The Ocean of Shiva and Shakti
As I float in the gently rolling swells beyond the break, my feet aligned with the setting sun and eyes to the sky, I feel a wave of awareness extend throughout and then beyond my body. In that moment, I begin to understand on a cellular level the deeper purpose of the “Yoga and Surf” retreat that I am on: a true initiation into the rhythms of the ocean. Day by day, my body is reconnecting with its oceanic roots, slowing my staccato mental rhythms into a more natural pulse and flow.
I feel humbled by the simplicity of these shifts. Exposed to the upper echelon of paradigm-shakers and spiritual innovators through my work at the Institute of Noetic Sciences, I often become jaded about the process of transformation, adopting a wait-and-see attitude about new practices and teachers. During this retreat, I have had to begin again, at the back of the room, leaning into my tight muscles and guarded body, along with my overly civilized habits of being. Beginner’s body has a way of mandating beginner’s mind.
The retreat is led by Shiva Rea, a celebrated yogini with a penchant for inventive combinations that go beyond asana and pranayama. She moves like a cat through the class and is just as likely to lead us into free-form dancing as into a deep backbends, blending subtler instructions about the nature of consciousness into playful moves set to rocking music. The depth of her devotion to the yogic path shines through, as do her decades of training, but she also blazes with creative wildness, drawing upon her fieldwork in Africa, dance training, and her own experimentation, luring prim-and-proper yogis from their perfect poses into the wilds of the floor and spontaneous new forms that come from their inner knowing rather than an outer teacher.
For me she recommended the Killer Combo (a newly minted name later amended to Tantric Combo): alternating days of lazy, enlightened yoga (shiva in repose) with buck wild yoga (shakti run wild). It’s the blending of opposites, joining ecstatic movement with deep stillness, slowly deprogramming my mind and body and opening to a place where the masculine and feminine in me join.
I laugh at her mischief throughout the classes, even while the sweat pours off my body and I make “shivasana puppy eyes” that beg for the end of class. Between deep breaths and long stretches, I’m struck by how the world of yoga and the worlds of IONS have only just begun to come together, even though they hold deep and complementary truths.
Yes, it is true that we need a collective shift of consciousness and a shift in our most basic paradigms of reality. But that shift grows from a shift in the body, in the habits of how we hold ourselves in relationship to each other and the world. And it is in this realm that Shiva’s spiritual genius shines through: by combining yoga that frees us from our habits, with surfing, a practice that attunes to the natural rhythms of the ocean, she initiates a high alchemy, bringing our body-minds into a sense of sacred union with the physical world. The ocean shifts from being a collection of water to a vast and limitless Presence. We align and attune ourselves to her rhythms, learning to move more beautifully on her curves, dancing with the water rather than fighting our way through.
Form and formlessness weave in this yogic alchemy on the edge of the sea. Expanding our bodies creates space for our limitless consciousness, sculpting new possibilities for movement on the spiritual path. It is an initiation of a different kind, bringing spirituality into fleshy form, and attuning ourselves with life in a way that connects us with the source of joy.
The members of IONS – so brilliant in their understanding of shifts in paradigms and values – would be beautifully served to take this initiation into a different way of being, which is deliciously tantric, wildly whole. I am grateful for my journey.
For info on Shiva Rea's retreats, visit: www.shivarea.com
