Amazzone Laura - Goddess Durgā and sacred female power

Goddess Durg and Sacred
Female Power

Laura Amazzone

Copyright 2010 by
Hamilton Books
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Suite 200
Lanham, Maryland 20706
Hamilton Books Acquisitions Department (301) 459-3366

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All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
British Library Cataloging in Publication Information Available

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010933398
ISBN: 978-0-7618-5313-8 (paperback : alk. paper)
eISBN: 978-0-7618-5314-5

Cover photograph 2003 by Laura Amazzone

The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
SciencesPermanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials,
ANSI Z39.48-1992

Dedication

To the Divine akti in each of us
And especially to:
Kyle Corsiglia,
my Mammy, Lillyann Stephens Delsig,
And my beloved Gypsy
With Reverence, Gratitude, and Love

Introduction
Encountering Durg

Chapter One
Durg: Goddess of Paradox

Chapter Two
Tantra, Kaula, and kta Tradition

Chapter Three
Durg as Bhagawat: The Power of the Yoni

Chapter Four
The Art of Pilgrimage and the Durg Pj

Day One
Saraswat: Goddess of Creativity

Day Two
The Kumr: Living Virgin Goddess

Day Three
M, Ajim: Ancient Mother, Ancient Grandmother

Day Four
Lakm: Goddess of Abundance

Day Five
The Eight Mtks: The Power of Women in Groups

Day Six
The Yogin: Goddess and Priestess of Erotic Arts and Mysteries

Day Seven
Kl: Goddess of Transformation

Day Eight
Taleju: Womens Blood Mysteries

Day Nine
Nine Durgs: Goddesses of Liminality

Day Ten
Durgs Victory

Goddess Durg and Sacred Female Power is an erudite and scholarly exposition, rich in descriptive detailed knowledge of ancient and contemporary Indian texts and formal Tantric practices: it can be read as a sophisticated guidebook to understanding the complexity of Goddess Durgs multifaceted and paradoxical nature. However, the book in no way stops there. Laura Amazzone shares her personal story as a contemporary American woman who is also a fervent devotee (bhakta) of Durg, whose luminous agency she credits with redemptive force both for individuals and for the planet. Having accumulated an enormous scholarly knowledge through two decades of world travel, intellectual studies, and intense devotional practices, Laura blends this knowledge seamlessly in the telling of her own personal narrative.

Her aim is no less than to liberate all women from enslavement and abuse, as well as freeing the men who are able to love them. To accomplish this ambitious task, she brings a piercing but compassionate feminist lens to her careful analysis of the rituals, texts, and practices belonging to Durg. When she sees a patriarchal overlay, she names itbut without needing to throw out the baby with the bathwater. Her profound immersion in the Ten-Day Durg Festivals in Nepal and India, along with her longtime devotional identification with the deity, give us an inside glimpse into the South Asian cultural experience of Durg, even as Amazzone never forgets her position as an outsider to that culture. Her lens is that of a serious and respectful pilgrim on a particularly female journey of discovery and healing.

I love the scholarship in this informative bookthe many vivid details and knowledge about different Goddesses honored in the festivals, such as Saraswat on the first day and Kl on the seventh. Amazzones vibrant descriptions throughout the book bring her learning to life for the reader. Especially potent is her storytelling ability, such as when she describes her first breathtaking encounter with the young Kumr, a virgin Nepalese girl whose office is to personally embody the Goddess Durg. Finally it is her understanding of ancient womens blood mysteries and the erotic power of the Yogin that informs the book and makes it relevant for contemporary women searching for more meaning than that normally offered in mainstream western culture. The book itself is a bit of a pilgrimage and one that you will want to read more than once.

Vicki Noble
Candlemas 2010

Sexual difference is a given reality. It belongs universally to all humans. Being interested in it cannot, in any case, result from any privilege, but forgetting its importance can.

Luce Irigaray

Goddess Durg is a divine model of female empowerment. Her animating, sustaining and annihilating essence is more ancient than any of the orthodox world religions. To many, Durg is the Divine Force behind all existence. Durg is courageous and invincible, and She has sisters: Goddesses in collective form that have surrounded Her throughout history and who assist Her in battling demonic forces that are destroying the harmonic interrelationship between all earthly and cosmic existence. These sister Goddesses across the globe come in every shape, color and size, and move with the natural cycles of this planet. They have governed the cosmos since time immemorial. Most importantly, the divine female force of Goddess is evident in the strength, resilience, hope and love of womens lives.

Goddess Durg and Sacred Female Power explores foundational tenets within the kta Tantra tradition and the myriad expressions of Goddess Durg in Her South Asian manifestations. It examines Goddess evolution from earth-based shamanic origins into the rise and development of the Hindu Tradition and beyond. It explores the ways Goddess original untamable and formidable nature has and has not been respected and demonstrates how the gradual negative shift in Goddess status parallels the malignment of womens social, cultural and religious roles under patriarchy. Goddess Durg and Sacred Female Power deconstructs orthodox depictions and descriptions of various manifestations of Goddess and shows how the debilitated submissive presentation of the human as well as Divine Female is limiting to both sexes. In the West we lack an empowered image of the Divine Female. It is not my intention to appropriate the religious icons, appearances and symbols by turning to the millennia-old Kaula and kta Tantra tradition of the East. The ancient spiritual foundation from which these Goddesses and their rituals thrive have much to teach all of us about human experience and the nature of existence.

In Part One I introduce Goddess Durg and the religious traditions in which She is most firmly situated. I present one of Her most popular epithets and emanations, Bhagawat, as a Divine female role model. I provide an overview of the philosophical and spiritual traditions that serve as the foundation of Her rituals and practices. I also discuss the relevance of pilgrimage.

In Part Two, the day by day account of the Durg Pj or Navartri, a nine-night autumn festival, offers philosophical, historical, ritualistic and mythological material pertaining to Goddess and Her annual ritual. Throughout the book I share anecdotal highlights of my pilgrimages over the past ten years that have enhanced my research. Ethnographic research on the festival as presented through archaeology, religious studies and practice, art, iconography, mythology, and feminist studies have informed this work. By examining archaeology, linguistics, myth as history, iconography, and Kaula and kta Tantric texts, we can glimpse the prepatriarchal forms of the popular Goddesses in the Hindu pantheon and other lesser known, marginalized Goddesses who have something to say to us about our inherent divinity and place in the world today.