By Yasmin Perera (a client of Suwa Mandala)
A depiction of the Shiva-Shakthi, embodying the union of the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine. (Image: Middle Management Insights).
The journey I did with Chathuri to bring forth my mandala was quite amazing. She followed the path of what we called ‘following the divine bread crumbs’ – images and thoughts that came from visions, dreams, meditations and Chathuri’s powerful intuition a bit at a time to finally come to the rich beautiful mandala, that is so full of meaning. This was a sacred journey for me.
I had long engaged with the Divine Feminine through readings, images and rituals on the basis that we live in a patriarchal world where the divine is portrayed so much in masculine terms, and we need a way to bring forth the energy of the Divine Feminine. I also believe that the society itself is mainly driven by negative masculine energy – achievement, ambition, power, greed, and the need to do, do, do – with no time for ‘being’, and have one’s actions spring forth from a grounded space of ‘being’. The space of ‘being’ I believe allows one to be more grounded with the essence of creation, and all of its needs ‘the all – where everything belongs’ and is honoured. This is what I aspired for in my journey to the Divine Feminine.
Having been brought up Christian there were no powerful Divine Feminine images for me to engage with. Mary was the image that was available to us, but she was a human being, not a God or Goddess and her energy seemed too passive for ME. Of course this may not be so for others. Through the ages, all across the world there have been powerful Divine Feminine images that people have engaged with – Isis, the many Indian, Greek and Roman Goddesses and images of creation that many Indigenous people of different cultures have engaged with like the Rainbow Serpent of some tribes in Australia which captured my imagination.
I wanted a powerful feminine image to engage with, and was drawn to Isis, particularly for her devotion and transformational energy and I have a statue of her. In one of her visions, Chathuri saw a statue of Isis – she did not know I had one. She saw crystals that I had which she did not know about either – they are in the mandala.
I also struggled within because I did not want to reject the Divine Masculine that I had grown up with, but wanted to give more prominence to the Divine Feminine as I fully believed that the world needs more positive feminine energy – energy that is about gratitude, connection, nurture, sustaining the gift of creation and receiving the grace that nature bestows upon us. I believe as this energy flows through more, it will foster the more positive masculine energies of protection and strength that will also support the development of the Feminine. I believe this is already emerging. The image of the Yin and the Yang is one I had journeyed with for a very long time which held a vision of growth to wholeness, and along with it the idea of non-duality and the importance of practising this in life.
The mandala showed such balance between the Masculine and the Feminine and the intricate connection between them and as I engaged with this my conflict of where I should put the Masculine faded and I was at peace and could hold with both. That the grey spaces depicted non-duality emerged slowly and fitted in beautifully with what I had journeyed with so far.
The absolutely stunning Butterfly that had gone through all the stages of its growth and emerged with all the colours of creation – perhaps embodying all of creation and all the potential of my journey gives me so much grace as I engage with my beautiful mandala and the wonderful sacred journey I had with Chathuri. It also shows that the space of the ‘Butterfly’ needs to grow and be confident to express itself, which I know.
