Worship of the Divine Mother

The world right now could use some feminine energy, I think. The comfort and safety of a mother’s arms. The knowledge that she will protect you through any crisis. Here are a couple of ways that you can connect with the Divine Mother and the healing power of feminine energy…

The Shakti Coloring Book

I was sent this book to review. I’ve been kind of skeptical about the adult coloring book craze. I did love coloring as a kid but I wondered whether I would find it enough of a challenge for my creativity as an adult. Also, there’s such a glut of them on the market it’s hard to know which ones are good. I feel like there’s a lot of people putting out “mandala” coloring books to cash in on the craze without much knowledge.

That is not the case here!

This book was packed with so much more information than I expected. It has gorgeous pages of mandalas and Goddesses and it also has a full page of information about each image. Suggestions of colors to use, background information about the style of the drawing, details about the Goddess and what she represents. This is a well researched book and is so much more than just a coloring book. You would get a lot out of it even without doing any coloring!

The author gives ideas about how to use the book as a devotional practice. I liked one suggestion to color a page beautifully and then destroy it as a sacrifice to the Goddess as well as a practice in being not attached to one’s work.

Here is a video I did showing me coloring one of the mandalas (it is speeded up):

Simple Kali Puja

This is a tiny little book but it packs a punch. It walks you through a Kali Puja with every detail you could possibly want. It’s got how to sit, how to move your hands, what to say. I wish this was an entire series!

Here you can see an example page that shows all the different aspects of worship that are given in this book:

Kali is an interesting and challenging Goddess to connect to. She is the fiercest of mothers. She cares nothing for convention or social niceties. I think she’s the kind of woman and mother that can be an inspiration to feminists.

Despite the temple I go to being a Kali temple, I’ve rarely witnessed the Kali worship. Just a couple of times. I’m usually there for Shiva. There have been times, however, when the pandit is doing a Kali devotion and once he included Garrick Ravi in a blessing he was doing for another family.

I have not yet tried this home Kali Puja from the book but the level of detail gives me a lot of confidence I could do it. Maybe I’ll do it for one of my “white Hindu tries” videos! (By the way, if you have any suggestions for things I could try in that video series, please do let me know).