Invoking the Goddess Within

Spells & Rituals

Aug 9

Preview

I have a tattoo down my spine that no one can read.

Sure, it’s in Sanskrit, but even those well-versed in that language have trouble translating it since the artist took it upon himself to “make it look like a brush stroke” and failed to connect two lines that, in essence, make the whole script legible. Some might find this oversight frustrating, but I like to see it as just another part of this story.

The first time I heard the mantra “So Hum” (or “Soham” depending on where you’re reading it) was while participating in a 21-day Deepak Chopra/Oprah meditation challenge (roll your eyes if you like, but everyone’s spiritual journey starts somewhere). As a fledgling yoga instructor about to enter my first teacher training, I decided to commemorate this vibrational match by having my new favorite mantra permanently etched across my spine while on a solo vacation to New Orleans. I knew that the phrase roughly translated to “I am” in sort of a Universal all-encompassing sense (as in “I am the Universe and everything in it”) so I decided to have it repeated three times as a personal homage to Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar (because once a Kat Stratford wannabe, always a Kat Stratford wannabe).

It wasn’t until a few years later, again while traveling alone, that a man came up to me on a train to ask me what my tattoo meant. I’d gotten used to rushing through the answer to this question the same way anyone with a tattoo does when you suspect the person asking doesn’t really want your life story. Expecting a nod, a shrug, and something like “Cool” muttered in response to my quick answer, I was surprised when I looked up and saw genuine interest in the man’s eyes.

He leaned in conspiratorily and said, “But do you know the whole story behind it?”
That’s when I realized this wasn’t just a casual tattoo conversation.

The man introduced himself as an avid student of Sanskrit and Vedic mythology. He then had me wave to his wife sitting nearby as assurance that he wasn’t trying to hit on me. That’s when I relaxed into my seat, eager to hear more of what he had to say.

To boil the story down to its absolute essence, it’s a tale of a mortal human who looks into a mirror one day and sees the reflection of a divine being staring back at them. Startled, the human points to the reflection and inquisitively asks, “I am that?” Simultaneously, the divine being points to the human (it is a mirror, after all) and says declaratively, “I am that.”

The moral of this story?

What is human is divine and what is divine is human.

Essentially, you’ve got the music in you. And I do too.

Anyway, here’s a simple ritual inspired by that story…