DANCE WITH A BLINDFOLD. It helps you speak.

This ritual holds a special place in my heart as it was inspired by Parashakti’s Dance of Liberation. Parashakti was the first to introduce a practice that is so sacred, it was reserved to just those who could hear the jungles and deserts.

She was one of the first to show me that I can touch the eternal and that the subjective teachings are all within. I can be my own spiritual authority just by learning that the truth is in my body. It isn’t taught with words.  It stems from the inside and every dancer has their own lesson.

Dancing has always been liberating and a cure for many ailments. In India, when someone goes to the doctor for depression, they tell the patient to jump with bare feet on the ground. They tell them to stomp and to shake their entire bodies in the dance. Nothing pretty and pure wildness. Then, after a few minutes of this dancing, the doctor asks the patient, “Do you still feel depressed?” The patient will respond with a smile, out of breath and respond, “No!”

Start with gratitude. You can start with a simple word of thanks for the body’s ability to move. Where there is breath there is time. Take this time. Parashakti and the gate keepers start their dance by conducting a ritual of “opening the 7 gates” which consist of the four directions, sky above, mother earth below and soul/inner heart.  Each realm is welcomed and acknowledged, and words of gratitude offered. As Parakshakti comes from the shamanic tradition of teachings, she calls upon a “spiritual animal.” This is not necessary for your own practice of dance but always start with gratitude. 

Intention.  In one of my dances with Parakshakti, the spirit animal was a butterfly so we called upon the butterfly to guide us towards discovering our “intent to dance” – to ask “What are we dancing for? Why are we dancing?”  We chose one color for its wings to explore. I had the vision of a butterfly with royal purple wings.  It first sat on my nose and then moved to perch upon my chest.  Suddenly the butterfly’s wings turned into a deep, dark purple and vines started extending from its feet to encase my heart.  I continued in a meditative state to allow the vision to pan out and an ethereal image of a woman in bright white light appeared, picked up the butterfly and threw it into the flame of the candle.  The woman of light then put her hands on my shoulder and stroked my arms affectionately. She conveyed to me, without speaking, that there is no butterfly to tell me why I should dance. There is no butterfly to send me a message. Instead, she told me, “You are the butterfly.” The woman of light then moved her hands to my back and ran her hands up and down my back like an affectionate mother would to a sleeping child. At that moment, I had a vision of giant wings emerging from my back. It was beautiful and spell-binding.   

There are many different ways to set an intention and the end goal is to just focus on a few words that immediately come to mind without overthinking. Be the one watching your own imagination. Everyone’s intent is different but the words then become your mantra during your dance.

Dance. Parakshakti and her gate keepers provide each dancer with a blindfold. Could you picture a room full of people who are unable to see, dancing? It sounds like it would be a mess of clashing bodies! Strange is that everyone is aware of their surroundings even without sight! Moving away from vision, we rely on other sensory organs of our body. The room becomes a flowing sea of bodies each moving to their own rhythm and each barely touching. We have a strong sense of our physical perimeters. I wonder if each water molecule in the ocean feels this way, each with a strong sense of their own physical perimeter but at the same time, part of this collective wave or body of water which we perceive.

Listening to music, chant your mantra during the dance!  During my dance as a butterfly, my wings gradually turned into a golden white color which resembled metal. Yet it was light and not heavy like metal.  I also had the vision of different relationships being birthed into their own butterflies, breaking out and flying out of cocoons. I was left with the impression that relationships and life itself is temporary. Although I feel as if these are my relationships and my experiences, they each actually stand on their own. The lasting feeling towards the end of the dance was one of great detachment.

And if, during the dance, s. If you are able to escape thoughts, that is a good thing! Getting into the body, you awaken passion and intuition. You awaken the energy of shakti, the creative energy. You awaken the energy of agni, the fire.

Integrate. At the end of the dance, lay or sit down to relax and to allow all the energies to integrate into your body. The scriptures are already written in your bones. Take deep breaths and acknowledge how parts of your body feel. Become the one who watches your imagination again.  

Feel your heart throb and pound heavily.  As you listen to the vibrations of the beating heart, feel its intensity expanding outwards in all directions mimicking the seven gates.  At some point, you may even sense your heart connect to your throat simply through the vibrations.

You think that you have no voice but this is where the voice comes from.  The heart has to expand and from the heart’s intensity, it will eventually become a voice.

To this day, when I listen to my heart, I can feel its vibrations in my throat.

I try to have my words be an extension of that space, to be an extension of my heart.  

Notes: This ritual pairs well with the flower essence, Milkweed, and also the meditation, Kriya for Self Reliance.