Upcoming Offerings
In Search of the Wild Yogini
Retracing the Indigenous Roots of Yoga Wednesday May 8th @7:30PM In this free online workshop, Pooja offers an unconventional and radical perspective on the roots of yoga — sourcing its origins back to ancient fem-centered tantric and indigenous Adivasi wisdom traditions throughout the Asian Subcontinent — to the fertile soil of the land, the ecology of its wild places, and the untamed yoginis and communities who lived within them. REGISTER HERE for FREE!
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Over the past several decades, hatha yoga modalities focused on postural practice have spread throughout the globe, boasting a range of benefits from wellness to enlightenment. Yet the structures and systems through which they're generally taught and practiced, (including many of the primary yogic schools that migrated to the West) trace much of their roots to patriarchal lineages and the modern Anglo-Indic encounter, rather than to yoga’s lesser-known pre-colonial, feminine honoring and anarchic origins. This has resulted in producing a culture of “yoga” which is vastly popular – easy to appropriate, package and consume – but which has little or no connection with the everyday yogas practiced by the majority of South Asians past & present.
For the ancient yogini - at once a mythical divine creature and a mortal woman - yoga was far more than asana. The wild yoginis and yogis/siddhas of India of practiced ritual and meditative sadhanas in wild and unorthodox places that were a far cry from the pristine studios where yoga is currently housed. Most often sky-clad or wearing a regional version of sari or dhoti, there were no Lululemon pants, no mats, and no props. There were no certifications, no teacher trainings, and certainly no ™ (trademarks). Yet the roots of these tantric and ascetic yogic practices (whether Hindu, Buddhist or Jain) can be traced still further back - or deeper in - to the largely unrecorded history of forest dwelling tribes (Adivasis) whose practices of embodied wisdom-keeping and ritual were based in the wilds. Such tantric, ascetic and proto-yogic indigenous practices were devoted to dissolving the separate self through profound com-union with Nature/the Absolute and it’s cycles of death, decay & rebirth. Their purpose was to liberate the individual by merging or ‘yoking’ with this Totality; to remember one’s true nature within the immediate context of tribe or clan, and the larger ecology of which they are part.
In this session, Pooja Prema explores these radical roots of yoga as pathways to critically re-examine modern-day yoga, and reconnect to feminine and earth oriented ways of knowing. Ultimately, she also invites us to begin to trace our own personal roots— back through our own lineages and to the literal soils, forests, mountains and rivers of our ancestors, to the places where their bones were burned, buried or otherwise offered to the Earth. Together we’ll explore the ramifications this has for us as Desi and non-Desi practitioners and cultures-- on decolonizing & re-contextualizing our own practice, understanding and relationship to yoga.
For the ancient yogini - at once a mythical divine creature and a mortal woman - yoga was far more than asana. The wild yoginis and yogis/siddhas of India of practiced ritual and meditative sadhanas in wild and unorthodox places that were a far cry from the pristine studios where yoga is currently housed. Most often sky-clad or wearing a regional version of sari or dhoti, there were no Lululemon pants, no mats, and no props. There were no certifications, no teacher trainings, and certainly no ™ (trademarks). Yet the roots of these tantric and ascetic yogic practices (whether Hindu, Buddhist or Jain) can be traced still further back - or deeper in - to the largely unrecorded history of forest dwelling tribes (Adivasis) whose practices of embodied wisdom-keeping and ritual were based in the wilds. Such tantric, ascetic and proto-yogic indigenous practices were devoted to dissolving the separate self through profound com-union with Nature/the Absolute and it’s cycles of death, decay & rebirth. Their purpose was to liberate the individual by merging or ‘yoking’ with this Totality; to remember one’s true nature within the immediate context of tribe or clan, and the larger ecology of which they are part.
In this session, Pooja Prema explores these radical roots of yoga as pathways to critically re-examine modern-day yoga, and reconnect to feminine and earth oriented ways of knowing. Ultimately, she also invites us to begin to trace our own personal roots— back through our own lineages and to the literal soils, forests, mountains and rivers of our ancestors, to the places where their bones were burned, buried or otherwise offered to the Earth. Together we’ll explore the ramifications this has for us as Desi and non-Desi practitioners and cultures-- on decolonizing & re-contextualizing our own practice, understanding and relationship to yoga.
RITES OF PASSAGE:
20/20 VISION Walk-Through Film Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision is a collaborative house of ritual healing, art, installation and performance celebrating the lives and initiatory experiences of Black, Indigenous and Immigrant Women of Color in America. Conceived and directed by Pooja as a "House of the Collective Female Sol", Rites of Passage is a vital co-creation with dozens of other women artists, healers, activists and visionaries from around the US. First premiering in 2013 at The Whitney Center for the Arts in Pittsfield, MA, this second incarnation which took place from August 13-17th 2021 in the same location, was the next phase in the evolution of the larger Rites of Passage Project. Rites of Passage: 20/20 Vision honors and celebrates the experiences of women of the Diaspora, and profoundly re-envisions what initiation can be. A work of ancestral reclamation, resilience, belonging & joy - 20/20 Vision affirms that "We are the once & future vision of our Ancestors". This 60-minute film captures the live in-person experience through continuous footage of all 25 rooms. The film is also available for screenings, and first premiered virtually and then at The Kennedy Center in D.C. in November of 2021. Watch the film here |
Header photo by Sam Backhaus