New Year's Eve Dream Temple - Part 6 - Yoga Nidra and Nyasa

During the New Year's Eve Dream Temple Program, Nya Patrinos will lead a Yoga Nidra Session with Reiki performed by Jennifer Kelly.

Many Indian philosophical and mythological texts refer to Yoga Nidra as the state that occurs when the Indian god Vishnu sleeps at the time when creation is destroyed (called pralaya). Vishnu is the cohesive power of the universe, so when he sleeps, the universe dissolves.

Yoga Nidra is a modern form of the ancient practice of Nyasa. Nyasa is the original practice of yoga nidra found in the ancient tantric texts. The word nyasa means 'to place'.It is a practice in which specific mantras are placed and felt at different parts of the body.

Nyasa is intended to induce pratyahara (sense withdrawal) in preparation for dharana (concentration) and dhyana (meditation). All these methods of nyasa are very powerful. They can be practised externally (bahya) when the parts are physically touched, or internally (antar) when the mantras and awareness are mentally placed. The mantra chanting and rotation of awareness harmonizes the nervous system, balances pranic flows and renders the mind one-pointed. Each part of the body is systematically charged with the energy of the mantras. The whole body and mind are purified and prepared for meditation.

The modern form of yoga nidra has been adapted from these traditional practices of nyasa by Swami Satyananda Saraswati to meet the needs of modern society. Though the mantras have been omitted to make the practice acceptable to all people of the world, the present version has been carefully designed to retain its power to transform the personality and receptivity of the practitioner. Nya studied Yoga Nidra under disciples of Swami Satynananda Saraswati at the Yoga Academy of North America.

New Year's Eve Dream Temple - Part 5 - Teutonic Celebrations and Druid Rites

During the Middle Ages many of the ancient Roman customs were maintained and augmented by the incoming heathen rites of the Teutonic peoples. It was during this period that the customary yule log and mistletoe were added to the popular New Year's festivities. The yule log is a carry-over from the bonfires of sun-worship, and mistletoe is a parasite used in Druid rites as a symbol of sex-worship!

As Teutonic customs were added, the date of New Year's celebrations was temporarily changed to March 25, to coincide with the Germanic spring rites of fertility. Finally Pope Gregory re-instituted the ancient pagan Roman date of January first. He imposed it on the whole Western world in 1582 when his Gregorian calendar "reforms" were accepted. All Roman Catholic countries accepted this change AT ONCE! Sweden, Germany, Denmark and England, the strongholds of Druid customs, finally acquiesced to Rome in the 1700's!

New Year's Eve Dream Temple - Part 4 - Feast of Circumcision

The Yogi Tree invites you to celebrate New Year's Eve in a community of like minded spiritual seekers.  We are offering Yoga, Reiki, Dream Exploration, Yoga Nidra, Hypnosis, Breathwork and Trance Dance in our adult slumber party for spiritual growth, healing and transformation at our studio in Toluca Lake.

The celebration of the New Year has ancient roots. Saturnalia was the name of the Ancient Roman New Year's celebration.  Saturnalia shifted during the lifetime of Rome. "It began around the middle of December ... and continued until January first. In its midst was December twenty-fifth, the day, as the Romans calculated, when the sun was at its lowest ebb ...." (E. W. Count's "4000 Years of Christmas", page 28.)

Around 375 A.D. the Roman Emperor Constantine imposed "Christianity" on the Roman world.

       "There were many immigrants into the ranks of the Christians by this time," writes Earl W. Count. "The Church Fathers discovered to their alarm that they were also facing an invasion of pagan customs. The habit of Saturnalia was too strong to be left behind. At first the Church forbade it, but in vain." In medieval Europe, however, the celebrations accompanying the New Year were considered pagan and unchristian-like, and in 567 AD the Council of Tours abolished January 1st as the beginning of the year.

January 1st was given Christian significance and became known as the Feast of the Circumcision, considered to be the eighth day of Christ's life counting from December 25th and following the Jewish tradition of circumcision eight days after birth on which the child is formally given his or her name.     "The Church finally succeeded in taking the merriment, the greenery, the lights, and the gifts from Saturn and giving them to the Babe of Bethlehem .... The pagan Romans became Christians -- but the Saturnalia remained!" (E.W. Count, page 31.)

New Year's Eve Dream Temple - Part 3 - Saturnalia

The New Year's festivities that had originated in Babylon found their way to Greece and finally to Rome. The Romans called it "Saturnalia" -- in honor of Saturn. Among them it was extremely popular -- a time of revelings, drinking bouts, orgies -- finally ending in HUMAN SACRIFICE!

The early Roman calendar consisted of 10 months and 304 days, with each new year beginning at the vernal equinox; according to tradition, it was created by Romulus, the founder of Rome, in the eighth century B.C.

A later king, Numa Pompilius, is credited with adding the months of Januarius and Februarius. Over the centuries, the calendar fell out of sync with the sun, and in 46 B.C. the emperor Julius Caesar decided to solve the problem by consulting with the most prominent astronomers and mathematicians of his time. He introduced the Julian calendar, which closely resembles the more modern Gregorian calendar that most countries around the world use today.

As part of his reform, Caesar instituted January 1 as the first day of the year, partly to honor the month’s namesake: Janus, the Roman god of beginnings, whose two faces allowed him to look back into the past and forward into the future. Romans celebrated by offering sacrifices to Janus, exchanging gifts with one another, decorating their homes with laurel branches and attending raucous parties.

In medieval Europe, Christian leaders temporarily replaced January 1 as the first of the year with days carrying more religious significance, such as December 25 (the anniversary of Jesus’ birth) and March 25 (the Feast of the Annunciation); Pope Gregory XIII reestablished January 1 as New Year’s Day in 1582.

New Year's Eve Dream Temple - Part 2 - Hypnosis and Trance

The Dream Temples of Ancient Egypt and Greece, used  hypnosis and trance as healing techniques. The Oracle at Delphi in central Greece, offered continuous guidance and healing for over a thousand years. Many traditional European and Near Eastern trance traditions like dream temples and oracles ended with the advent of Christianity over the course of the 1st Millennium CE. Many Christian rituals and holidays specifically incorporated local pagan traditions in order to make an easier transition to the new belief system, often incorporating trance inducing elements like incense, images, and singing.

Trance Dance is part of The Yogi Tree New Year's Eve Dream Temple. Nya Patrinos teaches Trance Dance as a unique blend of body movement, music, and meditation. The combination of these healing modalities creates a 'trance' state that promotes spiritual awakening, mental clarity, physical stamina and emotional well-being.During Trance Dance the yogi takes an 'inner journey' outside of their normal perceptions of space/time. Trance and ritual dance have been vital parts of shamanic and eastern dance cultures since the beginning of human history. Nya's contemporary approach to Trance Dance draws from the richness of these ancient traditions. The focus of Trance Dance is transformation, healing and spiritual evolution. Through Trance Dance we become freer, more open, and able to let go of physical and emotional blocks

New Year Eve's Dream Temple - Part 1 - New Year's Eve at The Yogi Tree

Dream temples began in Egypt but also existed in the Middle East and Ancient Greece. In Greece, they were built in honor of Asclepios, the Greek god of medicine and were called Asclepieions. The Greek treatment was referred to as incubation and focused on prayers to Asclepios for healing.

Dream incubation is a practice of focusing attention on a specific issue before going to sleep. A 2010 article in Scientific American summarizes a few of the incubation techniques from The Committee of Sleep as follows:

"If you want to problem-solve in a dream, you should first of all think of the problem before bed, and if it lends itself to an image, hold it in your mind and let it be the last thing in your mind before falling asleep.. Equally important, don't jump out of bed when you wake up—almost half of dream content is lost if you get distracted. Lie there, don't do anything else. If you don't recall a dream immediately, see if you feel a particular emotion—the whole dream would come flooding back.

If you're just trying to dream about an issue or you want to dream of a person who's deceased or you haven't seen in a long time, you'd use very similar bedtime incubation suggestions as you would for problem solving: a concise verbal statement of what you want to dream about or a visual image of it to look at. Very often it's a person someone wants to dream of, and just a simple photo is an ideal trigger. "

When we wake up in the morning we will take will write down our dreams before morning Sadhana. Further dream discussion will take place during breakfast.

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At the end of  the Yoga Nidra with Reiki Session New Year's Eve Session, Nya Patrinos and Jennifer Kelly will invite everyone to incubate their own personal dream..

THE YOGI TREE DREAM TEMPLE SCHEDULE:

7 pm - 8 pm Yoga

Break

8:15 pm to 8:45 pm Breath Work

Break

9:00 pm  to 9:30 pm Chanting

Break

9:45 pm to 10: 45 pm Hypnosis

Break

11:00 pm to 11:45 pm Trance Dance

Break to Ring in  New Year

12:15 am to 1:00 am Yoga Nidra with Reiki

1:00 am Lights Out with Dream Incubation (option to Spend the night at The Yogi Tree)

5:00 to 6:00 am Sadhana

Break

6:15 am Oatmeal Breakfast with Dream Discussion.

7 am Depart

From Caterpillar to Butterfly - Musings on Paschimottasana, Caterpillar Pose and the book, The Unfolding Self

Part of my final project for my Art 4 All People training is to do some writings from Ralph Metzner's book, The Unfolding Self.

The introduction from this book is called: From Caterpillar to Butterfly.  This reminds me of the work I am trying to do in my Yin Yoga Class on Saturdays at The Yogi Tree.  I believe if we can meditate on the qualities and energies of the animals in the yoga poses we can use their energies and archetypes to transform our own lives.

"There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it's going to be a butterfly." 

Richad Buckminister Fuller

Caterpillar Pose in Yin is what is called Pachimottanasana  in Hatha Yoga. Bernie Clark says the difference between Caterpillar and Paschimottanasana, is that in Caterpillar we are not trying to lengthen the spine or stretch the back muscles. Instead of bringing the head to the feet, round the spine so the head comes to the knees.

Bernie Clark in Caterpillar Pose

BKS Iyengar in Paschimottasana

According to Satyananda "this asana stretches the hamstring muscles and increases flexibility in the hip joints  It tones and massages the entire abdominal and pelvic region, including the liver, pancreas, spleen, uro-genital system, kidneys and adrenal glands.  It helps to remove excess weight in this are and stimualtes circulation to the nerves and muscles of the spine.

"What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the rest of the world calls a butterfly." 

Buckminster Fuller

In Light on Yoga, BKS Iyengar writes that the pose is also called Ugrasana or Brahmnacharyasana

"Paschima literally means the west.  It implies the whole body from the head to the heals.  The anterior or eastern aspect is the from of the body from face down to the toes.  The crown of the head is the upper or northern aspect while the soles and heels of the feet for, the lower or southern aspect of the body.  In this asana the bacck of the whole body is intensely stretched, hence the name..... Ugra means formidable, powerful and noble. Brahmacharya means religious study self-restraint and celibacy.

Bikram Choudury claims that this pose relieves chronic diarrhea by improving the circulation to the liver and spleen and improves digestion. He also says it increases the flexibility of the trapezius, deltoid, erectus femoris and bicep muscles, scaiti nerves, tendons, hip joints and the last 5 vertebrae of the spine.

What I teach about caterpillar pose is that the caterpillar is symbolic of preparing for the upcoming journey. Packing your suitcase.  Getting Prepared.  Putting everything in order before you go on your adventure.

"The caterpillar does all the work but the butterfly gets the publicity." - George Carlin

In the Unfolding Self p. 17 Metzner writes "There exists in human experience another kind of transformation, a radical restructuring of the entire psyche that has been variously referred to as a mystical experience, ecstasy, cosmic, consciousness, oceanic feeling, oneness, transcendence, union with God, nirvana, satori, liberation, peak experience, and by other names."  This radical restructuring for me the change of the caterpillar into the butterfly.

Evolution biologist Elisabeth Sahtouris tells the story:

“Inside a cocoon, deep in the caterpillar’s body, tiny things biologists call ‘imaginal disks’ begin to form. Not recognizing the newcomers, the caterpillar’s immune system snuffs them. But they keep coming faster and faster, then begin to link up with each other. Eventually the caterpillar’s immune system fails from the stress and the disks become imaginal cells that build the butterfly from the meltdown of the caterpillar’s body. . . If we see ourselves as imaginal discs working to build the butterfly of a better world, we will also see how important it is to link with each other in the effort, to recognize how many different kinds of imaginal cells it will take to build a butterfly with all its capabilities and colors.”

The caterpillar archetype means pure potential, the promise of new life  that dwells  with our own bodies. The caterpillar reminds us that at some point, all the ruminating, processing and soul-searching will unfold into remarkable results. "Caterpillars are a blessing on new ideas. They indicate promising outcomes to projects in their initial stage, and offer good juju in terms of fruitful completion of goals.the caterpillar is a symbol of evolution and transformation too. Specifically, they convey a unique level of patience as they surrender to the process of transformation. Let's face it, once a caterpillar begins the process of transforming into a winged beauty...there's no turning back. In essence, caterpillar is a symbol of never looking back on the old versions of ourselves. Rather, the caterpillar encourages plowing forward with ever-evolving, more brilliant versions of our beauty and potential. "http://www.whats-your-sign.com/symbolic-caterpillar-meaning.html

When we change from caterpillar to butterfly Unfolding Self p, 19 "this kind of experience changes the way we feel about the world-our emotional attitude of basic trust or mistrust, faith or doubt, acceptance or rejection-and the way we feel about ourselves, our self-acceptance, self-esteem, self-love."

The caterpillar self-actualizes "brings into actuality of something that has been a latent potentiality".  But it also loses its caterpillar self.  The caterpillar is earthbound but the butterfly flies. Just as the shamanic healer undergoes a symbolic flight the butterfly has literally flight. Metzner writes that mystics "are butterflies who try to awaken the human larval caterpillars to the "immortal heritage" that awaits them."  The caterpillar is reborn as the butterfly.  Metzner writes p. 29 "There is always an ending, then a neutral, or intermeditate, zone, then a new beginning. "

The term metamorphosis is often used for the caterpillar's change into a butterfly.  It gives us the hope as humans we can change just as significantly as the change from a caterpillar to a butterfly.

When we think about doing caterpillar pose and it is actually a very difficult pose for me.  We can identify with the caterpillar that does not know what it is going to become but is living in the present moment of its life as a caterpillar.  Doing caterpillar things.  Be one with caterpillar when you are in caterpillar pose and be one with the butterfly when you are in butterfly pose.  Both are necessary stages with equal benefits and important experiences.

The last word in this blog post and in the introductory chapter of the Unfolding Self goes to Chuang Tsu.

"When one is changing, how does one know that a change is taking place?  When one is not changing, how does one know that a change hasn't occurred? Maybe you and I are still in a dream and have not yet awakened . .. Be content with what is happening and forget about change; then you can enter into the oneness of the mystery of heaven."