Jeanie Manchester: Meditation, Mantra, Yoga, Kundalini Rising, the Divine Feminine, and Planetary Uplift
Wise, Beautiful, Jeanie Manchester!
Women’s Circle with Jeanie
Jenny LePage 00:00:00
Oh, do you want to hear my intro? This is what I do. This is funny.
Jeanie Manchester 00:00:08
Aw, love it
Rattle (Jenny) 00:00:10
Jenny LePage 00:00:16
Hi, everyone. This is Jenny LePage, and welcome to the conversation about spiritual awakening, planetary shift in consciousness, adventure, healing, and finding your life path.
Jenny LePage 00:00:37
Today we have with us a very exciting guest. We have Jeanie Manchester. Jeanie. Jeanie's famous hahaha.
Jeanie really is a world-renowned yoga teacher, a yoga and meditation teacher, and she teaches here in Boulder. We're sitting in my office in Boulder, Colorado, and she leads retreats in amazing places around the world. Jeanie has been teaching and practicing for 30 years. Am I getting this right?
Jeanie Manchester 00:01:13
I think I lose track.
Jenny LePage 00:01:15
Okay, maybe 30 years. And she has a really strong lineage of teachers that she has been studying with over time. Dr. Douglas Brooks, Sally Kempton, Richard Freeman, John Friend and Paul Mueller-Ortega. Jeanie is an Anusara-certified yoga teacher, a dedicated senior student, and acharya—which is a priestess—of Neelakantha Meditation and the Sri Vidya Goddess Tradition of South India focused on awakening Kundalini Shakti. She is also the creator of the Shakti Rise Immersion and Yoga Teacher training dedicated to women on the rise and planetary upliftment.
Wow.
Jeanie's many paths draw together to ultimately support authentic expression, awakening of the divine feminine, and planetary evolution. You can also find her on her website at jeaniemanchester.com.
Jenny LePage 02:30
Welcome, Jeanie.
Jeanie Manchester 00:02:33
Thank you, Jenny. So fun to be here.
Jenny LePage 00:02:35
Aw, it's so great to have you here.
Jeanie, the last time…we were just talking here…the last time that I really, really saw Jeanie in depth, was probably about 15 years ago. And I had just moved to Bozeman and invited Jeanie up to teach a yoga workshop over a weekend there. And we were just thinking back to when we were having some conversations, probably in my living room, about some life aspirations. And where we wanted to be going in our direction in life and work.
And Jeanie was talking about wanting to have a Kundalini awakening and aspiring to travel around the world to teach yoga trainings. And here we are coming back to checking in about where we are in life now. So, Jeanie, how would you say you've been doing with some of these goals?
Jeanie Manchester 00:03:45
It's so funny to think about having that conversation so long ago and an aspiration to awaken Kundalini. It's an interesting thing because I don't know. I don't exactly remember saying that. And I wouldn't be surprised that I said it because I think, as a yoga instructor and practitioner, I think you're always curious about, what is this thing we call Kundalini? Is it real? Do you need a guru? Right? Like, how does this happen? Is it safe? Right? And why would do you want it? And those are all really important questions that we could kind of dive into because…I think as a young practitioner, I didn't maybe understand how mystically inspired I was and that my life would be in that trajectory, but it certainly has certainly continued in very profound and deep ways, very deep healing ways, primarily through meditation and, of course, goddess lore, study, mythology. And my understanding of the goddess has changed quite a bit from just sort of a story to an embodiment.
So, yeah, I don't know that's how that is for an answer, but, yeah, I think I understand a lot more direct experience of Kundalini now and the profundity of it for healing, for why an individual would actually want to awaken the life force.
You know, she's called the nuclear goddess, the powerful, you know, you could say swirling energy of life force that begins to awaken under proper practice and then stabilize through proper practice to unfold personal destiny.
Jenny LePage 00:05:45
Ooooh
Jeanie Manchester 00:05:48
Yeah, unpack that one. Right.
Jenny LePage 00:05:50
Wow. Can you tell us a little bit about those practices that you are mentioning?
Jeanie Manchester 00:05:57
Yeah, when I look back, I have to say that it probably did begin prior to any time that we think it began. Right. That when you have a longing to open up mystically. Probably this started in prior lives and that you're picking up a thread in this life. And I think that is true of me now that I'm older and wiser. I had some strong experiences in my Astanga Vinyasa practice of energy moving and feet burning up. And yet I remember asking Richard Freeman, like, what's wrong with my feet? They're burning up. And he just sort of made light of it. And, so, I made light of it.
Jenny LePage 00:06:46
He knew.
Jeanie Manchester 00:06:47
He knew. But he also knew that the traps of: you're having a Kundalini awakening! It's like the ego can get very involved in thinking that you're special. And that we all have the capacity to awaken our Kundalini and we want to do that in a proper way, with proper practice. So, I wanted to preface that with I believe this started in a prior life, that I can't prove to anyone. But I have a sensation of that. I have a feeling that's very strong for different reasons. Like when I'm in India, I can really feel this prior life sort of thing. And then through the physical practice. But then ultimately, for me, it's been through initiatory mantra for the past many many, years of receiving diksha [consecration of mantra] under the auspices of a teacher, in this case Paul Mueller-Ortega, who understands his own awakening process. And then the sequential opening of the goddess, which is Kundalini, happens.
We want it to happen gradually. We want it to happen carefully. We want it to happen ecstatically, and we want it to not only reveal our gifts, but also heal us. So, there's both shadow and light when this is happening. We're going to experience purification when we awaken the Kundalini, it's not going to be just, Woohoo. I've wakened my Kundalini, and everything is just hunky dory now in life, it's like, oh, no. Now the work begins. Now the shadow is going to really kick up that ugly head, and you're going to have to look at yourself very carefully.
And that can be painful. It can be a lot of grief, because the ego is really fighting for control and wants to be in charge and wants to be the doer of life. So, one of the most profound things I think I've learned about these initiations is how to melt mantra inside of me. And when I say learn to do, I really don't mean “do,” because the mantras are actually alive. They're entities. They're vibrational beings that we have to learn to respect. And in that process of imbibing a mantra, I've had to learn to let go. And when you let go, it's very existential. It's like dying. You have to die…Your ego has to let go. And, I mean, it could bring tears to my eyes right now, because the process is humbling. It's super humbling.
And there's been a lot of grief, because, again, when ego is losing its grip, it can feel very scary. It can feel unstable. It can feel as if you think you know what your life is supposed to look like rather than what it is. So, there's a lot of acceptance in the path of awakening Kundalini and there's a lot of surrender. That is the word that my teacher uses that I have come to understand in my practice. And anytime I'm fighting it, I just surface.
And we say surfacing in our meditation practice is normal, necessary, and good, because we're actually dredging up those..we call them samskaras, or actions in the past that have left a mark inside the subtle body.
Jenny LePage 00:10:27
Ooooh
Jeanie Manchester 00:10:28
Yeah.
Jenny LePage 00:10:32
It’s the subtle awareness.
Jeanie Manchester 00:10:33
Yeah. So, you think it's like a vibrational toothbrush, like a vibratory toothbrush? What are they called? We all get them from our dentist.
Jenny LePage 00:10:40
Sonic.
Jeanie Manchester 00:10:40
Sonic Care. Sonic Care. And your dentist is like, are you using your Sonic Care? Well, you should. I always think about that. I'm like, oh, because it vibrates. It has this, it can actually clean better. Unless you have really sensitive gums, then you got to be careful. But for the most part, we use those vibratory toothbrushes to. To get to the plaque in those hidden places.
Jenny LePage 00:11:03
The ego!
Jeanie Manchester 00:11:04
Yes. And all of the memory. And I want to say, every memory, every memory you've ever stored inside of you needs to be washed clean. But people are like, but but but but but I love that time in my life. I cherish that time in my life. And I'm like, I know, cherish it, but do not grab it. As if life cannot go on unless I have that again. It's because what we're doing is we're pining for something that was… that is not here right now…that we want to project into the future. And that's why we always say, be here now. Right? Ram Das says be here now. What does it mean to be here right now with you in this moment? Means that I'm not projecting what I have to do in a few hours. Or thinking, we're thinking back on time together, which is sweet, but we're not grabbing it. As if to say, I can't live without this.
Jenny LePage 00:12:06
So, we're losing our attachment.
Jeanie Manchester 00:12:08
We're losing attachment.
Jenny LePage 00:12:10
Not really the memory. We still have memory.
Jeanie Manchester 00:12:23
We still have memory. But I would say that the mantras, as they coalesce inside, eventually, when you reach many years of practice, it usually takes to clean out the subtle body of sort of even fatigue. Or we call it top of stack: what's on the surface so that the mantras can actually go in deeper and deeper and deeper. And we, you know, as a yoga student, we talk about the physical to the sort of slightly interior to slightly interior to more interior to more interior. Well, the mantra will touch that, but then our ego will push it out. It'll push the mantra out. And we say, that's actually good. It's necessary. It's like you're just cleaning out if you had like a dirty disposal or something, and you're just kind of cleaning it out, right? Cleaning out the gunk and the hose or whatever so that it can flow more. And so, over time, that state becomes very, very stable and the mantra can go in and go in and go in and go in and go in. And then you can stabilize there.
And in that stabilization, she coalesces. She: meaning the kundalini, which is super undeniable when it happens to you because it's just this strong energy that rises.
Actually, she crescents at the crown and goes down. Sometimes we don't register that. And then she coalesces at the pelvic floor and begins to sweep through your body as, like we call it, like the cosmic chiropractor.
Jenny LePage 00:13:47
Oooh super great word.
Jeanie Manchester 00:13:49
Yeah.
Cosmic chiropractor, or the Maha Shakti, cleaning house. And the cleaning of the house is cleaning up memory. So, it's not that I don't remember things, but I don't have certain attachments. And once I feel like there's a certain attachment, then I know that there is something that I still have sort of a cord attached to some sort of experience in the past that actually needs to be cut. So, we do a lot of cord clearing with these mantras. They're particular release practices that we do that are on the tongue. These particular mantras are called ajapa. So, the tongue is not moving. When you think about it, our tongues are moving almost all the time.
Jenny LePage 00:14:35
Hmmmm. So, just the intention of the movement.
Jeanie Manchester 00:14:40
Yeah. So, we say it's, “AH-japa.” [A=without; ajapa=without chanting.] So, the mantras actually are melted inside. And that's been extraordinarily profound for me. To understand what meditation really is, what we learned in the yoga sutras. It is samadhi. And samadhi is to come first, but most of us can't actualize samadhi at first, so second pada is Sadhana Pada [Eight actions or eight “limbs” of yoga to eliminate suffering and reach enlightenment]. It's like, okay, well, if you weren't born into an awakened state, haha, you don't close your eyes, and instantly you're there. Then practice.
Jenny LePage 00:15:17
That’s really, most of us, right?
Jeanie Manchester 00:15:18
Most of us. The rare beings…you know…that come in and have an awakened Kundalini. And I even think those that might have these experiences still need to stabilize. You know, it's one thing to have an awakening and then what do you do with that, right?
It could be very destabilizing and uncomfortable. So, these mantras open the subtle planes very gradually, very incrementally, and we dive in twice a day into those deep spaces, and then we surface back into the world with more of that Shakti, that more of the universal, if you will, creator, whatever you want to call it, moving through our senses. Because right now the senses are blocked by memory. And I just think about the beautiful memory of my great grandmother making apple pies in the summer on the lake. Every time I have an apple pie I sort of smell in a bakery, I think of her. And that's a sweet memory. But if I attach to that memory, I grip it and I cannot move in life without her or that experience.
Then I have a cord attached to her, perhaps, or to that memory. And then that memory doesn't allow me to actually co-create in Presence. And that's where the magic is.
Jenny LePage 00:16:47
That's where the magic is. In the present.
Jeanie Manchester 00:16:50
Yes.
Jenny LePage 00:16:51
Right here. Right now.
Jeanie Manchester 00:16:52
Right here, right now. And, so, we train. We train to be in Presence. And that's what meditation does. That's what yoga asana is preparing us for, is, like, to not be projected into the next moment of your life, but just to be with the breath. Right now, here,
Jenny LePage 00:17:07
It's not about the yoga butt?
Jeanie Manchester 00:17:10
That might be a benefit. I've come to this place where I used to be like, oh, God, a yoga butt, or whatever. Now I'm like, okay, good. Have a good yoga butt. If that makes you happy, great. And we've got to go inside.
Jenny LePage 00:17:26
It's about more.
Jeanie Manchester 00:17:27
It's about more. It's always about more. And unfortunately, the Kali Yuga left us with a world of yoga…let's say, for example, that this kind of across the board focused on materialism. And you could say, focused on money, focused on, what do I get out of this? It's very I, I oriented, and it's really focused on the physicality of everything, like yoga practices that don't actually offer meditation. And maybe that's where we have to start. Some of us have to start in the physical body. And I think some people, that, conversely start with meditation probably need to go back to the body.
Jenny LePage 00:18:14
We need both.
Jeanie Manchester 00:18:15
So, the body and the mind always have this. We say body, mind, unity, consciousness. If there's an irritation or some sort of fixation in the mind, it's going to lodge into the body, as you know. And if there's something in the body, it's going to register in the mind. Right. So, if the two don't work together, that's why we love our somatic practices. Breath orientation with movement prepares us to go deep inside.
So. Woooh! That's in a nutshell. That's where I've been.
Jenny LePage 00:18:50
Ok Jeanie. You mentioned the Kali Yuga and its connection with the material world and money and things like that. What is a Yuga and what is the Kali Yuga?
Jeanie Manchester 00:19:05
Oh, my gosh. Well, I know it in the context…mostly I have kind of explored this topic because I've been fascinated by it. The Yugas are years in yoga and they're kind of ages, you could say times of years. And we're talking hundreds of thousands of years for the Kali Yuga. And we're turning towards the end of the Kali Yuga right now.
Jenny LePage 00:19:35
Woooh!
Jeanie Manchester 00:19:36
Yes, now. How long is that? I don't know. In our given lifetime, we are at the pre…pre-dawn time. Pre-dawn. I want everyone to hear that. And my teacher explains it really beautifully. He says, it's the darkness in the morning. If you're up in the early morning before the sunrise. The birds are chirping. It's really beautiful to hear that now. And, and just, you can just see that little bit of light coming on to the horizon of the breaking of the day. That's the time we're in.
Jenny LePage 00:20:09
That's where we are.
Jeanie Manchester 00:20:11
We're at the pre-dawn time of the Sat Yuga which is… the Sat Yuga is the time of truth, of peace, of more equanimity, of community, of sharing, of… the feminine is rising to show us how much we need each other to awaken. I think that's one of the things that the Kali Yuga is going to leave is this kind of ugly stain of materialism, and where the eye has taken on too much…we see that with planetary degradation, our waters, right, the planet itself. The water issue is bigger than ever now. And the air quality, you know, it's it's it's down to our food. It's you know, it's it's everything. And we have to see that Kali Yuga is not just out there. It's inside each of us. So how have we become material, you know, totally focused on materialism or just about the eye? We see that all over the world. We saw it in yoga. We see it all over.
And, so, I always think, oh, yeah, the Kali Yuga is not just out there. It's actually inside of me. And then how do I take responsibility for that part of my ego that is still very young, that doesn't understand that it needs to be broken down? The ego really needs to break down. We need to be humbled, and that can come in a lot of different ways. I'm always praying to the goddess of consciousness. It doesn't need to be an accident or an illness. Just, I will keep working on myself. I'll keep working on myself. It doesn't have to be a drama in life which will come our way, as, you know. Like, she will kick our butt until we get the message.
So, the Kali Yuga is in each of us and then whatever is in each of us as humans manifests on the surface. So, as a planet, we're having to look at that closely. Like, how are we going to clean up this mess that's inside of us? So, that's why I always go, okay, each of us has to go inside to clean up outside. And you can't get stuck inside. You want the right practices that are going to compel you into action in the world in the way that you're made for. So that's the Kali Yuga in a nutshell.
Jenny LePage 00:22:44
So, it's both an internal process and at the same time, not so individual, but more collective.
Jeanie Manchester 00:22:52
Yeah, I mean, I would say that… I don't think I've ever expressed it quite like this, which is always fun to see what's coming out. But my teacher definitely speaks to whatever is on the surface of our lives collectively, worldwide, is because of an internal state. Right? So, if the ego has gotten so big and we're not able to actually go in and look and self-reflect, that is going to surface as not self-reflecting, not having any kind of feelings of responsibility for our oceans or the planet or the animals or our children. And of course, I'm sure some people listening are like, well, I take care of my children and I'm responsible and I recycle and I do this. Yes. And what shadows have we not dealt with? What ancestors have we not honored and then also cut cords with? This is what's coming our way as far as healing goes.
Jenny LePage 00:23:56
Deep work.
Jeanie Manchester 00:23:57
Deep work. That is light body work. It's beyond the realms of the physical but include the physical. That's why I say the Kali Yuga is like an inner job. We have to go inside to change the map. That is ego. I would say ego busting. The ego has to be broken down. And then the ego… I think one of our teachers used to say the ego is God-given. And I like to say Goddess-given. And I think that we were given egos for a reason. But if the egos are blocked with trauma, with detrimental memory, then that's what moves out through our senses. That's why we get triggered, right? And then we react to each other, and then we get jealous of each other, and we differentiate. We think that I'm better than you, and we do the one-upmanship. And this causes a lot of problems. It causes war on the big level of global transformation. It's because we don't look inside.
So, the Kali yuga is an inner job. We have to go inside. We have to look at our shadows. We have to do the inner transformation. And then it's not just sort of meditate for a weekend. It's like dedicating yourself to practices that will show you over time how your nervous system has to be in non-“fight or flight “ to heal. And you know that as a practitioner.
Jenny LePage 00:25:33
Mmm hmm. Absolutely.
Jeanie Manchester 00:25:34
And that's what you put people in. You put them in non- “fight or flight” so that their bodies can do the healing. And that's what deep states of meditation do. It puts us in non- “fight or flight.” So she activates. Kundalini will not activate in a fight or flight condition. She needs that satva, that calm inner state to actually actualize within a human being. And then she does the healing. We don't have to do anything in. Of course, we can augment that with all kinds of incredible bodywork, incredible therapies, they all have a place. All the healing levels have a place. And then my opinion is that if we don't deal with the inner work, which… we may then come out and need help. Right. We may come out and go, oh, my God, I just uncovered an iceberg inside of me. And I feel so sad. I feel so unstable that you might seek therapy or come do cranial or, you know, we augment.
You know, I go get acupuncture every week and
Jenny LePage 00:26:42
Meditate with Jeanie!
Jeanie Manchester 00:26:43
Meditate with me and study the goddesses, and they inspire and they uplift. And then there's that mystical awe of life that is just contagious. I couldn't live without what I do now. I know that my own personal traumas and dramas of family and lineage and… without my practices, I wouldn't have the ability to stand before my ego and my reactions.
And I'm not saying I'm perfect. I can get triggered, right?
Jenny LePage 00:27:21
Of course not.
Jeanie Manchester 00:27:23
I can get triggered, right. But what I can say now is I have this pause where I'm like, oh, you're being triggered right now. This is curious. Now you have a choice. Do you want to act this out? So, we call it the ledge of freedom. And when you meditate long enough, you see like, oh, I'm so much calmer than I used to be, and now I'm not acting out like I used to.
Jenny LePage 00:27:47
Woooo!
Jeanie Manchester 00:27:48
It's pretty thrilling. Yeah, very thrilling. So, that's kind of long, roundabout way of saying the Kali yuga is inside, and then whatever is manifesting in humans inside, and a beautiful way is also going to surface. So many incredible practices surfacing right now that gives me great hope for planetary healing.
Jenny LePage 00:28:12
That's really beautiful, Jeanie.
Jeanie Manchester 00:28:14
Thank you.
Jenny LePage 00:28:15
Let me just point out that we are sitting here listening to a master, not that we want to celebrate Jeanie's ego here. Hahaha. It's a constant practice. Right. But it is really great to hear all this wisdom that you're able to transmit to us, to everyone listening. Thank you, Jeanie.
Jeanie Manchester 00:28:38
Thank you. I think the first place is just to be humbled. And your practices will humble you. The Kundalini will humble you.
Jenny LePage 00:28:47
It will.
Jeanie Manchester 00:28:48
Yeah, it will humble you. As you know. She'll take you down, and she will swirl you around in that deep, dark place and then reshape you.
Jenny LePage 00:29:00
Keep up the hope!
Jeanie Manchester 00:29:03
I think I had about six years of a lot of grief. My father died also in that time period. A lot of loss. And just this feeling like I wasn't in charge of… my life was super humbling. Still is very humbling to me. But I feel much more stable. And that's where we know the practices are working on us. Through the turmoil as we were talking about earlier, through the turmoil of trucks and cars and whatever is passing us, and then the inner turmoil of loss, death, illness. We're stable. Somehow, we're stable.
Jenny LePage 00:29:40
Peace. Yeah. There’s a peace people find.
Jeanie Manchester 00:29:43
Yeah. It's not like you're not grieving, but the grief isn't taking you out of life so much. You're able to grieve within the stability inside. And there's a sovereignty that takes over inside. My teacher calls that…the quality….I find this when I meditate because, sometimes, I start slouching and just sort of like…
Jenny LePage 00:30:07
You’re not perfect?!!
Jeanie Manchester 00:30:08
And all of a sudden, she just comes along and, like, Brap! She lifts you up and she just takes you, this impulse, just drives the energy upward. And you're like, oh, okay. She wants me to sit up. Which is, I say she and it could sound like, oh, it's other than you, but it's not. It's you. And more than you, it's universal. It's what makes up everything in the world, is consciousness. Even the floor we're sitting on. And of course, your eyes, and your table, but it's like inanimate and animate objects are actually consciousness. The cars passing. It's all consciousness. So how do we come to see through the eyes of love? That's where it starts to shift us. We start to… yeah.,I don't know if you ever heard that triadic heart that Douglas Brooks taught. He. It's a Shri Vidya thing where, you know, the first glance, we see, oh, we're different, right? You're, Jenny and I’m Jeanie. Oh we're kind of similar….hahaha
And then we look at each other and seeing each other a long time and we're like, oh, but there's something similar. We definitely have a longing for consciousness, for awakening. And you could do this with a stranger. You could do it with a beggar on the street and find that there was something in the longing of the eyes. And in the third glance, we're like, we are nothing but each other. And the paradox is how do we hold that amongst difference in the world? And, so, what meditation will eventually do is take you to unity. And then you bring unity through diversity into the world. So, you start to see through the eyes of love.
And love, I think, will… love will heal. Love heals.
Jenny LePage 00:32:01
Love heals.
Jeanie Manchester 00:32:03
There's so many songs about that. I love hearing…
Jenny LePage 00:32:05
They're all true.
Jeanie Manchester 00:32:06
Yeah they’re all true.
Jenny LePage 00:32:09
Yeah, it's so true. Well, you just pointed out that you are calling Kundalini a “she.” And you talk a lot about the internal. You talk a lot about the Goddess energy and rising feminine, the divine feminine in your work, in your trainings and travels. And you also recently were just at the first Women's. I have to look at my notes here, the first Women's, Kumbh…
Jeanie Manchester 00:32:42
Shakti Kumbh
Jenny LePage 00:32:43
Shakti Kumbh. Shakti Kumbh in Rishikesh in India with a group of women spiritual teachers, spiritual speakers, and focused on the feminine nature… that feminine, that we call Shakti… the Kundalini Shakti, the internal…We think of as the feminine… Mother Earth. What do you really mean when you are talking about the feminine and the inner, inner self? That love? What is that? What is that…Feminine?
Jeanie Manchester 00:33:12
Yeah. I think it's really important, Jenny, that you make that distinction, because I believe that women have a role in planetary awakening. No doubt about it. It doesn't mean men don't. And of course, all men have a “she” inside of them, right? We call it Ardhanarishvara.
It's the statue in India that is both male and female. In the Tantric philosophy, we would say that the “she” is consciousness embodied, but that is also men. Men have a body, right? And they have a pulsing heart and the breath moving through. That's all “she.” And it's just a pronoun. It really can confuse us because we think of “she” as woman or female. But that's a bit of a misinterpretation.
However, I just want to emphasize again, I believe that women have a big role in planetary upliftment and leadership in our future. And, so, we just see that around the globe, women leaders taking…taking a stance now, and I think there's a lot of healing for women. And, so, in India, we were gathering in the Kumbh, which means womb, to uplift women, and also for women in India in particular, to reclaim their status as spiritual leaders, which has been completely undermined in India, as all over the world…that women have not… they were, you know, the history of yoga…This is what I did during the pandemic. I researched and took courses and found female scholars. I've always had male scholars and teachers, which are fantastic, have been extraordinary. And I've been seeking women. I'm like, where are the women? Where are the women? Where are the women?
Jenny LePage 00:35:09
Here they are.
Jeanie Manchester 00:35:10
I know.
Jenny LePage 00:35:11
It’s us.
Jeanie Manchester 00:35:12
I know. And then one point, I was like, I know. You were like, you have to find that in yourself. And of course, I've had Sally Kempton, and I've had Gabriella Giubilaro. I always like to honor the teachers that have been female in my life. Chameli Ardagh has been a beautiful influence for me.
And there are women all over the globe uprising right now.
Jenny LePage 00:35:35
Wooo!
Jeanie Manchester 00:35:36
Yes. And, so, the Shakti Kumbh was just that. I think we were 30 women. And I decided…I was invited to go teach over there. And I decided to not just go and teach, but actually take the 21 days, which was extraordinary. Particularly, there were wonderful speakers, and the women on this were fantastic. I was probably one of the older women on it. And I was very happy to see women in their 30’s really embracing their bodies, their menstrual cycles, because the Sri Vidya tradition even taught with… my first teacher of this is Douglas Brooks… is really about the womb. Or you could say a woman's yoni, and not just a woman's yoni, but the womb of the earth…the womb, but that is translated through a female body…that the yoni has a particular role in the uprising of Kundalini.
I'm not going to say that men don't have this. Of course, they do. But women's role, and the Sri Vidya tradition, focuses on the downward facing triangle, which is really the yoni and the Earth as our body's intelligence to carry the spiritual wisdom. So, women were, 25,000 years ago, were revered in the Indus Valley civilizations for their prowess and their leadership in spiritual awakening. And then those valleys somehow were invaded. One of the historical understandings is that they were invaded and those Goddess traditions moved, and they had to move, or some of them were lost. We have lost some of those Indus Valley connections, although many scholars today, especially the female scholars I talked to, and Douglas as well, would say that Indus Valley had a very important role to the tradition...the Goddess Tradition… carried forward all the way to the Sri Vidya, which is still alive today. Thank the Goddess.
Jenny LePage 00:37:54
Thank Goddess! High Five!
Jeanie Manchester 00:37:38
High Five! So, I had this extraordinary…I was telling you…unexpected initiation on the Ganga with Sri Vidya Upasakas [devotees/attendants/servants of Sri Vidya, the Goddess Tradition], Radha and Rama of Devipuram. Their father had an extraordinary awakening through a goddess named Kamakhya. And Kamakhya is the Goddess of Desire. And his story is unbelievable: the awakening, the visualizations, I want to say direct experience with the Goddess. It wasn't just visualizations. It was actualization of Kundalini and the revival of an entire tradition through his experience. So, his daughters are now carrying that forward.
So, I had the mantras placed on my body, as I was telling you, and they cover the breast area and the yoni. And it was very powerful as a woman to receive that kind of healing on my body. Because even if I haven't had abuse, there's collective abuse, there's lineage abuse, there is worldwide, I would say, women's abuse that we carry, whether we've had actual abuse or not.
So, I think that women's role today in the upliftment is going to come through the body and we're going to reclaim the womb as a spiritual vehicle that will help all beings awaken. And there were women that, yes, there were sexual ceremonies that were, I want to say, sacred. It wasn't about sex as pornography or prostitution, which is so bastardized. The woman's body was revered for its ability to transmit the Shakti.
I'm experiencing this in myself. That's not exactly what was being taught in India; it's my understanding and my own experience of the awakening of Shakti that leads to a sensual awakening that is not just about sex. It's about awakening energy from the deep pelvis, which we know is connected to deep wounding, not only physical, but we could say our wounding with the Earth herself and our lineages. Right? So, if we do not heal the womb, that's also where disease can originate in our organs and genitals. So that has to be healed. That energy has to move in the pelvis. That's why we like to dance. That's why I've loved some of the asana [yoga posture/pose] I've done that has showed me how to actually open my pelvis and to feel free and yet protected.
So, that's kind of a long-winded way of saying what happened in India. It wasn't just that. I mean, I've had five initiations inside of me that has awakened the energy so that when mantra is placed on the body, I feel it tremendously moving like little bumblebees, just like all over the body. And it's thrilling. It. It's outrageous. We should all feel healing energy moving through us. It's so profound, it's hard to even speak. It's like, well, what does that mean? It means the actualization of your potential in the world, your destiny moving forward. So, again, if we don't cut the cords, which I think I was doing in India as well of past lives that still kind of plague us in some sort of memory in the body and in the heart and the mind. If we don't cut those cords, we end up with patterns and habits and those can lead to detrimental illness. And, so, awakening the womb…and that can also be for men…I just happen to have traced the lineages back to women's origin in spiritual traditions in the Indus Valley Civilization, which came from Africa, migrated into Yugoslavia, eastern Europe, and then down into northern India. And then that translated in the 11th century as Islam invaded North India; those traditions went south. And that's where we still have the Sri Vidya tradition very much alive today.
Jenny LePage 00:42:42
Preserved.
Jeanie Manchester 00:42:54
Preserved.
Jenny LePage 00:42:54
Wow.
Jeanie Manchester 00:42:56
Yes, preserved.
Jenny LePage 00:42:57
So, you are really talking about a step-by-step path that people can follow through mantra, through initiation. Can you explain to us what mantra is and what initiation is?
Jeanie Manchester 00:43:14
I know. It's sort of like…
Jenny LePage 00:43:15
So people can do this.
Jeanie Manchester 00:43:16
I know. And like in the…at least in the States [United States], we think of initiation these days like the college frat or sorority initiation. I don't know.
Jenny LePage 00:43:24
Rush
Jeanie Manchester 00:43:27
Right. And that is like the furthest thing from what this is. Yeah. I mean, in the 11th century or 10th century Kashmir, there was a Master, Abhinavagupta, who… I'm learning so much from my teacher, all about this master…who, you know, they were initiating at puberty. So, a child would come for initiation around 13 or whenever puberty was and have a mantra installed in them. And that, you know, can you imagine children today? So, I'm initiated to initiate children now. Which is just really thrilling because both of my kids have had initiations and it's really about healing and life trajectory moving forward at a faster rate, that we don't have to wait till we're in our forties to actually wake up to this. That we can do it as a child and start that trajectory into full force as a young adult.
Jenny LePage 00:44:24
Powerful.
Jeanie Manchester 00:44:25
Powerful. So, you know, what is mantra?
Jenny LePage 00:44:28
So, what is mantra? We’re dying to know!
Jeanie Manchester 00:44:30
Let's back out here. Well, manas is mind and tra is to traverse. So, mantras are vibratory beings, they're vibratory essences. You could say that the rishis, or the shamans, 6000 years ago, at the inception of the Vedas, the Vedic period in history, these shamans…there were seven families that heard the sounds of the universe. They were so in tune. They were living in nature. It's sort of like when we go out camping for a week or something, we come back and we feel transformed.
Jenny LePage 00:45:07
We feel different.
Jeanie Manchester 00:45:08
Yeah, it's like everything feels loud here because we've been so immersed in the beauty of nature and that's drawn us inward to have that more peaceful experience that when they lived in that state, they lived in that state and those deep meditative states, those samadhi states [states of profound meditative consciousness] brought …we could say it's agama….it's this power to have the universe reveal itself to us through our senses.
So, they heard these sounds, they felt them, they imbibed them, and they understood that they had these particular impacts on the body and the mind. And, so, these sounds got passed to these rishis, which were shamans, would pass them and they got passed down. And we still have these to this day.
Jenny LePage 00:46:02
Intact.
Jeanie Manchester 00:46:03
Intact. So… so…and yet not intact in many ways because the Kali Yuga really mixed up mantras that were meant for living in the ashram [places of meditative practice, similar to monasteries] and mantras that were meant for living in the world. So, an example of that would be Maharishi Mahesh Yogi's teacher lived in a hermitage and yet he held, really, these Sri Vidya mantras. He held these mantras that were living, for living in the world, but he didn't quite understand that. And I only know this through my own studies with my own teacher, who's been able to understand all of this.
This mix up: the Kali Yuga is a time of complete mix up. So, imagine you've been practicing mantra for 40 years and you feel like it hasn't improved your life in the world. Well, there's a reason for that. It's probably you've been practicing with a mantra that was meant for you living in an ashram.
Jenny LePage 00:47:08
Now we know. All those Beatles songs!
Jeanie Manchester 00:47:09
Which is actually, I know, I feel like I shouldn't laugh because that could be quite tragic for someone if they were meant for certain capacities to move into the world. The Kali Yuga is full of these mix ups. So, you know, just like we received asana in the west, pretty much, unless you studied with, like, Richard Freeman, you …and we still got 90% asana…but he understood philosophy and meditation were very, very important. But if we turn that upside down and inside out, and we look at, like, well, what is real yoga?
Real yoga is merging with consciousness.
How do we do that? In meditation.
Jenny LePage 00:47:51
In meditation
Jeanie Manchester 00:47:52
In meditation. That's how we learn to merge with consciousness. So, mantras are vibrational beings that actually help you to merge with consciousness because they are consciousness. Right. Does that make sense?
Jenny LePage 00:48:04
It makes sense. A little bit of a trip.
Jeanie Manchester 00:48:07
I know it's a little bit of a mind trip, but it has a vibrational quality. They're vibrational medicine. There's so much out there around all kinds of micro-dosing and this, that, the other. I personally don't do that just because I grew up with alcoholism and I have a… I'm not afraid. Maybe I'm a little afraid. I already have this tool that is potent, that's vibrating that I feel that is…so, I don't really want to mess with that. So, I haven't been…although I know it's helping people in certain ways to open these, do the same thing in a very safe manner. You don't get addicted to them. It's not like you have to keep doing these ceremonies, although those can be beautiful, too.
This is like an inner ceremony you do every day at home, and the mantras take you deep inside, and they kick you back out. Your ego kind of kicks it out, and then you learn how to melt that in. And so, out of its vibrational character, it catches an internal current called the jyestha. And the jyestha means elder, but it’s a current that our mind can’t locate, which you might get as a cranial sacral therapist, right. Or acupuncturist. It's like the needle is able to kind of go in and find things that the mind couldn't.
Jenny LePage 00:49:34
Beyond the mind
Jeanie Manchester 00:49:35
Yes.
Jenny LePage 00:49:36
But includes the mind.
Jeanie Manchester 00:49:38
Yes. So, the mind is actually charmed by the vibrational character of the mantra. And, so, the mind is like, whoa, what is that? I want to follow that. And it just merges with this vibration, and the mantra locates this current, and the current is taking us in. And then there's another current that is, like, sort of our ego that's like, I'm afraid, I'm afraid, I'm afraid. Right. Because I want to go to the surface. It's like you dive deep, like, you're scuba diving, and you have a panic, and you just like…I want to come back up. And that's what we do in meditation, which is really, really important, that we understand that that's good, it's natural. We need to surface, and then we just dive back in on the mantra, and eventually the mantra puts us in more of a unified state, and that unified state is where the Kundalini will actualize.
So, again, it's kind of kind of the process of, like, how mantras work to take us inside and then this deep spiritual medicine of the soma value rising inside an individual, which is where we get that root word, soma for somatics. It's like the elixir, the amrita, the nectar, the honey that you're made of begins to come through you. And an example of that in a really, I think a very easy way to understand, is I had these headaches prior to beginning this meditation practice, and they were hormonal, and they would come every month, and they were like pre-migraine. They would really stick around for about four days and to the point where I thought, wow, there's something wrong with me. And I would see my sister, she'd work on me, do her cranial and her magic, and they'd go away. But then they would come back every month. And, so, I was just about to maybe go get checked out, and I did get my hormones checked. They were definitely low, so we know that was true. And then I started this daily, twice daily meditation practice.
And although this is not a health claim, because I don't know how the Shakti works on individuals, she does her work in different ways. But within three months of daily dipping twice a day, they were gone.
Jenny LePage 00:52:04
Wow.
Jeanie Manchester 00:52:05
I do not get these headaches anymore.
Jenny LePage 00:52:07
Some big clearing.
Jeanie Manchester 00:52:09
Big clearing. My nervous system coming into calm, non- “fight or flight.” I was healing from the inside out. And it was one of these things physically, where I was like, I need to do this practice. I need to do it for my physical health. I need to do it for mystical health. I need to do this for the evolution of my path. I need to humble my ego and help people. That's what we want to do, right, is we want to learn these things, and then we want to help each other. So, we all have a little piece in the puzzle of awakening.
Jenny LePage 00:52:49
I think you're helping people right now. You're bringing this to us. This is what you're doing. Jeanie. Thank you. You're, you're bringing this to everybody here and all the people you teach.
Jeanie Manchester 00:53:00
Well, it's really awakened me in so many beautiful ways. I mean, erotically and spiritually and creatively. I mean, it's all connected together. And then the physical healing. I feel clearer. I feel lighter. I feel brighter. I definitely feel like I've been releasing the karma of my family's lineage challenges. I'm sure there's more healing to do. There's layers and layers and layers.
Jenny LePage 00:53:27
There’s always more healing to do! What would you suggest people do who want to follow a path of like this, who want to practice mantra, who want to be initiated? Can you instruct people right now at all? Can you tell them what they might do? What are their next steps?
Jeanie Manchester 00:53:55
Yeah, yeah. I mean, the challenges of these ancient tantric paths is they were initiatory by nature. And again, we didn't kind of finish that little thing. Like, what is initiation? Initiation is a sacred ceremony. It's a puja. It's a lot of chanting and offerings to the divine, to consciousness, that somehow, like, you will understand this with your work…opens a portal. That's what shamans do. They open a portal. And anyone can learn this. It just takes going to school for it. It's not like exclusive, or…it's… just having an earnest interest in learning how to do puja and having the proper practice given to you in a proper way.
We don't pick this up out of a book or try to do it on our own just because we don't know what we're doing. And then we would say that the lineages, the masters of consciousness, of all lineages actually come in to support…Well, they clear me. As I'm chanting. I'm being cleared energetically to offer a proper mantra to an individual. And that is just what I went to school to learn. And I'm not privy to actually speak the details of that because the Tantric tradition was private. It wasn't secretive. It was private because when a mantra is going in, if I start to divulge the information on my tongue out, it has less efficacy for someone that's imbibing it in.
So, the medicine is to take it in, not to spit it out.
Jenny LePage 00:55:42
You don't even say it?
Jeanie Manchester 00:55:44
No. There's a recitation when we're offering the mantra that is on the tongue at first, and then it starts to go in. And as we learn to melt, the tongue stops moving. And the mantra just has its own locating of that jyeshta current. And the mantra starts to go into the subtle body. Out of its vibrational nature, it knows what to do. It's a living entity. And that's hard for, I think, especially Westerners, to understand. I mean, when you're, when you're in India, people have been brought up with mantra. Whether they do they do it or not, they understand Sanskrit to some extent, but Sanskrit really originates in those primordial sounds of the universe. And so that's what you get is these phonemes that you imbibe. So, one of the things that I teach to people that aren't quite ready for initiation, is a universal mantra, which is just ah-hum, and that can be utilized with breath.
But as we go deeper and we want more, the initiation erratically changed my life. It changed my understanding of meditation, my understanding of yoga. The understanding of all the texts I had studied prior were sort of in my head. This became an actualization of those texts.
Jenny LePage 00:57:10
Embodied.
Jeanie Manchester 00:57:12
Embodied. That's what I remember saying to my teacher. I am embodying the text. Now, this is outrageous. It's not just in my head. And he really emphasizes that as a scholar, he knows that you can just stick to things in your head and think you know them. But really, it's a bit of the ego, right? The ego thinks it knows everything... But until you have an actual experience of Kundalini, it's just a theory. It's just a theory that isn't actually doing its work. It's just in your head. So, it's very important that we understand the auspices of any initiation, is that I have a teacher that initiated me, that knew how to do this because he had a teacher, right? Now he's passing something that would normally kind of stay with a teacher to teacher, to all teachers, right. And women included, which is very important to me, that there are more women initiating in Neelakantha Meditation practice than men right now. And that's just because women are called right now. Women are called, men are called too, but women are really called. When I look around the room, I'm like, there are so many more women in here.
So, initiation is sacred ceremony that …it's like I went to mantra school, like you would go to cranial sacral school, or even like you want… studying to be a doctor and you're going to study a certain surgery. That procedure. You know what to do. And you might give the general guidelines of this is what's going to happen in a surgery. This is what's going to happen in this initiation. And then the energetics, the mysticism of this is very hard to articulate. Portals open, I get cleared. I know how to pick out the proper mantra for an individual based on my schooling. This is scientific. This is the science of mantra. This is not something I pull out of the pie in the sky kind of thing. It's not my ego picking something for someone. It doesn't have a dictionary meaning. It is pure vibratory medicine. And when you imbibe it, it will change your life over time.
This is not like magical, like, boom, I'm awakened. Kundalini is moving. No. It took quite some time for that that actualization to occur in me. Then it's taking time to refine that and to…it will be for the rest of my life.
Jenny LePage 00:59:46
Lifetimes.
Jeanie Manchester 00:59:48
Lifetimes. I think it really offers us, like, living at a higher vibrational offering of our gifts and talents. At the same time. It's showing us how to die consciously. And if there's anything I hope to do, it's to die awakened. To be in the process. Just like I birthed my babies at home consciously, I chose not to do medications. I think that's fine for other people. For me, I really wanted to have this experience of being awake as I was birthing. And it was intense. It was very intense. And I imagine death will also be intense as the ego is clinging.
That's why we learn to surrender to the mantra. We learn to let go. We learn to trust. Sort of like we did in yoga, right? Trust in the back body. Trust in this invisible, vibratory space behind you, because it will have you. And the more that you've trained in letting go, I do believe you will be more prepared for your passing.
Jenny LePage 1:01:03
Wow.
Jeanie Manchester 1:01:06
I didn't know we were going to go there.
Jenny LePage 1:01:10
That's really cool. Putting it lightly. That's really cool.
Jeanie Manchester 1:01:15
Yes. Yeah.
I didn't answer that question about…People can come. And during COVID we started doing initiations all over the world via zoom.
Jenny LePage 1:01:27
So, online.
Jeanie Manchester 1:01:28
Online, yes. And it's actually quite… it works. It's not like it doesn't work. I just had another initiation with Srividya Upasaka in India, and she's elderly, and it was all online, very beautiful. And then I continue to have… my last initiation with my teacher, Paul, was online, and it was very, very powerful. So, I've had the opportunity during the COVID time to initiate many, many people from around the world. And then, of course, now, in person, here in Boulder, we do sacred ceremony live, which is extraordinary, and then we can do that sacred ceremony online. I think of the zoom thing as an innovation of consciousness that can be abused and it can also be for good. Right?
Look at how we're able to reach each other now. It's just extraordinary. Can talk to someone in India, like a moment's notice. So, yeah, that's how it works. Can also go to my website and just browse around and we can always do a talk. I think this is sometimes a little, still, mysterious for people, and they're like, what am I getting into? And it's just like a very deep, simple path of meditation that is very profound.
Jenny LePage 1:02:50
So, people can go to your website, jeaniemanchester.com, and do this initiation with you, do this practice with you if they are interested.
Jeanie Manchester 1:03:05
Yes. I also teach. I'm just coming up with a new course for women to just work with daily rhythms, and that would include this meditation, but it would also be goddess study and Ayurveda [ancient spiritual medical system of India] and just daily practices that will put you in the mystical in the everyday. It's like we can't separate the mystical from the everyday. It has to be something that we co-create that, every day. We bring the practices into our mothering. We bring it into our work. I always meditate before I teach, and I meditate before I get on the computer and I move my body and I do my Ayurvedic practices, and it sets me up for the world.
And then I dive back in in the afternoon. I dive back in and then that sets me up for the evening. And I know people are like, how do you do that much practice? But it's a longing. It's a longing for my connection to the divine and having that move through me as Jeanie into the world. But it also lets me dissolve my ego momentarily so that I bathe in that vibratory field. And then I come back out and I serve my family, my husband, my dog, my friendships from that place that is way less reactionary and more in presence. And again, that's where we're going to create magic with each other. So, when we can see the beauty in someone else and not feel defended or feel afraid or feel like they're trying to get something from us or it's like we actually can see the other's light. And that, I think, my friends, is how we're going to heal the world. Like, when we actually see each other from a place of love.
Jenny LePage 1:05:10
Well, when we see our own light, our own love, that let’s us…
Jeanie Manchester 1:05:14
…see someone else's.
Jenny LePage 1:05:17
That’s really beautiful.
Jeanie Manchester 1:05:19
Yes.
Jenny LePage 1:05:20
It's kind of like the culmination of what you're talking about, Jeanie, is finding our inner path, our inner light, our own truth, and being able to see that expressed in the world around us. We lift each other up.
Jeanie Manchester 1:05:40
Yes. And I think the more we heal inside again, collectively, then we can see what we're drawn to out here. And the paths, like you're doing, bringing in the Ecuadorian influence. And then I get to learn from Jenny, Jenny gets to learn from Jeanie. And then there's this co-existence of medicine for the world. But if I feel threatened by you, that's my ego. So, it's called the Anavamala.
Jenny LePage 1:06:13
It's your ego. It’s not me!
Jeanie Manchester 1:06:16
Haha. Yeah yeah. It's my ego projecting onto you. Right.
Jenny LePage 1:06:20
We all do this.
Jeanie Manchester 1:06:21
We all do this. But what I've noticed about meditation is when you're bathed in that unitary light, you come back to the surface, and you see, like, oh, wow, I'm really changing. I don't feel threatened. I don't feel in competition. In yoga, we call this the Anavamala. It's the root contraction that all human beings have.
Jenny LePage 1:06:43
Anavamala.
Jeanie Manchester 1:06:44
Anavamala. So the ana, or ANU vamala, is the little one. It's like how we get small and contracted. And the mala means the cloaking, the cloak on the mirror of your heart. And that leads to differentiation, and it leads to thinking that we're in charge, that we're the doer of our lives. So that's what I mean by being humbled. And when you bathe in that vibratory essence every day, you come out with love in your heart. And this is not overnight. This is like, I've been practicing for some time and I still have contractions.
Jenny LePage 1:07:28
You’re still practicing.
Jeanie Manchester 1:07:30
I still see them surface, but I'm much more acutely aware that oh, the Anavamala. Like, I have a name for it. I'm like, oh, my gosh, that's so silly. Right?
And then you have the possibility of standing on the ledge of freedom and pulling back some sort of poison you might just project outward onto someone else.
Jenny LePage 1:07:52
A pause.
Jeanie Manchester 1:07:53
A pause.
Jenny LePage 1:07:54
Awareness.
Jeanie Manchester 1:07:55
Awareness.
Jenny LePage 1:07:56
And discernment.
Jeanie Manchester 1:07:59
And discernment. Right? And then it's like, oh, I could actually be, I could actually coalesce something really beautiful off my tongue. And you know what, Jenny? This is so amazing. Because that beautiful word or reflection or something that you did kind to someone is propelling you into your future.
Jenny LePage 1:08:19
OOOH. You're creating new karma.
Jeanie Manchester 1:08:21
Yes.
Jenny LePage 1:08:23
Good karma.
Jeanie Manchester 1:08:24
Yes. You are propelling yourself towards your future with every word you utter.
Jenny LePage 1:08:30
Wow.
Jeanie Manchester 1:08:35
So, you know, we have to be mindful of our words, our actions, how we treat each other. It's you know…and then just get curious about our contractions. Laugh at yourself. Commit to healing, because that's the only way we get through this. It's the only way we heal this planet. It's the only way we heal is through that inner, that inner dive.
Jenny LePage 1:09:05
We have to deal with our own stuff, our own traumas, our darkness, challenges.
Jeanie Manchester 1:09:10
Yeah. And I love the way the Tantric tradition kind of turns that upside down, right? Because it says you incarnated for this very contraction. For the illness, for the trauma, the alcoholism, whatever it is each of us have endured. Everyone listening… that on some level, we contracted out of a vast array of energy to have this experience, to come into differentiation, to experience our trauma and to heal from it. So, the tantric tradition is like, oh, yeah, your trauma is actually necessary for your awakening.
Jenny LePage 1:10:00
It helps us look at it…
Jeanie Manchester 1:10:01
I know…
Jenny LePage 1:10:01
…a little differently.
Jeanie Manchester 1:10:02
It does. And that necessary-ness is your pain, your grief, your anguish, your sorrow, your anger…is all consciousness. Yes. Is it more dense? Is it more calcified? Yes. But it is the crack that leads us to the opening. And without it, what would we be doing here? Maybe we would be serving as bodhisattvas if we came in. And there have been beings in the history of humanity that have come in fully awakened. Anandamayi Ma, as a great woman saint in India, one of my favorites, she came in pretty much awakened, and then she served. Her entire adult life was in serving human beings, healing. So, there is that example, but for most of us, we come in broken, and then we're seeking wholeness, and that's the yearning in our hearts to heal and to share the healing with others. So, I think of the traumas as gifts.
Now, I don't think of myself as a victim of my traumas or my lineage pain. I think of it as what propelled me into my longing. That if I can heal that, then perhaps my children don't have to deal with it. They might have to deal with their own stuff.
Jenny LePage 1:11:37
But not your stuff.
Jeanie Manchester 1:11:38
Not my stuff as much. I think they got plenty of it.
Jenny LePage 1:11:44
As much.
Jeanie Manchester 1:11:45
But yeah. I just think the more I heal, the more I can pass that on.
Jenny LePage 1:11:51
What a gift, Jeanie. It really then... It really creates hope, a light, a spark that we can heal, we can find our way forward, we can create a brighter life for ourselves and for the world around us.
Jeanie Manchester 1:12:13
I think. Absolutely.
Jenny LePage 1:12:15
Here we are.
Jeanie Manchester 1:12:16
Yeah, here we are.
Jenny LePage 1:12:17
Looking at it.
Jeanie Manchester 1:12:18
Looking at it.
And extraordinary light is coming onto the planet right now. I hear it every day. And different modalities of healing messages, women arising globally, healers popping up out of the woodwork, I think authentic healing. And then we have to be careful of the shenanigans that go on with the Kali Yuga. We have to discern what is true healing, what is a true teaching and what is not. And we have to really discern that because there's a lot of Kali Yuga misinformation and you could say false gurus out there that really just want the materialism.
Jenny LePage 1:13:05
How do we know?
Jeanie Manchester 1:13:07
Gosh, I don’t know! Next interview? Yeah, yeah yeah I think we know. I think it's inside, and yet that could be masked. We're learning to trust again, our intuition, and the more we clear out, the more consciousness will say no. It will say an absolute no. It's like, I was about to drop off food to a friend the other day and her husband is very ill. He's passing right now, and I thought I should stop and give her a hug and…da da da. And I got a very strong, “No. Do not stop.” And I kept going. And it was confirmed later in a text. She said, “Thank you so much for not stopping.”
So, we have to override sort of the personality and we have to go with the inner impulse of what comes up, which does not have emotions. It just speaks very clearly yes or no or maybe or whatever. It's red. My teacher says, red light, green light, yellow light. If it's red light, you don't do it. If it's green light, you go. If it's yellow, you have to pause and keep asking. So, I'm still working with that, getting clear about what those are and what they aren't. Still learning through lessons, of course.
Jenny LePage 1:14:28
So, it's a practice.
Jeanie Manchester 1:14:29
It's a practice.
Jenny LePage 1:14:31
Following our intuition, our deepest self, our most feminine, or yin—that Goddess nature deep, deep within us.
Jeanie Manchester 1:14:42
Yeah. And daily meditation practice begins to clear away the dross that is confusing us. That is our doubt and our fear and our inhibition and our unknowing and our you know, I feel like with alcoholism, I really used to sit in so much doubt, I couldn't make decisions. Consciousness…that…she clears, and I say, “She.” in India, they call the energy of consciousness, “Mother.” And so I've adopted that language as consciousness, moving through the body as a wave, as the breath, as the undulation of your body as ‘she,’ but not really as woman. Right? It is like ‘she’ is the essence of consciousness. Just to clarify that again. And as that gets clarified, then the questions we pose come more directly from consciousness rather than our traumas and dramas and egos, right?
It bubbles up through us as truth. And we're moving into that age, Jenny. We're moving into the age of truth.
Jenny LePage 1:15:57
Hurrah!
Jeanie Manchester 1:16:01
We get to be the pioneers of this time, which isn't ever easy. People still think it's woo woo and not real. But the invisible world needs to have a voice. And part of the Sat Yuga is giving voice to the invisible. And of course, we know shamans have had access to that invisible, and now we need to give that to everybody. Everybody on the planet needs to have it…
Jenny LePage 1:16:31
Well, Jeanie, I think you're doing it right now. You're bringing the Sat Yuga through your own voice. Thank you so much.
Jeanie Manchester 1:16:39
Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Jenny LePage 1:16:43
Jeanie, you have some training coming up, trips, trainings. Where can people hop on to one of your retreats? I know you’re going to Greece in May. Mexico later.
Jeanie Manchester 1:16:59
Yeah, Mexico this year is over New Year's, which will be really fun. I partner with my sister, who's also very much into deep healing shamanic work.
Jenny LePage 1:17:11
Yeah I gotta meet her!
Jeanie Manchester 1:17:12
You do need to meet her. She is extraordinary in her Africa context, and she brings a lot to the retreat in very shamanic ways of water ritual and fire ritual, and we’re on Huichol Indian land there. So, it's very beautiful.
Jenny LePage 1:17:26
This is Mexico. Haramara.
Jeanie Manchester 1:17:27
This is Mexico, Haramara. Yeah, that's over New Year’s next year. And then I have a summer retreat actually coming up. It is sold out except for camping spots. And we will be studying Lalita Devi, the goddess of embodied Kundalini, embodied wisdom. But there are camping spots in Crestone, Colorado. That’s early August. And then we have Greece coming up in late May of 2024.
Jenny LePage 1:17:56
Okay. So, this is next year. You have a year to plan.
Jeanie Manchester 1:17:58
Yeah. And then I'm planning out this Shakti Collective of supporting women in everyday life through daily practices. That will be a nine-month program that I'm putting together right now. So that's sort of to be announced. We're announcing it now. Here in Boulder, but online. It will be based online, but we will have some retreats where people have the option to come to Boulder and practice together. And I'm working on other things.
Jenny LePage 1:18:31
Telluride
Jeanie Manchester 1:18:32
Telluride Yoga Festival. And the Anusara community has kind of… it's reawakened itself. So, I'm teaching up in Estes Park in September, Samudra Shakti: Some wonderful practitioners that have held a community of teachers together. So, this is a teacher-run community now, which is very beautiful. There are people that are taking charge of different committees. But I love it because it's really being spread into the teacher-run. This is really. more feminine, right?
Jenny LePage 1:19:05
More self-empowered. Yeah, that’s beautiful.
Jeanie Manchester 1:19:06
Yeah, more self-empowered, more feminine, that we're in a collective together. So, I'll be teaching up there in September and kind of dreaming up another local retreat for Fall, somewhere in Colorado. And I traveled quite a bit this year, and I think in 2024, Fall, I'll probably have a Shiva Shakti temple tour in South India.
Jenny LePage 1:19:29
Ooooh
Jeanie Manchester 1:19:30
Yes. So, I've had requests for men to come on that trip. We've done all women before, and I think this time we'll do a male female Ardhanaraishvara [half-woman half-male form of the Hindu deity, Shiva, with Parvati].
Jenny LePage 1:19:41
Wow.
Jeanie Manchester 1:19:42
Yeah. I'd love to have men on that trip. It's very extraordinary. We end up in Kerala, where we do panchakarma [five ayurvedic procedures to cleanse the body]. So, it ends sort of a busy temple experience with practice, interwoven into those temples with daily meditation, asana. And we end up at this retreat center in South India where we actually do the Ayurvedic panchakarma. It's a really beautiful way to send yourself back into the States. You're like, wow, that panchakarma, really?
India can be very explosive for the senses, and…it's so different for Westerners to go to India, but we dress as respectful upasakas [worshippers]. We dress in traditional saris and dotis, and we go into the temples, as my teachers have taught me, with respect and honor. And we learn a lot about just temple lore and what the temples do to transform. The temples that we go to are very authentic. And, still, some temples, because of the Kali Yuga, I think, are not really doing the practices. They just want money. And although we do offer money into these temples, you can feel that they're living and breathing these practices as they have for thousands of years.
So, we have to just keep discerning when something doesn't feel authentic to us and when does it really feel like there is a truth, an ancient wisdom that's being carried forward? And, so, through my teachers, I've been able to understand and feel… and then my own discernment… what is real and what is not, over in India. Because just like here, there's a lot of materialism that still pervades certain places, and we have to be careful of that. We have to discern truth from non-truth. So, if you're doing ceremonies in the States, do you have an authentic teacher guiding you? Do you have a connection to its roots? Is it giving you the shifts and changes permanently? Or is it something that we keep… I keep diving into meditation, but I'm not altering my state. And I know that there are beautiful reasons to alter your state. Believe me, I do. And I am altered through my meditation practice. And then I just think we have to discern what's becoming addiction, right. And what is actually medicine. Right?
Jenny LePage 1:22:17
Fine line. It can be a fine line.
Jeanie Manchester 1:22:19
Fine line. You know that. And I feel as if I'm a bit wary of what's happened in the United States with Ceremony, it seems like, of course there can be beautiful opening. We need that. And then we just have to keep discerning about authenticity and true awakening and direct experience. Direct experiences. I'm very much a stickler for direct experience. It cannot just be theory. It cannot just be a weekend warrior thing. It has to be a practice with an Elder that knows what they're doing, that is holding space, that is authentically connected to consciousness. Right. And that's the difference between the Kali Yuga and the Sat Yuga practices. The Sat Yuga practices are authentic. The Kali Yuga practices might have good intention, but end up somewhere …missing….Something along the way is missing. There isn't direct experience, or someone is leading and they don't really have the qualifications. That can end up in disaster. So, as you know, I think we have to be discerning and we have to be real about what we're imbibing. And, you know, sometimes we get on paths and we see that there was good, but there was actually some dark in it.
Jenny LePage 1:23:50
Yeah. Maybe both sometimes.
Jeanie Manchester 1:23:51
Maybe both sometimes. So, you know, I just feel like, as a teacher, I have to be doing my practices to teach, otherwise there's something not…something false.
Jenny LePage 1:24:07
So you go through that process yourself?
Jeanie Manchester 1:24:09
Oh, yeah.
Jenny LePage 1:24:10
Is this real? Am I real?
Jeanie Manchester 1:24:11
Yeah. And then what am I qualified to teach? And what am I not qualified to teach? Because I better not teach something I'm not qualified to teach. Right. Because people will feel it on some level if they're tuned in. And then you're giving something that you don't really understand. So, just at my age, I'm like, absolutely: I am not ready for that, or yes, I am qualified for this, or just knowing the difference and not being afraid to get help in places that we need, um, to fill in those gaps or, you know, like when I teach with my sister, I don't try to teach what she knows. I teach what I understand, and then I learn from her. And that's what makes it really beautiful. I don't try to become a healer. That's her. She's magnificent at that. I wouldn't try to claim that I knew cranial sacral work coming into your office. I would be at the humble….I would be on your table here. Just surrendering to your wisdom.
So, if we don't have that and the ego is, too, again…pushing for what it knows, it's defending itself… If we're always defending ourselves and we always think that we know everything, then we're like ego, ego, ego, right? And then we have to be humbled. And that's what consciousness will do. She will humble you. And if we're not ready to be humbled, we will fight it. We will fight it. So, I think that's what's coming our way with the Sat Yuga. I think more authenticity is coming. As we get more authentic inside, that's going to manifest on the surface of life. We're going to see that around the world. That's exciting.
Jenny LePage 1:26:01
That's really exciting.
Jeanie Manchester 1:26:02
Yeah. Full Circle, right? It's full circle, here where we started. It's really like, you got to go inside yourself and you've got to heal our wounds. We have to heal our shame, our fear, our inhibition, our doubt, our insecurity, our feelings of unworthiness… is so big. Unworthiness is so big because that's where the ego just wants to kind of defend itself. And as I get older and the more I practice, the more I'm like, oh, great, they can take that piece, and I can do this piece and like,
Jenny LePage 1:26:33
Oh, you don't have to do it all!
Jeanie Manchester 1:26:34
I don't have to do it all. And, and I learn. I learn from my children. I learn from my husband. I still might have resistance there. We have work to do there. But I see it and I feel it, and I'm like, just keep opening. Keep opening. Just, it's really about love.
Jenny LePage 1:26:53
It's really about love.
Jeanie Manchester 1:26:54
This is so simple. It's so simple, and yet we…where have we closed off our ability to love each other? Right? That's what creates this feeling of separation and insignificance and doubt and worry and unworthiness and shame. And it's all this feeling of insignificance.
Jenny LePage 1:27:16
And we don't need to do that.
Jeanie Manchester 1:27:18
We don't need to do that. But we have to fill up with something inside that is… I keep studying, but I know the profound work for me is daily meditation because it's filling. The Kundalini is starting to fill my pores and move through my senses in a way that when I see the ego want to rear its head, I see how I've changed. More work to do—but changed. And that is really thrilling. It's exciting. It's like, wow, I'm changing.
And then you get reflection from people. They're like, you have changed. Or: Wow, what are you doing? I'm meditating and I take care of myself in different ways that at 59 years old now, I'm moving towards my elder years and I just can't wait for more of this unfoldment because it just keeps getting better.
Jenny LePage 1:28:17
What's next, ooooh?
Jeanie Manchester 1:28:23
What's next? I have no idea.
Jenny LePage 1:28:25
You’ll find out.
Jeanie Manchester 1:28:26
Yeah, I mean, more study, more…I've got there's seven levels of Neelakantha Meditation practice, so there are two more levels and we don't get hooked on levels and, like, oh, you're at four and I'm at seven or whatever. But I know that that path I need to fulfill because my teacher's understanding is beyond anything I've ever experienced and I want to be in his light for as long as he lives. And he’s in his 70s. So, I prioritize the evenings I get to spend in satsang [spiritual gathering] with him and others.
And then, of course, these initiations that are extraordinary. It's really what was lost when, at least in India, when Islam invaded, when war invaded, practices all over the world were either destroyed or partially held everywhere. So, that we've been able to piece together the Tantric tradition from it being scattered, and Western scholars going over, practitioners going over and bringing it back. And then, of course, these Sri Devi women who have it very much intact in India, too, are also spreading it. It's spreading. And as you know, we are all over the world.
Jenny LePage 1:29:49
Here we are!
Jeanie Manchester 1:29:51
Yeah. Here we are. We're sitting in Boulder, Colorado, having this conversation,
Jenny LePage 1:29:53
With everyone here!
Jeanie Manchester 1:29:54
I know. I'm going to have to interview you now, because…
Jenny LePage 1:29:57
Once you start your podcast!
Jeanie Manchester 1:29:58
I know, because I want to hear all of this just come through your lens. And the beautiful South American traditions that have so much to offer to us.
Jenny LePage 1:30:12
Well, I'm just learning too, Jeanie.
Jeanie Manchester 1:30:17
Well, it's very exciting.
Jenny LePage 1:30:20
Thank you so so so so much for taking your time and having this conversation and for spreading it to the world. It is so helpful for all of us to create a bigger circle of talking about these things and sharing them and practicing them and finding different paths like Neelakantha Meditation and yoga practice and all these things that are available to us. And there are many more. We can choose what really works. You are a true teacher, Jeanie. It is Such a gift to have you here, to share you with everybody.
Jeanie Manchester 1:31:03
I'm so honored.
Jenny LePage 1:31:05
I’m so honored!
Jeanie Manchester 1:31:06
I feel so deeply honored to have been thought of and just, really, I'm grateful to all of my teachers who continuously move through me in consciousness that can be a vehicle to the best of my ability. So, thank you for thinking of me.
Jenny LePage 1:31:25
Thanks, Jeanie. Until next time.
Together 1:31:31
Woooh!!! [High fives!]
Jenny LePage 1:31:34
I love this.
Jeanie Manchester 1:31:35
Aw
Ocarina (Jenny LePage) 1:31:35
Jenny LePage 1:31:55
Thank you so much, everyone, for listening to Jeanie Manchester. It is really a treat to have her here on the show, and I really hope you found value in hearing about the exploration of consciousness, and Jeanie’s path with meditation, mantra, and the divine feminine practices, working with initiation and movement of Kundalini Shakti for the evolution of humans and the planet at the beginning of this shifting age. You can become a supporter of the show, read the transcription, and find pictures at jennylepage.com.
Next week we are wrapping up our first round of awesome locals series from Boulder and Bozeman (and there will be more after this), but next week we get to hear from another really well-loved practitioner in town and beyond, an acupuncturist and teacher with a really unique style of Japanese practice called Kototama Medicine, and that is Ted Hall. Woooh! We look forward to learning about how we can apply his lens of insight to our lives in this time of big planetary evolution. See ya then!
Ted Hall 1:33:44
[On dantian or tanden]...so, the center of a black hole is exactly what that is. And there isn't just one of those, there's a bunch of them, right? So it's sort of like this idea of emptiness around which everything happens. And, so, if you think about that stillness from which everything emerges, that emptiness, from which everything is created, then all action, all manifestation comes from this void...
Drum (Jenny LePage) 1:34:05
