the femininity of shani (what we can learn from pushya) š·
š· monica bellucci: pushya chandra
š«ļø The mystical tundra of Shani is often overlooked by its restricting feminine complexity and misconstrued for the nature of Buddha (the tantalizing serpent of Ashlesha). While their indirect submissive natures are similar in comparison, it is often natives of Mercury who use this explicit behavioral pattern for more materialistic, perhaps conniving, matters at hand. In this exploration of Shaniās ancient connection to divine femininity, I want to purposefully disclose that their submissive, seemingly āneutralā expressions are not the same. Buddha is the snake of binding to the collective for the intent of freedom and entangling or ensnaring their victim for the purpose of disempowering. Shani is the snake of binding to the contemporary nature of society for the intent of cooling the darkness of ego and empowering the higher collective. Buddha bestows the intelligence of the material aspects of the subversion into the intellect of worldly matters. However, Shani is the intelligence of the occult undertones which control the very essence of the material plane and the union of what is to come after we conquer the very shadows of the tenth house (the rashi of capricorn who will be the awakening of the realm, once we are released from Kali Yuga) to the hidden truths of the eleventh house, the supposed house of personal ties and fulfillment.
š· jessica lange: pushya lagna
āļø There is a specific air of mystery around Shani and the grahaās corresponding nakshatras, bhavas and rashis. Much of the information provided is rather repetitively regurgitated from varying sources and of surface nature. My goal with this exploration is not to specifically delve in the expressional aspects of Shani, but to focus on the grahaās distinct involvement in the path of divine femininity. My hope is this exploration will awaken the serpent of knowledge within you, to explore the more niche archetypes within the vata umbrella that is Saturn.
š· miranda kerr: pushya lagna
ā©ļø Vata dosha is most synonymous with cold, bereaved individuals who search this earthly plane longing for sustenance. It is the cold hands that seek to grasp the tangibility of spiritual words, it is the homeless widow who was once filled with wanderlust now bereaved, it is the drowsy feeling that surmounts when you look upon the rain beating down on your window pane. It is the dosha characteristic of the feelings we most disdain and wish to shy away from and simultaneously the realm of Shani, Chandra, and Rahu. We have heard the tales of the greedy, insatiable spirit of Rahu; the forgetful, lusting of Chandra; and the forever dried and cold spirit of Shani. Having repeatedly heard the rhetoric of these respective deities, a certain air of weariness has surrounded them respectfully. But you must continue to remind yourself of the necessity of attaining equilibrium and leaning into each grahaās meanings, teachings, and significances. If you are dominant in either of these vata grahas, know that you are more than the sterile or greedy archetype that has been placed upon you, as Kali (Shani) was equally as ferocious as she was creationist, Chhinnamasta (Rahu) was equally as violent as she was self-sacrificing, and Bhuvaneshvari (Chandra) is equally as intimidating as she is the supreme being of the earth, atmosphere, and heavens.
š· paris hilton: pushya chandra
š©ø In a similar fashion, the ethereal air of vata is equally as destructive as it is light, cool and dry. It governs all movement and processes in your mind and body (such as blood flow, breathing, and the coagulation of thoughts in your mind). This rulership of movement is why Shani is so astute and articulate within the realm of femininity. Shani is able to manipulate the vata element to attract and constrict around those we long to unite with. These elements of constriction are often associated with Ashlesha/Buddha, but significantly vary from each other.
š· gisele bundchen: pushya surya
š Think of the Pushya nakshatra, the āKulaā star, resembling the flower of the snake gourd. Similar to Ashlesha, Pushya is also associated with serpentine movement. It is the maternal snake before it enters the stage of selfishness. It is focused on laying its cosmological eggs, whereas Ashlesha is the mother after this stage that abandons the cosmic eggs of Brihaspati (carefully crafted in Punarvasu) to never return or protect her young again. Ashlesha is leering into the gandanta knot spirituality of disempowering the collective, coiling up to rest in preparation for the spiritual shedding that awaits in Magha. Pushya is leering into the birthing of the collective itself. With the knowledge of vata dosha, Pushya is able to tap into previous experiences of destruction and coldness to relate to others. Using those previous experiences to further divulge into the mystified unknown that often longs to be hidden.
š· kate moss: pushya lagna
š This is why the cancer rashi is essential for developing cosmic energy and harnessing/wielding it. The cancer rashi is ruled by Chandra, of which is correlated to the Kamala Mahavidya (the vata being whose symbolism is comparable to that of Aphrodite or the Christian Mary). The primary ādevastatingā nature of vata is what sprouts fertility and purity, as the dirtiest mud will produce the freshest lotus. It is recommended in order to celebrate her, devotees engage in eating spicy, hot foods, as they ignite passion. These spices may include cinnamon, garlic, saffron, or chili peppers due to heavily spiced foods having the ability to bear this Mahavidyaās luscious energy. These same foods are associated with the vata Shani, in a similar fashion, Shani and Chandra are considered enemies but respectfully hold the cosmic keys to one another through the likes of Pushya and Shravana. The metaphor for the consumption of extreme vata spices that one earns the ability to celebrate and veneer the Mahavidya in her idealistic form is comparable to the narrative of sacrifice one must engage in to witness beauty (spiritually and physically). Aphrodite was offered sacrificial doves (birdās being Shaniās primary vahana: vehicle) and smoky incense (smoke being ether in nature which is of vata dosha) in an attempt to receive love, fertility, and union. Whereas, the Virgin Mary was deemed pure due to her great sacrifice when she offered up the life of her Divine Son Jesus using her āImmaculate Heartā (similar to Kamalaās abundance in the anahata/heart chakra). In āA Prayer of Praise to the Blessed Virgin Maryā by St. Ephrem, he sang: āā¦.Thou indeed art our only hope, most sure and sacred in God's sight, to whom be honor and glory, majesty and dominion, for ever and ever, world without end. Amen.ā. Similar to Kamala, Aphrodite, and the Virgin Mary, so too must the masses work to earn the right to witness Shaniās femininity due to its premiere selectivity. This is why Pushya births the highest grossing models and revolutionary actresses in history [e.g. Halle Berry, Twiggy, Marlene Dietrich, Selena Gomez (who is now the most followed woman on Instagram) etc.], as the masses find pleasure in working to witness the mysticism vata bestows.
š· selena gomez: pushya surya and lagna
š· This mysticism is often deemed āoddā, āexoticā or āuniqueā and this is exactly where we can learn from the Mahavidya Kali. The darkened Mahavidya Kali breaks conventional stereotypes of feminine beauty and sexuality in Hindu goddess mythology. She serves as the dominant sexual partner straddling the prone Shiva (the master of poison and medicine, the great yogi, overlord of time, the cosmic dancer) and the wild warrior goddess drinking demon blood. She is originally depicted as a symbol of uncontrolled fury emerging from the fair, beautiful goddess Ambika (goddess of supreme power, energy and invincibility), in the battle with the demons in older Vedic texts. Thereafter, she gains independent existence both as the dark, mysterious and sexually demanding version of the more benign and auspicious Parvati and the primordial goddess power pre-dating the Hindu trinity of male gods, the Universal Mother Force which embraces both good and evil, gods and demons in the Kalika Purana. Unlike other texts which emphasize Kali's role in the battle against the demons, the Kalika Purana's focus is on her sexuality and her darkly sensual beauty. Equally it is on the heterodoxical rituals associated with her worship involving blood and flesh offerings, wine and the use of sexual intercourse as opposed to Vedic rituals.
š· dakota fanning: pushya chandra
ā¤ļøāš„ In Kalika Purana, Dakshaās daughter Sati, born fair, assumes the fearful visage of Kali and the other Mahavidyas to terrify Shiva into submission. At Dakshaās yagna, her father attributes her dark color to constant proximity to the wild-mendicant Shiva, causing her to give up her life in sorrow and humiliation. In the second portion of the Purana, she takes the dark and beautiful form of Parvati, similar to the appearance of a blue lotus. She was born to serve the godsā purpose of luring into domesticity the stern, austere hermit-like Shiva to preserve the cosmic cycles of creation, preservation and destruction. It is only later, piqued and jealous of Shivaās propensity towards fair-skinned goddesses that she emerges from her kosa (sheath) of darkness to become the golden-hued Gauri. Yet her darkly alluring and compelling sexuality is highlighted in the text as opposed to the prototype of a domesticated wife and mother like Candi in the Candi Mangal Kavya. John Stratton Hawley in his Prologue to āDevi: Goddesses of Indiaā, noted that Kali in a strange way mediates between the transcendent goddess, the generic Devi who has supremacy over all forms of life and the consort goddesses like Lakshmi and Radha. Hawley wrote: āOn the one hand, Kali unquestionably manifests herself as supremeāwhether as a mother demanding submission or as an uncanny, uncontrollable forceābut on the other hand, her supremacy is paradigmatically measured by the power she exerts over her consort the great god Shivaā. He detailed an example of her sexual dominance, the iconic representation of Kali dancing wildly on the prone, ithyphallic corpse of her husband Shiva. The Kalika Purana initially projects her as the manifestation of the universality of divine femininity, Mahamaya, who is Visnumaya and Rudrani consort of both Visnu and Rudra (Shiva). She is Savitri, Saraswati, through the power of her maya (illusion), incomprehensible to all who are ensnared in her power of illusion. She is Visnuās Yoganidra, his state of cosmic sleep or stasis. She is Yogamaya/Mahamaya, who ensnares the cosmos in her web of illusion, she is Mahamoha, the fatal enchantress and the Supreme Trinity itself is not immune to her mysterious lure. Another goddess text, the Sri Lalita Sahasranama calls her Mahabhoga and Bhogini implying her rajasik-rupa (dynamism, also material grandeur) of being steeped in worldly luxuries. Yet she is the path to mukti (salvation) for beings trapped in the worldly and materialistic which is all part of her cosmic illusion. The Sri Lalita Sahasranama also states that she is Mohanasini, destroying the moha (bondage) of her devotees and Pasu-pasa-vimocini, releasing them from the inferior, coarser earthly bonds. She is Vidya (knowledge) for the householder who desires mukti (salvation), and Avidya (ignorance) who binds the universe in bonds of material desire. She is the primeval Demi-Urge, the Adyasakti that activates the inert maleness of Shiva into the dynamism of the Shiva-Sakti or Purusa-Prakrti union for without Sakti, Shiva is but a sava (corpse). Among the Sakta devotees it is Kali amongst the many manifestations of the divine feminine who is recognized as the Adya-murti, the original goddess manifestation. In the text, Kali alone can awaken the virility within Shiva, for on the one hand, she is a yogin to participate in his yoga and on the other, it is her eroticism, wild and uncontrolled, which is the perfect counterpart to his dominant sexual urges.
š· marlene dietrich: pushya chandra
š¦¶ Kali is feared in Hindu mythology as the negative stereotype in goddess cults and paradoxically revered as the Universal Mother. In a similar fashion, Pushya natives serve as the nourishing udder they are symbolized as, flowing with the golden knowledge of Brihaspati; yet their propensity for awakening occult knowledge and powers within their partners is hidden within the little knowledge the public has on this nakshatra. Kaliās iconic delineation, girded and garlanded with skulls and limbs while her hand is raised in the abhayamudra (gesture of reassurance from fear) indicates both chastisement and benediction. As a dark, complex, mysterious and alluring figure, she breaks conventional stereotypes of feminine beauty and sexuality, combining the beautiful with the fearful. Thus, explaining Pushyaās propensity for both embodying and challenging feminine stereotypes in the media (such as Paris Hiltonās hyperfemininity, Marlene Dietrichās well-known portrayal for characters challenging the submissive standard of the 1900s, Halle Berryās intimidatingly complex āStormā character). In a traditionally patriarchal society and an androcentric religious order, Kali emerges as a rebel; dominant in marital and sexual relationships, ferocious, and bloodthirsty on the battlefield. Existing on the fringes of the dharmic value system and Vedic ritualism, the Kali-centric myths teeter dangerously on the extreme peripheries of social and moral acceptability in the iconic projection of her black nudity, voluptuous breasts, bloodstained, her foot on the prostrated corpse-like body of her consort Shive, and the sacrificial blood and flesh rituals associated with her worship.
š· angelina jolie: pushya lagna (note her films are wonderful examples of the nature of Pushya, from her Maleficent characterās sheep-like creature (the yoni of Pushya) to her dominatrix role, symbolizing the dark sexual subcultures of Shani in B*SM)
š Kali conveys maya as seen from the āother shoreā. She illustrates what the world of appearance looks like to the one who has seen beyond her overall presence (which is described as frightening) and her dwelling place lying within the cremation ground mocks the ultimate significance of a world grounded in the ego. In her āmad dancing, dishevelled hair and eerie howl, there is made present the hint of a world reeling, careening, out of controlā. In conclusion, Kali, in integrating absolute binaries of the terrifying and the beautiful, the compassionate Mother and the blood-thirsty demon destroyer, the consort of Shiva and the sexually dominant partner draws a more comprehensive image of non-duality that is beyond the reductivist social and religious definitions of what is acceptable or what is heterodox. So too Pushyas embody life as it is in all its wild and abundant complexity, not as it is selectively made out to be within social and religious peripheries. They embody divine femininity in all its complexity; serving as the slivering synthesis of both the auspicious and benign goddesses, the wild, and uncontrolled. Like the Adyasakti, the primeval cosmic force, they represent both the good and the evil, the godly and the demonic of which the cosmos is composed, all of which arise from the intersection of the nakshatras in cancer rashi (as detailed above).
š It is important to note that the dominant female sexuality, the prolonging of intercourse in the Shiva-Shakti union, is not an exercise of power associated with the sexually dominant partner. Its ultimate purpose is the awakening of the dormant kundalini shakti (vital energy), which rises up the spine through the various chakras within us to culminate in the sahasrara (the thousand-petalled lotus) on the top of the head, the psycho-spiritual center. It envisages the path from pravritti (intense activity) to nivritti (cessation of desire) in this act of sacred sex. It defines a path of realization through indulgence without bondage (associated with Shani) to the senses (that of rahu/chandra), rather than through deprivation and denial of the sensory experiences. The myths and the cults of worship associated with Kali therefore strip life of its absolutes to envisage a more comprehensive and all-inclusive vision.
* all of these placements were found using astrotheme/.com and/or astro-charts/.com. it is important to note that some chandra (moon) placements may be off by up to 6 degrees and lagnas (ascendants/rising signs) as well, due to the fact that many websites do not have 100% accurate birth times for the given celebrities.
xoxo, angel š (the beauty of ashwini is coming soon lovelies)
