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Shiva Nataraja
a symbol of our scene
 All of us have seen Shiva Nataraja many times. Party decoration, flyers, quite any kind of artwork- the portrayal of this dancing Hindu goddess has a long and rich tradition in our scene that reaches back to its roots in India. But in fact rather few Psy Trance lovers know about the deep symbolic meaning of Shiva Nataraja. Of course he is no real creature, but a metaphor for life that is as perfect and elegant as it is easy to understand.
The dancing Shiva is surrounded by a halo of fire, which represents nature in the broadest possible sense of this word, the world of mass and energy. By dancing his cosmic dance, Shiva creates both order and disorder among these basic elements. Imagine Shiva being the driving force in our universe, his body reaching billions of light years and filling the entire cosmos.
In his upper right hand, Shiva holds his drum. Using this drum, he creates: Galaxies, planets, trees, single cells. In his upper left hand you can see his fire- which will destroy everything just mentioned. The tricky point for us humans is that these actions inevitably provoke emotions, feelings of something good or bad going on.
Now remember your best dancing experience- when you were just in the moment, just enjoying the movement of your body, just playing like a child. That is exactly what Shiva Nataraja is doing. He has no glow sticks in his hands but very powerful tools. A sweep of his right arm: Creation. A new baby is born, a lucky encounter, success and blissfulness. A strike with his left arm: Destruction. A tragic accident, cancer, senility, depression. Keep in mind that Shiva is dancing just like you in the middle of the dance floor, without any second thought, dancing for the sake of dancing. He is no obliging god- but no malicious one either.
And it is alright like that. This is exactly what Shiva wants to tell us by rising his lower right hand, palm turned outwards. Don't be afraid, it's ok! If you look at the right foot of the goddess, you will notice that he is crushing an ugly little demon. This small creature named Apasmara is immensely powerful and represents ignorance and greedy, possessive egoism. Shiva puts his foot on it, breaking his back. But he is not pointing at this foot with his lower left hand and this is a very crucial fact. Rather, he points at his left foot which is already risen for the next step of his cosmic dance. Exactly this is the moral of this wonderful metaphor: Keep on dancing- between good and bad, between joy and pain, between sunshine and rain!
Roberdo
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