(The Doctor throws a big lever and the ceiling turns into a representation of space.)
GRACE:
What are you doing?
Life’s Champion :
I'm setting coordinates for
one minute after midnight.
GRACE:
Why?
Life’s Champion :
If this is True,
The Eye has been open too long
and There isNo Future.
I only Hope. Oh, no!
(In the representation, planets start to explode.)
GRACE:
Is this thing reliable?
Life’s Champion:
Whatever's Happeningcan'tbe stopped
by closing The Eye.
GRACE:
Well, how come you
didn't know that?
Life’s Champion :
I haven't opened
The Eye before.
GRACE:
Now you tell me.
Life’s Champion :
Grace, closing The Eye
may not be Enough.
We have to Go Back
to before The Eye was opened.
Maybe even before we arrived.
GRACE:
This is a Time-Machine….
Life’s Champion :
…withNo Power.
GRACE:
What?
Life’s Champion :
The Eye being open so long
must have drained the TARDIS.
GRACE:
Great!
Life’s Champion :
I'm sorry.
GRACE:
You must have The Power
to get back. You must!
Life’s Champion:
Not Enough.
GRACE:
What about all those
glorious predictions?
All that knowledge about
What's Going to Happen to
Gareth, to me, to This City?
That must come from
somewhere. Think!
Life’s Champion
Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! —
…..are you any good at
setting alarm clocks?
GRACE:
No!
Life’s Champion
Grace!
GRACE:
I'll Try.
Life’s Champion
Listen very carefully.
GRACE:
Okay.
Life’s Champion :
We pre-set the coordinates
just as I divert The Power
from within The Eye itself
into the time rotor, here.
GRACE:
We jump-start The TARDIS?
Life’s Champion :
We jump-start The TARDIS.
millennial (adj.)
1660s, "pertaining to the millennium," from stem of millennium + -al (1). Meaning "pertaining to a period of 1,000 years" is from 1807. As a noun from 1896, originally "a thousandth anniversary." From 1991 as a generational name for those born in the mid-1980s and thus coming of age around the year 2000.
also from 1660s
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Entries linking to millennial
-al (1)
suffix forming adjectives from nouns or other adjectives, "of, like, related to, pertaining to," Middle English -al, -el, from French or directly from Latin -alis (see -al (2)).
millennium (n.)
1630s, "the 1,000-year period of Christ's anticipated rule on Earth" (Revelation xx.1-5); from Modern Latin millennium, from Latin mille "thousand" (see million) + annus "year" (see annual); formed on analogy of biennium, triennium, etc.
For vowel change, see biennial.
General (non-theological) sense of "an aggregate of 1,000 years, a period or interval of 1,000 years" is attested by 1711.
Meaning "the year 2000 A.D." is attested by 1970.
“[T]he men of the modern world — up to a generation ago anyway — saw 2000 as a millennial year in the light of science. Men were then to be freed of want, misery, and disease; reason and advanced technology would rule; all would finally be for the best in what would then be the undoubted best of all possible worlds.”
"There is, of course, a scientific reason for all forms of divination
practised without hope or promise of reward.
Each person carries in himself His Own Destiny. Events do not happen to people by chance, but are invariably the
result of some past cause. For instance, in the last years a man becomes a
soldier who had never intended to pursue a military career.
This does not happen
to him by chance, but because of the prior occurrence of la European war in
which his country was engaged.
The outbreak of war is similarly the result of
other causes, none of which happened by chance, but were founded by still
remoter occurrences.
It is the same with The Future.
That which a person does
today as a result of something that happened in the past, will in its turn
prove the cause of something that will happen at some future date.
The mere act
of doing something today sets in motion forces that in process of time will
inevitably bring about some entirely unforeseen event.
This event is not decreed by Fate or Providence, but by the person who by the
committal of some act unconsciously compels the occurrence of some future event
which he does not foresee.
In other words, a man decrees his own destiny and
shapes his own ends by his actions, whether Providence rough-hew them or not.
Now this being so, it follows that he carries His Destiny with him, and the more
powerful his mind and intellect the more clearly is this seen to be the case.
Therefore it is possible for a person's mind, formed as the result of past
events over which he had no control, to foresee by an effort what will occur in
the future as the result of acts deliberately done.
Since it is given to but
few, and that not often of intention, to see actually what is about to happen in
a vision or by means of what is called the 'second sight,' some machinery must
be provided in the form of symbols from which an interpretation of the future
can be made.
It matters little what the method or nature of the symbols chosen is — dice or dominoes, cards or tea-leaves.
What matters is that the person
shaking the dice, shuffling the dominoes, cutting the cards or turning the
tea-cup, is by these very acts transferring from his mind where they lie hidden
even from himself the shadows of coming events which by his own actions in the
past he has already predetermined shall occur in the future.
It only remains for
someone to read and interpret these symbols correctly in order to ascertain
something of what is likely to happen; and it is here that singleness of purpose
and freedom from ulterior motives are necessary in order to avoid error and to
form a true and clear judgment.
This is the Serious and Scientific Explanation of the little-understood and
less-comprehended action of various forms of Divination having for their object
the throwing of a little light upon the occult.
Of all these forms perhaps
Divination by Tea-Leaves is the simplest, truest, and most easily learned.
Even
if the student is disinclined to attach much importance to what he sees in the
cup, the reading of the tea-leaves forms a sufficiently innocent and amusing
recreation for the breakfast- or tea-table; and the man who finds a lucky sign
such as an anchor or a tree in his cup, or the maiden who discovers a pair of
heart-shaped groups of leaves in conjunction with a ring, will be suffering no
harm in thus deriving encouragement for the future, even should they attach no
importance to their occurrence, but merely treat them as an occasion for
harmless mirth and badinage.
******
The ritual to be observed is very simple.
The tea-drinker should drink the
contents of his or her cup so as to leave only about half a teaspoonful of the
beverage remaining.
He should next take the cup by the handle in his left hand,
rim upwards, and turn it three times from left to right in one fairly rapid
swinging movement.
He should then very slowly and carefully invert it over the
saucer and leave it there for a minute, so as to permit of all moisture draining
away.
If he approaches The Oracle at all seriously he should during the whole of
these proceedings concentrate his mind upon his future Destiny, and 'will' that
the symbols forming under the guidance of his hand and arm (which in their turn
are, of course, directed by his brain) shall correctly represent What is Destined to Happen to Him in The Future.
If, however, he or she is not in such deadly earnest, but merely indulging in
a harmless pastime, such an effort of concentration need not be made.
The
'willing' is, of course, akin to 'wishing' when cutting the cards in another
time-honoured form of fortune-telling.
The cup to be read should be held in the hand and turned about in order to
read the symbols without disturbing them, which will not happen if the moisture
has been properly drained away.
The handle of the cup represents the consultant
and is akin to the 'house' in divination by the cards.
By this fixed point
judgment is made as to events approaching the 'house' of the consultant,
journeys away from home, messages or visitors to be expected, relative distance,
and so forth.
The advantage of employing a cup instead of a saucer is here
apparent.
'The bottom of the cup represents the remoter future foretold; the side
events not so far distant; and matters symbolised near the rim those that may be
expected to occur quickly.
The nearer the symbols approach the handle in all
three cases the nearer to fulfilment will be the events prognosticated.
If this simple ritual has been correctly carried out the tea-leaves, whether
many or few, will be found distributed about the bottom and sides of the cup.
The fortune may be equally well told whether there are many leaves or few; but
of course there must be some, and therefore the tea should not have been made in
a pot provided with one of the patent arrangements that stop the leaves from
issuing from the spout when the beverage is poured into the cups.
There is
nothing to beat one of the plain old-fashioned earthenware teapots, whether for
the purpose of preparing a palatable beverage or for that of providing the means
of telling a fortune.”
"These puppies are of the same parents, but by virtue of a different bringing up The One is pampered, and The Other A Good Hound."
Let so much suffice for habit and modes of life.
SCULLY :
You've always said that you
Want to Believe.
But Believe in WHAT, Mulder?
If this is The Truth that you've been looking for then what is left to Believe in?
MULDER:
I Want to Believe That The Dead Are Not Lost to Us.
That They Speak to Us as Part of Something Greater Than Us - Greater Than Any Alien Force.
And if You and I are powerless now,
I Want to Believe That if We LISTEN to What is SPEAKING --
It can Give Us The Power to Save Ourselves.
SCULLY :
Then We Believe in
The Same Thing.
She reaches down to the gifted Gold that hangs on a chain around her neck, the same Golden totem that has hung there in plain sight for 9 whole seasons of Network Television without attracting ANY real notice or curious interest — or not any from Mulder, at least — and she gently turns her Cross ever-so slightly, 45-degrees or so from the perpendicular —
It is an X. The Unknown and Unquantifiable, Endless-Nameless Mystery
18 INT. SEWER - DAY
Connor and Angel are walking through the sewers under Los Angeles.
CONNOR
She's been down here.
ANGEL
How old were you when you realised you could track like this?
CONNOR
I don't know. Five, six.
We didn't exactly celebrate birthdays in Quor-Toth.
Holtz made up a game
so I could practice.
ANGEL
What do you mean he'd
hide things for you to find?
CONNOR
Kind of.
He'd tie me to a tree
and then run away.
ANGEL
(shocked, stops walking)
What?
CONNOR
(shrugs)
You know, so I'd have to escape
and then find him.
One time it only took me five days.
ANGEL
Five days.
He abandoned you...
Connor, that's terrible.
That's—
CONNOR
(unfazed)
Why I'm so good at tracking.
Fred rested here for a while.
You do not Pass Judgment because you sympathize with Them --
A deprived childhood and a homicide really isn't necessarily a homicide, right?
The Only thing you can blame is circumstances : Rapists and murderers may be the victims according to you, but I, I call them DOGS and if they're lapping up Their Own Vomit, The Only Way to Stop Them is with The Lash.
But Dogs only obey
Their Own Nature.
So why shouldn't
we forgive them?
DOGS can be taught Many Useful Things, but not, NOT if we Forgive Them every time They Obey Their Own Nature.
So, I'm arrogant…
I'm arrogant because
I forgive people?
My God. Can't you see how condescending you are when you say that?
You have this preconceived notion that nobody, LISTEN, that NOBODY can POSSIBLY attain the same High Ethical Standards as YOU, so you exonerate them.
I can not THINK of ANYTHING more arrogant, than that.
You, My Child... My DEAR Child, you forgive Others with excuses that you would never in THE WORLD permit for yourself.
Whyshouldn'tI be merciful?
Why?
No, no, no You SHOULD, you SHOULD be merciful, when there is TIME to be merciful.
But you MUST maintain Your Own Standard, You OWE them that, You OWE them that.
The penalty you deserve for your transgressions, they deserve for their transgressions.
They are Human Beings.
No, no, no -- Does EVERY Human Being need to be accountable for their actions?
Of COURSE they do. But you don't even give them THAT chance!
And that is EXTREMELY arrogant -- I LOVE You, I LOVE You, I LOVE You to DEATH....
But you are The Most Arrogant Person I have ever met, and you call ME arrogant!
I Have No More
to Say.
Full shot.
Planetarium seen from The Parking Lot--a Great Dome crowns it -- The City lies Below.
Camera picks up JIM STARK'S car maneuvering through the crowded lot. In b.g. a few other late-comers are dashing up steps to Planetarium.
JIM drives into a small lot behind observator, parks, then runs to observatory entrance.
Full shot.
Lobby as JIM runs through, opens door of theater and passes inside.
Long shot.
Sky Full of Stars seen past JIM's Head. Darkness. This is not Our Sky.
It is a replica of it projected onto The Dome of The Planetarium.
The Stars slide their tentative ways in an ever-changing pattern.
One of them is much larger than The Rest and increases in size as we watch.
Music of The Spheres is heard -- a high threatening tremolo.
LECTURER (O.S.) For many days before The End of Our Earth, People will look into The Night Sky and notice a star, increasingly bright and increasingly near.
JIM looks around for a seat and passes down aisle.
Seen beyond him is the projector, moving slowly, its great dumb-bell head sparkling with pin-points of light.
JIM takes a seat in front row.
PLATO, in the row behind him, moves over a seat to be nearer. They exchange looks.
Full shot.
Normal students watching intently.
LECTURER (O.S.) As This Star approaches Us, The Weather will change.
The Great Polar fields of The North and South will rot and divide, and The Seas will turn warmer.
Low angle.
LECTURER.
A dry, Elderly Man in a stiff white collar.
He is seated at a desk, the light from the reading lamp spilling upward onto his face.
LECTURER The Last of Us search The Heavens and Stand Amazed. For The Stars will still be there, moving through their ancient rhythms.
Angle shot.
Students. Some watching, some taking notes. An OLD LADY TEACHER in f.g. taps the heads of two kids in the row before her.
They stop their whispering.
She smiles at them. LECTURER (O.S.) The familiar constellations that illuminate our night will seem as they have always seemed, eternal, unchanged and little moved by the shortness of time between Our Planet's Birth and its Demise.
Med. shot. PLATO staring upward.
LECTURER (O.S.) Orion, The Hunter.
PLATO looks off.
Med. shot. JIM (from PLATO's angle).
JIM is seated in the row ahead of PLATO.
His lips are parted as he looks up.
JIM Boy! PLATO (leaning forward) What? JIM (surprised) Once you been Up There,
you know you been
Some Place!
LECTURER (O.S.) Gemini, the Twins.
Two shot. JUDY and BUZZ.
BUZZ has his arm around her.
He is nuzzling her ear.
She is blandly watching The Dome.
LECTURER (O.S.) (continuing) Cancer, the Crab.
BUZZ pokes JUDY who looks at him.
He curves his wrist toward her, opening and closing his first two fingers like the pincers of a crab.
“Maybe There’s Hope.”, said Special Agent Fox "Spooky" Mulder,
Once-More Enunciating The Stated Truth.
"Maybe There's Hope."
And So There Was.
And It was Good.
Good it is,
and remains Good still.
[Fade to Black]
Dear Clarice,
I have followed with enthusiasm the course of your disgrace and public shaming.
My own never bothered me, except for the inconvenience of being incarcerated, but you may lack perspective.
In our discussions down in The Dungeon, it was apparent to me that Your Father, The Dead Night Watchman, figures largely in your value system.
I think your success in putting an end to Jame Gumb's career as a couturier pleased you most because you could imagine your father being pleased.
But now, alas, you're in bad odour with the FBI.
Do you imagine your daddy being shamed by your disgrace?
Do you see him in his plain pine box crushed by your failure?
The sorry, petty end of a promising career?
What is worst about this humiliation, Clarice?
Is it how your failure will reflect on your mommy and daddy?
Is your worst fear that people will now and forever believe they were, indeed, just good old trailer-camp, tornado-bait, white trash, and that perhaps you are, too?
Mmm?
By the way, I couldn't help noticing on the FBI's rather dull public website, that I have been hoisted from the Bureau's archives of the common criminal, and elevated to the more prestigious Ten Most Wanted list.
Is this coincidence, or are you back on the case?
If so, goody, goody, 'cause I need to come out of retirement and return to Public Life.
I imagine you sitting in a dark basement room, bent over papers and computer screens.
Is that accurate? Please tell me truly, Special Agent Starling.
Regards, your old pal,
Hannibal Lecter, M.D.
P.S., clearly this new assignment is not your choice.
Rather, I suppose it is part of the bargain, but you accepted it, Clarice.
Your job is to craft my doom, so I am not sure how well I should wish you, but I'm sure we'll have a lot of fun.
Ta-ta.
"H."
"To speak generally, what we are wont to say about the arts and sciences is also true of moral excellence, for to its perfect development three things must meet together, natural ability, theory, and practice.
By theory I mean training, and by practice working at one's craft.
Now the foundation must be laid in training, and practice gives facility, but perfection is attained only by the junction of all three. For if any one of these elements be wanting, excellence must be so far deficient.
For natural ability without training is blind: and training without natural ability is defective, and practice without both natural ability and training is imperfect.
For just as in farming the first requisite is good soil, next a good farmer, next good seed, so also here: the soil corresponds to natural ability, the training to the farmer, the seed to precepts and instruction.
I should therefore maintain stoutly that these three elements were found combined in the souls of such universally famous men as Pythagoras, and Socrates, and Plato, and of all who have won undying fame. Happy at any rate and dear to the gods is he to whom any deity has vouchsafed all these elements!
But if anyone thinks that those who have not good natural ability cannot to some extent make up for the deficiencies of Nature by Right Training and Practice, let such a one know that he is very wide of The Mark, if not out of it altogether.
For good natural parts are impaired by sloth; while inferior ability is mended by training: and while simple things escape the eyes of the careless, difficult things are reached by painstaking.
The wonderful efficacy and power of long and continuous labour you may see indeed every day in the world around you.
Thus water continually dropping wears away rocks: and iron and steel are moulded by the hands of the artificer: and chariot wheels bent by some strain can never recover their original symmetry: and the crooked staves of actors can never be made straight.
But by toil what is contrary to nature becomes stronger than even nature itself.
And are these the only things that teach The Power of Diligence?
Not so: ten thousand things teach the same Truth.
A soil naturally good becomes by neglect barren, and the better its original condition, the worse its ultimate state if uncared for.
On the other hand a soil exceedingly rough and sterile by being farmed well produces excellent crops.
And what trees do not by neglect become gnarled and unfruitful, whereas by pruning they become fruitful and productive?
And what constitution so good but it is marred and impaired by sloth, luxury, and too full habit?
And what weak constitution has not derived benefit from exercise and athletics?
And what horses broken in young are not docile to their riders? while if they are not broken in till late they become hard-mouthed and unmanageable.
And why should we be surprised at similar cases, seeing that we find many of the savagest animals docile and tameby training?
Rightly answered the Thessalian, who was asked who the mildest Thessalians were, "Those who have done with fighting."
But why pursue the line of argument further? For the Greek name for moral virtue is only habit : and if anyone defines moral virtues as habitual virtues, he will not be beside The Mark. But I will employ only one more illustration, and dwell no longer on this topic.
Lycurgus, the Lacedæmonian legislator, took Two Puppies of The Same Parents, and brought them up in an entirely different way : The One he pampered and cosseted up, while he taught The Other to Hunt and be A Retriever.
Then on one occasion, when the Lacedæmonians were convened in assembly, he said, "Mighty, O Lacedæmonians, is the influence on moral excellence of habit, and education, and training, and modes of life, as I will prove to you at once."
So saying he produced The Two Puppies, and set before them A Platter and A Hare : The One darted on The Hare, while The Other made for The Platter.
And when the Lacedæmonians could not guess what his meaning was, or with what intent he had produced the puppies, he said,
"These puppies are of the same parents, but by virtue of a different bringing up The One is pampered, and The Other A Good Hound."
The so-called Pure Universe comprising the top five tattvas is Not A Place; it is the divine Reality that pervades the whole of the manifest universe.
The top five tattvas are essentially a description of God/dess.
Though divided into five levels, they are all aspects of The Divine and are referred to as phases of God’s awareness.
The differences between them are differences of perspective and emphasis.
To reach any of the five tattvas of the Pure Universe is to attain complete liberation and awakening.
TATTVA #5: PURE MANTRA-WISDOM (Śuddha-vidyā)
The level of Pure Wisdom is also the level of mantra (besides meaning “wisdom,” vidyā is also the feminine word for “mantra”).
The wisdom spoken of here is not any type of intellectual knowledge but rather the various phases of Śiva-Śakti’s self-awareness expressed in the form of the seventy million mantras— all the mantras that have ever existed or will ever exist.
For the Tantrik tradition, mantras are actually conscious beings, analogous to angels in the Western religions.
Someone who attains liberation on the level of tattva #5 becomes a mantra-being.
We know that this doctrine, that mantras are conscious, was taken seriously because the texts tell us that if A Guru grants initiation into The Tantra to someone who subsequently falls from The Path, then that guru must perform a special ritual to apologise to The Mantras for putting them to work needlessly.
It is absolutely crucial to understand that in this tradition A Mantra, its Deity, and its Goal are allone andthe same.
Thus, for example, Lakṣmī’s mantra OṂ ŚRĪṂ MAHĀLAKṢMYAI NAMAḤ is the Goddess Lakṣmī in sound form; it is her sonic body.
Nor is her mantra something separate from the goal for which it is repeated, i.e., to cultivate abundance, for it is the very vibration of abundance (and, as well, the other qualities of Śrī: elegance, charm, grace, beauty, prosperity, and auspiciousness).
So, all the various “deities” of Indian spirituality exist on the level of the Śuddha-vidyā tattva as phases of Śiva-Śakti’s awareness, the many facets, if you will, of the One jewel.
Further, there are countless mantra-beings on the Śuddha-vidyā level that do not correspond to known Indian deities; perhaps we can suppose that the deities of all spiritual traditions exist on this level, insofar as they can be understood as having sonic forms.
One who reaches liberation on this level sees the entire universe as a diverse array of energies, but with a single essence.
She sees no static matter, experiencing everything as interacting patterns of vibration.
The wonder of that which she sees takes precedence over her I-sense, though there is unity between them: “I am this!” (idam evāham).
The divine Power that corresponds to this level is kriyā-śakti, the Power of Action.
This is so because the primary characteristic of mantras is that they are agents of transformative change, i.e., of action.
TATTVA #4: THE LORD (Īśvara)
This is the level of the personal God, God as a being with specific qualities, that is, the Deity that can be named in various languages (whether the name be Kriṣhṇa, Allāh, Avalokiteśvara, YHWH, etc.)
This is the level of reality that most monotheistic religions presume to be the highest. Īśvara is a generic, nonsectarian term for God (also found in Patañjali’s Yoga-sūtra).
This level is associated with jñāna-śakti, The Power of Knowing, for Īśvara holds within His being the knowledge of the subtle pattern that will be used in the creation of the universe. He empowers His regents on tattva #5 (who are really aspects of Himself) to stimulate the primordial homogenous world-source (Māyā, tattva #6) with this pattern, “churning” her so that she begins to produce the differentiation of the lower tattvas, starting with the contractions called the kañcukas (#7 and below, see “the five shells”).
At the level of Īśvara there is a balanced equality and identity between God and His incipient creation. The Sanskrit phrase said to express the experience of reality at this level is aham idam idam aham, or “I am This; This am I.”
There is a fascinating and purely “coincidental” parallel here with the self-declaration of the God of the Hebrew Bible, who when asked for His Name (at Exodus 3:14), replied simply, ehyeh Asher ehyeh, “I am That I am.”
In Śaiva Tantra, it is not only God who exists at this level; so do any beings who have reached that same awareness.
Thus the difference between Īśvara and other beings abiding at tattva #4 is one of office, not of nature.
TATTVA #3: THE EVER-BENEVOLENT ONE (Sadāśiva)
The word “God” is no longer applicable here, for this level transcends any form of a Deity with identifiable names or attributes.
This is the level on which only the slightest subtle differentiation has just begun to emerge between the absolute Deity and the idea of the universe, the universe that S/he will create out of Him/Herself.
Thus, it is the level of icchā-śakti, the divine Will Power, the creative urge or primal impulse toward Self-expression.
The Sanskrit phrase said to express the experience of reality at this level is aham idam, “I am this,” or “This incipient totality is my own Self,” where there is identity between the Divine and the embryonic universe held within it.
The sense of “I” has clear priority, wholly enveloping the “this”; so all beings who attain unity-consciousness with emphasis on the “I” pole abide at this level.
The Sadāśiva-tattva is the first movement into differentiation, for at the level of tattvas #1 and 2, there is absolute nonduality. Abhinava Gupta tells us that the Divine at this level is called Sadāśiva, “eternally Śiva,” to remind us that even as a universe begins to come into being through the power of the Will, the Absolute loses none of its divinity, it is “still Śiva,” which of course also means “still blessed.”
Historically, Sadāśiva is also the name of the high deity of one form of Śaiva Tantra, a form that was later surpassed by the worship of the conjoined and co-equal pair of Śiva-Śakti.
He is also pictured as the form of Śiva that sprouts the five faces that speak the five streams of sacred scripture.
Thus Sadāśiva is sometimes considered the first ray of divine compassion.
TATTVA #2: POWER / THE GODDESS (Śakti)
In the traditional tattva hierarchy, Śakti is #2, but in the nondual schools, care is taken to emphasize that Śiva and Śakti switch places, for they are two sides of the same coin.
That is, neither Śiva nor Śakti has priority—it is a matter of which aspect is dominant in any given experience.
The word śakti literally means “power, potency, energy, capacity, capability.”
In NŚT, all powers are worshipped as goddesses, or rather as forms of the Goddess (Mahādevī).
Śakti can no more be separated from Śiva than heat can be separated from fire.
All forms of energy are Śakti, and since matter is energy (as the Tāntrikas well knew), the whole manifest universe is seen as the body of the Goddess, and the movements of all forms of energy are Her dance.
The various aspects of Śakti are covered in detail above.
The term śakti is often used to specifically denote spiritual energy, or God’s transformative power.
In the scriptures, this meaning is often conveyed with the special term rudra-śakti, which refers to the primal, awe-inspiring divine Power that flows through us in spiritual experience.
An infusion of this divine Power is called rudra-śakti-samāveśa, where samāveśa refers to the spiritual experience comprising an expansion of consciousness, a dissolution of the boundaries between self and other, a sharing of self-hood with God and/or with the whole universe, and often an blissful influx of energy.
TATTVA #1: THE BENEVOLENT ONE (Śiva)
In the context of NŚT, Śiva is not the name of a god.
Rather, the word is understood to signify the peaceful, quiescent ground of all Reality, the infinite silence of transcendent Divinity, or, in the poet’s phrase, the “still point at the center of the turning world.”
While Śakti is extroversive, immanent, manifest, omniform, and dynamic, Śiva is introversive, transcendent, unmanifest, formless, and still. Śiva is the absolute void of pure Consciousness.
(To be more accurate, Consciousness is never absolutely still, so on the level of the Śiva-tattva, there is what Abhinava calls kiṃcit-calana, an extraordinarily subtle movement, an imperceptible and exquisitely sweet undulation.)
The word śiva is traditionally interpreted as “that in which all things lie (śī).”
Thus Śiva is the ground of being, that which gives reality its coherence.
His nature is beyond any qualities and is, therefore, difficult to express in words, but in Essence of the Tantras, Śiva is described as the coherence and unification of all the various śaktis.
Thus, He is called śaktimān, the one who holds the Powers, or rather “holds space” for their unfolding.
However, since Śiva is literally nothing without the Powers of Consciousness, Bliss, Will, and so on, it is usually Śakti who is worshipped as the highest principle in NŚT.
Śiva is that which grounds and coheres the various powers; He is the Lord of the Family (kuleśvara), the center axis of the spinning wheel of Powers.
As the coherent force, Śiva hardly has an insignificant function, but as he is not an embodiment of potency himself, he is less likely to attract worship in a spiritual system that is focused primarily on the empowerment of its adherents.
The previous paragraph defined Śiva primarily as spaciousness, the hosting space for the energy that is Śakti.
This space/energy polarity is the one given in a Trika text called Vijñāna-bhairava, among other sources.
We should note that in other contexts, the roles are defined differently.
For example, the influential Recognition school (a subset of the Trika) defines Śiva-Śakti as the two complementary aspects of one divine Consciousness: Śiva is the Light of Manifestation (prakāśa), also known as the Light of Consciousness (cit-prakāśa), and Śakti is blissful Self-reflective awareness (vimarśa).
This pairing is sometimes concisely abbreviated as cid-ānanda (Awareness-Bliss).
In this way of understanding Śiva-Śakti, He is the illuminative power of Consciousness that manifests and shines as all things, and She is the power by which that same Consciousness folds back on itself and becomes self-aware and thus can enjoy itself.
While new students of the Tantra often want a simple, cut-and-dried definition of the polarity of Śiva-Śakti, the tradition does not offer one.
Indeed, as this paragraph has shown, we get different definitions within the very same school.
These need not be seen as contradictory, however, for the ultimate reality of Śiva-Śakti transcends all thought; the diverse explanations are just varying orientations or angles of approach to that one
Reality, serving different students in different contexts.
In another schema, that of the radical Krama school, Śiva disappears entirely, for there the two aspects of the One are represented as different facets of one Goddess: the indescribable Void of absolute potential, the formless ground of all reality (Śiva’s usual role) is represented as the dark and emaciated, terrifyingly attractive Goddess Kālī, who devours all things and makes them one with Herself; and the infinite Light that encompasses all things and beings with loving compassion and insight is represented as white and full-bodied Goddess Parā, overflowing with boundless nectar.
But, Abhinava Gupta stresses, these apparent opposites (black and white, empty and full) are simply the two forms of the one great Goddess.
The Krama school simply wishes to avoid the inevitably dualistic implications of the image of Śiva-Śakti as two beings joined together.
How to reconcile these different presentations?
The answer is simple: they need no reconciliation, for they are each perfectly fitted to the system in which they occur; and the absolute Reality beyond words can be represented by any of these schemas or by none.
It is important to note that the term Śiva or “God” never loses its importance in this tradition.
Some might construe the more refined philosophies of NŚT as atheistic because they wholly repudiate the notion of God as a separate person, “a guy in the sky,” or indeed as anything separate from your essence-nature as dynamic free Awareness.
Yet it is significant that these very traditions continue to use the term “God” and its synonyms (such as maheśvara, “the Great Lord,” and parameśvara, “the Supreme Divinity”).
It seems to me that they do not want to dispense with the love and devotion that is inspired in so many by this personalizing of the Absolute. They want a path of intimate relationship.
At the same time, remember that the tradition gives us a beautiful nondual definition of the word “God,” one worth repeating:
...in actuality it is the unbounded Light of Consciousness, reposing in its innate Bliss, fully connected to its Powers of Willing, Knowing, and Acting, that we call God. (Essence of the Tantras)
It is in the context of this definition that we may understand such scriptural statements as “Nothing exists that is not God.”
But here we are anticipating the next segment: for “beyond” even tattva #1 is that which unfolds all the tattvas, from 1 to 36, within itself as the expression of its blissful self-awareness.
