"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: