March 8 – Holi Festival

Today is the festival known as Holi. This day marks the beginning of Spring. Everyone is wiping colors all over each other. I will be hiding out at the ashram and watching from afar as the colors used are very toxic and dont come out of the clothes and stain the skin. They used to be all nature based dyes, using vermilion and other plants.

The purpose of the ritual is as a way of making peace with our enemies, If there was some angst they would channel that into wiping vibrant colors on each other. What a great ritual for transmuting animosity in a positive and harmless way. Then together they all burn Ravana – Ravana is the demon of 10 heads, these 10 heads represent the 10 great enemies within; lust, anger, greed, delusional attachment, pride, and envy. Each community comes together to create a pillar in which they make offerings to and project their negativities into, then they burn them as a releasing ceremony to start fresh – This simple act would be a profound communal transformation in the west.

As this culture is being forced to “westernize” in the name of progress, the meaning and method behind this, and the enriching energetic and spiritual transformation that occurs are being forgotten and viewed as “primitive and meaningless” and giving way to an act of forgotten reason. The value in community energy work is priceless and we cannot survive as a species without it. Find your own ways of performing these forgiveness rites today!Happy Holi friends.Love,Dan 

 

 

Notice the pink hue to the left. Not good for the river or the fish.

 

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About Dan

Dan De Lion is an earth herbalist, forager, musician, and teacher. He teaches through Return to Nature, providing classes, lectures, and seminars on wild food foraging, mushroom identification, herbal medicine making, as well as primitive and survival skills with a focus on wild foods and forest medicines. He also incorporates the philosophies of yoga, alchemy, meditation, and mysticism into his classes, lectures, and seminars and brings a deep rooted indigenous medicine perspective of practicing intuition with plants, in a systematic and earth-based way – Check out more at www.returntonature.us.
This entry was posted in Blog, India - Seeking the Medicine - Botanical Journey, 2012. Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to March 8 – Holi Festival

  1. Joann Quaranta says:

    Forgiveness is the key to success. Learning to “let go” sets us free to move forward. Forgiving does not mean that you accept what the other person has done to you. It just means that you understand why that person hurt you, and now you must move on.

    PS…How do I share this link to my facebook page?

  2. Praful.Gosai says:

    Hi Om Namah Sivaya, where are you and what can i do for you

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