This meditation expresses the essence of PaGaian Cosmology as it has evolved over the last thirty-eight years (at the date of writing this); it has been a daily practice for me for almost two decades since the advent of the doctoral process in the late 1990’s that enabled a deepening and documentation of my sacred search for Her, Goddess in self and all. The meditation has also been advised for my students as a primary method of daily invoking the Triple Goddess dynamic. The meditation, which is based in the Yoga Mudra, includes the incorporation – embodiment – of the three qualities of Cosmogenesis – the Unfolding Cosmos, as described by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry[1]: it is an invocation and acknowledgement of the whole self-creating Cosmos within each being … affirming that self as Primordial Place of being.

You may simply view it on YouTube, but the explanation is below: Triple Goddess Breath Meditation: each Being a Place of the Cosmological Unfolding

It begins by taking the pose of Yoga Mudra, which I have understood as an in-corporation of the Triple Goddess metaphor, and of the year long seasonal wheel. I have understood the seasonal wheel as a ceremonial embodiment of the triple-faced Creative Dynamic, like a year-long breath; that the seasonal wheel manifests how Gaia breathes. The purpose of joining in that breath in ceremony is in the hope of enhancing one’s journey into the awesome Creativity that She manifests, to unfold this deepest identity, to “get with her Plot”. So the Yoga Mudra expressed as the Triple Goddess Breath Meditation has been a daily way of both invoking in my being the essence of my Search, and of remembering my actual immersion in it. The Yoga Mudra, as it was taught to me, integrates the multivalence of Gaia’s creative dynamic very well. It may also speak the seasonal cycle – the play of light and dark, the waxing, peaking and waning of all being.

• The first position at the beginning of the breath is a statement of love of self, and may be associated with the beginning of the light part of the seasonal cycle (Imbolc/Early Spring). It is the virgin/new young one phase – differentiated manifest beauty.
• The second position as the breath expands and the arms spread up and out, is a statement of love of other. It may be associated with the movement towards Summer Solstice – the peaking of fullness of being. It is the mother phase – communion, relationship in the web of life.
• The third position as the breath releases and the torso folds over, is a statement of love of All-That-Is. It is the Return to the dark, and may be associated with the Crone/Old One phase (Lammas/Late Summer and the celebrations of increasing dark – through Autumn Equinox and Samhain/Deep Autumn to Winter Solstice) – the creative manifesting sentient Space.

But creativity is a process of never-ending renewal; creativity emerges out of the fullness of darkness, at the bottom of the breath we receive All-That-Is. The Virgin/New Young One and Old One/Crone are linked in that place, and cannot be separated. So I have extended the yoga mudra to move from this third position, back through the second and into the first. And whereas in the initial movement, the Gift of Being was received as the “New Young One”, in this extension the Gift of Being is received as from the Old One, the transformations of the ages: and the inbreath moves through the Mother phase into the outbreath which is now associated with the New Young One/Virgin.

The meditation continues with the folding of arms over the chest, representing the affirming of differentiated unique self; moving into extended arms representing the affirming of deep relationship and communion with other, the web of life; and into the placing of hands on the ground representing the affirming of direct relationship with the sentient Cosmos, the Well of Creativity.

The concluding triple movement again begins with folded arms over the chest, but this time affirming the Ancient One present; then moving into the extended arms this time affirming the ever-New; finishing with hands placed on the feet affirming this particular self as a Place of the Cosmological Unfolding.

The whole meditation proceeds thus with the following text,[2] though this could be varied somewhat according to one’s own preferred expression:

Phase One

With every inbreath I receive the Gift – I am Virgin ever-new.

With the peaking of every breath I am this dynamic Place of Being. I am Mother.

With every outbreath I become the Gift, the Old One – ever transformed.

Phase Two

With every breath in, I receive the Gift of All – the Transformations of the Ages, Old One.

With the peaking of every breath, I am the Sentient Place of Now, the Sacred Interchange, Mother.

With every breath out, I am the Gift to All – again renewed, Virgin.

Phase Three

With every breath I celebrate:

this particular beautiful Self, new in every moment

in deep relationship and communion with Other, the web of Life

directly participating in the Sentience of the Creative Cosmos, the Well of Creativity.

Phase Four

I am the Ancient One,

ever-New,

in this Place.

– oOo-

NOTE: I sometimes connect Phase Three with Thomas Berry’s three rights of all being, in this way:

With every breath I celebrate

this particular beautiful Self, new in every moment … with the Right to Be

in deep relationship and communion with Other, the web of Life … with the Right to Habitat

directly participating in the Sentience of the Creative Cosmos, the Well of Creativity … with the Right to Fulfill my role in existence.

© Glenys Livingstone 2017

To see this on YouTube: Triple Goddess Breath Meditation: each Being a Place of the Cosmological Unfolding

NOTES AND REFERENCES:

[1] Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry, The Universe Story. Harper Collins,1992, pp 66-79.

[2] As it is written in PaGaian Cosmology: Re-inventing Earth-based Goddess Religion, by Glenys Livingstone, (Lincoln NE: iUniverse 2005), p.261-262.