A SOMATIC JOURNEY THROUGH THE ELEMENTS WORKSHOP
The non-dual map of consciousness looks at each human being as a microcosm of the macrocosm. What does that mean? It means that each one of us is a seed of the entire universe, captured in our tiny stardust-born containers. There are infinite portals to enter into the essence of our Self. One elemental map is that of the five elements or as the vedas name them the Mahabhutas: Earth, water, fire, air, and ether. From the Ancient Vedas, Traditional Chinese Medicine, to anatomical structure in the body, these elements have defined personas, archetypes, behaviors, and energy flows, creating another tool for an embodied language within us to master ourselves.
In this weekend workshop we will have four sessions- each containing one facet of the power and possibility of the elements. Each element creates a new doorway to our physical, mental, and relational Self.
As we journey through the elements embodying their unique qualities, and frequencies we simultaneously create a somatic toolbox. Using inquiry, meditation, asana, and free-movement we will call in each quality in order to learn where our resistances lie and where there are possibilities for expansion, magnetism, spaciousness, and lightness. We will expand fluency, adaptability, and flexibility as we move through physicalizations and bring harmony into our individual systems, building on the fundamental consciousness of our expanding collective.
This workshop is for students and teachers of Embodied Flow, somanauts, and those who are interested in exploring the worlds of yoga and somatics. No prior experience is necessary.
Initiation: Earth
In the first offering of the weekend, we will connect with our bones, grounding into the longing pull of gravity and the ancient density of form that is earth. We will discover the architectural plan and its evolution in relation to the earth, gravity, and our collective desire. Our Somatic emphasis will home in on the primal articulation of our bones, the reciprocity of joint space with earth and sky, and the vibrational instrument of our body construct.
Liquidity: Water
The second element on our journey is water, shifting from the solidity of earth into the dynamic fluidity of our transport system. Spherical in nature and yet transmutational in form, water shapeshifts in relationship to the earth’s pull. Water responds by forging into spirals, rivers, and vortices of energy and creating liquid flows that power the transport system of not only our cellular system, circulatory system, immune system, and digestive system but also the pulsatory sea in which all the systems function.
We will play in the unique rhythms, pulses, and flows that are blood, lymph, cellular, and cerebral spinal fluids while submerging in the vastness of the interstitial fluid forming the volume of the inner sea.
Luminosity: Fire
The spark of intelligence, the light in your eyes, the burning desire to become, arise from the element of fire. We will invoke the generative engine of the core as we stoke the transformational heat which powers the alchemy of combustion, digestion, and action. Following somatization, we will ride its reverberating lava-like waves into dynamic movement.
Expansion: Air/ Ether
In this final class, we will focus on the intimacy of inspiration and expiration, the dance of the breath, and the inner winds called vayus. Air element calls in lightness, directionality, and change. We will follow breathwork into the element of space, both as a quality of being and the canvas from which all the other elements arise. We will discover the dimensions of space and spatial orientation we call kinespheres. Finally, we will melt into vastness in the meditative field where all elements converge.