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10 Practices to Celebrate Diwali

10/22/2024

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LIGHT • LAKSHMĪ • ABUNDANCE
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Author: R.R. Shakti, PhD.
​
Amāvāsyā is the Sanskrit word for the new moon. At Soul Artist we make the new moon a time for renewal–a time to empty out all the excess to make space for something fresh and, maybe, unexpected. The new moon is a monthly opportunity to embrace creative transformation. 

The next new moon is one of the most celebrated all year, because it initiates one of the biggest annual Indian holidays: Diwali. More than a billion people celebrate Diwali worldwide. 

Diwali is called the "Festival of Lights" because it is a celebration of illumination. It honors the light of your awakened consciousness; the radiant kindle of your creative heart fire. It invokes beauty, prosperity, and love–the archetypal attributes of the Indian Goddess, Lakshmī. This lively mystic tradition invites you to realize these attributes as qualities of your own mind. Rituals serve to remind you of your inner power and transform your awareness toward abundance. And, in case you have forgotten, your most powerful expression of abundance is a grateful heart.

Diwali festivities begin two days before amāvāsyā and conclude two days after, for a five day party that wakes you up to more joy and more gratitude for a more meaningful life. 

10 Practices for Diwali

  1. Clean your home. The first day of Diwali, Dhanteras, begins the celebration of Goddess Lakshmi, the archetype of beauty, abundance, and material wealth. Make house cleaning a sacred ritual of decluttering your life, detoxifying your environment...and creating space for absolute abundance.  
  2. Build a Lakshmi altar. Place an image of Lakshmi on a small altar. Surround it with flowers, candles, stones, and incense. This is done to remember the archetypal attributes of the Goddess–to embrace her beauty, love and abundance as qualities of your own heart/mind. 
  3. Adorn your hands with mehndi. Mehndi art on your hands is symbol of good fortune, health, beauty, and prosperity–all characteristics of Goddess Lakshmi. 
  4. Create rangoli. On Narak Chaturdashi, the second day of Diwali, it is traditional to create bright, colorful rangoli designs to decorate your home. Rangoli is temporary artwork that depicts beautiful designs–typically floral or geometric patterns. Draw or paint your design on paper, then embellish the artwork with colored sand, dyed rice, stones, mirrors, shells, flowers, and/or beads.
  5. Light diyas and candles. Diyas are small oil lamps, generally placed in a doorway or entry, They symbolize welcoming Lakshmi (and the divine light of awakened awareness) into your home. Place diyas and candles in every room and use them to illuminate your rangoli art. You can also hang stringed lights or use floating lanterns to decorate the outside of your home. 
  6. Make a Feast. On the third day of Diwali is the Lakshmi Pūjā (invocation ritual).  Invite family and friends for what is considered the most significant day of the festival. Enjoy a meal and share words of gratitude, invoking abundance through the power of your appreciation. You can also chant mantras to Ganesha and Lakshmi to invoke the energies of success, abundance, and joy. 
  7. (If it is safe and legal) Light sparklers. This is a popular way to celebrate in India. 
  8. Exchange gifts. Padwa is the fourth day of Diwali, and in some regions it marks the first day of the new year. On this day, it’s traditional to exchange small gifts and greetings–messages of gratitude for your loved ones. 
  9. Honor your loved-ones. The fifth of Diwali is called Bahu-dooj. This final day of celebration honors the love of siblings and friends. Mark each other's forehead with a tilak made from vermillion. The tilak symbolizes the presence of Goddess within. When you mark your brother/sister, lover, or friend at their third-eye center; you are honoring the divine light that dwells within them. 
  10. Celebrate with SoulArtist.life! Find live rituals and mind/body practices for holy day celebrations in the Soul Artist Treasury. Check the Soul Artist Event Calendar for upcoming live, in-person and virtual events. 

Access the Diwali Satsang

In Celebration of Light with Sreedevi Bringi.
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Diwali is the most celebrated festival of lights in India. It is a celebration of new beginnings;  a time to honor the victory of light over darkness.

Also called Dipavali, which translates from Sanskrit to mean "row of lamps," Diwali is celebrated with rows of small clay lamps of lighted oil wicks. Goddess Lakshmi is honored for abundance and joy. The full 5-day celebration begins on the 13th night of the waning moon cycle in the Autumn month of Kartika. Discover more...
Celebrate with Sreedevi

diwali • light • rituals
​​Discover more on these topics. ​
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What don't I know?
Light Me Up.
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Diwali: Celebration of Light.
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Diwali & Kung Fu Panda
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What don't I know? Light me up.

11/14/2020

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LOVE • INNER POWER • DIWALI
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Author: R.R. Shakti, Phd
What don’t I know?

You are probably pretty sure about one thing: your own perspective. So many conversations begin with, “Look here,” or “Listen up,” because “This is where I stand.”

The whole entire enterprise of human engagement becomes a quest to be understood.

But standing in that mentality means staying in the dark—denying that there’s another point of view.

So here’s something new: What if you start each encounter with the question, “What don’t I know?”

Example: The neighbor’s dog won’t stop barking and it’s making me crazy. What don’t I know? Or: Marty left his dirty laundry in the middle of the floor, again. What don’t I know?

I fail at it daily. But when I remember this practice, my life is just better. It’s real world enlightenment. The light shines on another’s perspective and I find out that we weren’t standing so far apart, after all.

Today is an Indian holy day: Diwali. It is an opportunity to celebrate the light.
The light of awareness.
The light of consciousness.
The light of your inner power.

There has never been a more crucial time for the teachings of Mystic Traditions to make their way into the real world human experience,
t
o make life... just better.
​​
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diwali. love. marriage.​
Discover more on these topics. 
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3 Questions for Relationships
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Celebrate with Sreedevi
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10 Practices for Diwali
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Diwali & Kung Fu Panda...

11/14/2018

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DIWALI • LOVE • TANTRA
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Author: R.R. Shakti, PhD
My daughter was three years old when I took her to see "Kung Fu Panda 3" at the local movie theatre. Enrapt from start to finish, she was particularly attentive during the great battle scenes between the adorable Dragon Warrior Panda and his scary supernatural nemesis.

As we left our seats, she turned to me and said, "Mom, I've noticed something; the good always defeats the bad." (She was always prone to big words and even bigger insights 💗). 
Happy New Moon & Diwali 🪔!

One of the biggest holidays throughout India and the Eastern world begins this week. Diwali is the festival of lights that celebrates the radiant triumph of virtue over the darkness of confusion. It is a sort-of Good-Defeats-Bad-Day. 

Mythologies worldwide depict the struggle between dark and light forces: Beowulf and Grendel, Perceval and the Red Knight, Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. From India, my favorite battle image is of the Goddess Durga kicking butt and taking names of legions of demons in the Devī Mahātmyā. 


It's an age-old story. The universe is animated by dueling forces, while we all hope desperately for the virtuous to prevail. The question is:

Who decides who is virtuous?

History has made this grand narrative into an "us vs. them" story. When taken literally, it becomes the foundation for division and alienation. Whomever is on "our side" is virtuous. On the "other" side is evil. Division is the side-product of consciousness.


In his amazing book, Creation of Consciousness, Jungian Analyst Edward Edinger explains that consciousness is only possible in the presence of an "other." There cannot be a "knower" without something to be known. Therefore, all human awareness is dependent upon this dichotomy:

self and other
me and you
us and them
.

But when we project our own shadows onto an outside "other" we set up a never ending war zone. "Us and Them" becomes "Us vs. Them." Pretty soon, all you can see is the enemy in the stranger. Life loses its hope. Compassion goes out the window. With empathy, goes beauty...and joy. It's a problem. 


The teachings of non-dual Tantra assert that all things are individualized aspects of a single, dynamic pulsation of universal LOVE.
...A LOVE that has no need for warfare.
...A LOVE so pervasive, perfect, and powerful that it encompasses everything, everywhere. 

So, I explained to my three year old daughter: "Sometimes it doesn't look like it will, but the good always wins in the end...because LOVE is the biggest, most powerful thing in the universe. When people do bad things it's only because they have forgotten LOVE. When you remember that you are LOVE, you become as powerful as a Dragon Warrior."

It was a reminder for my own heart. Maybe you needed to hear it too?


Diwali accompanies the new moon, a time for introspection and self-examination. It provides a sweet opportunity to turn inward and get real with your Self:
  • Who is your scary nemesis? 
  • Have you been projecting evil onto an outside "other?" 
  • Can you embrace the dark qualities of fear, anger, and confusion as aspects of your own psyche?
  • Can you envision a LOVE so vast it extends beyond all opposition? 

Mystic LOVE is so pervasive it can actually include your fears, sorrows, and confusion without losing a single iota of its infinite brilliance. 

According to Mystic teachings: YOU ARE THAT LOVE...you superhero shifu, you!
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Celebrate with Sreedevi
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What don't I know?
Light me up.
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10 Practices for Diwali
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    HOLY- DAYS
    memories & moons

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    Dia De Los Muertos
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    Durga
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    Love
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    Tantra


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