Big Green Gathering 2009 cancelled

A collective wave of sadness is felt across the Green festival community today with the news that this year’s Big Green Gathering, due to take place at a farm near Cheddar, Somerset next week has been cancelled. I’ve spent a sizeable chunk of this afternoon on Facebook as well as attending to texts and phone calls from stunned, incredulous friends and colleagues, all of whom were planning to have a really good time and create a beautiful festival for ourselves and the general public when the gates would have opened on Wednesday.

Most of us were loading our vehicles today with the intention of heading onto the site tomorrow. Indeed the infrastructure of the site; plumbing, loos, crew catering offices etc is already established. There have been strict instructions issued not to approach the site, that it is closed.

The reason for the closure is related to legal issues which are being thoroughly aired on local news sites. What is emerging for me on a personal level is the deep sense of connectedness that persists in the festival community as we mourn our loss. Many will have been preparing for months; purchasing stock, creating decorations, generally getting excited and enthusiastic.

I have attended the Big Green on the last four occasions, as a therapist in the Healing area. This year I was planning to join in with the rambunctious fun and diversity of the Earth Energies and Divinatory Arts Field, I had been looking forward to teaching morning yoga and giving crew massages. Elsewhere, friends would be creating arts spaces, a bhakti yoga space, a garden of found objects; offering sound healings, fairy craft workshops, sacred plant medicine healings and so much more.

The diversity and vitality of the Big Green bears testament to the breadth and scope of the current green scene in the UK. With many of the issues pioneered now embraced by main stream society, such as green energy, sustainable homes, organic gardening, the need for a forum, a showcase for alternative lifestyles is highly pertinent.

I will miss the horse drawn camp for its unique flavour and timelessness, the late night sweat lodge in the tipi field, hanging out with friends in SAMS sauna, the unexpected moments of beauty and bliss that fuel my festival adventures. The Big Green Gathering is (was?) a brave and important event, unique in its authenticity and unrivalled in its outlook. Sending thoughts of peace and love to all involved.


www.big-green-gathering.com

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/8169477.stm

Summer yoga workshop in Glastonbury: reflection and review

I was joined by a group of fellow yogis at the Rowan Centre on Glastonbury High St for a morning of yoga, the second in a series of two summer workshops. My intention in creating the sessions was to provide the opportunity for regular students to regroup while weekly drop-in classes are paused for the summer. How delightful then that the groups have comprised a mix of familiar faces as well as those who I have met whilst covering and teaching at festivals.

The teaching studio is a bright, clear space with an intimate feel, just right for a small group of eight to ten. I am told that the St Michael line (a geomagnetic energy channel which has been mapped from East Anglia to Land’s End) tranverses the room, giving added benefits!

We began supine, resting down onto the floor, through feet and hips, pelvis, shoulders and skull. Beginning the business of allowing the weight of the body to drop away, becoming softer, more spacious, finding room in the joints, the spaces between vertebrae, elongating the spine, allowing the fullness of one’s natural breath to assist in this deep undoing.

So much of this approach to yoga, the Scaravelli tradition, is about not doing; the quieter and less involved we can be, the more the body will yield and open. Sometimes we have to get out of our own way! We can then come to experience the body’s preferred, natural state of being. Not doing, breathing, becoming quieter, creating conditions for the body to experience a lightness, spaciousness and freedom so that any resultant movements are joyful, free from resistance, in a sense effortless…

During a pause I passed around Vanda’s book, Awakening the Spine. Far from being a how-to manual, much more an evocative inspiration. Her wonderfully lyrical words and selected imagery convey the feeling sense of how the body might move:a backbend is analogous to an ocean wave; we are reminded of the gentle serenity of the Buddha; the curving grace of a swan’s neck is an invitation to yield and find the inherent beauty in our asana.

The sun shone warmly and so we took tea together in the garden and I left the students chatting and bonding amongst the flowers and herbs as I drafted arrangements for my autumn teaching schedule with the office manager.

I feel blessed and uplifted to have shared my love of yoga in such a profound and yet easy, uplifting way. Thanks to all who attended.

If you would like to receive details on upcoming yoga workshops via email, kindly subscribe to my newsletter via my website www.jivayoga.co.uk

Scaravelli yoga workshop with Bill Wood - Totnes

In the middle of a busy summer schedule it feels good to break pace and have a change of scene. Last Sunday I took an early morning drive to Devon, plunging through wooded valleys and lush pastureland, leaving the chaotic, creative swirl of Glastonbury for the smarter, sophisticated vibe of Totnes and an all day workshop with Scaravelli yoga teacher Bill Wood.

The session was held at the Forge Yoga Studio, at the top of Totnes High Street, tucked down a narrow lane. It is a beautifully designed yoga space with natural light, a wooden floor, plastered walls and thoughtful details throughout; an abundance of yoga mats, blankets, bolsters, a kitchen area for drinks, satisfyingly solid crafted wooden doors.

The theme - the breath. Explored through the classic tenets of the Scaravelli approach: relaxing the diaphragm, resting down through feet and hands to find hips and shoulders, witnessing, letting go of outcomes, finding the ‘internal dynamics’ of yoga, moving with fluidity and freedom.

Bill’s warm encouragement enabled all present to access the poses in a safe and enjoyable way. He moved around the studio delivering precise, sensitive adjustments which were frequently shared with the group. Comments were invited and spontaneously offered throughout the day to the extent that workshop felt like a continuous, dynamic dialogue between Bill and ourselves.

A subtle infusion of Buddhist teachings gave a rich texture. I found myself engaging with powerful inversions such as handstand and forearm balance with confidence and enthusiasm as my breath progressively relaxed and my body opened to new possibilities. Wonderful. I hope to practice with Bill again, soon.

Bill holds drop-in yoga classes, workshops, retreats and teacher training in Devon and the southwest.

www.billwoodyoga.co.uk
www.forgeyoga.co.uk

Sanskrit - the holy language of yoga

Following class today a student enquired as to the language of yoga, was it Hindi? Hindi as a language relates to the Hindu religion and is the most common language of modern India, widely spoken and understood across the subcontinent and now echoing around the globe via countless Bollywood movies. Whereas Sanskrit is the ancient, scholarly language of classical Indian art, music dance, philosophy, spiritual tradition and therefore yoga. Seminal texts such as the Upanishads, the Vedas, Patanjali’s yoga sutras and more.

Sanskrit is the language of spoken and sung devotion. Mellifluous mantra, bhajan and sloka (chants, songs, prayers) are all recited in the medium of Sanskrit. Most of us are familiar with Om, the sacred syllable said to be the vibrational seed that creates and recreates the universe. Or the eagerly implored repetitions of Hare Krishna! Perhaps a longer mantra used to begin or conclude yoga practice. It is a warm rich language, pleasing to the ear and uplifting in its vibration. For millions of devotees, yogis and academics it is the language of God.

On visits to India I frequently encounter fellow yogis who are studying Sanskrit; the mesmerising, swirling shapes of the written form and the voluptuous sounds as it is spoken aloud. I have absorbed some knowledge of Sanskrit through my yoga studies: committing Patanjali’s yoga sutras to memory at the insistence of my teacher in Mysore. Lino Miele’s patient, faithful counting and naming of the poses whilst leading the primary astanga vinyasa series. Blissing out chanting devotional bhajans with a group of plump Indian housewives at the Neasden temple in north London. Reading texts for ayurveda, tantra, Buddhism….

I prefer to use Sanskrit terms for yoga poses during class. Hence seated forward bend paschimottanasana, triangle pose trikonasana, cobra pose bhujangasana and so on. In this way one connects oneself and ones students with the ancient, esoteric practices that have shaped and preserved our precious yoga.

Follow the link below to hear some wonderfully uplifting Sanskrit chants from the Padma Purana.