Remember when we couldn’t trust anyone over 30? That was 50 years ago, and I was still in my teens, wistfully watching the news about Woodstock, still too young for my parents to let me go. Age 30 seemed like a long way off at the time, and I was well aware of the generation gap. Now, age 30 seems like a long time ago, a time when I was full of inspiration, but short on knowing how to get my work out there. But then the Internet didn’t even exist then, nor cell phones, ipods, instagram, Twitter or Facebook. It was a different world.
This year, my ripening into maturity will be celebrated with a course, originally begun 30 years ago, as a co-creation with Selene Vega, co-author of the The Sevenfold Journey, and co-teacher of what began as the Nine-Month Chakra Intensive, that has become the week-long Psychology of the Chakras, also known as Chakra Awakening.
Selene, by the way, was the first person to ask me to write about the chakras back in the mid-seventies. She was then editor of a small magazine,Pentalpha Journal, and after hearing my passion for the chakras, suggested I write a series for the magazine, featuring one chakra each issue. Though the magazine folded sometime between third chakra and the heart, those articles later became the basis for Wheels of Life, which has now sold over 200,000 copies in English and been translated into 16 other languages. Llewellyn publishers, who took a chance on me way back then, will be bringing out a new book on Chakra Yoga this fall! (Get your pre-order discount here!)
Selene and I first began to teach this course as a nine-month journey through the chakras, similar to the gestation of nine months of pregnancy to birth a new self. With a one-day workshop each month, students had four weeks to practice what they learned and to look at their lives through the lens of the chakra system. It was transformative!
Later, after Wheels of Life put me on the travel circuit, Selene and I started teaching the course back east, the first five years on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, hosted by Rosemary Clough, and the last fifteen years at Kripalu, where I also teach other workshops each year.
This year will be the 30th year that this particular workshop has been taught, having guided about 2000 people over the Rainbow Bridge, each tying their knots in the ceremonial cord, and untying the knots within themselves during the course of the workshop. We will sing, dance, go into guided trance journeys, do yoga, explore our inner psychology and share in rituals of empowerment and divinity, as we spend one full day on each chakra, making the journey now in one week.
Unfortunately, Selene will not be able to join me this year, due to a schedule conflict, but her work of trance journeys, movement and more will be represented. And those who cross the Rainbow Bridge this year will be having a memorable journey, tying their knots in with all who have come before, yet entering new ground within themselves.
So what’s in store for the next 30 years? Chakra Yoga, a book on Charge,perhaps more on chakras and relationships—and lots more journeys across the Rainbow Bridge.
Hope to see you there! For more info, click here.
Anodea Judith
7.21.15