Rachna Nivas RECLAIMING THE DIVINE FEMININE — Preview

A spokesperson describes the event as follows:

“…Rachna Nivas’ Reclaiming the Divine Feminine takes audiences into the dark and mystical realm of tantra and its radial hailing of supreme feminine power as the primordial energy that pervades all things in time and space. Through classical Indian kathak dance, live music, and special lighting and prop design, Nivas embodies the wildness of Kali – Goddess of time and death who represents the bold paradoxes of feminine wholeness: she is intoxicating and terrifying, beautiful and grotesque, ascetic and erotic, loving and rageful; she is the force that binds us and the force that sets us free…”

According to Nivas, the tantric wisdom goddesses (mahavidyas) are some of the most radical yet invisible iconography of South Asian civilization. She says, “Tantra, which was birthed in tribal India, has been highly denigrated and stereotyped in the West to be about sex and freakish practices. It’s tragic how little folks know about this powerful paradigm, even in India itself due to its unorthodox departure from patriarchal structures and what we consider ‘wild’ and ‘horrific’ imagery of a woman.”

The phrase “divine feminine” has been gaining popularity recently, but Nivas hopes to expand and deepen its understanding. She says, “Tantra’s ‘divine feminine’ is a rare concept in that she is not just a revered nurturing consort to a male deity, but rather an entirely independent and autonomous power, not depicted with a partner or even as a mother. My own life has taken me to deep self-inquiry and brought me to discover how profound and liberating these goddesses are. They have the power to transform and reclaim a woman’s wild limitlessness nature…”

Photo Courtesy of Rachna Nivas.