Inspirations: Ritual & Celebration

Last week I wrote of the many layers, the pentimento, creating a life.   This week I’m dancing with cycles, literally, for I have just completed choreographing new piece on the Wellesley College Dancers to old time songs. They embody the needs and musical focus of the late 30’s, early 40’s, which was another cycle of similar extremism.   Then, it contained the rise of Fascism, Nazism, the great depression, and undercurrents leading to the Second World War. People were frightened, life was chaotic, with nations & politicians making bad choices from emotional hot beds. The outer planets, which move the world slowly and inexorably into enormous change, were extraordinarily alike in energy and connection to present day set up. Whether we are aware of it or not, corresponding issues and changes symbolic of that time are presenting themselves again, pushing the world toward destabilization and over-reaction. We have the Tea Party, the pull and polarizing of politicos using fear as a goad. Many lack jobs as companies make money with fewer people, hard-running those employed with the terror of no job. The rich are growing very rich, and the middle class is failing. The poor have fallen.  We have seeminly lost any affable ability to listen to one another, or seek equality for all.  Nation-states, of large ego and little means, cannot come together over conference tables.   The old dust bowl is the new lack of water and over-population. This does not mean we have to make the same bad choices. It means we have to become more aware of our choices, especially aware of fear pushing those choices to hang on tight to the old way.  We are co-creating our world, working through enormous challenges, and we need to take help where we find it. One of the really wonderful gifts from, and because of the desperation during the… Read more »

Any conversation between Itzhak Perlman and Charley Rose plays at the highest levels.  In a recent interview, Itzhak was asked, how he saw greatness, genius even, in his students.  The following responses were interesting from a musical standpoint, but fascinating from a life-support POV. *  “Potential for greatness is in our response.”  Is a powerful mandate, violin or no violin.  It hands back such responsibility to pay attention, to be present, to respond rather than react, to do the soul work of opening to life over and over.  It is easier to close down from failures and disappointments.  It feels safer, more manageable, to make life smaller, rather than remaining vulnerable. Vulnerable opens response mechanisms high and wide. * “What do you want to hear? What notes are you choosing?”  Ahhhh yes, Grasshopper, just what is it you are taking in? What is the tenor of your listening? If I say, “I might play the Mozart,” and you hear, “I’m choosing Mozart,” what is in the way?  If I want to hear greatness and I’m listening to ‘heavy metal’ then that is my level of greatness. How does that affect me?  If he says, “I love you madly,” and you hear, “Right, that will be the day,” what has happened to the ears in your heart? Just what note did you choose? *”I like to talk to music.  Forget playing the instrument.” how do we do anything really well?  We have a deep conversation with it.  Yes, we must practice.  Yes it’s helpful if the instrument is tuned, and the audience informed.  But these are almost incidental if we are bliss-filled by the heart’s desires in daily dialogues. When listening and speaking balance one another, when we enjoy the chords of our compatriots, the soaring notes in early morning’s Brahma… Read more »

To expand daily life and make it more livable, I vote for ritual, instead of chores. Or, chores as loving ritual. I vote for celebration instead of speed and mayhem, or… celebration of speed. Being caught in the crosshairs of too many chores and too little time is the crazy-making struggle. In olde days, ritual referred to religious rites within a church. Today, everything can be made sacred with intention. We need this. Faced with a world moving in machine gun rapidity, we need comfort and order and beauty in small, repeated moments like beads run through fingers, or one minute of silent sitting in a mudra. There are a thousand ways to light our erratic, unfathomable path. It’s the body that craves simple ceremony. Ritual can be a mindless reflex that sets emotion into motion, or it can be a profoundly thoughtful, attentive effort, connecting mind & body in profound contemplation. Both serve. How many layers of psyche are affected when we draw 1000 circles in sand, polish 90 stones, Practice 108 Sun Salutations, sing 60 chants in walking vigil? We are better fed when intention and sacred time are welcomed and set aside. Our scrawny, puny lives take on luxuriance and luster when ritual oils are poured over desiccated skin. Perhaps it’s a return to rich and fabled childhoods and the ceremonies of bedtime; old books, hot chocolate in marshmallows, and lullabies. If you didn’t have that, then give it to yourself now. It is the hour to make profane, irreverent days high and holy. Asana: The joy of repeating Sun Salutations at dawn. A remarkable way to open a day, especially in the first light of Brahma Mutra, a sacred time when renewing life is offered time & again. Health Notes: Suns open lungs and heart, set… Read more »

Today, in honor of my birth, I’m doing a most difficult task, I’m taking time out to honor myself, to question how/if this year has created essential changes within, and question yet once again; What meaning does this life have? Have I risked enough these past months? Am I on the correct path? Is there a ‘correct path?’ Where is it going? How much control do I actually have? I am not holding my breath. I remain nonplussed, that is to say ‘confounded’ by life. I do understand that it is a process in which ‘becoming’ is the job at hand. To that end, the important things I have witnessed from this year are: I am becoming Yoga, rather than doing Yoga. More and more I’m allowing it to live in all parts of my being, not just the teaching, or doing Asana. It is becoming the breath, the bread, the balancing sustenence. Through the practice of Daily Breath, I am willing to wear the mantle of writer, whether published or not. I profoundly feel my connection to earth, to her cycles, her brown heartbeat, her golden moon and silver stars, her warmth of sunlight, the weight of gravity… I open my eyes wider to see her multitude of gifts offered in any moment. I’m acknowledging that my greatest choreography is the dance of love & friendship. Pointing my toes is grand, but dancing the light fantastic with someone I love is the greatest dance there is. Asana: Visvamitrasana/one arm, one leg full side extension. Standing in a ‘short dog,’–Adho Mukha with hands 4-5 ‘ in front of feet, lift R leg up and over R arm. Turn and open torso to L, placing L arm on side, then lift it up, gaze up. Press L soul of foot down,… Read more »

Is it our mythic self that yearns for ritual to take our hand and guide us toward wider dimensions? Does this mythos carry our ‘true name,’ that is the name holding the energy of our mystic, magical Self, the soul-Self? Mythic beings require ritual and celebration, talismans and shared Grace. The drudge of daily-do can smother a body wanting to hold wider parameters. With the Spring Equinox, then Passover, followed by Easter, most of the Western world celebrates in some fashion during the coming weeks. Many in northern climes celebrate simply surviving another winter. Whether we celebrate religiously, or not, the arrival of spring is a powerful time to call down the Gods, for they are calling us. Their demand is to step forward more consciously, bravely, and magnificently. We are being requisitioned to deepen our core, and reach out to share at more profound levels. As the pace of the world grows more demanding, myth and mysticism seek another road, a slower pace, and quiet time. But it is a riskier journey. It asks for greater heart. It begs to leave old minds of intolerance and bigotry. We are tuning into higher frequencies, faster vibrations. Perhaps there is yet only a faint tugging toward this other, bolder life. Perhaps we hear the call, but do not yet know our ‘true name.’ Creating communion out of celebration and ritual sustains and emboldens to grow toward what is yet not real. It succors everyone, even those standing apart, especially those. It creates community, connecting past and future in vibrations of passionate, creative rhythms. Asanas: Choose one that makes you feel you are dancing, even when standing still. Find a place within the Asana that enlivens your mind, even with the mind stilled and ‘mindless.’ Create one that fills the heart, even… Read more »

Is it our mythic self that yearns for ritual to take our hand and guide us toward wider dimensions? Does this mythos carry our ‘true name,’ that is the name holding the energy of our mystic, magical Self, the soul-Self? Mythic beings require ritual and celebration, talismans and shared Grace. The drudge of daily-do can smother a body wanting to hold wider parameters. With the Spring Equinox, then Passover, followed by Easter, most of the Western world celebrates in some fashion during the coming weeks. Many in northern climes celebrate simply surviving another winter. Whether we celebrate religiously, or not, the arrival of spring is a powerful time to call down the Gods, for they are calling us. Their demand is to step forward more consciously, bravely, and magnificently. We are being requisitioned to deepen our core, and reach out to share at more profound levels. As the pace of the world grows more demanding, myth and mysticism seek another road, a slower pace, and quiet time. But it is a riskier journey. It asks for greater heart. It begs to leave old minds of intolerance and bigotry. We are tuning into higher frequencies, faster vibrations. Perhaps there is yet only a faint tugging toward this other, bolder life. Perhaps we hear the call, but do not yet know our ‘true name.’ Creating communion out of celebration and ritual sustains and emboldens to grow toward what is yet not real. It succors everyone, even those standing apart, especially those. It creates community, connecting past and future in vibrations of passionate, creative rhythms. Asanas: Choose one that makes you feel you are dancing, even when standing still. Find a place within the Asana that enlivens your mind, even with the mind stilled and ‘mindless.’ Create one that fills the heart, even… Read more »

We entered the Chinese New Year of the tiger, the metal tiger, to be specific, when we celebrated the charismatic New Moon on Valentine’s day. This New Moon of entry into the tiger’s year, packed enough juju to fill everyone’s pockets with passion. Every 12 years are Tiger years in the Chinese tradition, and they are often ones of chaotic social disorder, and change, which give birth to new understanding of power, passions, and ‘steely determination.’ The White Tiger is one of the four sacred animals of Chinese Astrology, ruling over the West, calling up symbols of competition, use of daring and strength, especially for commercial gain, and a willingness to fight for beliefs. It can also hold oppressive, and, or reactionary energy, those holding on to the status quo, VS the revolutionaries. The white metal is symbolic not only of resilience, but of wealth, and is therefore an opportune year for the entrepreneur willing to risk. It is an energy favoring new products that become accepted standards, with time. Think big! Think small! Think creatively! Those who embody their passion with dignity, their daring with an even temper, and their power, with fairness, will do well in this tiger-time. The Valentine New Moon was about stirring our passionate life, awakening deep desires of the heart. Now that seed is planted, observe it grow by thinking outside the box, pushing boundaries, and walking through fears of not being enough as you dare to act out of character. The tiger walks with you! Asana: Vyaghrasana/Tiger Pose, or Eka Hasta Vyaghrasana/One armed tiger. Begin simply breathing into the extension and contraction of Tiger. Come onto hands and knees, exhale pulling R knee in toward forehead, inhale as you extend R leg back and up. Repeat 5 times, and do other side. For… Read more »