
"Dakini's Vision" is a choreographed
moving yoga sequence dedicated to the
nurturing and healing power of the feminine spirit.
A short excerpt of this sequence inspired Shantal who, (during the
concluding meditation of our last Blue Moon Eve gathering in the
Artists village of En Hod, Israel) had a vision of 88 women gathering
to celebrate the creative feminine force and dancing and singing across
the borders
for peace and healing of ourselves and our world.
I read this on the inflight magazine coming to London a few weeks ago,
"we have a plan for a sea of peace".
This inspired me to think "we have a vision for 7 oceans of Peace and Love".
The new vision is to bring these 88 women gatherings to all parts
of the world, because women are truly capable of dissolving borders and
long to create "oneworld, one voice, one heart", in the quest for inner
and outer peace. And, most practitioners of yoga
in the 3rd millenium are women!!
And, since these gatherings take place in a wave of sharing,
empowerment and deep generosity, we offer a
special meeting on the 3rd day, where the men we love and who love us
join us to connect with the Yin/Shakti
aspect of their own beings and move with us towards a truer sharing of
Response-Ability for ourselves and our communities/our world.
It feels appropriate to me that the seed of this Vision of 88 women
was sown in Israel, the biblical « land of Milk and Honey » and
spiritual abundance, and this too in an artists’ village in the
beautiful home of Shai and Shantal, facing the mountains of the Carmel
nature reserve.
But seeds may lay dormant for long years before finding the ideal
conditions to sprout, and the true seed for Dakini’s Vision was sown 25
years ago in Paris, where I was invited to participate in the first
body/heart/brain storming sessions for Peter Brook’s Mahabharata.
Peter asked me to bring in an idea/dance to express
the vengeance of Amba, the spurned maiden who undergoes severe Yogic
penance to win a boon to be reborn as the male warrior
Sikhandin.
In researching this presentation, I went to the Musee Guimet
where, amongst
other
Tibetan wrathful deities I found myself mesmerized
by this beautiful gold plated bronze cast Dakini. (Dakinis
are
space
dancers and Dakini and Yogini are synonomous.)
I bought the postcard then and there and carried her with me on my
travels over the years and she was obviously sitting deep in my
heart/soul waiting for embodiment.
It
feels appropriate that my connection with Jane and Yoga and Health has
come from my recent participation as Yoga/energy coach in the new
Sadlers Wells production of the Mahabharata!!
The next landmark for Dakini was 15 years later, at a special
gathering of a mixed Italo/French group of women (who were in a 3 year
long
Moving Breath training program with me), in a power place in Piemonte
at the pilgrimage center of the Sacra St. Michele in 1997.
I was teaching the «Warrior Sequence» outdoors on the Santa Lucia
(day of Light). This is a vigorous choreographed sequence based on the
Virabhadra postures and also Martial arts moves. One of the women (who
also studied Oddissi dance with me) turned to me and said it’s great
that we learn to channel this male energy, but can you teach us the
complementary female energy sequence, just as in Oddissi our bodies
absorb the Lasya (feminine) moves as well as the Tandava (masculine)? »
I remained speechless for a few seconds, again realising that
mainstream Yoga had been developed mostly for men, by men (cf. Yoga of
Woman on the Moving Breath website), and then made a solemn promise, in
that sacred place, that since this sequence didn’t exist yet, I would
look for it or create it.
It took 2 years (which I laughingly link now to the gestation
period for a baby elephant), till the sequence Birthed me, on Dec 21st
winter solstice, under the centennial Linden tree at 5 a.m. at Chakra,
the center I had founded in the South of France.
The sequence came first and the poem followed as I described in
words the symbolism of the movements. The women with whom I have since
shared this gift, whether dancers or non dancers, 17 or 71, say that it
makes them feel connected to an ancient force field when they do it ,
and that they feel the energy being moved internally and externally,
both individually and as part of the group. I perceive it as Dakini’s
own energy guiding us and now, with this new vision urging us to to
carry the Vision to women worldwide and through the healing and
empowering of ourselves, creating together new rituals to heal our
world :
H.Y.G eia (Healing Yoga for Gaia).
In these days of more widespread awareness of the dangers of global
warming and the vital need to protect the environment we chose a nature
reserve to connect with the power of our Earth mother, and, in all
humility, to serve her with love and respect.
My dream is that other gatherings worldwide will also take us to places
desperately in need of healing, like Kazaksthan, where a luminous woman
I know brings yoga to pregnant women who nourish new life in one of the
most polluted environments on this planet.
By alternating between absorbing the energy from the « power places
», and bringing it in turn to the most fragile earth zones, we may, in
our own way, contribute towards initiating a wave of healing for our
beleaguered planet Earth.
These are the dreams, thrown out into Akasha.
The motto of my life has always been :
« Follow your dreams, Listen to your heart »
And then, the dreams may come true. And if they don’t ??
There are new dreams waiting around the corner. When we are children we
cry about what we want and cannot have immediately, and many adults
tend to repeat this pattern. This continues to keep the
psychotherapists rich !!
But growing in Yoga/Life is releasing the strait jacket of Ego/I
consciousness and joyfully stepping into the deep waters, moving with
the flow, sometimes being hit by rocks, sometimes stagnating, but even
then, adapting to the changing currents/landscapes and being grateful
for the experience and the beautiful "polishing" process this implies.
This reminds
me of my favorite pranayama practice Kapalabhati, where after several
rounds we literally feel our skull/brain glowing!!
As I was writing this « vision of the vision of the vision… » on the train a few days ago, I read
that Zakia Zaki who ran the U.S. funded Peace Radio in Afghanistan was shot 7 times while sleeping with her baby.
And that Israel was listed as the 3rd least peaceful country in the world.
The most peaceful is Norway!!
As the poem says, the vision strives to release:
“The power of Peace,
The glory of Love,
She, the Goddess within us all”.
She-La
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