Shiva Shakti Unite ॐ

30/01/2026

Birth is so misrepresented in modern culture.

To many people, birth is synonymous with pain and this creates a narrative where women dread it. We see birth play out in Hollywood entertainment as a horrible event, forcing the mother to endure suffering and painting an image of a completely hopeless person (usually the dad) infuriating the birthing person.

Truthfully, it’s bu****it!

Is birth intense? Yes. But is it awful? Absolutely not!

I know many incredible women who have birthed in completely empowered states, without any interventions by their choice and with loving, incredible partners at their side. Would you believe this is a possible reality?!

It doesn’t matter where you want to birth, although I’ve wholeheartedly chosen to birth my babies at home; I really wish for a world where every mother feels their power, knows their options and comes away feeling whole in all that unfolded.

I feel we are doing a disservice to birth, by painting it as a horror that we have to endure.

For me, those two moments my precious children were born were two of the most euphoric feelings I’ve ever experienced. I’m talking more so than meditation, drugs, or***ms, you name it!

I mean look at my face in the second photo!?

The wave of love and joy that washes over you after birth is the closest that I’ve come to pure total bliss.

And you know what, my husband was right by my side for every moment! I wasn’t angry at him during either labour or birth - quite the opposite. I felt immeasurable love and so well supported.

Why don’t we share this message with the next generation?

It upsets me that many paint this treacherous picture of birth which sets the foundation of how these little humans come into this world. Instead, we could stop and celebrate birth as the miraculous, powerful, wonderful, intense journey it is! 

To be clear ~ I want to call out that I’ve been fortunate to have uneventful births and I do not wish to be insensitive to those who have lost mothers or babies in childbirth. That is tragedy which I don’t have lived experience of and my whole heart extends out to those families ❤️‍🩹

Photos of my 2nd birth by our beloved doula .org.au

21/01/2026

Grief ~~~ a topic that has been on my mind, albeit a beautifully abundant time of my life. I truly dreamed for my life now - a loving partner, beautiful children, a peaceful home; I am beyond grateful.

Yet, it is only right to consider the layers of my grief that are so intrinsically connected to motherhood.

~grief of not being as available for my first born
~grief of less focus solely to my newborn
~grief of never feeling like you can offer enough
~grief of losing dedicated time with my husband
~grief for letting go of my career, identity, body &…

Do not get me wrong - being a mother is the most fulfilling, heartwarming role I’ve ever had the privilege to be. But it can also be intense and demanding!

It’s these moments that I’m so grateful for my practice. Even when I don’t want to practice and rather numb out with food or tv - she draws me in.

I’ve experienced many flavours of Shakti throughout both of my pregnancies and the entire journey of motherhood but right now, I am drawn to Dhumavati ~ the smokey one, the crone.

She’s completely underappreciated in my humble opinion. Likely because she doesn’t hold the immediate charm of many of the goddesses.

Yet, she holds a complex presence and mysterious beauty that’s all her own.

I sit with her when I’m in the depths of frustration, disappointment and grief. Because she brings me to the place beyond suffering where she sits.

She is a reminder of the connectedness that’s possible when we allow the situation or story associated with an issue to dissolve; thus we orient ourselves in the collective womb of loving Shakti.

I’m here with deep gratitude to Dhumavati on her horseless carriage, in her rags as clothes, discarded to the edges of patriarchal society.

Although she may not look like the embodiment of pregnancy or birth, she is a symbol of surrender and letting go.

Her power reminds us to dissolve into the ever flowing current of grace and love, which we all come from and ultimately all will merge back into. 🖤🌀🩶

**ra

26/11/2025

2 years of loving you beyond the limits of what I thought was possible 💕 happy birthday sweet girl!

LoLo ~ you are the most beautiful, clever, incredible, funny little human! My heart is so full from the joy and love you’ve brought into our little family.

Looking back to our birth ~ you made me into a mama with your powerful way of coming earthside and have taught me so many lessons in motherhood. From love to grief to ease to challenges, it’s such a full experience!

As we embark on this next adventure of welcoming your little brother ~ I am so in awe of the last 2 years and all of the time we have been able to spend together 🥹 it’s been a chapter that I know I will cherish for the rest of my life!!

Thanks papa for holding it down at work so I could spend so much time with our girl 😘

Anya I’m so proud to be your mama 💘 here’s to endless more birthdays and years filled with love & adventures! 🥰 I love you!

27/10/2025

How would we know his inherent stillness of awareness, without her immanent urge to act?

How would we experience her creative dynamism, without his unchanging stable ground?

~ being+acting ~ knower+doer ~ stillness+creation ~

Their innate cosmic union continues to inspire and amaze me. A divine story I return to again & again ❤️‍🔥

🔻 In our vinyasa practice tonight, we honour Kali and Shiva in their eternal unfolding 🔺 Join me for my last class before I dive back to one of the doorways they are SO present within… birth!

21/10/2025

Fun day with friends at the Werribee Open Range Zoo 🦒💚🦓🩶🦏🧡🦛💛

Is there anything better than seeing your child experience joy and act with curiosity out in the world?!

By the end of our safari adventure, I sure was tired but my heart was full from seeing LoLo enjoy putting all those hours of building her animal vocabulary to very good use 😂

19/10/2025

Lakshmi ✨🌺🍯🪷💖

One of my earliest connections to Shakti, I’ve been drawn to her radiant essence instantly. It comes as no surprise that she is so closely connected to Venus, or Shukra, who rules my Vedic astrology chart. Naturally drawn to her qualities of pleasure + beauty ~ it’s easy to love Lakshmi.

Beyond her more material boons, I’ve come to appreciate the radical self acceptance available once you establish yourself in her loving arms. She has the capacity to move us beyond criticism and small mindedness when it comes to our self esteem ~ a gift that comes with time.

As we arrive at the precipice of her beloved festival, Diwali, I reflect on how she has shone her grace upon my inner self. From learning to accept my forever changing form to a satisfied feeling of knowing that I am enough ~ her shimmering love has rippled to my darkest corners.

Join me tomorrow for a steady vinyasa practice honouring Lakshmi + Diwali 🪔

I’ll end with words that I wrote for her in 2021 when studying with Sally Kempton 💫

“Śri,

It is you that glimmers like gold
She who manifests as abundance in nature’s form

It is you that gives material boons
Though far beyond the surface level is the depth you go

It is you able to transform our lower selves to higher virtues
Knowing what to let go of without any regret

It is you willing to bring about radical self acceptance
Allowing us to dissolve in your glistening pink embrace.

Śri, it is you”

**a

02/10/2025

When I started practicing yoga, it was more or less entirely physical. The Bikram approach was intense, rajasic and consuming — it served me to press up against the inner intensity I navigated in my early to mid 20s. I’m certain that the incessant pushing in my practice allowed me to burst myself open to another way of living and being; ultimately gifting me the courage to leap into the world of yoga teaching and moving abroad. Now, I couldn’t imagine myself stepping into that torture chamber for even 1 minute 😂but I still value the role it played in starting my journey close to 15 years ago.

When the world flipped upside down half a decade ago and I lost my Dad, my physical practice of vinyasa shifted and broadened to encompass the gifts of subtler approaches with Ta**ra at their core. It felt so familiar and yet beautifully anew to explore breathing techniques, chant mantras, visualise deities and meditate on the subtle body. This time erupted my love for the Gods and Goddesses and has woven itself into the fabric of my everyday life, beyond the parameters of a yoga mat.

Now as a Mum and being pregnant for a 2nd time, my practice has shifted so many times over since starting on this mothering journey. From the humble realities of practicing and teaching yoga whilst pregnant to the challenges of rebuilding strength in early postpartum to the sobering experience of maintaining your practice with a young family 😮‍💨 I’ve had to let my ideals go so many times. Then piece by piece, I rebuild them in a new way that is responsive and adaptable to my current situation.

So here we are 🌀Naga taking her post in front of the altar, LoLo in her new favourite — child’s pose, baby doll n**e as she always is, bubs in my womb along for the ride and me offering loving assists to mini me. Could I have imagined this being my yoga practice when I started? Absolutely not! But currently, it reflects the path that I’ve been on thus far and captures what I love most about yoga — it’s a lifelong experience. These practices allow me to stay rooted and be honest about where I am so that yoga can continue to be an anchor in my life. For that, I am eternally grateful!

29/09/2025

❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

MA KALI AS THE YOGA SHAKTI, THE POWER OF ETERNITY
by DR DAVID FRAWLEY

Ma Kali is the most misunderstood of all Hindu Goddesses, though she is often regarded as the most powerful. Kali’s dark and fierce form is certainly intimidating and hard to fathom, unless one is willing to look with discernment behind the veil of sensational images about her.

Ma Kali was first introduced to the modern world by Ramakrishna Paramahansa as the Supreme Mother of the Universe. Through Ramakrishna – an avatar for many – the inspiration of Ma Kali awoke India to its ancient spiritual heritage and brought the unifying message of yoga to the world.

This was at a time in which the world was dominated by colonial powers and the idea of a Universal Mother was not accepted – much less a World Mother who was dark in colour and fierce in demeanour from a backward country like India!

Yet instead of following Ramakrishna’s yogic teachings about Kali, most scholars today look at Kali in an alien and diminished light. What psychologists tell us about Kali often reveals more about their own fascinations with the subconscious mind, rather than the Great Goddess who looks over all of us with wisdom and compassion.
Yogic deities can be best understood according to meditation practises. They relate to energies of higher consciousness beyond the dualities of the mind and the urges of the body. As such, their appearances are dramatic and paradoxical – mind-blowing as it were, and intentionally so.

Nature of Ma Kali
Ma Kali is kala shakti or the power of time. She indicates the impermanence of all things, which is why she wears a garland of skulls. Yet she is also the ultimate transforming power of time, which is to take us from death to immortality. Along with endless time, Kali is boundless space, the limitless void, indicated by her dark blue colour. Her magical dance of transformation is all existence.

Kali holds the vidyut xhakti, the lightning or electrical force of consciousness that is the supreme power. All the goddesses and the entire universe manifests from her indomitable force. Kali’s seed mantra is “kreem,” which is the kriya shakti or power of transformation behind the vast movement of life.

Kali is not the goddess of death and destruction as some see her but, on the contrary, represents the complete victory of the Divine over all death and destruction. Her warrior goddess form removes all the illusions of the mind and reveals the undying presence of our inmost Self that is one with all.

Ma Kali as the yoga shakti
Kali is the inner power of yoga or yoga shakti. Yoga in the true sense is a practice of mergence and return to the Divine source of existence. Yoga rests upon nirodha, the full concentration of the mind and dissolution of the ego. Kali is the nirodha shakti, the power of negation, neti-neti, not this, not that, of the Upanishads.
Kundalini shakti, the secret yogic power of transformation within us, works through Kali’s grace and motivation. Kundalini ascends and dissolves all the chakras, or energy centres within us, back into the state of pure unity consciousness that is Ma Kali’s ultimate abode.

Kali is the Shakti inherent in Shiva as Mahakala, the great lord of eternity. She dances on Shiva in a prone form, showing the Divine life and joy that manifests out of absolute stillness and transcendence.

Kali reminds one of Tagore’s verses “Let me carry death in life that I may know life in death.”

Yet, Ma Kali has a crucial social relevance today. Kali as the transforming power of time can usher us into a new era of global peace and understanding, if we can accept her demand for a real change of consciousness. Kali asks us to live for eternity, not merely for fleeting enjoyments or outer material gains.

Those seeking to bring the Divine Light into the world should worship Ma Kali.

Ma Kali as the supreme form of the Universal Mother absorbs her children back into her blissful embrace. She takes us across the deepest darkness to reach the highest light.

29/09/2025

🔻 Navarātri 2025 🔻

During this auspicious time, we sit each night with the aspect of our inner selves representing the vibratory impulse of creation. Śakti is known as power and seen through her many forms of the Goddess, but she is so much more familiar.

She is in the intoxicating waft of springtime blooms, the awe inspiring horizon of a sunset, the bubbling up of new ideas, the surge of anger that arises to injustice, the sensual feeling that throbs in the midst of love and the inner bliss within deep meditation. We come to know her daily in the most personal ways once we open ourselves to the very essence of her sublime presence.

I’m deeply humbled for every iteration of this auspicious festival ❤️‍🔥another offering my heart directly back to hers to open me up to the vast range of being in relationship with Devī. One that spans the spectrum from love to grief to vastness to confusion to every flavour of emotion between.

𖥸

As we approach the eighth night in Australia, I will be offering an ode to Durgā in her aspect as Maha Gauri in our yoga classes tonight. We are approaching the culmination of this sacred time as am I nearing the end of teaching for this cycle of my life.

In about a month, I will be winding down for maternity leave a second time 🌀 Join me on for the upcoming Monday nights before then, as we experience the creative pulsation of Śakti through breath, movement, mantra and inner presence.

𖥸

“May the sweet smile of Goddess Durgā, which is the stainless light that illuminates the cosmos, made of earth and water, drive far into the distance all our sorrows.” 🪔 Kavyakantha Ganapati Muni via Yogini Shambhavi

23/09/2025

🔻❤️‍🔥🌹Navarātri blessings dear ones 🌹❤️‍🔥🔻

03/09/2025

Homebirth friends of the Yarra Valley 🌄

I’m excited to share that our gatherings will continue for the next year in a permanent venue in Yarra Junction! Big shoutout to my friend .beauverd for securing a great spot and council funding so this group can solidify ✨

Little ones are so welcome to join and all the details you need are in the images! Our next catch up is on Thursday 11th September from 9:30am to 11am at the Playroom at the Upper Yarra Family Centre. The format is casual and welcoming so you can come and go, as you wish 🌿

All people with a genuine interest in homebirth, regardless of whether or not you’ve had one, are welcome to attend! No need to RSVP either, simply show up. If you would like to be added to our WhatsApp group for updates ~ please DM me 🫶

Our intention is to create a safe, welcoming place for homebirth mamas and families to come together, share and connect. We look forward to seeing you next week & getting to know more lovely families in the community 💚

18/08/2025

“The nineteenth century Bengali poet Ram Prasad, in his songs to Kali, caught her paradox. He sang of a goddess who embodies love and destruction, who is both the Shakti at the heart of this confusing world and the power who dissolves our pain:

‘O Mother! Thou art present in every form.
Thou art in the entire universe and in its tiniest and most trifling things,
Wherever I go, and wherever I look
I see Thee, Mother, present in thy cosmic form.
The whole world—earth, water, fire and air—
All are thy forms, O Mother, the whole world of birth and death.

O Mother, who can understand thy Maya?
Thou art a mad Goddess; Thou has made all mad with attachment.
Such is the agony caused by the mad Goddess
That none can know her aright.
All sufferings vanish if she grants her grace.’ ”

🔻from Awakening Shakti by the wonderful Sally Kempton ❤️‍🔥

Join me tonight to experience the fiercely loving, utterly sublime + liberating power that is Kali 🥀

~~~image 1 deep blood red hellebore
~~~image 2 stunning art by gifted by my loving husband a few years ago x
~~~image 3 dynamic Kali over prone, corpse-like Shiva

**ra