Katyayani is a fierce lion rider, driving the energy in us that is both wild and regal, untamed and in charge. Symbolically speaking, the lion invites us to remember that we are a paradox, that we are never not an animal, and that we are also a sovereign being. The lion embodies the ferocious strength embedded in both the feral and the royal. On the 6th day of Navaratri, Durga arrives at the scene as a queen, in her most intense form.
Katyayani is the form that Durga takes when she is the warrior who battles with Mahishasura, the buffalo demon. She wears her “don’t mess with me” dress, and she is serene and scary.
Her name means; daughter of (sage) Katyayana.
Durga is the mother of the universe. She is also created by the light and heat of all the gods together, emanating their anger, frustration, and fear in the form of light from their third eye. Out of the blazing fire of their powers joined together, goddess Durga emerges. So she is not only the mother of the gods, but also their daughter.
Durga goes into a cave and develops a strong, sophisticated sadhana. The first sage who worships the goddess is sage Katyayana. The process of feeding the gods, lighting them up, interacting with them, dressing them, doing rituals that bathe them in milk and honey and ghee, and developing a relationship with them, is key for their aliveness.
There are so many ways to look at this. We can let ourselves melt into the devotional, non questioning flow of this idea. We can think of the gods as the forces of nature, the power of the universe. We can breathe life into those energies as archetypes living within us and around us. And there are plenty of other options and ways to dance with it. But whichever way we take it, the process of INTERACTING with those forces the mythology calls the gods, is key.
Engagement is key. Interaction is key. Relationship is key.
The sage Katyayana turns the key. He is the one who activates the wild and regal, fierce and gentle, intense and radiant, roaring and royal Durga. And so the great warrior goddess who goes into battle with Mahishasura, is named after the one who feeds her and engages her first.
Mahishasura is the buffalo demon. He’s our internal stuckness, our immovable parts, our inability to look at things from different angles, the places where we are too certain. He is the authoritarianism and fascism and tyranny of the world.
In order to battle with that demon, we need to be able to show up in many ways, not just in one. We need to be able to take on many roles, not just hold on to one identity, we need to get creative, we need to Durga – a goddess who is many goddesses, a threefold path, a character who embodies both darkness and light as divine, an archetype of paradox.
And we need the part of us that is ready to activate the sacred power of dichotomy, ready to commit to a deep relationship with ambiguity, ready to be devoted to a force of softness and strength, and vulnerability and ferocity.
The sage creates a sacred space for her (the temple), and calls her to emerge from her cave through mantras, mudras, and food. And so as she comes out of the cave (the womb) ready for battle (life) she is his daughter.
Durga as Katyayani has three eyes, because she needs to look outwards and inwards at the same time. She has four arms or ten arms or eighteen arms, because you never know how many you would need.
The thing is, Mahishasura is a shapeshifting demon. He’s the demon of stuckness, but he can show up in many different forms. The demons of closed mindedness are very tricky. They can show up not only in the form of right wing systemic racism, but also in the form of a social justice movement. Certainty is tricky.
So in this great battle, Durga needs to learn how to shapeshift as well. She needs to keep moving with him from one animal to another.
Mashishasura is so sure of himself. When he first sees Durga he falls madly in lust with her and he asks her to marry him right there and then. The goddess laughs. And it makes him want her more. He insists. He thinks he could grab her by the you know what. So finally she says she would only marry a man who could win a battle with her. It’s his turn to laugh. But she insists. And so the battle begins.
Durga’s great sadhana was needed. She is now also able to learn on the go. And the battle goes on.
She finally gets him in the space between, in the vulnerability that she herself experiences, being the mother of the gods, and also their daughter, being the goddess, but also the daughter of the sage who worships her, being the wild, untamed beast of a lion, who is also a regal, royal, sovereign character. She knows all about the paradox. She IS the liminality of life.
And in the liminal space she gets him; right when she shifts from buffalo into a man.
She places the soft part of her foot on his head, and the demon melts and is reabsorbed into the soil.
The goddess of liminality and dichotomy gets the demon of certainty in the space between things. Our strengths and our vulnerabilities are never separate, they are intertwined.
Bond With Your Life is a six week immersive journey with strength and softness, wildness and directionality, ferocity and vulnerability, intentionality and uncertainty. It is an educational, experiential, evocative experience, and an in depth, transformative container for deep inner work that will lead you to connect more deeply to the world.
And check out this video to explore the 6th night of Navaratri and the goddess Katyayana.
With love,
Hagar