Supermoon

What does the moon have to do with Yoga? The best way to answer this question is to take the focus off of Yoga and ask it again. What does the moon have to do with anything? Today at 7:43pm we will experience a full moon that will also be 31,000 miles closer to the earth than it usually is at its apogee, or farthest point away from the earth in its elliptical orbit around our planet. Visually, the moon will appear to be 14% larger as well.

With a mass like the moon orbiting our planet, there is a gravitational effect that can be measured by the rising of tides as much as six inches during this perigee, known as perigean tides. Based on local geography, this tide increase can be as little as an inch. We live in a world governed by gravity and its effects on matter. Gravity is best described as a curvature in the fabric of space, causing us to experience it as force, the force of gravity.

The human body happens to be composed of 70% water. Naturally, whatever effects the moon will have on the water on our planet, will encompass those of us living on the planet and affect 70% of our bodies. Practitioners of Yoga are living in greater harmony with the rhythms of nature, more attuned to natural cycles, and more sensitive to the effects of the phases of the moon. The sun also exerts a gravitational pull on the earth, holding our planet in its orbit around the sun.

Yoga is the combination of breath and movement. Breath is prana. The full moon energy corresponds to the end of inhalation, when the force of prana is greatest. Because this force is expansive and upward moving, the corresponding experience is energetic, emotional, and headstrong. Conversely, the new moon energy is the energy of the end of exhalation. This is a contracting, downward moving energy, an experience of being calm and grounded, as well as disinclined towards physical exertion.

The Ashtanga Yoga tradition observes both the full and new moon days as holidays. Even if you are not a Yoga practitioner, the effects of the moon’s position in relation to us on the planet earth are no surprise or secret, and just like breathing, your awareness of the phases of the moon strengthens the link, the harmonia, that you have with your surroundings.

Vernal Equinox 2010

Lucifer, most beautiful conductor of music in all the universe.

We on this planet earth with all of our unique differences have a myriad of things in common. As we approach this year’s vernal equinox for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere, a notable change is about to take place on March 20 at 1:32pm like the node of a sine wave whose frequency is one orbit around the sun.
The change of the seasons is a rhythm that we adhere to and is inescapable. Curiously, we have four distinct seasons that when related to the passing of time are like the beats of the time signature of the music of our solar system on one side of the Milky Way Galaxy. Is it a coincidence that the most common and popular time signatures in written music today are divisible by or multiples of four? If our grand musical time signature is 4/4 with one measure lasting a year, we can fit any time signature variations we would like and synchronize with our given larger framework.
As individuals with different rhythms that have begun at the moments of our creation, we are given the opportunity to become aware together and adjust our tempos to accent as one this beat in the symphony that we write and perform. Like an orchestra comprised of every living thing on the planet, our celestial sheet music calls for every instrument to play a note in the key of life.