Today is an anniversary that I would love not to have to remember. Three years ago I had an accident in the ocean that brought, as a consequence, a chronic injury in my legs. 

Pain is relative. For the first few days, when I did not know yet the gravity of the injury, pain was very intense, but it was only physical pain. I do not mean physical pain is not important, but for me it is easier to stand a pain you know is temporary. The true pain came with the full diagnostic: the hamstring tendon was removed from the attachment at the sitzbone. Not only that. The muscles themselves were broken in different places. There was an option of surgery but not fully recommended by my doctor. I was in hell for days. We are never ready for sudden intense changes, and especially if those are in our bodies. Now there was the possibility for pain not being temporary. The uncertainty about my life as a yoga teacher and a surf lover. The difficult decision about a possible surgery without having clarity about the future consequences. 

I have also learnt that what I am more than what I look like or what I am able to do. To feel “broken” is very strange. I touched a place of great vulnerability where I was not feeling full, whole. Who am I truly if suddenly I cannot do all the things that so well defined me?  After an event that de-structures you, a new identity is formed. On one hand, I do not want to feel limited by my injury nor to identify with it. On the other hand, and although normally I do not feel pain and have a pretty active life, every movement I do with my body reminds me that is not as it used to be before.

So I have also learnt to live inside my body in a deeper, more connected way. There is the healthy fear of hurting myself  if I force too much, and sometimes I still can feel the trauma stored in the tissue, even after infinite treatments and therapies. So I am in a state of permanent listening. I am in awe about the body regeneration capacity. About the life intelligence that finds new neural pathways. About how the body tissues respond to love and awareness.  Yes. I have treated my body with incredible love. And my body has responded showing me all the things I can do even feeling broken.

In truth, aren’t all we broken in some way?   

On the past days, I was contemplating how physical injuries are more apparent, but truly, our emocional and physical wounds are much deeper and painfu. Yoga practices aim to heal ourselves at all levels. The process is both beautiful and intense, Beautiful and intense. Beautiful and intense. The dance consist of building strength to face the intensity and cultivating sensitivity to savour the beauty.  

Today I want to celebrate my body. I want to celebrate myself. I want to celebrate yoga. And, especially, I want to renovate the commitments to love myself fully. To love my body even more as I am ageing. To love and accept myself unconditionally, with my physical and emotional wounds.  

I leave you with a video that reflects my progress in one of my favourite asanas. I do not have much attachments to particular yoga poses themselves, but  Natarajasana is very dear to me for many reasons. After the accident, I created a vision board and I put a picture of myself  performing  Natarajasana. Like an unreachable dream… 

The video is two years and a half later, I did not put my focus of the practice in this asana, but in healing my body, with care and intelligent alignment.  With love the body opens, And advanced asanas blossom… or they don’t´. It is not the most important.  

It is a dance and we learn to move with the rhythm,  

In the last years the market is full with offers of Yoga & Surf retreats. But, 

what makes this combination appealing for you as a yogi? 

In this article I contemplate, from my love for these two soul practices, some common things between them and how surf can actually inspire and activate your yoga practice… and viceversa. 

1. Immerse yourself… in the Ocean

The Ocean. Vast. Immeasurable. As the Ocean of Consciousness. The feeling of being part of something so much bigger than yourself. You feel tiny and immense at once. A similar sensation  to meditation, when you explore the infinite Universe inside.

 

2. The great purifier

One of the main goals of the yoga practice is purification. Salt water has been used for millenniums to cleanse the energy of crystals, places, people,.. If you add the purification and revitalising power from all the ions generated in the surface of the waves you have the most amazing energy cleansing cocktail. 

 

3.The breath 

Inhale… exhale… hold the breath for a few second under the water… one… two… three… four… five… feel the air in your face and inhale again

 

4. Listen, observe, flow

To learn to read the Ocean, to choose the right wave… or your favourite one. Feel when you allow yourself to be taken by the big flow and when to take action.

 

5. Concentration

Surf makes your attention focus: on the waves, on your position in the ocean, on the other surfers around, on any change that is happening. Other thoughts move to a second plane and the mind gets free. 

 

6. Strength

An amazing way to develop physical strength… and mental strength too.  But no worries… you can dose it to your level choosing the right place, the right moment and the right board.

 

7. Awakening your inner child

Surf is a play. A play in which you learn to fall and stand up again; to laugh about yourself. To feel your power and your limitations. But specially to enjoy yourself. 

8. The kula: community

The surfer community has a common heart: their love for the waves, their love for fun, their love for joy, the love for challenge.

 

9. Pachamama love

You will further fall in love with Mother Earth. You will become the guardian and protector of the Earth and the Waters of the planet. 

 

10. Cit: self-knowledge

To see yourself inside. To feel your power. To look to your fears face to face. 

 

11. Ananda: bliss

Moments of pleasure engraved in your heart forever. No possible to explain but it is addictive. Really, few things compare to the pleasure of surfing a nice wave. 

 

12. Svatantrya: freedom

Yoga´s main goal is liberation. Freedom from suffering. Freedom from limitations. The practice of surfing makes us feel more free, more able, more integrated with nature and with the Universe. Happier.

Susana García Blanco is a pioneer in the offer her retreats in the Atlantic Moroccan Coast since more than 10 years ago. She founded Yoga Surf Morocco to share these two soul practices in  a country that conquered her heart from the first day she step on African land. 

UPCOMING RETREATS

• 18-24 Julio

• 1-7 Septiembre

INFO & CONTACT   yogasurfmorocco108@gmail.com

Past Wednesday was International Environment Day and, tomorrow will be celebrated World Ocean´s Day. The Tantrik tradition uses what they are called nyāyas, poetic metaphors, to transmit complex and powerful teachings. Today, thinking about the seas, I remember one of my favourite nyāya; one that I have listened to in innumerable occasions from my teacher Paul Muller-Ortega. It is called ūrmi-sāgara-nyāya and it talks about the waves and the Ocean. It is a beautiful comparison between the sea, vast, immeasurable, and the infinite Ocean of Consciousness, and between each wave and each of us as individuals. Although each wave has its own identity, it is never separated from the Ocean, and it is never anything else but the Ocean. In the same way, each of us is never separated from the Absolute, neither is anything else that the same Supreme Consciousness whose pulse and energy are the cause of the full Universe. 

Reverberates inside of me this teaching, today, in the world we live, contemplating about the Ocean, the extreme pollution of the waters of the Earth, the studies about the plastic invasion. It is said that in about 30 years there will be more plastics than fishes. The last UN report affirms that every year we pour 8 millions tons of plastic to the sea. That is equivalent to 15 full shopping bags per square meter of coast in the planet Earth!!! And the very serious problem of microplastics, entering the food chain, and  that are present, for instance, inner cosmetics!!!

I cannot stop feeling that I am the Ocean. I am the Earth waters. Not only because I spend some of the best moments of my life inside the sea.  Also because a  71% of my body is salt water. Because I nourish myself with respect from the seaweed and the fish. Because all species we rose out of this pulsating womb that is the Ocean. I was reading recently (I would love to transcribe the exact words and credit the author but I cannot remember) that most disasters were not happening as a consequence of human evil, but as a consequence of lack of consciousness and lack of action. No one wants to contaminate the Oceans as none of us would fill up our house with plastic containers or will use micro-plastics to dress our salada. And, however, that is exactly what we are doing, just because we do not do enough to revert this chain process of consumption and rubbish that ends up in the Ocean. Could you imagine that upcoming generations maybe can not swim or surf in the Ocean? That they might not ever see  a bank of fish swimming freely? ¿Have you thought that maybe our next generation will not be able to survive in planet Earth? 

I know, It is not easy. I also feel a big sense of impotency. Even being fully conscious about the issue, we are immerse in a life system with a huge inertia and resistance to change. And it is normal to feel too small to make a difference. 

Remember that you are the wave and the Ocean. You can start integrating small changes in your daily habits.  These are some advices and some initiatives that are already working and which you can collaborate.

Your effort is not important. It is totally necessary 

• The best residue is the one not generated. Recycling is important but most plastic is not recycled. Reduce plastic consumption, 
• Complain in shops and supermarkets about products wrapped in plastic. If you don’t buy it, they do not sell it. 
• By bulk products and reuse bottles and containers.  
• Use recyclable bags. 
• Some products to say good-bye: plastic straws, chewing gum, plastic glasses, plates and cutlery
• Use microplastics-free cosmetics https://www.beatthemicrobead.org
• Do you know that toothbrushes are some of the most difficult plastics to recycle and they end up most times into the Ocean? You can substitute them by bamboo toothbrushes https://brushboo.com/
• Filtered water instead of bottled water. Dropson has designed a brilliant product to take with you in your travels. http://www.dropson.es/dropson-filter-can/   
• Organise your own beach cleaning. The Asociación de Medio Ambiente Europeo proporcionales full material and information for you to organise a camping of Citizen Science. You can contribute to know in detail what is contaminating the beaches.  http://ambienteeuropeo.org/proyectos-2/

I feel a kind of relief as the Sun leaves the sign of Pisces. I never thought I would say that, since I love water signs, but this last month has been so intense emotionally. I have felt at times as the little mermaid, of my favourite tale, prisoner inside the ocean of my own emotions. 

I know I am not alone. These are powerful times. Both individually and colectivelly we are cleansing eons of karma. I felt touch reading this sharing from the  Mystic Mamma website: 

For me, and I know for many of us, these past few months have not been easy. I have sat with Truth as she held my hand and wiped my tears. So much unraveling, a slow surrender. No longer trying to hold up the ceiling or patch the crumbling walls, the ground literally moving beneath, rearranging my foundation, shifting my allegiance, to the One inside, the queen, the wise one, who is ready to come down into this body. Who is needing me to make a new place for Her, on Earth, inside of me. 

It takes great courage to be vulnerable and true to that Self within. We are who we are, and ultimately we have to be true to our ourselves. 

In the last days I have been feeling and welcoming the new energy coming: the purifying energy of fire, Aries, he warrior, the initiator.

The new Astrological year starts with Aries as we continue this period of deep transformation, but with a turning point. Mercury in retrograde invites us to look back to our old self, to our old life, so we can express gratitude for the lessons learnt and for the power we adquired. 

…surrender to the new waves of energy

…… surrender to new possibilities

……… dream big

………… open yourself to new strengths

…………… believe in your power

The Sun entering Aries empower YOU. The Moon in Libra makes us look for harmony, to care for THE OTHER, to celebrate the beauty of relationships. 

This Full Moon is a great time to fully forgive as you set the boundaries you need, to be both the warrior and the peacemaker, to be a compassionate leader using your power for the benefit of the others. 

Happy Spring Equinox – Happy Full Moon- Happy Holi  

A new year just started. A special moment to create new intentions. The fundamental intention for every human being is to have happiness, abundance and prosperity in all áreas of life. As yogis we know those are not goals to reach but paths to walk.

One of the question that humans have made to themselves from the beginning of time is how to make this journey on Earth one of happiness instead of one of suffering.  Through my practices and contemplations the sankalpa (intention) for this year rises as an inner answer to these ancestral questions

Life is a journey of transformación. Yoga is a set of practices for transformation. But in the Tantric tradition, it is not about transform ourselves into something we are not, but about transforming our awareness, about elevating our state of consciousness. It is about cleansing, purifying everything is in the way of the experience the fullness of the Self. Our most inner core. That place where suffering does not exist

The practices: meditation, asana, pranayama,… have a double goal of purification and of dedicating time to experience at least the glimpses of deeper states of Consciouness. For a moment we transform into our Self.

The spiritual path in Tantra is not about disconnecting from what we are as individual being.  Not at all. Life is a process of self-awareness, of self-knowledge. There are innumerable methods and techniques to know yourself better. In my Astrology sessions I constantly observe the power that comes when someone is reaffirmed in how is his/her personality, the empowerment  from listening your gifts and skills, and the relief to clearly see that your challenges and places of contraction are real and are also part of you. Each individual is different. Each chart is different. No paths are the same.

The idea of  svadharma in the Bhagavad is an invitation to find your own path.  Dharma is a common concept in the Eastern traditions and has its origen in the Vedas.  We can translate dharma as mission or purpose. In the Vedic view of the Universe as a dynamic balance of energies and forces, each part contributes to that harmony. Dharma is your particular contribution to that Universal balance. Sva is the reflexive pronoun and in this concept signifies  “one´s own dharma, your particular mission”. Krishna not only says that each person has a life purpose but goes to affirm that “it is better to fall doing your own dharma that succeed in other´s dharma”. Again, the scriptures insist in the important of knowing your own path.

Tantrikas state that the road to Shiva is the Shakti. In the same way, to transform the experience of ourselves in an experience of the Self, we need to get to know ourselves in depth to be able to become more of ourselves. Then, being you more fully, you will live from the depths of your Self.

I am a woman, daughter of the Moon. I pulsate with the tides, I dance in the flow of the emotions.

I do not consider myself a feminist, but I fully celebrate the feminine. In fact, I am deeply committed to the awakening of the feminine: from the most inner place, with my compromise to heal the feminine energies in my being and in my linage, and through the esoteric practices of Tantra Philosophy, that celebrate the archetypal energies of the Goddess, all the way to the women circles that I facilitate every New Moon.

The feminine and the masculine exist as a polarity of the essence of love that is the Universe, They cannot exist without each other. They are like darkness and light; like sound and silence; like the Moon and the Sun. In the Eastern traditions this is represented in the yin/yang symbol that shows how each of them is contained in the other.

Todays strike in the International Women´s Day, brings out opposite feelings in my heart. On one hand I am really touched by seeing how, something I have been living in reduced communities for a long time, jumps to the front news and reach to so many women. On the other hand, it scares me the possibility that this process, that we live from our entrails, can be used and adulterated by the political parties.  Our path should not replicate the ways that man have follow up to now. We are different. Our power resides in finding new paths: the ways of the feminine. So our changes can bring about a true revolution. The path of the feminine is, above all, an inner path. I am sure that without inner work nothing can change. Little can change with a strike and a demonstration until you and me, and every of the women that want to participate in this adventure of change, start with deep commitment and lots, lots of love, to do the inner work of healing our feminine side… And also our masculine side.

I would not like to remain in the surface of the issue. When we talk about patriarchy is easy to translate the guilt and the shame outside of us. To men? But if we want true empowerment of women, of human beings, it is time to stop complaining, to stop begin victims and take responsibility for all the ways in which, consciously or unconsciously, we contribute to the reality we criticise so hard. I think we should also celebrate International Men´s Day, to contemplate and question the challenges of the 21st century men. And International Men and Women´s Day, to see the ways in that we can grow together. 

If you want to deepen into the complexity of this issue, I offer some contemplations. Please be extremely honest and I am sure you will be surprised.

How do you support patriarchy? 

In which ways do you contribute to see yourself or other women as objects?  

With other women, do you work in collaboration or do you move in the arena of competition? 

Do you observe and listen to the stories of other women without judgement or do you criticise the women around you? 

Can you track some masculine behaviours in yourself? Sexist behaviours?

If you have children, are you perpetuating the existing patterns that you do not like? How can you guide them to be men and women that live in harmony, celebrating their similarities and their differences? 

Do you take time to take care of yourself, both externally and internally? Do you take time to connect with the source? To be in nature? Do you take time to explore personal and ancestral patterns of the shadow, both feminine and masculine?

And I also ask for blessings for all men that are rising over the old patterns of patriarchy. Men that embody the archetypes of the warrior that moves from the heart and is strong, independent and protector of the feminine and the Earth; the archetype of the king that is sovereign of himself and holds the energy and the space for the women to perform their dance.

It is my wish that all women and men take off in this journey of transformation in a conscious way. This is the true revolution that will change our societies, And it is here!

“The Universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for your senses to refine and being able to receive them” 

I received this teaching more than 15 years ago from Douglas Brooks and my vision of yoga radically shifted. Tantric Philosophy took me back home. To a place where I felt I had been dwelling before. To a world of teachings where to be a yogi does not imply to renounce our senses and the world we perceive through them, but where the discipline of the practice (this is no different at all from other  yoga traditions) takes us to be more capable to experience everything, inside and outside ourselves, with more depth, with more delight, with more intensity.

This teaching came back this week in my advance studies of Tantra with Paul Muller-Ortega, reminding me how fortunate I am to be part of a linaje of beings that envision the world as the embodiment of the Supreme Intelligence that we call Shakti.

When I talk about TRANSFORMATION (for me one of the keys of our practice) I mean exactly that. To soften sharp edges, to clean layers, to refine skills so our perception can change, can be sharper and more subtle. So simple. So complex. As usual, paradoxical.

Not sure about you, but I am not content with experiencing life at a superficial level. So I practice yoga, in the multiples shapes it takes. My goal: to refine the senses, to refine the capacities of the mind, to refine the methods of understanding and knowledge, To become more of a human being, more refined, more capable to detect the spark of consciousness that ignites each experience, each object, each thought, each interaction. And able to feel with more and more clarity the essence of love that pulsates in every moment.

A few weeks ago, during several jet-lag nights after my return from California, I enjoyed some precious time of contemplation about this  year and about where I want to point my arrows towards for 2018.

Personally, after last year´s accident and injuries, this has been a year of recovery, deep healing, growth and transformation and immense learning.  I have felt deep inside how yoga helps to transform wounds into wisdom, pain into compassion; that happiness is a process and not a place to reach. That life sometimes feels like a bad joke, but that it is better when you laugh, and that the most difficult situations offer to you the most beautiful hidden treasures. My theme for 2017, transmutation, was present at all moments.

In February, few weeks after I got out of bed, my dog Ananda and I embarked in a journey to return to Morocco where I had to teach a Teacher Training that I had to cancel two times. Synchronically, a healing workshop I wanted to take was happening in my way in the South of Spain just at the perfect time. A stopover to cleanse and bring a new start after having visited the underworld for several months.

The Teacher Training in Morocco was a full challenge, physical and mentally, being very limited in my asana practice, with my weak legs and a yoga shala in the fourth floor. It was also very nurturing at the emotional level. The group. formed by yogis and yoginis from different places in the world, created a real feeling of  kula, of community, and it was truly encouraging to get feedback about being an inspiration but teaching more from the heart than from the physical body.

Reaching those memories, it seems they happened years ago! But only 10 months have gone by. Time is so relative and it is to related to the intensity of life.

This year has gone fast but with certain dose of eternity. Maybe because I have really savour every moment. I have spent time close to the ocean. I have travelled to several places to teach. One of them San Sebastian, were I feel so at home with the amazing Northern kula. I have met again with the Anusara yoga community in Samavesha, where it was very exciting to teach classes for 100 people. I have cultivated very special friendships. I had moments of deep frustration for not being able to do everything I was used to do with my body. I have been in awe with its capacity for healing and regeneration, and I have created a new relationship with it and my yoga practice.  I have seen my dog being attacked by two big dogs and spent days and nights taking care of her. 

I have visited and re-visited inner places of wound and pain to heal them. I have watched sunsets over oceans of different continents. I have participated in the Foundation Training Certification Program, a new intelligent alignment system that I hope to help many people with. I have seen mountains on fire looking like volcanoes and I have felt suffocated by the smoke. I have been truly grateful for clean air and blue skies. I have surfed again in the Bay, even if with small waves. I have spent time with my family and seen the impossible: my mom falling in love with my dog. I have received healing therapies. I have started my very first Advance Teacher Training  with a very dedicated group of students and special guest teachers… wow…. I could go on and on…

What I have not done much lately is to write in my blog and to be in social media. One of my intentions for next year. What a dilemma!!! When I live so fully I do not have so much time for my phone and my computer. But these are the times we live in. We have to participate in the “real” reality as much as in the virtual one, that keeps us connected out of time and space.

In general, 2017 has been a year of intensity. The world seemed possessed by an unstoppable madness. The Earth screams, cries,   burns up, shakes. What are we doing to Her? We cannot not listen to the Pachamama any longer. We are losing control of a whole civilization whose social, political, economical and cultural systems are in deep crisis. Technological progress is so fast that there is no time to catch up. The feeling is at times spine-chilling. I don´t know if you feel the same but, often, I feel so small against such intensity and vertiginous change. At the same time, I am learning to live in peace in such a turbulent world. The sensation is similar to surfing in the ocean. A mix of fear, excitement and pleasure; humility agains the power of nature and the greatness of life; gratitud for being part of the whole of it.

Inside all of this, human beings are embarked in a capital process of transformation of gigantic dimensions. Never in history has been a time where all the world esoteric traditions have places their teachings to the service of the whole of humanity. The communication era makes possible that we can access those teachings that resonate closer to our heart. So much wisdom at the reach of all! But if we win to create real transformation the teachings alone are not enough. We need  clare vision and great commitment. The moment is now and there is no time to waste.

What do you do in your daily life  to heal, to grow? 

Which are the next steps to crear the life you wish and the world you want to see?  

In this last day of the year, I invite you to dedicate some ritual time to contemplate about 2017: the success and the failures; the moments of happiness and the challenges. Create also some clear intentions so you can bring real transformations for 2018, in your life and in the world. If you want an example of ritual, you can find it in this old entry   HERE

I say good-bye with the deep wish to live everything from the love in our hearts. Love for yourself. Love for the people around you. Love for what you fo. Love for the Pachamama. And from there to be able to manifest our wildest dreams, with work and dedication. I will be sharing my dreams with you along the way. In 2018.

Happy New Year!

The Sun is in Gemini, one of the air signs that governs words and communication. Gemini is also associated with the muse archetype, and with all the ways in which inspiration flows into our lives and in which we connect with the abundant river of creativity, But today, lets focus on communication, that is another river itself. .

In the recent Anusara yoga gathering in Italy, Samavesha 2017, it has been fascinating to enjoy the diversity of voices and all the different forms in which the teachings are lived and expressed. To share in community is so beautiful, and at the same time, I am totally aware that one of our greatest challenges are community and communication. It is so difficult at times to express our truth. To listen other´s truth. To understand and be understood. A big challenge. To make things more complicated, we live in times of global community. Yes, I am talking about social media communities. It is an issue that intrigues me and, I have been contemplating the dynamics of communication in this territory and how, from my point of view, they reflect and intensify what we can call “the shadow of communication”.

Words are powerful. In yoga there is the concept of Matrika Shakti. Literally “ the power of letters”. Letters, in the Sanskrit alphabet, are called Matrikas, little mothers, because they give birth to words, and then to our verbal or written expression.

 Words are loaded with Shakti, with generative energy, either or not we are aware of it. They serve to teach and to learn. To inspire others. To touch hearts. To uplift and empower. To delight. But they can also serve to hurt people. To put someone down.  To manipulate the truth. To betray a secret.

Years ago, most of shared information was contrasted and verified. It was unusual that, for instance, private conversations, were made public. In our virtual communication becomes very easy to say whatever you want without proving wether is true or not. Or to share private information since everything gets somehow recorded. We have access to thousands and it is possible to say anything just facing your computer or your iPhone screen. Yes, social media place all of us in a very vulnerable space. It is said that a lie told many times becomes a truth. And this is what sometimes happens. Someone publish something that in a minute a bunch of individuals “share” and “comment”, adding an opinion maybe without really knowing the facts or the intentions behind them. Yes, it is like in a “reality show” but here nobody gets paid,

• Are you aware of your communication pattern? 
• Do you speak from a place of reactivity? 
• Would you be willing to observe those patterns and try to change the ones that do not serve you or others?
• Would you like to communicate from the heart and always thinking about the greater good? 

There are teachings from psichology, from yoga and from other Eastern traditions that can illuminate this issue and bring about healthier ways.  Communication can become a powerful yoga practice. And it is a daily practice!! So although it is not an easy one, there are some simple steps we can follow. 

1. A fundamental aspect is  shadow work.
   One way to know your shadow is to observe which are the behaviours and comments from others that trigger you. Ask yourself why they make you feel so uncomfortable or agitated, without placing the emphasis on the other person or the action or comment themselves, but on you. We bring to light past experiences or unconscious patterns, so they will stop controlling us from hiding. parts of the unconscious mind that they will stop controlling from the shadow. Then there is no reactivity but conscious communication.
2. Take time every day to bring your attention inside
   Nothing new under the Sun here. The yogic practices of pranayama, meditation, contemplation, really improve anything in our lives. Few days ago I was studying the  Shiva Sutras with Carlos Pomeda. The main teaching is that human beings get lost constantly in the extroversión of our own lives. This causes lack of clarity and suffering. The antidote is to dedicate some time to bring the attention closer to the Self. And if we get stablished in that place inside, and we communicate from there, communication happens, not from reactivity but from compassion. With time, the external craziness starts to affect us less and less, for instance, what the others say, even if the talk is about us.

3. The Four Gates of Speech.

   If everything above is still a bit abstract for you, this is a very down to earth practice that you can start to use in your next conversation. 

Let me know your thoughts and the effect of these practices on your communication with others.

Connect inside and don´t be afraid to express your truth from the heart.

NAMASTE

We are in the month of Aries that represents the archetype of the warrior and the warrioress. It is the fiery energy able to initiate, to move through inertia, to fight for justice.  The initiator of transformation. Although we are about to transit into Taurus, I want to share a story, that always inspired me. It is all about warriors, peacocks and transmutation. And as I see the crazy news today, where battles are fought in the name of misguided power and control, I deeply feel the need for us, as yogis, to become ever more committed to our practices and to be brave to fight both the outer battles, in the form of our fierce commitment to our values, and our inner battles. The battles for deep healing, the battles for a life of love.

Once upon a time, there was a thousand-eyed demon called Tarakasura. Trough his austerities, he obtained a boon so he could only get killed by, no one else than, Shiva´s son. Shiva was very well known for her fierce asceticism. After the tragic death of her beloved Sati, who jumped into her father´s ceremonial fire feeling dishonored by him (by her father), everyone doubted he would ever marry again. Taraka felt powerful and indestructible, freely terrorizing and destroying all the three worlds, even the Heaven of the Gods.

The Gods fervently invoked the Maha Devi (the primordial Shakti, the Great Femenine power) through rituals, prayer, mantra and ceremony, so she would incarnate as a Goddess to gain Shiva´s heart again. She became embodied as Parvati, the daughter of the mountain and, after a very long story, she married Shiva.

All the Gods are happy. Now Shiva can have a son. But the love-making between Shiva and Parvati is so intense, and the seed of their love so hot, that no one can hold it. Not even Parvati. So she gives the seed to her sister Svaha, Agni´s wife (the fire God). But even her, that is hot and fiery, can only hold it for a limited time. So she put it inside the cold waters of Goddess Ganga. After a while, Ganga passed it on to the forest Goddess Aranyani, that plants the seed into the fertile soil. It is so that through all this different places, a symbol of the different yogic paths of transformation, a beautiful six-headed boy is born. Vishnu asked the six Krittika star devis to suckle the newborn baby. He took six separate forms until Parvati came and brought the six babies together again in an embrace.

His name was Kartikeya, also known as Skanda or Murugan. He became the Lord of War, and the best of the warriors, as this was his dharma. He is described in the Skanda Purana as brave and intelligent, a great devotee of Shiva, his father, and with the charisma of a leader that will guide Gods and men into battle to defeat  the demon Taraka.

And so it was. When, after a long battle, he killed such a horrible beast he thought, “how could I turn this disaster into beauty?”.  And so he transformed the thousand eyes of the demon into the feathers of the peacock. And the peacock became his vahana or vehicle of Consciousness, as a symbol of transmutation, of what it is possible to do with the ugliest of our experiences.

Such a beautiful way in which the ancestral wisdom tell us that the yogic power, the one that spring forth from the inner marriage of Shiva and Shakti, of our inner self and our outer actions, is all about transmuting experiences into beauty; about allowing creativity to flow from the battle grounds of the heart; about transforming grieve into hope, anger into acceptance, fear into love, limitations into wisdom. I felt many times inspired by this story. Inspired to create, to paint, to sing,… or to write. And you? In what do you transform your inner demons? 

Where are you being called to battle? 

How are you a leader in your community? If you are not yet, where do you feel the call of leadership in service to others?  

How do you transform the debris of your inner battles in beauty and wisdom? 

Is there a yogic practice more transformative than mantra? Mantra is an energetic device that works in the most subtle places inside your being. It is the power of the Shakti, the creative energy of the Universe, its vibration, creating sonic forms inside of you, dissolving limitations, birthing new structures, transmuting the core of your being at all levels, from the physical to the most ethereal.

In India, Mahashivaratri is a time of fasting, a time of meditation, a time of chanting. it is a time fully dedicated to Consciousness in its formless form as Shiva, the Ultimate Reality. It is a night of mantra. It is said that, the effects of repetition of the mantra Om Namah Shivaya, of dissolving obstacles, of cleansing karmic patterns, of manifesting your innermost heart desires, of expanding consciousness, of remembrance of our essential nature of awareness and bliss, are multiplied by thousand. It is believed that, in this particular moment of the year, there is a especial energy that favours spiritual connection and growth. And to synch into that current of energy one must be awake, with the spine erect. Getting close to one of most magical and powerful nights of the year I would like to invite you, even if you do not stay awake all night, to take a time for yourself, to go inside and to repeat the Maha mantra.

It is interesting that the probably most important spiritual holiday in India, is a celebration of darkness, just the night before the Moon will disappear completely from the sky. Not really strange though if we think that Shiva, in the myths, always embraces the dark, the marginal, the rejected, teaching us that everything that Jung would call “the shadow” are places in our being where we find our true power. If we are able to make the transformation, of course. In the beautiful mythological story in which the Devas (the lights) together with the Asuras (the demons) have to churn the Ocean of Milk, a metaphor of the practice of yoga, and after the Ocean has gifted them with multiples presents as brilliant precious stones and several other treasures, there is a moment when, from the bottom of the Ocean, the most venomous and toxic poison emerges.

There is a great Tantric teaching in this story. Shiva neither rejects the poison nor hides it in a remote place.He transform it in the sonic power of mantra, in vibration, in pulsation. He extracts from the poison its essence, that is not other that his own essence and transmute it into energy.

Any poison that is in your life at the moment (and I am sure that there is more than one and some of them can be really toxic), take it, accept it, embrace it and during this magical night just repeat the mantra.

You can recite the mantra in loud voice. You can repeat it internally feeling the silenced sound vibrating inside yourself. You can sing it. In solitude or in company. In any way allow the mantra and your heart to melt into each other. Feel its healing power multiplied by thousand during Maha Shivaratri. And, as my teacher Sally Kempton instructs, repeat it with the conviction that “the mantra is not other than the Supreme Consciousness that permeates the Universe and it is not other than yourself”. Like the poison. Poison that with the churning (the repetition of the mantra) of the Ocean of Milk (your heart) will be slowly transmuting into nectar.