Yoga and Meditation Evenings
The Yoga and Meditation sessions often have a theme which usually presents itself as we tune into the upcoming evening, likely influenced by the nature of the prevailing energy at the time.
Nowness and Newness – Thursday 1st December 2022
An Alpha and Omega day â the first day of the month and last month of the year. 1.12.2022 also roots to 1 â so the nature of today carries an influence of new beginnings.
So the theme of tonightâs Yoga and Meditation sessions is Newness. Melt into the practices as though this is a first time experience â with no history or familiarity with the past â just fully present to the âNownessâ of âNewnessâ.
—
This Joyous Life – Thursday 24th November 2022
So I read today the Population Reference Bureau estimates that since 50,000BC approximately 108 billion humans have lived and died on planet Earth.
If youâre reading this, youâre not one of them, so why not celebrate with some lovely Yin Yoga and Inner Peace Meditation while you still can!
Both practices tonight will be bringing our awareness to the joyous life energy within.
—
Inner and Outer Journey – Thursday 17th November 2022
Eckhart Tolle describes how we have two purposes: an outer and an inner. And while your outer purpose is about accomplishing and arriving at some destination, which is good, when this takes up too much of your attention, you lose sight of the journeyâs inner purpose.
âThe outer journey may contain a million steps, the inner journey has one â the one you are taking right Now. And this one step already includes all the other steps, as well as the destination. It takes you to your Being, which is the purpose of the inner journey â the journey into yourself, Now.â
Our true, authentic power is found by surrendering to the Now. And our bodies are one of the key access points to the Now. So Yin Yoga tonight will be designed to support our conscious awareness of our union with the Now.
And it will be followed by the Now Meditation where we surrender our minds to the inner purpose. This is the plan anyway!For those coming after Yoga, a beautiful space will again be created immediately on your right as you enter the magic Henge Shop garden. It will be warm and cosy and a beautiful place to assemble for the few minutes before you head upstairs to meditation. We envisage Ivan will start the meditation preamble around 7.45pm as he usually does and Stef will do her best to finish the yoga promptly so no one is waiting long, if at all!
Winter Solstice Meditation – Tuesday 20th December 2022
We will be gathering on Oliver’s Hill at 12.00pm. This Meditation is held the day before the Solstice, when the Earth energies start to harmonise in a Taurus type configuration at the nodes, such as at Oliver’s Hill.
This harmonisation amplifies the energy lines intersecting at this powerful nodal point, creating an auspicious energetic environment in which to meditate and connect with other meditations happening at sites on the same Earth energy lines.
Oliver’s Hill, also called Oliver’s Castle, lies on the St Michael & Mary Earth energy lines, (Type 3) which run west to east across the UK from Landâs End on the tip of Cornwall to the eastern tip of Norfolk.
The twin lines pass through St Michaels Mount, The Hurlers Stone Circles, Glastonbury Tor, Oliver’s Hill, Avebury Henge, Silbury Hill and its sister hill, Merlinâs Mount in Marlborough, Waulads Bank, Royston Cave (used by the Knights Templar), Bury St Edmonds Abbey and various Neolithic sites in between.
The St Michael and Mary lines line follow the path of the Sun on the 8th of May (The spring festival of St. Michael) on an azimuth of around 242° (28° north of east).
This day was celebrated in past times as ‘Beltane’, the beginning of summer and marks the midpoint in the Sun’s progression between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice.
Yin Yoga and Meditation – January 12th 2023
So welcome to 2023 â we havenât seen you all year! And strap yourselves in Yogis, because Fridayâs full moon in Cancer is a wolf moon, and the howling has begun.
According to many astrologers, itâs an extra emotional time with strange mood swings and mystical occurrences lasting two weeks up until the New Moon on Jan 21st.
Compounding this, the full moon opposite Mercury is said to create inner conflict between rational thinking and intuitive feeling â heart saying one thing, head saying another, making it hard to understand your true feelings. Recognise any of this?
Well we will have designed âRescue Remedyâ Yoga and Meditation sessions to promote the four âRâsâ – Reflecting, Releasing, Resting and Regenerating. All you have to do is bring your physical, mental, and emotional bodies to the Avebury Henge Spiritual Clinic and you will leave transformed.
—
Meditation – 19th January 2023
Hi you Cosmic Beings
So here on planet Earth, 18th Jan is National Winnie the Pooh day. And fittingly, I had a message from Stef who’s enjoying lashings of Manuka honey in between Ayurvedic treatments and massages in her ashram retreat overlooking the Indian Ocean â no hair shirt for her!
And tomorrow, 19th, is Epiphany on the Julian calendar â when John the Baptist baptised Jesus in the river Jordan. I kinda like that a Bear and a Baptist are celebrated so close together â is there a connection?
So Baptism is supposed to symbolise the cleansing of the spirit – but our spirits don’t need cleansing – they are pristine, always. Our frazzled minds however can often use a wash and brush up.
And you donât have to be a fan of Pooh or John to cleanse your mind â just come to meditation and bathe in the silence of the Stones, and the Grace which always comes when we spend time with our Higher Selves in Meditation.
With no Yoga before, just come upstairs when you arrive â doors open from 7.20.
And if youâre missing Stefâs Yoga, she has already sent a bundle of Yoga videos to a few whoâve asked, so email her at StefanieYoung@mac.com if youâd like access to them.
So you can be Eeyore today â but be Wise Owl and come to Meditation tomorrow! It’s always lovely to see you.
—
Yin Yoga and Meditation – Thursday 25th January 2023
Someone once asked my guru/teacher if he was the Divine, and he replied “Yes” – which I thought was a pretty bold answer. He then added, “The only difference between you and me, is that I know I am the Divine more than you know you are the Divine.”
So if you want to know you are the Divine a little more than you may have been feeling recently, then join us on Thursday and we will remind you â or you will remind yourself.
How⊠well Iâve heard it said that Prayer is talking to God, Meditation is listening to God and Yoga is uniting with God. We will be doing the uniting and listening bits.
As you know, while we freeze our buns off in Artic Avebury, Stef is warming hers with beach yoga under the Indian sun. However, very fortunately, the lovely Caroline will be uniting us with gentle Hatha & Yin sessions in Stefâs absence.
Sheâll begin this Thursday with a pranayama practice to experience our loving relationship with our breath, before moving mindfully into Yoga asanas to lengthen the muscles and find areas in the body that are holding tension, and any stress that needs to be released.
We will finish with Shavasana & Yoga Nidra – a deep state of conscious relaxation.
So Yoga starts at 6.15pm and Meditation just after 7.30pm If you have any questions about the Yoga please feel free to contact Caroline on 07825 169093.
(Upstairs at the Henge Shop will be snuggy, but bring a cosy blanket too if you wish.)
Ivan and Caroline
————
Yin Yoga and Meditation – Thursday 2nd February 2023
As some may have noticed, when Meditation day arrives I like to have a quick scan at what has happened on that day in what we call the past.
Well on this day, 314 years ago (2nd Feb 1709) Alexander Selkirk, on whom Daniel Defoe based his castaway character Robinson Crusoe, was found on an uninhabited island in the South Pacific Ocean. He had survived 4 years and 4 months.
Captain Woodes Rogers who rescued him was apparently very impressed by Selkirk’s peace of mind and wrote “One may see that solitude and retirement from the world is not such an insufferable state of life as most men might imagine.â
So tonight in Yoga and Meditation we will be retiring from the world, just not for 4 years. From 6.15 to 8.30 should do it.
For the Yoga retirement, Caroline will carry on from last week’s work with the Ujjaji breath, as breathing consciously is the essence of Yoga and assists us with the subtle energy within.
And as Yoga is one of the best ways to improve balance, she will also lead us through some balancing poses to help us to improve steadiness in the ankle joints, strengthen the legs, back & core and also explore our centre of gravity.
So if you can, do join us for Yoga before the Crusoe Meditation, in which we will lose ourselves in the ocean of consciousness before being rescued by tea and biscuits.
PS Stefanie Crusoe has been rescued from the Indian Ocean beach and sends her love from the Bangalore Ashram of Sri Sri Ravi Shankar.
——–
Yin Yoga and Meditation – Thursday 9th February 2023
Bit of admin first⊠if you havenât felt drawn to either Yoga or Meditation for a year or so this will be the last email weâll send you about the evenings. If you do wish to stay on the list, just reply with a âYes keep me onâ message – and please know that should you wish to come any time in the future, you will always be most welcome.
And if you ever wonder if itâs happening or not you can always check the Avebury Calling website â this link will take you to the Upcoming Events page which shows whatâs on â
Our dear bodies are so dedicated and committed to us â they just keep serving us to the best of their ability, whatever we put them through! All those incredible âInner Livesâ working unselfishly to help host our true Selves in the home we call our bodies.
And these amazing bodies also host 78 organs, 650 muscles, 206 bones, tissue and so much more â all made up of atoms, each atom made up of electrons, protons and neutrons â and even smaller parts! Thereâs a lot of us involved in being us – all sharing the same purpose â to keep us breathing and living and loving.
So tonight we will take a small part of our day to honour all the beautiful work they do. For those who can make it to Yoga starting at 6.15pm, Caroline will start with the lovely practice of âNadi Shodhanaâ, alternate nostril breathing.
âNadiâ is a Sanskrit word meaning âchannelâ or âflowâ and âShodhanaâ means âpurificationâ. Therefore, Nadi Shodhana is primarily aimed at clearing and purifying the subtle channels of our mind-body organism, which brings calm and balance to our body systems as a whole. Then weâll slow down and relax even more in some Yin poses, finding stillness and balance in our minds as well as our bodies.
Meditation will start shortly after Yoga around 7.35pm and we will just allow our bodies and minds to exist without demand from us to do other than just be honoured.
Would be lovely to see all the precious gifts from Mother Nature that you are.
Ivan, Caroline and Stef xx
Meditation – Thursday 16th February 2023
Nothing we experience in this world through our five senses lasts forever. The stones of the mystical Avebury Henge circles, even mountain ranges will all eventually erode away, however permanent they appear to the fleeting time of a human life.
Yet we humans crave for order, certainty and permanence – in this impermanent world. And when things change, we can feel victims of the unpredictability of life. But the truth is everything changes and the cycles of our lives keep going around â sometimes pleasantly, other times unpleasantly.
But there is something in us that is untouched by time and the changes it brings. Something in us that goes on forever. Consciousness. We were born into it, live with it and it will continue after we have passed. The great blessing of being human is that when we cease being conscious of everything else our five senses bring to our awareness, we just become conscious of our consciousness.
And, in those moments we donât need anything, we donât desire anything, there is nothing to do, no one to be and all cravings and aversions subside â there we find true peace.
There may be many paths to this kind of awareness, but Meditation is definitely one. Sometimes my meditations are dry, restless, boring, or full of thoughts, but just occasionally they are moments when I experience that oneness peace that I know is my true Self, merged inseparably with everything and everybody. You know those priceless moments â they are the times we are truly alive!
So when I meditate I feel a bit like a gold panner, washing all the alluvium in the river of my thoughts and hoping to find some tiny nuggets at the bottom of my pan â golden moments of oneness and peace. So if you feel like doing a little panning yourself, come tonight to the Henge Shop gold field.
There is no Yoga tonight before meditation, so we will start at 7.30. Bring your pan â the gold awaits you.
Yoga and Meditation – Thursday February 23rd 2023
February comes from the Latin word februa, which means âto cleanseâ, or âpurify.â It is the border between winter and spring. The darkness of winter is receding in the lengthening light and spring stands at the gate, her finger on the latch.
So it follows that now is a good time to cleanse the debris of winter from our bodies and minds and be spring ready. To assist this process, Caroline returns to the Henge shop for some body purification, aka Yoga starting at 6.15pm. This will focus on cleansing Yogic breathing practices, consolidation of moving, and stretching, with special emphasis on releasing tension in the hips and lower back. Holding our bodies in Yin poses relaxes the muscles slowly. She will finish the deep cleanse with a nice long Savasana.
This will be followed by some mind purification, aka Meditation at 7.30pm. As the mind is the charisma of the brain, I will be brainwashing you into believing you are pure Love. Actually, as both Yoga and Meditation purify both body and mind, if you suspect a damn good spring clean of your mind/body complex is in order â why not come to both!
Now for something to ponder, written by a man called Leo, for those who have timeâŠ
Resolve.
When I am beset with fears, and my hopes seem far removed, it brings to mind what has been and the great times that have surrendered to me. Often I have pondered what this kind of dwelling that takes me away from sadness and depression should be called, and it has presented itself to me under the mantle of âResolveâ.
Resolve to be fair with yourself and expect to have to win the good things, for the bad come on their own account to take away. Place yourself in friends that are true and care for you. And donât play small or be petty, or your life will be summed up by regret.
Resolve to learn to change and meet new requirements, knowing it can only bring good, and that all will be well. Donât be based in envy or conditions â time, which is small, can rob you if you do not take account of it. Know that you cannot live your life by restrictions and conformities and have a life. It is when you govern yourself that your existence becomes a gift of creation and not a place in your misery.
Resolve to be content to share yourself, and sometimes give without counting the cost. Make the most of today, now, for you cannot have your time twice. Think not too much of yourself and keep your self-respect. Settle to your life now, where certainty abounds, and donât drift uselessly from one suspicion or doubt to another.
Resolve to give the benefit of the doubt to others, for who can love a fountain of criticism and judgement. Do not take the oft trod journey to the land of missed opportunity and narrowness, for you can make yourself unwanted and already dead. Better you brace yourself, give thanks for what you have and for what is to be won, and resolve to wake up, Love and Live!
Meditation – 2nd March 2023
There is a school of thought, or belief, that Noah wasnât the name of a person, but the name of a âtribeâ of people â called the Noah.
And the storm that caused the flood wasnât a very intense rain storm but very intense solar storm. So the flood wasnât water, it was a flood of electromagnetically charged particles. And the ark wasnât a physical boat, it was an energetic arch, or dome, that the energy savvy Noah were able to create and shelter under.
Seems like our ancestors were energy engineers, as attuned to the realms of energy as we are today to the realms of form. Avebury Henge wasnât just a pretty rockery in a very large garden!
So while the Northern lights, (now appearing far less north that usual) are spectacular to watch, they are the interaction of solar plasma (charged particles – electrons, protons and alpha particles, all with kinetic energy) with the earthâs atmosphere. Sounds harmless enough?
But there could be a perfect storm coming! And not just from the sun. According to Rory Duff, renowned Geobiologist and my earth energy guru, recent observations by space probes, in particular NASAâs Advanced Composition Explorer, (ACE), have revealed that our entire Solar System is emerging from out of a densely magnetic region of space that astrophysicists call the âLocal Cloud.â
The Local Cloud, together with Earthâs and the Sunâs own atmospheres and electromagnetic fields, have shielded us from much of the potential power of the âSuperwavesâ of charged energy particle radiation emitted from nearby galaxies.
However with the reduction in effectiveness of these shields, these cosmic energy waves are beginning to reach and affect organic life on the Earthâs surface more powerfully and intensely.
And just as the Earthâs atmosphere protects us (although with reducing effectiveness) from the electromagnetic plasma (charged particles and kinetic energy) of solar storms and radiation from further afield, so our own bodies have a protective atmosphere or energy field – called our auras.
When we keep our own personal frequencies or energy fields high, this refines and strengthens our auras, which protect us from the coarser or lower energy frequencies that abound in much of life today. Many intuitively know this and are aware of the importance of maintaining, or raising of our own energy levels and frequencies. If youâre reading this, youâll know whatâs being said!
And our spiritual practices are the engine rooms that enhance our personal energetic protection and overall wellbeing, as we, essentially energy beings having human experiences, move into the âconsciousness transitionâ so many of our ancestors pointed towards happening at this time in human history.
So the take-away from all this is â the gloves are off – youâd better come to Meditation tonight or youâll be human toast by the weekend â ha!
And if you canât come, do some gardening, or painting, or walking with nature or whatever gives you peace of mind â itâs the most precious thing you can have and will help keep your aura effective, shimmering and glowing brightly!
PS Stef is back from Mother India next week so maybe make a date for Yoga then, which will no doubt be full of eastern promise!
Meditation – 9th March 2023
Hope you all had an equitable Equinox. So on Sunday the clocks spring forward into what we call summer time â which makes the planet laugh. For Mother Earth itâs always summer, autumn, winter and spring somewhere â all at the same time. Just as itâs day and night and dusk and dawn all the time for her. The time is just always and only now for the Great Mother.
So ponder this for a moment in what we call time – while we canât see, touch or taste it, we can measure its passage. It is the fourth dimension of reality in a three dimensional space, measured by the progression of events from what we call the past, to the present into the future, in which everything changes. If something never changed, it would be timeless.
And ponder also that we have an area in our brain called the amygdala that is the part that makes memories. As more memories form, time seems drawn out. And psychologists believe we form more memories of new experiences than we do of familiar ones, which is why time for children seems to pass more slowly and for oldies it seems to pass more quickly!
So the moral is, for a longer feeling life â have more new experiences! The other way is to be more in touch with the timeless part of us, which our bodies were born into. Consciousness. When our consciousness has had enough of our bodies, it drops them, which we call dying. Except only the body dies, consciousness just continues in its own timeless way. A mini example of this is when we fall asleep, we drop the body, or our conscious awareness of it. But in our spiritual practices, we can drop the body while we are conscious.
So bring your body to Yoga and Meditation tonight and drop it on the mat or cushion, and experience your timeless consciousness.
Yoga starts at 6.15pm followed by Meditation after 7.30pm.