Sacred Feminine Rising
Anusara Yoga • Goddess Circle • Sweat Lodge

Today in the northern hemisphere is earth’s threshold from the long darkness of winter towards the bright light of summer. All over the planet there is a balance of light and dark, equal daylight and starlight. In the north the earth deeply inhales, springing forth in vibrant blooms of the seeds planted in the waning light of autumn, held in the potential of the deep dark of winter.

First Principle of Anusara yoga, Open to Grace is the unequivocal affirmation of what is. It’s the affirmation that every moment, every thought, every feeling, person, experience, every thing is a unique vibration of one Supreme Consciousness.

The Divine pulsation of the Universe (Spanda) is the intrinsic throb at the Essence of everyone and everything, every cell in our bodies bursting with the pulsation of potential to be. In the relative embodied world, Spanda expresses through a constant contraction and expansion, the polarity of contrasting compliments, yes/no, here/there, now/then, up/down, winter/summer, good/bad, light/dark. Everything is a vibration of Consciousness, the one Light becomes the many, everything a unique wave with its very own unique amplitude and velocity. Think Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon.

It is so easy to be open to all the pleasurable and desirable feelings of life… love, happiness, joy and peace. Everyone wants to feel these, actually everything we do is because on some level we think our actions will bring us into these states of experience. When you are experiencing energy in motion (e-motion) as these pleasant vibrations of Consciousness, of course it is easier to recognize (Cit) divine Nature within yourself, others and the world around you. Like the old saying goes, “It is easier to be enlightened in Tibet.”

What happens when you don’t welcome your own feelings of fear, anger or sadness? These flavors of emotion are also divine expressions, often considered dark and shadow emotions. When you refuse to own your internal shadow emotions they show up in the way the outer world reflects back to you. You can easily see the specks of dirt in the eyes of those around you without recognizing the plank in your own. If you are ‘triggered’ and don’t embrace internal anxiety, depression or outrage, you reflect your shadows into the world as control, judgment, competition, seeing difference and separateness, isolation, fear, depression, violence, rage, self-destructiveness, skepticism, addiction and the list goes on. No matter what your intention is, ultimately what are you projecting into the world? Are you acting in ways that uplift or creates pain?

Welcoming and hugging your shadow, without self-deprecation or judgment of what is, invites you to appreciate all the different ways that Consciousness takes form. It places you into your Heart, cultivates compassion, self-love and forgiveness for yourself. Then you can love, forgive and have compassion for others. You feel balanced and an inner equanimity where love can grow. When you can truly welcome and embrace your own inner enemies, you realize you are free to allow and accept other’s shadows without harsh condemnation.

What are you seeing in your outer world and communities? What are you seeing in others that you are not willing to see in yourself? Where are your shadows lurking in your life?

On this threshold day may we all realign to the inner point of balance, the place where we can stand in our open vulnerable Heart. Open to embrace our own joyful radiance and accept those painful aspects of ourselves we tend to push away. The equal affirmation of inner light and darkness is the opening from which your awakening springs forth, the revelatory power of Grace. When one awakens, we all awaken.

“If you look for anything in this world, find things that draw you into the greater Love…” – Wah

Join us and settle into the Jungle Immersions!
1, 2, or 3 weeks of reconnecting, realigning, reaffirming and revelation to co-create and envision your new reality with the Universe.

For time immemorial, yogis (some known as the Pine Forest sages), have taken sabbatical from their families, work and villages to go explore the innerspace of their own Heart, Mind and Body. Leaving their families and work for extended periods of time, they would gather and go deep into the jungle to practice yoga, fully stepping into the forest of feeling and thought of their own Heart, realigning with their Essence to make themselves an offering.

Practicing yoga, meditation and sharing stories in satsang with their teachers, the Pine jungle sages awaken with each other to the Ananda Tandeva, the Ecstatic Dance, their own life’s Dance of Bliss. They make offering before going back into the currents of their householder life, forever shifted, yogis hidden in plain sight deeply connected to their Spirit with a deep awareness and understanding of their own Heart’s Core that is always connected, never separate.

Our fast paced westernized urban culture often knocks our physical, emotional and spiritual bodies out of balance from the earth’s natural rhythms. Being physically distanced from our householder lives, deep in Nature, fully engaged in learning and practicing how to align, we sync up our physical body to the natural cycles and Flow of the earth. The great benefit of doing all three immersions back to back, or one or two in the jungle is the opportunity created to truly immerse and invest in ourselves.

The rich stories of experience in a supportive space shared with other heart inspired Jungle sages is the catalyst for true change. The space created by not having the day to day callings of western life creates the outer space to explore and cultivate your inner space. The experience of being immersed in the jungle allows us to sync up and rebalance with the the circadian rhythms, the natural cycles of existence, day/night, sun/moon and the seasons.

The immersion in the jungle, whether back to back, a combination of two, or just one will be the invitational threshold for you to shift from the inside out, a leap of soul consciousness that will ripple through lifetimes.

Om Namah Shivaya!

Luminous Love,

Happy Imbolc Day, the Northern Hemisphere cross quarter threshold between winter and spring, the Celtic holy day embodied by Brighid, protector of the flame of hearth and home. She is a triple Goddess, the matron saint of domestic life, motherhood and birth, poets, healers and magicians. It is a time to remember these aspects of yourself and ignite the seeds of intention you planted in the flame of your Heart’s hearth in the dark of the passing winter. Here come the spring flowers and summer fruit!

All beginnings are seeded by the end from which it came, and at this threshold I gaze back over the best winter holy day season I can remember. This year is unfolding rapidly and I feel fortunate I was able to end my 2011 Anusara tour in South America with Grace and then join John Friend in Denver for the culmination of the Dancing with Divine tour, and a Divine Dance it was!

Solstice Christmas week was full and busy with family and loved ones under perfect Arizona sunshine weather. It was a great honor to spend another beautiful week for New Year’s in Encinitas with beloved friends and John Friend sharing practice, joy, love and envisioning the great blessings to come. After a 1.1.12 gorgeous day and Encinitas practice, a couple of us were blessed to witness the most magickal beach sunset ever near the unfolding Anusara Center. As the sun hit the thin layer of haze on the horizon, it morphed from a firey sphere into a perfect pyramid, and then into a Mayan pyramid as it nestled into the unrevealed 2012 Grace of the Pacific Ocean. For me, it was a sacred manifestation of Nature’s geometric message heralding an auspicious beginning for the year with great chosen company. It was one sunset I will never forget, one that inspired and ignited my Heart.

The ignition of your own Heart Core is the awakening to the always present eternal Presence that is your Essence and that same Essence of everyone and everything. It is the Light of your own Awareness, that has no beginning or end, and in its highest state is ecstatic Bliss, shining through you always. The recognition and experience of this Light ignites the joyful experience of Self love and acceptance, and spontaneously reflects back out as Luminous Love. This Light when felt is Joy, when physically expressed is laughter and smiles, when shared with others it is Love for its own delight.

To finish this missive I’ll share this quote from my beloved friend and teacher, Anodea Judith: May you “Move from the love of power to the power of Love.”

Sending you love and ease for your continuing inner unfolding in this transformational Leap Year, 2012, a firey/watery year of the Dragon.

With ignited delight and a leap of luminous love into Spring,

At the culmination of any creative cycle all the energy that has been created prior mounts to point and is cumulative in the Purna Huti, or the fullness of the Celebration. More than just the 2011 tour, the fullness of all the past 14 years of Anusara, and all those 1000’s of years of teachings, all the great beings who have walked before us, have seeded this Path of awakening are present in this critical point of power for the future.

After two days of excellent practice and play, pranayama and deep contemplation, John educated us about 2012. He spoke of the deep order of the way everything is related to everything else, mathematically through sacred geometry, astrophysically and spiritually, teachings that resonate as a deep ancient remembering of why we have all found each other.

He asked Anodea Judith, illustrious master genius and best selling author on the chakras, to comment on the coming times. She said “we are all unified in a similar vision, it is one of the most critical times, an initiation to humanity, into the beginning of the Godhood.”

John concurred, “It is the time to move from the individual power to the Heart and feel the connectivity to everyone else. We are on a precipice of the major shift, and shift can be painful. Crazy little edges, one little thing and we have major transformation. By our self it would be scary, but now we have so many aligned with this vision, this is how we shift to the initiation. It is a death on one level and birth on the other, both are painful. We are evolving. It’s an incredible time of shift.” He asked Anodea to give us a blessing to take home for 2012, “Move from the love of power to the power of Love” is the gift she offered.

“Whatever destiny we have, whatever karmic things, we are the ones with the responsibility and dharma, strong and flexible, with character. Speak the Truth and people will listen. Put the Truth out and it will shake things up, it is positive for all of us. We emphasis Love, the power of Love works. Light attracts Light. We will shift the world. May the Light be triumphant in the Dark.” – John Friend Purna Huti 2011 Dancing with the Divine

This is your moment, your point of power, to make shift and change, to benefit all beings, those who walk beside you and those who will come after you for generations to come.

Om Namah Shivaya.

Gazing back on this most wildly Shri-filled year, this is the time to see where we’ve grown, where we can refine, count blessings and extract the blessing energy from the heat of the year’s challenges. I feel so blessed and grateful to have been able to do what I love and love what I do! Every month was full of adventure, wonderment and love. So many highlights, so many new deep heart connections, strengthened old ones, inner thresholds crossed and inner challenges, sick loved ones, death and close calls, new babies, beautiful beginnings and even a few bittersweet and welcome endings, all of which are counted blessings.

From the twilight of this Master threshold year 2011 peering into the unknown darkness of the 2012, our counted blessings illuminate the inner scape of 2012 as infinite points of light on a moonless night. Our blessings light our way as we venture into the unrevealed cycle of Grace. Next year promises to be full of more blessings both joyful and challenging; friends we haven’t met and a deeper remembrance and recognition of our essential Nature and what truly is meaningful. As our awakening planet leaps into higher awareness and healing, I’m honored and grateful to share Anusara’s Tantric teachings on our playground of Shiva-Shakti, this Earth Island third rock from the sun. More opportunities for us to come together as world visionaries; envisioning, co-creating, and taking personal action aligned to something greater than ourselves, to serve the Flow in these uneasy critical times. May we all feel the blessedness of being alive, awake and free to choose how to offer to and cultivate this garden we’ve be given.

This season is all about the Light. Just about every civilization, tradition and religious belief system has some historical connection to ritual celebration of Light at this time of year. For those of us in the northern hemisphere, the winter solstice invites us into the cozy hearth fire of our own soul. The sun stands still as the Goddess delivers the physical Sun from the depths of the longest night. It is a time that invites us to dive deeply into the inner Light, the Luminous Love of your Heart, to assess and reflect on the dissolving year. Reflect on yourself, your life, who you’ve been and how skillfully you’ve maneuvered the waves on life’s ocean. How did you receive your year, all the churnings of life, the blessings of what you wanted and the challenges you might not have consciously preferred or chosen?

The Yule Solstice is the threshold through which the cold birth of winter Ignites the Center, your dreams and wishes in the warm sanctuary within. We are called to plant the seeds of our intentions, prayers, dreams, and deepest longings to steep in the fertile embrace of your own heart. As days begin to grow longer towards the coming year, those germinating seeds emerge into expression in your outer life. The Universe will take you as far as you can imagine, dream and desire, and it will be even better than you can imagine if you allow it to unfold and align to the Divine Grace of Shakti. What will yours be? Who will you become by December 2012? What will your contribution have been and how will you have offered the gifts only you can offer? What is your vision for yourself, your community and the world? How and what will you do to help ensure the evolution of yourself, your vision and your world?

It is my deepest wish and prayer that in these times of intense planetary shift and inner journeying, we all can invoke our inner wisdom to make the best choices as visionaries moving fearlessly into the unknown. May you carry the teachings in your Heart, lighting your way, nurturing and cultivating your prayers, longings and intentions into beautiful New Year manifestations of beauty for yourself, your family, the Kula, and the planet, for the benefit of all Beings now and to come.

Big Solstice Blessings of Love, Joy and Bright Light from within for these Holy Days and every day throughout the coming cycle!

Luminous Love & blessings of the Maha Light to you always,

“Light is Love at rest, Love is Light in motion.” – Wah!

Energetically every aspect of our world is intensely stirring right now. I don’t know anyone with or without a spiritual practice who isn’t experiencing some sort of transformation, or some deep life transition, chosen or not. During times of challenge, deep intrinsic questioning of truth, life, love and what is meaningful is triggered. What is your vision for your life and your world? What do you want?

What if “following your Heart” meant the Universe would give you everything you want, even more, even if it doesn’t ‘look’ the way you think it should? For me, the hardest thing is always to figure out what I want. Once I do, the becoming and living it flows, and the result is always WAY beyond, bigger and better than my dreams. One key is the radical ‘yes’ to what is the Universe offering and then allowing your inner Guide to lead you in making choices that align with what is, what is being offered. It would mean you have to trust what the Universe is giving you, even if it looks different from how you think it might look, and trusting that your heart will lead you in the highest way. The more you do it, the greater your direct experience (anubhav) of aligning with Grace is, and it becomes easier to trust your Heart’s lead. If it scares you, do it.

When you let go and trust the inner Voice of your heart, your feelings, what lights you up, the manifestation of the co-creation is exponentially grander than your wildest dreams!

11.11.11 is the end and beginning of a new cycle. It is an open invitation to what will become the experience of your life. It is a clean slate, open mind and heart, unpainted canvas for the masterpiece of your life. It is another seam in time and space you can access Creative generative Power of the Universe, Shakti. Every moment is a point of power to co-create and envision of what can be from the vibrational platform of what is.

Your feelings with thoughts are the fuel for the vibrational Flow of the Universe of what is to come. Conscious co-creating happens from the momentary place of strong feelings. If you feel ‘good’ (‘good’ comes from Old English ‘God’) that is the vibrational match you will attract. If you feel fear, worry or other shadow emotions, you create what you don’t want, what you fear, opposite of good, opposite of what you want. (You create what you think about whether you want it or not.) You don’t have to know what it will look like, you just have to feel what it would feel like. It also needs to be in present tense, not in future, or it will just stay in the future.

For instance, ‘I feel happy that our world is coming together in greater harmony and peace, and the power of Love, even though the dissolution of what isn’t serving feels hellacious right now. I feel interconnected in service and love with my community and work. I feel soft and deeply connected to Spirit and in love, shared vision and intimacy with my partner and growing family. My roots feel anchored and at home everywhere. I trust Divine order and feel there is always enough for everyone. I feel abundance of wealth and vibrantly healthy and strong. I feel hope and pray for those who are suffering, lonely, sick and hungry, and they and all Beings find peace, love, happiness and freedom.’

Today, and everyday, sit. Let every moment, every breath be a point of Grace filled Power for the next cycle. Allow yourself to dream, pray and feel big. Affirm it in the present, as if it is, feel it, and then let it go. Allow the Universe give it to you, in Heart time, and it won’t look the way you think it should, it’ll be better.

If you follow your Heart, what you dream and pray for now, will seem small when you see what you’re offered. No dream or prayer is too big for your Heart, your Heart will never lead you astray.

At the beginning of my sadhana (path of Truth) or yoga journey, the moments of deep awareness came close together and there were many of them. It was a time of profound remembering of an ancient omniscience already present within, everyday rich with awakening. As the experience of time marches on, the moments of ultimate recognition become fewer and farther in between. That recognition that is beyond the knowledge that I am completely immersed in the Ocean of Consciousness at all times, but the actual direct experience (anubhav) of ‘“I Am” the Wave, Current, Ocean, those moments of Light and deep Awareness are often elusively concealed behind the left arm of Nataraja (Cosmic Dancer of Bliss), hidden in shadows of the forest dance of life’s day-to-day duties. This is the dance of concealment and revelation, forgetfulness and remembrance.

At any moment in the jungle of householder life there exists a possibility of stepping into sublime Light of remembrance between the shadows. Whatever awakens your Heart to Spirit is the Guru Principle, the revelatory power of Grace (anugraha).

Last night on a sunset walk in the Black Hills Forest of South Dakota, I took a detour off the beaten path for no reason, except ‘I wonder’ what was over that hill on that little jeep trail. The trail wound up a few hundred feet through the ponderosas, and all of a sudden poured into an enormous grassland sea etched in strewn wildflowers. It is a breathtakingly beautiful meadow bordered by the forest and hills Custer knew intimately. The meadow is always there just being for it’s own delight, the ground of Shiva, whether anyone is there to witness it or not. In its steady presence, Shakti is continually expressing a pristine wild beauty, the kind of western beauty cowgirls dream of.

The sun nestled behind the silhouetted needles casting a gentle hue over the wilderness only a sunset can offer. The power of the Goddess in the silent splendor thundered my heart and tears of deep reverence washed over my cheeks. I remembered,….again. Divine Beauty, Shri, and Grace is always there, a choice and the closest thing to me, and the closest thing to you.

Alignment matters, from my perspective, an Anusara perspective. When I’m in alignment, I feel happy, connected to my Self and the world, I feel free; when I’m out of alignment, I feel contracted, alone and stuck, not free.

As a yoga student in class, I want to know ‘why’ the teacher wants me to align in a certain way, and I want to know ‘to what’ or ‘to whom’ am I aligning? Kim artha, for what purpose, why? The ‘goal, reason, purpose’ of our practice is to awaken to and recognize Supreme Consciousness in ourselves, each other and all beings and things, sentient and non-sentient.

My lineage, (a lineage is considered when it’s teachers can be traced three generations back) is an “Align with the Divine” hatha yoga practice, Anusara. In Anusara, the ‘why‘ we align is to remember and express the highest part of ourselves, Divine Spirit, which is first the ‘to what’ we align to. We align to the Highest first, to the Divine.

Based on the premise that non-dual Supreme Consciousness is the case, (our Essence), the five bio-mechanical Universal Principles of Alignment

(UPA’s) are applied sequentially with balanced action in every pose. Our physical outer Material body aligns to our inner subtle Energy body, aka the inner manifestation of Divine Spirit that is both eternal, yet constantly changing and becoming us. This is the ‘how’ we Align to the Divine, with principles based on Nature, not rules dictated from outside. (Key = you can use the UPA’s to be in the Flow in every area of life…they work if you actually apply the knowledge!)

And of course there is ‘what’ are we doing? We are doing the physical hatha yoga practice as an expression of beauty and art, to awaken to and celebrate Ultimacy expressed as the multitudes of diversity.
This is what I love about alignment. It took the edge off me trying to transcend this life, trying to get to Oneness, trying to stop the inner currents, my vrttis, that would take at least a whole lifetime.

Because the UPA’s are universal they can work for anyone, they worked for me. As my teacher John Friend says, “Good Therapy is Good Alignment. When you align with Nature, healing happens.” Good alignment and any movement towards optimal alignment is healing. Anyone can actually do almost any pose to their fullest potential at that moment in time and feel better! Whether it is a 70 year old grandmother (or 50!) or a 25 year old man, anyone can experience an inner illumination and healing. The Heart’s desire plus good alignment and balanced action equals a opening that reflects the inner radiance in the outer form of the pose. The best thing about the alignment technique of Anusara (besides being relieved of pain and suffering) is doing it in a class with other people who share the same vision of CommonUnity and love for their world,.. our world, all of us creating art, beauty and love through yoga.

The benefits of good alignment from the Anusara perspective are innumerable. When there is good alignment in the physical postures the yogi heals, experiences her/his Essence, begins to recognize It in the outer world, experiences a greater vitality, is happier, starts loving life again and expresses her/him self in the world in a sweeter, kinder, nicer way, creating ripples, waves of loving kindness through the ocean of embodied time and space. If everyone would get their thighs back, the whole world would be a happier place! (I’m serious!)

In our tradition, it’s always the Highest first. The ‘iti sampradaya chara’ of good alignment (what it means to our lineage, according to us) is to awaken to the Source within, to recognize that we are the embodiment of Spirit, and we are here to awaken with each other. We are always connected to Spirit and each other. Ultimately, we become our own best Soul friend, (Gita 6:5) learn to love ourselves and love each other. This is the highest teaching, and this is why we ‘Align to the Divine’. Love….Now.