Living Goddess with Chameli Gad Ardagh

Chameli tells the story of the great Indian Goddess Durga and illuminates keys for how we can stay rooted in a place of peace and clarity while engaging in a world so full of suffering, war, and division. Durga mirrors to us a power within us that arises out of a fierce commitment to love, a power that unifies instead of divides us.

Chameli explores how Hestia from Greek mythology and Gunnveig from Norse mythology both guide us home to the light within that never dies; the hearth, our home, our source. She also shares about the challenges and gifts from her practice with the circle, and how the circle itself is a wisdom keeper we all can receive guidance and enlightenment from.

Continuing the exploration of the Gaia/Uranus myth, Chameli speaks about how creating a secure attachment to body, earth and Goddess will liberate us, instead of entrapping us as we have been told for thousands of years. As most patriarchal religions and spiritual paths are Uranus-centered we may be looking at basic avoidance or insecure attachment styles playing themselves out.

No matter how shiny and bright our spirituality feels, if it is dependent on us pushing parts of ourselves down into the basement, our experience of ourselves and Goddess will be partial, and we will cheat ourselves of the peace and belonging in her wholeness. In the myth about Gaia and Uranus, we learn about the root and pain of such fragmentation, and Chameli also shares a turning point in her path when she was forced to become brutally honest with herself about how these dynamics plaid out in her life, and what it would take to come into integrity with her deeper knowing.    Poem: The Soul Misses the Body by Andrea Gibson

In the premiere of the Living Goddess podcast, Chameli brings the oftentimes lofty ideas of Goddess, into a felt intimacy that is made possible when we stay close in, receptive, and explore the very first step that is before us. The story about VasaLisa and the doll in her pocket points us to a place many of us encounter in our inner journey where we can no longer “do it”, and that through the practice of receptivity, this place becomes a potent portal for grace and love to take the steering wheel.   Poem: Start close in by David Whyte