creative sequencing based on vedic astrology workshop replay 09.18.2023
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[00:00:00] If you are a yoga teacher who perhaps sequences around the moon's new and full moons or the seasons, like, Ayurvedic seasons or. You have a desire to do these things. Maybe you're already doing them and you feel like perhaps you're lacking inspiration could use some more inspiration. Or you're not sure how to even get started doing so this workshop replay is for you. So this is a replay from a class I did last week called the creative sequencing based on. Vedic astrology masterclass. So if you've been sort of lacking inspiration in your home practice, feeling disconnected from your home practice. Or having a hard time coming up with sequences for your classes. Hopefully this will help. It is a. Just a quick workshop on. Um, how to make your classes more transformative using the power of Vedic astrology. So I hope you enjoy it. I hope it's helpful. Um, I hope it helps you rekindle some inspiration for yourself in your home practice. And I have some there's some great tips, so just listen to it. Also, FYI, you will hear several times throughout the. Replay. This is just a replay. This is not a podcast episodes of replay from a class. So there's some things that, um, like you're not gonna be able to see the slides going on. There were slides. Um, if you want the replay, email me. If you want to be able to see the slides, email me, [email protected]. Or, um, I also referenced a workbook a few times throughout. And so if you want. That workbook or I called it. This playbook is. It's my sequencing based on Vedic astrology playbook. It has cheat sheets for each planet and sign for how to build a practice, a yoga practice. Around that planet and sign and dive a little bit deeper into the Vedic astrology, meaning in just one page per planet, one page per sign. Um, so it's a workbook and there's some stuff in there. If you want the workbook. Listen to the whole thing, email me and tell me a couple of takeaways or lingering questions you have from the workbook. Um, again, I am Rosemary, your host. Um, Rosemary Holbrook. So email me R O S E M a R [email protected]. Y O G I S C O P S just like the podcast or you're listening to this on. So if this is your first episode of the Yogi Scouts podcast, welcome. The Yogi scopes are yoga horoscopes. So I give you fresh inspiration every week that you can use the principles of this masterclass. To apply that fresh inspiration from the podcast every week to start doing the stuff in your classes. And then there's also, um, a chance at the end to hear if you want to go even deeper into doing this and want to work more closely with me, listen again to the end, to hear how to do that and the details of that.
[00:02:53] So welcome to the podcast. I'm your host, Rosemary Holbrook. Please enjoy this replay.
[00:03:00] So welcome to your creative sequencing based on astrology masterclass . Um, I wanted to start off with a check in. So as I continue to wait and see if anybody kind of trickles in late, can you just think about these two questions and you might want to journal about it or just think about it.
[00:03:15] You could write it in the chat if you feel comfortable sharing, but the two questions are, what do you think an advanced yoga practice looks like or includes? And then number two, how much overlap should there be? Between your home practice and your teaching. And so with those two questions, I'm kind of trying to gauge a couple of things because people get taught all kinds of stuff about this.
[00:03:39] In teacher training, like people just, there's all, it runs the gamut of how much overlap there should be or what advanced yoga practice is. So I'm just curious for a pulse check, like what you've experienced, what your beliefs are. If you want to share it in the chat, you're welcome to, or just take a minute or two to think about it or write it down.
[00:03:58] Um, just to kind of get thinking about some of the topics we'll discuss today. While I also give folks a chance to join, uh, from the waiting room, if anybody was running late.
[00:04:09] Okay, and so we will come back to that momentarily, and I just want to give you like a formal introduction to your creative sequencing masterclass. There is a lot of, a wealth of creativity to be had from incorporating Vedic astrology into your teaching, so that's what this class is going to be all about.
[00:04:28] And so 1st, let's talk about. So your road map to kind of like, what we're going to learn what we're going to cover in class, which is also your road map to applying Vedic astrology to your teaching. So, 1st of all, the reason I asked those check in questions is it's going to be important to separate your class planning.
[00:04:44] From your home practice, I'll tell you why I think so. And some like tips for that. We'll talk about it. We'll also, I'm excited to hear your answers for the check in questions. If you feel comfortable sharing also, you don't have to, if you don't want to. And then number two is we'll take. A trauma informed lens to everything.
[00:05:03] So that's at the heart of what I do, everything I do with my yoga teaching. And I think that piece actually, it's not just like a side piece. It is like the meat, like that is why, where this magic comes from and why it works. And so then we'll also talk about a sort of. Like recap history lesson, uh, big picture overview of yoga philosophy to hopefully kind of flip your perspective when it comes to class planning to your teaching and help with the sort of mindset that I'm going to urge you to have when it comes to planning your classes and including around Vedic astrology and how those pieces kind of fit together.
[00:05:41] So we got to go over that little nerdy part for a minute. And then we'll talk about some like simple hacks to. To do it, like, what are you going to do in your class planning? What's like the, you know, what you probably came to this class for, like, what's going to spark your creativity? What are some ideas, right?
[00:05:56] To incorporate Vedic astrology. But I think all of that other background information is important too. And then so some learning outcomes, like what I'm hoping you'll get out of this is that you will understand the diff or Ayurveda and Vedic astrology. And so that will come a little bit from the history lesson.
[00:06:15] So that you can understand like a big picture overview of how they fit together and influence each other because that's what I think maybe gets left out in teacher training sometimes. I don't know, like maybe it's covered, but maybe not. And then we'll apply a framework rooted in that philosophy that we'll talk about.
[00:06:33] That's how you're going to create your sequences in a way that is inspirational without being. Overwhelming for you or your students. And then lastly, we'll talk about, um, hopefully you will feel empowered to establish some study and practice routines that will support your continued growth on this path of, you know, teaching yoga.
[00:06:53] Right? So that's what we're here to do. And then so for the folks here live, stick around until the end, I'll tell you how to get this. It's super cool. It has. So there's a page for there's some workbook pages related to what we'll go over today. There's also a page for each planet and each sign, including like some keywords, some important things to know about those.
[00:07:12] And then yoga practices for each, which will help you like jog your creativity. Um, based on like anything you're trying to, hopefully it's just a good reference point for you. If you try to theme around Vedic astrology, it's just boiled it down into something simple. , so back to the check in. If you feel comfortable sharing, you're welcome to unmute or drop it in the chat what, um, your answer to these questions are. But I also want to tell you that I will share my answer as well next.
[00:07:41] So Ronnie says advanced. Yoga teacher practice would include solid yoga philosophy theme and creative sequencing. How much overlap between home practice and teaching thinking in my home practice. Should influence what I teach. I love that. Um, so I want to maybe dismantle some of that a little bit. We'll talk about it.
[00:08:04] Um, because what I the struggle that I hear from people that I've experienced myself is that we might get to a point during home practice where it's hard to turn that teacher brain off. It becomes more like thinking about planning your classes in your home practice so that you're not experiencing those benefits.
[00:08:24] You're more like looking for what you're going to share. And so that it's just an important distinction point. But I do also think it's hard to share anything that you haven't experienced for yourself in an embodied way. So that's the tricky part and we'll get to some things that I think help things that I use that I think help.
[00:08:41] And I'll just go ahead and tell you the main thing is if you have dedicated time for class planning, it becomes a little bit easier to shut that part of your brain off because you're like, You have a time for it. We'll talk more about what that looks like. And then to me, in my opinion, an advanced practice is one that inspires equanimity.
[00:09:02] And for the longest time I had heard this word a lot thrown around in the meditation community. And I had like absolutely no embodied sense of what it meant. I was like, that is a big word. I do not understand that in a practical sense in my life, and so I looked up the Oxford English Dictionary definition, and that is, you know, this is what it is.
[00:09:18] Mental calmness, composure, and evenness of temper, especially in difficult situations. So that's what I often... Conceptualize and think of in my life and brain as resilience, the ability to like take a licking and keep on ticking kind of thing. The ability to, um, maintain composure. It's not about being happy all the time.
[00:09:41] It's actually, in fact, about maintaining that inner peace, even when you're experiencing more quote unquote negative emotions. So that's kind of the marker. I suppose I use for myself or like what I'm hoping to inspire in my students is if you're doing it right. Okay. You just feel like better. Even when life is hard, not only when life is good.
[00:10:02] Right. So that's kind of what I, the way I think of it and how I conceptualize it. But then I also, you know, when early on, I went to yoga teacher training to learn Asana personally. I was like, I want to learn because I was going to all these different classes. And I was like, teachers have different ways of explaining Asana.
[00:10:21] And I want to learn the right way, the quote unquote right way. And. So, but it wasn't until teacher training that I learned about all the other limbs. And so I encourage this. Check in activity, you could draw like a circle, or in the workbook, um, that you'll get, this is in there. You could draw like a circle, with a plus sign in it, and then an X, and then that gives you your little things for the eight limbs, your little pie slices.
[00:10:46] And just check in, it's a super fun activity to check in, like, are you studying philosophy? Are yamas? The rest of them. So, you know, spotty is one of them. Are you taking self care? Like, do you have dinner charia daily routine? And so there are some times like we were just talking before I started recording about, um.
[00:11:07] You know, kids and stuff. And yeah. So ever since I started teaching, I've lost the personal connection to my personal practice. So valid. Yeah. And so like when I had my kids earlier on, I, we were just talking before we started recording that I'm just kind of reaching a turning point where I'm like getting my body back and I might be able to start prioritizing asana practice more.
[00:11:27] But in the meantime, it's been all, I didn't lose my connection to yoga because I was prioritizing all of these other things. I would do breath practice. I would practice Pratyahara sense withdrawal, which also can look like taking time off social media, turning the phone on, do not disturb. That's been a favorite of mine recently.
[00:11:45] Um, even in times like not when I'm just teaching, that used to be the only time I put my phone on, do not disturb. So it's a good check in activity. And to do this periodically. To see kind of where your focus shifts as you move through the seasons of life. Are you engaging in these things? And then the last one that the, um, Samadhi, the last limb, I feel like when you're doing all the other things, that's going to lead to Samadhi or this bliss, this connection with divine, which to me.
[00:12:13] Yeah. In my opinion is where that equanimity comes from when you're doing all this other stuff and it kind of sets you up for success. And so, like, FYI, if the, um, limbs are new to you, or if you, you know, I did an episode about it like a really long time ago on the science of light. It's linked there. I can also send y'all these.
[00:12:32] I'll send you a PDF of the slides afterwards, um, so you can have the links to stuff. Um, so habit science, if you're into atomic habits, James Clear always says prioritize then optimize. And that's the approach I like to take. I feel like I used to get hung up this way and I see a lot of Other yoga teachers or like newer yoga teachers getting stuck because they're like, Oh, my home practice doesn't look like the hour long asana practices I teach.
[00:13:01] And then, so we're left like, I don't know what to do because I don't have time for an hour long asana practice. And so the approach I've always taken and that, you know, habit science kind of backs up is to prioritize, like if you can find five minutes. For your home practice, and then you can optimize it.
[00:13:17] Maybe sometimes you'll do those hour long things. Maybe sometimes you won't, um, and then separate practice and class planning as much as you can. That is where I think that's the magic to, um, getting that inspiration back. If you're like, if you also have a dedicated time for class planning. For me, it's on.
[00:13:37] Fridays. And if I don't get to it on Friday, I do it on Monday because I don't actually teach anything on Monday. And I teach like Tuesday through the rest of the week. And so that's the prioritize then optimize. I try to do it on Friday. Don't always. And so I definitely do it on Monday and I have that as like a task.
[00:13:54] So then whenever I am practicing, it's a lot easier for me to shut my brain off. And so for you, you'll need to make some key decisions for when, where, and how often for both, not just your practice, but also class planning. I think if you decide like once a week, maybe, and I'll tell you why I think once a week is the magic number we'll get there.
[00:14:18] Um, But I think that's where the magic happens to getting that inspiration back for your own personal practice, personally. Um, and, and we'll talk about it more. So, I meant to put this earlier, I'm Rose. If y'all don't know me, um, this kind of gets into the trauma informed piece, like why I think that's so important, why I think that's the magic.
[00:14:37] I'm in recovery. I was addicted to IV opiates for several years of my late teens and early twenties. And then I, um, I just always loved astrology like growing up and then when I was in addiction, I lost touch with everything and everyone, but it was coming back to yoga that kept me from relapsing. And so I went on this big path of like, why did that work?
[00:15:02] And so I was, I was like, I need to know. Why yoga is so healing. That's what everybody I talked to all the yoga teachers I talked to. They're like, I experienced this personal transformation, this heal, it's magical healing. It might not have been from addiction, but it was from something guaranteed. And I wanted to know why.
[00:15:19] And so I started doing research for yoga for addiction, and that led me to yoga for trauma. And I discovered in that research that everyone has trauma and that is why. Trauma informed because 70 percent of the world's population, according to this study, has experienced trauma. And this is like self report.
[00:15:37] This is like the people, like, you know, almost three quarters, three out of four people are like, yes, I have experienced trauma. And the other one out of four, maybe just doesn't think of themselves that way. I don't know. It's not what the study said, but, um, And then people that experience trauma are at higher risk for developing unhealthy coping mechanisms.
[00:15:55] And then those people usually come to yoga or astrologers because they're struggling and they want to feel better. And they're looking for healthy, healthier coping mechanisms and guidance for healing. That's what, you know, a lot of us. End up on this path. And then, um, as teachers and astrologers that puts us in this unique position of power over our students.
[00:16:18] So it is like imperative to balance that power dynamic and empower our students. And so whether or not you're working with anybody in acute settings. This absolutely applies to group classes in just any setting because everybody's experienced trauma and I think it's important to kind of dismantle that power dynamic and I think in doing so it's also what's going to make your students have a better experience in class because they're going to feel more connected to themselves and more empowered, um, to find their own healing, right?
[00:16:52] So that's, I just feel like I need to say that, um, Because it's going to inform the way the lens through which I'm going to urge you to sequence and plan your classes, um, because it becomes less about, um, it's like function over form becomes less about the poses and more about the experience. And we'll talk about that.
[00:17:16] So why yoga and astrology? Because yoga gives body awareness, which, um, basically in all that research I did, I found through all these studies that trauma cuts people off from their. Emotional awareness and their body awareness. And so yoga reconnects people to their bodies, helps people explore their sensations.
[00:17:34] And so that's like at the heart of what I'll urge techniques. I'll urge you to use in your classes to make them more transformative to like, the goal is to help people to explore their sensations and, , regulate their nervous system. And that's like what the healing from trauma is. But if we take this approach, , to it, I think people will have more transformative experiences and it'll also help your class plans because it becomes less about the poses and more about facilitating that experience for people.
[00:18:03] Um, and then emotional awareness comes from astrology because Trauma also disconnects people from their emotions, it feels unsafe, and that's where they develop the unhealthy coping mechanisms to not have to feel their feelings, and it happens to the best of us, right? It happens to everybody. It's not just people in acute settings, or like, the homeless and drug addicts and downtrodden, right?
[00:18:24] It's like, this happens to everybody. I just heard another yoga teacher talking about it this morning after an experience with grief, and that chart study, and that astrology, it just provides a perfect container for On a consistent basis, exploring all the realms of human experience leaves no stone unturned for that emotional awareness piece.
[00:18:45] So, um, yeah, so with that, this method, if you like take my little Yogi scopes method that I'm dubbing it, it's all about client centered and collaborative being trauma informed, and that's going to empower your students when they understand the why of anything. Like, it's not about the poses. Um, Yeah, and so hopefully learning astrology, pairing it with yoga will, that's all I'm saying.
[00:19:13] So let's jump into the ancient texts, little history, nerdy history lesson. So, FYI, if you didn't know or forgot from your yoga teacher training, during most of this timeline that you see here, um, for the last like 4, 000 years, there, Was not very much focus on Asana until, I don't know if you can see my cursor, but in this last like 200 years is when, um, Asana kind of hit the scene.
[00:19:42] And so, um, we also a lot of the philosophy and techniques that we, um, factor in came from the Vedas. Which we know were passed down as like an oral tradition and, um, we'll talk about more about the importance of that oral tradition. Things didn't start getting written down until later. And then, so, a lot of this stuff that we use is very, very ancient and it wasn't actually like for the asana, for the postures, yet.
[00:20:13] Um, so this is like the most glossing over version of that for the sake of time. But if we zoom in on the Vedas. Way back then, the earliest earliest, we have all these Vedas and so the Rig Veda is where we get most of our philosophy pieces that we use in yoga classes. You probably learned about it in your yoga teacher training.
[00:20:37] And then the, um, the medical sciences is where we get. So also from the Vedas is where we get astrology and, you know, Jyotish Vedic astrology and Ayurveda. And so that's where Jyotish is considered one of the Vedangas or the limbs of the Vedas, one of the sciences that is a sister science with yoga. And so just had to like, kind of give that context for maybe anybody that's new to it, catching the recording, whatever.
[00:21:06] If you don't know, they all sort of came from the same place, which is an oral tradition. And so Sankhya philosophy also came from the Vedas and The key points of Sankhya is it's one of the six philosophies, the Shad Darshans, that means to enumerate or to measure. So I like to think of Sankhya as like the periodic table of elements.
[00:21:29] So, um, you know, when they first started out with the periodic table of elements, it was smaller, and they've just been adding on to it, like, ever since then. Um, and , we never said that the original periodic table was wrong when we discovered more stuff. Um, and so all it is, is trying to break reality down into the smallest, like, atoms, like, smallest thing that we can, um, wrap our minds around.
[00:21:55] And so it's also important to know that Sankhya is dualistic, whereas Tantra is non dualistic. Tantra came later, um, and so that's why I think that it's like, I see some confusion happening for folks around the philosophies. Um. Of like, which is which, and so that's what I just want to point out that like, back to our timeline, um, Sankey was like way back here, and Tantra was like way up here somewhere , but it's way later in time, and it's not to say that either one was wrong, they're just different, different approaches, but the way that, what that means being dualistic is everything is either Parusha or Prakriti, So that spirit, you know, that which can be observed is property versus the observer, which is like what we're trying to get to with our yoga practice that, um, so that it's like the periodic table classifying thatness.
[00:22:48] That's what the tattvas are, um, that we see here. And so you're probably familiar with the five elements that are like kind of all the way down, breaking things down. Um, and that's where I'm going to say that a lot of the. overlap between astrology and yoga is going to come from those five elements. And so we'll explore through an activity in a few moments, how to incorporate that and, um, you know, sort of inform our teaching with this philosophy.
[00:23:22] And so the sequencing mindset that I'd urge you to take around all of this factoring and all of this, like this oral tradition and factoring in Sankhya and the ancient texts is that. There is no magic pill, poses are not magic pills. And that's what I think I find still when I do a Google search of like yoga for the full moon.
[00:23:45] And it's like triangle pose because blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, you know, that's the blogs out there. And there's still like, it's been that way forever. There's still people putting out blogs like that. Five yoga poses for this. And I get it like why they have to do it that way for the internet blog, whatever.
[00:24:00] But it's really misleading because it makes it sound like the poses. are where the magic is happening, and it's not really about the poses. So that's what, um, you'll see in the playbook that, like, for example, for Sagittarius, that is the one thing that I'm like warrior to, is like a perfect embodiment of Sagittarius.
[00:24:21] Because it just feels like, it looks like the centaur and Sagittarius has connection to the hips, it's going to strengthen your hips, it's going to stretch your inner thighs, these kind of things. So that's one. Where I'm like, okay, a pose kind of makes sense to embody Sagittarius, but the rest of it is going to be energetics.
[00:24:37] And so I would urge you to explore the 25 Tattvas. And if you don't do all 25 of them, which are, um, these, right, these all things, the 25 little things on here are the 25 tattvas, um, and so it ends with the five elements, right? Um, and so you can connect the elements to the sense organs, which you can connect to the senses, right?
[00:25:03] Um, and so that's not the point of this lecture. We explore that more in depth other places, but if you don't do anything else, like most of us came out of yoga teacher training with an understanding of the five elements, the, um, air. Ether, fire, water, earth, those ones. Um, and so that, uh, so you can explore it in your life, like what ways are you seeing these elements showing up, but then, um, we'll explore it in your teaching too.
[00:25:31] And so that's why I would urge you to approach your teaching as storytelling, which is just as the Rishis, the seers that transmitted all this stuff intended. It was, um, stories and oral tradition. And so. If we're making our teaching less about poses and more about the energetics and the sort of philosophy and transmitting that philosophy in a way that we're showing up for the students that are in front of us, um, I like this quote that was attributed to some like Greek guy or something.
[00:25:59] I don't know. Um, I had never knew that before I put on the slide. I was like, I need to know who said this. Uh, no man ever steps in the same river twice. where it's not the same river and he's not the same man because Even so this is why I was saying plan your classes once a week That's all I do once a week.
[00:26:14] You might even do once a month and You can teach that same sequence a bunch of times, even if you're seeing the same students over and over again, because you're going to teach it in a little bit different way, the things that like come to your brain to say are going to be a little bit different. And the experience they're having on that day is going to be a little bit different.
[00:26:37] So if we're taking this approach where it's less about the poses and more about feeling into the energetics that we're feeling or that the students in front of us are feeling it's going to still be. A transformative practice, even if you're teaching the same sequence all month long, which is kind of the idea of the ones like Ashtanga and Bikram that are the same sequence forever.
[00:26:57] You know, it's like people still have different experiences on different days and there's value in that too. And so from a trauma informed perspective, to bring it back there, a certain degree of repetition is good. , reinventing the wheel every single class might leave people more confused than it will like wow them with your creativity.
[00:27:14] So the good rule of thumb is 80 percent of the class stays the same and 20 percent changes week to week. And so that's kind of that mirrors astrology. That's like, how I kind of approach it. Like, I will look at the themes of the month and a lot of it is sort of similar every month. Like, the sun will change signs that month.
[00:27:33] We'll have a new moon and a full moon and there'll be uncertain signs related to where the sun is. Um, and then you can tweak it each week to emphasize. a certain part because if you're kind of looking at all of the astrology of the entire month, it's going to be a lot of things and it's impossible to teach all of that in one class.
[00:27:51] So you might choose. Whatever you feel like is the biggest thing that month and focus on that. And I'll teach you how to do that in a second. Um, and then you'll kind of tweak it, you know, all month or all week. If you teach multiple classes a week, um, you'll teach it and that's how you can have a plan and tweak it to the people in front of you.
[00:28:11] Because that's what I hear people say. Also, they're like, I had this whole plan. It was this whole thing. And. I had somebody show up with like a shoulder injury, and so I couldn't do anything I had planned, um, and so I'll, I'll urge you that if you're planning around the energetics and less around the poses, you will still be able to deliver a similarly themed class that is cohesive and lands, even if somebody can't do any of the, you know, weight bearing exercises or whatever the case is.
[00:28:42] And so with that, how are you going to plan? This is not, I didn't come up with this, but the block method, where you have, there's the, these parts happen in any class, no matter the style there's like, this is the flow of a class. So like the intro, even in this class. The intro, I kind of like was like, welcome to the class.
[00:29:04] This is the class that it is, you know, and so like in your class, you might be like, welcome to Vinyasa yoga, you know, some of that might be redundant because they know what they signed up for on the schedule or whatever, but there's going to be some like, Hey, happening. Right. And then there you move into centering.
[00:29:22] And that could look like anything. Like if it's yoga Nidra. You're like telling them to get comfortable and check in with their body, or if it's, you know, whatever, you're, you might be doing pranayama or breath practice, and then there will be some warm up, and so like with yoga nidra, I don't know, I like to use that example compared to vinyasa, this is really easy to see this flow happening with vinyasa, but yoga nidra is kind of like a polar opposite example, where there's a warm up before you get to the peak, which might be like a visualization, or it might be the rotation of consciousness, Um, but the warm up might be like intention setting or something, you know, just something more simple before you get into the real work of the class.
[00:30:05] And then there's going to be a cool down where like in a guided meditation, you're kind of bringing people back to center back into their bodies out of the visualization. And so over time, as you teach, um, you'll end up having blocks. That you're like, these are different, you know, centering exercises I might do for a class around heart center versus something else, you know, versus a class around the hips.
[00:30:34] I might do a different, have a different spiel for the centering, depending on what I know is going to be the focus. Of that class and it's going to land and it's going to feel really cohesive. And so you'll kind of thread, you'll choose like one theme. And so let's, let's talk about that. These sequence ideas, it might be working toward the peak pose.
[00:30:54] That's a really common one in Vinyasa. If you're like, can't like camel pose, for example, um, you might warm up, you might open the hip flexors in the warmup and you might open the shoulders in the standing sequence. If that makes sense, the, um, sort of peak energy. period of class, if that makes sense. And in the center, and you might weave in something about heart opening or connecting the breath to the heart, right?
[00:31:19] If that makes sense, it makes it really simple that way. So you might also center the whole class around a body part where you're not working towards a pose necessarily, but you're opening and closing the heart and you're seated. You're doing it again and standing and just seeing how many times you can bring the focus to that body part in every single section.
[00:31:39] Of class, and then ladder flow, my favorite one for retrogrades, this idea of coming back and going back over and doing the same things again. That's a perfect way to connect to retrograde energy, and then you could link any of these to an energetic theme, which is where the astrology comes in. So expansion and contraction for the new or full moon.
[00:32:03] You know, expansion and contraction of the breath, expansion and contraction of the body kind of thing. Um, the elements where you might connect to an element of a sign. If the, you know, there's a lot of energy around a certain sign at a certain time, like a fire sign, you might connect to the fire element thing and then plants and science.
[00:32:22] That's what I'm saying. There's a lot of overlap. So that could also you could, like, for example. Um, Moon in Scorpio, very like second chakra. . So you might connect to Moon is like the water element.
[00:32:39] Scorpio is the second chakra. It's like the pelvis and reproductive organs area of your body. So you might connect to flowing pelvis movements just a lot. How many different shapes can you play with pelvis tilts in? And that's what makes it super. Um, like you can do dang near the same sequence every week and you just approach it different ways.
[00:33:02] Like this one time in high lunge, we're connecting to like cancer, which is the chest. We might open the chest and close the chest. Another time, if we're connecting to Scorpio, we might play with the tilt of the pelvis in the same pose. And so that's where this activity comes in. You're welcome to take some time to do it now or do it on your own time.
[00:33:23] Um, choose one pose and consider ways that you would connect to each of the five elements in that pose. And so like high lunge is my favorite. It's like the easy one to see for me because, um, like the flowing that you, you know, you're in high lunge, you could connect to flowing movements by maybe flowing around in a circle with your torso.
[00:33:48] You could connect to fiery movements by. Doing a long hold or playing with the tilt of the ribcage to connect to that solar plexus to feel the core turn on. You could connect to air element by doing different breathing practices while you're holding the pose. So these are just some examples. Um, and you could play with this activity in your own practice and teaching because it just, I feel like it really drives the point home that it's not about the poses.
[00:34:16] Like, and that's what I feel like I get, the message I get, and that I hear other people struggling with, they're like, what are poses for this? And I'm like, it doesn't matter, it's not about the poses, it's about the way you instruct the poses, or what you do in the poses, what you're pointing people's awareness towards to facilitate that embodied experience of whatever you're after in that pose.
[00:34:38] And so the key takeaways is that of all of that part is that Sankhya philosophy shows up in the asanas as well as in charts. So that's what, when you start learning Vedic astrology, you'll see these elements be like, uh, or not just the elements, but beyond that, you'll see this stuff start to be like dominant in people's charts or in your own chart or in the chart of like, when you're theming around like current astrology, sometimes certain things will be higher or lower.
[00:35:05] Um, and so that is the link between yoga and astrology is those elements and anything you can think of from Sankhya philosophy, really. Um, and so I would also urge you to see the poses from here on out as energetics and not magic pills. It's never about the poses ever. And that comes from like the trauma informed perspective and also connecting to these elements, which is what's going to facilitate that.
[00:35:32] What does this feel like in my body? How can I embody this? Whatever astrology concept or, um, you know, emotional concept. And then if you apply the habit science. To your practice and your teaching. That's how you'll live your yoga and feel more inspired more of the time. Because if you're like, no, I plan my classes every week at this time.
[00:35:53] And this is what I teach, um, for the entire week. Even if I'm seeing the same people more than once, they appreciate it, honestly. And, um, The Dharma talk, this is another thing I hear people talk about. They're like, I don't know what to say for my Dharma talk. And I'm like trying to find the perfect quote.
[00:36:11] And I have found when teaching this way, that's where I think of like. This off the wall thing to say that really really lands with people because it's like just coming to me when I'm in the flow of the teaching rather than worrying about following this plan perfectly, or like making sure that the class leads up to a certain reading well and then you have somebody that comes and can't do the awesome that you plan, you can still connect to those elements in different awesomeness, you know, so now I hope that sort of makes sense.
[00:36:44] And then sort of difference between just incorporating this stuff in your teaching versus becoming an astrologer where you can, read charts is that astrologers are like at their core. They're like researchers. They want to see patterns. They're like endlessly curious.
[00:37:01] Uh, they're open to what is the truth rather than trying to look for, uh, confirmation bias. Yeah. You know, um, and then there's like this attention to detail, critical thinking. That's the idea, is we want to like look for patterns if you like, want to be an astrologer. And then at the more you study into vedic astrology, the better you will get at turning that into something useful for your students rather than like, You know, you don't like I kind of said before the class is like you don't have to even tell people like this is a class for Mars and Virgo.
[00:37:40] They don't have to know that what they need to know is that there might be a higher energy around really feeling passionate about getting back to routine, which is what I hear everybody is like kids are back in school, even people without kids. They're like, I'm getting my life together. Like fall. I'm get I'm grounding, you know.
[00:37:58] Virgo's an earth sign and people are feeling like fired up about it, which is a Mars thing. So the more you sort of like Research into it. You'll be able to like communicate it in useful ways that people don't even have to understand the astrology to Um, do that. So if you're interested, Astrology for Yogi's has developed a lot since the first founders round we ran started in late May ran through the summer.
[00:38:27] And so it is basically to teach you to be an astrologer, which is this. What you learn today is like at the heart of the sequencing portion, but the course will teach you how to read charts to confidently interpret the transits rather than, um, so the playbook is like, I've put some yoga practices there, but if you like wanted to go deeper in that and understand it for yourself, so you could like make up new things that are beyond what I've, the like five or six, you know, maybe even only three or four things I've put under each planet.
[00:38:59] Okay. you'll be able to see it all as a big therapeutic wisdom better. And that comes from, um, really like you have to just like learn the astrology and it's a lot. So a lot of the course is like, there's just a certain amount of memorization and learning that you have to do.
[00:39:16] But I think I've done a pretty good job of like paring it down to, um, you don't have to memorize everything like the. Little workbook you'll get today is probably even kind of overwhelming with like what's there like what does this mean? What's Mooltrikona mean, you know that kind of stuff And I've urged students in there like you don't actually have to memorize all of that right away It will come with time and practice and so the next thing is then embodying the astrology which is a lot of what we talked about today like how to bring that into Like bring the elements deeper into your body and a felt sense experience rather than this huge memorization because it is a lot and then at the end through learning about trauma informed facilitation and like choosing a niche related to maybe some personal transformation you've been to or something that just interests you will talk about how to like set up your life and business as an astrologer because it's a little bit different than teaching yoga, but not really like a lot of the principles are the same, but we talk about that through the end and have some exercises to guide you through it.
[00:40:21] So yeah, so this is just a longer drawn out version of what I just said, the philosophy of how it all links together. Minimal level of memorization. We're going for embodied understanding rather than, um, just. Flashcards and memorization of all of it. You will be a better yoga teacher and a better astrologer for having understood these things in an embodied sense.
[00:40:47] And then, um, stage two is the research methods because remember I said if you want to be an astrologer. You probably enjoy research. And so this will also help you really put the pieces together when you start, um, you might like find your niche that way when you're like really interested. We have somebody doing like astrology for cancer.
[00:41:05] I did genealogical astrology early on in my sort of astrology career. Like, I want to see how parents and children's charts like. What, you know, the patterns, um, yeah. And so, uh, then also like evidence based practices more about like, if that was interesting to you, what I said about being trauma informed and how this stuff really works, that we go really into the nitty gritty of that inside the course.
[00:41:31] And so the main focus of module two is practice and case studies to help you go over, like in module one, I'm like, here's all the information you only have to memorize a small chunk of it, and then you move into module two and you will understand. You like that's where the practice you get practice of like where you really understand it in your own brain rather than me just saying things to you.
[00:41:53] It comes from practice and through research and. doing it. So that's what we focus on in module two. And then lastly, we focus on translating all of that in module three into chunks, like little things you can say. That's where really the Dharma talk stuff kind of comes in. Um, like when you teach classes to people who just could not give a rip about astrology at all, you'll still teach classes that.
[00:42:21] And they're like, wow, that was really what I needed because you're kind of boiling all this stuff down into something simple. Um, and then assessment techniques, one on one session considerations, all this ethics and like, what do you actually do in a reading? Like, what do you say? Where do you put your hands?
[00:42:36] You know, not really. You know, like how to make a reading kind of go off without a hitch and also feel, um, transformational and then how to get more people into your readings. So that's, you know, it certifies you as a trauma informed Vedic astrologer, which is new. That's like, you know, there's other Vedic astrology certifications out there, but the approach I really like to take at the heart of everything I do is that The trauma informed piece is what, it's like your dharma, like what makes you uniquely able to express your gifts to the world in a way that other people need them through a deeper understanding of yourself and an ability to apply that to other people so that they don't have to be necessarily on your path for you to connect them to their own, that's the trauma informed piece, that removing the hierarchy and empowering your students more to find that healing for themselves, that's where the trauma informed piece is.
[00:43:30] Sort of difference comes in. So if you're interested now or ever, there's a lifetime access always to the curriculum and future updates, um, and then lifetime access to the community. It's super fun. Live calls this time running in like an early bird special. And eventually I'm going to cap it at like six months of access to live calls, but still for now.
[00:43:52] If you sign up this round, you'll have lifetime access to live calls, which is fun. So if you're wanting to know what it will look like to be in this course, it will require some time, like you can't just sign up for it. And like, that's the magic, like learn it through osmosis. You'll have to spend time, you know, probably about an hour or so listening to prerecorded content each week, and then maybe an hour showing up live.
[00:44:14] And then maybe an hour implementing whatever practice or homework exercises there are each week. And then we start off the course with a recommitment. To your home practice and that's kind of like what we talked about early on in this lecture, but that's where it that's where the inspiration comes from, like you said in the beginning, that's where like hopefully our home practice and the transformations we've experienced in our own life influence our teaching and that's where the magic sayings the Dharma talks come from.
[00:44:41] But if you're like, using that time as class planning or having a hard time switching your teacher brain off because you don't class plan. Yeah, we'll talk about that first thing in the course. So the early word special that expires. This Thursday at 11 59 PM is the old is the founders price is 1500 or the six payments of 250.
[00:45:06] There's no like, I don't, it's not like interest like I don't penalize you for not paying up front. And then after this, after that special expires and then in the future, the cost will go up by like 100 each month, you know, so 600 total either paid in full or. And a payment plan and also like somebody asked me last time if they could do it like a different payment plan and like we can do that like we can talk about like we did like a 12 month instead it's just that's how it's kind of set up.
[00:45:33] And so we start on the full moon, which is the kickoff into ancestor fortnight which I haven't mentioned on the podcast yet but we're heading the next full moon, we're heading into eclipse season. And Ancestor Fortnight, it's a good time to like put your head down and do some spiritual study. And it runs 12 weeks, interestingly, perfectly until Jupiter goes direct, which is also Jupiter retrogrades a good time to also get back to teachings and get back to, um, these kind of things that sort of inspire you.
[00:46:05] And so we finish around New Year's, around the time Jupiter goes direct. And so if you're in,
[00:46:09] Check out all the details and sign [email protected] slash a F Y the letters for astrology for yogis. So a for astrology F for the word for Y for yogis, just the three letters. Yogi scopes.com/eight F Y is where you can find all the details and enroll. And just to be clear, this is like future me, or present me really. Um, but future me from the presentation, I just kinda cut it out, um, because there was a different link for the early bird. Signups. So just to be clear, again, some of the details I mentioned in the masterclass were. Related to the early bird. Pricing and bonuses. And so, um, that pricing deal has expired, but you still, if you sign up. Now by this Friday. So when I said, when I referenced this Thursday, this class came from last Monday. So. Have you signed up by this Friday, which is September 29th. Um, you'll still get a one-on-one onboarding call with me. You will still get lifetime access to the curriculum, all feature updates of the curriculum, lifetime access to the community and live calls, which will in the future be limited. There will be a limited amount of time that. You will. Get that continued access to me as you know, included in your course price. Of course you will be able to have the option to continue on, but just not included in the course price. Um, and yeah, so this is the second cohort. I'm excited to welcome you all in starting this Friday, we have our kickoff call at 2:00 PM on Friday. Eastern time signups actually close at 11:59 PM. Eastern time on Friday. So you even if you can't make it to the kickoff call, it's fine. Um, there will be a recording of it. It's a little bit more informal. There's nothing like you won't miss anything from the course. If you can't make it live to that, there will be plenty of other chances to make it live. As we go to various calls and, um, all the course content will be delivered. Not in that kickoff call. So if you can't make it, it's okay. You can still sign up until the end of the day, Friday. And I can't wait to welcome you all in. If you're listening to this, there's also still cha time to book a call with me. To talk about any questions you have about the course. Any questions about your specific situation, about if it's the right fit for you, how it will fit in your life? Um, if it's too easy or too advanced for where you're at in your journey, you know, whatever we can talk about all that kind of stuff on an individual basis. Um, I will, the link is actually, is that the bottom of the course page? Do you have the scopes.com/efy? So you can email me with questions. And you can. Find a way to book a call at the bottom at the way, bottom of the course page. So yeah, I'm here for you and I hope this class served you well. So please remember to always keep your feet on the ground, your head in the stars and stay in the light
