Winter Solstice and January Update - Relishing the Dark

From Joyce Rupp’s Winter Cloak

”This year I do not want
the dark to leave me.
I need its wrap
of silent stillness,
its cloak
of long lasting embrace.
Too much light
has pulled me away
from the chamber
of gestation….”

See below for the rest of the poem

Contents

Online Yoga continues
- Weekly Classes Sat and Wed ams 1/1 - 1/31 ($20 January Special)
- 1/1, New Years Workshop Beginning Anew!
- One 2 One monthly private sessions
- Yoga Salon DEEP YOGA - Online Program

In Person Yoga:
- Monthly local workshops in 2024 - Info soon!

Retreats 2024

Gray Bear Retreat 4/25-5/2, 2024
Early Bird ends 12/15

• Summer Solstice at Bell Valley, CA 6/17 - 21, 2024
  4 spaces left as of 12/20/23
  

• Spanish Spa Retreat 9/15-21, 2024 - Info 1/1/24
  
  Below, a story, a meditation, and the rest of the poem.

  REST TIME!
  
  
  
  
  
  

Online Yoga continues 1/1 - 1/31/2024
4 Saturday ams and 3 Wednesday ams; Michelle’s Tuesday ams; Restoratives 12/8
Sign up for Auto Subscription and receive 3 months of recordings. Auto subscribers also get a 33% discount on private online sessions, Deep Yoga and Pesky Piriformis Weekend and can bring a free guest during the month of January
Monthly or Dropin options available

January Special - Anyone who has never attended online classes with me, can join for the month of January for $20.
One to One Program returns for anyone needing some individual attention.

Our Online Yoga Theme this month is Fallow Field. We often begin the year with intentions and expectations but we are still in the dark time; we are in the “chamber of gestation”!

ONLINE: New Years Day Workshop - Beginning Anew
1/1/24 10 -11.45am
SIGN UP BY 12/24!
Begin the New Year with an all round balanced practice where at every moment we have the opportunity to begin again, to open to possibility.
Info

ONLINE: Pesky Piriformis and Other Pelvic Allies
4pm,1/19/24 - 10am,1/21/24
Online weekend workshop to explore the external rotators, pelvic floor and the gateway to the earth.
Discounts for Deep Yoga and Auto Subscribing Yogis.
Info

Yoga Salon DEEP

A monthly online sangha of yoga nutz - teachers and keen practitioners!- through the inspiration of ocean life - inner and outer, and the pelvis - as the center of our aquatic life.
DEEP
Dharmic
Ecological
Exploratory
Practice
6.45am -9.30am PST on first Sundays Feb-Aug 2024

In Person: Spring at Gray Bear, TN

Breath Breathing Itself

- Advanced Intensive 4/24-27
- Presence in Yoga 4/27-5/2

Can’t wait to be there and see old friends and new! Time to book your spot on the retreat/s at this unique sanctuary of yoga among the woods, waterfalls and welcoming homesteads of Gray Bear. Early Bird fee ends 12/15 Info

In the spirit of winding down, there will be no longer article in this update. But I did want to leave you with some support for Relishing the Dark and your Winter Solstice time. In a recent local Solstice workshop we followed through our restorative practice, the story of Inanna, the ancient Sumerian goddess who descends into the underworld and is stripped bare of all her titles and possessions. A powerful image for this time of the year, when all around us there are lights and bustle and busyness. So I am sharing an earlier recording of this story below along with a meditation we practiced this am.
Finally if you are needing encouragement to let your schedule drift into nothingness, you might want to listen to this 12 minute audio interview with musician, Hrishikesh Hirwaytk. This is a story of creativity arising out of the gestation of “boredom”. The power of the fallow field that will be our theme for online yoga moving into January, such a potent time for practice and revelation.

Free Walking and Sitting Meditation: Relishing the Dark 26mins

Supta Badakonasana Dreamtime……

Dropping into the Underworld - The Story of Inanna - A reflection in supported Supta Badakonasana

Winter’s Cloak by Joyce Rupp continued….

…..Let the dawns
come late,
let the sunsets
arrive early,
let the evenings
extend themselves
while I lean into
the abyss of my being.

Let me lie in the cave
of my soul,
for too much light
blinds me,
steals the source
of revelation.

Let me seek solace
in the empty places
of winter's passage,
those vast dark nights
that never fail to shelter me.

A deep quiet Solstice to you all and a wonderful holiday season….

Until the New Year….Online classes continue this month.

M