Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:00]:

What if true abundance had less to do with your external wealth, the number in your bank account, and more to do with your inner wealth, like your relationships, your purpose, and your connection to the divine. In today's episode, we're exploring Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of love, beauty, and prosperity. Lakshmi's story reveals what happens when we fail to honor the sacred and how we can magnetize more joy, grace, and and generosity by reconnecting to the feminine source of abundance. So before you pull another oracle card, write another manifestation list or Google how to call in wealth, let's ask, if your life were a temple, would Lakshmi want to visit? Let's begin.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:00:49]:

Hello, beautiful ones, and welcome back to the Goddess School podcast. My name is Lisa Marie Rankin, and I am your guide. Over the next few episodes, we are going to explore a couple of the Hindu goddesses, and there are many so that you can recognize and call in their transformative goddess energy. But before we dive in, I want to take a moment to answer a question that I often receive, because, you know, I talk a lot about archetypes and I talk a lot about goddesses, so I often get the question, what's the difference between a goddess and an archetype? And to me personally, there isn't one. An archetype is powerful, autonomous, and it's full of its own motivations and behaviors, just like a deity. So, for example, if you call in Aphrodite, you're invoking the energy of love, beauty, and magnetism. As Jungian analyst and author James Hollis says, archetypes are verbs. They compel us to act.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:01:53]:

So it's not an aesthetic, it's not a noun, it's not an adjective. We can think of these archetypes or goddesses as verbs. They are encouraging, they are pulling us in a certain direction. So, for example, if we continue on with the Aphrodite example, Aphrodite might compel you to make love, magnetize others, and appreciate beauty. But here's the thing. You don't want to identify with an archetype and imagine that you are the goddess of love, because that lacks humility and it would definitely annoy Aphrodite. After all, see what she did to Psyche. You can check the previous podcast episode on Psyche and Eros.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:02:35]:

And you also don't want to become possessed by an archetype. So that's when we hear ourselves saying things like, I don't know what came over to me, or she just wasn't herself. So when we say things like that, that's a clue that an Archetype, a goddess, a God has come along and really have taken possession. Usually a code for like the goddess got the whale in that instance. Instead, we want to learn to wield these archetypal energies, to notice when one is activated, to work with it consciously, and to use its power in self affirming ways. Most spiritual traditions would say that we are created in the image of the divine. So the gods and goddesses are not distant deities living elsewhere. They're facets of our own psyche.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:03:24]:

Our task is to remain anchored in self and that's a self with a capital S S. That's the part of us that is calm, confident, creative and curious so that we can create the space where these goddesses can move through us skillfully, not as possession, but as an expression of divine will. So for more for self energy too, Check out episode 59 that I have with coach and internal family systems expert Andrea Tessier. Now let's dive in to this week's goddess. And again, over the next couple of weeks, we are going to be exploring some of the Hindu goddesses. This week we're going to take a look at the goddess Lakshmi. And like Aphrodite, she's the goddess of love, beauty and abundance. One of the things that I really enjoy about doing this work and what has become so apparent to me that there is this beautiful thread, this beautiful fabric that us and that these goddesses truly are forces within us and outside of us as well, is that we can look across culture, geography, tradition, religion, and we're going to see a similar cast of characters.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:04:41]:

Now, I started this episode just talking a little bit about how we work with goddesses and archetypes. And I used Aphrodite as an example. Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love and beauty. And today we're going to be talking about the Hindu goddess Lakshmi, but she's also the goddess.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:04:59]:

And that is because even though we are separated again by culture, by religion, by geography, we share a common humanity. These are archetypal forces and energies are real. And that's why we see different cultures coming up with a similar cast of characters to express this innate humanity that we all share. I always think feeling into a goddess's energy is a good place to start to really understand what it is that we're talking about because it can be somewhat of an esoteric pursuit. And I know that my audience loves to read, we love to learn, and that's fantastic, that's definitely a part of this. But we also need to feel our way into these energies. So as we start to consider the Goddess Lakshmi, I want to just take a moment to think about her qualities. So imagine being completely satisfied with your life.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:06:03]:

And if you are not driving or not operating heavy machinery, I even invite you to close your eyes. Of course, don't close your eyes if you are doing anything that needs them to be open. But take a moment to imagine you're completely satisfied with your life. And sure, you have dreams and goals for the future, but you are content with how things are right here, right now. And just feel into that sense of contentment like all is good and getting better. You're happy living in the present without being fixated on how things might need to be improved. You're inspired by others success rather than threatened by it. You give your love, your time, your attention, and even your assets freely because you understand that generosity is an energy that works in both directions.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:06:56]:

You're confident that you will receive all you need in this lifetime. You appreciate beauty, a sunset, the smell of a baby, a cashmere sweater, a chiseled jaw, not in a graspy way where you need more of it, but in an appreciative way where you feel blessed to be in the presence of it. If this was your attitude, you would be operating from a place of abundance and gratitude. This energy not only makes you feel wealthy and beautiful, but also magnetizes good things towards you. This is the Goddess Lakshmi's shakti. And if you're still eyes are closed, you can open them now. But that's the feeling, that's the energy that we're working with when we talk about Lakshmi. And shakti is a Hindu word that means power, so specifically feminine power.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:07:49]:

Now let's take a moment to explore one of the myths of Lakshmi. So Lakshmi is the consort of Lord Vishnu. He is one of the three supreme gods responsible for maintaining the world's balance. As the preserver God Vishnu protects humans and maintains order in the world, Lakshmi Shakti provides him with the energy. Again, that's like the power he needs to keep the earth spinning, crops growing and people making love. Lakshmi has four arms. So if you look at statues or iconography, you'll see that she has four arms and they symbolize the four aims in life. Artha, one of the aims represents material wealth.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:08:31]:

So that's money, food, clothes, shelter. Kama is emotional and physical pleasures. And this is like relationships, creativity, arts, hikes in nature, Dharma, your life's purpose, and moksha, spiritual liberation or freedom. So those are the four aims in life. Now, moksha is the ultimate goal but the first three are essential to realize moksha. Artha and Kama represent the physical realm. So again, Artha is material wealth, things that we physically need to serve, survive. And karma is really emotional and psychological wealth.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:09:12]:

So are we happy in our relationships? Are we tapped into our creativity? Can we enjoy pleasure? And these represent the physical realm, whereas dharma, life's purpose, moksha, spiritual liberation, these represent more of the intangible or the spiritual realm. But here's the thing. All four aims must be imbalanced to achieve a meaningful and joyful life. Now, in one myth, Durvasai, an old sage, receives a beautiful lotus garland. This garland is the incarnation of Lakshmi herself. So he wears the garland and he's immediately filled with a sense of generosity, abundance and love. He decides to give the wreath to Lord Indra, who is currently coming down the road in a procession. Indra is the ruler of the heavens and all of the gods and goddesses.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:10:05]:

So he is a pretty, pretty important God. But yet he has a 10 tendency to become self absorbed in his grandeur. He doesn't even realize the value of the garland that he receives and he quickly dismisses it. In fact, he throws it in the air and it gets trampled on by his elephants. So really, since the garland was an incarnation of Lakshmi, Lakshmi gets trampled. Now of course, Lakshmi is very insulted by Indra's carelessness. So she decides to leave the earth. And without her energy, the world begins to dry up.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:10:39]:

Fortunately, her consort, Lord Vishnu realizes what has happened. Because this wasn't the first time Lakshmi had disappeared when she felt she had been treated dismissively or others weren't appreciating her gifts. And this time she dissolved herself into the milky ocean to get the goddess back. Vishnu calls upon all the gods, the goddesses and even the demons to churn the milky ocean. And as they stir, they sing to Lakshmi so that she knows that she is loved. And they're stirring and stirring and all sorts of treasures start to rise out of the milky ocean. But the gods and goddesses only want one thing, the goddess. Eventually, the beautiful and gracious Lakshmi appears, smiling on a pink lotus flower.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:11:27]:

She takes Vishnu's hand as she comes back to the earthly realm. And along with Lakshmi, love, fertility, wealth and generosity return world. Lakshmi bestows great fortune on those who follow her path. She is often shown with gold coins streaming from her hands. This represents not only outer wealth, but also inner wealth, like love, peace of mind and health. But like in the myth, she's also quick to take back her gifts. If we're not appreciative, or if we fail to reciprocate with our own generosity, Lakshmi wants us to receive all that we desire. She also wants us to be generous with both our material assets as well as our intangible assets like our time and attention.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:12:14]:

The goddess rewards hard work, devotion and sincerity. So that's a little bit about the background of Lakshmi. So I want to talk a little bit about where we see Lakshmi in our modern society. Now, in today's culture, there is a lot of emphasis on Arthur. Again, that's the material goods. And Artha is not bad. We need these to survive. We need shelter, we need food, we need clothing.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:12:40]:

But you see in our culture that people often aspire to big houses, fancy cars and exotic vacations or summer homes. Nothing wrong with this. The problem is when we are just looking at Artha, we neglect the other areas in our lives. And while there's nothing wrong with desiring or possessing pretty things, we need to understand that these things alone aren't going to bring us joy or contentment. And I'm sure there's people that you know that have all of the material possessions they could desire, but they still feel that something is lacking. And that's because something is lacking. What we're really looking for can't be found outside of ourselves. So it's really the sense of inner abundance that we need to feel complete.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:13:27]:

And again, that's that Kama Dharma moksha. So Lakshmi encourages us to spend at least as much time growing our inner wealth as we do growing our external wealth. And some people seem totally at ease in the world. Their finances may fluctuate with the economy, but they always have faith that the situation will improve. These people likely have loving relationships with others, do work they enjoy and know that happiness lies within. These people are content and most importantly, they know they have enough. People like this are in sync with Lakshmi. Some might call them lucky, but really they're just thankful for what they have.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:14:08]:

So they invite more good into their life as a result of their graciousness and their gratitude. You also might notice that sometimes people focus on Artha to compensate for a shortage in other areas, and that doesn't work either. So when we're looking at our life, it's important that we look at all of the four aims so we can notice if there are any imbalances. So today I really encourage you to consider the four aims of life. So the first one, Artha, do you have the necessities like food, shelter and clothing, comma, are you enjoying emotional Physical, creative pleasure? Dharma, are you doing something that you feel called to do? Do you feel that you are living your life's purpose? And that changes all the time as well too. I think sometimes when people think about Dharma, we can think that there's like one thing that we really need to nail or really need to figure out. And that's not, that's not the case. It evolves as well.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:15:10]:

So just looking now, do you feel that you are living your Dharma? And then Moksha, do you feel connected with the divine? Can you remain at peace amidst the inevitable ups and downs of life? Lakshmi also reminds us to approach life with grace, gratitude and generosity. Just like she does. She gives freely and wants us to do the same. Now remember, generosity is not limited to just monetary or material goods, but it's also your time and attention. And I actually believe that those are probably your most valuable and scarcest resources. And these can be the things that we're often most miserly with. So maybe today send a note or call someone to let them know that you appreciate them. And you might notice that both you and your recipient are immediately blessed with a feeling of love and well being.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:16:03]:

That's Lakshmi. She's returning the gift. I want to share a little bit about how I've experienced Lakshmi in my own life, because I think when we have these practical examples of how we see the Goddess flow through us, that that helps us connect with that energy a bit more. And I feel very blessed with Lakshmi in so many ways, both abundance and love. And I really noticed her presence during my divorce and put her wisdom in practice. So I got divorced about over 10 years ago now. But as the breadwinner and sole financial provider of my family, so I was in the corporate world for most of my adult life. And at the time of getting divorced, I was, I was the one that was working.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:16:53]:

So I took a pretty heavy hit financially when I decided to get divorced. You might even say that Artha plummeted for a while. However, when I consider the other three aims for a happy life, Kama, dharma and moksha, I understand that what I lost in Artha, I gained in the other areas. There was immediately more ease and pleasure in my household because I was no longer fighting with my ex husband or feeling like I was walking on eggshells so I could really just enjoy my children. I remember we would be singing and dancing in the kitchen. Everything just felt lighter. Then I also met the man of my dreams as well too. So comma, really had increased.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:17:36]:

Shortly after my divorce, I left my corporate job and began to pursue my passion to write. Te started my own business, started this podcast. So Dharma really increased. I feel very much in flow with what I am here to do. What excites me. I'm following my curiosities and I recommitted to my spiritual practice and really focused on how I need to stay in self energy. So moksha increased. So even though I may have taken a hit in one area, I was able to amplify the other areas and I felt much better, much more well rounded.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:18:15]:

So that's just an example of how I have worked with the energetics of Lakshmi in my life and she reminds us the abundance is about so much more than the number in our bank account. We need to make sure we also have a wealth of pleasure, inspiration and equanimity to be truly happy. If we only focus on our net worth, we're always going to feel like we're lacking something there always going to be somebody that has more money. There's always going to be areas that things that we want that we can't buy. That's not a great place to put our focus. We can really look at all of the areas. So how do we connect? How do we call more of Lakshmi's energy so we can have more love, abundance, beauty? Now I don't believe that we can just call in a goddess's energy. They're not here to do our bidding, we're actually here to do theirs.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:19:07]:

That means we need to make our consciousness, our home, our presence hospitable to the goddess. We need to court them, invite them. Maybe, maybe she'll come, maybe she won't. But it's not about what we want from an egoic perspective, but it's about how we can play our part in the larger divine story that seeks to be told. So the question really becomes is how do we create a hospitable environment that invites Lakshmi to grace us with her presence? We do this by acting like Lakshmi. So being grateful. Be grateful for what it is that you already have. I am sure it is plenty.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:19:49]:

Be generous again with your time, with your attention, with your gifts. Be gracious, appreciate beauty, beautify your home. Lakshmi is not going to give you more beauty if you're not taking care of what it is that you already have. And I also believe that taking care of your parents is also a way that we can honor the Godd. Not in an effort to uphold some random societal ideal, but to remember that we're created in the image of the divine. This is how we begin to open ourselves up to the will of the Goddess. I hope you like this dive into one of the many Hindu goddesses, so we'll be exploring a few more over the next several weeks. If you found this interesting, compelling, and you really want to dive deeper, I invite you to join me in my substack community where we'll be reading Sally Kempton's book AW Shakti, the Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:20:47]:

Over the next several months, there's going to be live gatherings on Zoom, meditations and inspiring discussions, so the link to join us is in the show notes. I hope to see you there and until next time, beautiful ones wishing you much grace, gratitude and abundance.

Lisa Marie Rankin [00:21:07]:

Thank you for joining me for this episode of the Gotta School podcast. I hope it sparked your imagination and expanded your vision for what's possible. If you're ready to explore these concepts more deeply, reclaim your personal myth and live with greater creativity and enchantment, I invite you to join me inside Enlivened my Divine Feminine Mystery School and Sacred Community where we bring these teachings to life through ritual, story coaching and of course, real world action. You can find the link to learn more in the show notes. And remember, the Goddess isn't a deity outside of yourself. She's an aspect of your highest self. You are the Goddess. Until next time.