in the name of love: a yoga love letter

dear love, it's been a while, again..
when i started teaching on line more regularly in 2020 i also started writing every week to share the ever changing zoom schedule and the writing became more regular and sometimes interesting :)  the numbers on my zoom classes have dwindled again, but i keep meeting people or hearing from them 'I'm not practicing yoga right now but please keep me on the list' :)  so maybe its time to share again. 

 Yogis, Yoginis, and Readers of Blogs, 

Dear Yogis and Yoginis 

How many ways can I tell you I love you? Maybe screwing up in love is one of the best ways to get to know yourself and others, but oy vey it hurts.   Wether it’s family or friends, romantic or not, why it is so hard to express it sometimes and why is it so hard to hear it sometimes? Maybe because love lives beyond the bondage of physics and rationality.  There is no satisfying equation to master or guarantee love, so we all get to know it through each other in our life and our communities.  I imagine the variations and permutations of expressing love between two unique individuals are as many as stars in the sky.  One man I knew said I love you to his wife for the first time when she was giving birth to their daughter, another didn’t mean it till they had children.  A woman I knew only ever said ditto when others said it out loud to her. Still others tell everyone all the time, some never say it and one teacher described how much he liked telling strangers in the grocery store line ‘i love you’! Each one of us carry stories of love, some light, some dark, all revealing our tenderness and vulnerability globally in success or regret.  Each story offers another way that humans try to love each other.  How many times did we miss hearing it or recognising it as love? How many promises  have we broken and excused because there was love involved? Or how foolishly we have mistaken craving possession of something for love? Or just wanted it too be true despite knowing it wasn’t? Once I lied and echoed back ‘i love you too, even though i knew they meant it that way and i didn’t.  Even as I played dumb I knew I had lied and watched for years as that lie ricocheted through their tender places ripping and wounding again and again like a piece of invisible shrapnel.  My inner laziness and lie lived like as a wound in the other. Before this experience i believed i would suffer my own lazinesses or short comings, not other humans.  But we are in this together.  Do you play games of guessing or fantasy to make up little measures to see if someone really loves you?  Like if they forget this then that means they don’t love me or if they don’t show up like this at that time it means their love isn’t real? One of my deepest regrets was trying to withdraw my love from someone for their lack of integrity, but the joke was on me, the relationship disintegrated but my love remained, roaming my dreams and stalking my heart, and yes teaching my so much through my own suffering. 

In the world of love we have blundered most of all and still it’s where our salvation lives. Love is our practice, our collective earth co-creation. We’re born into, thrown into it, seduced into it and discover life giving vitality from love! Even when too much time is cloistered away from it, our whole being suffers.  Living is a commitment to keep practicing in the mystery school of love.   We fail all the time when we commit to a practice.  His holiness the Dali lama even talks about failing at meditation, and any musician knows that they only master a piece after hours and hours of practicing, in other words after hours and hours of failing.  Yoga is no different, it isn’t a performance of mastery, it is the practice of an amateur, even after years of practicing.  While we can’t successfully opt out of the mystery school of love, the things that help us through it are optional.  You don’t have to practice yoga, meditation or kindness, but you are free to. When you channel your will and return to your practice again and again you also strengthen your enthusiasm and perseverance for life and in love.  We can become more loving and kind through practice, through trying, through messing up and trying again, but it requires our participation, honesty, risk and courage.  may you find the things that help you love more generously, more wildly, more kindly! 

Keep your practice up and your heart on,

with lot o love, Rachel

The Swan, No. 24, 1915 by Hilma af Klint 

for the love of friends

The cat must of had my tongue..


I don't really know what stopped me from writing, was it after a good friend told me I did it well or was it when i fell in love or what the fuck?!

Life continues to be a mystery and a dance full of love and exploding burning brutal world.  I strive to be brave on the daily and as kind as possible.  When I remember the stars or that my life is but a cosmic day,  or that I am here to leave goodness behind me, my heart grows lighter.

Here is an invocation written by my friend Orland Bishop in his book The Seventh Shrine

Infinite stars, infinite space, source of the knowledge of the worlds, giver of thoughts that empower creation, transforming light into the elements of matter, radiate before me the seven keys that unlock the door of the Mystery Temple so I may enter and fulfill the purpose for which my birth initates

Reading his words always warms my heart and expands my context. hope its good for you.


This is one of the paintings that i am working  of my BFFs, Bjarne Edberg, such an inspiring man.

still some way to go! wip (work in progress).


And just down the road from my house in the same building I teach yoga in these beautiful women performed and my friend Rebekka Karijord wrote the music.

and for my fellow word nerds ..

the cat kinda still might have it. peace for now.

*iloveu*

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