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Touchstone Farm & Yoga Center
Ceremonial Yoga
Overview
Simply said, Ceremonial Yoga arose out of
my own private practice.
It is an integration
of my work with
The Dance, with Yoga and with
The DreamWorld.
Patanjali
in
his codification of modern yoga
(yoga meaning
union with)
spoke of sixteen
yogas
eight outer and eight inner.
There was Hatha Yoga, the form most
commonly known in the west.
There was also
Satvic Yoga, the Yoga of the 'union through' the vehicle of
food.
This may or may not include both fasting
and feasting.
There was the Prana Yoga, both
outer and inner,
the outer and inner forms
included both the use of the breath, breath with inner
intent
and the use of wind and air, perhaps
windbathing naked out of doors.
There were, among others, the Yogas of the Union with Spirit through Fire, Sun; through Water; through Community (brotherhood, sisterhood)
As time allows I shall elucidate upon
this further.
It should be mentioned, though,
that this tradition of Yoga does not stand alone in ancient
history.
The Essenes had sixteen Angels of
Healing, each of them nearly corresponding with each of the sixteen
yogas.
Long before the advent of yoga spoken of
in the Bagadvadgita,
the ancient temples
of the Mother Goddess Paradigm
Practiced a
'Keeping of The Sacred Time'
which was one
whole form embodying the sixteen yogas.
More of
this phenomena may be found in the Sacred Dance Section of The Sacred Circles
Domain.
Ceremonial Yoga
is perhaps more closely aligned with this Mother Goddess Paradigm
than with the modern forms of Yoga.
Of course, many will disagree
with some (if not with everything) that I say
here.
To these people I
say.
"I honor the Truth of your Heart. You
are right."
This is a language of Time and of
Space.
The World is far greater and more
mysterious and wondrous than any of us could imagine or
express
The Living Mystery can not be contained
within any words.
Even views of the world which
seem to be totally in opposition,
as the Voice
comes from the Hope of the Heart,
may be both
simultaneously true.
One last brief
word
before you browse through the few
Ceremonial Movements presented here---
The outer form here is not as important
as the inner intent.
In our Hot Yoga programs
(see the main page)
we heat the body to an
extremely soft subtlety
and work primarily with
our focus on the physical body.
In Ceremonial
Yoga, however,
The Fire that allows us to enter
more deeply and intensely into the postures than ever
before
comes from
within.
If when doing a Movement (The
Windhover, for instance)
you do not totally
from within BECOME THE WINDHOVER
then, no
matter what your outer form appears to be,
you
are not doing The Windhover.
If, however, your
outer form looks nothing like what I describe to be The
Windhover
yet your inner intent of Heart is
Windhover,
then open the windows
wide!
You are the Windhover.
Here Follows a Few of The
Movements
(This section will be constantly
expanded
upon as time and funds allow)
Temple
on The
Mountain
Plucking
The
Rose
The
Panther
The
Flight of the Panther and the
Hawk
The
Windhover
The
Veil of Rain, The Veil of Tears
Wiping
the Veil from the Heart
The
Fountain
The
Turn of the Heart
The
Turn of the Heart Kneeling
The
Dance of the Latifs
The
Sword of Truth
_______________________________
The
Ceremonial Asanas or Movements
are mentioned in
boldface
and
are elucidated upon.
The TRADITIONAL ASANAS
common to Hatha Yoga,
when mentioned are in
CAPITAL LETTERS.
Because much is written and
available elsewhere to the seeker on these
Asanas,
there is little explanation.
Thank you
_______________________________