13
MAHA MAYA
AFW
Maha Maya creates the illusion of reality out of thin air, her game of illusion of smoke
(fire) and mirrors (water).
Who is Maha Maya?
She is the Dakini who is the mistress of all illusion. In Hindu cosmology, she is Maha (Great)
Illusion (Maya). She spins the wheel of life and all that we consider reality is part of her domain.
In Indian religions, Maya is the principle deity who manifests, perpetuates and governs the play
of illusion, the dream that is phenomenal reality. It is referred to as the play of illusion because it
manifests on the plane of duality so, like a veil, it must be seen through in order to attain
liberation from the wheel of cause and effect, the wheel of suffering.
Maha Maya both binds us in delusion and has the power to free us from it. She is the invisible,
intangible force behind all form, the interplay of energy and substance, spinning the illusion that
holds all illusions. She obscures and she enlightens.
The Tantric Buddhist Mahamaya-Tantra focuses on dream yoga.
In the 64 Yogini Temple at Hirapur, Maha Maya is the principal presiding Yogini.
Nature & Description of Dakini
Maha Maya is here integrated with the Tibetan Wheel of Life. The Wheel of Life is traditionally
held by Mara, the Demon King. Here Maha Maya grasps the wheel in her teeth, laughing at all
we hold so dear, the illusion of reality, of life and death. She is the Ringmistress, conducting the
great circus/carnival of life. She is the Grand Croupier, who gathers in all bets, who spins the
wheel of fortune, who throws destiny on the table with a roll of her dice. She dances with death,
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as if it were a cardboard cut-out. Her hair is grey as she has been around for a very long time.
She is the ancient of days.
Her roulette wheel has an extra 64 slots, representing the 64 codons of your DNA, an
individual’s circle of potential. The 64 times the cell divides after fertilization before it
specializes to become a particular organ or body part.
There are many games within the game.
She appears in the dark sky, she who is a universe unto herself, birthing stars and galaxies as she
rides her great time wheel chariot through space and time. She is the energy field encompassing
our whole reality. In the scenes above, it is the face of Maha Maya that appears on the meditating
Buddha, it is her face again on the monk/mendicant. Maya is everywhere, in every form.
Divinatory Meaning
A gift of good fortune for you.
Maha Maya brings you good luck.
Life is but a game and men and women merely players…
What is destiny? What is luck? We can see that it is in Maha Maya’s hands, not ours.
The connection between the roulette wheel being played down here and the bigger roulette wheel
of the stars and planets and their influences. Invisible lines connecting the planets and the wheel
of destiny are exerting subtle pulls and resistances, which controls the laws of ‘chance’ and
‘fate’.
Are you a gambler? There are many fields in life in which we gamble, not just at the roulette
wheel or card table.
Are you willing to take risks?
Are they wild or calculated risks?
In the end there are no insurance policies in life, its all a big gamble and the stakes are what you
are prepared to put on the table.
In this game of life, what do you really want to win? What is ultimately worth betting on?
Maha Maya says that all you really ever have is yourself, the one that came in naked and goes
out the same way.
By coming into your life, Maha Maya offers you the chance of putting yourself in her position
for a moment, in the center of your own mandala, at the hub of the spinning wheel.
The aim of liberation is to get off the wheel of samsara, the wheel of death and rebirth, the wheel
of suffering.
Do you take things at surface value?
Does the need for money and possessions guide your destiny?
Are you careless with what you have?
Are you intoxicated by novelty and/or thrill seeking?
Are you blown off center by the winds of change?
Is your happiness dependant on what happens to you?
Are you a victim of your circumstances?
Are you determined to win at any cost?
Maha Maya asks these questions, laughing as she spins…
She says, while you are here, its not so much what you ‘win’, but how you play the game. The
rewards of what you have been prepared to bet and how you have played may not be visible as
tangible gains in this life.
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This is all part of Maha Maya’s game of illusion, her play of smoke and mirrors. Those that look
like the ‘winners’ may not be those who have reaped the inner riches…
If you have a gambling problem or addiction, Maha Maya is here to help you transform it. Her
medicine comes in different ways. You may have to lose everything to win in the way she lets it
all play out.
Bet all your karma.
Its not a straight line you know.
Who can judge whether you get what you deserve unless they can see the Big Picture – beyond
this current time and space.
The house always wins in the end, so its pointless to believe that you can trick the Great
Trickster.
Maha Maya knows all the cards you have up your sleeve.
Be on the level.
Indications
Maha Maya offers a special dispensation. If she has appeared in your consultation, she says you
can have another ‘free throw’, consult the oracle again.
Be watchful for omens and act on their intelligence.
Practices
1. Meditation on Maha Maya’s wheel:
Visualize yourself as Maha Maya, holding the roulette wheel of your existence. From this
position, bring to mind the great gambles of your life, the places which were points of
shift in your destiny, where you rolled the dice with your life, and won or lost. See each
of these moments as points where the ball came to rest in one of the slots. After each
recollection, spin the wheel again until you are up to date with your life.
Now spin again and spin the now, spin the future. Visualize numbers coming up that,
when they do, light up and trigger the enlightenment of the whole wheel. Feel that you
are one with Maya Maha in co-creating the miracle of your destiny and fortune.
2. Take some little risk, some kind of gamble, as an offering to Maha Maya.
3. Thank Maha Maya for providing this amazing opportunity called life through which you
have an opportunity to experience duality and its union.
4. Send some good luck to someone or some situation. Theres always enough to go round
and good fortune has a ripple effect. Visualize it.
Dakini Transmission
I spin the wheel
And I reveal
That what you now
Believe is real
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Is just a veil
That does conceal
The ace
Up my disappearing sleeve
Affirmations
I have luck on my side
I accept all turns of fortune
As opportunities
For growth
I am not the victim of fate
Because I accept my hand
Unconditionally
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