Shiva Shakti

So Kelly and I have been talking a lot about the Masculine and Feminine as they relate to relationships between men and women, men and men, women and women, and so on. He has been reading a great book on the topic and sharing some insights with me from his reading and his own musings. The Masculine and the Feminine definitely transcend "man" and "woman" but are not unrelated to gender either. Each of us has both Masculine and feminine inside of us and they must be brought into a dynamic relationship within us for our relationship with ourselves to be healthy and whole. (When we know these aspects fully, we can express them skillfully in our lives. Chit-ananda baby, it is all chit-ananda.)

So also in asana, every pose is a dynamic relationship of Masculine and Feminine. In Anusara Yoga we call the masculine quality Shiva and the feminine quality Shakti. Even our principles exist in a pulsation of these qualities- Open to Grace (Feminine, expanding, open, receptive), Muscle Energy (Masculine, firm, stable, supportive, unwavering) Expanding Spiral (Feminine), Contracting Spiral (Masculine), Organic Energy (Feminine). Like that. And on a side note, in general, while we see the dynamic of Shiva Shakti as equal we are primarily Shakta's --meaning that we worship through celebration of the Shakti- manifestation, form, participation not transcendence and so forth which is why we begin and end in the feminine. But I digress.

So last night I worked with those themes. At 4:30 we did a gentle back bending flow (gentle for me- I talked nice and soft for the most part and kept the poses more basic and fluid and we even had some music on for fun) and then at 6:00 we worked deep in the hips for padmasana and eka pada sirsasana. It was a fun night of really deep work.

Mike, Susan, Anne, Kelly, Meg and Jason all double dipped.

Today I have a curriculum committee conference call, a visit to the vet and a long practice scheduled. I had hoped to get up to Austin for Alice's and Matt's classes this afternoon but I think I am going to stay home. Spirit really hurt her foot and so we want to be home to make sure she does not run around and trash it further. She came home from the pet resort with a little limp but when we got home from being gone all day yesterday she was not putting any weight on it at all. Of course, she was all excited and running around 3-legged which makes me think that is what she did the whole time we were gone which is why she couldn't walk after us being gone for 6 hours. The joys of being owned by a dog...