earth to ether: wisdom course details

Earth to Ether:  a modern yogi's wisdom training  july 13-20 2015

At Under tallarna in Järna, Sweden 

the inspiration is to start from the places we know; earth, material, body and through observation, contemplation, discussion and practice come to discover the subtle bodies that are talked about in ancient yogi text  or comparatively more modern philosophic discussion.  in our daily lives we know we can seduced by our senses whether mildly with food or intensely and destructively with toxins or excesses.  however our senses can also lead us into the great mysteries of nature, the magic of the human being and ultimately heal us and bring to life freedom to create the future we want to participate in.  

this week long course will look at what each day has to offer in its archetype.  for instance on monday we will allow the moon to guide our practice!  no there will be no aliens from the moon telling you which pose to take, but we will allow the qualities of reflection, femininity and change to guide our practice and discussion.  using stories,  conversation, anthroposophy, taoism and whatever you bring the collective wisdom circle, as a group we will explore how we are connected to the planets, the earth, each other and ourselves.  how can we recognize connections while still practicing our freedom?  how can we marry the internal divisions in ourselves to better bring union and connection into the world around us?  how do i use an ancient practice such as yoga in a modern way that suits our times and myself?  

for those of you who can’t attend the whole week, we are opening it up so you can come spend a day on the farm or come to the open yoga classes, one in the morning and one in the evening, specific time to be announced soon!  

here is a very general overview of the week so you can see if there is a specific theme that calls you or if the random day you have available uncannily matches up with what you need.  

monday july 13 the moon 

Today we will be focusing on yin in general instead of a particular organ or organ pair.

 reflection/reflective :  we will start with the darkness of the new moon (even though the waning moon won’t be new until the 16th).  the emphasis will be at looking inward at the obscured mysteries of self.  where are you?  what fears are you carrying?  what dreams light up when you look into the darkness of your eternal self?  this is connected to the feminine, the secrets, mysteries and invisible.  

tuesday july 14  mars

today the organ focus is on the gall bladder

fight/ action :  this day honors the yang in all of us. the fire nature of initiation and the creative thrust of conflict and meetings.   we will look at patriarchy, masculinity, and yang qualities in the world and ourselves. of course there may be some critique but actually to use the eyes love and recognize not just the resulting wounds in the world but also the gifts!  if we want to be peacemakers we need to practice being loving in conflicts!  

wednesday july 15 mercury

today the organ focus will be on the lungs

communication:  bringing the dualistic world into unity within ourselves and each other.  this day is ruled by loki and the coyote, hermes and mercury!   communication includes laughter , games and dancing as well as serious inner will to lift up out of sadness or grief.  this day will celebrate the eternal ephemeral, momentary completeness and the power of our words and voice.  

thursday july 16 jupiter

today the organ focus will be on the liver

vision:  recognizing our complexity and completeness we will focus on what our longer vision can see, what our bigger tasks in the world are and how our commitments can bring lightness instead of just work to our daily lives.  we will look at anger, kindness, generosity and benevolence and how our vision creates a future.

friday july 17 venus

today the organ focus will be on the kidneys

love:  of course love will be a focus through out the week and beyond, today we will pay special attention to love in intimate relationships, in our bodies and in its relationship to fear, wisdom and the kidneys.

saturday july 18 saturn

today the organ focus will be on the spleen

revisionning:  the power of being able to stay awake through change and transformation.  how do i develop a way to live with and love others so they can be free?  we are all just a bundle of processes , whether its my physical cells changing, social life changing or nonphysical feelings of my heart, how do i stay true to who i want to become ?  this day will include discussions about food, food rights and access, about timing creative time vs linear time, and about being in the right place with the right people at the right time!!  

sunday july 19 sun

today the organ focus will be on the heart

integration:  now the emphasis will be on love in a global, big way.  how to allow the activity of the heart in the body to inform us on what is possible in the world.  can we imagine a shift in consciousness and in the world without casualties?  the heart in traditional chinese medicine has to do with elation but also timing!  how can we love on purpose and what does love create?

monday july 20 moon

today the organ focus will be on reflecting the whole.

reflection/reflective: we started the week by going into our own interior space, the darkness of the new moon archetype while we will finish in the archetype of a bright full moon.  in stillness how do you see the week reflected in you?  what do you see now to bring to the world through yourself?  how do we bring the yin more into everywhere ? how do we internalize our past as a strength and capacity?  and then we’ll say bye and continue to live happily and be awesome everywhere!

so if you can only come for a day let us know so you can join us for meal (the yogis, me and  the under tallarna crew).  the suggested contribution for a full day with us is 500-1000 SEK and if that isn’t possible please speak to me,  don’t let a lack of money keep you away!    stay tuned for more details 

love, rachel

questions of cowardice, love and self, plus a little poetry and taxidermy!

this morning something lame happened .. i thought back to a year  ago when  i woke up next to one of the loves of my life and how right it was.  then my mind lead me to missing him and hurting because i haven’t seen him since and barely heard from him  ( yeah yeah i get it, he’s just not that into me), and the sentence that flowed through my head was i hate him.  there it is, this thing that people talk about, that love quickly or/ and too easily can turn to hate.  i started crying because i don’t want to lose my love, even if at this point it is only too my own memories, bitterness and loneliness.  and i don’t hate him.  i hate to loose the belonging that i felt by his side.  i hate that others leave me wanting, because they don’t come close to reaching the places he found.  i hate that i am separated from the person i felt like was home for me.

i often say i have been lucky to fall in love more than once in my life but today as i was talking to a friend and now i wonder if it really is more the once or if its the same sad story on repeat.  i  realized that i have fallen in love with cowards more than once.  and yes then i must ask the question how am i a coward, but we’ll come back to that later)!   one was afraid to speak his wishes.  i travelled across the country just to see him, and still he couldn’t say he what he wanted (i said, we’ll come back to my part)!  the next was afraid to loose me and got lost in possession and jealousy, the next was a fighter not a coward.  the next promised me his heart and life and then disappeared.  then the next one pretended to be a player, but years later i found out from his friends he was only seeing me for years and i didn’t know.  he once told me he knew he was my soul mate, but was sorry but he couldn’t do it in this life time and the  then i was a coward and stubborn.  then next protected himself with other women.  then one love was too scared to cross the bridge to me, returning to safer ground.  and then the next one just simply told me he was a coward, o he can jump off of tall bridges, drive ridiculous vehicles and travel the world, but matters of the heart are the scariest precipice apparently.   now i can find more example of fear in the men that i love, but i am not setting out to blame them for my disappointments.  for as i am, they are all many things and far more wonderful things than just wounds and weakness, and cowardice is only an act away from bravery.  my question now is what am i cowardly about and why do i need to love them so?  what gift lies wrapped up it the suffering?  what wisdom am i to find to justify this path?  

i said i would get back to how i am a coward, and in some relationships i can see it clear as day staring back at me. where i was afraid to speak my wishes, where i ran and hid, where i didn’t ask, and worst of all, where i said no to life. but i still feel blind to my own cowardice.  or maybe the mirroring isn’t that easy, that my task may be to love the coward because i then may understand some foggy distant past beyond births and deaths.  i will continue to ask myself this question because i feel defeated and faithless when it comes to my own fairy tale, and i am much more interested in what capacities i have built up in myself than wishing just for a different story..  well, i can’t help doing that, but i can also turn my will towards radical self honesty in hopes of at the very least knowing the world better.

this day has been light and dark for me like clouds passing on a bright day.  some of the brightness came from discovering this inspiringly weird, wonderful and inquisitive web site about taxidermy and such things ( thanks marnie for your totes-magoats)! 

After A While

After a while you learn
the subtle difference between
holding a hand and chaining a soul
and you learn
that love doesn’t mean leaning
and company doesn’t always mean security.
And you begin to learn
that kisses aren’t contracts
and presents aren’t promises
and you begin to accept your defeats
with your head up and your eyes ahead
with the grace of woman,
not the grief of a child
and you learn
to build all your roads on today
because tomorrow’s ground is
too uncertain for plans
and futures have a way of falling down
in mid-flight.
After a while you learn
that even sunshine burns
if you get too much
so you plant your own garden
and decorate your own soul
instead of waiting for someone
to bring you flowers.
And you learn that you really can endure
you really are strong
you really do have worth
and you learn
and you learn
with every goodbye, you learn…

  ~ 1971, Veronica A. Shoffstall. Source.

and another poem/excerpt from an incredible blog by Alison Nappi, find the whole blog here (http://www.writewithspirit.com/letters-of-love--madness/you-dont-need-to-be-rescued)

 You don't need the white knight. You are the wild horse racing the wind.

You don't need the holy man. You are already holy.
You don't need the medicine. You are the medicine.
You don't need magic. You are a living miracle.
You don't need acceptance. You are loved and adored beyond measure.
You don't need courage. You need faith.

  the hiding mouse(above) and this fabulous raccoon family pic are both from http://meddlingwithnature.com

birds, birds, birds and Free Columbia

i woke up the other morning and started thinking about birds! 

 what had my attention is this really wonderful crowd funding effort that is going on to finance the next year of Free Columbia, http://www.freecolumbia.org, an amazing school that is not only teaching rad stuff (essentials like making art, studying anthroposophy and engaging in the social sphere) but doing it in a new way..

 well they started this series of art assignments to go along with their crowd funding drive, showing off amazing birds from all over the place in so many version of beautiful!  

  but somehow i missed the beginning of this drive and always felt behind and a little lost  .. do i have to make a bird to raise money? Actually you can donate without making a bird ( https://dana.io/free-columbia)  plus there is the life long struggle of doing what i am told!  so needless to say i kept noticing that i wasn’t playing along, despite my deep support and appreciation for this program.  i sat there thinking about my own failings, while sitting and papermaching! 

oh coincidentally i was papermaching birds!

.. lots of birds!

and i look up and let my gaze travel around the circumference of my little room..  from where i was sitting i could see six pieces where ‘bird’  is the central image!   and lots of fake little birds all over the place...

then i looked down at my newest tattoo (https://www.facebook.com/rachel.j.miller.1/videos/vb.592126190/10152465856896191/?type=3&theater)... a second bird 

and i realized that yes, i am a little obsessed with birds ! as i am with freedom, love and transformation.

 

wether you make some birds to highlight their cause (the drive has about 3 more days left)! 

https://www.facebook.com/groups/FreeColumbiaGame/

some inspiration for making birds

https://www.audubon.org/magazine/may-june-2015/2015-audubon-photography-awards-top-100

or want to support their future

https://dana.io/free-columbia

do something, this is the kind of program we need to build the future we dream about!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Free-Columbia/185219208208766?pnref=story

be creative and love lots!

arriving

a collage that became three christmas cards and traveled in different directions

my cells relax, settling down like snow falling gently to the earth.

and as my body stills, warmth returns .

my bones feel here and slowly, 

like crystals grow, 

my body returns to relationship.

sadness has stepped back

 and my eyes search the sky for inspiration. 

christmas cards i painted for the mcpherson family

What lies behind us and what lies ahead of us 

are tiny matters compared to what lives within us.

henry david thoreau

 from sacramento to järna

painting from the christian community in CA to yip in Sweden

from the american river to the baltic sea

from misty carmical  to snowy järna

i think i'll stay here a while ..

a photo for kiara <3

and now, with lots of love to y'all,

a little shout out,
before i go,
to what lives in your heart
 this fine valentine's day

  a little painting that still underway.. 

a tractor, a poem, a bag and some love

The small man

Builds cages for everyone 

He

Knows.

While the sage,

Who has to duck his head

When the moon is low,

Keeps dropping keys all night long

For the

Beautiful

Rowdy

Prisoners.

                                                                              --Hafiz

photo taken by the lovely kiara nagel in visalia, california a couple days ago 

the bag..

this bag has a bunch of stories. some about friends with hearts aflame and some about politics, food and community. and then some that reveal a funny thing.  

when i was in berlin i was overwhelmed by the cool in some ways and underwhelmed in others.  but one of the hipster trends that i saw perplexed me.  these cotton, often white, often thin, simple bags with a cool print or hip saying.  it didn’t make sense, if you need to walk in the rain it would get drench through or if you need to hop a fence the top is open and you too easily can loose everything.  it didn’t understand the choice.   i scoffed even as i mourned lose of the pretty (dysfunctional) bags.. cause they were pretty, oh so pretty.   as i noticed the white cotton bag on my shoulder today, the one i had been so enjoying, i realized again, i am who i rejected.  yes, not such a big deal in terms of a bag, but the pattern holds true when i judge what people choose or something they’ve said or how they said it or, well the list could go on.  often i will catch myself doing that very thing or hearing an echo in what i heard from the other. i am the other. you are me. i must continue to love the other better kinder deeper more.

before i go let me tell you just a little bit more about the bag.  you see it was a gift from robin and under tallarna.  perfect in timing, celebrating and simply right on, thank you. 

 and i love you all!

from the punk rock and soil yoga camp at under tallarna in järna, sweden 2014