Rebirth of the Light: Tending the Inner Fire at the Winter Solstice – New Year

Inside the fertile darkness the light emerges…

The Winter Solstice on December 21 is the darkest point of the year. At this time, ritual and celebratory fires are lit across the Earth. This includes Yule logs in Northern Europe and the five-day fasting and fire ceremonies of the local Chumash in Malibu. There are more cross-cultural rituals, celebrations and festivals around the Winter Solstice than any other time of the year.

It was just a generation or two ago in the United States that the solar-lunar light and a living flame was replaced by an electric switch. We cannot just erase the memory of the fire we have been tending for over two million years. We have a biological, cultural, and spiritual connection to this turning point.  The changing sunlight we receive through our eyes reaches our pineal gland to harmonize our biorhythms with the increasing light. We are born from a primordial fire some 13.7 billion years ago and the elementary molecules of our body are still alive with this original creative explosion.

Fire is center of our origins, our extraordinary solar system, and in our ancestral fire-keeping.  At the point of greatest darkness, the living flame speaks to our cellular memory.

Winter Solstice Practices and the Sacred Fire

Agni is the Sanskrit name for the sacred fire. Within the roots of yoga in Tantric and Vedic culture, it symbolically has two faces. One is creative, the other destructive. Agni ignites both cellular metabolism and mental, emotional and spiritual regeneration. This brings inspiration, passion, and new life to every aspect of our being. Agni is also the force of purification. Through purification, it is the dissolution of old cells and old ideas to make room for the new.

In the unbroken continuity of yagna (the Vedic and Tantric fire ritual that has been offered for at least 3,500 years) we find the connection of our microcosm to the macrocosm. The fire altar is in the shape of the vastu purusha or cosmic soul envisioned as a human body with the central fire as the heart and all of the planets and elements as the limbs. Fire is  at the center of the altar and of our journey around the extraordinary fireball of our solar star that has been circling for over 4.5 billion years.

Sandhya Tandava – Connecting with the Cosmic Rhythm

Arising from the Winter solstice in the heart, the breath circulates in the bodies of all beings through 12 months before returning to the heart.

—Svacchanda Tantra VII.119ii (Christopher Tompkins, translator)

The Winter Solstice – New Year time is a special sandhya or sacred juncture allowing us to link our bodies with cosmic rhythms. In the mythology of Siva and Shakti, this universe flows from their “sandhya tandava” This is the cosmic dance (tandava) of the sacred junctures of time (sandhya). It creates the rhythm from the quantum pulse, our breath through the lunar and planetary cycles and solar seasons.

Rtucharya (from the Vedic rtam, meaning “cosmic rhythm”) is the knowledge of how to live in rhythm with the changing seasons of the solar year. Like our inhale and exhale, the year is seen as two major movements that connect with the Solstices.

The Cycle of Growth and Manifestation Begins with the Winter Solstice throughout the Spring

The uttarayana cycle follows the time from the greatest darkness to the peak of light, This auspicious solar cycle when the plant world grows from seed to fullness with the waxing light is the optimum time for creative manifestation.

The Cycle of Reflection and Regeneration is from the Summer to the Winter Solstice

During the six-month dakshinayana cycle, after the Summer peak, the Sun’s energy wanes and the Moon’s energy increases, as the lunar period bringing cooling energy back to the Earth towards the Winter Solstice and a natural time for going inward, reflection, and regeneration.

The waxing and waning lunar energy as well as the flow of the day mirrors this same cycle of fullness to release to igniting again on a microcosmic level.

Tending the Inner Fire—The Cosmic Vinyasa

The One who impels the universe is the Source of Consciousness
to be discovered within the flow of one’s own vital breath.
O Beloved One, Shiva gives rise to the year, the month, the half-month, and the day.
Find Siva within time through Shakti, who is the cyclical flow of breath-time in the body

– Svacchanda Tantra

It is important to know as modern yoga practitioners that vinyasa within the Tantra was connected a way of the realizing and embodying the cosmic rhythm as the vinyasa or “sequence of consciousness.” In the early Tantric tradition, every breath is an experience of the waxing and waning, solar-lunar micro-cycle flowing from the sacred juncture within the heart. The oscillation from dawn to dusk, New Moon to Full Moon, from Winter to Summer Solstices and Equinoxes are the way the vinyasa of our breath in connection with the cosmic rhythm.

The Solstices and the Breath

The Winter Solstice is experienced in the body as the peak of the inhale, the kumbhaka moment where mantra is offered to the fire of the heart in the tantric practice of Ucchara. The Winter Solstice in our body as well as our outer world is a moment of great intensity to transform the old into the new.

The peak of the Winter Solstice is when the breath resides in the heart – the moment of internal fire offering. We can ignite our inner heart fire (known in Sanskrit as atma jyotir) with the same intensity of devotion and love.

Whatever offering is made at this sacred juncture is an extraordinary time to resynch your body and soul to the increasing light – the birth of the Sun.

At this time, we are given a cosmic jumpstart as we synch with the macro support of the increasing light of the waxing next six months of the year.

Lighting the Solstice Fire

For many world cultures, the Winter Solstice is the macro new year as the ritual marker to truly let go, honor, and bring closure to the past year and ignite our deepest visions and intentions for the coming year with the living flame From your own home altar, fireplace, bonfire or ritual “kund” or “fire altar womb,” you can have one central fire that connects you to your Solstice-New Year fire.

Winter Solstice Practices for Igniting a Living Flame

• Clear your inner and outer spaces.  Release the clutter, stagnant, or unfinished energy of the year.
• Create an altar space for the Winter Solstice-Christmas-New Year with your own connection to a sacred fire in the form of a oil lamp or candle.
• Reflect in the days before the solstice on your dedication and prayers writing on a piece of paper or papers your offerings for dissolution (to give to the fire the night before) and igniting for the Winter Solstice-New Year.
• Unplug and live only with candlelight on the eve or the evening of the Winter Solstice.
• Ignite your fire with your living dedication and prayer in your own authentic ritual way.
• Enjoy creating your own candle yourself from beeswax (easy to roll with beeswax sheets). Or use any other non-polluting substance like soy or hemp. Imbue it with scent and natural color.  Tie your prayers to the candle.
• Link the Winter Solstice – Christmas – New Year (which falls on a new moon this year) by keeping a continuous votive candle burning or light with your mediations.
• Learn the simple form of Vedic fire ceremony (homa or agni hotra) to be able to offer mantra to a living flame. agni (www.agnihotra.org).
• Learn the ucchara sadhana connecting to the inner fire altar that my friend and scholar Christopher Tompkins has been dedicated to teaching this meditation (shaivayoga.com).
• Tending our heartfire is staying connected through all the cycles of our life. This is true through the shadow and fertile darkenss to the fires of renewal and organic process of manifestation.

Live the Cycles of the Solstice-New Year

As you ignite the Solstice-New Year, be open to consciously living the vinyasa of the over 800 million breaths, 365 sunrise and sunsets, 26 New and Full Moons and eight solar junctures that form the vinyasa of the year. While the outer world moves in a holiday flurry, dive into the deeper rhythm of inner renewal and feel the extraordinary legacy of our inner fire. Swaha!

Shiva Rea

Shiva Rea is a shaktidasi—servant of the life-force. She is the dedicated founder of Prana Flow—Energetic Vinyasa and Samudra Global School for Living Yoga offering pilgrimage and yogadventure retreats, teacher trainings, and online programs in collaboration with teachers, artists, and activists around the world: pranaflowyoga.com.

www.pranaflowyoga.com

The post Winter Solstice Practices from Yoga and Ayurveda appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

 

Shiva Rea and Students Yoga for Peace Mala Photo by David Young-Wolff

In the

In the end 

these things matter most:

How well did you love?

How fully did you live?

How deeply did you let go?

–Siddhartha Gautama

Fall Equinox and the Season

In the Fall Equinox, or Alban Elfed in the Celtic tradition, we are given an opportunity to embody the meeting point of life and death, light and darkness, Sun, Earth, and Moon that the cosmic body and Earth are reflecting all around us. No matter if we’re in a country or urban setting, the changes are occurring. The Sun is rising and setting differently. The plant world is peaking and drying, the colors are changing, our activities are shifting. And the world at large is also at a turning point.

Fall is the season of the New Year in both Hindu and Jewish cultural traditions. This is why the New Year begins with the strong sadhana period of Navaratri-Diwali, and Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Both yearly cycles begin with a period of prayer, reflection, eating healing foods or fasting, and grounding into the mysteries of life (creation and dissolution) so embodied in the Fall Equinox moment of light. The Equinox is balanced in equal darkness but moving toward the peak of greatest darkness.

Vitality Rhythm and Flow—Ayurvedic Wisdom for Fall Season

Ayurveda’s emphasis on purification in balance with regeneration, activity, and rest, as well as stimulation and restoration is a perfect complement to the fall. Because this is when we begin our journey into balancing the change of the season and balance of dark and light. During the fall, vata dosha is the predominant aspect of nature. Made up of the ether (space) and air elements, vata governs the generation of movement within the universe, which initiates all motion inside and outside of the body.  Vata and prana, our vital life-energy, are connected, for life is movement and movement is the sign of life.

Vata orchestrates all forms of circulation. This includes physical movement (actions), mental activity (perception, thoughts, insights), communication (words), respiration, and the pulse and function of our heart, as well as the flow of our nervous system. Vata brings the positive mobile qualities of inspiration, creativity, spontaneity, and initiation. When disturbed these can manifest as the qualities of insecurity, anxiety, worry, fear, and overwhelm. These qualities can become exacerbated under stress.

Fall is the time to balance and nourish ourselves. Staying close to the earth is reflected in completing the harvest of one’s creativity from the beginning of the year with the steady, calm, grounded qualities that are so healing to vata.

Five Anchors for the Fall

1. Slow down: try not to eat on the run or multitask. Stay present and move mindfully and consciously.
2. Protect the body from cold and wind: wear a hat and scarf to soothe excess vata in the head (ears), and keep the lower back covered so that excess vata does not build up in the pelvis/colon.
3. Eat moist and warm foods: refrain from cold and raw foods.
4. Make oil your best friend: oil the entire from head to toe to prevent dry, rough skin.
5. Keep grounded: enjoy activities and food that keep you connected to the earthy and heavy qualities. Take an Energy Sabbath for the Fall Equinox. Participate in a Global Mala or Mala for peace.

Energy Sabbath – Doing Nothing to Do Something

The Fall Equinox along with the ritual holidays of fall are potent times to unplug, tend your energy, and listen deeply to your heart.

It is possible that our ancestors understood that “Doing nothing can be doing something.” The universal teaching that being is a form of acting, that repose and reflection are often the best course of action. Ritual holidays are the rhythmic legacy of our ancestors as times for letting go of work and interruptions from the outside world.  This rhythm of retreat—referred to as the Sabbath in western spiritual culture—offers a new form of sacred activism. This is an energy activism that can be offered for the transformation of our energy future that must happen within our lifetime.

UN International Day of Peace and the Global Mala Project

Another way we can tap into the power of fall is through a Global Mala. In 2007, the Global Mala Project was started as a way to bring people around the world together to work with the collective heart field by synchronizing breath, intention, and global awareness in yoga practice connected to 108 (from surya namaskar or sun salutation to mantra japa or repetition of sacred sounds). The intent is to raise consciousness and funds for good causes. It has since traveled around the world through more than 50 countries and continues every year on the United Nations’ International Day of Peace, which takes place around the Fall Equinox, and at any time ritual activation is needed.

The Global Mala offers an opportunity to connect with the yoga community at large: across all borders, styles of yoga, and forms of yoga each year on the fall equinox. This ritual goes beyond the norm, with practices of 108 sun salutations and 108 mantra japa. It combines yoga with action by offering the power of that energy and funds toward a greater purpose by supporting the organization of your choice. There is a profound vibrational ripple effect of students and teachers coming together as a mala—a circle of unity and peace—in yoga studios and centers across the globe on the International Day of Peace.

The Power of 108

The number 108 has long been considered sacred in yoga and many other spiritual traditions around the world. “Renowned mathematicians of Vedic culture viewed 108 as a number representing the wholeness of existence. This number also connects the sun, the moon, and the earth. The average distance of the sun and the moon from the earth is 108 times the sun’s and moon’s respective diameters. Such phenomena have given rise to many examples of ritual significance.”

There are 108 chapters of the Rig Veda, 108 Upanishads, and 108 primary Tantras; 108 marma points, or sacred places of the body; 108 classic dance postures. Even 108, seen in the number of steps leading to the Devi Chamundi Hill in Mysore.

Practice Offering a Yoga Mala: 108 Surya Namaskar or Sun Salutations

The Source of Love shines in the heart of all.

Seeing one in all creatures

the wise forget themselves in the service of all.

The world is their joy, the One is their refuge;

such as they are lovers of the One.

—Mundaka Upanishad

Offering a collective yoga mala practice is a powerful experience of heart entrainment as people move together for 18 to 108 rounds of collective movement around the breath pulse we all share. Empower yourself in your own practice first, on ritual holidays, before leading a group.

Create a sacred space for your practice

If possible, bring everyone into a mandala circle to practice around a community altar. The circle empowers the community and is symbolic of a mala, but not all spaces lend themselves to a circle—if yours does not, don’t let this deter you.

Create mala counters

Create two bowls to count from. In Bowl One, place twenty-seven seeds, and leave Bowl Two empty. Every time you go into a forward bend, put one seed into the empty bowl. If you choose to do the full 108 rounds, then reverse, taking seeds from Bowl Two and placing them into Bowl One. After four cycles you will have reached 108.

Introduce the yoga mala

Unify the group by chanting an invocation of Om or by chanting a mantra. Some communities may want to include a talking circle in which everyone has the opportunity to offer a dedication before you begin. Allow the first three rounds of the mala to be focused on getting everyone in synch around the power of their breath.

Offer dedications and rounds of the mala

This step is done during the first position of the namaskar when the hands are placed palms together in front of the heart in anjali mudra. Open your inner ears and listen to your heart teacher. An offering of a dedication will emerge spontaneously as a revelation. Meditate on this dedication as you move with your breath in heart-brain synchronization. Circulate this dedication through the whole round of the namaskar until your hands return back to your heart for the next round.

You can offer the complete mala of 108 namaskars in four rounds of twenty-seven, or six rounds of eighteen. Over the past twenty years, I have adapted a four-round process that moves from the microcosm within outward to the Source.

Four Rounds of the Mala

1. Round One—Dedications for personal transformation and realization. This round is for you: prayers for your own personal activation, healing, and fertilization, and for the manifestation of the potency of your life.
2. Round Two—Dedications for family, friends, and “precious jewels” (anyone you have unresolved conflict with).
3. Round Three—Dedications for the world. This is the bodhisattva round in which we pray for what we care about in the world and actively participate in transforming the world, whether we want to end war or global warming, to focus on healing of a disease, or to serve our own community’s local needs. This is a very powerful round.
4. Round Four—Dedications to the Source. This is a moving prayer that can be filled with nonverbal praise, gratitude, and joy for your feeling-connection to the Source.

When all four rounds are complete, move into shavasana (relaxation) and meditation. Read sacred texts or poetry aloud if you wish. Complete your yoga mala with a closing heart mandala dedication. Repeat the mantra Om shanti, shanti, shanti, and bathe in the radiance and empowerment of this practice.

Tending the Heart Fire

Article adapted from Tending the Heart Fire: Living in Flow with the Pulse of Life, by Shiva Rea. Copyright C 2014 by Shiva Rea. Published by Sounds True.

Shiva Rea

Shiva Rea is a shaktidasi—servant of the life-force. She is the dedicated founder of Prana Flow—Energetic Vinyasa and Samudra Global School for Living Yoga offering pilgrimage and yogadventure retreats, teacher trainings, and online programs in collaboration with teachers, artists, and activists around the world: pranaflowyoga.com.

www.pranaflowyoga.com

The post Ayurvedic Fall Practice for Well-Being and Peace appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Celebrations are synched with the Summer Solstice. June 21 is the peak of the light, the longest day of the year. Sites are built in alignment with the Summer Solstice with their architecture aligned with the cosmos. These include: the Great Pyramids in Egypt, Stonehenge in England, Callenish in Scotland, Newgrange in Ireland, Macchu Picchu in Peru, Ajanta Caves in India, Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, the serpentine burial mounds in Ohio, and the California Chumash’s hidden cave paintings

During this Solstice, the Sun is at its peak in the Northern Hemisphere. This reflects the peak of fruits and fertility of the Earth. In Ayurveda, rtucharya describes the cycle of the seasons through the year. The word is based upon the root rtu from the Vedic rtam, meaning “cosmic rhythm.” The Summer Solstice marks the peak of the uttarayana. This six-month period that begins with the Winter Solstice. The plant world grows from seed to fullness with the waxing light of the Sun, which strengthens and intensifies until the Summer Solstice.

Summer Solstice Sacred Retreat – Natural Light

The outdoor festival season is ancient and is initiated by the tradition of lighting bonfires at the Solstice. Harnessing natural light—solar power—is an essential component of the season. But we need to take care to not to overheat our fire in these times of record-breaking temperatures. Incorporating a few suggestions from Ayurvedic rtucharya and giving space to Summer in your home can align you with the Summer ritam—the syncopation with the cosmic light.

Aligning with the Solstice

Create your home altar with the colors of the sun. Choose brilliant golds, reds, and oranges in fabrics, fruit, and candles. Adorn your body with the Sun’s colors to bring brightness and radiance into your being.

In a journal or while in meditation, reflect on your journey over the past six months. Remember the intentions you planted at Winter Solstice. What has transpired for you in this first half of the journey around the Sun?

Place a jar or bowl filled with water in the Sun to be energized by the Solstice rays. Drink it in the afternoon to receive the vital energy of the Sun. Place any gold jewelry you may have near a window to be recharged and blessed by the Solstice Sun.

The many music festivals around the Summer Solstice period, from Glastonbury to Wanderlust, awaken the ancestral memory of all-night celebrations where there is little darkness as the Sun sets late and rises early. Evoke this energy by finding a place in the urban environment (or outside it) where you can create a bonfire or simply enjoy a great outdoor party, with fire represented in torches. Enjoy the collective celebration with your whole being on this holy day of the peak of light.

Balancing the Fire—Summer Ayurveda Rtucharya

Summer initiates a time when the earth is most dry and arid, receiving maximum solar energy. All the radiant light is activating but depleting, and so our digestive fire is also at its weakest.

Ayurveda considers Summer a pitta season, with emphasis on the elements of fire with just a bit of water. Pitta dosha is a radiant solar force, hot and sharp. And at this time of the year it is important to balance pitta because we can easily become dehydrated.

The gunas, or qualities, of summer that we seek to balance are the following.

• Hot and sharp—balanced with relaxation.

• Oily and liquid—balanced with things that are dry but nourishing.

Five Anchors for the Summer Season

In summer, when your gaze dissolves in the endlessly clear sky, penetrate this light that is the essence of your own mind. —Vijnana Bhairava Tantra

1. Balance the excess fire that over-stimulates the pitta dosha by staying relaxed, calm, and cool, and tending fiery emotions like impatience and irritation.
2. Shift your rhythm from manifestation to celebration. Take time to slow down. Enjoy life outdoors, but avoid activities that are overly exerting between 11am and 3 pm. Stay cool and indoors or in the shade during these hours of peak sunlight.
3. Enjoy sleeping outside to breathe the fresh air and absorb moonlight, or stay up moonbathing. Sit outside under the moonlight and absorb the watery, cooling nectar from the moon.
4. Focus Summer body care on cooling the skin with calming and soothing practices (see Body Rhythm).
5. Choose foods and drinks to balance the pitta dosha. Enjoy cooling fruits and vegetables in season (see Food Rhythm). Sip on warm water or herbal water to maintain and regulate body temperature.

Food Rhythm

Due to the strong properties of the Sun and the body’s need to stay cool and release internal heat, our inner fire, agni, is pulled to the extremities to keep the body cool. Therefore digestive agni is compromised, weakening our digestive capacity. That is why in the Summer we are often less hungry and want to eat less. So it is recommended in Ayurveda to eat lighter and smaller meals during this time of year. Additional suggestions to balance pitta include the following.

1. Drink a brew of cumin, coriander, fennel, and rose or mint tea to pacify the heat, improve digestion, and calm the mind.
2. Increase sweet, bitter, and astringent foods that are light in nature. Eat plenty of bitter salad greens such as lettuce, arugula, radicchio, basil, and endive, all of which are particularly pitta balancing.
3. Favor: coconut water, watermelon, cilantro, leafy greens, okra, zucchini, asparagus, olive oil, sunflower oil, coconut oil, ghee, cucumber, soaked/peeled almonds, kale, broccoli, pomegranate, apples, cranberry, mint, dill, fennel, cardamom, coriander, and saffron.
4. Avoid or limit: tomatoes, eggplant, chili peppers, garlic, dry ginger, black pepper, fermented foods, spicy foods, sour fruits, heavy proteins, mustard oil, molasses, or coffee.
5. Include cool drinks and raw foods in your diet, such as cucumber, mango, and coconut water; natural fruit juices without added sugar, mint teas, and raw berries are also good choices.
6. Reduce sour, salty, and pungent tastes.

Body Rhythm

1. Give yourself a slow and loving full-body massage before taking a shower. Use pitta massage oil, coconut oil, or sunflower oil. Pitta season can create conditions for inflammation and over-activity of certain metabolic processes and secretions. Massage helps things move through the body and can be soothing.
2. A rosewater mister is a wonderful refresher for the face and body, as are a cooling milk and mint bath, or milk with rose petals. Make a sandalwood face mask with rose water. Have fresh aloe nearby for any pitta skin conditions that may arise, from sunburns to rashes.
3. Summer essential oils / scents include: sandalwood, rose, lavender, jasmine, lotus, gardenia, khus, and vetiver.
4. While we may choose to wear the colors of the Sun to honor and enhance the energy of this time of year, when we notice the fire increasing beyond a level that is comfortable and we need to cool the body, we are served by cooling hues of white, blue, or green. No matter what color we wear, light textures of cotton, linen, or silk allow us to move easily throughout the season.

Energetic Vinyasa for the Summer Season

Kala

Continue to synch with the Sun, gradually getting up earlier before the sunrise; this is the peak time of growth, so synch your movements with that waxing light. Offer yoga outdoors in the shade so you can take in the fresh prana of the elements at this time.

Desa

If you are already experiencing the heat of Summer, be aware of the effects of Summer on excessive fire in your body. Begin to wear more cooling colors and white to stay in the bhava of Summer.

Bhava

Bask in the Summer joy but be aware that the Sun has reached its peak in the Northern Hemisphere and has begun its journey of waning for the next six months. The relaxing, easygoing quality of a more lunar, fluid nature can be integrated into the expansiveness of summer qualities—celebratory, sukha (intrinsic happiness), loving appreciation of the best of life, and the ease you feel in your body.

Dosha

The Summer Season is time when those who did not cleanse fully in the Spring are most vulnerable to experiencing accumulated ama, or toxins, which can burn “impurely” during the excess heat-related imbalances of Summer. Summer yoga practices and a proper clean-food sadhana can, with some mild cleanses, help you feel more balanced and clear in the prana flow of your body, which is the most open during the Summer.

Yoga Practice

This is the best time of the year for Sringara Rasa, practices to nourish the water element to balance excess heat as well as to tend the fires of love and appreciation. Cultivate lunar or Shanti Rasa practices as well if you are feeling the blissful lazy quality of a natural shift into ida nadi or the lunar current. This is the best season for flexibility and ease of range of motion, which can be enjoyed in fluid backbends, namaskars to increase flow and agility, and Sringara Rasa circular movements for increasing the love flow.

1. Enjoy stimulating cooling practices at this time: sitali (hissing breath), slow and deep ujjayi pranayama, and nadi shodhana.
2. Asanas that remove excess heat from the body, such as forward bends and mild backbends, are most suitable. Avoid asanas that build heat. Do cooling pranayama such as sheetali, sheetkari, chandra bedhana, and nadi shodhana.
3. Enjoy solar mantras at sunrise such as the Gayatri mantra or the simple Om Suraye Namaha to align with solar energy.

Allow the Summer Solstice to penetrate your awareness of how extraordinary our journey on Spaceship Earth as we begin the second half of the year.

Our Extraordinary Sun

One of three hundred billion stars of the Milky Way galaxy, the Sun each and every second transforms four million tons of itself into light and emits energy that we receive some ninety-three million miles away—a continuous process of creation/dissolution.

Through the magnificence of solar power, and the process of photosynthesis, we are given the air to breathe, food to eat, and water to drink. Sunlight is indeed the divine source of prana. We are literally made of the Sun, our great star.

We live in an abundance of energy. The Sun’s radiant energy produces six thousand times the amount of energy used by all human beings worldwide, and it would take only 0.001 percent of its energy to power all of the world’s current energy needs for a day. One hour of the Sun is enough for a whole year of power.

Consider solar power to balance your carbon footprint – natural light, solar lamps, putting solar-panels on your house, using solar lamps or cookers or supporting solar-aids.com   project.

Tending the Heart Fire

Article adapted from Tending the Heart Fire: Living in the Flow with the Pulse of Life by Shiva Rea. Copyright 2014 by Shiva Rea. Published by Sounds True in January, 2014. 

Shiva Rea

Shiva Rea is a shaktidasi—servant of the life-force. She is the dedicated founder of Prana Flow—Energetic Vinyasa and Samudra Global School for Living Yoga offering pilgrimage and yogadventure retreats, teacher trainings, and online programs in collaboration with teachers, artists, and activists around the world: pranaflowyoga.com.

www.pranaflowyoga.com

The post Summer Ritam appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

In Ayurveda, rtucharya describes the cycle of the seasons.

The word comes from the root rtu from the Vedic rtam, meaning “cosmic rhythm.” Within the great mandala of the yearly cycle, the Earth completes its orbit around the Sun, bringing cold and heat, dark and light, to our environment, including all creatures and our own bodies.

The uttarayana, the six-month period that begins with Winter Solstice, is a time for the great exuberance of life. The plant world grows from seed to fullness with the waxing light of the sun, which strengthens and intensifies until summer solstice.

Winter can generally be divided between the vata and kapha energies. The early part of Winter, marked by wind and dryness (vata), then shifts to the later colder, damper aspects (kapha). In this cycle, it becomes important to stay in alignment with the forces of nature as we move from the lightness of Fall to the heaviness of Winter, then yield to Spring.

Read Shiva Rea’s practices for the fall season. 

SPRING

This is a time of renewal and rebirth for all cycles, offering awakening, warmth, and growth. Kapha predominates during this time, as the forces of earth and water are strongest and exert their influence upon the earth and our bodies. Pitta emerges in later spring as the sun begins to peak.

And still, after all this time, the Sun has never said to the Earth, You owe me. Look what happens with love like that. It lights up the sky.

—Hafiz

The first signs of spring are the breaking open as death gives way to life: buds bursting from the trees, shoots leaping from the earth, a great rising amid the debris of winter. For nature, renewing herself through dying is the only way she can be reborn. And this rebirth is what links the Spring Equinox to the other holidays of Easter, Passover, Purim, and the Goddess Sarasvati festival Vasant.

Alban Eilir – Spring Equinox

Alban Eilir, “light of the earth,” is the balance point between the Winter and Summer solstices of Imbolc and Beltane. The Spring Equinox is one of two times during the year when the tilt of the Earth’s axis is parallel to the center of the Sun. On this day, the forces of darkness and light are equally matched, with light on the increase. It is a time of great fertility and hopefulness, containing the promise of abundant crops and bourgeoning creativity, aligned with the holidays connected to the reigniting of the candle flame — from the Jewish Passover as a time of liberation, to the Christian Easter as a time of the resurrection of the light. Mayan temples also affirm the cyclical process of time as the serpent of light Kulkulkan descends and manifests at the Spring Equinox and then returns back in the cycle of death with the Fall Equinox. The connection to the triumph of light is also reflected in the Indian Festival of Colors, Holi, and the celebration of the strength of Hanuman, known as Hanuman Jayanti, celebrated in April. Spring is the time to be reborn and to flourish.

According to Ayurveda, Springtime is a time of kapha, which brings the gunas, or qualities, of heavy, dull, liquid, dense, slimy, and oily. These qualities have been prevalent since the Winter (another kapha time); whatever quality was increased in the Winter, unless brought to balance during the Spring, can adversely affect your health.

The gunas, or qualities, of Spring that we seek to balance are:

• Heavy and Dull with Stimulation

• Static with Activity and Movement

• Oily and Liquid with Astringent and Bitter

• Smooth and Dense with Dry and Rough

When these qualities are balanced, we can look forward to a time of renewal and invigoration. Excess kapha in Spring can bring allergies, asthma, sinus infections, colds, and chest infections, leading to mucus-producing cough and excreta.

The Essential Spring Rtucharya Rhythm

1. Melt your inner snow (excess mucus) with invigorating and heating practices and activities.

2. Change your eating habits toward a preliminary cleansing. To decrease excess kapha, favor lighter and drier foods that are bitter or astringent, and pungent. Clean up the diet and avoid sweets, refined sugar, dairy, and wheat, all of which increase the heavy, dull, and dense qualities in the body.

3. Spend time outdoors and soak up the radiant and increasingly abundant solar energy known as atapa seva (sun bathing) in Ayurveda.

4. Exercise outdoors with plenty of cardiovascular activity. This is a great time of year to sweat and begin to move winter stagnation out of the body. The best way to move excess heaviness and mucus is to move the lymph and blood that circulates throughout the body. This is best done in the morning between 7 and 10 a.m.

5. Start to wake up one hour before sunrise and bring greater circulation to your daily dry brushing with more invigorating Ayurvedic self-massage.

6.  Kapha time begins around 6 or 7 a.m. To avoid increasing kapha qualities in the body, it is important to be up and moving before the sun rises to move toxins and stagnant lymph that have accumulated over the night. Notice that sunrise will continue to come earlier during this time, so stay present to this change.

 Food Rhythm

1. Warm water with honey is great first thing in the morning. For excess kapha, add apple cider vinegar.

2. Agni becomes weaker now, and you may tend toward lethargy or feelings of heaviness after meals. It is important to properly spice food and to not overeat or indulge in rich foods. Eat light, dry, and heating foods.

3. Favor bitter, astringent, and pungent foods. Avoid heavy foods like wheat, avocado, cucumber, dates, banana, melons, and potatoes.

4. Favor vegetables like sprouts, dandelion greens, kale, mustard greens, Swiss chard, endive, collard greens, and spinach. Eat light and astringent fruits such as apples, pears, cranberries, pomegranates, and dried fruit, and avoid sour and juicy fruits like watermelon and oranges.

5. A good spring tea is ginger, lemongrass, and honey. Other good teas are dandelion, cardamom, cinnamon, orange peel, and hibiscus. Cumin, coriander, and fennel tea is a natural diuretic for any excess water weight that may accrue in the spring.

6. Use oil sparingly; mustard, sunflower, and safflower oils are best, as they are light. The best grains are amaranth, barley, quinoa, and rye.

7. Spices for flavor include black pepper, pippali, clove, fresh ginger, nutmeg, sage, thyme, rosemary, cayenne, and turmeric. trikatu (black pepper, pippali, ginger) is an Ayurvedic herbal mix to increase digestion and remove toxins from the body.

Body Rhythm

Spring body care is centered on moving lymphatic stagnation, invigorating the tissues and skin, and lightening the body. Choose stimulating and invigorating scents over heavy and earthy scents, since kapha is predominantly earth and water.

1. Abhyanga is done very sparingly (if at all) during this season and generally with only minimal oil. The technique of “friction rubbing” is recommended, where the massage strokes are brisk and quick rather than long and smooth. Favor light oils for the body like sunflower or mustard oil.

2. Spring essential oils/scents include clearing and stimulating ones such as eucalyptus, tea tree, turmeric, peppermint, and rosewood.

3. Enjoy dry-brushing the skin with silk gloves or a loofah to bring blood to the surface and begin the detoxifying process.

4. Use a neti pot to keep the sinuses free and clear.

5. Take saunas or steam baths as a favorite detox practice to decrease kapha and ama (excess toxins).

Now is the time to give full power to the seed dreams you incubated during the darkness of winter. The Spring Equinox is a powerful time to care for the Earth and shed any limiting or toxic behaviors. During this time of tremendous growth, let us all take care to protect the precious seedlings that have emerged from the depths of winter. Let us honor the fiery energy of new life.

Read Shiva Rea’s Practices for the Fall Equinox. 

Article adapted from Tending the Heartfire: Living in Flow with the Pulse of Life by Shiva Rea. ©2014 by Shiva Rea. Published by Sounds True.

Photos by Amir Magal

Shiva Rea

Shiva Rea is a shaktidasi—servant of the life-force. She is the dedicated founder of Prana Flow—Energetic Vinyasa and Samudra Global School for Living Yoga offering pilgrimage and yogadventure retreats, teacher trainings, and online programs in collaboration with teachers, artists, and activists around the world: pranaflowyoga.com.

www.pranaflowyoga.com

The post Spring Equinox Rituals from Yoga and Ayurveda appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

Photo by Amir Magal

The practice and philosophy of Yoga has always been intimately connected to the knowledge of synching the body with nature’s elements and elemental forces. It is time for us to realize that the prana inherent in the elements of the Sun, water, Earth, and air is being depleted and poisoned at devastating levels. It is time for us to take responsibility for our actions and wake up from the inertia that is preventing positive change. Yoga Energy Activism is a means to engage in this activism.

The impacts of our energy future have no borders. We have seen this in the events of the past year, from the Gulf BP oil spill to the recent catastrophe at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan. Sadly, these accidents have all affected the air we breathe, the water we drink, and the food we eat.

The statistics related to the state of the world are alarming. It predicted that current oil reserves will be exhausted between 2025 and 2040. Only 3% of the Earth’s water is fresh water and of that only 1% of that is drinkable—and available to the 20% of the world’s population that has access to clean water. Waste incineration accounts for more than 30% of current CO2 emissions. Less than 3% of manufactured plastics are made of recyclable plastics or get recycled. And we waste more energy than we use; according to GOOD Magazine’s 2011 energy issue, we waste 54.5 quadrillion BTUs annually while we use 40 quadrillion BTUs.

The good news is that it would only take .02% of the energy emitted from the Sun to supply the entire world’s power. In China, plans are in the works to generate 40% of the country’s power from solar energy by 2020 not for the green benefits, but because solar power is cost-effective. We have access to an abundance of natural renewable energy, but we choose and are dependent on toxic, non-renewable energy sources both as a lifestyle and often as an inner state.

This year on Shivaratri, a group of more than three hundred sadhus and sadhvis (along with thousands of others who reportedly joined them) began a 40-day march to New Delhi to demand to speak with the Prime Minister’s office about the polluted and dying Yamuna River. Their commitment is an inspiration.

We must transition from using toxic fossil fuels to renewable energy sources such as solar power. If every American unplugged everything except their refrigerator for one day, the energy saved would be enough to power a laptop for a year. Add in water-saving and zero waste practices and we would all see the positive impact of a day’s worth of energy conservation. Combined together, every person’s reduced carbon footprint would have a huge impact.

I invite you to join Yoga Energy Activism (YEA). In partnership with Global Green USA and LA Yoga Magazine, we will come together on a seasonal ritual cycle and commit to transforming our inner and outer sources of fuel away from toxic and limited resources and toward healthy and renewable options.

Taking the time to unplug completely for a few hours or an entire day can help us to adjust our nervous systems’ relationships with our surrounding electronic equipment. Making the commitment for energy regeneration retreats can be healing days during which we live in tune with nature’s rhythms through our actions from food preparation to sleeping and waking with the Sun.

Please help us spread the word and ask your local studios to sign up for the Energy Regeneration Retreat at: yogaenergyactivism.com. Resources are available on the website to help you inspire your Yoga community to be part of the 1,008 – 10,008 participants working together towards a sustainable future on Earth Day.

Spring is the time for waking up and aligning with the positive energy renewal of life. Unplug, Root in. Rise up.

Shiva Rea

Shiva Rea is a shaktidasi—servant of the life-force. She is the dedicated founder of Prana Flow—Energetic Vinyasa and Samudra Global School for Living Yoga offering pilgrimage and yogadventure retreats, teacher trainings, and online programs in collaboration with teachers, artists, and activists around the world: pranaflowyoga.com.

www.pranaflowyoga.com

The post YEA! Yoga Energy Activism appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

All is quiet inside the Kalari practice space. I enter the space slowly, first touching the red clay earth and then my heart as sign of respect. My teacher’s voice echoes in my mind, “When you enter the Kalari, leave everything behind.” I head to the Puttara, the main altar, to center myself and make an inner offering.

A few students and my teacher are practicing around me, swinging their legs in the preparatory sequence of flowing kicks. Kalari is humbling. You must be able to maintain a steady gaze with your teacher while your sticks meet in an unbroken fluid flow.

There is an unspoken sharing of this sacred space and practice of Kalarippayatu as we move in silence, punctuated by occasional corrections in the lyrical language of Malayalam. Sweat pours from our oiled bodies as we begin to experience inner and outer transformation. Even though we face a wall of ancient weapons – sticks, swords, clubs and shields, there is an environment of inner power, respect and balance for all from the young beginners to the advanced practitioners. Everyone maintains the shakti of this sacred space in the embodiment of shariram bhavam – the inner energy of Kalari.

What is Kalari

Kalari is the name of the consecrated temple and the short name for the practice of Kalarippayatu – one of the oldest Indian embodied art forms. Kalarippayatu (kah-lah-ree-pay-yah-too) is often referred to as a martial art for its system of weapon practice, and has been taught for thousands of years in Kerala, India, tracing its lineage to Paramasura – the legendary divine leader from whom the twenty-one teachers of Kalari descended, even Drona of the mythic Mahabharata.

Kalari literally means “a place of learning.” In Malayam culture, the place for learning Kathakali dance is a Kathakali Kalari. Kalarippayatu is the “place of ppayatu” or “personal refinement through the successive stages of learning.” Traditionally, Kalarippayatu served as basic training for everyone in the village; young men and women trained in the Kalari not as a martial art but as a meyyabhayasam or “body art.”

Kalari as a Living Tradition

Six years ago Gurukkal Govindankutty Nayar initiated me, one of only a few female American students, in this living tradition of body arts at CVN Kalari, one of the primary schools for Kalarippayatu. Three years ago, he passed away. Now his son, Sathyan Narayan, is the living representation of all past Kalari gurus in the lineage, signifying this in the plural, Gurukkal.

Sathyan carries the lineage, including the healing arts of Kalarippayatu that are rooted in massage and marma and Ayurveda. He sees over thirty patients a week and lives with his family in the Kalari complex. My other close teacher, Rajashekaran Nair, is a government specialist by day and Kalari Guru by morning. Traditional in their roots, they are also cosmopolitan, having traveled the world to teach: theater with Peter Brook in France, a Jackie Chan movie in Shanghai, and representing Kerala culture in Germany, the UK and the US. They both entered the Kalari as teenagers.

Kalarippayatu first entered my body when I learned about the practice as a freshman in the World Arts and Culture program at UCLA. Visiting Professor Philip Zarilli offered a workshop based on his book, When the Body Becomes All Eyes, which I highly recommend. I was inspired by the root power and fluidity of the movements before I finally became an initiated student.

Pilgrimage to the Kalari

Thiruvanathapuram, the capital city of Kerala, is an hour and a half drive north of the southern tip of India, and is marked by the Kannya Kumari temple, one of the main Shakti Peeths. In Hinduism, a Shakti Peeths is a temple made of a body part of the Goddess. Kerala is Shakti country, with many temples dedicated to Devi, and in the rasa of the land and the energy of the people. From the air, you see only coconut trees all the way to the horizon. The only building is the rooftop of the famous Padmanabhaswamy Temple pushing up through the trees.

No matter the time of day or night I arrive nor how much jet lag I’m experiencing, I am always ready to make the early morning pilgrimage to Kalari. My cells come alive as I massage myself with sesame-based oils before dressing as I would for an Indian dance class in Yoga clothes covered by an Indian kurtha shirt. The men in the Kalari wear the traditional lunghi cloth.

As I travel through the village at 6:00 A.M., the ritual life of Kerala is stirring: People sweep the entryways of their homes and businesses or enter one of the numerous temples. My first morning stop is to purchase flower garlands to offer in tribute to the altar’s photo of my late initiatory teacher, Gurukkal Govindankutty Nayar.

After entering the gates of the East Fort through the bustling center of Thiruvananthapuram, the fort-like stone building of CVN Kalari comes into view. On my right, I pass stairs winding to the observational balcony where the uninitiated can watch or even film the practice. On my left is the clinic, busy throughout the day, where people of all ages and backgrounds receive treatments for various musculoskeletal problems.

Entering the Kalari: The Power of Ritual Space

As my bare feet touch the red clay floor of the Kalari, I feel the throb of Bhumi Shakti, the pulsating energy of the Earth. Imagine opening the door to the practice room in your local studio to find, not a wood floor, but the raw earth and activated altars in all corners, designed through sacred geometry.

We initiates enter with choreographed ritual and reverence, facing East, leading with a pause of the right foot, then the right hand touching the Earth. Appearing as a casual moment of respect, this gesture can also instigate a powerful shift of consciousness. I have been moved to spontaneous prayer through this ritual process. When I begin my home Kalari practice, no matter where I am in the world, I visualize the energy of the sacred space and touch the Earth in the same way, and when possible, face East, as is done in the Kalari. Creating ritual space is a powerful way to generate energy, with the greatest expression being pilgrimage sites such as the Devi temple of Kamakhya or the Samadhi of Ramana Maharishi.

Shiva-Shakti, Nagabhagavati and Durga’s Weapons

After touching and honoring the Earth, the next ritual involves connecting to the altars. I pray in front of the large oil lamp illuminating the Puttara – the special seven-tiered stone altar at the heart of all Kalaris. Its place in the Southwest corner is chosen based on the principles of Vaastu Shastra, the sacred arrangement of space guiding all Kalari temples. Before this altar representing the union of Shiva and Shakti, Bhairava and Bhairavi, gurus make daily offerings of flowers and mantra; here students pray before practice.

We circumambulate the pit, paying respect to other altars, touching their bases with our right hands. Our fingers graze the stone Naga (serpent). As Raja Nair elaborates, “Nagabhagavati is serpent goddess who wraps around Lord Shiva’s body and a protector of the land.” We pay homage to Lord Ganapati (the remover of obstacles), the Guru Pitham (the seat of all the Gurus) who cares for all the Kalari weapons, the local protector and large devotional images of Saraswati, Mahalakshmi and Durga. Durga, the warrior goddess with her ten arms holding eight weapons of consciousness, is a central part of the Kalari.

The final three days of the autumn goddess festival, Navaratri (occurring this month, in October) include ritual worship of all of the weapons connected with the lineage. Throughout the year, before each practice, practitioners touch weapons to the Puttara, ritually relating to them as sacred instruments. These rituals are part of the daily maintenance of the Kalari as a living temple through an ancient practice lineage through the Gurukkal and the practitioners circulating their life energy into the place and the altars through prayers. Only after this brief and potent ritual, including greeting teachers in a respectful but low key way, does the embodied practice of Kalarippayatu begin.

Kalari Vaidavus, Posture as Whole Body Mudras

Kalari students begin their embodied practice by learning meybhasa – swinging kicks moving from the East to the West in a continuous flow emerging and ending in vaidavus or Kalari postures. The eight kicks flow forward, to the side, around the body, turn and flow from the ground to rise and finally spin in a flowing circular backbend. The eight primary Kalari postures or vaidavus are named for animals that are experienced as sharira mudras or forms containing concentrated energy that awakens the energy invoked by the particular form:

Gajavadivu (elephant pose)
Simhavadivu (lion)
Asvavadivu (horse)
Varahavadivu (wild boar)
Sarpavadivu (serpent),
and Marjaravadivu (cat)
Kukkuvadivu (rooster)
Matsyavadivu (fish)

These sharira mudras are repeated through the practice until the abhyasi (Kalari practitioner) becomes one with vaidavu of a lion or serpent as an emanation of their embodied spirit. The inner energy comes alive, awakens and stabilizes through nabhi mula or “root of the navel energy;” in Yoga, this is the same energy activated in uddiyana bandha.

“Nabhi mula is the activation of samana vayu or the movement of prana” says my teacher, “that draws energy to the core to bring balance not just to the body but inner mind. This is the importance of foot work and the preliminary leg exercises for they help a person find their internal center through their external body. A person balances within the flow by sensing how they can move in the space with the least amount of effort and the maximum flow while all the time keeping the energy within their center.”

Yoga and Kalari

Yoga and Kalari share many similarities. For example, asvadivu (horse) has the same lower body stance as virbhadrasana one or warrior pose. The difference is that in asvavadivu, the hands rest on the inside of the inner leg. When I teach this Kalari posture (with my teacher’s permission) in a Yoga class, I emphasize the balance of form and feeling that I learned from the way my teachers transmit the energy of the postures through their own bodies and the methods they use to adjust the spine in relation to the feet to awaken the core flow of prana.

The Vinyasa Wave of Kalari

The preliminary leg exercises and Kalari postures develop one’s center in a vinyasa krama (progressive sequencing) of increasing strength developing more fluidity and a greater gathering of energy at the center. This vinyasa brings all the postures and kicks together, adding new leaps, turns and nuances to the flowing sequences called meippayat.

The twelve meippayat are usually practiced in groups of two to five students guided by the teachers’ commands (vaithari). The commands provide structure from which the teacher alters the rhythm and pace. Some of my greatest moments of flow have been moving with advanced students and teachers across the flow in the namaskar that is done to connect to the main altar.

Shariam Bhavam – The Awakened Body of Kalari

In full unbroken flow, in the rhythm to my teacher’s guidance, there is the experience of olukku, or the body moving like a river without edges. Sathyan Narayan describes this creation of unbroken flow as the aim of Kalari movement. He views tensions of the body-mind as the blocks that create jagged movement and the practice as a way of dissolving blockages, along with living an Ayurvedic lifestyle and the annual three to fourteen days of flowing massage with special oils that every Kalari students traditionally receives from their teacher. The aim is to create a fluid, strong, subtle embodiment awakened and aligned with the flow of Shakti.

The raw power and connection to Shakti is not spoken of directly, but it emanates, visually and viscerally, from the space and the movement. The power of Kalarippayat comes from its intention as a method of realization and integration through the body. The intention of a Kalari practitioner is the same orientation with serious students and masters of Indian classical music, dance or sculpture. Their dedication, practice and love of their art becomes a pathway or yoga towards the divine integration. Whatever you pour your heart into, can become a vehicle for realization.

Yoga of Kalari

Gurukaal Sathyan Narayan sees Yoga as part of the later, sannyasin, stages of life, where one begins to withdraw from the responsibilities of the world to turn fully towards self-integration. He was interested in practicing Yoga as a youth but his father assured him that he would find the Yoga within Kalari, and that “the householder phase of life requires a practice that can help a person stay balanced in the world.”

This relates to Kalari as a meyyabhayasam or body art meant as a system of refinement. It is why I study Kalari as an embodied art form and as part of my Yoga practice. I feel a circular connection from the sacred space of the Kalari temple to my body that awakens, generates, channels and aligns my inner energy with the Pranashakti, the greater current of life, connecting to the root traditions, the underlying power of life flowing through all of us. When watching my teachers move, I see the Yoga of Kalarippayatu which I can feel awakening within myself. They model, naturally and with humility, the regal essence of vira bhav – the potency of a warrior in servant to life.

Kalari and the Earth

The raw earth of the Kalari and the Shakti altars from the Puttara to the Nagas and Devi images the Kalari form a place to awaken and realize the flow of life-energy consciousness (Shiva) and energy (Shakti) embodied as one. On my altar, next to the pinch of earth from the procession of Kumbha Mela Sadhus and Sadhvis, there is a small amount of CVN Kalari red earth to maintain the presence of the Kalari. This connection to the living power of CVN Kalari lives on in my heart and pulls me like a magnet back home every year.

Shiva Rea

Shiva Rea is a shaktidasi—servant of the life-force. She is the dedicated founder of Prana Flow—Energetic Vinyasa and Samudra Global School for Living Yoga offering pilgrimage and yogadventure retreats, teacher trainings, and online programs in collaboration with teachers, artists, and activists around the world: pranaflowyoga.com.

www.pranaflowyoga.com

The post Kalari Shakti The Flowing Art Of Kalarippayatu appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.