ॐ Maha Shivaratri ॐ
Stay awake! The Grand finale of our journey.
On Maha Shivaratri, we stay up all night to honor Lord Shiva, embracing the cosmic pulse of destruction, renewal, and awakening. It’s a night of heightened spiritual energy, where the veil between the material and the divine feels thin, and consciousness expands. Like a spiritual rave, the night vibrates with the rhythm of mantras, the hum of prayers, and the beat of drums as devotees lose themselves in the ecstatic flow of devotion. And where better to experience this than Varanasi, the city where time dissolves into eternity? We’ll be here, staying awake until sunrise, immersed in the sacred chaos—chanting, moving, surrendering to the energy of the night, and infusing our Gently Down items and ourselves with one last surge of Shakti for the road…
ॐ
Spiro & Barry
Gently Down Project
ॐ नमः शिवाय | Om Namah Śivāya | Hara Hara Mahādeva! 🔱🪷
Evening in Varanasi is unlike any other, especially on this night that comes but once a year, creeping in like a cucumber vine. Spiritually, this is the pinnacle of wakefulness—the raw presence usually obscured by habit, empire, and duty. Here, the ankaras and babas, in their wildness, hold both wisdom and jest, embodying devotion, madness, and illumination in Kashi—this City of Lights.
Barry and Spiros have been tuning into the deeper wavelengths of this place through Dhrupad music, which has played from dusk to dawn for the past four nights. Tonight promises to be the most sublime—both refined and feral. If you’re unfamiliar with Dhrupad, we recommend Mani Kaul’s documentary masterpiece of the same name.
Tonight, the practice is simple: wakefulness. For more on this night, refer to Namarupa Magazine’s original issue, which has a wellspring of knowledge on Mahashivaratri—Issue 1.
Tapas remains present for us. Agni’s light dances with the intoxicating reality of being alive—Soma. Today almost every wallah in town has offered us bhang as prasad. We decline, not out of morality or fear, but because we are already intoxicated by the ten thousand beings dancing in the light, human and non-human alike… but the night is still young. Let’s see what arises!
Our tapas may be nothing more than staying awake, but today has already thrown frustrations our way—reminders that control is an illusion. We can’t command the waves, only ride them with grace, like surfers on the great river of life, Ganga Ma.
If you haven’t yet purchased one of our Coins or Shirts, consider it a reminder of Light—to radiate and share, to fill our cups so they may overflow as seva, as trust in ourselves, as support for each other in infinite ways.
Stay awake.
PS—The Major Arcana are still at play. The Tower falls, marking our entrance into this dark night of the soul, Mahashivaratri. Yet Lord Shiva’s magick is to remain present, aware, to gaze toward the sublime—the Star, luminous at the banks of life and water, offering hope, nourishment, guidance, and inspiration. May we all remember: our lives are not confined by the ordinary.
You, dear reader, are made of stardust.
