💙❤️ Shiva Love + Shakti Love: the flow of shaping and being shaped ❤️💙

We can approach life with a desire to shape the world and people around us, or with an openness to surrender and be shaped by the world and people around us.

There is a polarity in life: a dynamic flow where we can either approach the world with the desire to shape and create or with the openness to surrender and allow ourselves to be shaped and transformed. These two energies—active and receptive—are primal urges within us, channels for the flow of life energy, like an energetic breathing.

Your hands shape the world, yet it is the world that shapes your hands. When you carve the wood, the grain carves into your soul, and when you paint the sky, the sky paints its longing within you.

 It is not a single stream—it is two interdependent currents, ebbing and flowing within us and between us. They nourish, shape, and transform us from within, while also manifesting and molding the world around us. Because of their potent, creative energy and their ability to connect and transform, I call this flow a form of love.

At its essence, love is attention. To direct your focus, care, and presence toward something or someone is to offer it your love. In doing so, you allow yourself either to shape or be shaped.

Let me explain.

Sometimes, love is active—a force carving paths and creating change, like a river reshaping the valley. At other times, love is receptive—a stillness that cradles and contains, like the valley allowing themselves to be transformed, in turn holds and nourishes the river.

And when the sun rises, do you not feel the whisper of eternity in its golden breath? So, too, shall you rise into the fullness of each moment, for time is but the river, and you are both the water and the shore.

These two currents, which I call Shiva love and Shakti love, are interdependent. Each is necessary for the fullness of life, connection, and the unfolding of the world.

Shiva and Shakti: A Mythic Dance

Shiva and Shakti come from ancient Indian philosophy, where they represent complementary forces of the universe. Shiva is the masculine energy of action and creation—dynamic, outward-moving, and purposeful. Shakti is the feminine energy of receptivity and transformation—still, inward-moving, and nurturing.

Together, they form the dance of existence: Shiva cannot create without the support of Shakti, and Shakti cannot transform without Shiva’s activation. In the context of love, these energies reveal the two ways we experience and express this powerful force.

We can at times choose to be the creator and at times we can let ourselves become the creation

Shiva Love: The Creative Force

Shiva love is active—it’s the love that creates, manifests, and shapes the world around us. It’s the river carving its way through the mountains, bold and relentless. When we embody Shiva love, we engage with life in an outward-facing way, giving our energy to shape relationships, express ourselves, and create change.

What Shiva Love Looks Like:

        •        Acts of service: Cooking a meal for a loved one or offering support when it’s needed.

        •        Creative expression: Writing, painting, or building something meaningful.

        •        Advocacy: Standing up for someone, shaping a better world through action.

Shiva love is about claiming your space in the world and leaving your mark on it. It’s bold, passionate, and full of purpose.

Reflection:

        •        When have you been the river, shaping the landscape of your life or someone else’s?

        •        How does it feel to actively create or give love?

Shakti Love: The Receptive Force

If Shiva love is the river, Shakti love is the valley it flows through. Shakti love is surrender—it’s the love that softens, opens, and allows the world to shape and nourish us. It is the quiet strength of letting go and letting life flow into us, changing us in ways we could never have anticipated.

What Shakti Love Looks Like:

        •        Receiving love: Letting someone care for you or deeply see you.

        •        Surrendering to the moment: Immersing yourself fully in the beauty of now.

        •        Accepting transformation: Allowing life’s challenges and joys to work on you, like a river smoothing stones over time.

Shakti love reminds us that being shaped by the world is not a weakness but a gift. It teaches us that allowing love to flow into us can be as powerful as giving it.

Reflection:

        •        When have you been the valley, shaped by the river of love and experience?

        •        What has it felt like to surrender and be transformed by love?

Shiva and Shakti: Not Men and Women, but Us All

It’s important to emphasize that this is not about men and women. Shiva and Shakti are not fixed roles tied to gender; they are archetypal forces present within every human being. Each of us moves fluidly between Shiva and Shakti depending on the situation. Sometimes we take on the active role of Shiva, shaping and creating. At other times, we embody the receptive role of Shakti, allowing ourselves to be transformed, making shiva the artists and ourselves becoming the masterpiece.

In fact, this flow between roles can shift moment by moment, even within the same relationship. One person might be Shiva in one instance and Shakti in another, or hold one role on one plane (e.g., emotional) and the opposite on another plane (e.g., intellectual). This dynamic interplay is part of the beauty of human connection.

Most importantly, this balance of Shiva and Shakti must be cultivated within ourselves. Our different inner parts—the voices, desires, and energies within us—must be allowed to flow between active and receptive states. For this to happen, we must approach ourselves with the same reverence, gratitude, and consent that we offer to others.

The Balance Between the Two

Love isn’t complete without the interplay of Shiva and Shakti. To give love actively (Shiva), you must allow yourself to be nourished by it (Shakti). To receive love fully (Shakti), you must engage with the world and share your love outwardly (Shiva).

When we lean too far into one current, the flow of love breaks:

        •        Too much Shiva love: Exhaustion from constantly giving without replenishment.

        •        Too much Shakti love: Stagnation from only receiving and never creating.

The balance is found in the dance—moving between these forces as life requires, flowing from shaping to being shaped, from creating to surrendering.

The Transformative Nature of Love

At its heart, love is transformation. Whether you are the river shaping the valley or the valley being shaped by the river, love changes you.

It softens and strengthens, creating and recreating who you are. Even as the work of art is being created by the artist, the artist themselves is transformed by the work of art. And, as the river shapes the valley, it is itself held, guided and changed by the valley.

In Relationships:

        •        Shiva love might look like planning a date, creating a moment of joy, or supporting a partner in their dreams.

        •        Shakti love might look like truly listening to your partner, allowing their energy to fill and inspire you, or being open to their influence.

In Self-Love:

        •        Shiva love is the active care you give yourself: setting goals, cultivating healthy habits, and creating a life that nourishes you.

        •        Shakti love is the quiet permission you give yourself to rest, reflect, and let life shape you without resistance.

A Call to Flow

Imagine yourself as both the river and the valley, moving between the two as the moment requires. Sometimes, you’ll feel the pull to shape the world around you, to give and create and manifest. Other times, you’ll feel the call to surrender, to let love and life flow into you and transform you.

Take a moment now to reflect:

        •        Are you more comfortable in Shiva love or Shakti love?

        •        Where might you invite more balance into your experience of love?

And then, share. Share your reflections with a partner, a friend, or your community. Allow the act of expressing your journey to become part of your flow, moving between giving and receiving in love.

Consent as the Foundation of Love

Shakti love indeed requires trust and explicit consent. To allow oneself to be transformed by another—be it a person, the environment, or even an experience—requires a profound act of surrender. It is a sacred agreement between subject and object, moment by moment, where each party willingly participates in the dance of mutual transformation.

Without consent, there is no true Shakti love, only an imposition, which can result in harm and disconnection.

Similarly, Shiva love, the active, shaping force, must also operate within the boundaries of consent.

To carve and mold without the explicit willingness of what is being shaped is to exploit rather than co-create.

True Shiva love recognizes and honors the sanctity of the other, seeing its role not as conqueror but as co-creator.

This principle of consent applies not only to relationships with others but also to the relationship we have with ourselves. Our inner parts must work together with mutual respect, seeking consent before one part dominates or changes another. A lack of this internal balance can lead to inner conflict, burnout, or disconnection from ourselves.

The Interdependence of Shiva and Shakti

Shiva without Shakti is directionless energy, a force without purpose or meaning. The river has no life, no beauty, and no transformative power without the valley to hold it, guide it, and nourish it. Similarly, Shakti without Shiva becomes stagnant, an unshaped potential that yearns for activation and expression.

When Shiva love forgets its reliance on Shakti, it becomes destructive, driven by a sense of superiority that blinds it to the sacredness of what it shapes. This is the root of much harm in our world—the exploitation of the earth, the subjugation of others, and the denial of our own inner Shakti, the receptive, nourishing, and transformative aspect of ourselves.

Sacrilege and the Desecration of the Matrix Shakti

The metaphor of “desecration the matrix Shakti” is painfully apt for the ways in which society has disregarded the necessity of consent, respect, and reciprocity. We see this in the exploitation of our planet, the commodification of relationships and cultures, and the internalized disconnection from our own softer, receptive nature.

To take without asking, to shape without consent, is sacrilegious because it violates the sacred balance that sustains life. It disregards the truth that shaping and being shaped are reciprocal acts, requiring mutual respect and acknowledgment. When we discard Shakti, we discard the source of life itself—the very matrix that makes creation and transformation possible.

Restoring Balance: A Practice of Gratefulness and Consent

To heal this imbalance, we must embrace two practices: gratefulness and consent.

        1.        Gratefulness: Shiva love must bow in gratitude to Shakti, acknowledging that without her receptivity and containment, his energy would have no direction or meaning. Gratefulness is the practice of seeing and honoring the role of the valley, the matrix, and the feminine principle in all things—within others, within the earth, and within ourselves.

        2.        Consent: Both Shiva and Shakti must continuously seek and give consent. This requires a deep attunement to the moment, to the needs and boundaries of oneself and others. It is an ongoing dialogue, a sacred dance where roles shift and evolve. The river must ask permission to shape the valley, and the valley must trust the river to flow with integrity.

In Ourselves and in Society

This balance between Shiva and Shakti is not just a cosmic or relational truth—it is deeply personal. Within ourselves, we must honor both our active, manifesting energies and our receptive, surrendering energies. A life driven solely by unchecked Shiva love—constant doing, achieving, and shaping—leads to burnout and disconnection. Conversely, a life lived only in Shakti love—endless receptivity without expression—can feel stagnant and incomplete.

In society, restoring this balance means challenging the unchecked dominance of Shiva love. It means valuing rest, surrender, and the wisdom of the feminine.

It means creating cultures of consent, where shaping and being shaped are mutual acts of love rather than acts of conquest.

A Sacred Dance of Equality

The sacred dance between Shiva and Shakti is a dance of equality. Neither is superior, and neither can exist fully without the other. To honor this dance is to honor the essence of love itself—a love that shapes and is shaped, that flows and is cradled, that creates and is transformed.

Love, like life, is a dance between Shiva and Shakti. Sometimes you are the river, carving a path through the world. Sometimes you are the valley, allowing the river to shape you. Both are beautiful. Both are necessary.

By embracing the flow of these two loves, we open ourselves to the fullness of life, connection, and transformation.

Whether you are creating or surrendering, remember this: You are part of the infinite dance of love. Surrender to it. Shape it. Let it shape you.

With love and curiosity,

Johnny Pecan Pie