Deity Story Time!

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Deity Story Time!
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Post # 1
Deity Story Time!
Pull up a chair, get your favorite beverage out and tell me about your Patron Deity or a Deity you work with! This thread is a place for all of us to share and retell stories of the Deities we work with.
This is not part of the UPCG thread because it is for us as devotees to retell the stories of our various Deities, based the text and then explain our understanding and interpretation of said stories. They can be about the creation of the Deity, or a parable, or even just a story that makes you feel in some way that relates to said Deity :)
1-The idea is to first write out the story as it is told through the ages and in the texts, (I would encourage any sources to be listed for this part as well).
2-Then tell your interpretation of said story. What is the symbolism? How does it make you feel? How does it relate to you and your life? Or all of the above and more :)
I can't wait to hear all the stories of the various Deities you all work with!

Re: Deity Story Time!
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Post # 2

THE STORY:

"..men and gods were being terrorised by Daruka who could only be killed by a woman, and Parvati was asked by the gods to deal with the troublesome demon. She responded by jumping down Shivas throat. This was because many years previously Shiva had swallowed halahala, the poison which had risen from the churning of the ocean during the creation and which had threatened to pollute the world. By combining with the poison still held in Shivas throat, Parvati was transformed into Kali. Leaping from Shivas throat in her new guise, Kali swiftly despatched Daruka and all was well with the world once more."

THE SOURCE:

From <http://www.ancient.eu/Kali/>

THE FEELS:

There are quite a few creation stories of Kali, and this is just one of them.
I love how in this story the demon can only be killed by a woman. The divine feminine energy, or shakti, is what is needed to destroy the demon. It shows the power of the feminine even way back when this story was first told so long ago. Women are often seen as lower than or worth less than men, even in the USA today, we as women are often paid less for the same work. This story tells of one of the few times a woman was needed to battle rather than a man. I really like that about this story, and how Kali is the only one who can save the world because She is the fiercest of all.
Parvati (a Goddess in and of Her own right) is able to to take and drink the poison that Shiva had drank to save the world when it was created, and it turned Her into Kali, the fiercest form of the feminine, of shakti, of the Goddesses. Only the fiercest of the Goddesses was able to face this demon and win to save the world. Jai Maa Kali! (or Victory to the Mother Kali!)


Re: Deity Story Time!
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Post # 3
The Story
The Story of Kali and Raktabija
"It happened once, that the world was threatened by the Asuras (demons). The demons rallied together to overthrow the gods and gain control of the earth. The leader of this uprising was Raktabija, the demon-general.
Through the practice of austerities, Raktabija was granted a boon. This boon, granted by Brahma, allowed Raktabija's power to increase by a thousand every time a drop of his blood was spilled.
The demon soldiers, led by Raktabija, came forth and the gods trembled with outrage. The demons ravaged the earth and its inhabitants. Who would rid the world of this monster? In desperation the gods turned to their shakti (female energy) counterparts. The great and beautiful goddess Durga stepped forward. She had protected them before and was obliged to do it again.
Armed with the weapons of the gods, Durga rode into battle on a tiger, her champion mount. She switched goddess forms many time during battle, slaying demon soldiers as quickly as they advanced until all that remained was the demon-general.
The battle between Raktabija and the Devi ensued. Durga charged again and again; Raktabija's blood spilled everywhere. From each drop of blood a thousand more demons like him sprang up. Full armies arose from the puddles of Raktabija's blood. Demons advanced on the goddess by the thousands. They rode on elephants and horse drawn chariots. They laughed and shouted at the goddess' dilemma.
Upon seeing this, Durga became enraged. She knitted her brows in absolute fury. From this concentration came Kali, the Terrible One.
The whole universe shook with the thundering roar of this powerfully terrible goddess. Those demons who stood nearest the mighty Devi were consumed within the roaring rage of energy.
Kali emerged, naked except for a covering of tiger skin. Her skin was of the deepest black, and hung loosely on Her bones. This mad skeleton of a hag was armed with a skull topped staff, a noose, and the sword of Vengeance. She appeared most frightening with her blood red eyes,sunken deep into her skull, wild with raw power anxious to be unleashed and a third eye flaming brilliantly from her forehead. Her entangled black hair blew wildly about Her shoulders.
She turned her furious gaze upon the demon armies, half fell lifeless from the deadly grip of Her stare. She let out a loud and petrifying shriek and more fell dead to the ground at Kali's feet. With wild cackling, She advanced on Her enemies. She reached out with her claw-like hands and shoveled some of the remaining demons into her gaping mouth.
The rest turned away in fear of this ferocious Devi. The skies were filled with the sound of Her shrieking laughter. But Kali didn't stop at that. She stretched out Her bright red tongue and swallowed all of the elephants and their riders as they tried to run. The horse drawn chariots disappeared with another mouthful into the abyss of Dark Goddess.
With his armies fully destroyed, again the great Devi faced off with Raktabija. Kali pierced the demon in the side and quickly caught the flowing blood with her tongue and drank it greedily. The life energy of Rakatibija flowed out with his dripping blood like wine from a bottle. This time he was not given the chance to raise more demons from his blood. He was helpless in the face of this terrifying hag. Kali lifted him high in the air so she could more easily drain the blood from his body. Finally, drunken with the blood of victory, Kali, threw away the demon-general's corpse. The world was saved. . . . .almost."
The Source
From: http://polymer.bu.edu/~scala/franci.html
(first section only)
The Feels
So a lot of my translation or feelings on this story come from a satsang or spiritual discussion had at the local temple to Kali I go to. The discussion spoke about the story of Kali and Raktabija in great detail. The translation I sourced the story from tells the story most like it was told in the discussion.
One thing mentioned in the story that I liked is how Kali carries a "skull topped staff". The Swami speaking in the satsang made the correlation between a skull topped staff and a spine and attached skull, which we all have, which I thought was really interesting. You could therefor see it as we all have the necessary weapon to fight off the demons ourselves. This is the aspect of the translations that I most related to, so that is the aspect I will focus on for the feels section.
Another thing that was mentioned was the likeness of the demons to thoughts that cloud ones true perceptions, basically getting in the way of enlightenment and/or spiritual growth. The demons, from how I understand them to be within the story, can represent each, extreme base thoughts and primal emotion and ego. There are time and places for them, like the realms the demons come from, or when you are in a situation where those emotions are needed, but when they are driving the whole bus and are not just a passenger, beware.
So, if you are looking at each demon in the story as an intrusive thought, then Raktabija would be the ultimate intrusive thought you cannot get out of your head, that goes cyclically from one thought to the next to the next. An example of this would be:
Thought 1: I need to go to the store
Thought 2: I hope I don't run into so and so
Thought 3: memories of so and so
Thought 4: thoughts on those memories
Thought 5: memories from those thoughts, etc etc etc
One thought begets the next, as one drop of blood beget the many demons.
One of the suggested ways to fight these thoughts off is through having your next thought fixed, like in a mantra. You repeat the same words or prewritten phrases, in which you know the next word and do not have to create it or think it up. Your thoughts can become still and you can vanquish the thoughts into stillness of mind. So to kill the demons is to quiet your own thoughts. No new thoughts will come and eventually the demons/thoughts stop multiplying.
I personally feel that I am filled with these intrusive and cyclical thoughts, that for me at times can be a hindrance in my life. I have various ways of dealing with it, among them reciting mantras.
I really like the idea of us all having the necessary weapons to fight the thought demons off and how that was shown through the skull topped staffs of spine and skull.

Re: Deity Story Time!
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Post # 4

THE STORY:

A Miracle for a Dog

Brigid was boiling some bacon for prestigious guest when a hungry and miserable dog "did fawn upon her for meat." Naturally, Brigid could not refuse the poor animal, so she cut off a chunk and gave " the dog" a piece....and then another... and another. When she later served her guests, the meat was whole, as though nothing had been cut from it. The high personages who were visiting witnessed the miracle, and declared they were not worthy to eat the sacred meat so it was given to the poor.

THE FEELS:

This is one of those stories and warms my heart just letting me know if you do good then good things might come your way. When Brigid gave the dog some meat she could have gotten punish for giving an animalmeat that was going to be eaten by the high personages but it was whole again and she didn't get in trouble which is good.It's also good that she has just a huge heart for animals because most people didn't in her time but she did and that made her very special!

THE SOURCE:

I got this from a book called Candlemas

Blessed Be.

~Jaxies~


Re: Deity Story Time!
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Post # 5

THE STORY:

The FriendlyFish:

In the west of Ireland near the sea was a well sacred to Brigid, where dwelt a tiny fish. It was said the fish could be seen only once every seven years, and that whoever saw it would instantly be healed of any disease. An old woman tells of her visit to the well to cure an eye problem: "... I saw a little fish no longer than your finger... it was very civil coming hither to me and very pleasant wagging its tail.And it stopped and looked up at me and gave three ways of its back, and walked off again and went under the stone. " None of the other people in the crowd glimpsed it. " It was no common fish...It was surely saint Brigid I saw that time; who else would it be?" Who else indeed? Within three days, the old woman's eye was healed.

THE FEELS:

This story gave me the chills and just made my heart race because who knew that a fish not as big as a finger can heal anything even cancer. But, you can only see it once every seven years so the people who knew about the fish must have been searching all over the place when the fish came!

THE SOURCE:

I got this from a book called Candlemas

Blessed Be.

~Jaxies~


Re: Deity Story Time!
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Post # 6

The Story:

"The third Mahavidya is Cinnamasta. Listen to the story of Her origin from the Pancharatna Grantha. Once Parvati went with Her friends Dakini and Varnini to take a bath in the Mandakini River. Parvati was feeling very happy and a lot of love was welling up inside Her. Her complexion darkened and the feeling of love completely took over. Her friends on the other hand were hungry and asked Parvati to give them some food. Parvati requested them to wait and said that She would feed them after a while, and began walking. After a short while, Her friends once again appealed to Her, telling Her that She was the Mother of the Universe and they Her children, and asked to be fed quickly. Parvati replied that they should wait until they got home. Her friends could not wait any longer and demanded that their hunger be satisfied immediately. The compassionate Parvati laughed and with her finger nail cut Her own head. Immediately the blood spurted in three directions. Her two friends drank the blood from two of the directions and the Goddess herself drank the blood from the third direction. Since she cut Her own head, she is known as Cinnamasta. Cinnamasta shines like a lightning bolt from the Sun. She demonstrates the rare courage needed to make the highest conceivable sacrifice. May we imbue that very same courage from that daring Goddess!"

The Feels:

So, this is all from my perspective and is my own take on Chinnamasta's story.

Chinnamasta is a fascinating Deity to me. She is a Tantric Devi (Goddess) that literally cuts off Her own head to feed and nourish Her attendants. In this self sacrifice She cares for those that care for Her. To me this is a reminder to be selfless when helping others. That She feeds Herself as well as Her attendants also means to me that self care is important too; how can you help others when you yourself are not healthy?

Another way to look at this story is that Chinnamasta does not cut off Her head from Her body, but rather cuts Her body from Her head. With the separation of head from body, comes a separation from the desires and needs of the mind and body, the separation from ego and identity, and this allows for transcendence into elightenment. When one loses heir head they are now unattached to their bodily desires. When you no longer have bodily desires, you are less tethered to this material world, and are then free to work on growing closer to enlightenment.

It could also be said from this perspecive, that desire comes from the separation of ourselves to our Deities, which begets the longing (desire) for union. When union with our Deities is experienced, we lose our metaphorical bodies from our heads, our desire is satisfied, and our soul and counsciousness may become liberated in the loss.

The Source:

http://www.shreemaa.org/story-of-origindas-mahavidyas/#chinnamasta


Re: Deity Story Time!
By:
Post # 7

Wow, that's a beautiful story Heather. I love all the symbolism in it. Both points are very touching and speak much truth. They serve as valuable lessons we all need a reminder of from time to time.

THE STORY

Minthe threw a hissy fit and claimed to be superior to Persephone, wife of Haides and Queen of the underworld. Persephone turned her into a mint plant for insulting her and acting like a brat. Some versions say Demeter, mother of Persephone turned her into a mint plant. Others say one of the two ladies turned her into dust and then Haides turned her into a mint plant.

THE FEELS

She had it coming. Honestly, I tend to think Persephone did not mind Haides having Minthe as another lover. Think of it this way, Persephone has to leave for half the year to go see her mother Demeter. In that time, Haides would be lonely. Not everybody is monogamous. Some are polyandrists (meaning they have more than one husband like the Spartan women did). Some are polyamorous (meaning both sides take more than one lover). We see some Mormons take more than one wife. Not everybody minds this. Persephone only acted when the Nymph got jealous and made a fuss, not the other way around. So to me, it seems like she was fine with the union being that way. But she wanted to make it a fight and be the only one, this was a fight Minthe lost. Which to those whom argue Haides abducting was not consensual...Riddle me this, why did she fight for a man she did not want? That's what I thought. Haters can take a seat.

THE SOURCE


http://www.theoi.com/Nymphe/NympheMinthe.html


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