Hollow Body Meditation

In my work with clients of late the word “mystery” is coming up a great deal, along with themes like void, darkness, and dissolution. These are concepts we tend to struggle with in the west, driven as we are to fill every inch of our space and time, to map and illuminate every corner. But in the Goddess traditions from the Indian subcontinent and around the world, the womb is invoked as a place of potentiating void. It is primordial, humming darkness. In these traditions, the universe we can see and understand needs the universe we cannot see or understand.

“The Goddess is the energy beyond mind in the void of the cave of the yoni {womb},” says the Yogakhanda, and that nascent void of womb space is mirrored throughout the natural world. It is the pause at the bottom of the exhale, before we draw another breath. It is winter, a fallow meadow under a blanket of snow, the darkness beneath the dormant forest loam. It is the humming singularity of a universe before it bursts into form.

In this guided meditation, you’re invited to explore that pregnant, potentiating void. Once you have a sense of the flow of this practice, it’s an easy one to drop into on your own. Feel free to download from the link provided and revisit as you’re called. May it be a source of stillness and steadiness.

And here is a blessing for these dark, cold, uncertain months: May we allow ourselves not to rush the answers. May we give our questions time, room and space. May we find rest in the pregnant darkness. 🖤

(I’m coming back to this post to add an attribution for the practice. I first came in contact with a version of this practice via my research into Kashmir Shaivism. And I was just recently reminded of this practice by the marvelous podcaster Joshua Shrei. Highly recommend investigating his work! And I hope you enjoy my version of this meditation. )