Jai Ma

There is a kind of poetry, a deeper longing and contemplative mood that comes to me in the autumn every year. As a child growing up in a climate with four distinct seasons, I watched with wonder as summer faded, lush green leaves turned red or gold and began to drift to the ground to wither and decay. I took refuge in Mother Earth and instinctively recognized the sacred at work in her changes. It was a tacit knowing of heart and body that compensated for the void of a divine feminine presence in the church where I went on Sundays with my family.

In this and many other ways, Mother Earth has been a constant presence and conscious element of my spiritual path over the years, taking shape in a longing for the goddess that led me to study mythology and the wisdom traditions of both East and West. When I landed in the company of my teacher Lee and a guru lineage rooted in the vast and profound Hindu tradition, I discovered a gold mine of the divine feminine.

As August comes to a close and autumn hovers on the horizon, my thoughts turn toward one of the thriving goddess traditions of Hinduism today—the upcoming festival of Durga Navaratri, or “nine nights of the goddess,” which celebrates the triumph of good over evil. This year, 2022, the celebration occurs from September 26 through October 5. 

Beginning first with a three-day invocation of Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge, music, word craft, poetry, and creative works, we then move to the next three days, when Lakshmi—the goddess of wealth, abundance, love and beauty—is honored. For the last three of the nine days, Parvati is worshipped as the warrior goddess, Durga—a cosmic mother who wields the primordial powers of destruction to vanquish the demons of ignorance, darkness and evil. This epic feat always brings about rebirth, renewal, and creation. 

Every year I look forward to these nine days when I join with friends at Triveni Ashram to chant and make offerings of flowers, fruit, ghee, incense, water and light to each personification of the divine feminine. Some of the songs we sing are more complex invocations or liturgies in Sanskrit, while others are in the informal style of kirtan and can be as simple as “Jai Ma!” or “Victory to Divine Mother!” 

Some years ago I began to wonder about how my own ancestors worshipped—the Celts of Scotland and Ireland. For the ancient Celts, venerable trees, springs, wells, rocks and rivers were sacred embodiments of goddesses. Like worshippers in the East, the Celts understood that the entire natural world is imbued with divinity, and they circumambulated their holiest places—an enormous oak, a gushing spring and pool, a large standing stone—circling around from the left, or sun-wise. In both the East and the West, ancient people have aligned themselves in this way with the divine force that moves the cosmos.

Though not a harvest festival, the timing of Durga Navaratri dovetails with the many harvest festivals of the northern hemisphere in Old Europe, which have their roots in the goddess worship of antiquity. Danu was the most ancient Mother Goddess of all, whose presence was threaded across the vast spread of cultures on the European continent and British Isles. Very little is known about Danu (although the great river Danube may be named for her) because the rich oral tradition of the Celts was brutally suppressed by Roman invaders, who effectively conquered and subjugated the Celtic world between 100 BCE and 400 CE. 

History repeats itself, to the detriment of our world. For centuries Americans have celebrated another harvest festival, Thanksgiving, without giving a thought to its origins. In the fall of 1621, when the first European settlers were starving to death, Chief Massasoit of the Wampanoag tribe brought venison to the dwindling colony, taught them how to cook corn, harvest cranberries and squash, how to hunt and fish. It was an act of supreme compassion and kindness and a crucial turning point in time, after which Native American indigenous people went from one million strong to 200,000 at the beginning of the twentieth century, the tragic result of aggressive and sweeping genocide on the part of the United States, its government and invading people. Some tribal people of North America consider the now-secular holiday of Thanksgiving to be a day of national mourning rather than a time of feasting.

Today, so much of the suffering in the world, like racism and climate change, is rooted in the reality that human beings have largely forgotten or been forced to suppress knowledge of the divine feminine presence that connects us with each other and Mother Nature. It is a grievous loss to humanity, and yet, if we are willing to listen within, deep in our bodies lives the ancient wisdom that calls us to honor the divine feminine, to rejoice in and express our gratitude for the abundant gifts of Life. 

In this time when things are unraveling and Mother Earth cries out for human beings to end our wanton destruction of the sacred world, we are individually called to remember that each one of us shares a profound kinship with every manifest thing in creation, from other humans to animals, trees, fish, plants, minerals, water, cloud, lightning, moon and sun and distant stars. If we pay attention to this kinship, we discover that, as indigenous wisdom says, “all our relations” are calling us to soften and open our minds and hearts to the divine love that permeates life. In that awakening, we realize our individual and collective place within the cosmos and make a contribution toward healing. 

This autumn, at the time of Durga Navaratri, our remembrance can be as simple as bringing awareness to the “grace and mercy in Her wild hair,” as poet Ramprasad Sen wrote, extolling the goddess. Circumambulate a favorite tree, or cook a meal for family or friends. Chant, sing, dance, contemplate and meditate with gratitude upon the divine feminine in all her forms, qualities, and appearances. For the well-being of all, lift your voice in praise and sing, “Jai Ma!”

– Mary Angelon Young