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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.

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

Ahimsa or Non-Violence.

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

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

music by: Sunblood, Nahanni

Time Will Tell

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

Slow

The Inner Altar

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

 

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

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

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

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.

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

Recent Rumblings

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

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

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.