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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For the past several decades, “yoga” as it’s been popularized in the West and around the world, has been far removed from its origins and context within Subcontinental Asia. These days everyone seems to possess an unquestioned right to put their unique spin on it. Such hatha yoga-based modalities are largely focused on the body via postural asana practice and breath, and lay claim to a range of benefits from wellness to enlightenment. Yet the very structures and systems through which they are taught and practiced, (including many of the primary yogic schools that migrated to the West,) trace much of their roots to the more recent history of patriarchy & colonization rather than to yoga’s pre-colonial, fem-centric and anarchic origins. This has resulted in “producing” a yoga which is vastly popular – easy to appropriate, package & consume – but which has little or no connection with the everyday yogas practiced by the majority of South Asians past & present, whether through bhakti, tantra, jnana or dhyana
So too for the ancient yogini – at once a mythical creature and a mortal woman – yoga was far more than asana. The wild yoginis and yogis/siddhas of ancient times practiced ritual & meditative yogas in wild and unorthodox places that were a far cry from the pristine saatvic yoga studios where it is currently housed. Most often sky-clad or wearing a regional version of sari or dhoti, there were no Lulu Lemon pants, no mats, no props. There was no instruction booklet, no certifications, no teacher trainings, and certainly no ™ (trademarks). Yet these ancient tantric yogic practices (whether Shakta, Hindu, Buddhist or Jain) can be traced still further back, or deeper in, to the largely unrecorded hisstory of forest dwelling tribes (Adivasis) whose practices of embodied wisdom-keeping & initiation were based in the wilds or in cremation grounds, and passed down through lineage as recently as the last century. In contrast to upholding a concept of the finite body, these practices were devoted to deconstructing the separate self through deep com-union with Nature/ Prakriti and Her cycles of death, decay & rebirth. Their purpose was to liberate the individual by merging or ‘yoking’ with this Totality; to help us remember our true nature within the immediate context of tribe/village/clan and shared ecology, of which we are inextricably part.
In this session, Pooja Prema invites us to begin to trace our own personal yogic 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 Great Mother. Together we’ll explore the ramifications this has for us today as Desi (and non-Desi) practitioners and beings, on decolonizing & reclaiming our own practice, understanding or relationship to “yoga”.
So too for the ancient yogini – at once a mythical creature and a mortal woman – yoga was far more than asana. The wild yoginis and yogis/siddhas of ancient times practiced ritual & meditative yogas in wild and unorthodox places that were a far cry from the pristine saatvic yoga studios where it is currently housed. Most often sky-clad or wearing a regional version of sari or dhoti, there were no Lulu Lemon pants, no mats, no props. There was no instruction booklet, no certifications, no teacher trainings, and certainly no ™ (trademarks). Yet these ancient tantric yogic practices (whether Shakta, Hindu, Buddhist or Jain) can be traced still further back, or deeper in, to the largely unrecorded hisstory of forest dwelling tribes (Adivasis) whose practices of embodied wisdom-keeping & initiation were based in the wilds or in cremation grounds, and passed down through lineage as recently as the last century. In contrast to upholding a concept of the finite body, these practices were devoted to deconstructing the separate self through deep com-union with Nature/ Prakriti and Her cycles of death, decay & rebirth. Their purpose was to liberate the individual by merging or ‘yoking’ with this Totality; to help us remember our true nature within the immediate context of tribe/village/clan and shared ecology, of which we are inextricably part.
In this session, Pooja Prema invites us to begin to trace our own personal yogic 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 Great Mother. Together we’ll explore the ramifications this has for us today as Desi (and non-Desi) practitioners and beings, on decolonizing & reclaiming our own practice, understanding or 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