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Navaratri Festival of the Goddess 2024

October 3, 2024 @ 12:00 pm - October 12, 2024 @ 2:00 pm

See below for pricing
Navaratri 2023

Fierce Grace

Divine Liberating Fire

NavaratriĀ is an ancient bi-annual Goddess festival held in Spring and Fall. It celebrates the inevitable defeat of darkness and dullness, ignorance and pain by the vastness of Divine love and wisdom. In the wonderfully evocative way of the Sages of India, there are stories to delight our hearts and inspire us in our own lives, to bring forth victory of the soul over ego, love over fear. We celebrate theĀ JaiaĀ – victory of wisdom over ignorance and delusion.

View Navaratri Festival full schedule, simple format HERE

This year we will focus upon the notion of grace, including fierce grace.

We will deepen into the traditional Navadurga mantra, the 9 forms of the goddess to invigorate and enlighten our energy centres. We will also give time and consideration to our life as a vehicle for the Divine.

How can we be part of the play of grace, what is our calling arising from within? How can we make a difference, right now, exactly as we are, offering what we have, and finding the deep satisfaction that comes when we allow ourselves to believe in the better world that is waiting to materialize?

Instead of giving in to feelings of despair and hopelessness about the state of the world, we can merge with the Goddess and access the miraculous.

We will be active in asking the Divine to enter the battlefield. This can be for personal reasons, and can also be for the betterment of the world. We can ask the Goddess to avert Crisis and flashpoints in world affairs. They are unlikely to resolve unless the spiritual people of the world earnestly call to the Divine to intervene and diffuse evil, tyranny and oppression.

Scroll down to see a full colour schedule of sessions and events.

Navaratri(1)

Fierce?

In the Vedic and Puranic view of the Divine, every emanation has both a benevolent and loving as well as a fierce or warrior aspect.Ā  For instance, Maha Gauri, the beautiful shining incandescent Shakti of Lord Shiva also is Kali, whose capacity to overcome separateness, low vibrational energies and fear is legendary. Lakshmi who we know as all things beautiful, bringer of harmony grace and abundance of all good things in her beauty aspect also is the fierce Varahi, a war like Goddess who guards that which is sacred with ferocious intensity, allowing nothing evil or negative to approach.

Even Sarsawati the Goddess of wisdom, who is depicted as pure white, like the first emanation of light before it took on so many forms, has a fierce aspect. She takes the warrior form as Brahmini, who battles ignorance as a dark force and shines through in glorious spiritual victory, communion, and union.

Fierce grace is about finding the silver lining of any conundrum, disaster or disappointment. Within that silver lining we find golden opportunity. Most people would not have chosen this, and they would not have taken the transformative journey that opened up beneath them. Before the intervention of fierce grace, we may have felt trapped, or confused, or stressed, working too hard, lacking support, and at the same time we probably thought that any other way of being was available to us other than what we already know.

Fierce grace takes us on a journey. It is the kindness of the Divine calling us home, that demands that we transform ourselves by seeing our setbacks as new, yet unexplored, powerful launching pads! When we embrace any arising fierce grace in life, we are propelled through and beyond fear or excuse, beyond avoidance or complacency, to embrace something as yetĀ notĀ quite in focus. Fierce grace liberates us into higher states of being. It brings forth the raw beauty aspect of the Infinite, that same beauty and light that is present in each of us.

If the Divine has a fierce form, how do we relate to it? Will we run, will our terror of stepping out of our habitually recognised self, prevail? Or will we cling on tightly and ride the wild tiger? We all face it sooner or later, and when we donā€™t grab on, it just delays the inevitable. Your higher soul, the Atma, Divine within will keep presenting fierceness until we realise that it is liberating, freeing, rescuing us from who and what we thought we were, even if that is quite pleasant.

The Divine calls us to face our existence and our spiritual life as well as our personal dharma in a way that is ā€˜fierceā€™. This does not mean reckless or impulsive, selfish or aggressive, cruel or oppressive. It really means to be ardent. Create an ardency, a passion for the divine, be purposeful and bold in your dealings with the Divine within, the Divine without, and your own life path. We have a destiny, and it is just easier when we follow it. Sometimes the kindest, most loving thing the Divine can do is be fierce. It is said in Proverbs 28:1.Ā ā€œthe wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.ā€

The Infinite Spirit ā€œcomes powerfullyā€ upon us and in that connection we confront the parts of self that we have cleaved away from surrender, the parts that dwell in anxiety, fear, and justification of our lives. When we have decided to follow a spiritual path, we will be given opportunities for growth, but very often we will run from them. Fierce grace awakens us from our own delusions and frees us to have a greater purpose, bigger life and more wakeful countenance. Are you ready? Ā Supported as we are by the Three Jewels, and common intention to find our way through, we rewrite ourselves and find that which lies invisibly between what is, and what we are seeking.

Each day during Navaratri there will be sessions where we can be together online and there will be opportunities for puja and community over two weekends. Come to what you can, and sessions will be recorded if you would like to catch any of them later.

This divinely inspired program is open to all, you can expect powerful sacred energy and blessings, discourses and meditations, sacred music and lots of openhearted bliss.

These priceless experiences are offered by donation to help our community embody the spirit of giving and loving and sharing. If paying by Paypal please click next to donate later at Donate / Events. Thank you. You need register only once for Navaratri to join all online sessions. There are a few sessions and experiences that require payment, those sessions are indicated in the full schedule with a link for booking.

Access an incredible schedule packed with unforgettable moments. Sessions online and/or in-person at the Harmony Centre. Links to ceremony sponsorship or reserve a spot in a cooking class or drum circle. We are still adding those final touches to make this event extraordinary.

A Word on Sponsorship

In the Hindu tradition sponsorship is regarded as a form of seva. During ceremonies with Shakti Durga we also invoke blessings for the wider community, the land and the nature sprites and devas. During Navaratri and through to Mission Day (this years celebrated on 13 October) there are opportunities to offer seva through ceremony sponsorship. Find all opportunities listed in the schedule and on the dashboard received upon booking.

If you feel pulled to sponsor all Navaratri Ceremonies, you can do that for the total price of $648Ā  CLICK HERE

Seeding

Dussehra (the day of celebration following Navaratri) is the auspicious day for seeding your intentions.Ā Seeding is when we give with the intention of seeding new projects or intentions for the coming year. Participants will receive blessings on their seeding offerings should they wish to make them. The added shakti is a definite bonus! Seeding amount is up to you. Seeding will be placed in an envelope with your intention and be blessed during the ceremony. Seeding intentions will be kept in a special box in our Archangelic temple until Shivaratri.

Seeding: donations can be made at the Harmony Centre on Mission Day OR via General Donations HERE. To have your intention recorded and saved in a box in the Archangelic Temple, please email your intention with your donation receipt to info@shaktidurga.com.

NOTE: If paying by Paypal please click next to donate later at Donate / Events. Currently Paypal payments need to be manually confirmed before tickets are issued, ie. your ticket will be sent on the next business day following your booking if a donation via Paypal is made at the time of booking. Please accept our apologies for this inconvenience.

 

Details

Start:
October 3, 2024 @ 12:00 pm
End:
October 12, 2024 @ 2:00 pm
Cost:
See below for pricing
Event Categories:
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Organiser

Shakti Durga
Email
info@shaktidurga.com

Venues

+61 2 4977 3300
213 Martinsville Road
Cooranbong, New South Wales 2265 Australia
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+61 2 4977 3300
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