ascensionawareness:

Ardhanarisvara, Yin and Yang: As opposed to common believe the Yin-Yang does not represent dualism but is a statement of transcendence into monism. It is polarization and union of two halves, the framework which the world sees as interplay between two forces. These represent everyday opposites to metaphysical conventions. Yin and Yang exist together, each having the seed of the other which reciprocally fit within a circle representing two apparently oppositional elements. Within the confines of the circle they find balance and containment. The negative dark feminine abuts the positive bright male. Night becomes the day. There is no domination as they are within the circle without changes to their proportions. In Taoist and Tantric logic, the two poles of cosmic energy are Positive-Yang and Negative-Yin associated with masculine and feminine.


In their Ardhanarisvara form, Shiva and Shakti attain transcendence through the union of the two forces whose separation was not absolute in the first place. There is creation, evolution and finally a return to the source. This circle is nameless and beyond human understanding. One half of Ardhanarisvara is meaningless without the other; each hold and active and passive element. They are darkness from which light discerns; silence from which sounds arise. In this form they are lovers coexisting in interdependent harmony. They are hardly dual in nature.

Ardhanarisvara is symbolic of the entire universe as a manifestation of pure consciousness. In manifesting the universe, this pure consciousness seems to become divided into two polarities or aspects, neither of which can exist without the other. The unmanifest consciousness retains a static quality conceptualised as masculine Shiva. The dynamic, energetic, or creative polarity aspect is Shakti. In their balanced Oneness, Shakti manifests as the great Mother of the universe. It is from Ardhanarisvara that all is born. The circle represents the origin and mystery of creation; it is beyond the beyond, similar to Paraparam -the ‘Supreme Supreme’, ‘Beyond the beyond’ in Saivite philosophy. Om Nama Shivaya.