Navratri: A Lotus in the Palm of My Hand

By Yvonne E. Nieves, written October 2019

This Navratri has been an interesting one, one that has tested my outer world yet reinforced the strength of my roots and core. The lessons have come in small and painless ways (and I’m so grateful about this) but the messages have come in mighty. It’s been a wonderful opportunity to reflect on who I have been and who I have become, and more importantly, how I am determined to continue to build up the foundations of learning and education, work and business, and family life.

Sometimes life, in general, is like a battlefield. Boundaries have to be reinforced. Enemies need to be slashed out. New strategies need to be established, along with igniting new insight, having a new attitude, stepping into new armor, and running head-on into the throws of greatness. Battlefields are about risk-taking. Sometimes there are missteps, mistakes, and failures. Often times there are casualties. But the greatest fight is one of the heart, where love and loyalty rein.

That is where the purity of intention can be found and no sacrifice is ever too great...

I feel myself blooming like a fresh new lotus flower that is stronger in-depth and more beautiful than what I could have ever imagined. Even though I haven’t been able to spend time with my spiritual community like I have wanted or given my all to rigorous home puja as I have the past several years, I am not down on myself. I feel that the true spirit of this time is to deliver us messages of how the Goddess/Devi is working through us, and how we are ALL, in fact, Devi incarnate.

Each goddess has an epic story to tell; these are the stories of the need for a character like her and the rise of strength and bravery and resilience. She sets forth the tone of the battle she chooses to fight, and then she slays! She charges at evil, destroys the ego, pinpoints our contradictions, and makes us rethink what we stand for. If we don’t honor her by coming forward and doing the work that she demands us to do -especially at this auspicious astrological time- then we miss out on an incredible window of opportunity to truly understand who we are and why we were put here on this planet at this time.

We cannot be afraid to do the work. We cannot be afraid to face our demons and our contradictions. We cannot be afraid to stare hypocrisy in the face and call out the lies.

But we also must tap into our own Divine Feminine, the force within us that allows us to act on empathy and be ruthlessly compassionate. Sometimes that means tough love, and I mean REALLY tough love.

It's all for the greater good, though. We have to remember that to get unstuck, we’ve got to keep walking through the muck. And it can get so, so very mucky. We’re all big piles of bullshit and we have to detox and purge the crap once and for all.

From there, healing comes in, as does beauty, as does knowledge, inspiration, enlightenment, and gifts from the Goddess. But with each gift comes responsibility; sometimes the gift is so great that it takes time to adjust to the responsibility. But if we reject or abuse the gifts, or fail to understand the depth of the responsibility, then we are doomed to repeat our mistakes until we get it right. That can take lifetimes.

If we cannot embody the Goddess, or at least take the time to relate to her, then we miss out on the gifts of this special time. We really and truly do.

So, tonight I meditate in my heart. This is my Sadhana this Navaratri; to reflect on the nature of Devi, to understand how she wants to act and play through me, and to allow myself to be used as her medium. I am most grateful to be of her service. Jai Maa!