NORTH INDIA

 To be a snake charmer one must have complete trust in the snake. Golden sand, the distant sound of a heart beat, the vast desert calls you to turn your gaze inward.  Where is that sound coming. Dom da-da Dom da Dom da-da Dom da. Ah yes it is the ancient rhythm that stirs in my soul. I stand, my hips begin to move, to sway reminding me I am not here to be clean and tidy, although I am, I am here to stomp, and devour so that my Divine partner can do his job sweetly. Somehow, somewhere I have signed up for this and my soul fully agrees. There is no other way but to dance through the fire.

Morya Sapera comes from a traditional Kalbeliya snake charming tribe. She is a traditional dancer who continues to mesmerize me. When I first came upon her social media page I felt as though a prayer had been answered! She is a bright light in her community, teaching dance gypsi style, she also weaves jewelry that her mother and mother's mother were weaving. She has a shop in Pushkar Rajasthan where it is said Lord Brahma dropped a lotus flower forming a lake and what is now Pushkar.  Her shop supports the 40 some children that she teaches in her Gurukul (child learning center) Morya Kalbeliya School. One day I was asking very simply about something she posted on her social media feed as it was in Hindi (or Marwadi). She face-timed me then and there to explain! When I say she is mesmerizing it is what I mean. She is deeply connected to Mother Kali and I will share a few glimpses of her Divine calling and gift.

To begin each dance she prays to Kali her beloved Mother as a way to communicate, to serve as a medium each movement a signal, a healing, a code she weaves prayers into the aether and nurtures the air around herself, her home, her family, her community and the world.  She IS the Divine Mother and she radiates this gracefully and playfully. Gungru are traditional bells that wrap around the wife's ancles. Before each dance she prays with with gungru in hand towards her heart for good luck with what is about to transpire.

 Swamiji: The Kalbeliya dancers of Rajasthan, they are not just performers. They are the living embodiments of Kali's serpentine consciousness. Their dance is not entertainment, it is transmission. The black swirling skrits - that is Kali's own darkness, the unmanifest void from which all creation sprials forth. When a Kalbeliya woman spins, she is not dancing about the serpent, she is the serpent Kundalini Shakti rising coiling, uncoiling, moving without bones, without resistance, pure fluid consciousness.

Kalbeliya tribes are traditionally snake-charmers. But the real snake they charm is not the cobra in the basket - it is the Kundalini coiled at the base of the spine. Generation after generation, they have preserved the body language of awakened Shakti. The hands that sway like hooded serpants, the feet that stomp out ignorance, the spin that dissolves the world into a whirl of black - this is Kali puja in motion. No temple needed. The body becomes the temple. The dancer doesn't just learn steps; she digests the serpent until the serpent moves her.

I have a secret wish to learn to dance this sacred dance from Morya.  If you do also you can! She has classes and workshops, support her school and allow it to expand as Mother Kali blesses. Visit her instagram page @moryayou to witness the richness of her tradition. Remember this dance is sacred, not for show it is an act of worship. We all need this in our lives; deep reverence for the divine. To remember what is deeply lit inside of us Paramashiva's blueprint, the enlightened human design. We are all here to dance this sacred dance like Morya. She is reminding us to answer the call.