Shakti and Shiva sittin' in a tree

[liveonearth]

My kitten is named Shakti, for the feminine divine. In Hindu mythical imagery she is usually pictured as a voluptuous female human, often with four arms, sometimes with a sword, sometimes riding a lion. Shiva is the masculine divine, the blue guy wearing leopard or tiger fur, with a snake in his hair or around his arm. The cosmic union (or sacred marriage) of the two is often seen as one person, half blue god and half brown goddess....though sometimes the images are more sexually explicit, with Shakti sitting in Shiva's lap, his legs folded in lotus while hers are wrapped around him. No explicit sexual images here, but I did find some interesting stuff.


Sometimes Shakti is blue, wears a necklace of skulls and holds a bowl of blood and a demon's head.

When Shakti is combined with Shiva, she is usually holding a lotus blossum, and he is holding something that looks like a salt shaker to me. Can anyone tell me what it is?








SHAKTI
--destroyer of the demons
--force, power or energy
--The Divine Mother
--the active, dynamic principles of feminine power
--embodies active energy & power of male deities (Purushas), ex: Vishnu in Vaishnavism, Shiva in Shaivism
--Vishnu's shakti counterpart is called Lakshmi
--Parvati is the female shakti of Shiva
--the Shakti mudra is supposed to be calming and help with good sleep
--practice the mudra 3 times a day for 12 minutes each





Last but not least, here's a sculpture of Shakti in the lap of Ganesha instead of Shiva. Does this count as cheating?

Comments

Ganesh and the drum

[(Anonymous)]

Ganesh is the son ofr Shiva and Shakti - my western non-divine self is guessing that the female in the statue is the wife or tantric consort of Ganesh rather then his mommy. I hope! This position is frequent depiction of Tibetian Buddhas and Dakinis... so I assume it is a similar thang is this instance.

As for the salt shaker... it looks like a double headed drum to me(dhamru). Symbolism not known, but I think of journeying and shamnic stuff(not that means anything). How about Chod tradition in Tibet? Or the dancing aspect of Shiva? Note how it is hanging of the trident which is a symbol of Kundalini or the three psychic nerves - Tantric or inner energetic mastery. The trident is also a symbol of the three worlds, past present and future, the three gunas, and so on!! A rich symbol indeed.

Just some thoughts.

Re: Ganesh and the drum

[liveonearth.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your thoughts!