Stepping under the palm leaf roof that covers the yoga studio, steps away from the waves crashing onto the sands of Playa Hermosa, we find a paper sign at the entrance: “Today: Yoga with Live Music.” Mai and I exchange a puzzled look and take a peak inside the room where two musicians dressed in Indian saris are sitting in a lotus position. We came here for a regular yoga class but apparently we are in for a special treat on this last day of 2011.
The teacher explains that the practice will focus on letting go of 2011 and getting ready for 2012. During 90 minutes our postures and mantras invoke the power of Kali, the Indian goddess of change and time… and the destroyer of the ego. Also known as Kālikā, her element is the wind and she lives in the heart chakra (the energy center located behind our solar plexus). Minute after minute I feel the space opening up in my chest and the air coming in and out, letting prāṇa, the life force, radiate through my entire body. Although Kali is often depicted as violent and bloody, her destruction work is essential to the flow of life: she wipes out the old to make space for the new. Images of 2011 flash inside my head: the decision to leave our lives in San Francisco and engage in a one-year journey to Central America, to the unknown. The destruction: selling our house and our cars, getting rid of furniture, books, DVDs, clothes, stuff, more stuff, so much stuff… these were necessary steps to create the possibility of a new life. I feel an inner smile as my body eases into the poses, inhaling and exhaling, asking the goddess Kali to destroy my ego and make space inside my heart, to open it up to the endless possibilities offered by 2012: a new year, a new life, a new me.
***
“Is this anyone’s first Fire Purification Ceremony?” I raise my hand slowly, as do almost all of the 9 women and 3 men gathered in a half-circle around the yoga teacher on this first day of 2012. In the center: a metal cauldron, a stack of logs, several bowls filled with spices, and a few unidentified objects. First she lights the fire while we chant a mantra to honor it. Then we start repeating the blessing mantra “Om Lokah Samastah Sukhino Bhavantu” which means: “May happiness be onto all living things in this world.” At the end of each iteration, the ritual consists in placing a hand on either your heart chakra or your mind chakra (behind the forehead), visualizing something you want to let go of, and throwing it in the fire with a hand gesture while saying “Svaha” (so be it). As we repeat this, the space gets filled with the vibration of the mantra, the heat of the fire and the collective energy of the 12 souls gathered in the room. The beginning is very easy but at the end of each repetition I scramble to find yet another thing to throw in the fire: negative emotions, past experiences that hold me back, relationships that lost their essence, perceptions of myself that stop me from moving forward… before I know it, we are reciting the mantra for the 108th and last time. We take turns throwing an offering of rice in the fire and we meditate as the last few pieces of wood get consumed. With difficulty I get out of the trance-like state and my body stops vibrating to the sound of the mantra. I feel cleansed, still, empty, at the same time peaceful and energized: ready for a new beginning.
Cedric, 01/04/12
Whaou!! Very interesting article!