In November, we wrote about the necessity to be aware of the polarities Agni (Sun) and Soma (Moon), manifested in nature through the seasons and reflected within us.
December (1+2=3) invites us to reflect on our spiritual practice (our doing) and contemplate how our being is affected; which polarity is nourished, 1 (Agni) or 0 (Soma)? (3+7=10).
Which personal filters, judgments, past experiences, and memories do we identify with or are attached to (7) that prevent us from finding inner balance and peace?
Let’s look at the play of Agni and Soma in our spiritual journey!
We may come to a spiritual path for different reasons, but one common reason is our longing, our wish to find peace within, a sense of home where we belong, and a place to rest from where we can enjoy life.
Our life is based on the stories we tell ourselves, on our past, on the structure of our parents. Our pranic body is not serving our most profound nature (Prakriti, our uniqueness reflected in our 5 elements) but rather the tendencies of the mind that we have developed to cope with stress and to filter reality in our childhood. Our precious prana nourishes our reactive patterns inscribed in our electromagnetic field (7th body), creating dramas in our lives, blocking our intuition (Arc Line, 6th body), and draining us, even reaching a burn-out!
We need to increase our Agni to digest those memories to change and confront those patterns. This is the first goal of our practice, and its success will depend very much on our lifestyle, especially what, when, and how we eat.
At the personality level, increasing our Agni gives us determination and courage. We believe that we must do what is necessary to have a better life, that we can do it, and that we will do it. Therefore, we trust, commit, and engage ourselves in a discipline and practice even if we do not entirely sense and perceive its effect and benefits.
Confronting ourselves with new challenges, we improve our resilience and our capacity to confront those memories in the form of sensations and emotions that we have been avoiding so far.
In this phase, we could move between highs and lows.
Feeling high (expression of Agni) when we participate in kundalini training, workshops, and festivals, and low (expression of Soma) when we return home.
Back to our everyday lives with so much Agni, we face an intensification of our minds’ reactions. We might feel depressed and isolated, end up eating junk food and spend our time on social media. It is an unconscious attempt to balance our Agni by increasing the qualities of our Soma (wet, cold, and heavy), but instead, we grow Amas (toxins, negativity) to feel less and less.
In this phase, we usually depend on an outside inspiration and/or motivation for our practice; our Agni somehow has an ideal set as a goal, sometimes projected on our teacher(s). The expression of our Soma is somehow perceived as a limitation (fear of being lazy, fear of the void, fear of not being worth it, fear of not reaching a high goal, fear of failing…). We might judge ourselves a lot.
Progressively, we need to own our Agni and develop a healthy Soma. When Agni and Soma dance together, we cannot burn ourselves; we are open to new challenges but are also aware of our need to integrate, rest, and reflect.
Are we connected to our Moon, to our Soma?
How does our practice deeply nourish us?
Is it just a duty to function better in our lives, or is it an intimate date with ourselves that brings us joy?
Does it come from an inner calling, or is it still rooted in an outside voice like “Yogi Bhajan said” or “my teacher said”?
Is it automatic, or is it a conscious choice that might confront us to our inner conflict: “Yes, but”?
Does it bring us more listening, observation, and compassion?
Does it make us more in touch with nature and its natural cycles?
Does it show us the magic relationship between the macro and the microcosmos?
In the long term, with too much Agni in our systems without the capacity to integrate it (without Soma), we convince ourselves that something is wrong with the practice. We justify that we must return to a “normal” life. We kind of regress (like a child) into an unhealthy soma (tamasic), very motherly. We might even find new practices where we “respect” ourselves but where there is no confrontation of our minds’ reactions!
The seasons, our age, our environment, and our gender, … will impact our own balance between Agni and Soma. Agni without Soma burns us; Soma without Agni poisons us and makes us asleep.
Whatever our age, there are times to step out of our comfort zone, to challenge ourselves, and to confront our beliefs about who we think we are…. We also need to withdraw, to find silence, and to rest, …. We need a healthy Agni to digest life and a healthy Soma to be nourished by it. When this balance is found, we constantly surf on paradoxes. Indeed, we do not need to do anything to be, but it is also true that we discover our true being by doing.
We move from “I practice yoga” to a “state of yoga,” where yoga happens within at each moment, with each breath. Our sheepskin becomes a place where we are even more aware of what is happening within!
With the approach of winter, the qualities of the night (Soma, moon) will dominate even more, bringing stillness and silence to nature. Life slows down, and the first snows in the mountains reflect this increase of Soma. Like in nature, our Agni concentrates in the center of our being (Samana Vayu). It is a time to slow down, to reflect, to integrate, and to regenerate, … but also a time to keep an early morning practice so as not to fall into lethargy and heaviness and let the soma become tamasic and toxic!
KRIYA & MEDITATION
Kriya:
Throw off stress & recover your strength!
“Originally this kriya was taught to women and titled: Throw Off Stress & Uncover Your Strength as a Woman. Both men and women can benefit from this vibrant and profound kriya.
To be a woman requires a lot of strength. Your glandular system, your intelligence and your consciousness must be extraordinarily strong so you can be on the winning side. All the strength of the Universe is within you. It cannot be found outside. Those who do not develop strength from inside cannot get it from outside either.”
– Level 2 Manual, Vitality & Stress
Meditation:
Invoking a Meditative State: Pratyahar
“The mind and emotions will keep repeating unless interrupted. The stress you generate with each thought, even subconsciously, narrows and binds you to a reactive pattern. This meditation helps you to gain mastery over your experience and breaks through the mystery of why things happen to you. It gives you strength, and the ability to engage openly in the challenges of life so they become opportunities; markers along the way to expressing your soul’s true purpose. You can stop rejecting life out of fear and begin to see how the Infinite reveals Itself to you in each moment, each relationship, and each word. Kundalini Yoga is a systematic method of glandular control through which the pituitary’s relationship with consciousness is stimulated to invoke a meditative state in us.”
– Level 2 Manual, Vitality & Stress
