Awakening Shakti Quotes

“The Tantric sages tell us that our in-breath and out-breath actually mirror the divine creative gesture. With the inhalation, we draw into our own center, our own being. With the exhalation, we expand outward into the world.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Durga is the strength and protective power in nature, Lakshmi is its beauty. As Kali is the darkness of night and the great dissolve into nirvana, Lakshmi is the brightness of day and the expansiveness of teeming life. She can be found in rich soil and flowing waters, in streams and lakes that teem with fish. She is one of those goddesses whose signature energy is most accessible through the senses. You can detect her in the fragrance of flowers or of healthy soil. You can see her in the leafed-out trees of June and hear her voice in morning birdsong. If Durga is military band music and Kali heavy metal, Lakshmi is Mozart. She’s chocolate mousse, satiny sheets, the soft feeling of water slipping through your fingers. Lakshmi is growth, renewal, sweetness.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Let the beauty of what you love be what you do. There are many ways to kneel and kiss the ground. RUMI”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“The divine feminine knows that a birth sometimes demands a death, and that the personal self sometimes has to die if the world is to be made sacred.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Love, enjoyed by the ignorant Becomes bondage. That very same love, tasted by one with understanding, Brings liberation … Enjoy all the pleasures of love fearlessly, For the sake of liberation. CITTAVISUDDIPRAKARANA”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“For women especially, tuning into the goddesses is a way of homing in on aspects of our own life-energy that we may never have understood or owned. Celebrating the goddesses has the potential not only to tune us to our own sacred capacities, but also to help us work with the hidden and secret forces at play in our lives. When we can do that, we can literally harness these forces for our own transformation.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“If there is to be a future, it will wear a crown of feminine design. AUROBINDO GHOSE”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Even if you can be aware of your awareness for only a moment, in that moment you will touch the primal awareness/bliss at the core of yourself.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“At every level of consciousness, the masculine and the feminine, Shiva and Shakti, steadiness and dynamism, awareness and bliss, stability and transformation, being and becoming, complete and complement each other.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“She’s also showing us a deeper truth about spiritual life: that if we’re willing to make the necessary sacrifices, we can have it all. We can have enlightenment and intimacy together. We can know our transcendent bliss-self, and we can realize that bliss in passionate relationship. The secret Parvati shows us is that the relational form of self-realization requires just as much conscious effort as to realize the transcendent self. Both paths begin with self-cultivation. Parvati has realized that she can’t “have” Shiva unless she cultivates in herself the qualities of stillness, stamina, and devotion. To embody love requires absolute commitment, radical courage, and rigorous self-cleansing. The great desire has to be separated from smaller desires and tested in its own fire.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“The best way to explain in modern terms what a deity is, is to understand deity as a unique vortex of energy. Sometimes that energy vortex takes recognizable anthropomorphic form (for instance, in meditation visions). Sometimes that energy is felt through the sound vibrations, called mantra, or through the geometric pictures, called yantras, that map the way that energy looks in “blueprint” form.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“As the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad says, “As is your will, so is your thought; as is your thought, so is your deed; as is your deed, so is your life.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti

“He embodies patriarchy’s inability to see the primal divinity of the feminine. She leaves because she knows that if the dignity of the feminine is not recognized, true union of the masculine and the feminine is not possible”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“In the external world, she is the force of evolution, the erotic thrust at the heart of life. She is the intrinsic creative drive that fueled the big bang and continues to unfold as stars, galaxies, planets, life-forms, species, and also human societies, cultures and individual consciousness itself.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“The word shakti means “power.” Shakti, the innate power in reality, has five “faces.” It manifests as the power to be conscious, the power to feel ecstasy, the power of will or desire, the power to know, and the power to act.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Goddess of: • sacred and mundane partnership • patron deity of yoginis, discipleship, and esoteric study • marriage and motherhood • asceticism, commitment to practice, power to practice intensely in yoga, meditation, or athletics • homemaking known for civilizing the wild aspects of the ascetic masculine Recognize Parvati in: • forest groves and mountains • yoga studios • partnerships between self-actualized individuals • unusual domestic situations • working mothers”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Invoke Parvati for: • strength and commitment • unbreakable willpower • devotion • finding a desirable mate, getting married • success in relationship • conceiving and bearing a child • creative activity • uniting the masculine and feminine polarities within yourself • breakthroughs in yoga practice • will and power in athletic training”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“She is also the power behind spiritual awakening, the inner force that unleashes spiritual power within the human body in the form of kundalini. And she is a guardian: beautiful, queenly, and fierce. Paintings of Durga show her with flowing hair, a red sari, bangles, necklaces, a crown—and eight arms bristling with weapons. Durga carries a spear, a mace, a discus, a bow, and a sword—as well as a conch (representing creative sound), a lotus (symbolizing fertility), and a rosary (symbolizing prayer). In one version of her origin, she appears as a divine female warrior, brought into manifestation by the male gods to save them from the buffalo demon, Mahisha. The assembled gods, furious and powerless over a demon who couldn’t be conquered, sent forth their anger as a mass of light and power. Their combined strength coalesced into the form of a radiantly beautiful woman who filled every direction with her light. Her face was formed by Shiva; her hair came from Yama, the god of death; her arms were given by Vishnu. Shiva gave her his trident, Vishnu his discus, Vayu—the wind god—offered his bow and arrow. The mountain god, Himalaya, gave her the lion for her mount. Durga set forth to battle the demon for the sake of the world, armed and protected by all the powers of the divine masculine.1 As a world protector, Durga’s fierceness arises out of her uniquely potent compassion. She is the deity to call on when you’re”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“If there is to be a future, it will wear a crown of feminine design.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“From a Tantric perspective, the inner masculine—Shiva—is the source of consciousness, awareness. But in order to act, to stir, he must take energy from the inner feminine.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Tantra is a series of practices and teachings that help us realize that the world is filled with divine energy, with Shakti.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Through imagination, we tap into our highest human potential and encounter that which is more than human in us: that which is divine.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Deity practice helps us embody the subtlest powers of the universe. It affects us psychologically, spiritually, and even physically. It can protect us, empower us, teach us unconditional love, and even enlighten us.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“If, like Parvati, our desire is strong enough, we make a full commitment. We see that it’s not enough just to be inspired, to feel longing, to be in love. We have encountered the beloved, but now we need to make ourselves into the vessel that can hold the emerging vision, the vessel that can be the beloved of the Beloved. Rumi wrote, “God too desires us.”7 But God’s desire is for us to become God, to realize our identity with the divine.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Give up this insane idea,” Menaki pleads. Parvati refuses. “No,” she says. “I am the daughter of a mountain, and I am tough.” This is the moment when Parvati the maiden steps into her power. She’s moved by love, which combined with her now intensely focused will is powerful enough to shift the order of the cosmos. The story goes that from that moment, she receives the name Uma (“maiden”), which came from the sound of her “No, Ma.” The name Uma is often used to describe Parvati as the incarnation of focused will, a will so strong that it could only have arisen in the heart of the creative power itself. Uma’s will simply says “No” to objections and obstacles. Shiva has rejected her? No, he will not do that. My family doesn’t want me to practice yoga? No, I won’t accept their limits.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“There’s a sutra in the Shiva Sutras, a great text of yoga, that says that the divine power of will—the generative impulse behind the evolution of consciousness—is the maiden Uma. Parvati’s focused intention, her will to union with her beloved, is identical with what is sometimes called the evolutionary impulse, the cosmic and individual drive to evolve to higher levels of awareness. Because her intention is nonegoic, it carries a certainty of fulfillment, as well as a sure knowledge of the action to take to accomplish her goals. In creating a world, she created a separation from her other half. Now, the moment has come to reunite—not just in the transcendent formless space where all differences are dissolved, but in bodies, on the earth, inside the creation. Parvati’s yoga is”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Around her waist is a golden girdle that anchors her red silk lower garment—a pleated length of fabric gathered around her waist and fastened between her legs, so that it leaves her calves free, like the skirt of an Indian dancer. She is seated on the back of a white bull, Shiva’s mount, in half-lotus posture, with the top of her right foot resting on her upper left thigh. She is smiling, and her eyes bless you. Say to her, inwardly, “I offer my salutations to you, goddess Parvati. Please bless me and fill me with your Shakti.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Shiva’s seed is discharged outside Parvati. It is so fiery and hot that no container can hold it, until it is finally held in the Ganges River, where it is incubated and finally born as the child Skanda, or Karttikeya. Karttikeya eventually reunites with his parents and becomes the general of Shiva’s celestial army.”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“Shiva and Parvati symbolize the moment when we get spiritually naked”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga

“together, when our love and trust is great enough to let us be vulnerable and thus make space for revelation to arise. This intellectual merging involves a subtle Tantric embrace of thoughts and energies rather than a physical merging. It is no less an embrace for being subtle. The image of Shiva and Parvati sitting together in a grove on the crest of a mountain not only carries the archetype of divine lovers, it also stands for the mysterious creative moment when two or more people enter a “we” space together. In the “we” space, our essences connect, and we are then hooked up with superconscious source of insight. Physicist David Bohm called this process “dialogue.” Dialogue happens when, like Shiva and Parvati, we recognize”
― Sally Kempton, Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga