emails for some period of time or come onto the live calls. Instructions for traveling shrines will be offered as well.

Your Commitments
This will be a deep, intimate, and intense sadhana that will require each of us to take a great deal of personal responsibility for our practice as well as for the community. We will need to resource the mature practitioner in ourselves as we make and hold a serious practice commitment in deep spiritual community.

Because of the depth of the Kamakhya Sadhana and the time commitment it requires, there are three options that you may choose from:

Option A: This is the fullest and most intense sadhana option. Here we recite one of Kamakhya's mantras 108,000 times during the 64 nights of our online sadhana commitment. This works out to approximately two hours of formal sadhana, at our shrines, each night. If you prefer two practice sessions a day, this would be an hour in the morning and an hour at night to recite about 17-18 malas of mantra per day. Along the way, we also will find time for rest during the first three days each month of our moontime (or three days at the dark moon if we are not menstruating) and thus you could have either six or nine days of moontime rest depending on your cycle. The missed accumulations from these rest days are spread across the entire sadhana (this has already been accounted for in the time calculations).

Option B: This option is for those who can commit to one hour of formal Kamakhya sadhana per day. In this option, we will do a half-perfection of 54,000 mantras of about nine malas of mantra per day. You will also find time for rest during the first three days each month during our moontime (or three days at the dark moon if we are not menstruating) and thus you could have either six or nine days of moontime rest depending on your cycle. The missed accumulations from the rest days are spread across the entire sadhana (this has already been accounted for in the time calculations). This option is useful for those who also have other Kalikula sadhana commitments or other spiritual practices. If you are engaged in other spiritual practices, your Kamakhya sadhana would be one session at night and your other sadhana would be a separate daytime sadhana.

Option C: This option is for those of you who are still new to these practices or are unable to commit to perfecting the Kamakhya mantra. In this option, you will do only one mala of Kamakhya's mantra per day accumulating between 6000-7000 recitations of the mantra. You will also take the moontime or dark moon rest days each month.

We will discuss all the complexities of the mantra accumulation inside the formal sadhana container.

Your commitment to this Kamakhya Sadhana also includes being entirely drug and intoxicant free for the week before the sadhana begins, during the entire sadhana, and for the week afterwards. This includes all social and recreational use of wine, spirits, drugs, and other herbal intoxicants including most medicinal uses of plant medicine (the use of flower essences, essential oils, and plant based non-intoxicating tinctures is fine). Please communicate with Aditi directly about all prescription drugs. This sadhana commitment offers us the potential to access the more subtle realms of our relationship to Kamakhya and her blessing power as well as to help us find our way more completely into our own depth relationship with the Divine Mother at the bindu, Kamakhya-Kali.

Suggested Offering
This is a donation-based sadhana. The offering bowl is out smeared with sindur and sandalwood paste, and fragrant with the night-blooming flowers offered at the feet of the menstruating Goddess.

The suggested offering, at full price, is $254 USD. Sliding Scale and Name Your Offering are available in consideration of those outside the US economy and for those yoginis who remain on the edge of the traditional markets. Payment plans are welcome. Trades may be welcome.

No one will be turned away for lack of funds. Please be in touch with Aditi Devi to discuss arrangements.

Please know that as part of your commitment to this sadhana, it will be up to each of you to make your offerings without promptings or reminders once arrangements have been made.

We are also accepting scholarship funding to support this offering structure. If you are able and want to make additional offerings, this would be most welcome and supportive.

Registration, Information, and Questions
Please email Aditi at puja@aditidevi.com with questions or to register. If registering, please note which of the options you are committing to.

I am looking forward to falling into Kamakhya's blood red love with you during this sadhana.
Jai Kamakhysha Ma Jai!


Lineage and the Sanctity of Teachings
Because we will be moving into the more inner forms of Tantric practice and knowledge as it has been taught and transmitted to me, and which I am authorized to teach and transmit, it is important to be clear with all of you. These teachings are based in lineage, and there is much study and embodied practice for each of us as we travel this path. I have brought together this material through my own devotion, dedication, study, and practice over the past 25 years. You may use what is offered during this online Kamakhya Sadhana course (emails, photos, online material) for your own personal practice, but I ask that you not share it with others. This helps create the container for us to do this work as well as maintains the flow of connection among us, and through lineage.

Participating in this course in no way implies that you are qualified to teach this material or offer it to others. In addition, it is important not to talk about the content with those not participating in this sadhana.

By participating in this online sadhana in any way, you are actively agreeing that you will hold this material as most sacred and secret and will act in accordance with the details shared in the above paragraphs.


 About Aditi Devi Ma
Aditi Devi began the study and practice of South Asia Tantric traditions almost 25 years ago. As an initiated yogini, pujarini (ritualist, priestess), lineage holder, and authorized teacher, she has lived and practiced her sadhana with adepts in Nepal, India, and Tibet. Aditi Devi Ma's practice, teaching, research and writing focus on the embodiment of the divine feminine in the Shakta Tantric traditions of India and Nepal. She earned a Ph.D. in Anthropology and Asian Studies, and was a Fulbright Scholar and college professor before turning fulltime to the path of the Yogini.

Aditi Devi is authorized to teach what are called the Kali Practices focusing on the reverence of women as embodiments of the divine and nondual awakening in the body, in deep relationality. These practices have their fullest expression in Assam, at the Temple of the Tantric Goddess Kamakhya, a yoni Goddess who is revered throughout South Asia (and indeed the world); this is one of Aditi's spiritual homes and practice seats.

 When not wandering, Aditi Devi Ma's teaching home is in Boulder, Colorado. Here, in the midst of a deep yogic community, she teaches privately, offers regular Kali Puja, yoga, and meditation. She is also a faculty member at the Integral Center. Her first book,  In Praise of Adya Kali: Approaching the Primordial Dark Goddess Through the Song of Her Hundred Names was released earlier this year (Hohm Press, 2014).

Aditi Devi | A remote yogini mandir | Boulder | CO | 00000