Say It With Chocolate - An Invitation!

Nothing like chocolate to bring people and ideas together into a melting pot. Especially in the thick of the current cold wave in my city, hot chocolate keeps hearths and hearts warm. So here goes.

I am back in the saddle after an enforced hiatus (those who follow my social media posts regularly, know about the adventures of latter-day 2025 - I will spare my readers here)

It's a new year, there are new insights and a new mantra that says keep it simple - at least till the weather warms up! So get yourself a mug of your favorite beverage and beat the chill and listen up.

If you look carefully at the picture you'll see a pattern in the background. One in color and the same in a haze beneath the cup, like a watermark. I didn't realize it till I placed the cup down to photograph it. I needed a good background and this was right in front of me even as I was sipping my cocoa and reflecting on the day's walk amid the shifting patterns in nature. What I needed had found me once again. Read on to discover how it can happen for you.

Is there a pattern your life - your situation or your thinking - that you are becoming aware of? Or, are frustratingly unable to fathom except you know something is not going right and has to change? Or are you bursting with a jumble of ideas, thoughts, even rants, and haven't a clue who to tell them to - someone who will just listen patiently and wisely, not judging you, not tossing in their own take on your life?

Chocolate - and patterns

I invite you to try an "Unload" session with me. You have a good chance to identify patterns, untangle the jumble within and tap into your creative resources to rewrite your script.

What happens at a session? You speak just what you feel as you feel it. And I listen with lips sealed - well mostly. You will be surprised at what reveals itself to you (and I say this in a good way), trust me on that. I say what you need will find you (yes that sounds like a blessing and you can take it as one).

What doth the chocolate reveal?

You can come back for more of these should you feel like and there are other kinds of sessions too, more interactive ones that could come after this - of those I'll write another post, perhaps after reporting on another walk in the park!

Get in touch via email: spiritspiralhealing@gmail.com - I'll share details of what you can expect from the session and just how we go about it. It's beyond the scope of this post.

Sessions are over Zoom.

There's a special offer on price (yes 3 digit prices) till this month end. So go for it!

PS: Even if you think everything's perfect this just might open you to some new and wonderful potential. And do follow the channel https://www.youtube.com/@spiritspiralhealing

Patterns In The Light

Happy 2026 and welcome to another Tabula Rasa 

"May the sun always find its way to you" - this message rippled through my mind as I found myself greeted by a shaft of sunlight on a shaded staircase. And with these words I spiral back towards you after ages.  SpiritSpiralHealing is greeting you in the New Year  and inviting you back on the journey. Read on, dance with me through the sunlit patterns from New Year's Eve and come to know what's new from us.

On New Year's Eve I am in the park, soaking up whatever sunshine the branches allow through. The trees have grown tall and the sun is the lowest it will be in sky till 365 days consume us or we consume them and the wheel turns on 2026. Finding a gap in the trees I turn and look into the sun - it feels both the sharpest and the mildest it's been all at once. I thank the sun for shining on me gently and benevolently. The sun reveals. The branches conceal as they reveal.

I pause near each tree and look at the patterns with the naked eye. Then I look at them afresh through the camera lens. I move around, the leaves move gently in the breeze. Shifting patterns. I photograph this tree and its companions. I've played with light and light has played with me.

I come home, I play some more on the images. Gently play around with colors and contrasts to reveal/conceal yet again. Something has shifted in my understanding. Of self, of situations, of others and interconnections. Something is about to change. And from the nascent awakenings emerges the following.

Moving from 2025 to 2026, from the sublime to the down to earth and practical, this invitation writes itself to you from me, an invitation to partake!

I am back in the saddle after an enforced hiatus (those who follow my social media posts regularly, know about the adventures of latter-day 2025)

It's a new year, there are new insights and a new mantra that says keep it simple - at least till the weather warms up! So grab your hot chocolate and beat the chill and listen up.

Is there a pattern your life - your situation or your thinking - that you are becoming aware of? Or, are frustratingly unable to fathom except you know something is not going right and has to change? Or you could be bursting with a jumble of ideas, thoughts, even rants, and haven't a clue who to tell them to - someone who will just listen patiently and wisely, not judging you, not tossing in their own take on your life?

Chocolate - and patterns

I invite you to try an "Unload" session with me. You have a good chance to identify patterns, untangle the jumble within and tap into your creative resources to rewrite your script.

What happens at a session? You speak just what you feel as you feel it. And I listen with lips sealed - well mostly. You will be surprised at what reveals itself to you (and I say this in a good way), trust me on that. I say what you need will find you (yes that sounds like a blessing and you can take it as one).

What doth the chocolate reveal?

You can come back for more of these should you feel like and there are other kinds of sessions too, more interactive ones that could come after this - of those I'll write another post, perhaps after reporting on another walk in the park!

Get in touch via email: spiritspiralhealing@gmail.com - I'll share details of what you can expect from the session and just how we go about it. It's beyond the scope of this post.

Sessions are over Zoom.

There's a special offer on price (yes 3 digit prices) till month end. So go for it!

The above info will also be part of a formal post announcing the bill of fare.

PS: Even if you think everything's perfect this just might open you to some new and wonderful potential. And do follow the channel https://www.youtube.com/@spiritspiralhealing

Of Dance, Departure, Dal ... Waking Up This Space!

A beloved coconut tree that grew to the south west of my home would dance for me in the breeze and shift the patterns of her fronds with the elements. I beheld with joy the flowers turn into green coconuts through the cycles. She was flourishing ... till she was not. I stood before this tree in the park and was reminded of her. This post is dedicated to her. Channel your spirit through these kith and kin, my departed friend. My father loved your kind and was the first one to point out to me the subtle shifts you made as you tuned into the elements.  

 

And thus I introduce my post for what is usually a difficult period as it comes in the wake of New Year's celebrations, and sharing how I'm turning that around. This time I feel the urge again to write. To open up about the personal. So let the ink flow - never leave it unwritten.

Memories of this time of year bring joy and pain tossed together. And nothing brought that out better than yesterday when early morning brought recall of loss even as part of me embraced and celebrated Nataraja's Ananda Tandava (ecstatic dance) that mom would honor year after year with wonder and delight.

This year the festival chose for itself the 3rd of Jan - a day that took my brother across eight years ago.

The time the journey ended (or another journey began) at 5:30 on a bitterly cold dawn - at such times, cold even in a city that delights in its all too fleeting winter, feels bitter - is something father and son shared 26 years apart. Our father went peacefully (no doubt triggered 11 months earlier by a needless health crisis that signaled the countdown to the end) in what felt like old age, though we never have enough of a parent's lifetime. His son went in pain, struggling. Needlessly (yes there is a story) and far too young. It felt poignantly peaceful that it was over - because with the end of life came the end of pain It's strange how 68 and 81 are only 13 years apart, yet each of those evening years is worth several.

There has never been a celebration of my brother's life - that must be the loneliest feeling for a spirit in the sky. And that doesn't feel right for me. Some day I will celebrate - under the stars he loved so much, stars that urban light pollution has denied me a sight of from the very windows he stood at holding my hand and telling me all their names as I gazed in wonder. The stars will choose their time to shine down and they will tell me. And all the world will know about him and smile.

Note to the Lord Of Dance - when I'm done dancing around the mess in this house, I'll make that traditional treat (called kali - pronounced cully) for you. And if enough of you read this and post a comment, I'll come back and edit this post with my mom's recipe.

I rather think my brother would have enjoyed it - he loved any treat with gur (jaggery). Though not sure about the spicy-sour accompaniment (called thalagam and made with sesame seeds, tamarind, spices and desi vegetables) that went with the sweet - I can devour dollops of that. And talking of coconut palms, there's the delectable date palm jaggery that's in season right now and which I have been lapping up.

And that's Nolen Gur (date palm jaggery) in sippable form - make believe and enjoy or look for it online or if you are in Bengal stroll down to the market. These days they sell it even on the streets in plastic containers. Watch out where you source yours though - they aren't all the same. I would love those precious clay pots they came in sealed with a clay lid. While today's plastic jars feel convenient because they're light I want those back.

The Standalone Room

For some time there's been excitement mounting inside my head over the mega-room or is it the meta-room code-named The Hub and the rooms enfolded within. And the promised opening. 

But life has come up other plans.  Because a voice in my head said I need to open one room that's ready, save for a few finishing touches, and invite people to explore. Maybe the visitors will put those touches?

A troubled post I saw on my Facebook timeline yesterday alerted me to the need for me to be of service rightaway and activated this move. And in the course of a morning I rearranged the furniture, put a few things away while taking some other out for display and put up a welcome sign. All in a blog post that said "The Spirit Is The Same" and ...    SpiritSpiral Healing has reopened services in a renewed and refurbished avatar as The Healing Hub.

While work on the rest of The Hub carries on with excitement or otherwise, so will these services. 

 

I don't know if you're curious as yet about The Hub but let me tell you that I too am curious. Strange as that may sound! Yes, I am curious about something that I am creating and introducing to the good folks all around! Stay with me while it unfolds and surprises even me. Just as this one did. 

What I do know for now is that The Hub is a superspace and encloses a few subspaces which are all interconnected at some level. 

For the time being I will use this rather mystifying image (yes I am the creator) to represent this work in progress 

So three little words - Watch My Superspace!! 

The Spirit Is The Same ... and ...

 services from SpiritSpiral Healing are offered to you at The Healing Hub*! 

 

And thus we have risen, like Christmas cake batter, in readiness for a comeback - the spiral that keeps me spinning and throbbing with life alongwith plain old 3D me, not forgetting my creative "toolkit". We are at your service. We had been a little invisible of late, having needed to recoup and gather energies old and new to be of better service. Indeed the spirit is more than willing and (unlike the proverbial "but" and the infamously weak flesh!)  the self that houses it, is at its service  - as well as at yours. 

A little recap here about the concept of healing and our philosophy. Nope - this is not a medical service by any means. Read on ...

I quote from an etymology source - 

'The word “health” comes from the Old English word hælan, which means "to make whole, sound, or well". It is related to the words "whole," "holy," and "hale". The word "health" is thought to have originated from the Proto-Indo-European root khailaz, which also means "to make whole"'

Hale and Hearty? YES! Maybe at times a medicine (as in drug or perhaps a procedure) could step in to intervene, that's about it. Health is about our sense of wholeness. 

As for hearty - click on the link and take a look. Tells you a lot about the state of your emotions, about you being in good spirits doesn't it?

Read on - 

"Healing is a continuum and a natural state in all beings as part of a universal rhythm. Sustaining this by tapping into and channeling the creative processes within us, that mirror the ones in the universe, is at the heart and soul of every offering here."  - does it give you an idea of what to expect from a session with us (yes with your 3D priestess-guide-mentor, my spiral and my toolkit)

In case you think this is all about having a jolly good time and banishing distress with a snap of the fingers, may I draw your attention to the concept "Never Not Healing". This is about recognizing, tuning into and respecting distress. Sometimes we need to break down and even as we break, the energies of restoration and renewal can be activated (indeed they mostly auto-activate, even when we do not realize it).  This is about tapping into all those resources within and without, that can set this in motion and sustain it. 

The spirit is the same - so what's different? 

A change in format where there are just two offerings for now

 "Unload" (where you do all the talking and I am a listener-understander) with all details in upcoming post dedicated to this.  

 and 

"Freewheeling" where we interact and I shine the light (indeed inspire you or lead  you to find your own) so you can better find your path and navigate it. These sessions are one-on-one and facilitated by me.  For those of you familiar (especially via channel videos) with the list of workshops from last year, these are being revamped to be more sleek and easier to implement, so hold on. 

A little about myself:  

I am not a doctor/psychologist/therapist. I am aligned with the ancient Wise Woman archetype and I tap into my inner Chiron. I have learnt from the school of life and I share these learnings with those who are drawn towards them. I believe in the power of the word to wound/heal and my favorite resource/tool to work with is the word. A detailed account about myself and my work and the history of how this service came to be, will be available in an upcoming post, pending which you can read this post which I have evolved beyond while remaining true to the core. As a spirit of freewheeling**(with gentle steering rather than structure) is the underlying energy that permeates each session I decided to name the interactive sessions "Freewheeling". 

The Energy Exchange

What is my role?  And what is yours in this process? Here's a recap from what I wrote here in 2022. It stays pretty much the same. Feel free to ask questions and maybe add points of your own about what you might like to have from me. Read on ...

What you can look forward to over time:

I write below about all that is possible over a few sessions. Even in a single session I would hope for you to feel one or more of these in some measure :

A space that I hold for you into which you can freely flow and therein find - 

·       gentle shifting of thinking blocks

·       subtle changes in the way energy flows through you

·       trails towards the confidence to embrace your uniqueness and original thinking

·        opening of pathways to channel your passion (it could be anger, rage, intense love,  yearning or                 anything else) into creative activity

·       transforming of fear from foe to friend

·        keys to accessing a wide and deep pool of energy and·of creative resources.

What I look forward to:

 

·       your trust in me

·       your curiosity

·       your desire to question

·       your patience

·       a desire to sift

·       a yearning to understand nuance

  ... and it goes without saying

·        money I receive from you with grace, which will transform into provision for my living needs.

 

That's it for now. Here's to the journey of  creating your own cake. With a little gentle guidance.

 

                                        Yes, this cake was made from scratch by me 

May the batter be enriched by our interactions and your cake rise and be enriching. 

Love and Peace from yours truly, Chakra Incognita aka Mayalakshmi Rao. 

Disclaimer 1: SpiritSpiral Healing's Healing Hub is a service that guides and educates you to a better frame of mind and a creatively fulfilling life. I alone run this and I am not a doctor/psychologist/therapist. I am aligned with the ancient Wise Woman archetype and I tap into my inner Chiron. I have learnt from the school of life and I share these learnings with those who are drawn towards them. 

Disclaimer 2: I do not use esoteric (now very widely recognized and utilized) methods in my interactions with you. I can help you find resources to learn about these (I know quite a bit about some of them and respect a few of their practitioners) if you are curious but deploying these will be your solo trip at your own risk. 

*There are other facets to SpiritSpiral Healing including the channel shows and more which will unfold over time, hence the distinction.*

**A few words about freewheeling: 

While lying around daydreaming, the word "freewheeling" started playing in my mind. I decided to delve a little and while I discovered so many definitions that were about being irresponsible, I finally found what must have sent the word gently spiraling through my mind's freeway in the first place.

Read this:

"Willing to experiment and take risks by going beyond the usual rules or accepted ways of doing things" - I definitely tend to have that spirit myself. Ironically that’s the spirit that the ambience of the times has tried hard to suppress, leading to numerous mental health troubles.

Best of all are these words:
"Freewheeling means the wilder the idea, the better. It is always easier to tame an idea than to make one more exciting".  Now you can see why I chose this name **

Note: The Healing Hub is open effective the time you read this and will be accessible also through The Hub, as and when that opens its doors. You can email spiritspiralhealing@gmail.com for specific information and to avail of sessions. Charges and payment details will be shared with you via email. I will not respond to mails that are not relevant to these services. 

PS - I will leave  you with my favorite words from Leonard Cohen. Tune into them as you despair of your broken or flawed self. Tune into them as you come forward to partake of my imperfect offering to you. 

"Ring the bells that still can ring

Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That's how the light gets in"

The Healing Hub ... And ... The Healing Hub

Intrigued, you ask are there two of them? 

Didn't you just refer to the services from The Healing Hub in your  channel video on Men's Day?  Indeed I did. 

Let me explain the phenomenon of the Hub-twins, each other's alter-egos :) 

Take a look at the wishes and hopes I expressed a year ago as I shared my vision for #67

From 19-11-23:

"Today a new baby is conceived and announced - Project Hearthfire's Healing Hub. It will take a village, indeed a city to bring it into the world. Details coming soon!

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Birth to this little wonder that I pray will grow into a beautiful and powerful place and space of nurture."

Kim Raike's Globe that lights the way for the ancestors  to visit her home/hearthfire

Take a look at this picture. There are two beings with arms uplifted, twinning in their nurture of a flame within. In essence, the Hearthfire is a heart fire, the inner shakti that is the life force of any venture. It blazes regardless of whether it can establish itself in a physical space or not. And what I write below will put you in the picture of what's going on with the re-creation of that physical space that I have long inhabited, and my re-birthing within it.

In the year (#67)that sandwiched itself between these two milestone achievements, challenges presented themselves to me in a whole new manner that led me to uncover my wounds and sit with them in fullness, with concentration. There were so many intersecting planes and so many layers one could uncover.There was no conscious uncovering though. But I discovered the need for patience, the need to trust that everything was happening as it was meant to. That as I tried to move along one road,trying in vain to heave obstacles out of my way, those very obstacles were drawing my gaze inward to look at an almost subterranean pathway overgrown with weeds that needed my attention. A rather dank, lonely one on which I felt myself getting lost, feeling hopeless, many times. It is as I dug my way along this path that I found myself emerging into the light on 19-11-24. It is along this arduous journey that I re-discovered Chiron in a way that I could identify myself and my role with. 

The Healing Hub which is the newly re-minted* service from SSH, is pretty much the same as the one fondly conceived and envisaged, except that it operates in the virtual mode in a minimalist avatar. It finds its physical counterpart in The Healing Hub of  Project Heartfire. 

SpiritSpiral Healing always offered these virtual services didn't it, you ask? Indeed, yes. So what's new? Well, I needed this break to understand my uniqueness, my own identity as I related to those for whom I was holding space. And I did. So I return to you all from a different place in my own journey from which I am better able to help you. I have evolved. So would you have. So we meet again and keep traveling together. 

Speaking of which may I remind you of this? Those of you familiar with Chakratirtha from which I take my name Chakra Incognita will recognize these lines. 

"Journeys are very often not a linear progression from one point to another. The traveller takes circuitous routes; make detours; pauses to absorb and reflect. Some wind and spiral their way by unexpected means to the destination of their dreams. This is what our Chakratirtha represents. Those curves and pauses, the acts of circling and recircling before landing are meaningful. The internet just made the process so much easier and we use it as a ford to guide you across."

So here's to The Healing Hub (#68)... and ... The Healing Hub (#67) 

The latter, with time and focus, will be launched.And the former will be a vital and valuable part of it that will continue for as long as I continue. The same fire informs and energizes both. Long may it burn and light the way. The flame pictured below is from my altar. I often light my altar lamp from the hearthfire on which I keep the pot boiling. Nourishing the body generates the energy that nourishes the spirit.

And I'll leave you with a word "re-kindle" to ponder and reflect upon. 

*re-minted* - anybody remember WordWise? You'll observe the "mint" part of this word. I could have used a different suffix to "re". Food for thought! 

Era 666

 

A day just ended, a year began. And the year ushers in an era. Read the post shared with friends at midnight on 18-19th November, and celebrate an impending birth.

Farewell to 66 years of navigating this lifetime. I do believe each of these years, even the most troubled ones, was worth something significant. I will remember each one with unique and special emotions that I'll be writing or speaking about.

Welcome to another Tabula Rasa as I open the first page of Era 666.

Wish me luck so when I hit the vertical flip of 66 I'll look back and say yeah, this one was the game changer, so flip me again now

The first words I write on the fresh page of course are Project Hearthfire. The hearthfire is essentially a heart-fire. Hearts come together to light it so hands can warm themselves on it, and their owners find nourishment from it. So here's the emblem for today - my warmest of warm hearts. Emerging through the fog. May all hearts fill with peace, may all hearts be healed as they heal.

Today a new baby is conceived and announced - Project Hearthfire's Healing Hub. It will take a village, indeed a city to bring it into the world. Details coming soon!

Happy Birthday to me and Happy Birth to this little wonder that I pray will grow into a beautiful and powerful place and space of nurture. I am sharing a few words from my creative partner, film maker Ritwik Goswami, that offer context and background information on the wounds that have kindled this major step towards healing, on how the seed for the Healing Hub, just came to be sown without a warning. That seed had been forming wordlessly through the stress of the battle he describes and then at this liminal zone in space-time, announced its existence. "Project Hearthfire : From Ritwik Goswami

Mayalakshmi Rao resides in the beating heart of the City of Joy; her residence a testament to a hundred year history of the evolution of the city all around.

Marked by stately high ceilings, robust walls and formidable beams, the apartment spells regal - much the same way as Mayalakshmi’s Royal being, her towering stature, astute words, her time-agnostic mane, and her kind eyes do.

And just like her apartment, that has stood its ground in what is now one of the most expensive areas of the city; against greedy promoters, or local goons; thereby asserting itself as a significant marker of the last century, in the rapidly evolving skyline and timeline of the city;

Mayalakshmi too has had to, and is still strongly fighting an ever-more vicious, perilous fight against her vile, diabolical neighbours, who have found the devices to keep challenging her very existence inside her own house, that she was born to, that she’s spent all her life in.

Maya’s life is a microcosmic allegory of the macrocosm represented by the house she resides in. And Project Hearthfire will be an aid to enable both to keep fighting with dignity."

#ProjectHearthfire #livethedream

Also don't forget to watch this

Creative Claptrap

 

Healing through creative resources? 
Hell, yes. One of the many slogans of SpiritSpiral Healing. 

That's been bothering me for quite a while, especially from the perspective of WordWise - one of the very early offerings from our healing toolkit. 

Our toolkit? Who else is there? There's me and there are all these resources. Oh and there's you. Ok - easy there. I'll tell you more.

Creative resources I imagine are resources that create. Like you know a paintbox and brushes. Noooo - they don't create a thing. They are your tools, you do the creating using them. They are at your service. So who is the creative resource? Me with all my talents? Perhaps. That still sounds a little Word-Unwise, don't you think?
Where do you think I'm headed with this? Of course I'm telling  you that I'm canceling that slogan and replacing it with another one. Healing Creatively. Does one heal destructively? Yes, perhaps one does. 
Enter creative destruction that I've said so much about in earlier posts. 
You can't create something unless you destroy something - you know physics and all that. 
Unless you're God - and most of you reading this illogical outpouring are ungodly. 
Just kidding. 
In the beginning there was nothing. Remember? Then God turned up from somewhere - no He turned up from nowhere because there was nothing. So what was destroyed then? Nothing! 
Nothing also being a thing you can destroy. 
You may ask me why such a post? It sounds like nonsense but that's a kind of sense too. 
Us lesser beings are already resource rich - we arrive with something - and when we creatively destroy we alchemize. We change something into something else, even trash can generate energy.
As for me I don't need to trash anything. I am already inundated by trash. Trash is the most common by-product of acute and prolonged stress. When you feel gloomy, exhausted, you sink into apathy and that's when resources trash themselves, including sometimes your own talents. And an army of bikriwalas in additions to shrinks/therapists/counsellors/healers, has to be summoned. 

 Wait, I said healers. I am here for me.  And for you. We are healing creatively. We are never not healing (that slogan remains). As nothing exists without its opposite, we are healing destructively too. 

If you wonder where we are headed with this post, we are headed to the Healing Hub. In fact we are addressing you from the Healing Hub that we are already parked in. We always have, it's just that the name found itself a few hours ago. A concept finds recognition when a name finds it. And that magic happened. 

We are surrounded by resources - we have inherited these resources, tangible and intangible and we are now tapping into them creatively. We are healing through heritage even as the heritage cries to be restored (remember healing = restoring to health?) 

Wordplay much? Oh yes. In the beginning was The Word. And all the rest till this moment of writing has been play - The Divine Leela. 

PS - there's nothing a good cup of coffee (or even an entire pot) can't do. At least for this priestess-healer-motivator. Don't believe the coffee-bashing naysayers. They're speaking for them, not for me. You can help fuel/refuel the Healing Hub with a cup of coffee - and a lot else if you are able to. How you can help will be announced soon. Be part of this, be part of us!

Footnote: I am looking at all the heritage writings of SSH, where a venture, a healing facilitation service created itself and evolved in full view of the audience. Some of them seem vague, others self contradictory. Do I trash them all, do I rewrite the original, editor-fashion? Don't watch this space, I canceled that slogan - get in touch, stay in touch!

Love from Project HearthFire - The Healing Hub. Powered by SpiritSpiral Healing and - surprise - Chakratirtha, Journeys Into Place, Mind, Spirit. 

Footnote: All images are of coffee brewing in my little steel filter which is as old as this home I live in. Different phases and moods as the bubbles catch the light and the water slowly finds its way through the bed of "sand" to emerge in an underground pool.