Archive for the ‘Parvati’ tag
Lord Shiva, Parvati and the Shiva Linga
A year ago I was in India and took this photo of Lord Shiva, his consort Parvati and a small Shiva Linga which is in the centre foreground. Yesterday’s post about libido brought to mind many such Shiva Linga carvings seen during my wanderings in India. The Shiva Linga has a raised nub at the centre of a circle which has a narrow channel that rises towards the centre. The protrusion of the Shiva Linga is a representation of the lingam, a penis. The circle with entryway is the yoni, the uterus and vagina. The entryway is often depicted with a kundalini serpent moving upwards to the lingam. The lingam in the yoni, yin and yang, the holy union of the masculine and the feminine.
Jung has refered to this holy union as the “mysterium coniunctionis”.
Libido, the energy of the self and the universe. It gets confused with sex. But, it is embodied in the physical relationship between male and female as well as the pyschic relationship between the conscious and unconscious, the masculine energies and feminine energies within, with soul and spirit, with light and shadow.
