On Hallowe'en
Costume party a few years ago... ok maybe more than a few.. yikes!
A few years ago we went to a costume party for Halloween. My husband dressed as a mexican wrestler, complete with full mask over his entire head and face. My eye make-up made me a little less recognizable to some (apparently, well, it was a dark night and people may have been drinking) and so for much of the party we had real fun having people try to guess our 'real life' identities. Especially with my husband it was a thrilling game.. he wouldn't even speak until people figured out his true identity.
As our friends tried to figure it out they sometimes became frustrated... but mostly joined in the fun of the game and of the task at hand. Once they figured it out, laughs all around and all joyful merriment of a Halloween party for grown-ups with no kids yet. Even still, through the entire night, my husband never did take off his mask. It wasn't until we got home that he finally showed his face to me again and I had the relief of seeing that yes, it really was him all along.
Yeah, that's kind of how the One works in this Tantrik system. As you know, the One is in the many. The One is all of us but she is hidden within us in plain sight and so, we forget that we are actually Her. Totally forget it. It's like we all have on our Mexican wrestling masks and don't know or see who we are or who anyone else is. The teaching that goes with this that I love is: The One Citi-Shakti, conceals herself within all of the manifest world simply for the DELIGHT of Revelation. This life is one big giant Halloween party where the One is each of us in our masks enjoying the play of the guessing game and hoping to finally reveal herself as she is. She does it on purpose, for FUN. And so for us, the fun, the candy and the treats come when we learn to see past the mask and even take it off, even if only for an instant, to reveal the Universe sparkling within all that is. But we can also take a lesson from Shakti-Ma and learn to enjoy the Game too. Not just craving the revelation moments, but also the wandering and the guessing. We already know the answer so why not enjoy the search and the waiting for the mask to come off too? And, of course, the power that reveals... the hand that removes the mask for us at any moment is Shakti's Grace.
There is some superstition or maybe it's wisdom, I'm not up on this stuff just yet, that says that tonight, Halloween, and the next few nights, the veil between the world of Spirit and of Humanity, or maybe that the line between Concealment and Revelation is a lot less solid. That there is much more interconnection, maybe even greater instances of Grace in these times. During a spiritually potent time such as now if we are Open to Grace we have a greater shot at removing the mask and seeing all that Is. Tonight when I'm out in the cold and the dark, when I'm not wishing for warmth and light, I hope to fix my mind again on Grace. Open to her wisdom and notice just what she chooses to reveal to me.
Happy Hauntings... may you have many many treats this year!!!
