Ouray Yoga™

  Beltane: When Pagan Children Come Out to Play by MSWood Beltane is on the first day of May Between the equinox height, and summers longest light This is when pagan children come out to play.  The Wheel of the Year is the witches way,  Sabbat festivals mark the seasons yearly flight, Ribbons wrap poles, bonfires alight on the first day of May.  On the days of Yule and Easter all the Christian’s pray,  on All Hallows Eve, trickers and treaters deceive into the frightful night, This is when costumed children run astray. The topsy-turvy Southern Hemisphere flip the book of days golden leaves and harvest wheats reflect our mother’s might. In the land of kookaburras, kangas and koalas, autumn kites are flown above the bay in the month of May.  Thrusting out of the frozen Northern clay daffodils and pansy petals display frilly bright pinks, yellows and whites.  This is where pagan children rollick and play. Spring Forth! The sun does grow. Twirl, whirl and ...

The sun has graced us with all its virtuous rays, the peak of warmth and the potency of growth.  Litha, Goddess, Green Man and all fairies of summer bring to us fertile creativity, fulfillment of purpose, and reasons for joy and celebration.  For your body, find comfort in repose. From your spine feel the envelope of strength and sinew, your current blessings of support. Honor the virtue of your constitution, all matters of mind, body and spirit. From your internal structure bring awareness to your spiritual energies.  From your tailbone, muladhara, your root connects with Mother Earth, now is her time of optimum vibrancy. Red in color, like the summer rose. Hum Sa.  From your sacrum, swadhisthana, your sacred pelvis celebrates fertility and creation, vibrate your innovation for change. Orange in color like the seed-borne poppy. Hum Sa. From your diaphragm, mahipura, your deepest breath connects all thoughts to action, extend all powers from your core to your periphe...

Soul Cakes (or Soulmass Cakes) come out of the middle ages. Souling is the practice of going door to door to sing for a treat. Often associated at Samhain and Yuletide. The practice of our meditation is to offer prayers for both living and passed souls and their friends. The cakes are usually filled with allspice, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger or other spices, as well as raisins, currants or cranberries and marked with a cross to signify that these were for alms. Mulled Wine Soul Cakes 1/2 c raisins 1/2 cup dried cranberries 1/2 c red wine 1/2c red currant jelly 1 pinch chili powder 1 t. ground cinnamon 1/4 t. ground cloves 1/4 c. hazelnuts, chopped* 1/4 c. whole blanched almonds, chopped 3.1/2 oz plain carob sweetened chips* 2/3 c self-rising flour finely grated zest of 1 orange 1/4 C unsalted butter 1 egg powdered sugar and extra dried fruit of choice 1) To make fruit mixture: put raisins and cranberries into a small heavy saucepan with wine, jelly, and spices. Heat un...

Perspective: With the dawning of a new year, we oft reflect on what we haven't accomplished, our unfulfilled dreams or unintended consequences from our decisions. January 1 becomes a benchmark, not a starting line. A benchmark because we arrive at this day with all our baggage, all of our travails, all of our insecurities and doubts, we arrive at this flag-post of our journey from our own circuitous path. By all rights, an imperious day on the calendar, based on man's imperfect calculations. Today hardly reflects celestial significance or religious connotation. But nonetheless, a new day, a new year and a fork in our road. A universally accepted reset. A chance for a right or a wrong? The prefix re- is used to indicate again, and again, and again. We all know the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Another intention of the prefix re- is back, as in: to reflect. However, on this arbitrary day of new beginn...

Samhain Meditation {Find a seated or lying meditation}  Feel the earth beneath you. Perhaps the earth is cold against your body, notice how your body’s warmth is absorbed and slowly the chill is no longer noticeable. You have given to the earth your warmth and in turn the earth gives you a place of respite. For Samhain, the time of autumn, it is a time to invite rest. A time to nest against the elements, a time to nurture your roots, a time to feed your basic necessities of life.  At this time of year, the veil between our world and the spirit world is thin, as our hemisphere is discarding the green of summer, as our plants seek shelter from the cold and grow deep into the protection of earth, so too, is our spiritual realm needing to find deeper growth, to rid ourselves of the residue of life past. At this time, leaves turn to autumn glory then dry and crack and eventually become a skeleton of what it once was, finally absorbed into the earth for future nourishment...

Find yourself in a comfortable seated position however this may be defined by you.  (Candles should be lit).   Come together now at this time of cross-quarter days, the time evenly spaced between the Winter Solistic and the Spring Equinox. Imbolic. (Ee-molc).  At this time, we celebrate the passing of winter and the rebirth of spring. It is also a day of celebrating St. Brigid. Brigid is the Goddess of Poetic and Healing arts, Smithycraft, and Midwifery. It is steeped in the invocation of birth, flowering of spring, rejuvenation of life from the dormancy of winter. A time when fires and lovers are stoked into forging creation. It is a time to purify yourself from the shackles of past mistakes and forgive yourself of things long dead; like fall leaves, nourishing under the snow, now you teem with life, now you embark on the rest of your journey. Prepare yourself to bud into a luscious tree of life.  Gaze into the candle flame, then close your eyes, behind your...

In this season of gathering, when daylight gives way to the dark, when the veils of rebirth gives way to the ceremony of passage, now is the time to reflect and protect the inner spirit. Draw your awareness inward and quiet your mind. Turn your attention to the changing leaves and the resting of seeds. In your mind’s eye, visualize the transition of the season’s illuminessence. Sense the fall coolness, the morning frost on golden leaves. Now is the time of rest, a retreat from the sun’s energy, a dance into stillness. Embrace the breath cycle, in and out, like the old-growth fronds now drifting to Mother Earth; the rise and fall of the tumbling leaves subject to Gaia's inspiration and expiration, let the seasonal shift embrace your body. Sense the deep mysteries within you, fall into your conscious engagement, leave behind the heat of summer. Reflect. Every new cycle begins from the seeds buried under the compost of summer’s bounty. In this new stage of the lifecycle...