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The Electro - Magnetic Dance

By John Love

Maintaining tension between two opposites, when we look into it, is crucial for all of life and for our own bodies and minds as well. We may notice if we are too active in body or mind there can be fatigue and breakages, or a non-noticing, of emotions or things crucial to our wellbeing. On the flip side if we are too immobile in body or mind we may stagnate creating blockages and pooling in body or get stuck mentally in circular rumination. Curiously, in the humans, we can have both of these detriments happening simultaneously, where the body is inactive (too much lunar) yet the mind is on overdrive (too much solar). This predicament seems the norm now in “developed” societies. Now, back to these two forces and a yogic view on them, and an understanding of how this view can help those who want to make changes and come out of patterns that do not serve oneself. First, a yogis view on anything is to be clear on how nature works. That to balance tensions, stay away from ABSOLUTES. Making changes gradually will create less upheaval and make changes sustainable in the long run. Yoga can be modified to fit any level of health or age. A trampoline will get you up there and you’ll have to grab tight quick to hang on, better to use a ladder!

So what are these opposites? Our universe as we know it is compromised or two things, electricity and magnetism. Think sun and moon in a yogic sense. This was proven by Michael Faraday with his theory of the “field” 150 years ago when he sent electricity through a magnetic wire to cause an instant reaction somewhere else, baffling scientists of the time. Setting the “field” aside, “Akash” in Sanskrit, we focus on the play within it, electro-magnetism. All of these ideas have been in Vedic science millennia ago. Shakti would be the wire,(female), and Shiva the electricity, (male), dancing together causing all we know to appear, all at once, in a patterned dance of the elements. A cosmic love affair! Magnetism and its still slow effects, water, soil, and depth, cooling in nature, the ancients gave it the quality of feminine, think moon. While the electricity in the field was equated with solar, which is electric, moving, heat, light, equated with the masculine, think sun. Taking that into consideration it would be silly to say men are solar and women are lunar because both sexes contain both qualities as does all life, but generally men are more solar and women more lunar. In people it has more to do with the mind/personality, as solar is equated with thinking, talking and doing and lunar is more a sensing, seeing and feeling of experience. Again in the yogic view we notice the activity of nature. During the day, with the sun, we move and think, succeed and fail, and at night when the moon comes we rest reflect and recuperate, become still.

Let’s go back to the predicament of a sedentary body and overactive mind of modern life, and how yoga can help balance the tensions of this electromagnetic dance. Asana, the name for a yoga session and/or poses, brings much solar energy to the body. Strengthening by movement and isometric body weight pressure, as well as flexing and lengthening brings the power of electric “sun” action through the nerve pathways, as well as increasing blood and lymph flowing to all tissues, removing blocks and pools from skin to bone. This solar action “movement” enhances the bodies ability to build more cells for fluids and structures while “resting” moon action. The other part is the mind. While doing poses the mind will be involved in feeling and sensing, being still and cool and focused viscerally, “moon” energy. To me this sounds like the perfect way to finding more balance if the body is stagnant and mind is overwhelmed. With regular practice, balancing these two tensions will give one more clarity in making the life changes one needs in order to make better choices. With regular practice one will begin to notice more easily, what the body needs at any given time, to remain between the tensions of the dance.