Inspiration

To be at one with Self we must have, and be at home in our own rhythmic archetype.  We must be able to move with the flow inherent in our internal rhythms.  Our early relationship with rhythm begins in utero where we are soothed with mother’s heartbeat, the pulse of her blood flow, even her speech and movements. Without strong early rhythmic connections, there is a later disconnect from body and mind, and therefore poor mental and or physical health.  Without unconscious, subliminal, essential rhythmic connections there is inner chaos, and often pain.  When we have a weak internal rhythmic archetype, we have difficulty accepting the ebb and flow of life. It’s like trying to ride out the ‘perfect storm’ on an inner tube. Anyone struggling with ongoing chaos, or physical pain will find that exploring rhythms and movement may be powerful tools to re-create balance and health.  Working a Practice with greater physical repetitions, adding more chants, especially call and response, along with rhythmical Pranayama can re-wire the brain, creating calm from disconnect.  Even when not in pain, these tools are healing, serving us all to take have more courage for the next step, to move beyond fear with greater belief in our abilities. Studies done in Germany with a repetitive movement called, TaKeTiNa, created by Reinhard Flatischler and his wife Cornelia, have been proven to heal pain through collective movement and sound processes.  “Flatischler discovered that in those moments when the participants felt synchronized or “at one” with the rhythms, the whole group reported that their pain went away.”*  Observing Sufi dervishes take a group into deep trance through collective movement and sound was the original inspiration for Flatischler’s work. Kundalini Yoga, ShaktiYogaDances, along with Folk dance, tribal dances, even Modern, and ballet, especially where repeated movement patterns,……

What prepares us for our dying?  What practices help final steps courageously leap toward the most formidable of unknowns?  Need you be Thelma & Louise?  Is religion a balm?  Will belief stave off fear?  Can love do the trick?  All are helpful, except when religion forever damns us, or the beliefs are nihilistic.  And love?  What happens to love when the dying is long and arduous, taking every measure of Grace from slow years of pain?  Sometimes love prevails, often not.  So what, then?  What supports the journey from this moment’s rich, fullness –to what?  Even if it turns out to be a magnificent what, still, from this side it’s a wide and wooly chasm. From an Astrological POV, Jupiter and Saturn are the threshold planets beyond the personal.  They are the social energies of teachings, beliefs, and large organizational deployment.  Death is often associated with them for very different reasons.  Jupiter, the planet of expansiveness, beliefs, and long distance journeys opens to the great adventure in dying.  The counter point to Jupiter’s jolly largesse is Saturn’s loneliness, timing, structure, and responsibility which often accompany the death of someone loved. Both Jupiter and Saturn can be Astrological signatures of Master Teachers as well as dying. This third ‘Breath,’ exploring the make up of great teachers, those shape-shifters who transform lives, could provide one of the best answers in preparing for death.  Great teachers supply Saturn’s structure and system, a sense of pacing and stamina.  They require students grow responsible to their own highest good, their inherent abilities.  But teachers  become masters because they are truly Jupiter’s children.  Their delight is in sharing knowledge, being curious, exploring new realms, expanding horizons. Their long distance journeys are often of the mind, from a good book, the internet, and ideas ruminated with friends……

Sol Sistere It is now Gaia’s breathless moment, The standstill hour of homage To her consort’s shortest night, When only petals, Burnt by his heat, Fall, disturbing stillness. Sol’s perfecting creates Four quadrants, four teachers, four gifts Before turning toward Winter’s underworld descent Before falling from bright Grace Before death’s introspection. T.S. was right, “Here the dance is,” Here, long sought materia magicke Formed only for Sol Sistere’s point of no return. To honor the magicke of the Summer Equinox/Stand Still night, there is a Tuesday evening class, at 7:00 PM, June 21, at the Caryl School gym in Dover center, Centre st. & Springdale Ave.  (Park in back by turning in on Whiting rd., by the Dover grocery –just before the light). We celebrate the Solstice with ritual, rich Asanas, ShaktiYogaDance, chant, Pranayama, and ALL spirits willing to become shape shifters.  Come, connect to the earth, her place in the heavens, and our place here on earth.  It is indeed a night when mystical doors open for us all to walk through.  Friends of friends, strangers and strange-ones all invited to share in creating this alchemical moment.

Any major decision demands life-changes.  Some we expect, others crawl out of the woodwork, and some fly in on angel wings. In my long considered decision to commit to a 500 hour Yoga certification, all manner of flying beasts have been let loose.  Despite demanding more energy than expected, (Va sans dire.) it’s far broader in experience, and exploration of instruction than imagined,which provokes this pondering. What makes a good teacher?  What’s the difference between a master-teacher and simply a good instructor? Are the requirements of being a splendid instructor much different than being a splendid human being? How does one grow toward mastery…of any sort? It raises questions of the inner teacher, the guru of the heart, and any relationship to that persona.  Eight months into a fifteen month training demands a re-commitment, a deeper questioning of the process, and a more acute level of awareness. If you become a teacher, it is important to return to the beginning and ask, ‘how were you were raised?’  ‘What were the expectations?’  If I’d been born in India, I’d be under a guru, but most Westerners decline to blindly follow guru-dictates, especially those raised in the wild west where the angst of choice is the bread du jour. Following that vein, I consider choice-fullness one of the most powerful tools a great teacher offers.  With insightful instruction students are given tools to learn to make best choices in any given circumstance, be it in a classroom, or on the street.  A master teacher does not always tell them what to do, or precisely how to do it, but instructs the how and why of exploration.  They open a door to questioning, to having a student listen to their own needs, and the idiosyncratic whys of their own body. Master teachers create……

With the need for increasing mental, emotional, and physical flexibility to see us to the other side of enormous change, I shall be writing on the helpful and subversive ideas and teachings of four talented Instructors.  This week Aaron Cantor, followed by Daniel Orlansky, Jen Yarrow, and Shiva Rea. Spring opens the body from winter weight.  Eclipse seasons are change-funnels, sometimes like tornados, asking shifts of perspective and path…as in “The barn’s burned down, now I can see the Moon.” (Eclipses impel, or cut us off, often occurring in the unsettled seasons of spring and fall. Lucky us, we have three eclipses coming: June I, June 15, and July 1.)  Massive shifts are due not only to spring, or Eclipses, but to prominent planetary energies making these fast and furious years ones of transformation. Think late 60’s.  Bodies and minds are layered with pre-emptive strikes to be different, be better, or die.  Relationships, particularly, require we surpass old tribal connection and expectation, especially relationships with Gaia.  We are in the cauldron of learning to share heartfelt fire and recourses in profoundly meaningful ways. The question is, how do we shape-shift to meet many layered obligations AND hold on to who we are, to our core Self?  Can we?  Should we?  As usual, I don’t know, but recently I’ve been given ideas to share, thanks to the serendipitous synchronicity of being with singular teachers. Much of their power comes from their decisions to follow their own voice, to have the courage to create a unique path, to not play it safe.  It also emerges from their talent of combining areas of information and expertise, refining a vision of what works for them. Aaron Cantor began by asking, “If you had a superpower, what would it be?” He then proceeded to embody, and teach……

Osho wrote: “In a moment of meditation you suddenly see that you can move in two directions-either horizontal or vertical.  The vertical consists of silences, blissfulness, ecstasies, the horizontal consists of hands, work, the world.” Sacred Recognition   The western wind dropped away Carrying her last exhale out to sea Subduing blue-black chop, Prostrating cliff-grasses. Now the horizon could marry the sun. She lay horizontal on sea stone Between a day lost and one to come, Shadow on the stone,  Listening to light fall down Into sea-grass and sand Wet with love Green with loss. She rose within that breath Lifting her sextant To meet first stars, Bearing the graduated arc Hefting its accurate weight, To imprint her alchemical latitude and longitude.  Osho also said: “The word enlightenment has nothing to do with genius, has nothing to do with intellect.  It has something to do with discovering your real, authentic being.  It is discovering God within you.”