β
Though Parvati is inextricably connected to her partner (one image of the two of them, called Ardhanarishvara, βThe Half-Woman Lord,β has the lovers occupying two halves of one body) she also fully embodies her own powerful yogic will. She is beautiful, sexy, and athletic; she can actively pursue yoga without regard to traditionally feminine delicacy, yet she remains fully feminine. Part of Parvatiβs mystery is that even as a wife she remains a virgin, in the sense that her independence is always intact. Even when she becomes a mother, it is by a form of parthenogenesis: the son of her body, Ganesha, is produced without benefit of insemination,
β
β
Sally Kempton (Awakening Shakti: The Transformative Power of the Goddesses of Yoga)