Restoring the feminine within ancient yogic practices Spotlight on Tummo & Menopause
- ISHTARA ROSE
- May 2
- 5 min read
Tummo is a practise used by many yogis. In Tibetan the word means 'fierce woman' (Goddess of heat) as well as 'inner fire'. The ancient breath technique applies bandhas (locks), breath, visualisation etc to direct prana and 'winds' into central channel for -
tantric bliss
building fire in the naval (to generate heat to stay warm in cold mountains)
to burn off karmas (pain, stress, trauma, lack, vitcim mode, ego, ancestral patterns) of life as one enters higher states of evolution
go into deep meditation realms and remain there for some time
connect body and mind
to bring super immunity (better than any supplements)
for huge general spiritual advancement
for relaxation & well being
and more
In mid life many women experience a form of tummo naturally through menopausal hot flushes. Yes! Hot flushes can be used as tummo. Here is a natural medicine that your body brings you, for so many benefits and fore mostly as a spiritual preparation for next life transitional stage slowly advancing towards the passing of death. Like menstruation, if its medicine is harnessed as sacred, then Menopause is an ascension key. you really are a goddess.
This is invitation (the body and cycles know exactly what they are doing) to burn off life karma as mother transitions into crown (crone) (like a flu) for spiritual advancement, super immunity, relaxation, mind body connection etc
This is why you might perhaps thrash around the bed processing life events, relationships, clearing, processing, completing, and sweating profusely throughout.
All given to you as a great opportunity to transition into the next stage, and yet considered an illness or problem or nuisance to block down - why? Because it is a nuisance when the 'terrible sleep deprivation' etc stops women from carrying on with day time activities and chores (as the advertising slogans for menstruation aids say "why rest when you can carry on") The war on the feminine has turned the sacred womb cycles into a nuisance, disease, pest...
And yet this can be approached as a natural spiritual initiation for women who are blessed enough to be able to embrace men-o-pause (pause from men ie not necessarily men but more refers to overt yang energy of being super active and highly achieving) inconvenient 'symptoms' (advanced healing processes) and be able to move their life around the pause and subsequent deep dives into journeying through austerities, things such as night sweats, (and of course managing where necessary with herbs of nature etc as one intuit's for oneself and one's own very unique process)
This journey happens all on its own accord for women in wisdom years - if one is able to harness womb body medicine. Today that is a luxury to be able to do that. Male monks spend much practise initiating this, whilst wombs (the fierce goddess mother womb who births) know all about it - if she is supported to be able to truly go into this journey and embrace this in the same way as tummo pactise
Interestingly, yoga is mostly patriarchal with long lineages of men but the true yogis will tell you they revere the goddess and often put their bliss and spiritual advancements as due to Her. Also interestingly, yoga has gone from a male heavy practise in the East to a female heavy one in the West - and yet although many, many women are drawn, one may see many images of rooms packed with young western women learning from a man on a platform teaching them practices of advanced gymnastics - practices often designed for men, that completely ignore topics like direction of prana in menstruation and intuitive asana, astral travel or tummo, that their body already knows from being wombs.
An example may be the yogic scriptures teaching the nine body gates (nava dwaras) - 2 eyes, 2 ears, 2 nostrils, 1 mouth, urethra and anus, and the tenth being the crown of the head. But women actually have 13 - the vagina and 2 nipples that open to flow milk, and little is mentioned about these 13. Almost like a total eradication of the female.
And how strange it is to think, all these young womb-en lined up being taught enlightenment practices by men in mostly patriarchal organisations that omit intuitive teachings and feminine ways, with practices often designed for men by men, when they already have the power and knowing in their very wombs. Like women in the workplace in the west have to drop their femininity, here in the east we see the same in yoga, and yet yoga is used as a way of getting more in touch with the yin!
This is said in complete respect for many ancient spiritual practices and the brothers who teach them to men and to women. I respect true gurus and do not wish to tarnish the true ones with the same brush as the fake ones who are being exposed as fake. However I feel it is imperative that the light is shone back on the feminine and her power, her temple is restored. I also feel that the teachings that were taken and at times abused must not be associated with 'those that inverted them', but rather reclaimed and restored to the light to embrace all that they are in their entirety - without omitting the feminine. In doing so, we do not want the pendulum to swing the other way either. I also feel that yes while it is age of 'no guru' this does not mean we deny the true gurus. Highest respect for the true teachers and the very sacred teachings is imperative. As is highest respect for the feminine restoration to meet and dance with the masculine, as she is restored so he may become whole again. When she is denounced, then he is not whole and cannot be empowered, risen or christed. This is surely time for balance - guru within, guru without, respect within, respect without. Both within the self as well as within the teachings.
Thus my mission here is to reclaim the feminine divine, with respect to the masculine divine. For unity.
Thus in this quest of reclaiming the feminine with respect also to masculine, to remind womb en - do you know how powerful you are, when you listen to your body and womb and embrace to listen to her with no shame, no rigid structures of what she should be etc
Rather than plugging up to carry on, or suppressing flushes to carry on, may you instead realise this is a gift and opportunity. May you realise how many brothers must undergo many austerities to realise what is natural for your womb and could indeed be your greatest gift. May you realise all you have inherently within you, within your very body, and female instincts
Listening to her within comes through the feminine way of listening, not the masculine. through the heart and inner, not through the mind. It is illogical.It is the realms of irrational.
It is poetic, other worldly, and at times wild, raw and animal and incredibly inconvenient.
In Rose Kriya, intimate circles aim to restore the feminine within powerful and sacred ancient yogic practices. Some of this is referred to in The Rose Sutras available here https://www.wayoftherose.co.uk/books-by-ishtararose
For more on Tummo -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkeOxCs47zw (In this video he is referring to the french lady Alexandra David-Neel)
(please note I am referring to a healthy menopause and not referring to anyone who has any issues, and I also am aware with compassion how many feel unable to pause to go into the men-pause (yang-pause) cycle due to cultural paradigms & subsequent life situations and this post is not to shame that but to encourage potential possibilities for new empowered approaches, with love)
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