About Shakti Malan PhD.

"Shakti teaches from a personal understanding which cannot be contained or expressed within the costraint of a conventional healing modality. She lovingly catalyses, guides and supports the development of higher consciousness in her students."

Sw. A. Rahasya 2004

Personal journey

 

I was raised up in Afrikaans Protestant culture, and am grateful for parents who raised me with significant freedom in my early years. My first immersion into meditation practice came through the Christian Mystical tradition, for which I have deep appreciation. Tai Chi and yoga taught me the beauty of presence in the body, and how to follow the wisdom of the body-mind. Dancing, and particularly Biodanza, really opened me to the passion that flows through our cells, and that enables such deep creativity. Life also brought me significant work with Shamanism (Native American, Celtic and African traditions), which opened my eyes to the multi-dimensionality of our world, and the worlds beyond.

At the end of 2001 I had a series of experiences that made is clear to me that my life I about only one thing: awareness, awakening – and that catapulted me into my path as a Tantrika. Through visions I was told that my real name is Shakti, and that this name carried the direction of my work in the world*. Then followed four years of deep immersion in spiritual practice. Like the old Christian desert fathers, I went to live in the desert for a while, and went through a significant dissolving of self. Here my Tantra practice started. In 2003, I met Leslie Temple Thurston**, an Advaita*** teacher whose processing and meditation techniques have radically changed my life.

My attention kept being pulled back to Tantra work, and I had the opportunity to work with several teachers – from the Healing Tao tradition of Mantak Chia, and from the Neo Tantra tradition of Osho. Finally I met Rahasya, who has been my master in this field, and the one who initiated me into the practicing life of a Tantrika. From the day I started seeing clients and running workshops, a new blossoming occurred in my life – a deep knowing that I am following my dharma, and a gratitude for the totality of presence that this work brings.

I have a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology, practice also as a social sustainability specialist, and am a trained teacher and process work psychology facilitator.

* More on Shakti later on this page
** See www.corelight.org
*** Advaita: The practice of non-duality. See www.tantraschool.co.za

A male student says about Shakti:

I thought you were a marvelous facilitator – sensitive, clear, centered and supportive.

Two things I particularly valued. One was experiencing how you have entered into your power and fullness as a woman – your radiance, self-assuredness, playfulness, seductiveness, gentleness, joyfulness. How you embody what you speak of. It was a privilege for me to see you, a powerful woman in the fullness of her beauty and her power.

The other was the lightness and playfulness and gentleness with which you held the whole affair. It is a big thing, to hold such a group of powerful people; and you did it with deceptive simplicity. You truly are a hollow bone; a clear channel for the love you are bringing into the world.

 

… and from a female student:

To have had the privilege to be entrained by you and have your transmission and initiation into this Sacred art is a priceless Gift. I am endlessly grateful.

On Shakti

 

Shakti is an ancient Sanskrit word that has many layered meanings.
Some interpretations of the word are:
feminine creative/sexual power
Feminine life force
The bestowal of blessing
Kundalini fire/ the rising of energy along the central energy channel of the body
Divine mother or devi
The active, dynamic aspect of feminine power
For more on the use of the term Shakti, go to www.shaktisadhana.50megs.com or www.sacred-texts.com/tantra/sas

In Hindu mythology, Shakti is a collective term used to describe the feminine deities. Whereas Shiva, the male principle of the cosmos, embodies transcendence and merging back into oneness, Shakti is the cosmic force that creates the diversity of life expression from the core. Shakti is described as follows in the Hindu sacred texts:

"I am Manifest, Unmanifest, and Transcendent Divinity;
I am Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva,
As well as Saraswati, Lakshmi and Parvati.
I am the Earth, the Sun and the Stars,
And I am also the Moon.
I am all animals and birds,
And I am the outcaste as well, and the thief.
I am the low person of dreadful deeds,
And the great person of excellent deeds.
I am Female, I am Male, and I am Androgenous."
From the Devi Bhagavatam Purana