Course Summary
Within the Shakta Tantra tradition of South Asia, Shakti is a dynamic, creative, all- pervading power that animates reality. Shakti is the conscious, creative force that manifests every thought, mood and material form. As this power, she is depicted in many images of the divine, perhaps most vividly and profoundly as the goddesses of the South Asian pantheon.
In this four-week course, we will look at the mythology, history, and iconography of four goddesses: Saraswati, Lakshmi, Kali and Durga. We will consider the specific rituals and devotional practices that enliven their presence in the heart of practitioners.
We will also explore how the fields of consciousness associated with these goddesses function on a material level and investigate how an understanding of their different dimensions (historical, philosophical, spiritual and mythological) provides a deeper and more nuanced understanding of our roles in life and our place in existence. As fields of consciousness inherent in the fabric of reality, how do goddesses Durga, Kali, Saraswati, and Lakshmi influence and shape our awareness and everyday experience?
Each class begins with a meditation, a visualization and a mantra invocation to the Goddess. A visual presentation with teachings on the qualities, attributes, mythology, iconography, history and culture of these deities will be shared, with time reserved in every session for questions and discussion.
About Your Teacher
Laura Amazzone, M.A. is a teacher, writer, intuitive healer, yogini and initiated priestess in the Shakta Tantra and Sri Vidya traditions of India and Nepal. She is the author of the award-winning book, “Goddess Durga and Sacred Female Power.” She has published numerous articles within the fields of Hinduism, Tantra and Feminist Spirituality in many different encyclopedias, anthologies, journals and online publications. Laura teaches in the Yoga Philosophy Program at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles and online at various different teaching platforms. She offers a diverse array of teachings, authentic and undiluted lineage-based rituals and spiritual practices as well as pilgrimages to Nepal that promote spiritual empowerment and divine embodiment. LauraAmazzone.com
Adorned with a garland of skulls and wielding a sword and other weapons, the fierce goddess Kali invokes a quality of transformation, power, dissolution, and liberation. Her iconography is striking, perhaps even terrifying to behold. She wears a skirt of severed arms, has her red tongue hanging out and her hair disheveled and wild. Both feared and loved, Kali is an undeniably fierce presence who guides her devotees through the paradoxes of life.
Working with Kali is demanding and yet ultimately liberating, if one surrenders to her wisdom. As absolute power, as the primordial mother, Kali embodies the mysteries of life: birth and death. She does not bow down to any hegemony. Kali removes the veils of our illusions and ignorance to reveal the underlying heart of reality. Her transformative shakti (or power) shows our conditioned and fear-based attachments, the ways we falsely believe we are separate, and all the contractions that limit our access to her knowledge.
We will explore the iconography of Kali and her philosophical context within Shakta and Tantric traditions. We will discuss her history, her indigenous expressions, and look at devotional and ritual approaches to her worship.