Prana Pages

During my elder initiation we ate African Stew everyday.  We sat around the fire with our fingers in clay bowls of stew and drinks in calabashes and talked about what American food we missed and looked forward to enjoying at our Homecoming.  Of course, my tastebuds yearned for a chocolate chip cookie (see photo).  Ted, of course, missed his daily injections of peanut butter.  But alas, several of our fellow initiates commented to him that Almond Butter is better than peanut butter…and so a month later we found a gift on our doorstep from one of those friends…an 18 pound bucket of almond butter!  So, I’m looking around for good uses for almond butter as I don’t want to give it all away (although we have plenty of friends and family willing to enjoy our gift with us).  I found this recipe at www.bestnaturalfoods.com.

If anyone else has any great Almond Butter recipes of favorite ways to eat it (beyond the typical substitute for PB), I’d love to hear them.

Afterglow Almond Butter Dressing Recipe

½ cup Woodstock organic smooth almond butter
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon Bragg Liquid Aminos
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon brown rice vinegar (or rice vinegar)
1 crushed garlic clove (or ½ teaspoon minced)
1 teaspoon curry powder
¾ cup vegetable broth (canned or from powder)
¼ teaspoon salt (depends on amount of sodium in broth - taste before adding)

My friend Tamsy has always inspired me with her willingness to face the challenges of the world head-on, with a wide open huge heart.  Her facebook profile photo pictured here is indicative of how she evenly balances strength with vulnerability, groundedness with openness in urdva danurasana, aka wheel pose, aka chakrasana, a pose that exposes the inside of all seven major chakra centers.

The Physicality of Backbends
Practiced appropriately, backbends come from leg strength.  The support from the strength of the legs stabilizes the pelvis to a solid center ‘bowl’ from which the spine can lift up and out to extend into full backbend expression.  If the pelvis is not stabilized, it is easy to collapse the spine into the more flexible lumbar vertebrae, resulting in low back strain and pain.  At the same time, the compression that occurs on the back-side of the body in a backbend causes pressure on the adrenal glands.  This is why backbends are often called “yoga’s espresso shot” because the pressure on the adrenals kicks on the adrenaline, thus waking up the system.  When adrenaline is released, the sympathetic nervous system kicks into gear, raising the heart rate and blood pressure.  No wonder classes get buzzing during the wheel series.  Unfortunately, just like a morning caffeine kick can develop into a dependency on diet coke or thrice daily mocha lattes, it is easy for yogis to develop habit-forming backbending addictions, craving nature’s high from the adrenaline within one’s own system.  Power yogis who develop this condition can suffer from symptoms of adrenal exhaustion such as exhaustion laden insomnia, back pain that cannot be relieved by chiropractic adjustments, loss of appetite, weight loss…and many other symptoms similar to someone on speed.  On the flip side, backbends performed safely from leg strength develop strong muscles around the vertebrae, supporting flexibility of the spine and descreasing spinal issues that result in countless chiropractice visits.

The Energetics of Backbends
The full expression of a backbend is energetically the full expression of compassion and loving kindness.  It is a place where forgiveness, sweetness, and connectedness wins out over resentment, anger, and depression.  While the heart chakra has an amazing capacity for love, compassion, forgiveness, and compassion, if it is not properly ‘fed’, like any container, it can get strained.  When the heart chakra is strained, the results can be disastrous: cardiac disease, breast cancer, and asthma. Thus, the heart chakra needs to be ‘fed’ regularly, through energy from from the other chakras, ultimately from the universe through the crown chakra and from the earth through the root chakra.  When a full backbend is evenly supported from the legs, through the pelvis and core into the heart, the energy of the heart chakra is an expression of the unconditional love of Mother Earth flowing through the pleasure center (sacral chakra) and the power center (core chakra) and out our heart center.

So yes, when you need a little kick, try a backbend instead of a latte.  But beware the effects of overdoing it and allow “less is more” to be a mantra when breathing through the sixth wheel.  You just might find yourself healing some very old wounds and reconnecting with some lost loves of your life.  It’s better than Facebook!

Initiation Our teacher, Malidoma Some, explained to us that the word “initiation” translates into his native language most accurately as “wisdom” or “knowledge”.  What I have come to understand over the last several weeks is that this intiatory wisdom is not information processed through our brains, but rather a knowing that has been downloaded into our DNA, accessed through our bones.  On July 10th (my 36th birthday), thirteen initiates, nine bokaras (previously initiated elders), and countless village supporters gathered on the East Coast Village land in Cherry Plain, NY with our teacher and elder, Malidoma Some.  We initiates surrendered our modern comforts to live in nature, commune with the Spirit World, and be supported in ritual in order to download “knowing” into our bones.

Mother Earth For the duration of the intiation, whenever we weren’t standing or walking, we sat on the ground, root chakra to Mother Earth.  As the root chakra is the earth chakra, in essence, we spent sixteen days in direct connection of the muladara to its source. As the Divine Mother is the ultimate expression of abundance, we were literally plugging our energetic root into the source of all spiritual abundance.

Meals During the first half of the initiation process, we were served African stew infused with spiritual medicine, cooked lovingly by village chef Mother Donna Borden in a big pot over an open fire. We ate with our fingers from clay bowls and drank spirit beer from calabashes.  At the halfway mark, we were given African bows and arrows, and after a short archery lesson, instructed to hunt for our food.  While the bokaras and the village supporters engaged in the hunt with modern weapons, we hiked the mountains in search of an animal willing to offer life to us for our sustenance.  As a group we had a common goal of feeding the village.  Individually, we each found a new piece of ourselves in the mountain woods.  We were blessed with a rabbit and a porcupine, and our vegan fast was broken with a ritual feast.  (fyi - porcupine tastes like beef)

Life & Death Early in the initiation we explored the value of life.  We took long slow morning walks in the woods, careful not to kill or destroy any life along our path.  The bokaras swept our path of ants, snakes, tadpoles, and spiders as we mindfully held the sacredness of life.  Then, a week later, we hunted for our food, asking the same creatures that we had carefully spared to offer their lives for ours.  At the same time, we explored our own mortality, on a spiritual level.  The bokara cared for us.  They fed us, they tended to our needs, they kept vigil for us each night, feeding our spiritual fire.  Then, halfway through the initiation, we began the death process.  Through a shaming ritual provided by the village community, we learned to let go of our egos, to put the past behind us, to allow resentments, pains, traumas and abuses of our human lives to die so that we may be spiritually reborn.  Each day we bathed in ash to bring us closer to spirit, until eventually, we experienced our own funerals.

Homecoming In the end we relinquished all that we had (everything that had touched our bodies throughout the initiation), shaved our heads of all that we were so as to step into our new roles as elders.  Then, and only then, we were allowed to bathe in clean water, given fresh clothing (our ceremonial African gowns “boubous” - which many of you helped decorate), provided with a stool (as symbolic of the elevation to elder status) and a staff (as symbolic of the wisdom we now hold in our bones).  We ran into the laps of the ancestors, reborn as elders, as witnessed by our community, and danced in celebration at our Homecoming.  Over 150 people came to dance, drum, and feast with us.  They thanked us for our willingness to step into these roles.  Then, a week later, Ted and I returned home to Minnesota where many of you gathered at our home for a second Homecoming.

What’s Next?
While my brain can utilize symbolism and metaphor to attempt to explain what I experienced, the truth is that my bones can only communicate through an energetic frequency, a transference I am sure many of you will sense and feel in the coming months.  Many of you have asked me what this eldership is providing for me, how I have changed from this experience.  The best answer I can offer you is to simply request that you watch me over the coming months and witness the effects for yourself.  I don’t know what this experience has done; the changes are subtle, yet profound.

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