Sun and Moon Healing Arts

Earth

2012-01-29T09:50:00.000-08:00

The element earth is the fifth of the five pancha mahabhutus. It comes fifth because it has evolved from the previous four elements: water, fire, air and ether.

The elements are as simple as a child's toy stacking cups: five different colors of cups, five graded sizes that fit into each other, so simple yet so profound and subtle in their metaphor.

Now if you turn the cups upside down and build a pyramid from the ground up, ether would represent the final cup, the first element. All the elements are born of ether and contained within earth.

Ether provides space for earth to exist ... Air provides earth with subtle propulsions at the sub-atomic level ... Fire is an expression of latent energy, bound by chemical bonds that hold the earth structure together ... Water acts as the bridge between gaseous matter (ether, air, fire water) and solid earth. As the process of densification narrows down, matter becomes solid, forming earth, the human body and the structure of the universe.

- Earth Magic - Earth Religions - The Worship of Mother Earth - As Above, So Below - All is contained Within -

The sense associated with earth is smell. Through the nose we take in the scents of consumption and elimination. These impressions enter the mind, body and consciousness deeply, affecting us physically and emotionally. Through the sense of smell the basic organic drives of attraction and repulsion operate and cannot be ignored.

The rectum is the organ of action. Through consumption and defecation the earth element is balanced.

Earth acts as an emotional container when we are feeling ungrounded, insecure, insignificant or vulnerable. Hence, the desire to consume comfort foods when we are feeling lost or unloved. (The safest place on earth being the heart centre, where we nestle and nurse our babies.) The danger is in going too far and being consumed by consumption itself (Mother), or an entire cycle of consumption and elimination in a struggle to regain balance. The entire body is dependent upon the earth element for its health and well-being.

A person with a deficiency of earth is unable to stand up against the challenges of the world and is easily pushed aside by stronger forces. A person of substance has the quality of earth.

Excerpts taken from
Dr. Marc Halpern
Light on Ayurveda Journal.

Water

2012-01-24T19:10:00.000-08:00

The element water is the fourth of five great elements, pancha mahabhutus.
Water evolves from ether, air and fire, containing each of them within it.

Ether provides water the space to exist within. Air gives water the ability to flow and move. The relationship between fire and water is more esoteric. Air provides the friction that generates the heat of fire. Fire's movement is fluidic and flowing. As each element evolves from one element to the next, nature becomes denser. As fire becomes denser, it cools and takes up more form. This form is water.

The water element is associated with the second chakra, wherein emotions reside. The tongue is the sense organ of water. Without moisture, the tongue cannot taste foods. Without our emotions, we cannot taste our lives. The second chakra is also where the waters of sexuality flow and one's inner claire-sentience or radar. The uncontained extra-cellular fluid that moves in unpredictable waves throughout the entire body, reflects the ocean world in which primitive life began.

The urethra is the organ of action associated with the water element. Through the male urethra, highly potent reproductive fluid is expelled. Through both the male and female urethras exess water is released through urine. Urine has been used theraputically, both internally and externally, for centuries. Within urine, salts, hormones and vitamins are efficiently re-absorbed into the body aiding in purification, healing and toning.

Water is the protector of the body. It provides the body with its most basic nourishment. The water element soothes all pain and inflammation in the body.

excerpts taken from:
Author : Dr. Marc Halpern
Light on Ayurveda Journal

Fire

2012-01-21T09:34:00.000-08:00

The element fire, is the third of the five (pancha) great (maha) elements (bhutus).

Evolved through ether and air, it contains the essence of both these elements. Ether provides fire the space to exist within and air gives fire the capacity to burn.

It is because of air that fire will never be still.

Providing heat and light fire is the generator of energy in the body and is associated with the 3rd chakra, manipura.

Fire is the process of liberating energy from its source.

Fire is connected to the visual sense, providing light for perception. The strength and intensity of one's vision is the function of fire.

"I see!"

The feet are the organs of action associated with fire. We can react quickly through the feet to dangerous fire or walk towards friendly fire. The choice of direction and the insensity of action are both functions of the fire element.

Care must be taken, if a person become too focused, intense and self-expanded. The antidote being the element earth as a container for the fire and not the source of fuel.

With earth as its container, patience and reliability operate to ensure that pure inspiration does not eventually burn the souce of its own vision.

Excerpts from:
Published: Light on Ayurvedai Journal
Author: Dr. Marc Halpern

Air

2012-01-18T05:33:00.000-08:00

The element air, is second of the five elements (pancha mahabuthus). It comes second because it evolves from ether, space. As the potential possibilities become active within space, the result is air.

The sense of touch and air are in separable. Air is associated with the 4th chakra, Anahata.

The skin is considered the associated sense organ of the element air as the hands are considered the organ of action, reaching out to touch and create the world around us.

"I was so touched!"

Astrologically, air is the element of commincation. We communicate far more through our hearts, what we radiate through our being and our gestures, than we do through words.

Heathly air is maintained through steady routines.

Emotionally, surrender leads to the highest manifestation of air or motion, and this requires faith. Faith in both self and the divine.

Excerpts taken from:
Author: Dr. Marc Halpern

Published: Light on Ayurveda Journal

The Elements

2012-01-17T05:03:00.000-08:00

Ether. Space. It is the space filled by the other elements: Air, Fire Water, Earth.

I am someone who really needs her space.

We create healthy ether or vata dosha by filling the emptiness in our lives. Our lives become full, not by being busy, but by being nourished physically and emotionally. Proper nourishment and regular routines act as a container for ether and the vata dosha.

Ether is said to be the vibration of primordial sound, or unmanifested sound. Within the chakra system, ether is associated with the 5th chakra, Vishuddha. Sound and ether are inseparable. Because of their intimate relationship, the ear is considered the associated sense organ and voice (mouth) its organ of action.

Ether has no boundaries nor does music. Music is a language that connects us all.

Excerpts taken from:

Author: Dr. Marc Halpern
Published: Light on Ayurveda Journal

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2011-12-27T14:58:00.000-08:00

Its Christmas 2011. Here in the north the Sun dipps down to its lowest, darkest point. This eason is all about the Sun. Whether its celebrated as the Son of God or the Sun God, here we sit in the liminal phase before the New Year and a new solar cycle.

The Sun as the symbol of Spirit, the Circle the symbol of Wholeness and Ouroboric beginnings.

The circle can be divided evenly over and over again. Each division modelling a different branch of wholeness.

12 divides the circle evenly. There are 12 poses in our Surya Namaskar and 12 signs running through our Zodiac

9 divides the circle evenly. 40 times! Many of us have experienced or witnessed the power of 40 as a cycle of transformation, as in the number of weeks a human baby grows inside his/her mother's womb to full-term.

12 x 9 = 108.

Many Eastern religions have recognized 108 as having sacred energy. 108 Sun Salutations is often used to honor change, as in a change of seasons, or at a time of tragedy to bring peace, respect and understanding.

108 divides the circle 3.333333333333 ad infinitum. Its a model of an open system. It has no boundaries.

2011-12-10T12:59:00.000-08:00

She would not have seen it, had she not believed it.

Ahimsa or Non-Violence.

2011-11-13T21:26:00.000-08:00

The first of eight limbs in Patanjali's Raja Yoga are the Yamas. Yamas are considered to be kinds of restraints or social conduct.

The first and most important yama is Ahimsa, or non-violence. Why? Because all of what we are doing on the path is leading towards Peace.

Deep Inner, Ever-Lasting Peace is where we are headed and so it is counter intuitive to make pain, choose harm.

The obvious take on this code is to not physically harm one's self or others. While meditating I saw how deep this Yama could go and its subtlty. Does this mean I have to use nicey-nicey language at all times? No more cussing when a screwball situation slaps me in the face?- (See that last sentence could be classified as violence!) No, it means not speaking in ways that could hurt others, as in an attack or petty gossip.

Does this mean restraining from violent thoughts or thoughts that could possibly harm others? - Yes it does. We have no private thoughts. We are always exposed for those who care to see. And when we hurt others, we ultimately hurt ourselves and destroy our Peace.

Does this mean stepping aside when we are attempting to modify another's process, in the motivation of doing what is best for them? Here is the grey area, especially for care takers of those less able to speak or act for themselves. How deeply we must appreciate and connect with the work we are doing to do it well.

Now what of the environment? How we care for our planet is obviously in need. Many of us are re-learning our approach to life on this earth. Yet what of the energetic environment? How can we become more responsible and aware of the clouds we carry behind us that could be possibly blocking the Sun for others? Often times what is so obvious to those around us is obscured from ourselves.

                      and so to have more Self-awareness
                      with less self-conciousness and more self-acceptance
                      because Peace has no attachments

Social Conduct , Restraint- No Harm, Ahimsa.
What follows are Protection and Respect- the gifts of Saturn.

40 Days

2011-09-28T05:05:00.000-07:00

I am on day 22 of the 40 Days meditation created and guided by Cheryl Sanderson.

I have been taking Spiritual Awareness Meditation classes with Cheryl for about 4 years. Each time I enter into one of her "big" meditation programs, I go through a wavering.... Should I? ...Will I? ...Want I? ...Can I? ...and Why? ...There is always the cynical "Why" waiting to judge my next commitment to Spirit.

Yet what I found from the moment I determined that I would step onto the 40 Day path was that it presented itself to me as a Gift. A Gift being offered to me. Grace. I knew that I only had to accept it. Most of what I am receiving on this journey is the teaching of how DEEPLY ... I can accept the Gift of God, the Truth of Love. Its earth shattering at times, leaving my heart wide open like new born and other times when body isn't loving it, it is aching in defence. And as usual, in Cheryl's classes, her meditations kick the Hell out of my analysing mind.

The 40 Days is proving itself to be a journey that goes straight through any personal BS and boldly unleashes, thoughts and feelings, of being separate from the Creator, over and over again.

Coming closer to God, and maturing more into what it means to be human.

I know I’ll be doing the 40 Days again because I know the journey is as endless.

Jupiter in Gemini

2011-07-13T08:19:00.000-07:00

music by: Sunblood, Nahanni

Time Will Tell

2011-07-07T08:31:00.000-07:00

Hatha Yoga + a dose of Astrology.

Becoming your own authority takes time. Anyone with a lot of Capricorn in their natal chart or a Sun/Saturn theme will tell that during their childhood, they never really felt like they matched up to “The Standards”. Early life was not a time for coasting along or being buoyed by the flowing stream of it all.
“Row, Row, Row, your Boat, …Gently down a stream, …”

Take a Deep Inhale, ‘cause you are going Under!

How many times have you been instructed to take a Deep Inhale in your yoga class? How may classes have you taken? So how many Deep Inhales is that?

To be born as a potential individual person is to breath. It is for this reason that the yogi who aspires to merge his individuality with the universal Whole practices pranayama—literally death(control) of breath. He wilfully disindividualizes and depersonalizes his total being, or at least his consciousness. Dane Rudhyar

Saturn is Time as well as Fear, Limits, Restrictions and ultimately Karma. Karma: The consequence of an action is really not a separate thing. It is a part of the action and cannot be divided from it.

Saturn is what you are here to learn, appreciate and master over time. None of it is instant, easy or given freely. Even if it involves talent, which of course it does, the Mastery is latent because there are layers to be removed. The Rings of Saturn are rewards earned over time and likewise, are the rewards of yoga.

The first level of Saturn is the task master, the boss, that keeps you working overtime. There are those who are their own bosses and work themselves overtime. Yet internalizing the “The Standards” that keep one doing and doing is not Self-Mastery. The second level of Saturn is Self-Authority that lives within the Being.

What will Time tell you about your Yoga practice?- Quite simply, the depth of your breath and not how perfectly you can touch your toes. Breath is connected to consciousness. Consciousness is where we experience ourselves connected to Spirit as Spiritual Beings. The poses are a map work for the prana-breath to flow within. Consciousness is the saddle the rider harnesses him/herself into. Prana-breath is the horse. The nadis are the roads of each pose and the terrain is the landscape within. Its a practice of riding breath, contained within the consciousness of Spirit.

The extent that the body is able to move into a backbend or a forward fold is inconsequential. Saturn’s rightful place in the birthchart is the 10th house at the top of the wheel. It is the castle of achievement at the top of the mountain. Whether the practitioner is bending one inch or ten, makes no difference. Does the rider stop riding once the castle has been reached? For those who yearn only for the applause of achievement, then yes; but that is not Yoga, the Union, the complete Circle.

Limitations (forward folds) and Fear (back bends) are the materials the yogi works with, which have no ultimate end. The practice is an internal unfolding. It is about coming to one’s edge of mind-body and the spirit holding the two. Spiritual awareness simply witnessing limitation/achievement while staying present within expansive breath. ....Riding off the crest of the mountaintop to the awakening (11th house) awe experience (12th house). ...Pretty big stuff. Difficult to translate into words. That is why the symbols of astrology work so well, as does the Sanskrit language.

Those who ride beyond the castle continually make the leap into faith and know that place as Love. In Sanskrit this is Prem, or Ocean of Love.

Ultimately, Saturn can teach us the Realness of Love and that it is lasting.

Astral Body Yoga

2011-07-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

Slow

2011-07-02T19:14:00.000-07:00

The Inner Altar

2011-05-14T09:59:00.000-07:00

Yes, the Body is the Temple, yet the Temple has no actual lasting form. The Temple itself will never bring one Peace. The Temple's true Holiness lies at the Inner Altar. The real beauty of the Temple cannot be seen with the physical eye. For this we need to turn inwards. Spirtual sight can not see the structure at all; it can however, see the Inner Altar with perfect clarity.

Crack The Egg

2011-04-18T16:42:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Big New Spring / Brand re-New-ing Spirit

Crack the Egg; Crack the Ego: Crack the Code.

"The very word egg means "to incite to action", explains gynocologist Christiane Northrup, M.D. "The egg literally "eggs on" new life. ... Although we have been lead to believe that a mother's egg merely sits there and waits to be "acted upon" by the sperm, newer research has shown that the egg is not a passive participant in reproduction. First of all , the egg actually sends out a signal that attracts sperm to it. Once fertilized, eggs become the original mothers. They see potentail and faciliate it into becoming reality."

Organic Yoga

2011-02-26T11:12:00.000-08:00

As we move into various poses during our yoga practice, we compress our organs. The weight of the trunk and limbs both apply compressive support to a certain area of organs in each pose. This compression tones and energizes the organs which than feeds energy into the whole system from the inside-out.

In downward dog the guts get turned nearly up-side down; density of the organs slowly shifts as gravity draws in a fresh ground surface to the intestines. And as you hang out in your downdog, the top of your brain drains intoa freshly compressed surface and the center of your head draws towards the center of the earth.

The opposite force of compression is suspension. Mobility and expression arise from a grounded surface. So as the arms in down-dog are fuelled by the heart suspending, that energy travels upwards through the spinal line and into the pelvic cavity.

Shoulder Stand and Sphinx are mirror comparisons. In the inversion, the heart and upper chest are receiving compressive support while the pelvic organs are suspending support for the rest of the trunk. The compression of the heart strengthens the chest, giving more buoyancy to the lift-off of the arms. The digestive and reproductive organs suspend the weight of the trunck and float the legs above. The more toned the organs become through compression and suspension, the less the muscles need to "work" to lift the frame of the container. In Sphynx, the heart suspends the chest, feeding energy into the arm and eyes, while the pelvic organs receive compressive support and that toning flows into the legs.

The body will not release unless it feels supported. Our emotions will not honestly release unless we as beings feel supported. There is a link between the body and the emotions that is deeper than the muscles and the joints. The keystone to the poses and our emotional equilibrium is the soft stuff inside.

“Support and balance within a body are a process of continuous [cellular] awareness, not a static goal to achieve. This is also true of our emotional experience, support, balance and strength which develop out of and are closely related the organs’ physical processes. These are aspects of one’s life work, not something to be quickly found and dispensed with.” Linda Hartley, Wisdom of the Moving Body.

It is worth questioning, why we as yogis keep searching for that new edge. What is it about creating the intensity of physical, emotional andpsychic pressure? And that line between ease and effort? We’ve all got poses that we hate, that make us feel mad, scared or downright tortured. The practice yoga is how you get in that space and what you do once you are there. Like a spiritual warrior, you need to stay very close to inner voice or you are going to get hurt. In extreme poses. Instinctively the body knows this. Our challenge is to contain each pose as stable-supportive and then play with the mobility-expressiveness therein. It is a continuous interchange.

... ((BREATH))((BREATH)) conscious mind: effort/limitation ((BREATH)) ((BREATH)) unconscious mind: freedom/expression ...

Smoking Yoga

2011-01-29T10:42:00.000-08:00

My job is to teach people how to breathe. I am a yoga teacher. I teach people how to be present with their breath and allow their breath to support them as well as release them. The fact that we must always become empty and full with this stuff that we can never touch, breath, and that this stuff connects our inner space to our surrounding space is a reality I am in awe of. Truly, that we must constantly in order to stay alive, re-connect the wave inside us with what is around us.

Yoga means “to join”, as in the unification of two things. We can take this concept further with the breath, as the living bridge between mind with body. Others take yoga to mean joining hands and feet in a forward bend. Others understand it to mean joining the human heart with the heart of God. Either way is correct. It is a process. Whether you’re touching hands to feet or reaching for God, there must be movement. This movement is yoga.

Yoga is not about adopting any particular set of beliefs but about coming to know through your own experience. As in one’s breath; it is absolutely personal and direct. Nobody else can do it for you, though you can turn your breathe onto automatic, breath shallow, not notice the quality, until you finally, you step outside and vroom! Fresh air feels so good and you take in a deep breath.

It has been said that there are only two groups of people who are conscious of their breath. Yogis and smokers, or smoking yogis. Having been a smoker before I became a yogini, I remember fondly the drawing in of smoke as I inhaled from a cigarette and the pleasure of watching the smoke trail from my mouth. Yet yoga won the love of my breathe. Doing both was like cheating on a lover.

Practicing yoga is not about blindly following anything or anyone, but about assisting you on your chosen path. Yoga is a science and study of the Self. It is a vehicle for inner growth and development. Yoga emphasizes the doing and the practice. Perhaps someday when I’m old and completely and honestly irreverent, I’ll chose to practice cigarettes with my yoga and title it Smoking Yoga, but not in this town, where cigs are way too expensive and smoking in public is likened to being a pariah. I’d have go back to some place European or Asian.

Unlike smoking, yoga can be adapted to fit everybody, no matter what size, shape, age, or physical condition—all are welcome.

Re-Seen through the Child

2011-01-29T02:16:00.000-08:00

Many of us have forsaken the real pleasure and satisfaction in the pure beauty and vitality of movement.

Experiment 1: Childhood environment delivers the message that Mind and Body are Separate, (beyond what is an essential process in the child's psychological development) and the child will unnaturally separate The Mind and Body.

Experiment 2: Childhood culture conveys the message that the Body is in someways degraded, sinful, or inferior to the Mind, and the child will not only control and moderate the impulses, (another natural process in healthy development), but will also repress the Vital energy that is a Human Birthrite

Parenting often gives me the gift of seeing my own childhood conditioning (Saturn). Not always pleasant, infact my hottest buttons are always the deepest. Seven years into parenting and now I am starting to experience the gifts (Jupiter/perspective), with gratitude.

2011-01-23T09:27:00.000-08:00

The simplification of anything is always sensational.
G.K. Chesterson.

Recent Rumblings

2011-01-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

Getting in the swing of social media has been slow and kind of scary for me. Be it that my progressed Sun is sitting at 00 degrees Aquarius, I am now having dreams of the interconnectedness of beings through the electronic communication space. The dreams have showed the "numbers of units" that separate the personal profile from the electronic stream. The boundaries are becoming very thin obviously. In one dream I was shown how the connected field could save a car crash from happening. As one driver was on the verge of having a heart attack, this information was immediately released into the stream of traffic surrounding her, and before the heart attack took hold of her and her car drove out of control, the stream slowed down to buffer, protect and avoid an ensuing crash. Thats a definite positive outcome of the Technology's development!

Grounding and New Earth Creatures

2011-01-13T16:27:00.000-08:00

At such moments
the holding environment
has arms around
and grounding the I AM moment can be endured,
or rather risked.

Through-to-another=Year

2011-01-02T10:36:00.000-08:00

If you mark your New Year on Jan. 1st, the tail end of December is complete with family, celebration, sorrow, joy, effort, indigestion and clean-up!

Its a birth. And with every birth there comes a passage. The last twelve days of December, starting at the Solstice, begin a period where our schedules start to accomdate the New Year's Energy. Decorating your home, making space in your calendar for special people and events, we all have our own rig-a-ma-role: its a time of Scheduled Disruption. A neccessary procedure. Twelve days of Disruption, sacred disruption, for its the celebration of the re-euion with "Sun of God". Astrology written in plain english within the Bible. Three days after the darkest night of the year, we find the days getting little by little, longer and longer. We unhinge the last year, be it through drink and merriment or degrees of sorrow, suppressed rage, unrest, and like any birth, death travels along side and we are compelled to take up the challenge of another year.

With this New Year's Energy, may you find new feet, new ground, new support and new resistance.

Everything is OK!

2010-12-26T05:14:00.000-08:00

T & T @The Center

2010-12-22T10:02:00.000-08:00

Evening and Morning Classes have moved to this beautiful new location,
home of Actors Center for Transformation.

New Moon In Scorpio and Cleaning up our Debts

2010-11-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

Scorpio is the sign of passion and intensity, and the Truth that exists where life and death meet. This New Moon offers us an opportunity to face the darkness and discover our own Truth – to strip ourselves of any falseness and pledge to live in that Truth. New Moons begin a new cycle, and in Scorpio the challenge is to confront our emotional fears without becoming enmeshed in the story. (Astrological Musings, posted by Lynn Hayes)

Some of what Scorpio rules is oil, debt and repressed (toxic) emotions. With Venus retrograde in Scorpio, we are are all assessing what we value and how deeply it runs!
http://chevronthinkswerestupid.org/gallery

Venus Retrograde

2010-10-29T23:59:00.000-07:00

Venus is currently retrograde in Scorpio. Scorpio rules high finances, shared money, loans and debts.
Venus takes care of all that we value, relationships and currency. Venus retrograde in Scorpio makes us take a deep look and review what we find important in our world today.

Below is a link that inspired me and was found under the current transit.
If you've got a few minutes check out what love and money have done across the globe.

http://www.ted.com/talks/jessica_jackley_poverty_money_and_love.html

2010 Vancouver Yoga Conference

2010-10-29T16:08:00.000-07:00

I happily signed myself up to attend two teacher training workshops at the recent Vancouver Yoga Conference. It was the first teacher training I have attended since my eldest daughter was born. Seven years-thats a Saturn cycle!

First was Lisa Black's workshop Hands of an Angel.
http://www.shaktivinyasa.com/
I was excited for this workshop. Its focus was assisting and adjusting students in Vinyasa Flow. My teaching style was breaking out of an old mode, having reached a plateau of effectiveness. I knew that I wanted to be more involved in assisting my students to go deeper, but first I needed to get through some inner blocks myself.

I had been taught to teach poses for visual, audio and kenesic learners. I had been warned of was assisting abruptly and too deeply, for two reasons. 1) We as teachers, never know whats under the student's skin. If someone has an ongoing issue, would going deeper result in injury? ....Hence the caution. 2) Many of us have had experiences that have left us traumatized and for most of us that trauma is frozen in the cells of our body. Through yoga, those emotions rise to the surface, exposed and open. Most people are not going to allow themselves to get in "there" in a public setting. .....Hence the resistance of the body. No teacher should get in the way of this process. It belongs to the practitioner alone: a very private, direct experience.

With these two awarenesses running forefront, my assists were always sparse, mostly with words and never pressing beyond the level the students was working.

Then there were my own beliefs which formed from my own practice. It had always been a solo adventure for me. I was never one to attend classes. Occasionally I would practice with close friends at home. I watched alot of videos and read alot of books, but my yoga practice was always so personal and I didn't want anyone guiding my explorations.

I found breath alone would always adjust me, lead me. It felt right. And this is what I taught to my students and sought to give, room for them to explore. But this teaching style has its limits. The main undercurrent of my thinking or beliefs was:
If I can't get there on my own, I shouldn't get there with the help of someone else.

(Need I mention that I have strong a Saturn signature: Saturn square Sun.Venus, Mars in Capricorn.)

OMG! When I really heard that belief out loud, I nearly fell over. Where was my faith? None in others obviously. I have been operating from that place for along time. It had shaped my life. My feeling was that receiving assistance would somehow be a false arrival into the next level of a pose or life in general. As a teacher I never took students beyond where they could not go on their own and attracted only students who shared my same belief: those with strong a Saturn as well.

Yet when I experienced the assists of Lisa Black's workshop I was turned into a new direction. It was a spiralling out, literally and figuratively.
A new starting point:
Receiving can Change your Life!
Adjustments are support, not corrections; improvements to what is already good.

Thank-you Lisa Black. That was huge!

Next was Natasha Pizopoulos teaching the details of Sun Salutation A.

http://www.natasharizopoulos.com/

Here I was invited to share her wisdom and experience with her long-term relationship with the ancient microcosmic flow. I was grateful for her extremely detailed awareness and ability to communicate to others!. Through it I was finally released from long term limits I had felt with urdhva mukha svanasana. Finally I see how I can lift from the heart and have ease in my neck; my neck on route to my thinking. This translates into lifting my heart to God's heart with ease; relieved of daunting questions and pressing doubts as thoughts.

In total the conference was a wonderful place of exchange to travel the mind with individuals who shared a deep relationship to the same love, in their own way.

2012

2010-10-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

I've just finished reading the work of Christine R. Page, M.D., 2012 and the Galactic Center. The Return of the Great Mother.

http://www.christinepage.com/

The work is a woven construction of Mythology, Astrology, Alchemy and the healing process. Primarily Page's thesis rests on the idea that we, as a world civilization, are on our way back to the Great Mother: The Galactic Center. Page understands the GC from a spiritual awareness perspective, not one of astronomical co-ordinates or black hole physics. What she has processed is that the GC is the source feminine energy from which we all came from, and that, at this time in our cycle, we are all returning towards.

Undoubtedly, Page's work has developed from her own personal journey. This is what struck such a cord for myself. That while she combines her own seeing with documented research (myth and anthroplogy) she relies primarily on her own infromation and leads the reader to do the same.

For myself, with Jupiter in Gemini in the 9th, this read hit the spot. I must say, there were points where I wished she would have gone deeper and stayed longer developing her ideas, but on the whole, her work gave me new Perpsectives (Jupiter).

Mercury Retrograde.

2010-08-31T05:36:00.000-07:00

Classical Sun Salutation

2010-08-28T08:01:00.000-07:00

Jail Cell Yoga. 5 min. Warm-up.

2010-08-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

Yoga off the Mat

2010-08-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Choosing Freedom

The recent astro-weather out there has been more than intense.

The Cardinal T-square that has been with us for three weeks now has tightened our awareness of crucial aspects.

My deepest personal conditioning and the suffering it has generated has been in nearly every breath I take. Holding my breath keeps me trapped in past conditioning. Staying present to "the suffering it has generated" has been the only way to find clarity. Though the decision to descend out of prior pictures relieves me from wearing masks, it doesn’t allow me to stay in control, nor understand what is happening. Times are changing, and despite the inconvenience of having to take responsibility for my creations, I celebrate my determination to no longer stay small or in a box. I can neither determine the pace nor outcome to this experience.

Jail Cell Yoga: First Glimpse

2010-08-21T06:33:00.000-07:00

Zoom Upper Right.
Tracy Hetherington, Tricia Keith.

2010-08-19T10:22:00.000-07:00

Asana is a window that opens onto some of our deepest personal conditioning and the suffering it generates. In order to relax into things as they actually are, one must surrender every last drop of the internalized desire to feel good. That desire is shaped by our most cherished ideas about what constitutes good and bad, as well as by ingrained, organic perceptions of pain, pleasure, neutrality. Relaxing effort means letting go of limiting internal definitions. Simply put, in asana one must do less to be more.

The Yoga-Sutra of Patanjali

A New Translation with Commentary by

Chip Hartranft

Soleil Leading Us into Tree Pose

2010-07-24T13:32:00.000-07:00

Bo Bae, Soleil and Tricia: Family Yoga!

Photo: Monica Jenssen

2010-07-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

The ancient astrologers pioneered through the night to witness and record the rhythms of the heavenly bodies and their correlations with the play on earth. "As above, So below." The ancients wandered into the darkness in order to find the lights.

Release on the Exhalation

2010-07-16T19:20:00.000-07:00

Corpse Pose deepens on the exhalation.
Exhale.
Exhale.
Exhalation.
The final most important pose, deepnens on the exhalation.
The exhalation. The exhalation.
The last most inmportant pose, where all is incorporated and released.
The exhalation.

We shape our tools and afterwards, our tools shape us.

2010-07-14T05:40:00.000-07:00

Yogini: Tracy Hetherington

the Sun + your Spine

2010-07-13T09:27:00.000-07:00

The most important line in hatha yoga practice is the spine. Astrologically, the spine relates to Leo and is ruled by the Sun. The spine represents our will; hence, “the spineless bastard” is a weak-willed individual. The Sun being our brightest Luminary, requires that we feed the needs of the Sun sign and it’s placement, in order to feel vibrant and alive. One’s biological age can be denied by the condition of the spine. How can you determine your age? Youthful is supple, open to new experiences, playful and flexible; aged is ridged, concave, narrow-focused and broken-hearted. Leo also rules the heart. Notice where the eye of your heart is pointing right now, and diagnose the present condition of your spine.... How best can you serve the needs of your Sun sign and it’s placement, today?
Yogini: Tricia Keith

astrology + yoga + art

2010-07-11T14:53:00.000-07:00

Today I am thinking of the symbols that represent the elements we see in nature and astrology: earth, water, air, fire and how they link to one's yoga practice. Earth is the element belonging to Taurus, Virgo, Capricorn, as well as representing our body and our physical nature. Fire is the element belonging to Aires, Leo, Sagittarius, as well as representing our will, whose heat is contained by Air, and the signs Gemini, Libra and Aquarius.The atmosphere of our minds. We are nourished by the depths and rhythms of the oceans, our emotions and the rain, held within, Cancer, Scorpio and Picses which are then contained by the earth. The balanced interaction of these elements can be seen as nature (Spirit/Self). Our bodies communicate through our emotions. When balanced, we sense wholeness and connectedness with the centerpoint of our Selves. (The circle of Existence.)

The practice of yoga itself reflects the four elements: will (fire) is needed to carry out the discipline, to energize a sometimes sluggish body (earth) to perform postures and thereby shift, squeeze, damn up and then release the flow of fluids ( water) in union with the inner self (spirit). The asanas are the primary symbols created for the mind (air) to focus upon. The more awareness and skill the practitioner uses, the more the postures begin to take up both ends of the spectrum: lifted and grounded, forward facing and backward facing, ease and effort, of this world and not of this world.

Yogini: Tracy Hetherington

Summer 2010 - Grand Cross. Cardinal.

2010-06-29T08:21:00.000-07:00

Are you feeling like the pressure is on? Are expectations on high?
Creative Problem Solving is a thrilling ride when you feel like you are co-creating with the Source.
Curve balls from parnters, frenemies have extra zing, but so do the effects of our come backs.
Beware./Being Aware.
ease. Easing-Up on the accelarator and remembering that moderation is a life-enhancing compass and not a kill-joy parent. No one wants their party plans crushed.

I would not have seen it had I not believed it.

2010-06-28T21:35:00.000-07:00

June 26, 2010. Full Moon. Grand Cross

2010-06-26T18:43:00.000-07:00

Yes, what an appropiate time to start this blog. First entry. Full Moon in Capricorn, aspecting my north node in Gemini, quincunx. Healing, dis-eased, Healing. Thats how my life flows. My Sun and Moon are quincunx natally by exact degree, so dis-ease and healing are a life theme and work for me.

My intention is to create this blog as a place to disperse information about the work I and other like minded individuals create for the purposes of healing, raising consciousness and living creatively.

Peace,
Tricia