What does the Living Shakti Series Mean to Me?

The Living Shakti Retreats are a sequence of offerings that celebrate and honour the Vedic lineage of my ancestors, which is grounded in the true roots of yoga. This includes the many aspects of authentic yoga that go well beyond what is typically covered in a westernized, studio yoga class. This encompasses sharing Vedic teachings and offering traditional yogic practices of Indian culture.

By learning yoga from its traditional roots we move towards decolonizing the global commodity that yoga has become in the west, and mitigate what has unfortunately become common place – the misappropriation of yoga.

The Living Shakti Series celebrates the true teachers, teachings and lineages of yoga. It approaches yoga as a deep study that engages the more popularized practices that include asana (postures), pranayama (breath work), and meditation – and also includes more traditional practices like mudra (sacred seals), mantra (sacred chanting), yantra (sacred geometry), tantra, kriyas (unlocking energy channels), storytelling (mythic stories), Sanskrit (root language of yoga), shlokas (prayers), pooja (ritual), havan (fire and water ceremony), and self inquiry (jnana). It is grounded in the cleansing and activation of the physical, subtle and causal bodies through these ancient practices, and has its roots in the venerable scriptures of yoga that also honour and respect karma (yoga of action), bhakti (devotional yoga) and jnana (yoga of true knowledge/direct path) yogas.

The Living Shakti Series honours and celebrates yoga as a way of life. It’s a journey of deepening into love, divinity, unity, presence (instead moving from fear and separation) – and the alignment of this in all aspects of life, including with oneself and others. It’s about working to clear all that which holds us back from the aliveness of relaxing into our truest, deepest selves. It’s about growth and transformation through a commitment to show up and practice in all the ways, with consistency. It’s about surrendering our ego. It’s cultivating ease on every level. This ease translates to Being the space for the ebb and flow of this seeming life and all its contents, to play out. Yoga is Being.

How do we move with the yogic teachings in our day to day life; in our actions; our thoughts; and our interactions? The Living Shakti Series works to integrate the teachings of yoga into everyday life.

Each offering in the Living Shakti Series is themed on a deity (aka: archetype), which offers a simple way into the yogic teachings that participants can recognize themselves in, since each deity reflects light and shadow qualities and aspects of our own beings.

The Living Shakti Series honours and expresses gratitude for living on the lands of the Hul’q’umi’num’ and SENĆOŦEN (Coast Salish) speaking peoples. And it welcomes beings from all walks of life – including LGBTQIA2S+ and BIPOC folks, and persons with disabilities.

This series was created by Vedic Priestess Temple and Hanna Munneke Yoga in Spring 2022.

All are welcome to the Living Shakti Series, including yogis and yoginis, yoga teachers and healing practitioners, those new to yoga, lovers of Indian culture and tradition, etc.

Please contact me to add your name to the e-mai list – and stay tuned about the upcoming eighth retreat in the Living Shakti Series.