THE POWER OF A WOMAN’S BODY I feel very blessed to be a woman, even though I have not always felt that way. I have found it hard to accept that in the West in subtle ways and overtly in many places in the world, women are treated as less than men. I believe that cultures have feared throughout his-story a sacred power within a woman’s body. I also believe that both men and women misunderstand and mistrust it even today. A woman’s body has a sacred tie to the Earth. Within women there is an essential force that serves to keep life in balance. This energy is not limited to women per se, as men too may be in touch with it. But women must make peace with it to be at peace with their physical incarnation. The planet is our mother who gives and sustains our life. The Earth makes it possible for us to live on this planet. Just like an infant is dependant on its mother to survive, so too we are dependent on our mother Earth. A woman’s body is uniquely tied to the cycles of the moon, planets and cosmos through our menstrual cycles. Just like the ocean’s tides flow in and out, as though the ocean were breathing, so…
I cannot impart how important the force of nature is to me. Nature, the intelligence within it, that is expressed through form as dancing life, is the very nature of my being. It is what fuels my creative work. It is what sparks the delight in my heart. It is what reaches out to serve others. It is what connects. My meditation practice feels a though it springs from the fountain of life-force. Yoga is an expression of that interconnection that already is. We do not need to create it. We need to uncover and remember, cultivate, revere and cherish it. I would like this blog to feel like a garden: joyful, open and alive. If I could share on this page the delight I feel through inner space of being, and in so doing, inspire you to cultivate that space within your self, then I will have succeeded. Too often we become like talking heads that bob about like flotsam on the deep oceans of life. I want to settle in with you, deeper, into the powerful truths of this moment. For this reason, I want to challenge myself to be more succinct in these coming entries, unlike my past entries that have been longer. I want to provide inspiration and room for contemplation.…
I shared in last week’s blog how it is easy to point fingers at others and criticize people for their shortcomings while overlooking our own. How quickly we forget that we too can fly into a rage, call people nasty names, judge, or take our feelings inappropriately out on those around us when hurtful things may be directed our way. We are all imperfect, evolving beings just finding our way through life. As you move through the day today, practice seeing others as a reflection of yourself. Practice putting yourself in the other person’s shoes. See if you can do this before you may habitually react either by thinking or doing things that are less than divine. Our ego will try to convince us that what we perceive as outside ourselves has nothing to do with us. But at its root, life is one flow of pure consciousness, arising. We are not separate but in a oneness flow. So see if you can see others as a part of yourself or as a reflection of yourself. Notice that street person who is asking for change and know that you too could be there. And perhaps, in some ways, you are. Perhaps there are parts of yourself that you have abandoned and ways in which…
NATAMBA Ok. I cannot help but offer a little shameless promotion about my up and coming show. I am just too happy not to share! This is the show synopsis:“When the reptiles invade Avalon, Natamba, disturbed from deep meditation, leaves for planet Earth. Like a ray of liquid gold light, Natamba arrives on Earth to find it riddled with interference. While on Earth, Natamba explores the meaning of Yoga: to be one with all things. By embodying I AM consciousness and by seeing Yoga everywhere, even in the nightclub, Natamba transforms the desolate world back to a lush landscape. Natamba brings to life a message of hope, interconnection, love and celebration for all we have.” Fun, huh? It is kinda sci-fi meets spirituality, Cirque du Soleil meets Madonna. For those of you who don’t know, Natamba is the character I become in my shows. She is a ray of gold light that recently downloaded to Earth from a planet she calls Avalon. She embodies Yoga, that is, our true human potential as a ray of gold light. Natamba is one with light and brings to life all that she encounters. Natamba, the word, came about as I was living in India. I was by chance repeatedly called Natamba by two men from Brazil who were living…
Dear friends, A year ago today I visited a high school in Iqaluit before flying home to Toronto to conclude my life-changing North Pole journey. North Pole Journey, Day Seven The school bell rings and triggers a Pavlovian response in me. A feeling of excitement and freedom surges through my body. The halls fill with noisy, boisterous, vibrantly alive students who emerge from small rooms. Soon the auditorium is flooded with dynamic bodies full of the very hormones I felt pulsating through the halls when I first walked in. I peek out of my dressing room door and see a room agitated and full of energy… CREATING YOUR REALITY, PART 5: PURIFICATION BACK TO THE ONE (Continued from Welcome to Life School) We must learn to purify our thoughts, lessen our attachment to our ego in order to evolve. Seeing life as a mirror provides a wonderful humbling opportunity to do just that. When we understand that what we experience is a result of our thoughts and perceptions, we can grow and make changes, so that our life becomes more fulfilling and joyful. As our minds purify, eventually we become one with the Reality that we are love. Then, love is all we see. Once we have purified our minds, released our identification with…
PART 5: MULTIDIMENSIONAL CO-CREATORS: WHO OR WHAT IS CREATING? (Continued from A New Generation of Multi-Media Artist: The Multi-Dimensional Co-Creator) Ok. Buckle your seat belt. You may read this last entry in response to this week’s question and think, “uh oh, Parvati has drunk the kool-aid. What IS she talking about?” Well, in the spirit of sincerity, transparence and honesty, here it goes… Many of you know me well enough by now to know that I see things in terms of the multi-dimensional. We are spiritual, infinite beings in a temporal body with a temporal personality returning back to the infinite. Our soul is a reflection of the divine, merging back to pure consciousness. Our personality is being purified, the aggregates removed so that we may be vessels of unconditional love. Have you ever seen a show or looked at a work of art and wondered, who was actually creating? Sometimes, it is not only the voice of the artist’s soul. Sometimes, the work can feel superhuman, like other energies stepped in and participated in the creative process. You know what I mean? I believe that we are not alone by any stretch. We are part of a vast, intelligent universe. Just like we can observe in Nature, there are energies that need healthy space, light and…
PART 4: A NEW GENERATION OF MULTI-MEDIA ARTIST: THE MULTI-DIMENSIONAL CO-CREATOR (Continued from The Source of Creativity: Ego or Selflessness) I step into gold spandex, put on an elaborate head dress and summon the Cosmic Intelligence to become Natamba, the Goddess from Avalon, the title character in my current show. I feel that I am part of a new generation of multi-media artists that I call multi-dimensional co-creators. As a multidimensional co-creator, I am aware that I am part of a vast universe, and I feel I work with the palette of broad understanding that everything I see around me is a reflection of what I think, feel and believe. My thoughts are literally creating my reality. I know that the creative process, whether conscious or not, taps into a collective field of energy, to such an extent that literally what we each do, think and create both reflects and shifts the directive of our collective consciousness as a whole. I choose to consciously tap into that vast pool and see how far down the rabbit hole Natamba, my gold spandex and I can go. Multi-dimensional co-creators like myself are aware that no one person is an island. I am interconnected in vast ways far beyond the limitations of my personal will and ego. I believe…
PART 3: THE SOURCE OF CREATIVITY: EGO OR SELFLESSNESS (Continued from The Power of Intention) Some people create art through pain and tension. Some thrive on tight deadlines and panic. Others need relaxed quiet in which to create. Though I can meet a painful situation and create, I tend to use the creative force to move through the pain towards expansion. Though some artists rest in pain and seem to need it to create, pain to me is passing. At best, it is a catalyst to propel me towards healing. It is not an end in itself.When I wrote the song for 9/11, the pain I witnessed and the compassion I felt cracked open a well of goodness and interconnection. I could have written about injustice and anger, but more sincerely for me, more powerful for me was the call to rest in the field of interconnection. I have written angry songs, judgmental songs, indignant songs, sad songs and happy songs, but if they do not come from a place of sincerity and honesty, they never make it past my song book and into a recording. I am very picky that way. For me, art is a spiritual practice, a way to challenge my ego and grind it down, so that it dissolves back to the…
ASTROLOGY AND THE POWER OF THE PLANETS Dear Parvati, Both my boyfriend and I had a hard last couple of weeks in our relationship. When I read our horoscopes, they both said that we would have 3 eclipses to deal with, the last one on July 1st, which would be the toughest. As a matter of fact, both of us had really tough days on July 1st. I wonder how true those things are. Are we in control, or are the planets controlling us? IS IT ALL JUST ASTRO-BABBLE? When I first came across astrology, I dismissed it as silly. It seemed far-fetched to think that distant planets swirling through space would have any power over my world. Back then, I was convinced that life was a matter of putting your mind to what you wanted, and that was what you would get. When I co-formed my first musical band as an adult (yes, I was one of those kids with a rock band), I found out that my creative partner was also a full-fledged, hard-core astrologer. In the first couple of getting to know him, I dismissed his talks with his astrologer friends as “astrobabble”. I watched him become completely immersed in a world I knew nothing about. I heard him use words like Uranus…