Santoshi Ma's Garden
by Phil Hine
This meditation account was extracted from a series of 22 workings
related to the Major Arcana of the Tarot.
3. THE EMPRESS
Attributions: Daleth, Venus
Virtue: Pleasure
WORKING:
SANTOSHI MA PATHWORKING
SI: "It is my will to experience the delights of Santoshi
Ma, Goddess of Contentment."
Seated in Dragon asana, I stepped into the Empress card and vibrated the name SANTOSHI MA x7.
…The card swung open to reveal a rippling cornfield, with a forest in the distance. There was a vague scent of strawberries, & a faint waft of musk. Santoshi Ma sits in the centre of the Garden of Earthly Delights, which is her veil. She has long black-blue hair, fair skin smeared with yellow paste, dark eyes ringed with mascara & the dust of powdered gems. She is dripping with jewels & precious gems. She has four arms and holds in her hands a conch, a noose, a flower, and gives the gesture of giving boons. She is benevolent & wise.
I made my way towards Santoshi Ma, through the garden, noticing that many desire-aspirations of mine were present - awaiting my enjoyment - from sexual partners, computer systems, from acclaim and recognition, to peace and privacy. Moments of remembered pleasure, relaxation and success flashed through my awareness. I reached the centre of the garden, where Santoshi Ma sat, surrounded by desire-forms.
She said: "All that you desire, all fulfillment for your happiness is here - all things that would bring you pleasure - will you not enjoy them?"
I replied: "Oh bounteous one, to be engrossed in one desire is to be distracted from the whole. In your gardens, I can relax and see my attachments as distractions."
She said: "Do you then seek the ascetic path of renunciation? I can remove your desire for things, if you wish it."
I replied: "O beautiful goddess, it is desire which drives me to success. Yet I know that success is relative and conditioned. My joy is in the journey, not the destination."
She said: "You have seen my nature beneath my veil - success and pleasure are states of being, distinct from attachments. Here..."
She blew me a kiss, which settled upon my forehead. A wave of
relaxation and global contentment settled over me & spread
throughout my body, and the working was closed.
Comment:
Now this is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, prior to gating through the card, I knew little of Santoshi Ma, saving her name & attribute, so the above is a result of Sahaja Pathworking rather than preconceived ideas. Secondly, I do not think the conversation is an injunction to be 'content with my lot', but more of a neither/neither state related (possibly) to the PLAY gnosis work I have been doing.