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 ...