Ceremonial Yoga |
| Ceremonial Yoga is a form I evolved. It grew obviously from my
intimacy with Hatha Yoga, Sacred Dance and the ways of Inner Intent - but
more it arose from the intimacy that I have developed with the ways of
the temples of the Old World cultures before 1350 BC.
Though the ways of those cultures is open to much conjecture, there are modes through which we can gain a certain level of intimacy with them. The nature and inferences of the dances passed to us hold a lot of ÎinformationÌ. The statuary and the paintings and etchings on shards of pottery dating back into the seventh millennia BC portray a great deal. The remnants of the mystery schools, which were themselves degraded remnants of the ancient ways, communicate a great deal of the ÎprepatriarcalÌ cultures. Among these mystery schools may be included the Orphic, the Dionysian and the Pythagorean. (Most remember Pythagorus as an originator of modern geometry, but there is much more to it than that. He received his mathematics from the remnants of a knowledge that had been built long before him. Indeed, mathematics as Pythagorus understood it was quite a different phenomena than most (except, perhaps, people into quantum theory) would think math to be. Merely to apply to PythagorusÌ school the applicant needed to fast for forty days.) These are ways of the intellect. There are also the ways of direct knowledge and the dreamworld. But none of these ways of becoming intimate with the ancient ways can lead one there by itself. Just as the old ways were united in their manifestation, we must integrate into one our ways of knowing. The dances of ancience in the temple were at times quite an exercise. They were the source from which many of our current forms of yoga arose. They were also the forms from which our modern dramatic forms arose. If you wish to create for yourself a ceremonial yoga from, become intimate with some basic asanas, bring your body to a certain level of pliability and health --- then one day dress in a way you have never dressed before. Try to be other than all you believe yourself to be. (see the dance Gula Gula). Then turn on some deep and powerful and rhythmic music which stirs the core of your heart and begin to move following not an intended asana flow,but only the thirst of your body and soul |