Moving Archetypes | Medical service

Click/Tap
to load big map

Moving Archetypes

Reviews

Tags

Click/Tap
to load big map

25.01.2022 If contemplation is a practice of feelingful, sensuous, present and tender surrender, the archetypal woman is the domain. A woman's life events, when she is ful...ly present to them, are contemplative milestones of being taken, of endings, of radical visceral transformations and of immense tenderness and beauty. In contemplation all of us are women. Photo: Geoffrey Dunn Photography

25.01.2022 Today was day 1 of the Cosmic Embrace dance contemplation intensive. I don't like to take photos of people when we are immersed in practice, so instead here is ...an image of the studio with Ardhanaarishwara in gracious attendance ready for the session to start. Today we inquired into Prakriti, the perception of Consciousness that takes form. We allowed this wondrous practice originating from ancient revelation to evoke the Rasa (taste) of nature/body/mind/emotions as deity. We were invited to be maestros of sensuality, to move the worlds in our bosoms, perceive the seduction of entanglement and to be present to the most intimate and delicate of caresses. This is nature/Prakriti, the world of form, of the mind, of thoughts, of our languages of control and separation. Prakriti holds a mirror- when we change our perception, we change the world. The dance, so lovingly transmitted through generations of teachers who knew how to hold the knowing of revelation, gifted us the spaciousness just beyond the doors of Prakriti's forms. The inquiry is enough for the mirror to reflect the power of this most knowing of deities. What we see is never what is truly Prakriti- hence the vital need for contemplative insight so we can source action from a place of congruence rather than from chaos!

23.01.2022 I am preparing for the dance contemplation intensive "Ardhanaarishwara" which will I will teach 3-4 October. Ardhanaarishwara, the union in the same body of Siva and Shakti, is an ancient practice, and one that is potent in its dismantling of duality in an intimate and visceral way. Dance is powerful when it pushes past story and we glimpse the the Truth beyond the word!... Some reflections:

22.01.2022 We value the ascent. We think of contemplation as an ascension from the earth to the sky. The invitation of Mooladhara, as is the case in many ancient contemplative traditions is to perceive the necessity of the descent into the earth of our own being...

19.01.2022 "Even the gods do not know your transcendental nature..." So says Adi Shankara in his Kalika Ashtakam. In this sacred Navarathri time, as I continue to teach t...he Prakrithi dance courses, I am struck by the intense subtlety of this inquiry. The goddess is never known, we move with Her when we know eternal yearning. Photo: Geoffrey Dunn Photo: Geoffrey Dunn

16.01.2022 Siva through the eyes of Heiða Árnadóttir- the deity spaces of India and Iceland move together. Looking forward to working with my dear friend and collaborator- the last work we did together was with @Leo Spreksel in 2003!

14.01.2022 The festivities of the goddess draws draws to its finale tomorrow. I join with the offerings of many in action as yagna, the offering of the story of the self i...nto Her fires. As the text we dancers revere, the Natya Sastra, states in its prayer, may practices that offer self-interest as oblation into the ritual fires thrive in these times. May we perceive the transformative power of Her invitation to descend within our bodies and our senses, and thus move the beauty through the revelation of dance. Photo: Geoffrey Dunn

11.01.2022 Photo: Geoffrey Dunn Photography

08.01.2022 The Cosmic Embrace dance contemplation intensive- bookings open.

08.01.2022 We all love deities- we want to be one, we worship one, we imagine we are one and we sing, dance and write poetry about them. I believe deities are hiding in p...lain sight- but not in the usual ways in which we think this happens. What is deity in contemplation? Why are they so present in ancient contemplative traditions? The most ancient is also the most modern- that is the cheeky message of the practice of deities in contemplation. I am sharing reflections on deities and contemplation on this afternoon's Conscious Conversations program, Living Arts Canberra 4 pm AEST. https://livingartscanberra.com.au/lace-radio/ Photo: Barbie Robinson

07.01.2022 Appropriation and contemplation traditions- watering down is a loss in a time that needs paradigms of radical change... Sharing reflections on why contemplative... traditions are "counter cultural" and why this is important. Today 4 pm AEST Living Arts Canberra https://livingartscanberra.com.au/lace-radio/ Photo: Geoffrey Dunn

05.01.2022 Preparing for Ardhanaarishwara dance contemplation intensive- 3-4 October. Every time I offer something, I am struck, again and again, by the timeless power of ...ancient wisdom. Sharing some reflections: Ardhanaarishwara: the divine expression of non-duality Ancient contemplative traditions have at their core the revelation of non-duality. This is presence that is completely at one with realitythere is no separation between the self and the event that the self is living. This state is full of the silence and wildness of eternity. There is no language or story. How is it possible to invite people into this state of being? This is where ancient contemplative traditions have gifted us rituals, deities and practices that hold such spaces, if we are ready and willing to be present. These traditions came from experiences of intimate ‘knowing’, which is knowledge that is not separate to the experience itself. Therefore they are passed down only as embodied transmission, through practice lineages. Ardhanaarishwara, the union of Purusha(Siva) and Prakrithi (Shakthi) in the same physical body, is an embodied practice of contemplating non-duality. In our times, this has been narrowed to a male-female paradigm. However, the invitation of the practice here is to consider the most material (and therefore for us the most tangible and real) bases of our identity merely as a story, usually given to us. In the same moment, in an expansive approach, it is an invitation to consider even our paradigms of the divine and the not-divine, the earthly and the heavenly, and the sky and the earth as illusory dualities. Purusha is the domain of the non-manifest, which is full of the emptiness of all paradigms, philosophies, stories, thoughts and forms. However Purusha is seen only through Prakriti, which is the body and its universe that includes earth, the senses, desire and the mind. It is said that Prakriti is always gazing upon the face of Purusha and thus Purusha is seen. For us in these times, Ardhanaarishwara is a powerful symbol. In our times, we have come to the most fundamental of all dualities where we have pitted our life against that which sustains all lifethe earth. The Purusha-Prakriti practice proposes that we cannot see Purusha without a complete immersion in Prakriti, for only in her beauteous adoring glance is Purusha reflected. So, there is no experience of divinity without the complete grace of all of Prakriti, which is the fullness of life of which we are a small part. To hold our self as a vessel of life and feeling separate from the life and feelings that pulsate through this earth is to live in an illusion of duality. The first practice of non-duality is in the most intimate aspect of our selfour body. Ardhanaarishwara is the contemplative movement that offers our sacred attention to the realms of our own minds, bodies and feelings. This powerful and ritual dance held what only dance can holdthat which is not possible for language and thought. Through dance we feel the sacredness of freedom from separatedness and division. When this is revealed to us, we taste freedom that is unconditional. Photo: Geoffrey Dunn

05.01.2022 Rudra invoking my favourite deity. 2002 the Netherlands https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMQrF3Wx11M&t=60s Gunvor Karlsen Marianne Svašek Leo Spreksel

Moving Archetypes | Medical service