Worship your Life as a Gift
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Everything in Nature pulses with Consciousness. Supreme Consciousness pervades all that we can see and that which is unseen. There is a constant pulsation of contraction and expansion happening in the universe, and within ourselves; we are part of the dynamic and pulsating throb of Universal energy. It is a radical idea to believe that we are saturated in Consciousness, that our essential nature is freedom and fullness, but that is a fundamental truth. Life is an ecstatic play of chaos and order, and Divine Intelligence permeates all that exists.
The Absolute is absolutely full, and yet has a will to express, a divine urge to create; this is an expression of unbounded freedom. Understanding this, we can begin to live in our own fullness, and still feel the throb to move toward what is most valuable and life-affirming to us, to clarify and create a fulfilled expression of the deep purpose we cannot ignore during this lifetime.
It is a karmic blessing to be embodied in physical form on the planet at this time. Things are shifting, dissolving, releasing and it is a powerful time. Life is precious, and we are blessed that we are able to savor the sensual delights of embodiment. Worship your life as a gift from the Great Consciousness, from Maha Shakti. Worship at the altar of your own great heart. Life is about awakening and living fully, drinking in the nectar of our hearts. May we be more like Nature, like the trees, like the rich soil, lily pads and lichens, clouds and rays of sunshine; all of Nature knows its inherent perfection. May we recognize ours.
We must clarify our highest vision for ourselves and our lives, align with the Divine and with Nature, and invoke and declare that vision in all that we do and how we live. We are meant to live fully, to delight in this embodied experience, and by aligning our individual will with the Absolute Consciousness, we begin to refine and manifest purposefully the most beautiful articulation imaginable as our very own lives.
Blessed be. 
read comments (1)Awakening Iccha
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Awakening Iccha, the Power of Will
(from an article I wrote for the YT Newsletter)
By KK Ledford, M.A.
In this hemisphere, we have just emerged from the saturation of darkness at midwinter. At Solstice, the Goddess gives birth to the sun, and the promise of the light returns. We begin to feel within ourselves the stirring of the seeds that were planted in the dark time of year. As the light waxes, so too does our own longing to express our heart’s desires. We must step into our own hearts, set on fire with desire for remembrance of our inherent freedom and fullness. When we live with a heart ignited, it becomes our heartfelt intention to consciously and daily align with the Divine. We begin to invoke an embodied experience of our iccha, the energy of will.
From a Kashmir Shaivism perspective, the Absolute Consciousness, reflecting the whole universe, is full of five energies: chit shakti (energy of consciousness), ananda shakti (energy of bliss), iccha shakti (energy of will), jnana shakti (energy of knowledge), and kriya shakti (energy of action). The universe was created as a reflection of the Divine’s own will, or iccha shakti. The Absolute is absolutely full, and yet has a will to express, a divine urge to create; this is an expression of unbounded freedom. Understanding this, we can begin to live in our own fullness, and still feel the throb to move toward what is most valuable and life-affirming to us, to clarify and create a fulfilled expression of the deep purpose we cannot ignore during this lifetime. We are meant to live fully, to delight in this embodied experience, and by aligning our individual will with the Divine, we begin to refine and manifest purposefully the most beautiful articulation imaginable as our very own lives.
Yoga, like life, is an ecstatic play of consciousness, the grand pulsation of the Maha Shakti as the power of the universe. Yoga can be experienced as an entrance into the heart of embodied spirituality, a place to enjoy and delight in our connection to the Divine through our senses. Embodiment is a gift to be savored, rather than a burden to disdain or transcend. Our poses are like heartfelt prayers or expressions that bring us deeper into our own hearts and bodies. The practice of yoga on and off the mat assists us in cultivating heart qualities that are already inherent, but may be forgotten or hidden inside of us. Yoga clears away the veils and reveals the splendor that is always present so that we can see ourselves more clearly. Consciousness herself chooses as an act of free will to pulse and become the Universe (visva) and all things contained in it. We too employ our own will, or iccha, to align with the pulsation of the Supreme Consciousness and dedicate ourselves to our spiritual practice. We possess free will as part of our nature, and are free to choose how to live and with what to align. We choose moment to moment either to celebrate embodiment and live in a way that creates more beauty, or to veil our true nature and fall into forgetfulness and enact harmful habits.
Spiritual practice is not separate from daily life but rather an intimate part of it. We must daily dedicate ourselves to our own unfoldment, and listen attentively to the wisdom of our intuition. When we regularly align with nature, connect to our own body, remember that our nature is part of the boundless Consciousness, we are participating honestly in the very enactment of yoga. It is iccha, our will, that acts as the driving force that calls us to spiritual practice. It is iccha that activates our sense of enthusiasm and exuberance for life.
We undoubtedly face challenging times in our lives, and we can draw understanding from our yoga practice. When we encounter a difficult pose that brings up fear, penetrates into a long-held trauma, or brings up uncomfortable emotions, we steady ourselves and find our breath. When we are disconnected from our own body and heart and disconnected from the natural world around us, we inevitably feel cut off from the Supreme Consciousness, which can lead to suffering. Through yoga, in this deeply connected place, we remember physically, psychologically and energetically that our true nature is divine and that the Divine Shakti supports us always. The same pulsation of will that sets our hearts ablaze with love invites us to the mat during the troubled times, when we are dealing with illness, personal challenges, grief; it calls us onto the mat, onto the meditation cushion to sit and breathe deeply, or into our bodies to feel and reconnect. We have inside of us a will to live, to act, to know, to create. Practicing yoga in a genuine and thoughtful way is an invitation to coalesce with the Divine pulsation of the universe; we have the revelation that we are not separate from the Divine, but deeply interconnected with and immersed in the heart of Consciousness itself.
The question to ask is, what is our heart’s deepest longing? And how can we live fully, freely, outrageously, and imbued with Grace? What stirs you, calls you, impels you, what breaks your heart open? What invokes a sense of extraordinary love and ferocity, grace and power? And are you willing to live from this place? These are not questions to take lightly or simply ideas we talk about casually; we must take seriously our sadhana, and engage in a genuine contemplation of what is most powerfully pulsing deep in our own precious hearts. We must feel that strong will to learn, to listen, to be, to express. When we turn inside and feel the pulsation of our awakened consciousness, which is innately free and full, and we move forward in the direction of our heart’s longing, we occupy a profound place in the center of the power of will. It is our fiery will that inspires us toward our crystalline vision of our own lives.
May we live with an awakened and ignited iccha, a bright fire of willpower, and a constantly renewed sense of wonder for the gift of this experience of life.
Dancing with the Trickster
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Mercury, the Trickster, the Messenger, the planetary Muse of communication and motion, shifted into retrograde on September 6 for the third time this year. This would usually be the last Mercury retrograde of the year, but this year in late December we will have our fourth retrograde period. As you know from being in my class, when Mercury retrogrades we slow down and review. This is not a time to fear, as many people who know very little about astrology might convince you of, but an invitation to turn inside, slow down, relax. If you do not accept that invitation and continue to run through life at the usual human speed, you will trip and fall, metaphorically and literally.
When people do not heed the invitation of Mercury retrograde to take extra care, to slow your pace, to stop and smell the flowers, to sometimes keep your thoughts to yourself, then communication gets tangled, feelings get hurt, and accidents happen. This is a time when many will have various falls and accidents, get parking and speeding tickets, have all technology go haywire, lose things, experience communication devices such as email, phone, and computer seemingly erupt into an explosion of disruption, and have travel delays. But if you are aware and allow for this virtual sleep cycle in technology, motion, and communication, you are less likely to be taken out in this three week adventure.
In Anusara yoga, our intention is always to align with Nature, and by offering these insights to you, I hope to share more of what is actually happening in Nature, in the stars, so that you can more genuinely be in alignment. And so that you can be more at ease during this time.
Since we are already on an astrological roll, another powerhouse event was initiated yesterday; a Saturn-Uranus opposition, with Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces. This is the third of five exact oppositions from 1998 to 2010. This is playing out in on the world stage in our social, economic, political, and cultural situation.
Saturn is structure, limits, fixed, conservative, rules, the disciplinarian. Uranus is independent, original, wild, unconventional, evolution, the free-spirit. (Guess which planet rules Aquarius, my sun?). These two extreme planets clash, as do their energies and qualities. We may experience their clash by feeling pulled in two polarized directions. Think order – chaos or stability – change. This is the primordial balanced action that we experience in our yoga and in our lives. It is not different from Tantra. This is dancing on the razor’s edge and embracing paradox sincerely.
Emotional explosions will be erupting all over. We haven’t experienced a set of Saturn-Uranus oppositions in 40+ years. I advise lots of self-care, avoiding confrontation and conflict, staying in, getting rest, doing things that you love and bring you joy…
May we dance on the razor’s edge of paradox and navigate with sensitivity through the waters of life.
Light the Lammas Fires
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*some of this post is taken from last year’s Lammas*
August 2 is Lammas, an ancient Celtic holy day that heralds the beginning of harvest time. Crops ripen, life abounds, and our hearts and homes are full as we head deeper into the dark half of the year. Lammas means “loaf-mass” in Old English and is both a fire festival and a harvest celebration of the the first grain harvest. It is also known as Lughnasadh, the Celtic holy day named for the Sun God Lugh. For many of us that honor the wheel of the year, Lammas is the first of three harvest festivals, a time to bake bread and offer thanks. It actually occurs at fifteen degrees of Leo, which is the midpoint between summer solstice and autumnal equinox, so this year we can celebrate from August 1 through August 7.
You can bake corn bread, scones, loaves of bread, or make preserves and share them. You may literally light the fires (candles) or more symbolically light the Lammas bonfires. Take some time to contemplate and release what is passing out of your life, letting go. Throw regrets into the fire. Think about what your harvest has brought forth, what you are reaping.
Genuine creativity is at its peak. This is a good time to focus on creative projects, make art, and allow your talents to be felt as gifts from the Shakti. Be clear as you vision your life, and what your fiery will directs you towards. Create a work of art that illustrates or crystalizes into a form your intentions.
May our hearts dance in exuberant fulfillment to celebrate the last days of summertime! May we live each moment to the fullest, and savor the miraculousness and preciousness of this embodied experience.
Let us seek the magic of this upcoming full moon, while we roar our gratitude with beautiful ferocity like Leo.
Guru Purnima
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Guru Purnima Blessings!
On July 7 we experienced Guru Purnima, the full moon of the Guru, and a penumbral lunar eclipse. Guru Purnima is a time to honor our teachers, in the Relative realm and the Absolute. We acknowledge that our first teacher is our mother, and we celebrate those that have mothered us throughout our lives. We also remember and connect with the masters of Consciousness no longer in embodied form that teach us and bless us, and explore the Guru Tattva or Guru Principle, the teaching principle in the universe. May we appreciate and honor deeply the complex and unique relationship between teacher and student.
The full moon and lunar eclipse occurred in Capricorn, inviting us into the realm of the ancestors and ancient ones. Eclipses are like electrifying lightning bolts of awakening, initiating a quickening. It is a good time to pay attention to what is coming in to your life, and to step into your fullness and authenticity. We listen for guidance and wisdom from the great masters of Consciousness. We honor the Guru Principle or the essence of the guru. Guru means “heavy” or “weighty”. The guru is the remover of ignorance, the weighty one, saturated with wisdom, permeated with Grace.
I spent the six days leading up to Guru Purnima with my teacher Paul in the red rocks of Sedona, which was an extraordinary blessing. I felt the nectar-filled Maha moon illuminate many mysteries of the heart. May we offer pada-puja pranams to the lotus feet of the primordial yogi and teacher Lord Shiva. Om Namah Shivaya! We honor the Great Mother. Sri Maa Namaha! I bow to my absolutely amazing teachers with love and gratitude.
As I wrote last year, this month I invite you to let your home become heavy with the scent of incense and the sounds of prayers and chanting. Clarify intentions in candlelight and offer respect in your own way to the Great Teaching Principle and the Ancient Ones. Contemplate purna (fullness, perfection), and reflect on who and what you are heartbreakingly grateful for. May our hearts become sanctified and saturated with the nectar of the bliss of the Divine. May we become full like the moon with the soma of honey-like awareness.
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Lovely Lammas
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Friday, Freya’s day, will be the first day of August, with both the sun and the new moon in Leo – we will also have the auspiciousness of a total solar eclipse!
Eclipses always bring a quickening, a transformational invitation, a burgeoning. The new moon adds to the magic; we empty out as the moon wanes to make room physically, emotionally, and energetically for that which we invite into our lives with gratitude, and then plant into the darkness of the new moon, our deepest, fiery longing for what we invoke.
August 2 is Lammas, an ancient Celtic holy day that heralds the beginning of harvest time. Crops ripen, life abounds, and our hearts and homes are full, and we head deeper into the dark half of the year. Lammas means “loaf-mass” and is both a fire festival and a harvest celebration of the the first grain harvest. For many of us that honor the wheel of the year, Lammas is the first of three harvest festivals, a time to bake bread and offer thanks.
You can bake corn bread, scones, loaves of bread, or make preserves and share them. Take some time to contemplate and say goodbye to what is passing in your life, what you are letting go of. Throw regrets into the fire. Think about what your harvest has brought forth, what you are reaping.
May our hearts dance in exuberant fulfillment to celebrate the last days of summertime! May we live each moment to the fullest, and savor the miraculousness and preciousness of this embodied experience.
Let us sing praises to Nature in all her Glory! Let us seek the magic of this new moon, while we roar our gratitude with beautiful ferocity like Leo.
Blessed Lammas, lovely kula.
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Guru Purnima
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Blessed Guru Purnima!
The July full moon is the full moon of the Guru. It is a very special time to honor our teachers and gurus, and a time when we receive powerful blessings from those teachers not on the physical plane. We appreciate and honor deeply the complex and beautiful interactions between teacher and student.
We honor the guru-principle. Guru means “heavy” or “weighty”. Another definition is remover of ignorance. The guru is the weighty one, saturated with wisdom, permeated with Grace.
The moon will be in Capricorn, which invites us into the realm of the wisdom of the ancestors and ancient ones. The Kosmic Kula has been exploring and expanding on the concepts of purna for a year or more, and it will be an exceptional adventure to deepen our experiences of purna during this most auspicious full moon.
I invite you to let your home become heavy with the scent of incense and the sounds of prayers and chanting. Clarify intentions in candlelight and offer respect in your own way to the Great Ones. Contemplate purna as it feels today, and reflect on who and what you are heartbreakingly grateful for.
The primordial yogi, the great yoga adept and teacher Lord Shiva, is celebrated wholeheartedly as the Adi Guru. Om Namah Shivaya! We honor the Great Mother. Sri Maa Namaha!
May our hearts become sanctified and saturated with the nectar of the bliss of the Divine. May we become full like the moon with the soma of honey-like awareness.
May we practice pada puja; pranams and offerings at the lotus-feet of the Beloved.
May we remember we are whole and holy!
Shivo’ham! Purno’ham!
Contents: Contentment
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What a beautiful Solstice we had. It was a Solstice miracle! A bright and hot day full of sunshine and blue skies … the perfect way to celebrate the purna of the light. And as we watched the sun set into the ocean on Friday evening, setting intentions and offering gratitude, it was the perfect sendoff to the the sun … as now the light wanes and we wander softly into the dark half of the year.
Gurumayi’s birthday is this week; it is the perfect time to check the reading list and begin to read (or re-read) Courage and Contentment. Gurumayi says that contentment is when you enter into possession of what you already have. Meditate on this definition and see how it resonates with you.
Contentment is not fake happiness, an excessive heart chakra out of balance, a contrived smile, or excessive niceness that has no authenticity. Contentment is knowing your purna, your wholeness, even in challenging times in your life. It is being grateful for the fullness of your life and believing wholeheartedly that you are a radical, wise, and worthy being. When we truly know that freedom is our essential nature, and that we are the same Supreme Consciousness that pulses in the universe, and that we are as wondrous as Nature … we become more like Nature. Nature knows its perfection. It doesn’t try too hard, it doesn’t want to impress you, it doesn’t try to make you feel like less… it just is. Nature is natural.
May we all be more like Nature, may we all remember our perfection, may we all bathe in contentment.
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Sunshine is awesome and sweet
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Happy Midsummer!
We have reached another turn of the wheel of the year; Solstice occurs (in the Northern hemisphere) this week when the sun enters the 0 degree of Cancer. This is the longest day of the year, when the sun reaches its peak, its purna (fullness). After Solstice, the days will slowly begin to shorten once again as we head toward the dark time of the year. Solstice is a time of sun and celebration of life, fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers, bright fires, and feeling grateful for what fills your life. Let your yoga be bright and blissful. Make a feast for the eve before, and then on Solstice morning awaken before dawn so that you can greet the Solstice sun as it rises. Make offerings and prayers.
Venus moves into Cancer and the full moon will be in Sagittarius on Wednesday. Mercury goes direct on Thursday morning, but plan for its shadow period for about a week before things start to get back on track.
At this full moon and solstice, meditate on your own purna (fullness). Contemplate what you are grateful for, what you are filled with, how all that you need already lives inside you. Feel your heart as a moon, full of bliss and overflowing. Let luminescent moonbeams of gratitude and bliss stream from your heart in an offering back to the universe.
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