Author: earthmantra

Did you know that our CDs can be sent worldwide?

And that digital downloads of Maha Mata can be sent as a gift – and even arrive with a ribbon on them!

If you haven’t sent a digital download as a gift before, here’s how it works 🙂

1. On http://108earth.bandcamp.com  Choose “Send as Gift” (just below Buy Digital Album)

2. Follow the instructions, enter a message for your friend (and a discount code if you have one)
3. Your recipient will receive an email telling them you have sent them a gift with your message included and a cute picture of the CD with a bow on it!

If you somehow missed it, the BIG news was the birth of Leonardo six months ago today :-).

Amy discovered she was pregnant a few weeks after we decided to dedicate our album to the birthing process. Powerful stuff, mantra! We had literally been having conversations about whether to call the album “Garbha” (Sanskrit for “womb”) the week it transpired he had been conceived. We decided “Garbha” sounded too much like “garbage” but the theme remained.

Throughout the crowdfunding process, Amy had terrible morning sickness. And you would never know it from the celestial sounds she comes out with on the album, but it was even worse by the time we got into the studio. In the 15+ years of knowing her,  I had never seen her so grey and grim-faced! But in her own words, “I cannot believe how ill I felt with morning sickness at this time, and the power of mantra to help me temporarily forget! ”

And Leo’s imminent arrival inspired Track 4 – Poota Mata. It is a Sikh Shabd traditionally sung daily through pregnancy by mothers as a blessing to their unborn child. Amy was chanting this daily and then, one day, this exquisite melody came forth.

After Paolo’s journey with cancer, Leo’s birth has been even more of a celebration and joyous wish-fulfilmment.

Oh, and he’s an EARTH baby all right: his sun, moon and ascendant are all Earth signs!

— Vaishnavi

 

 

What a treat to pop into Watkins Books this week and see Maha Mata on the shelves – above Krishna Das and Johnathan Goldman no less!

Growing up in London, this was the go-to treasure trove of spiritual books. I have so many memories of time spent here, drinking in their wares.

I felt significantly overawed taking a copy of our CD in some months back. To my surprise, the response from the assistant I spoke to was so deeply touching. She instantly put it on the store CD player and began playing it – and then came to find me, saying, “This is so beautiful. I feel moved to tears!”

It was only then that I realised how much I had prepared myself for rejection by armouring myself energetically and emotionally. I couldn’t really feel the beauty of her words because I had come in pre-defended.

What a powerful teaching, to be more vigilant when I am doing this in future and to be more discerning about which situations truly are “dangerous” and which are simply old overlays of ideas and stories… shadowy fears of abandonment and rejection that have nothing to do with the present moment.

And… exhale…

Simply being aware of the breath, the feet — and of course mantra — are my tools for returning to my being in these situations.

— Vaishnavi

In case you missed it, we had our first Headline gig!

It was a real honour to be invited by Seren & Azra Bertrand to sing live on their recent even to launch their new book Womb Awakening. And it was a completion of a perfect circle in many ways.

Seren and Azra were delighted to discover our track Visva Garbha centres around a mantra meaning “She who contains the entire Universe in her womb”.

The online event was watched internationally – here it was being streamed in a space which is deeply significant for me: the candlelit cob roundhouse – The Shakti Lodge, near Bath.

I began attending a monthly Red Tent in this beautiful woodland space – hosted by the incredible Debs Stanley – about a year before the album was released. It has been a powerful awakening for me: connecting more deeply with my female ancestral line; truly connecting with the changing seasons as I visited the woods each month and witnessed the different shapes and colours; being guided in deep womb meditations. This also happens to be the woodland where the harmonies for Adi Shakti spontaneously came to me last year.

Debs has trained with the Azra and Seren’s organisation, The Fountain of Life and it was she who first introduced me to their body of work. Each month I would make it my absolute priority to attend and felt profound gratitude for the nectar she was dispensing with such grace and generosity. I would often wonder how I could repay this kindness and richness – not that I needed to, I simply wished to give back.

So it was a truly beautiful circle of completion to be sent photos of 13 women gathered in this space, so dear to me, watching the webcast and delighting in out music.

Ah, the beauty of the circles and cycles of life!

— Vaishnavi