“Let the snake inside you (life energy or Kuṇḍalinī) dance to the tune of the universe.” Shunya
We are very excited to launch our new silk and raw silk collection ‘Rise’, celebrating one of the oldest mythological creatures, the serpent – a powerful and mystical symbol of healing, renewal and transformation. The serpent has come up many times for us at FARA, especially with the time and adventures we have experienced in India where it is ingrained deeply into the myth, stories and culture. At its root, the serpent represents the creative force of the Universe, the energy of śakti, the Divine Feminine, and this collection is about honouring all the ways that we are moved – in our lives, vision and growth – by this Divine and powerful energy.
Let’s explore the sacred energy of the Serpent a little bit more…
Although snakes have been vilified and feared for their venom amongst other things, the Hindu tradition reveres the serpent as a symbol of spiritual energy, creative life force, fertility, desire, death and rebirth. These energies and themes might be as terrifying as they are amazing yet they carry within them the extraordinary but core experiences of life – death, transformation and rebirth. As the snake casts away its skin, symbolically being reborn, it teaches us that cycles are innate to our animal nature, that we will outgrow ourselves and we have the capacity to shed the old to create space for transformation and for the new to be born.
Here in India snakes are an integral part of Hindu culture and can be seen associated with most of the deities with one of the most famous forms being of nāga (serpent in Sanskrit) Vasuki. Serpent Vasuki is seen wrapped three times around the neck of Lord Shiva, representing the past, present and future and reminding us that Lord Shiva is both independent of and controls time.
Vasuki was also the snake that was used as the rope in the great churning of the ocean, the samudra manthan, a myth which represents our own inner journey of introspection and inquiry in the search towards Knowledge and Wholeness. The milky ocean is our mind-heart complex which experiences both jewels and poison, light and dark, and the serpent is our desire, the energy that moves within us in this search. In this story the gods and the demons are required to work together churning the (mind-heart) ocean to unify the light and dark, good and bad, and reveal the nectar of immortality which has been lost in the bottom of the ocean.
It’s a beautiful story to explore in depth and holds many powerful teachings which we are only touching on here though one jewel I wish to emphasise is the reminder that we are made of both light and dark. In the same way that the gods and demons are asked to work together, we are asked to turn towards our shadows and inner demons and befriend and transform them from poison into nectar. Yoga and any spiritual path is a journey of self-inquiry and radical self-love where we meet and learn to love all the parts of ourselves to reveal the radiant, full spectrum goddess that we are with our soft and wild, our fury and our beauty, our pain and our joy.
We see throughout many ancient traditions, not only Hinduism and Yoga, that the experience of spiritual awakening is moved by a primal energy that churns, awakens and guides us and this energy is mythically encoded with the image of a snake as Kuṇḍalinī. Kuṇḍalinī is the coiled form of a serpent who lies, resting, at the base of the spine within the root or mūladhara chakra. As we begin and progress on our spiritual journey, Kuṇḍalinī is stirred and eventually rises up the central energy pathway, the suṣumnā, moving from the root, through each chakra, all the way to the thousand petalled lotus at the crown. At the point of reaching the crown or sahasrāra chakra Kuṇḍalinī is thought to be fully awake and this chakra is believed to be the bridge to the cosmos or the doorway to God.
“Kundalini is Shakti, supreme energy, whom the sages of India worship as the Mother of the universe”.
Swami Muktananda
In India symbols, carvings and statues of the serpent or nāga can be seen everywhere reminding us of their role as cosmic supreme energy, but also as sacred creatures (second only to the cow). They are considered guardians of the ancestors and of nature and they play a vital role within our ecosystem and people pray and offer milk, rice, coconuts and flowers to the serpent gods, the nāgas, to bring the rains for the crops to grow….
Our new collection RISE is our offering to the power of the Serpent and the Rise of the Divine Feminine on Mother Earth and within each of us as we reclaim and reconnect to and these mystical and magical energies.
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