Going back to Orissa

Dear Dancer,

On short notice I have decided to take a small group of students to Orissa India for two weeks this coming February 5 – 20, 2012. As you might know, my husband Cain was organizing a spiritual pilgrimage tour to Orissa during this time. The tour did not attract as much interest as they were hoping for, so we decided to use the opportunity to offer a special trip with Odissi Dance focus.

Since I have lived in Orissa and have many contacts there, I will take my students to all my favorite secret spots, as well as include extensive shopping trips with local artisans to find all the best items for our dance jewelry, costumes and hand-made Orissan art. I will be teaching daily Odissi classes at sacred sites, as well as Yoga and Temple Goddess Workout sessions, as we travel from one amazing place to another. We will also have the opportunity to watch Odissi performances and enjoy a cultural exchange with local dancers. Professional adventure guide, Phil Price, will take care of our transportation, meals, and other tour details.

Reduced price and special discount for dancers: We keep dropping the price down to accommodate more people! Initially, we have dropped the price by $500 to $3995, then we offered an additional 10% off. So, And now we dropped the price additional $500! So the trip cost is now $3095.00 (instead of the original $4495). A deposit of $500 is required to secure your space.

Would you join us this winter for this once-in-a-life-time opporunity to travel to Orissa, in style and ease that could not be matched? Contact us for more details and registration information

Shakti Yoga

 Our society is strongly slanted in favor of the masculine attributes of life over the feminine. We favor logic over intuition; intellectual smartness over emotional wisdom; Doing over Being; “I know” over “I don’t know”, organized structure over “going with the flow”, analysis over experience, profit and gain over richness of experience... and the list goes on.  

Most Yoga practices we are familiar with had been conceived of and developed over centuries by man, practiced by man, and in recent centuries been subject to further tempering by the surge of masculine ideals, over-shadowing the depth of feminine wisdom. The result is a rather goal driven, forceful, linear, and imagery derived alignment way-of-Yoga.   

 

After years of practicing Yoga daily, immersing myself fully in the path of Indian Yoga, following my alignments religiously, memorizing numerous Sanskrit mantras, mastering impressive asanas, checking off countless hours of sun salutations, meditating in perfect stillness, and arriving at the seemingly blissful plateau of emotional equanimity, I literally broke. My lower back gave in, and I hit the wall of injury and pain. My sacroiliac joint was too loose, my lumber vertebrae jammed, my muscles and ligaments too stretched, my sensitivity to moderate pain decreased, and I lost a huge part of my identity. I had to dive in, and embark on my own healing journey. This happened about a decade ago. Through the process of healing, I emerged empowered and inspired to share my discovery of a new way of practicing I titled “Shakti Yoga” – embracing the sacred feminine. I regained my integrity as human-women and developed a method to maintain and restore healthy body and flow of emotions.  

With Shakti Yoga we attempt to maintain our spiritual focus while allowing the richness of our imagination to inspire guidance from our creative impulse. Yielding, rounding, softening, and building the strength of our legs are some of the Highlights of honoring our feminine nature. Expanding to allow a fuller experience of being in our body, embracing who we are, and opening to our inner flow are some of the processes I work with. Shedding away judgments and self-looting allow us to tap into our vibrant and radiant nature. Shakti Yoga teaches you to soften your edge. Don't grow thorns. Stay soft. Open. Connect with the strength of your emotion, the invincibility of water and solidity of earth. Deep fluidity, arrive at your innate wisdom. Knowing when to stop, and when to close, when to dare and when to surrender to what is.   

Living in India taught me much about "goddess nature". The wide spectrum of facets of goddesses in Indian iconography and mythology is stunning and inspiring. The level of repression toward women in Indian society is also startling. India is the land of extremes, and there is no buffer zone. You can't hide in the comfort of your own over-sized home. Reality penetrates your dream, and your dreams swivel like smoke into your present moment. Trust it.

Orissa India: Spiritual Pilgrimage Tour

If you have ever dreamed of visiting sacred India, longed to touch the ancient roots of Yoga, Tantra, Buddhism and Indian Dance (before modern culture totally takes over), here is your chance...

Integrating spiritual cultivation, pilgrimage, and eco-wandering, we will immerse ourselves—body and soul—into Orissa, one of India’s most artistic regions and best kept secrets. With the thread of yoga, meditation and self-healing stringing the days together, we will visit Tantric temples, Buddhist caves, tribal villages, and elephant and tiger sanctuaries.

We will spend our precious time in India linking our personal spiritual practice with the timeless landscape that is Orissa.

There are two tours of two weeks each.

Tour One: Culture of Orissa (14 days)
Jan 29 - Feb 11, 2012

On Tour One, we dive into Orissan culture and the spiritual heritage sites of the region: With visits to the elaborate meditation caves of Udaygiri and Khandagiri; the 64 Yogini Temple of Hirapur (an open-roof Tantric temple with 64 different statues of the Goddess, one of only three of its kind in India); Sun Temple of Konark (with its breathtaking architecture and exquisit array of erotic sculptures); and the Dhabaleswar Temple (located on an island in the Mahanadi River, connected to the mainland by a pillar-less hanging bridge). Both tours include a visit to PK Mahanandi’s tribal village to experience authentic tribal life with all its colorful textures, sights, sounds and smells.

Cost $4,495 (does not include airfare)

Tour Two: Orissa's Wonders and Wildlife (14 days)
Feb 12 - 25, 2012

We explore Orissa’s landscape and wildlife, with visits to national parks, tribal hills, and coastal lands. Adventure to amazing sites such as: The Similipal National Park and Tiger Reserve; the ancient Buddhist Monastery of Ratnagiri; Gudgudia orchidarium; Bhitarkanika Park (home of the largest population of giant salt water crocodiles in India and home to more than 215 bird species); the Gahirmatha Coast (the world's largest nesting and breeding area of Olive Ridley Sea turtles); and Chilka Lake, where we will visit Swargadwar Beach, the bathing place of Sri Chaitanyadev, the renowned Vaishanava prophet.

Cost $3,995 (does not include airfare)

Participants of each tour have the option of extending their trip by adding either one or two weeks of the adjoining tour.

Both tours include a visit to the Athmallik tribal village home of PK Mahanandi, located on the shores of the great Mahanadi River, where we will stay at PK’s “eco-cottage.”

We have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to share time with PK Mahanandi, considered “the Martin Luther King of India” for his life-long commitment to social change, equality and sustainability. Appointed by Indira Gandhi, PK is the first "Untouchable" to serve as an Ambassador of India.

Our personal adventure guide and geologist, Philip Price, will attend to the details of the tour and provide us with fascinating historical and geological information on the sites we visit. The tour will be fun and informative as we immerse ourselves in the richness of the landscape, the local culture, and history.

We will also be joined by acclaimed documentary filmmaker, Stefan Quinth, who will capture some of the unforgettable moments of our trip in a personal DVD video for you to take home.

This is specialty small group tour and space is limited.

Call Cain at 602-717-2735 or email (yogicain@gmai.com) to reserve your space.

January in Californina

Back in California, in the woods again, quiet, clean, and a little lonely. The weather is just about the same as it was last July, but since it is mid January, it feels much better. I am enjoying the sun shine, and being able to sit out on my porch for meals and tea, and for writing my blog:), and because it is January, I do not feel guilty to have fire in my wood-burning stove, and get extra warm and cozy. I got it all, the Sunshine and the fire-place:)

While in India, I forgot how yummy and abundant the food is out here...and how quiet it can get, and clean, and organized. (Yesterday they reported in NPR a 'hazard' on the road, a cow wondering by freedom blvd....tell me about it:). Memory is such a wonderfully elusive thing (or sometimes not so wonderful when you are right about what happened, and who said what, and your partner is wrong...). Accepting my own failing memory and seeing how unreliable people's memory so often is, makes me wonder if memory is even truly 'remembering' or perhaps more of 'imagining', or 'making up', creating our own experience with out any existence other then in our own mind. The past, what we remember, is just as illusive and suggestive as the future, what we anticipate, and both a projection of our mind. It is humbling to realize that, and inspiring to pursue clarity and awareness of every moment as it arises. The thick clutter of my projections; what I want and do not want, my desires and aversions, layered and fused with what is not even 'mine', or 'me'; the default setting of my pre-deposition and predicaments, the long list of wishes and dislikes of my ancestors, mingled for further confusion with the fleeting values of my culture and communities - it becomes a mighty fog of concepts and ideas to cut through, and to be able to be and feel genuinely real.

And then of course, the natural continuation of this line of thinking is what is 'reality' or 'truth', and what are we without our vast web of connections. We are our ancestors, and we are a representation of our society, our family and community, and yet we are neither and nor. We equally create our 'reality' and are subject to the flow of time.

Talking about creating, I recently returned from Orissa, where I filmed 3 instructional DVDS. I am beyond excited to share all the info with you, and start selling them, but I have to muster some patience (which is hardly possible by me), since they are not yet fully ready. Cain stayed back in Orissa for a couple weeks longer to tie up the final touches, and to put it all together into a finished product. So...I hope you can join me in anticipation, and I will be sure to announce it all over my blog, web site, face book, twitter, you name it, once I have them in my hands and I am ready to pass them on to yours.

The Titles are:
- Temple Goddess Workout 
transformational practice combining the best of yoga and indian dance

- Odissi Volume I: Foundations

- Odissi Volume II: Spins & Mangala Charana

Wishing you abundantly creative 2011, and the humble pursue of embodying who you truly are,

With love,
Revital