Amba
अम्बा
The Divine Feminine Series
24 x 24
Acrylic & Rose Gold Leaf on Canvas
(December, 2020)
Continuing with my focus on the Divine Feminine, I give you the all-knowing, meditative Amba. Amba is Adi Shakti herself, the Mother of the Universe, the first supreme-energy. In her meditative mood, Amba emanates the hues and tints of the मणिपूर Manipura chakra yellow. The crescent draws from the Bindu Visarga.
The Manipura (I have a hard time explaining Sanskrit pronunciation, the n sound here is somewhere between n and the tongue roll of a d/r?) chakra is translated as the city of jewels, the center of our personal power and transformation. It is the center of iccha shakti, the power of desire, dynamism, movement. Meditating on Manipura is to focus on the power to save, change or destroy the world. It makes me think of the Margaret Mead quote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
Underlying Kundalini yoga is the principle of an energy that lies dormant at the base of the spine until it is activated. The Bindu Visarga chakra, symbolized by a crescent moon on a violet night, is said to be the point through which the soul enters the body, creating the chakras as it descends and terminating in the base of the spine. The Bindu Visarga is often described as the source of the divine nectar, and the preservation of this nectar is known as "urdhva retas" (literally: upward semen). I couldn’t resist taking artistic liberties with this whole semen obsession and feminizing it to correspond to the vrittis (whirlpools, ripples) in Amba’s lotus crown of mercy, gentleness, patience, joy, reflection, restfulness, magnanimity and concentration.