Masked dance always strikes an unexplainable chord within me. Dance takes us to those unfathomable depths that enable one to communicate with the Divine. The Tibetan Masked Cham dance is particularly wonderful; I also like it because it is in 3 parts – like the action of a retrograde planet, such as Venus who is our current Queen of the cosmic retrograde Dance. Venus had been pressing ahead into the radiant night sky, full of stately splendour, eagerly seeking love with lust and ardour; then on March 7th, she stopped at 18◦ of go-getting Aries before internalising a retrospective phase to deal with certain *issues* and, like the Cham Dancer, confront her demons. In our present Venus-in-Aries scenario, the issue we can effectively address is self-love, and the barriers we create to total self-acceptance.
I don’t mean ‘self-love’ in an egotistical ‘Hey, everyone look how great I am!’ kind of way, but valuing the innate kindness and love that comes from the heart is essential for a positive self-image and self-acceptance. Funnily enough, we westerners can have such big of issues about self-worth; thinking ‘oh, my nose is too big’ or ‘I’m not rich enough’, or, ‘I’m not fabulous enough to have a lover, job or friend that is good for me’; the mind then allows such thoughts to get us down and damage our self-esteem, and we end up believing all the lies and misconceptions our ego tells us. His Holiness, Dalai Lama is always amazed how westerners can devalue ourselves, when the precious human rebirth is such a treasure. Everyone has their own gift to bring humanity, for some it is healing, music, dance or sport, for others its meditating, parenting, caring, working with animals, swimming, singing, driving or making or selling things, even the way of the warrior can be spiritual, (especially now, with Mars in Pisces).
The second part of the dance is on Aoril 12th, when Venus will retrograde back into the anaretic 29th, very last degree of Pisces; in her sign of exaltation she emanates an unconditional cosmic kind of love, when the teachings on love and compassion, for oneself and others becomes so pertinent. Taking time for totally forgiving past mistakes (seeing them as something to learn from) and learning to love our demons can be so liberating. The strange things is that when accept and love our negative points they change to become positive –demons can then be transformed into becoming happy because they are loved, and so they stop pestering us! The 3rd part comes on th 18th April when Venus goes forward again. Stevie Wonder says “If you can’t love yourself, then who can you love?” With his words I encourage you to let the Goddess of the Dance open your heart to an endless sea of love and discover in that endless ocean heartfelt compassion and knowledge that the universe always supports you.
Jangchub Lingpa's Cham Dance video: http://www.youtube.com/wat
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