All men are Shiva*

As I go into my meditation, a drop of water falls from a tree branch and lands directly on my crown chakra. I hate it when that happens...there's always a message in it for me.

Shiva...meditate upon Shiva, it says. I do.

He finds me in the Heart Temple, swooshes in swiftly with dazzling blueness. 'Shiva, Namaste!" I say, only half surprised. I did, after all, call him here myself.

He takes me in his arms like a lover coming home from overseas. "I have a message for you," he says softly against my ear. He is becoming transparent. I can feel him, but he's not solid...a hazy blue cloud form. "This is a message to all of the women you train," he adds, still holding me against his fading form. Now I'm curious. I don't have to ask, he can feel my question.

He pulls back a little to look in my face. I can barely see him now. "Here's the message: All men are Shiva. All men. You must remember that, even when they are trying very hard not to be Shiva. All men are Shiva." He disappears all together, and then I no longer feel his embrace.

All men are Shiva. No matter which man you make love with, he is Shiva. No matter which man you argue with, he is Shiva. No matter which man stood you up, tore you down, bought you flowers or stepped on your heart. He is Shiva.

OH...but Shiva has so many different connotations! Shiva is masculine deity, yes, but he is also Matter, basis of the Material world. The word also stands for the masculine principle, the strength and stamina of the male. Shiva is also the blue sky and all things up above, as opposed to Shakti who is hte Earth and all things below.

So all males are deity, matter, strength, and the sky.

Yeah, I can make love to that...no matter how crazy this particular Shiva makes me!

But Shiva! Wait! Don't Go yet!...if all men are Shiva, what the fuck is all this crap on the outside, all that bitter ego shit? How do we, as women, deal with it? What if they don't believe that they are Shiva?

Too late to ask questions now. The Deity has left the Temple.