The Dance of Destruction and Creation
(aka: Shiva’s in the house 🔥🌸)
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When we transition from one season to the next, we often need to change rhythms to meet the shift around us. The elements are changing...temperature changes, food resources change, the light changes, and so on...And as the elements in the outer landscape shift, so must our own elements within.
Sometimes, the best way to support this change, and even enjoy it!, is to DANCE!
Dance can help shake up the habits we have been in. It can help us release, and even burn away and let go, so as to move into what we are ready to embrace and BE in THIS season... in THIS present moment. Some say dance helps us move away from illusion and step into our purpose more fully and clearly. As we come off the balance we have known, we move into a new balance within the dance.
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Shiva is the Hindu god who represents dance...and not just any dance, but the greatest dance of all. His dance is the dance of creation and destruction. It is either called the Tandavam or the Nadanta, depending on the context. In the depiction of the divine dance, Nataraja, Shiva is shown holding Agni (fire) and holding the mudra of Abhaya, fearlessness. The fire is needed to build "tapas" so as to burn away that which does not serve.
There is a fearless goddess, Akhilandesvari, the Never-Not-Broken goddess, who rides the back of the crocodile and breaks apart often so she can put herself back together in a new whole. The dance of Shiva is said to support her breaking apart, and coming back together, and by dancing it, she LOVES the process rather than fearing it.
There is brilliant skill in Shiva’s energy...to dance ourselves into the dissolving of the old, and into the creation of what is ready to be birthed. Wonderful adventurers, can we tap into this without fear?
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On October 15th, I will have been "dancing" with Spirit of Adventure for one year, I launched it this very time last year. And while it has been amazing!!, elements of this very journey have been hard, and I've bumped into my own habits...old ways vs new ways. Right in the moments of transformation, I've learned we often revert back to the old ways of being, and sometimes hang on even tighter!
And so... I plan to dance. I plan to dance any and all emotions that arise...and trust the dance will help move the old, and shift my own elements into the NEW. I plan to share the dance with others, to take that inspiration for and with one another, and each dance with Shiva into our own unique expression of destruction/release, AND creation. When we take the time to dance it, to express it, we are acting out a small ritual stating “it is so”.
May we dance the dance of Shiva...the fires of destruction and creation are with us. This is the rhythm I know to be true. May we make it so. 🙏🔥
Amy Haysom
Amy is the founder and owner of Spirit of Adventure.
She is committed to finding the connections between our yoga practice and our relationships with one another, as well as with the natural world.
