Everything is OK!

T & T @The Center

  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

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

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

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

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.

Classical Sun Salutation

Jail Cell Yoga. 5 min. Warm-up.

                                                                  

Yoga off the Mat

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

Zoom Upper Right.
Tracy Hetherington, Tricia Keith.

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

Bo Bae, Soleil and Tricia: Family Yoga!

Photo: Monica Jenssen

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

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.

                  

                                                                    
                                                                                        


Yogini: Tracy Hetherington

the Sun + your Spine

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

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.

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.

June 26, 2010. Full Moon. Grand Cross

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