Beauty As Coherence Rather Than Appearance
Mon 24th + Tues 25th Aug · 10am AEST · Live on Zoom + recordings
Register FREE to join us
A free two-part live exploration of beauty, embodiment and self-expression through the wisdom of Goddess Lalita.
Together we’ll step outside the relentless cultural conversation about fixing, improving and preserving our appearance, and explore a richer understanding of beauty. Here we will embrace pleasure, vitality, personality, self-respect and the coherence of embodied beauty.
This will be practical, joyful and grounded in real life. Expect ideas and honest conversations with plenty of ways to bring them into your daily habits, your wardrobe, your rituals and the everyday experience of being in your body.
Beauty has become an exhausting business
We are surrounded by messages telling us that ageing is something to resist, that our faces and bodies are ongoing improvement projects, and that with enough products and procedures we might finally arrive at the version of ourselves we were supposed to be.
But there is another way to understand beauty.
In the yogic tradition, Goddess Lalita offers us a vision of beauty that has very little to do with conforming to an external ideal. Hers is a beauty of aliveness, harmony, pleasure and presence, a beauty that emerges when the different parts of who we feel aligned.
This doesn’t mean rejecting beautiful clothes, abandoning adornment, or pretending we don’t care how we look. Lalita invites us to enjoy beauty deeply (colour, texture, fragrance, movement, sensuality, creativity, clothing, our homes, our bodies) without making any of them instruments of our inadequacy.
We can ask 'What would it look like to live beautifully as myself?'
Who is Lalita Devi?
Lalita Tripura Sundari is a revered form of the Goddess traditions of India, particularly the Sri Vidya tradition. Her name is often translated as 'the Beauty of the Three Worlds', and she represents a vision of beauty that reaches far beyond physical appearance.
Lalita is associated with beauty, love, desire, pleasure and the senses, but also with wisdom, harmony and spiritual awakening. In her traditional imagery she holds symbols that speak to the senses, the mind, desire and our movement towards greater freedom.
Her teachings do not ask us to reject the sensory world, but invite us to encounter it with greater consciousness and reverence. Lalita Rising draws respectfully from this traditional understanding while asking what her wisdom might offer women today; particularly in our relationship with beauty, ageing, embodiment and self-expression.
Come and rise with us
You don’t need to know anything about Lalita, scripture or Ayurveda to join us. You don’t need to feel beautiful, have figured out ageing, love your body every day, or throw away your lipstick.
Just come with an open heart.
Across two mornings together, we’ll explore what becomes possible when beauty becomes a way of inhabiting your own life with greater pleasure, personality, confidence and coherence.
Hi, I'm Katie
I’m a writer, teacher, mother of five and long-time student of yoga, Ayurveda and the wisdom traditions of India. I’ve been teaching for almost 30 years, and my work has always been in the place where ancient philosophy meets ordinary life.
I gave my daughter Lalita as her middle name, such is the power of this Goddess to help us love ourselves fully.
For me, Lalita offers a beautiful and much-needed way of thinking about beauty, womanhood, pleasure and self-expression. Not as another project of self-improvement, but as an invitation to inhabit our lives more fully. Lalita Rising is my way of bringing this wisdom into a practical, joyful conversation for women today.
Beauty As Coherence Rather Than Appearance
Mon 24th + Tues 25th Aug · 10am AEST · Live on Zoom + recordings
Come live if you can, or register to receive the recordings, playlist and extensive integration notes.
