Only within humans She finds the possibility of being awakened Nicole

Abstract: This paper presents a theological and phenomenological analysis of the process of awakening as articulated through the convergence of Dr. Hans Koester’s academic exposition of Shakta cosmogony and the experiential testimony of an individual named Nicole. It posits that Koester’s model of Shakti’s graded manifestation—culminating in the human capacity for Her conscious awakening—finds its lived validation and explicit completion in Nicole’s formulation of a dual maternity: the Divine Mother “physically without” and “spiritually within.” By examining Koester’s structural diagram of intersecting mind-matter circles alongside Nicole’s declarative poetry, this study argues that genuine awakening is characterized not by an escape from phenomenality but by the conscious, joyous recognition of the singular Divine Feminine principle (Shakti) operative in two concurrent and mutually affirming modes: as the substantial body of the world and as the luminous ground of consciousness. Nicole’s statement is thus identified not as mere metaphor, but as the precise phenomenological report of one situated at the intersected center of Koester’s diagram, where the “veil” is lifted and the unity of the “two lives” is realized.

Table of Contents

Introduction: The Diagram and the Declaration

In his work The Indian Religion of the Goddess Shakti, Dr. Hans Koester delineates a Shakta cosmovision through a potent conceptual model: two intersecting circles representing matter and mind. Shakti, the supreme Divine Feminine principle, is most fully present at the point of intersection, Her influence diffusing and becoming increasingly “veiled” in the peripheries of pure inert matter and, presumably, undifferentiated consciousness. The evolutionary arc of this model is clear: from mineral to plant to animal, Shakti becomes progressively more apparent. However, Koester reserves a unique ontological status for the human being, stating, “within the highly developed organism of man She, for the first time, is inherent in her essential being. There She finds the possibility of being consciously awakened.”

This “possibility” remains, in Koester’s academic text, a theological postulate. Its confirmation lies in the realm of lived experience. This is where the testimony of Nicole enters, not as contradictory evidence, but as corroborative phenomenology. Her re-framing of the dual human experience—“We have the priceless privilege to live with two Divine Mothers, one physically without, one spiritually within”—provides the content for Koester’s formal structure. She names the two circles: the Mother “without” is the circle of matter, nature, the palpable cosmos; the Mother “within” is the circle of mind, consciousness, the interior self. Crucially, she identifies not a duality but a unified relationship of privileged co-habitation (live with), sourced in a single divine reality (the Divine Feminine… in all Her forms). Her concluding imperative, “let’s enjoy it fully,” signals the affective quality of the awakening: it is not an ascetic rejection but an ecstatic embrace of the revealed unity.

Part I: The Mother Without—Shakti as Primordial Ground and Cosmic Body

Koester’s description of the Shakta who feels Her presence in the “fertile ground” and “lotus-blossom” directly correlates with the archetype of the Primordial Goddess, the “original conception of the goddess… that of Mother Earth.” As documented in sources on prehistoric goddess traditions, this is the universal soul who generates, contains, and recycles all life. This is Shakti operative in the outermost reaches of Koester’s “matter” circle: the physical, sustaining matrix.

Nicole’s “Mother physically without” encompasses this entirely. It is the Divine Feminine manifest as biology, ecology, and cosmology—the “great body” Koester describes. Her conscious nod to “Mother Earth” and “our own mothers” roots this understanding in a tangible, immanent reality. This Mother is not a distant creator but the very substance of creation, the natura naturans (nature naturing). To perceive this is the first movement of awakening: to see the world not as inert resource but as the active, embodied presence of the Divine. However, perceiving only this “without” risks a form of poetic pantheism. The full Shakta awakening requires the simultaneous recognition of the second mode.

Part II: The Mother Within—Shakti as Conscious Interiority

Koester’s model is pivotal because it does not oppose mind to matter, but intersects them. The “within” is not separate; it is the domain of mind informed by Shakti. He notes the Shakta “will find Her light, too, within his mind and consciousness.” This is the Mother “spiritually within.” She is not the individual egoic personality, but the ground of awareness itself—the light by which all thoughts, feelings, and perceptions are illumined. In contemplative traditions, this is the dweller within the heart, the self-luminous witness (sakshin).

Nicole’s recognition of this interior Mother completes the awakening. It is the realization that the consciousness which observes the “Mother without” is itself of the same divine nature. The observer and the observed are manifestations of a single Shakti. This resolves the subject-object dichotomy. As Koester’s diagram suggests, at the point of perfect intersection—the awakened center—“the whole universe of mind and matter reveals itself in its unity.” The “within” and “without” are understood as two facets of one reality, two mothers born of the same womb of being.

Part III: Awakening as the Unification of the Two Lives—The Phenomenology of Enjoyment

The state of awakening, therefore, is not the annihilation of the physical in favor of the spiritual, nor the denial of the spiritual for the physical. It is the harmonious, simultaneous consciousness of both. Nicole’s earlier phrasing, “two lives in one, one material, one spiritual,” perfectly captures this bifocal awareness. The individual lives a fully human, material life while abiding in the knowledge of its spiritual essence and source.

This leads to the critical affective component: “let’s enjoy it fully.” Enjoyment (bhoga) in Shakta philosophy is not mere hedonism; it is the conscious savoring of the world as the play (lila) of the Goddess. When the world is known as the body of the Mother, and the self as Her consciousness, every experience becomes an occasion for sacred communion. Fear, alienation, and grasping diminish because the fundamental relationship with existence is one of belonging and maternal fidelity. The privilege is “priceless” because it confers the ultimate freedom: to be in the world without being of it exclusively, to participate in the drama of matter while resting in the stillness of spiritual consciousness.

Conclusion: The Circle Made Whole

Koester’s academic framework provides the map; Nicole’s declaration signals the arrival at the destination. Koester explains why only within humans She finds the possibility of awakening: because the human condition exists at the crux of matter and mind, the intersection of the circles. Nicole describes what that awakening feels like: the joyous, humble, and privileged recognition of being mothered in a dual, yet non-dual, sense.

The awakening within Nicole—and within any who come to this recognition—is the verification of Koester’s thesis. It is the lived experience of the diagram’s center, where the veils of separation fall away. The “Mother without” (Primordial Goddess, Nature, Matter) and the “Mother within” (Shakti, Consciousness, Spirit) are revealed not as two, but as the singular Divine Feminine, “raising us humans in all Her forms.” To awaken is to be held consciously in that dual embrace and to respond, as Nicole instinctively does, with the only appropriate consummation: the full, grateful, and awakened enjoyment of the gift.

References

  1. Koester, Hans. The Indian Religion of the Goddess Shakti. [Source Text Provided].
  2. “Primordial Goddess (Mythic).” Brooklyn Museum
  3. Ann, Martha, and Dorothy Myers Imel. Goddesses in World Mythology. Oxford University Press, 1993.
  4. Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. Harper & Row, 1989.
  5. Sjoo, Monica, and Barbara Mor. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
  6. Personal Communication/Testimony of Nicole. [As Provided in User Prompt].

Only within humans She finds the possibility of being awakened Nicole

>
> Nicole beautifully framed her thoughts with these words:
> "We have the unique privilege to live two lives in one,
> one material, one spiritual, let's enjoy it fully.” I would want
> to copy it and say "We have the priceless privilege to live
> with two Divine Mothers, one physically without, one
> spiritually within, let's enjoy it fully.” By that I mean no
> disrespect to our own mothers and Mother Earth. The
> Divine Feminine is indeed raising us humans in all Her
> forms - let's enjoy them fully!
>

The follower of Sakthism, the worshiper of Shakti, is called Shakta. His conception of the Goddess is described in the Shakti Tantra Shastras, i.e., the holy scriptures of Sakthism, often in a very poetical way. Whereas we speak of Mother Nature only in a comparative manner, for the Shakta it is absolute reality. Nature is Her body. Her presence is personally felt by him, when he is standing on the fertile ground of the earth; he touches Her life in the blossoms of the pure lotus-flower. She animates all living creatures. His own body is a part of Her great body. Worshipping Her in all Her different forms, he will find Her light, too, within his mind and consciousness. Thus, to the Shakta the whole universe of mind and matter reveals itself in its unity; he see before him Her great body which he adores; Her sacred feet, Her heart, Her mind.

It might be useful to describe this poetical view, which is at once physical and transcendental, by means of another diagram. We may for this purpose represent matter and mind by two circles , which intersect each other.

Where they intersect, there is Shakti, so to speak, in Herself. But Her influence, Her being spreads into the whole realm of matter as well as that of mind. Nowhere is She absent, but Her presence is less distinct, is somehow veiled in those parts, which are further from the centre, where She is in Herself. Thus, for the sake of linear explanation, the mineral world—the solid matter—would have to be situated the furthest from Her, because there, as for instance in stone, She—Life Herself—is, much veiled, stone to the ordinary human view appearing to be dead. Nearer to Her is the realm of plants, where, with their growing and blossoming, She already becomes more apparent.... Then, in due order with regard to Her would come the world of animals, which being animated have within their life—although perhaps still unconsciously—some access to Her. Lastly, within the highly developed organism of man She, for the first time, is inherent in her essential being. There She finds the possibility of being consciously awakened, so that she appears to him, who is looking and striving for her, in Her true nature as Shakti herself.

The Indian Religion of the Goddess Shakti
DR. HANS KOESTER


The original conception of the goddess is that of Mother Earth

Primordial Goddess (Mythic)

What we know about prehistoric goddess traditions comes to us from archaeological record and remnants of oral traditions, such as the"Old Woman"of the Aboriginals in Australia. The original conception of the goddess is that of Mother Earth, the sacred female force responsible for the creation of the earth and all its flora and fauna. The goddess was the universal soul, who accepted plant, animal, and human matter in death in order to create new life from the remains. Original depictions of the Primordial Goddess are symbolic and date back to the Paleolithic era (Lower Paleolithic 2,500,000 B.C. to 120,000 B.C.; Middle Paleolithic, from 300,000 to 30,000 B.C.; and Upper Paleolithic 30,000 to 10,000 B.C.). Many images represent the vulva, often with a seed or an eye. Depicting a seed was a way to link the female body with the reproductive capabilities of nature. Believed by many scholars to have been part of early goddess worship traditions, some have theorized that these images could be linked to early matrilinear or even gynocratic practices in which women, particularly mothers, were responsible for governing the community.

Worship of the Primordial Goddess flourished during the Upper Paleolithic era, and many scholars believe that during this period, the female body was used to explain the phenomena that prehistoric people observed in nature. The goddess, as the divine creator, was mirrored in each woman's body; she was linked to the changing seasons, the behaviors of the animals that early people hunted, and the various observable cosmological patterns. The cycles of nature were reflected in the cycles of the female body, such as menstruation, pregnancy, birth, and lactation. Stylized images of the female body have been found on cave floors, most of them emphasizing only one body part, such as the breasts, genitals, or buttocks; this anatomical emphasis may have linked the feature's biological function with other observable processes in nature, such as animal reproduction, the growth and flowering of plants, or the cycles of the moon.

Beginning in the late Paleolithic period and continuing throughout the Neolithic era (around 10,000 B.C.), a major transition took place in which people began to live in organized communities, to domesticate animals, and to farm. With the end of nomadic life came a dramatic shift in ideology. Although the Primordial Goddess was the original model, as later goddess traditions developed, she was given different roles according to the beliefs and spiritual needs of the people who worshipped her. The tradition of the Mother Earth Goddess can be seen reflected in many different conceptions of the divine feminine including the Greek mother goddess, Gaea, the original inspiration for the Primordial Goddess place setting. Regardless of the many forms she takes that are celebrated globally, all goddess traditions owe something to the early worship of and appreciation for the Primordial Goddess.

Primordial Goddess (Mythic)
www.brooklynmuseum.org/

Translations, Editions, and Secondary Sources

Ann, Martha, and Dorothy Myers Imel. Goddesses in World Mythology. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 1993
Eisler, Riane. The Chalice and the Blade: Our History, Our Future. 1987; reprint ed. New York: HarperCollins, 1995.
Gadon, Elinor W. The Once and Future Goddess: A Symbol for Our Time. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989.
Gimbutas, Marija. The Goddess and Gods of Old Europe: Myths and Cult Images. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982.
Husain, Shahrukh. The Goddess: Power, Sexuality, and the Feminine Divine. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2003.
Leeming, David Adams. Goddess: Myths of the Female Divine. Oxford, UK and New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Ruether, Rosemary Radford. Goddesses and the Divine Feminine: A Western Religious History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005.
Sjoo, Monica. The Great Cosmic Mother: Rediscovering the Religion of the Earth. 1987; 2nd ed., San Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 1991.
Sprout, Barbara, ed. Primal Myths: Creation Myths Around the World. 1979; reprint ed., San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1991.
Stone, Merlin. When God Was a Woman. San Diego: Harvest Books, 1978.