I am Woman Hear Me Roar
Goddess Durga began calling me a few years ago when I started sensing her presence everywhere: in bookstores, in passing conversations, serendipitously happening upon a webpage, a friend inviting me to a Durga and Saraswati Puja and the stories go on.
Which lead me to this amazing book called Goddess Durga and the Sacred Female Power, by Laura Amazzone
“Goddess Durga herself embodies the paradoxes of our very existence: She is both Warrior Goddess and Divine Mother, both Death Bringer and Creator.
She is fierce and compassionate, wrathful and sensual, nurturing and furious, embodied and Divine.
When called upon She leads us through situations that seem insurmountable.
It is no wonder one of the meaning of Her name, Durga, is fortress. Durga indeed reminds us of the fortress we each carry within ourselves and can call upon when we need to fortify our emotional, physical, mental and spiritual boundaries.
Goddess Durga radiates great confidence and authority. She is formidable and fearsome: four of Her Hands hold a scythe, a spear, a trident and a club. She is beneficent, generous and reassuring; three other hands hold a conch shell, a lotus, a discus, and another gives the mudra or hand gesture to Fear not, I will protect you.
Courageously challenging restrictive conditioning that is harmful to our mental, physical, emotional and spiritual well-being and willfully embodying our rage and sexual passion is a direct act of working with, even embodying, Durga.
Ultimately, Durga brings us back to ourselves, to our true nature, and reminds each of us of our purpose here. She is powerful, and therefore, so are we. She has come to teach us to reclaim our power.
Here is a mantra you can chant to invoke the powers of Goddess Durga.
A MANTRA is a mystical energy encased in a sound structure. Every mantra contains within its vibration a certain power. Upon concentration and repetition of a given mantra, its energy is liberated and takes form. It is professed that by chanting this mantra all the physical, mental, economic problems are solved.
“Om Sri Durgaya Namah”
