In the stillness of dawn, when the world slumbers, an explosion of unadulterated potentiality - such an explosion as Shakti herself. This female power of the crone is not a representation of strength; she is existence. Shakti manifests herself in India's scriptures and temple carvings in infinite permutations: as Mother Parvati, fierce Kali, showering Lakshmi. They are not something else but flashes of the same infinite energy which pervades all atoms of life.

Western philosophy that "the sky is the limit" becomes mysteriously restrictive when put on Shakti. Because it is the same power that has lifted Himalayas too, and that brings the honeybee to the flower. Horizons vanish and boundaries are mythical with her around. Ancient rishis understood what new physics says - the world is really energy in motion, and Shakti is the motion blown to the divine. 

Modern life has taught us to think that power is out there - money, status, power. But Shakti shows us that power is here. Consider the single mother who works three jobs and nurtures children with relentless devotion. Or the farmer whose calloused hands bring life to recalcitrant land. Or the artist who forms visions. These are not parables but flesh-and-blood embodiments of Shakti's many forms.

This power manifests in a specific way in every person. In one, it is the courage to speak up against power. In another, it is the quiet strength to remain. In village squares where water tends to accumulate and in structures where commerce is conducted, Shakti knows but does not change. She is no less present in the scientist's find than in the grandmother's healing

Her most enigmatic attribute is the force of destruction inherent in Shakti. Garlanded skulls and tongue-lolling, Kali chases off men who refuse to learn nature's cyclical imperative. Woods need to be burnt so that they can rebirth themselves; human advancement needs to destroy earlier modes of being.

Modern seekers can be content with the mere soft, inspirational energies of Shakti - the wealth of Lakshmi, the wisdom of Saraswati. But real working with this power involves taking all of her spectrum. The same power that makes stars must sometimes employ the sword that cuts through the veil of ignorance. Individual change not seldom does this ancient model - destruction to enlightenment, death to rebirth.

Tantric rituals instruct that such cosmic power resides within every human being as Kundalini, sleeping at the spinal base wound up like a snake. Should be awakened through spirituality, such power flows upwards along chakras, lightening consciousness. However, no need to become a yogi in order to feel Shakti's stream.

We experience this power:

- In spasms of pure creativeness when time melts away

- In acts of courage that reach across senses

- By higher reason than compassion

- In the middle of mind where the inner awareness listens inward

The practices to awaken Shakti range as broad as her expression - from ecstasy of action to silent rest, from service for no selfish end to militant activism. Of note is not applying this ground force for ego desire.

Shakti in Today's World

Modern crises - ecological contamination, social disintegration, spiritual desolation - find their root in the exclusion of women's sacred feminine power. The solution is not discarding technology or returning to some bygone golden age but infusing Shakti's wisdom into the manner in which we produce, create, and relate. 

We have already seen it happening:

- In regenerative farming that exists in harmony with the intelligence of nature

- In cooperative systems of leadership, before domination

- In healing art, not entertainment art

- In reverent science of mystery, not certain knowledge

Shakti does not say halt progress but redefine progress. Her power requires us to remember that real progress must enrich all life, not human will.

Shakti's most radical lesson is that we're all under the illusion - maya, of separation. The energy powering galaxies is the same as what powers our brains. Once we really see that, then the whole notion of borders makes no sense at all. What boundaries can contain that contain everything? 

It transforms the way we live. What we do with Shakti consciousness is of another kind - no longer individual success but a gift to the system. Conflict is now sites where there can be greater harmony with this unlimited current. Even apparent failures are way stations on a greater path. 

Finally, Shakti's teaching is straightforward and beautiful: You're never apart from the power you desire. The sky never was the limit because you're the sky - boundary-less, limit-less, and ever-expanding. The dilemma and potential of our lives is to live from this truth every word, every thought, every action.