Om hrīm strīm hūm phat
Bija (seed syllable) mantra to Tārā - the last Tārā mantra this month! 

As you can see from the photo, each of the “seeds” infers a meaning (in fact one seed syllable can have layers of meaning, but these are correct in relation to Tārā):
Om - deliverance. 
Hrīm - the heart/purification/transformation. 
Strīm - feminine shakti energy/creation and sustenance. 
Hūm - protection. 
Phat - fiery syllable adding extra power to the mantra/destruction of obstacles. 
(Pronunciation note: although these syllables end with “m” it’s good and powerful to try to sound them nasally (if you have time - I started to remember to do this only towards the end!). Also “phat” is more similar to “putt”.)

This recording is raw me, no filter, no second take. I was looking at the little book with the lovely quote, and my mantra post-it, as I chanted (see photo). I hope that sharing how the live practice sounds, will encourage you to feel that your offering is perfect as it is. No need to sound a certain way! Today I was feeling time-poor, and disconnected when I sat down. Overwhelmed and not like singing...but the mantra served me just the same. One thing I enjoyed was to focus on one of the syllables at a time, to really connect to its meaning. I’d love to hear how your practice of this one goes and if you prefer raw recordings like this (to perhaps use as a learning tool and then go it alone?) to my more studio sound. 🙏🏼❤️

Om Hrim Strim Hum Phat

Om mama hridaya namaha - Om reverence to my own heart space 🤍

This is my favourite mantra. It takes me right home every time I feel lost. It reminds me I have a heart, that this is the place from which all my actions should arise. Also if I’m feeling pain it reminds me of that timeless place I have always had inside, beyond emotion, unchanging.

I was saving this one for my birthday but I’ve decided to post it now as I’ve needed it today. Any friends also feeling deep sadness or disquiet at the thought of sending your beautiful children back out into the world tomorrow - this one’s for you too ❤️ May they be happy & healthy. 
Om 🙏🏼

Om mama hridaya namaha

Om gam ganapataye namaha - Om reverence to Ganesha, remover of obstacles

It’s the new moon and a great time to be setting intentions, but of course often if we’re not single-minded in these, or if they’re not coming from a place of satya (truth/honesty with ourselves), we will never see our best-laid plans through. Presuming we are setting our goals from an intuitive headspace and for the benefit of ourselves/other beings, why not add power and energy to our cause with a mantra to Ganesha, the remover of obstacles?
I’m proud to have got almost halfway with my month of mantra journey but I admit it’s been really hard to commit to spending an extra hour or more every day practising and creating these, however certain I was at the start (and however heartfelt I still am) that this mini-project is aligned with my higher purpose. Any new habit, I suppose, is constantly challenged by the patterns already established by the old status quo - not only those familiar to my own ego but also those of my family. The kids keep complaining how much time I spend chanting (!!) and I have to keep reminding myself this is right for me and ultimately for them too.
So today I chanted to Ganesha and then grabbed my miniature backing singer Lyra to help me - her voice is so beautiful in the mix here. Hope you enjoy it and do add your own energy to this mantra to help your plans come to fruition this spring 🙏🏼❤️
The quotation is from my little book of Indian wisdom given to me by my lovely pa, when I was the same age as Lyra. My mum gave him his copy a couple of decades before that!

Om Gam Ganapataye Namaha

Om Bhaishajye Bhaishajye Maha Bhaishajye Bhaishajye Raja sumudgate svaha

I was searching for a mantra for healing as my son isn’t well, and stumbled upon this beautiful Tibetan Buddhist mantra today. I am looking forward to learning more about its context, so if you are able to share your knowledge with me please do. I have sung it in Sanskrit but it is also widely sung in Tibetan (“Tayata Om bekandze...”).

This mantra comes from a sadhana (meditation) practice to bring about healing of oneself - and others too. The focus of this goes beyond physical healing. It also encompasses mental afflictions, provides protection from viruses and is said to completely purify body/mind, taking us from all suffering, to bliss.

One translation I read is this:
Healer, healer, great healer, king of healers, you help me purify and heal my body, speech and mind and liberate me (and others) from the sea of samsara (suffering).
“Sumud” comes from the word for ocean (i.e. of samsara) and “gate” = beyond.

Medicine Buddha Mantra

Om śri mā namaha...Om Bhuvaneśvaryai namaha

You’ll have noticed (if you’ve been following this month) that I have been dropping into lots of mantra practice upon the goddess Tārā, who is one of the most celebrated (within and beyond Hindu and Buddhist traditions). Tārā is the second of ten Mahavidyas (wisdom goddesses), all who represent universal qualities which we can hope to channel, to live with greater equanimity and poise.

Bhuvaneśvarī, the fourth goddess, I’ve chosen to invite along today as she has all the grounding and nourishing qualities of the “earth mother”. She attends to our worldly needs, her warm orange glow the colour of the rising sun offering us the environment we need in which to thrive.

What I love about practising with the Mahavidya goddesses is the realisation that all I ever need to do to return to a healthy alignment with myself and my little world, is to focus my awareness in the right direction. Everything I need is within; mantra practice is simply an unveiling of my inner “well” of abundance. The mahavidyas direct my intention in their unique ways, and lead me home.

Om Śri Mā Namaha

Om Tārinyai namaha

Om reverence to Tārā who rescues us from incarceration!

Thanks to @khadinemorcomyoga for the inspiration today to drop into this mantra (and for her wonderful and informative Mahavidya course, from which learning most of my shares here on Insta have sprung) 🙏🏼

We are beginning to move slowly but surely out of our covid lockdown, but perhaps these final weeks feel the most testing of all? We may now be desperate to experience normality, to see and hug and play with loved ones again, to be out in the world enjoying the freedoms we used to take for granted. Or we may be experiencing anxiety about these coming changes, having been cocooned inside for so long, and as a result perhaps we’re living with considerable mental discomfort.

Either way, and even if your reality is yet another, different, kind of tricky right now, Tārā is available to set us free. She can’t lift the lockdown but she can direct us towards the freedom in our own hearts.

I think was able to have fun creating this mantra today in quite a different style because, having chanted along with a very different version, I was stirred (by Tārā no doubt!) to allow myself freedom to break away from what I’d heard, and what I thought people might expect or want to hear, and invent something which expressed my own mood and musical preferences right now. Just for the pleasure of my own heart.

The snap is of my recording corner…my lovely star light put up as a surprise by @anthonyjdhudson and my very lovely condenser mic. This little room is where I come to be free! Where do you go?

Om Tārinyai Namaha

Om gate gate paragate parasamgate Bodhi svaha

Here’s a powerful mantra from Mahayana Buddhism, found in The Heart Sutra. (Thanks to @vajrasatiyoga for introducing me to this beautiful mantra, and this Buddha form, today 🙏🏼😊)

Prajnaparamita is female Buddha. She is represented as very beautiful with glowing yellow-gold skin; her name means perfection of (transcendent) wisdom”.

There are, as always, many nuances of translation for this mantra. One reading is

Going, going, going on beyond, always going on beyond, always becoming Buddha.

It’s lovely that in this translation is the sense that becoming an enlightened Buddha is a continuous process - not a destination either reached or yet to reach.

I chanted this the traditional 108 times (and only got my tongue in a tangle twice 😅). Here’s just an excerpt from my practice. Of course I couldn’t resist adding a synthy drone!

Prajnaparamita mantra

Lālita Tripura Sundari dyayet paramambikam - we meditate upon Lalitā the highest mother

It’s my birthday tomorrow so I’m sharing one of my favourite ever mantra creations (made a year ago) and I have a surprise share tomorrow, too 🎉😊

Lalitā (aka Tripura Sundari) is the third of the wisdom goddesses and she’s just gorgeous! She is shown as eternally sixteen years old, beautiful, playful and completely desirable. (She both represents desire and offers freedom from limiting desires - as so often with the mahavidyas, she has paradoxical qualities).

An auspicious goddess to embody during my birthday week methinks, when naturally I’ve been looking in the mirror and contemplating what 42 looks and feels like! When I connect with Lalitā I am always filled with creative, youthful energy and fun.

And age is all about how you feel, right?...

Pictures is the śri yantra, Lalitā’s geometric meditation symbol (and the most famous of all the yantras). Ask me if you’d like to know more.

Lālita - Invocation

Ka e ī la hrīm
Ha sa ka ha la hrīm
Sa ka la hrīm (śrīm)

This 15-syllable mantra from the Śri Vidya tantric tradition (which centres around the worship of Lalitā Tripura Sundari) is considered to BE the goddess herself. Each of the three lines, when chanted, brings a portion of Lalitā into being:
first line = the head
second line = the torso and third line = her “seat”.

The mantra also reflects the 15 phases of the moon. The “secret” 16th syllable is there in part to remind us that Lalitā is beyond worldly things!

I was at the beach today while thinking about Lalitā and her ability to show to us beauty in the world, and how beauty points ultimately to the one perceiving it. “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”! I picked up this perfect little pebble and found myself transfixed by how it felt as it slid and glided around in my fingers! How beautiful was the simplicity of playing with this object of nature and allowing chance to interact with control. How lucky we are as humans to have this capacity to experience beauty.

I can hear the haters now totally having a laugh at this post! What a pretentious w*nker they say 😂 Well. I feel sad for anyone who isn’t in this life for the sheer joy of “playing attention”. And I honestly recommend a trip to one of our pebbly beaches to everyone!!

Lalitā - Pañćadaśī mantra

Om Tripurasundarī vidmahe
Kāmeśwari ca dhīmahi
Tanno bāla pracodayāt

“Tripurasundari may we know her —
May we meditate upon she who is the goddess of desire —
May she who is [also] childlike, inspire us [to awaken].”

This mantra focuses on two key qualities of Lalitā Tripurasundarī - both her childlike, playful nature (there are also representations of Lalitā as an 8 year old child) and her ability, in her extreme beauty, to both evoke desire and to direct our desire towards a higher path!

Perhaps a chance to contemplate what we want in our lives, which things we are pulled towards. Are the desires we are following right now ultimately going to help us fulfil a higher purpose, one which serves ourselves and the world we inhabit - or are they unhelpful desires?

If we aren’t sure of our purpose (dharma), can we playfully unfold and discover by following our desires if they feel healthy?

Lalitā Gayatri

Param Jyoti mantra - Mantra to the supreme light

Oṃ hrīṃ hamsa soham svaha

Enjoy this beautiful and ancient Vedantic mantra on the night of the full moon and any other time you feel out of balance!

Chanting this, you could imagine the light of a wise and pure consciousness in your heart. This light might grow from a pinprick to resonate through our whole being, balancing within us the energies of the sun and the moon. It is meant to affect our body, breath, speech and mind…

Sun = associated with “pingala” (right) energy channel and is characterised as loosely masculine, lively, creative, “yang” and rajasic (dynamic).

Moon = associated with the “ida” (left) energy channel and is characterised as more feminine, “yin’, comforting, calm, and tamasic (or inert).

Param Jyoti Mantra

Aīm klīm sauh - Lalitā’s bija mantra

One final offering to the beautiful Lalitā Tripura Sundari 💗

As I was chanting these syllables at my shrine this morning, I heard a clatter in the next room. It was my Balinese flute, hurling itself off the windowsill...actually it was the breeze, but I’d like to think she wanted to be a part of today’s recording!!

I enjoyed playing with the sound of the flute and although I got a phone call and wasn’t able to finish what I had planned for this mantra, I really like where it was going. A beautiful moment flowing with the breath, knowing that one complete breath through the instrument would match one complete breath sounding a syllable of the mantra. (Which was almost true - though I discovered my breath was spent a little faster when piping as you’ll probably notice!!)

Did you know that the optimum number of breaths per minute, for our physical and mental well-being, is 5.5, but most of us take double this number? One of the reasons mantra is so good for us is that it slows and deepens the breath. Studies have shown that across all religions, famous chanted passages are 5-6 seconds in length - consistent with the singer taking 5-6 breaths a minute! No coincidence.

I should reference the excellent book Breath by James Nestor for the info about optimal breathing per minute.
And although I slowed my breathing down here considerably I don’t think I quite managed 5.5 in the first minute of the chant 😂

Aīm Klīm Sauh

Om nitya trptayai namaha - reverence to she who is eternally contented

I forgot this wonderful mantra to Lalitā! Had lots of fun making this arrangement, whilst practising contentment: freedom from grasping and limiting desires!

It was easy to feel contented this morning when I took this photo too...so grateful for the beautiful sunshine and still seas we have right now. 👌🏼

It’s almost the end of my month of mantra, and I need to thank @khadineyoga @khadinemorcomyoga again for sharing her knowledge of Lalitā and the other Mahavidyas. A slice of her commentary for this mantra is below. She always offers beautiful reflections which take me right to the heart of my practice ❤️

“The state of eternal contentment is a state of freedom or liberation - moksha. To recognise devi as the state of freedom itself through the power of contentment, which is an absence of desire for anything to satisfy our feelings of lacking or needing, is a powerful route towards our own liberation...”

Om Nitya Trptayai Namaha

om bhur bhuvah svaha
tat savitur varenyam
bhargo devasya dhimahi
dhiyo yo nah pracodayat

—The eternal earth, air, heaven
That glory, resplendence of the sun
May we contemplate the brilliance of that light
May the sun inspire our minds.

Here it is, the final mantra of the month! I had so much fun today with this one - hope the Clanger makes you giggle! It started as a sensible flute solo but I wasn’t feeling it...

If you’ve been listening then thank you and I hope you’ve had a moment or two of stillness and joy along with me. I’ve loved this project and I will be continuing to make and post mantras (just not every day!). Stay tuned as I’m having some thoughts about how to take this work into the world.

May all be happy
May all be healthy
May all seek goodness
May there be no worry
🙏🏼

Gayatri Mantra

Om śobhanayai namaha - Om reverence to she who is beautiful/splendid/glorious

I’ve used this mantra for a couple of days to move across from a focus on Tārā to Lalitā Tripura Sundari. This is Tārā’s 28th name mantra...however both goddesses represent beauty, splendour and goodness.

This mantra might help us see everything through rose-tinted glasses, but in a good way! What is there of beauty in your everyday life that you might not notice anymore, or might have overlooked? What is beautiful inside you?

I’ve already said how Lalitā connects me with youth, beauty and playfulness (listen for the dodgy beatbox bass in this mantra 😂). I’m looking forward to discovering what’s to come when I continue to invite her in!

Om Śobhanayai Namaha

Hindu goddess Lalitā Tripura Sundari's 565th name is Mitra, representing stability, friendship and "the light of a million suns".
If we embody Lalitā in this form, we can reach out energetically to friends past, present and future and feel the stability of interconnectedness. To chant the mantra is to embody the goddess and in doing so, to recognise the oneness of all beings...

Om Mitra Rupinyai Namaha

Raw live recording, no frills. This song represents a solid return to writing after years of near-silence...yessss...if you're up for producing this and more songs, get in touch. Emmy xx

Slipknots Live

Slipknots Live Jan 2024

A vocal jam, enjoying Bhairavi's seed syllable (bija) mantras: 

hsraiṃ hsklrīṃ hssrauḥ & raṃ 

Playing with the vocal plugin Fresh Air and practising some new delay and reverb skills...

Enjoy!

Bhairavi Bijas

Reverence to Tārā. 
A Buddhist prayer to this compassionate goddess! Tārā in one of her forms is imagined as a beautiful green colour, and I like to visualise healing jade or beech-tree green starting as a pin-prick of light in my heart or belly, and growing (perhaps with the sound of the mantra) to fill my body and even to overflow compassion beyond myself and into the world, to those I love, those I don’t know, those I struggle with...and even beyond that - to all humans, creatures, plants and every living being 💚

Om Tare Tuttare Ture Svaha

I'm a Brighton-born songwriter. I started writing poetry and songs at the age of 8 and my motivation to write has always remained the same. It’s a means of processing and clearing emotional clutter, playing joyfully with sound and connecting with other humans from a really honest and expressive heart space. I hope my listeners will laugh, cry and occasionally feel uncomfortably challenged by what they hear.

My music is rooted in soulful keyboard patterns and lush vocal harmonies. It is electro, acoustic and organic. I like to experiment with rhythm, found sounds, looping and dense, thickety layers of words! Enjoy.

Emmy huSh

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