Pujas & Classes at Our Mandir
Please Note: All regular monthly Kali Puja ceremonies (excluding the Yoni Puja Festival and Kali Puja Festival) begin at 3:30 p.m. in our home sanctuary.
Kali Puja ceremonies are conducted monthly in SHARANYA's temple space. Find below our celebration dates and current class offerings. Please also refer to the Calendar of Events for dates and information about our other gatherings, including new and full moon satsangs.
For more information on our year-and-a-day teaching circle, which can lead to initiation in the Sha'can tradition, please see the Daughters of Kali page.
Artwork by Jazmine Rhomyk-Rountree
Ongoing Worship & Kali Puja
We welcome you to worship, meditate, attend classes (either in person or online, and participate in other events at our sanctuary. Let us know if you'd like to help out at a puja, learn more about our tradition, or have ideas to share with us. Your participation in worship is helping to create a living Tantrick tradition of the West today!
For those who are not able to join us in person, come be with us in community online through Kali Vidya, our Wisdom School dedicated to Her mysteries through (R)evolutionary Shakta Tantra.
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Public Puja Dates
2011
Nov 20
Dec 11
2012
Jan 29
Feb 26
Mar 25
April 29
May 20
June 17 - 6th Annual Yoni Puja Festival
July 22
Aug - No Public Puja - Reserved for Initiation and Rededication in Community
Sept 30
Oct 28
Nov 10 - 9th Annual Kali Puja Festival
Dec 2
See the full calendar for additional puja and special event details...
Can't make it this month or live outside the San Francisco Bay Area?
You can still be a part of our worship. Learn more...>>
 Artwork by E. Stapleton
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SHARANYA's Kali Puja
Join us monthly as we come together to honor Kālī Mā, Divine Mother and Great Goddess, offering reverence as we create ritualized as well as lived spaces in which the fundamental and activating energy of śakti can be realized today. Make your donation in advance to reserve a place with us in worship... or simply pay at the door.
Open to everyone and welcoming of children, our pujas are to be experienced! We look forward to being with you in the embrace of the Divine Mother soon.
Reserve your place at
upcoming worship events...
Jai Maa!
Ongoing Open Community Puja
Kali Puja - Devi (Goddess) Worship
Our ongoing puja, or worship ceremony, is open to all! Held in our sanctuary space located in San Francisco, we gather to celebrate the Divine every month. Email us to RSVP and click here for directions to our annual festival events (June and November in 2012).
Please note: All regular monthly Kali Puja celebrations take place on a Sunday, except for our Annual Kali Puja Festival, which is held on a Saturday.
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Puja Details & Information
At SHARANYA, we are dedicated in our worship to Goddess Kali in Her myriad forms, including those as She is expressed through the world's various traditions that honor the Dark Goddess, the one who holds the wisdom of the full spectrum of human beingness. Ceremony is held in the Sha'can tradition and lead by Rashani (ordained clergy) with help from community.
Our puja infuses methods and practices from East and West in order to create a sacred space for worship, deepening, and opening on the path of the bhakta, or devotee of the Divine. Learn more about what our ceremonies are like with this brief introduction.
What to bring... Offerings for the main altar are welcome. It is customary to bring flowers, fruit, wine, vegetarian offerings, or sweets and to refrain from wearing black to our public rituals. If you wish to wear a special color for Kali, we invite you to don red, a color associated with Her power in the phenomenal world as shakti, the activating force and the energy of creation. You are also invited to bring an object you would like to have blessed.
A sliding scale donation of $21-11 is suggested to cover the cost of the space, puja supplies and prasad (blessed food); however, no one is ever turned away for lack of funds, and any donation is graciously accepted; we appreciate so much the offerings you make to support our work and the community.
An R.S.V.P. is requested if you would like to participate, and you may do so by making a contribution online.
Worship usually ends just before 6:00pm and is followed by community time and sharing of prasad. (Click here for information regarding our Annual Kali Puja Festival & Fundraiser.)
For all events, children are welcome, but no childcare is provided. Participants use cushions on the floor and some chairs are available for those who need extra support.
Call for information, including location and directions to our other events around the Bay Area: (415) 505-6840, or email us. Pujas are preceded by our teaching circle, Daughters of Kali. NOTE: The 9th Chakra for DoK opens to all spiritual seekers in fall 2011. Stay tuned!
New! Temple Etiquette and Good Things to Know for Puja!
Sanskrit: Sacred Sound
Want to learn more about sacred sound and the mantras we use in our Kali Puja? Join us for teachings on the ancient language of Sanskrit! We are now offering introductory Sanskrit classes for those who wish to learn the devotional language of Kali Maa. The focus is on learning pronunciation, vocabulary and basic grammar in order to facilitate your worship as well as deeper understandings of the mantras you use. Those wishing to go still deeper can explore readings of the scriptures in devanagari, the language of the gods.
Classes meet once a month at 11:00am on the day of puja. Cost is $45 for each 75 minute meeting. For more information, email sanskrit@sharanya.org.
Devoted to Mahadevi (The Great Goddess):
Ritual Practices of Sha'can and Shakta Tantra
An Introduction to Worship & Devotion of the Divine Mother
in a Western Tantrick Tradition
This three-part course is an introduction to worship and devotion of Mahadevi, the Great Goddess of Hinduism, the all-pervading Shakti, and Kali Maa, Dark Mother, the Supreme Goddess of Shakta Tantra. Participants will learn the context and content of worship in the living goddess tradition of Western Shakta Tantra called Sha'can. Puja basics, including how to honor Devi (Goddess) Kali at home, will be taught. This offering may be particularly rewarding if you are considering Daughters of Kali (open to women and men), are looking to incorporate Kali worship or worship of other forms of the Divine Mother from the Hindu tradition into your existing spiritual path, and/or are seeking a fuller experience with your dedicated worship in community.
Join us to gain an understanding of Devi and Her various manifestations, powerful and often mis-represented, through ritual, myth, historical perspective, lecture, authentic Tantrick practices, readings and group discussion. This series will culminate in a puja that participants co-create from their recently-learned Sha'can perspectives as infused with devotion born of personal sadhana (spiritual practice).
Let this course be your own mythic journey into and out of the underworld...let the Goddess of the Crossroads take your hand and guide you into an unfolding awareness of your Self as seen through Her eyes. Classes require reading and participation to enhance the experience. Come ready to engage Her mysteries!
Be with us in San Francisco at our home Sanctuary for a memorable experience. All classes are two hours (7-9pm) every-other week, allowing for integration of the material and your dedicated practice with new spiritual techniques. After attending the opening class, you may choose to attend individual classes within Part I and Part II of the series. Individuals participating in three or more classes contribute to the final Kali Puja (Part III). The final ritual class is from 7-10pm.
COST:
- Individual classes (participation in the first class is required): $40
- Series of three classes (Kali Puja by donation): $111
- The entire series of classes: $201
Part I
Class One: Introduction to Kali Maa
Philosophical and historical perspectives, cosmology, cosmogony, individual voice and personal stories
Class Two: Myth and Symbols of the Goddess
Kali's stories, guardianship, iconography, worship and rites in cultural context
Class Three: Sha-can: A Living Goddess Tradition of Western Shakta Tantra
How do we honor the roots of Tantrick tradition and worship from our heart-felt resonance with Kali?
Part II
Class Four: Personal Worship and Living the Practice
Creating Sacred Space & Ceremony; entering into the embrace of the Goddess, surrendering ego and releasing fear; walking on Her path with devotion and relevant spiritual technologies, including breath and energy work.
Class Five: Prayers to Kali: How Do We Honor the Dark Goddess?
An introduction to mantra, mudra, yantra and tantra
Class Six: The Deepening : Outer Ritual and Inner Work
Making the tantrick connection between macrocosmic and microcosmic experiences of inter-relation; meeting Maa in the middle
Part III
Classes Seven & Eight: Devotional Puja: Jai Maa!
Bring your creative spirit, your voice, your instruments and the love of the Goddess in your heart! Together, we create a worship ceremony dedicated to our beloved Divine Mother, Kali Maa
REGISTER: To reserve your place in one or more classes of this series, please RSVP by paying below. For information, contact us.
Tools for Transformation: Awakening the Divine Within
A Lecture & Practice Series
This lecture and practice workshop series is focused on Yogic and Tantrick tools for transformation. All offerings include both educational and immediately useful, hands-on components; and all are set within a framework that recognizes a great spiritual truth: the personal is the planetary. Our work and commitment through each event is to broaden and deepen your experience of how changing yourself means changing the world. Join us!
"Where male and female worship one another is the play of the Divine Mother"
- Tantra Shastras
SAMPLE OFFERINGS: (topics, dates, and speakers to be announced!)
- The Motherly Depths of Yoga Asanas, Meditation and Chanting
With only 5% of the Indo-Tibetan archive translated, Robert Thurman chose Stuart Sovatsky to write a definitive description of Kundalini, "the Great Mothering Wisdom Energy," for the scholarly book, The Quest for Immortality. Tonight, Stuart will open the depths of contemporary yoga practice all the way down to the Mother Ground where asanas emerge spontaneously, just as maternal
labor contractions, new-born baby movements and sheer-wonder meditation emerge, far beyond the realm of egoic willfulness as mere "practices." In doing so, the evening demonstration and discussion will bring your personal yoga into this same realm of pure devotion, moved mysteriously from within, by Mother's Grace.
- An Evening of Inspired Tantric Kirtan An evening of fully-inspired kirtan with Stuart Sovatsky, who has chanted in private audience with the President of Unaligned Nations of the World, and for the current Perfect Master of Meher Baba Sufism in India, in addition to leading over a thousand kirtans in the US, Europe, Russia and India since 1974. Ranging from the melodic to the primordial, we will evoke the Great Romance of Shiva-Shakti living within the dance of every molecule, to delight us with the awe and magic of endless universal creation.
- The Path of the Yoni: Tantrik Tools for Acceptance and Empowerment
Let's discuss, celebrate and explore reverence for women's sexuality; viewing our bodies in a healthy way; the tantrick traditions of Kamakhya; and together dispel myths about "tantric sex".
- Tantra & The Shamanic Path Learn and begin working with concepts of incarnation, personal responsibility and liberation; exercises such as recapitulation, stalking awareness, dreaming, and gratitudes introduced.
- Tantra & The Power of the Witch's Craft Delve more deeply into the history of what has birthed some of today's Indo-Pagan traditions; learn about initiations, spellwork, and the basics of the Western Craft (casting a circle, elements and directions, grounding and centering, etc.) relative to Tantrick practices; open to notions of what it means to hold responsibility and integrity in the practice of magick.
- Tantrik Awakening Discover the powerful techniques of pranayama (breathwork) and nyasa (placement); explore Bhakti Yoga (the path of surrender to the Divine through devotion); and learn the fundamentals of Kundalini within a Shakta Tantrick marga (pathway).
OTHER SELECTED CLASS & WORKSHOP OFFERINGS:
These classes and workshops may be scheduled by interested groups and/or may be offered by community throughout the year on an as-needed basis. Let us know if you are interested in learning more about scheduling possibilities.
Gods and Goddesses of India Series (3-4 classes)
- Goddesses of India - An introduction to the most commonly seen goddesses in India; Durga, Parvati, Kali, Lakshmi, Sarasvati, Lalita
- Gods of India - An introduction to the most commonly seen gods of India; Shiva, Vishnu, Brahma, Ganesha, Krishna, Rama, Agni
- Goddesses of Tantra - An introduction to the Dasa Mahavidya and others of the Tantrick persuasion
Fierce Mothers: Tantrik Goddesses of Self-sacrifice (Workshop)
Camunda, Chinnamasta, etc. The path to embracing feminine power and self-acceptance.
WITCHCRAFT SERIES:
- WITCHCRAFT 1 is designed to give you a solid introduction to the world of Witchcraft through a combination of instruction and hands-on, experiential learning. You will learn how to create your own effective rituals from the very first class.
- Definitions & Starting Ground: What it means to be a "witch," a brief history of witchcraft, the elements of ritual.
- The Basics: The Wheel of the Year, the Five Directions, Tools of the Craft, Casting a Circle.
- Embodiment: Energy work, grounding and centering.
- The Personal & Planetary: Spells, talismans & amulets. Co-created Mabon or New Moon Ritual.
- WITCHCRAFT 2 builds on the knowledge and experience gained from the first class, but may be taken separately by those already familiar with the basics of witchcraft. This is still a basic course, but provides more in-depth wisdom and experience with spellwork, shielding, cleansing, and other important tools for every witch to master. We will focus on the elements as a means of mastering important tools and harnessing personal power.
- AIR: In-depth energy work, using imagination & meditation in magic, magical shielding
- FIRE: In-depth spellcrafting, candle & fire magic
- WATER: Personal spiritual maintenance, cleansing ritual,
the power of brooms, making moon water
- EARTH: Staying grounded, co-created Full Moon Ritual
Contact us to register, schedule a group, or find out more about our offerings - we look forward to working with you!
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