Shiva

Myth and origin

Shiva's origins are extraordinarily ancient. The Vedas (composed from c. 1500 BCE) speak of Rudra, a wild, terrifying storm-god of the wilderness and disease, who is later identified with Shiva—and "Shiva" ("the auspicious one") is originally an honorific used to placate the fierce Rudra. The famous "Pashupati seal" from the Indus Valley civilisation (c. 2500 BCE), showing a horned figure seated in yogic posture surrounded by animals, has been widely interpreted as a proto-Shiva, though this is debated. By the time of the great Upanishads and the epics, Shiva had become one of the central deities of Hinduism, and the Shaiva traditions made him supreme.

The chief sources for Shiva's mythology are the Mahabharata (compiled c. 400 BCE-400 CE), the Ramayana, the great Shaiva Puranas—especially the Shiva Purana, the Linga Purana, and the Skanda Purana—and the tantric Agamas. The Shvetashvatara Upanishad presents him as supreme reality. The Periya Puranam and the songs of the Tamil Nayanar saints (6th-9th centuries CE) developed a profoundly intimate devotional literature. The Shaiva Siddhanta and Kashmir Shaivism traditions elaborated sophisticated philosophical systems in which Shiva is consciousness itself. His worship is unbroken from the Vedic era to today, making him among the longest continuously worshipped deities on earth.

Attributes and stories

You recognise Shiva by his matted hair (jata) piled atop his head, the crescent moon at his temple, the Ganges River pouring from his locks (he received the goddess Ganga's falling weight to spare the earth), his third eye that opens to destroy with cosmic fire, the cobra Vasuki around his neck, his blue throat from the poison halahala he swallowed to save the world during the churning of the ocean, the rudraksha bead garlands, the trident trishula and the drum damaru, the tiger or elephant skin he wears, the white bull Nandi who is his mount and gatekeeper. His consort is Parvati (also Sati, Durga, and Kali); his sons are Ganesha and Kartikeya/Skanda.

His myths are inexhaustible. He destroys Daksha's sacrifice in fury after the death of his first wife Sati. He swallows the world-poison and his throat turns blue (giving him the name Nilakantha). He receives Ganga onto his head. He pierces the three demon-cities (Tripurantaka) with a single arrow. He defeats Yama, the god of death, to save the devotee Markandeya. He dances the cosmic tandava as Nataraja, his foot crushing the demon of ignorance, surrounded by a ring of flame, holding fire and drum in two of his four hands and the gestures of fearlessness and grace in the others. As the lingam—the abstract phallic-pillar symbol—he is worshipped in countless temples as the unmanifest source of being itself.

Modern reception

Shiva's influence on global culture has been immense. Aldous Huxley, Joseph Campbell, and many Western seekers have drawn upon him. Heinrich Zimmer's Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization brought Nataraja's cosmic dance to Western awareness; CERN famously installed a Nataraja statue at its Geneva headquarters in 2004 in tribute to the resonance between the cosmic dance and particle physics. The Beatles, the Hare Krishna movement, modern yoga, and the global tantric and yogic revival have all carried Shiva's name worldwide. He appears throughout contemporary literature, art, and music; Krishna Das, Deva Premal, and many kirtan musicians chant his mantras to millions.

In contemporary practice Shiva is invoked through countless mantras (Om Namah Shivaya, the Mahamrityunjaya), through linga puja, through Shivaratri (the great night of Shiva, falling in February/March), through yoga (he is the original yogi, Adiyogi), and through meditation on consciousness itself. Astrologically he is connected to the planet Saturn (asceticism, time, dissolution), to Pluto (destruction-renewal), and to the Moon (the crescent on his head). The mythological deity test can reveal whether his dance calls you. Continue with Vishnu, Brahma, Kali, and Ganesha.

Symbolic depth

In the tarot, Shiva corresponds most clearly to Death (XIII) as the great transformer, to The Hermit (IX) in his ascetic Mount Kailash aspect, to The Hanged Man (XII) in his world-poison-swallowing self-sacrifice, and to The World (XXI) as Nataraja's cosmic dance. The Magician (I) carries the trishula of his three-fold power. On the Kabbalistic Tree of Life he resonates with Binah (the great dissolution-mother) and with Daath (the abyss of being).

Jungian readings see Shiva as one of the deepest images of the Self, integrating opposites that no other deity holds together: ascetic and erotic, destroyer and creator, terrifying and benevolent, ash-smeared yogi and householder husband, lord of yoga and lord of intoxicants. He refuses every duality. His shadow is the destroyer whose dissolution outruns its purpose, the ascetic who withdraws from human relationship. To work with this archetype invites you to face dissolution as transformation, to find the auspicious within the terrifying, and to dance with what destroys you. Return to the main glossary.

Also known as

• Mahadeva
• Nataraja
• Rudra
• Shankara
• Nilakantha
• Adiyogi
• Pashupati