The greatest transformation is not the moment of awakening, but learning to inhabit the life it reveals. Psyche's story does not end when she is reunited with Eros. Having completed the impossible tasks, Psyche is welcomed among the immortals, where the union of Soul and Love gives birth to a daughter that symbolizes Joy, Delight, and Sacred Pleasure.
Across 12 practices, we embark beyond the myth's ending into simplicity, inner friendship, pure love, and the refinement of a life lived from the heart. With our yoga practices, we will honour mid-summer to fall equinox - the season of ripening and abundance.
In yoga and mysticism, 'divine aloneness' is the movement of 'soul after love'. Awakening is not an escape from the world, but a deeper intimacy with it. The sacred is discovered within embodied life.
Soul After Love: Psyche's Immortality
"The soul casts off one skin after another." - Marion Woodman
Psyche completes the impossible tasks and is welcomed among the immortals. The 2nd Century myth 'Metamorphoses' by Apuleius ends here, but the deeper journey begins: learning to live from love. Greek philosophers, such as Empedocles surmised that both love and strife are at the axis. Stillness can be found in all movement when we slow down enough to wonder how this is? Yoga is rooted in an ancient art and investigation into what is eternal whilst we experience change. We are this bodily form and we are more than just this body, the soul is immortal, atoms dissolve into something new...
Peak pose: Bhujangasana - cobra
"Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity." - Simone Weil
As late summer settles into its golden rhythm, our attention becomes more simple, refined and elegant. Extraordinary moments of pure calm, balance and generosity flow because we know and absorb the storms in our lives. Love is matured when strife is transmuted. Attention is like lightening, when it strikes there is an alive energy. How do we carry our energy? Is our attention inward rooting so that loving kindness is ripening?
Peak pose: Vrikshasana - Tree
"We know the range of this goddess' emotions—joy and pleasure, yet also pain and grief. Emotions engendered by love's process are an integral part of her being." - Nancy Qualls-Corbett
Like the slow, dedication of nature's bloom beneath the August sun, the deepest transformations ask us not to seek more, but to remain fully present with what is. The sound the body makes, to joyfully be alone, authentically solitary in one's unique nature in relationship to the invisible Mystery is the avatar of harmony.
Peak pose: Kurmasana - Tortoise
"In filth it shall be found." - Carl Gustav Jung
The pilgrimage is never over and sometimes wisdom is found in unexpected places. The sacred continues to live in every breath, every ordinary morning, every dusty corner. Is there wisdom in bringing consciousness to the darkest places? Alchemizing the daily temple with love.
Peak poses: Mixed Class of Twists & Binds
"Though fairy tales end after ten pages, our lives do not. We are the multivolume set." - Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Embracing immortality, Psyche no longer walks by uncertainty or longing, but by an inner knowing. This class explores the invisible confidence that arises when the soul no longer demands certainty before opening its heart. There is something profound in nature when you see nature crack through concrete. The harder we try to crystallize our control over love, we come to learn that love is always more expansive.
Peak pose: Urhva Dhanurasana - Upward Facing Bow/Wheel
"One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star." - Friedrich Nietzsche
The great mystery chooses us in this moment. Unconditional love is acceptance, being 'enough' and loosening the knots of tension held when we hide our freedom to choose to just 'be'. No matter the outer circumstances, our inner world is our own unique environment where choice can roam freely to be what it is, whether in flux or in flow or in between. "To be individuated, as Jung understood, is to become a single distant star - is to have to learn how to live far out in the coldest and most solitary spaces, beyond even the experience of death." Peter Kingsley in Catafalque
Peak pose: Mixed asana class - Potpourri & Poetry (Bring a Journal to Class)
"Every phenomenon, on whatever scale and in whatever world it may take place, from the molecular to the cosmic, is the result of the combination or meeting of three different and opposing forces." - G. I. Gurdjieff
The sacred union of Psyche and Eros becomes an inner reality. In yoga and Tantra, liberation is not found by escaping the world, but by reconciling the seeming opposites within ourselves. The magical three...
Peak pose: Utthita Trikonasana - Triangle
"Love does not claim possession, but gives freedom." - Rabindranath Tagore
Love matures when it no longer grasps, clings, or fears losing. The open heart discovers that what is truly ours can never be possessed. This is probably the hardest lessons on the path because we hold dearly to our loved ones. The wisdom of letting go has always been present in us, like the empty seed that carries all the substances to grow and give generously. Fear is not to be discarded; inherent within fear, when acknowledged, is brave love and tenderness. This tenderness melts the heart into transformation and release.
Peak pose: Mixed Class of Sitting Forward Folds & Twists
"Her beauty derives from a vital connection to the Self." - Nancy Qualls-Corbett
Love naturally overflows. As the fields prepare for harvest, we explore how a nourished soul becomes a blessing to the world around it. Service is to oneself first and from what overflows can be shared.
Peak pose: Mixed Class of Arm-Balancing (variations provided)
"Surrendered to the cosmic energies of love, she magnifies the Goddess in physical delight and spiritual ecstasy. She opens the masculine to the potency of penetrating to the divine, and the feminine to the rapture of surrender to it. The mystery of that union dwells beyond the finite bonds of personal love." - Nancy Qualls-Corbett
From the union of Soul and Love is born Voluptas - Joy, Delight, and Sacred Pleasure. Joy is not the reward for awakening; it is the fruit that silently ripens from a life lived wholeheartedly. When sound meets vision.
Peak pose: Mixed Class of Inversions - headstand & shoulder-stand (variations provided)
"Knowing that you love the earth changes you, activates you to defend and protect and celebrate. But when you feel that the earth loves you in return, that feeling transforms the relationship from a one-way street into a sacred bond." - Robin Wall Kimmerer
Pausing is the fruit of practice. When we take time to reflect upon the summer's end, our body-mind can catch up to the soul and rest in union. The hard work is balanced with a playful glance of recognition of all that was lost and gained. Like witnessing a long summer day's sunset.
Peak pose: Mixed Class of yin yoga, pranayama, meditation and journaling. (Bring a journal to class).
"The land knows who you are. You are part of it." - Richard Wagamese
Sacredness is never far. There is a living presence discovered within every olive branch, relationship, and the quiet rhythms of everyday life. The five great elements - Mahabhutas are the true immortal ones. Space, air, earth, fire and water. We give gratitude and respect in a reciprocal relationship with everything around us.
Peak pose: Giving Thanks & Setting Intentions for the approaching fall season. Meditation and journaling. (Bring a journal to class).