What is the 2019 Navaratri Collection?

If you’ve poked around here a bit, you may have noticed that my work is usually has a healing or ceremonial intent. For many years, I worked as a yoga instructor and Ayurveda practitioner, and the practices and symbols from those traditions often find their way into my work.

This frequently means I’m responding to seasonal changes and festivals, since both of those traditions employ practices to keep us in alignment with the changes occurring in nature.

One of my favorite festivals is a celebration honoring the goddess. Called Navaratri in Hindu culture, this celebration lasts 10 days, during which we remember the story of Durga and her battle with the Asuras. Each day a different facet of the goddess is honored and when I have the space in my making calendar, I love to pay homage by creating work inspired by the story.

This year’s festival, running from Sept 29-Oct 8, landed in a nice opening in my schedule and I have been deep in inspiration and production for the whole time. Please enjoy my rendition of

The Story of Durga and Mahishasura…

We join our Devas (or gods), embodied forms of Universal Love, Courage and Selfless Service, in the midst of yet another battle with the dreaded Asuras (or demons). This time, their attacker is the terrifying Mahishasura; the very epitome of Egotism.

Mahishasura is a wily character, able to shape-shift at will. He cleverly dodges every attack launched by Indra and his army and fights back with increased vigor after each assault. Pushed to the brink, and nearing demolition, the divine beings run to the head honchos--Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva--pleading for their aid.

B, V and S, realizing they are up against a foe like none they had ever encountered, sit together in meditation, praying for assistance from the cosmos. Focusing together the most magical and essential of their divine powers, they cry out in desperation. The Supreme Goddess answers their call.

As Mahishasura rampages around, stomping on plants and spreading his Greed and Ignorance in all directions, a stunningly beautiful woman appears, quietly sitting nearing a mountaintop.

“Be Mine!” demands Mahishasura, in what has got to be the least romantic Valentine ever. Coyly turning her gaze, the beautiful woman demurs

“As much as I would love to take you up on your kind offer, I took a silly little vow as a young girl that I would only marry the one who could defeat me in battle.”

Furious at her response, the Demon engages his most fearsome soldiers to capture the beautiful maiden and imprison her. However, as the legions of demons approached to seize her, the delicate beauty begins to transform and grow. 

A third eye sprouts in the center of her forehead, fangs erupt from her howling mouth, and weapons of mass destruction spin and sparkle from her numerous fists. The boulder upon which she so sweetly and recently sat, transforms into a gigantic, voracious golden lion.

“Attack!” shrieks Mahishasura to his legions. The demon general, Fear, trembles and gulps as he leads his battalion into battle.

And, in fact, Fear and his cronies have reason to be afraid, having been sent into battle with Chit Shakti, the great purifying power of Supreme Consciousness. Ego has attacked the Higher Self with his guns blazing, and she is not in the mood to suffer his childish ways.

Brandishing her powerful Mantras, her Sword of Discrimination, her Bow of Determination and her cudgel of Devotion to Waking Up, the Goddess deflects every blow and demolishes her attackers.

In one particularly gruesome battle, the Divine Mother engages with Rakta Bija; a terrifying demon who has the power of regeneration. Each drop of his blood that hits the ground sprouts another warrior, who leaps up to join to charge against the Mother. 

Chuckling to herself, Durga transforms herself into the Goddess Kali, who’s lolling tongue and gaping mouth lap up every drop before it reaches the earth and devour all of the remaining demon sprouts. 

With all his troops defeated, Mahishasura, the embodiment of Self-Delusion (and, some say, the Patriarchy Personified), realizes he must face the Universal Mother himself. Marching into battle, he attempts to distract and confuse the Supreme Goddess by shifting rapidly from one form to another.

Ego becomes Superiority and Condescension. He starts with simple eye-rolling and devolves into total mansplanation. Failing to bring her under his thumb, he showers her with False Modesty and Empty Praise. When even this tactic brings no success, he explodes in Self-Obsessed Self Hatred, hoping to at least engage her pity.

The Mother is unimpressed.

In response, the Mother manifests millions of forms of the Goddess from Herself to deal with each of his minions. Among these arise:

Shailaputri—Daughter of the Mountain, she grants us the strength of stone to hold fast in our vows.

Brahmacharini—She Who Knows the Vastness of Her Nature.

Brahmini—the Goddess of Prudently Applied Intelligence.

Vaishnavi—Goddess of Wisely Used Material Resources. 

Kushmanda—She Who Created the Universe in the Cosmic Egg and Sat at its Center in the Form of the Sun.

And many more.

Having taken the form of Half Man/Half WaterBuffalo, and whining petulantly, Ego shouts, “No fair!” as he stomps his hoof, causing the ground to tremble.

Mahishasura is becoming desperate. You see, many thousands of years before, he had been granted a boon by the god Brahma. After eons of prayer and penance, Mahishasura had plead with Lord Brahma to gift him with immortality. Brahma had refused this request, granting instead that he could only die at the hands of a woman. Mahishasura had bowed, satisfied that this boon was tantamount to immortality, as (he believed) no woman could ever have the strength to defeat him.

And now, here he is, on the brink of total annihilation at the hands of the very essence of Woman herself, the Great Goddess.

In his natural form, as Half Man/Half Water Buffalo, the Demon attempts to gore the Supreme Goddess to death. She handily deflects him with her trident. Making another pass, Mahishasura tries to stomp the Mother under his hoof. She smiles and slides gracefully to the side, forcing him to race past her, snorting and puffing with effort. Wielding her red silk dress like the muleta of the matador, the Goddess toys with the Buffalo god in the only version of bull fight that should ever be celebrated.

With a desperate burst of energy, he kicks at her and roars deafeningly, in a final attempt to intimidate her.

Deciding that enough is enough, the Goddess calls forth her discus, launching it at Mahishasura and beheading him.

And thus, the Supreme Goddess, the Mother of All, The Divine Feminine, vanquishes Ego and brings peace and balance back to the land.

Check out my interpretations of this story in metal and stone on Instagram. Shop the 2019 Navaratri Collection.