Skandamata – Mother of Skanda – is the goddess of the day. She rides a ferocious lion. She holds her baby. She’s a protective mama, a nurturing power, a care giving energy, a nourishing force. On day 5 of Navaratri, the power worshiped is that of The Mother. The Great Mother. The Mother Goddess. 

On this day we celebrate mothers, we lean into the energy of mothering that pulses in all of us, we receive and offer it, and we create the world within it. We all are mothers – caring for something in this world. We’re all being mothered – nourished and supported in one way or another. 

Navaratri means Nine Nights in Sanskrit, and it’s a Hindu celebration of the Great Goddess and her generative, receptive, creative power. It’s a celebration of the life sustaining energy of the earth, of community, of the mother. It’s a holiday that celebrates the triumph of the goddess over a demon of suffocation and stuckness. 

This is a demon mothers might be familiar with; The demon of suffocation and stuckness isn’t only the toddler years, or the teenage years of her child. It isn’t only appearing in how she feels about herself, or about what happened to her life. The energy of stuckness and suffocation might be in her shadows. She might be unaware of it completely. Or she might struggle with it, battle with those tendencies with every breath. 

It’s beautiful to watch your children change. And it is also the saddest thing. You want them to grow. But the separation is painful and full of grief. You love who they are becoming. And the loss of who they were is a wound. You don’t want to suffocate them. But you do. At least a bit. Otherwise you’re neglecting them. The line is thin. And no one walks it without falling off sometimes (or a lot of the time).

Skandamata always has snacks with her. And she wants the children to eat a little more. Skandamata yells; “be careful!’ as they ride their bikes away from her. She lets them ride. But it stresses her out. She stays up at night worried about them. She wants to stay close. She knows she needs to let them grow, let them go. And it’s the hardest thing she’s ever done. 

When Parvati is Skandamata she spreads knowledge. This is when Durga leans into her Sarasvati (goddess of art, language, poetry, knowledge, wisdom, and creativity) qualities. The mother shares what she knows with her child. She is the power of knowledge as it moves through and around us. Goddess of wisdom and knowledge and understanding. 

But with the Buffalo Demon named Mahishasura, who is the demon that Durga slays, which is the story that Navaratri is centered around, the mother must be careful that her knowledge, her opinions, her view of the world don’t suffocate the child’s ability to think for themselves. 

Deep wisdom doesn’t answer our questions. Deep wisdom replies with further questioning. 

Parvati in the form of the mother of Skanda has four arms; one hand holds her baby, two hands hold two lotus flowers, and another hand is in Abhaya Mudra – where fear and fearlessness meet. 

Being a mother is an anxiety provoking project. You’re scared for their lives, you’re afraid you’re messing them up, you have no idea if you’re doing it well, you doubt yourself without limits, you’re afraid of losing them, knowing that you will, because their job is to leave you. You’re dealing with the void of your own self, and that, for many mothers, generates depression and anxiety. 

The mother of the universe needs to hold that space between fear and courage. You must keep them safe, but  you must let them go. You must trust yourself and question yourself at the same time. You must show up, rise to the occasion even when all you wanna do is run away. Being afraid means that you care. It keeps you on your toes. it makes you protect them. But you must not become over protective. You must not let your fear consume you. You must be courageous. 

Skanda, or Subramanya or Kartikeya (same character, different name, and he has many more) is the child of Parvati and Śiva, and he is born as the only chance the world has against a horrible demonic force that threatens to destroy the whole universe.

He is the god of war. But he doesn’t want to be a warrior. He grows up to be a bit moody, because he inherits the army, and the world’s battlefield, where it’s his job to command battle. He is also a bit bitter because he’s the brother of Ganesha, and everyone loves Ganesha with his elephant head and weakness for sweets. 

But he is a new generation. He’s the archetype of new possibilities. He moves between and beyond the binaries. Could he, as the god of war, help us move toward peace, help humanity shift from greed and fundamentalism and bigotry toward a different story? 

The tip of his spear points up, not forward – because his mama taught him that. It’s not an immediate threat. It’s dangerous. But it’s a warning, a reminder, not a call to battle. The tip of his spear is a flame. The secret is that this flame is his sister, who takes after their mother, and who is the embodiment of warmth and radiance. But that’s a whole other story… 

Durga is the goddess of seeing things from different angles, of finding new ways, of fierce transformation, of ambiguity and reorganization. Her kid is taking mama’s teachings very seriously, and he is here to not only continue this path, but to reinvent it too. 

Skandamata sits on a lotus

Holding the lotus, she is the muddy waters of the pond, she is the dark soil, she is the fertile earth, and the lotuses grow out of her. She is the mother of the flower. She gives it life. It roots into her and grows out of her to become its own expression. 

Sitting on the lotus, she is the continuation of the flower. She emerges out of it. She is mothered by the flower. She is the nectar that nourishes the insects, and the pollen that is carried by them to fertilize other flowers, so that the world keeps going. 

Nectar is (dripping) at the symbolic core of the last two modules of Bond With Your Life – a six week course to deepen your yoga practice, to broaden your yoga knowledge, and to expand your understanding as well as your interpretations of yoga. It’s a deep dive into sadhana (spiritual practice) as not only a collection of tools for self care and self improvement, but as a relational, continuous process of connection to you and something greater than you.

Bond With Your Life will provide you with an experiential space to weave your life into the life around you. We will study, we will practice, we will tell stories, and we will cultivate strength and softness, so that we can show up in the world in ways that honor its intricate interconnectedness. 

This course will give you room to mother yourself, to nurture your heart, to nourish your soul. And it will also give you space to expand the ways that you care for others. 

All the details for Bond With Your Life are here. We start on October 13th. 

For more Skandamata exploration, including a mantra and mudra practice, click here. 

Can’t wait to bond with you over Bond With Your Life! 

XOXO

Hagar