Shiva, is an enormous subject of contemplation, many aspects and stories are woven around Him. We focus on one angle.

Today as well as thousands of years ago, people were recognizing certain elements of nature.
Say Earth, the solid matter of things….
Water or the fluid part of things
Fire the stuff that burns and hurts as well as makes feel warm and happy
Air the stuff they breathe in, but can’t see.

Sooner or later they started to wonder… how it all hangs together; and we…just as they, are puzzled by this.
One can observe a certain order in the world… but where does that come from…?
Who or what has/is the blue-print. Somehow, phenomena, things, animals and people come into being …and they all leave again; there is birth and death….creation and destruction…
And yet ...there seems continuum, seems a connection to what was before …and what is observed, here, now… and what comes into being tomorrow?
Looking up at the sky, we realize the vastness of the whole of existence, and the smallness of the human being.  Large or small, everything seems to exist within that, Space; (we earthlings included).
It is logical to deduce, that somewhere, even beyond this Space there must be a vast intelligent source and it must have the power to bring what it knows into form, into creation.
That greatness beyond…is so overwhelming, it is unknown … and scary, but it must be there, and IT must know what its doing. It must be conscious. It is consciousness itself! Total unlimited awareness, unlimited even by Space and time!
Once this Greatness has taken some form …we can be aware of it;  it has to become something, so we can know, see, hear, taste, touch or smell, it.
In other words we can’t see what it is, but we can see its effect. We can see the result of its will to manifest in the elements, the world.

Most people today would agree with this, so far. When opinion - poles are taken
 and people are asked about there religion or whether they believe in a higher power than man! I am pretty sure 90 %  of people would agree.

So in earliest times, as well as today, we acknowledge,
                               ---  there is something formless…  beyond us, difficult for us to understand (and that, even if we put a religious spin on it)
                              …and there is the creation which comes from That.
So there are two aspects… formless and form! BUT how do they relate to each other?

Now in the experience of mankind, woman gives birth…so that which brings forth form…is She (woman)  … that who is the mysterious power behind, who can’t be seen as such , yet seems to instigate, be necessary for birth - is HE (male)!
So this mysterious Maleness….has the potential but … he doesn’t give birth to it, he doesn’t let it out, it’s contained within him! Comparable to an egg…. It self- contains…. yet it neither is, nor contains the chicken…..
The universe is often talked about as the cosmic egg.

Now lets look at another way of trying to grasp this; 
----   this Maleness, containing, but not birthing form, is like a Yogi.
 He has a body, functioning and virile… but he controls his body and mind perfectly, so that no action is perceivable, nothing manifests that can be observed.  
Every potential is there — but it is not expressed.
May be this is where the idea of the Shiva lingam comes from:
Everything that is manifest…(what we call real) exists first as potential, as an “idea”. We say it’s there, on a subtle level. The awareness of this “pre-state”, is there also in another Indian tradition.

1. Brahman, holds all the creation in his throat! The vibration that are the universe, are kept in his throat…until he opens his mouth and utters… Atha-Ohm… with that, He lets the potential, the unformed, the vibration out of his throat to become manifest, to become form, creation!

(Similar concepts are found also in other traditions on the globe: i.e. Japan, Australia etc.)
This state of  “ before manifestation…yet already in existence” is  captured by the
syllable “LI” in Sanskrit…, its the state before form exists proper.
 It has come out of total, unknowable abstraction, and is about to take form – but has not yet.
So Lin- ga is that mark, which denotes the pre-state of existence…there but not yet manifest.
Conceivable, conceived ….but not born!
This is linga, this state, is the mark of Shiva; its  His potential, his power- yet still without form!
Thus the Shiva –linga is in everything as its evolving potential!

This is worshipped as Shiva-Linga.
To understand, let’s go back to the Yogi. He sits in meditation and has total control over his
sexual organ. He is virile, his penis is erect, but no ejaculation is allowed, which would result in bringing about some form….
But make no mistake, the Shiva linga is not a symbol in the Western sense of “standing for something”; the Linga is Shiva ( the penis has no existence apart from the owner).
In many cultures the erect penis is associated with fertility and thus taken as a fertility symbol. The Shiva-linga houses a much higher sophisticated (wisdom revealing) concept!
The ancient Yogi’s  cultivated control over the urge to do, the urge to be, the urge to create…as a practice in tuning into that source …from which all form stems (which  includes control over the sexual organ).
This source power….pre-creation…is portrait as a Yogi with a permanent  erect penis, already in one of the earliest statues; such a statue of Shiva…comes from before the Harappa civilization in the Indus valley…so poss. 5-8000 years ago.
So He, the holder of all potential, supreme un-manifest power sits with his erect penis, (which is never allowed to spill the seed… until….he wills!

Now let’s come from a yet, a different angle.
As we saw, from earliest times, man had a sense of higher powers .… but although understanding was there, it was often clad into stories and myth, into pictures…;  they help us to intuit understanding and are not limited by our rational frame.
So the indescribable power was described as a person… God took the image of Man!
(The human mind can not think other than in associations with links to his own experience)
So man’s mind…cast the power holding omnipotence and omniscience  (consciousness  per se) in the form of the Greatest Yogi, and named him after the Elements which seem closest to be representing his existence :
Shi –Fire
Va- Air
The supreme, omniscient, conscious  existence which was in charge …and contained all potential, became Shiva - the Yogi.

Shiva, the ultimate Yogi was master over all elements of life. 
People experienced such masters in other cultures as Shaman; so some of the symbols of this Yogi and the symbols of the ancient Shamanic traditions melted together.
We recognize Shiva today by these symbols, who all have many levels of meanings.
The white ashes…. White (containing all form; ashes have lost form….)
The trisect…. The three gunas….
The  third eye… the knowing all… power
The matted hair…control over any vanity….
The tiger skin… control over lower urges/animalistic…
The snakes …. The blue throat…. Containing/controlling within him - all poison…
The rudraksha beads…..tears of compassion/ holding spiritual energy
The Ganges….., nurturing waters of life/sacred Mother
The drums… the sound of creation/rhythm/ vibration etc.etc…
The new Moon, silver crescent….  refers to New Form, beginning (The moon is  often connected to memory , the past…yet the Shiva moon is just over the turning point, to the new beginning.)

Now this Ascetic…holds in himself all know-how and  potentially of course is also holding past, present  and future. Within himself, this Yogi holds the power to hide something, to veil…or to project, to conceal or reveal; he can hold something in himself  (like the poison in his throat)
 or he decides to step out and initiate  by his will/intent  a certain thing……
He is like winter…holding all life-sap… and then only when he decides to let go…spring starts!
So it’s not surprising, he has become associated with the end of winter; with the darkest nights of the lunar year, the pre-state of new beginning. ( The association of darkness with evil is much later; it is based on cultural and ethical judgment, mostlikely from the time of Zarathustra)

So this powerful Yogi, immersed in meditation, just sits there…. Motionless dreaming the dream of the universe… in the Himalayas, on the icy peaks of Mount Kailas….he sits there in total harmony with himself, in peace….He just is……until!

And now the story begins:
A young maiden sees this great all powerful Ascetic, and falls in love with him!

She was the daughter of the king of the Himalayas and his wife Mena, a heavenly Nymph.
She grew up to be the most beautiful woman. No one would be able to resist her beauty!
The other gods… wanted Shiva to wake up from his meditation,
but Shiva was wrapped up. There was no spark that could ignite any passion.
The other Gods plotted… Kama (equivalent of Eros) was instructed to shoot an arrow into Shiva’s heart, to break his meditation.  So Kama approached Shiva; his arrows ready.
At that moment Parvarti, the beautiful child of the Himalayan king, passed by, and as Indians do... laid flowers at the feet of the Yogi!
One flower touched his feet and Shiva (always responsive to his devotees) opened his eye and beheld the beautiful maiden, for a minute instance.
Now his meditation was disturbed. The image would not leave him.
But … being a great Yogi…he calmed down, of course … and eventually settled back to meditation….
But Parvarti had for one minute the attention of the Lord. Enough to ignite her …
…. and from now on, she tried everything in her might to make him look at her again…She sang, she danced, she brought flowers…nothing worked.
Then she decided if she can’t wake him... she will leave the gilded palace of her parents and become like him….and so she covered her beautiful limbs with bark, smeared herself with ashes…..and did austerities, constantly meditating on Shiva.
Time past. (But the Lord always is moved by the commitment of his devotees),
So one day a young man came past... saying: “You are so beautiful… what are you doing here? You are too beautiful to be a clad in ashes and live like a Renunciate.
“I want nothing but a glance of Shiva”, she said, humbly.
So the young fellow laughed…..what can you possibly want, from a dirty, ashen, cold hearted wild Yogi, who likes the company of snakes?”
These words made Parvarti very angry:
“What you say is a great sin…but it’s even a greater sin... to listen to it!”
But barely had she spoken…the young man revealed himself, as Shiva!
He had just tested her… now the road to loooove was clear… love could do the rest!

Except….
Mena, Parvarti's mother  was not very happy. She saw only the ash-smeared, wild, seemingly impotent Yogi! But as mothers do, she agreed and arranged a big wedding.
The biggest, most beautiful wedding ever to be; the whole of the Himalayas became a festive hall…Finally the day came…. Guests arrived in great splendor from all corners of the earth!
But then, as the tradition has it... the bridegroom arrived; still smeared with ashes, matted hair  and a tiger skin around his naked body. He was accompanied by other Ascetics, Ghouls, madmen, snakes, tigers and wild beasts….mischief-makers, and drunkards… and all sorts of merry riff-raff ….in his company! He had mastered sense-withdrawal…he wasn’t effected by any of it, and accepted their company!
BUT ….the “mother-in-law” was horrified….!!!
She had hoped the bridegroom, would clear up his acts (as we do!). But, Oh NO, not this….
She would rather kill her daughter…than allow her to marry such unconventional rogue. She cried: “Lock the gates, don’t let him in! Shut the doors! We will have to find another husband…”
But the daughter was inconsolable!
Parvarti sobbed and sobbed and cried : “I want Shiva “…”only Shiva…” and then she went into her room and prayed with a fiery , intensity fueled by all the austerities she had lived.
 “Oh Lord… make yourself beautiful…. Show them what they want to see…for my sake”
So Shiva did…he has the power to veil or unveil; after all he is all potential; by his will all is created. All aspects of creation….good bad, ugly, beautiful it was all the same to him…..he was a Yogi, with supreme detachment!
So he rang “the doorbell” Fanfares blew; conch-shells by the hundreds! And he stood there in total glory and beauty… of a young princely man;
…. and guess what: mother-in law was happy!
They got married…
They get married…tonight! !!! On Shivaratri!
Of course, every moment consciousness and energy get married, but on this special night, devotees celebrate their love, their wedding.
After the ceremony the pair settled on Mount Kailas…were they never stopped making love….
So this original pair… sustain the world through their lovemaking; meaning at the source of the world… is love!!! 
He, the potential, the consciousness, the divine formless existence…and she, his energy, his Shakti, the creative female power ….spend their time in love-making…on Mount Kailash.
Shiva and Parvarti; Shiva and Shakti… in love!
Their wedding is the coming together of consciousness and manifesting power- in love!
But, they are yogis….they don’t come together in intercourse…they don’t produce  biological children, they produce love!
This love is like a wish-fulfilling tree!
So it is said, that the wishes of all who celebrate this wedding get fulfilled; just as Shiva fulfilled Prakriti’s fervent wish ( a devotee’s wish) at the wedding, His grace showers a special gift on us…his “manifesting power”, his Shakti is at the service of those plans, ideas, wishes …that exist so far only in the subtle form .

Hence Shiva is also called the auspicious one… because:  what ever sadness and suffering life contains… the great Yogi has the power and the potential to change it, through his Shakti, through his wife, the creative energy, he wills into existence, with love, anything he deems good.
Each of us, has still masses of unfulfilled potential, waiting to unfold.
Each of us is filled with the mark of Shiva!
Everyone of us, is “a Shiva linga”.
Shiva is everything, because everything has always the potential to evolve, to grow, to take form. Everything is on the journey of dissolution, creation, dissolution….The seed dissolves to let the tree grow.
Winter dissolves to let spring unfold.
A business closes to let a new one arise.
Every today has His mark, just as every breath has His mark….
Right now, become aware, of your out-breath… then, there is a moment of stillness where the potential exist for the in-breath. That moment, that stillness is Shiva!
It contains the new breath, the new moment, the new life.
Nothing is exempt from this constant process, where source ….becomes!
We might as well call it Shiva. Nothing exists, that is not Shiva,

And so he becomes the dancer, who creates the universe constantly with each step…creating , dissolving, creating, dissolving….all forms, all world, all universes…for ever new, for ever now..

Yet He …does nothing!  Because he is that Still Turning Point, the Yogi who contains all possibilities; to that Shiva principal…. we bow. (Shiva tattva).
The outbreath is action, is Shakti, is his power, is Parvarti
The in breath is action, is Shakti , is his power , is Parvarti
Shiva is the stillness in between the breath.
Shiva is the cosmic consciousness….formless, absolute …beyond sound and silence; beyond space and time. The origin of all form, into which any form dissolves again… then, by his will and the power of Shakti/Parvarti his wife, new form comes into being.

And here is were it becomes quiet concrete, relevant for us.
We all hold potential, we have Shiva in us. Meaning, Shiva’s will, is our will; just like He we can release that potential.
With his grace, we can activate our potential , make it “real!”  When you realize you are that pure potential, free of all ego-limitations, then you are the master of your destiny; you are Shiva, you have the will (iccha Shakti) and power to change yourself;
To strengthen that will, and purify it… we cultivate that one-pointed focus, we practice in Yoga.

Now we understand, that Shiva is the original Yogi … as well as the ever-loving husband….
Furthermore, the love of this husband is expressed, by teaching his wife; the deepest wisdom.
The source of the universe is also the source of all our knowing, all our wisdom, is all consciousness. So many scriptures start : Shiva teaching Parvarti….by teaching her, He teaches us all knowledge including the wisdom of Yoga. (One such teaching is a song called the Guru-Gita).  Shankara, (an other name for) Shiva is the ultimate Teacher, the ultimate Guru- that reveals…all knowledge to us!

So the divine couple spent their life in to ways:
Making love, (love that is the base for the universe) and
teaching the wisdom of Yoga (the base of all knowing)!

And it all began, on the night of Shivaratri….the most auspicious night in the yogic calendar.
The night of transformation….where millions of devotees chant the Lords name,  all through the night, after having fasting during the day….
They chant the ‘Five Syllabled Mantra’ …Ohm namah Shivaya…
The five syllabled mantra…..referring to that Shiva that is everything:
Ohm (the primordial sound)
Na… relating to the Earth; the most manifest
Ma … relating to Water; that which nurtures all life;
Shi …relating to Fire; the passionate transforming power
Va… relating to Air; discrimination and movement in body and intellect
Ya…relating to Space; pointing to the all-consciousness, the Divine consciousness
We ourselves have all these qualities, so the meaning of the mantra is understood as
“ I bow to my inner Self,
  I bow to the Divine Consciousness
  I surrender to the Lord of All”.

Ohm namah Shivaya