The Ashtanga Invocation describes Patanjali as an amalgam of serpent and human forms. To install this image within ourselves is to feel the dynamic interplay of prana and apana within the space of our own bodies. In this workshop, we use the Invocation to remind ourselves of what the Ashtanga practice is all about. 

The more refined variation of the practice of Mula Bandha involves a subtle lifting of the pelvic floor, into the interior of the body. This action is not easy to access, and for most of us, it requires assiduous practice. Most of us can learn to access this more subtle variation of Mula Bandha through Uddiyana, or more precisely, through the lifting of the belly out of the pelvic basin. In this workshop, we explore the subtle actions of the abdominal musculature that are involved in lifting the belly, and we use them to bring Mula Bandha alive.

In the Ashtanga practice, we are meant not so much to oscillate between the opposing patterns of prana and apana, but to explore their dynamic interplay on the medium of our bodies.  In this workshop, we develop the visceral vocabulary of prana and apana that we use hereafter to explore the dynamic balance between these energies.

The stability of our bodies and minds depends on our connection to the earth, to the shared ground of our psychophysical support.  In the microcosm of the body, the supportive energy of the earth is concentrated in the pelvis, and one of the central techniques of Hatha Yoga is to lift that supportive energy upward so that it can unite with the expansive energy of the heart, inspiring her to sing.

In this workshop, we learn to enact this crucial gesture in certain key vinyasa from Surya Namaskar B, and we experience for ourselves the surprising way in which this can expand our breath.

The "psoas lines" are lines of sensation that run through the physical psoas, but also continue up the arms to the palms of the hands and down the inseams of the legs to the feet. In this workshop, we find our psoas lines, and we see how they signal the integration of the pranic and apanic forces in our bodies.

In backbends, we make ourselves especially vulnerable, and our protective reflexes to that vulnerability can sometimes constrict our breath. In this workshop, we learn how to breathe in backbends, and how to use the internal mechanics of breathing to support ourselves deeply from within. When we learn to breathe in backbends, we can use these postures as they are intended, for creative inspiration and deep emotional release.

The primitive streak is a line of soft tissue that forms in utero, just three weeks after sperm and ovum unite. Mula Bandha retraces this line, from the pelvic floor to the crown of the head.  In this workshop, we reconsider the practice of Mula Bandha as a conscious reiteration of this miraculous movement of prana, or vital energy, out of which our physical bodies unfold.

In this workshop, we learn a simple sitting practice that involves holding our attention upon six distinct energetic centers of the body, and visualizing movement between them.  This practice helps us access sushumna nadi, the replendent channel, through which the prana is naturally drawn to flow.

Hatha Yoga beings with the merging together of prana apana. When these opposing energies converge, it catalyzes a process of deep psychical release.  In this workshop, we learn how to initiate that process by rolling the apanic energy up the spine, from the altar of the pelvis to the crown of the head, in the vinyasa of Surya Namaskar.  We discover for ourselves how this gesture supports the breath, and also encourages deep emotional release.

The Hatha tradition takes the body as a microcosm of reality. And when we begin to experience the body in that way, our yoga practices really comes alive. In this workshop, we study the microcosmic idea of the body that is given in the tantras, and we consider what it implies about the nature of yoga practice itself.

Our purpose is to reiterate the internal process of Hatha Yoga, and this depends on staying grounded in the apanic energy of the pelvis, and rolling that energy up the spine from the root.  Even in forward folds, we tend to lose connection to the root, with the result that we collapse around the heart. In this workshop, we learn to reiterate the rolling pattern that we established in Surya Namaskar even as we go deeper into forward folds, and we discover how this action gives forward folding new depth and vibrance.

Siva and Sakti are the two overarching principles that we work with in Hatha Yoga.  More than archetypes of gender, these are the principles of consciousness and creative energy that combine to shape our world. In this workshop, we contemplate one of the stories of their erotic love affair, to see what it teaches us about the nature of Hatha Yoga.