Celebrating the autumn equinox

We are experiencing the autumn equinox, the point in the calendar at which day and night are of roughly equal duration. The long days of summer have ended and we find ourselves moving into a phase of shorter days and lengthening evenings as the sun departs on its journey to illuminate and warm the southern hemisphere.

Last weekend we were blessed by sunbaked days of continuous blue skies and summer temperatures of 22 degrees. It felt like July, in fact it was an improvement on this year’s rain sodden July. I was fortunate to be spending the equinox with like minded company at the Out of the Ordinary festival (OOTO) in Sussex. While the classic elements of the green festival scene were in full effect such as chai stalls, workshops, saunas and great bands, the timing of the event enabled us to celebrate the equinox, making the most of the fading light around campfires, chanting and drumming together. The sunshine boosted the mood and helped create a memorable, magical event.

Back in Glastonbury, the equinox was honoured by a ceremony at the well head of the White Spring, at this very time I was holding my weekly drop-in yoga class at the Rowan Centre on the High Street. With the equinox in mind we used nadi shodana (alternate nostril) pranayama to reflect internally the balanced situation of the sun, finding a moment’s pause at the end of the inhalation and exhalation as we have perfect equilibrium in the solar cycle.

As a final farewell to the summer sun, many friends will be gathering at Coed Hills rural arts community in South Wales. With the sun continuing to pour its blessings steadily upon us it looks to be a lovely gathering, with workshops, a healing space and cabaret to keep each other happy and well. I am negotiating a last minute workshop proposal for a pranayama and mudra session as my contribution, I am hoping that this will go ahead.

Howsoever you spend the weekend it looks set to stay sunny, enjoy!

www.outoftheordinaryfestival.com
www.coedhills.co.uk

Summer draws to a close

Strolling through the leafy lanes of Glastonbury, nature's signals are unambivalent: summer is drawing to a close. We may be blessed with long days of warm sunshine and yet the berries are ripening in this gentle heat: hawthorn, elder, blackberries. I took a new path today on my walk and found myself in a disused orchard. A glade of unkempt apple trees their fruits fully ripe, some of which had fallen were fermenting and decaying, a perfect illustration of the cycle of life as I recall how delighted I felt at the emergence of blossom so much earlier in the year.

In the UK we have just enjoyed the late August Bank Holiday, and from here on we are focussed towards the autumn and beyond. Reluctant school boys are wriggling reluctantly into stiff new trousers, we may be preparing our winter wood store, our diet begins to subtly shift to welcome in richer flavours and velvety textures.
I enjoy the ritual of storing summer clothes and reconnecting with the warm colours and comfort of an autumn wardrobe: velvet, corduroy and wool.

It is time to create a new routine and become re-established at home after the travelling and merriment of a summer of festivals. I am pleased to be starting yoga drop-in classes in Glastonbury next week, thus beginning a period of settled regularity. I am looking forward to this greatly.

Yoga weekend with Marc Woolford, Brighton

“No stretching!” a seemingly baffling non-yogic command rapped out by Marc during Sunday’s session. Unsurprising in the context of the Scaravelli method and Marc’s evolution of his yoga.

We were dealing with the idea of the spine as the central axis of movement and support, having explored the breath and the bandhas during Saturday's session. It seemed that every movement, every investigation we made served to illustrate how one might move from external mechanical responses, to quieter, internal rearrangements.

Freeing the breath so that the spine is relieved of its habitual burden of carrying the weight of the body. Instead support might be found from forming new stuctural relationships, creating space in the fluid core, allowing movement to follow the release of the exhalation.

As to be expected from a workshop, we looked at relatively few poses, but took plenty of time to watch Marc demonstrate and verbalise his suggestions. Adjustments were shared with the group and Marc attended to us all individually, so that our body could access this way of working, creating in Marc’s words, “Less conflict” thus then leading to “Integration”.

Marc concluded Sunday’s session in a most beautiful and unexpected way, as we rested in savasana he coaxed gentle chords from a harmonium and chanted one of my favourite Sanskrit mantra: sahana vavatu accompanied by wide, expressive oms. It was a delicious soundbath, the excited street sounds of Brighton falling away as we bathed in blissful vibrations, immersed in relaxation, a perfect conclusion.

Visit Marc's website for details of workshops, yoga holidays and retreats www.yogawithmarc.com

Natural Bodies, yoga studio in Brighton for drop-in classes, therapies, workshops and teacher training in the Scaravelli tradition www.naturalbodies.org

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