About a month ago I volunteered to tell a story for the 8th annual Storyteller’s Tellabration. It’s been a few years since I’ve tackled this kind of creative endeavor and I’m a little nervous.
My genre of storytelling is a hybrid of personal memoir and ancient mythology. In the past I’ve delved into ancient gods/goddesses from different cultures and I’ve always learned something important. I’ve added some links below of stories told if you are interested.
Thanks to the internet I found my muse right away. She was hardly known in the pantheon of gods/goddesses.of Hindu mythology. She was called Akilandaeshvari and her name holds the key to understanding what she is all about. In Sanskrit, Aki is Universe, lan is ruler, and deshvari is Goddess…………..she is the Goddess who Rules the Universe and her powers are unmatched by any other. But the Sanskrit also says something else. Akilanda can be also translated as Never-Not-Broken. She is the Goddess of Never-Not-Broken. Reconciling those two translations took a bit of meditation and contemplation. Within days my obsession took over and I researched and read and tried to paint the image I found of her.
I looked at all the places where I was broken, physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Slowly as I came to understand her story and the symbolism I could see why Never-Not-Broken = Ruler of the Universe. As a life long yogini I have learned what it means to ’embody’ something. I watched my self *embody* Ahkilandaeshvari.
Her story teaches us about resilience and how with each break, crack, rupture, trauma, crisis, catastrophe we survive, we become stronger.
I suspect that her fame will grow during these turbulent times we are living in. The way she rides the crocodile down a raging river is a lesson in itself.
…to be continued
Here’s an invite to our Tellebration if you want to come.