| When not to practice Ashtanga yoga? |
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 The moons cycle ever-changing from wax to wane and back again is part of teaching of Ashtanga yoga. For students of Ashtanga it is implicit that they do not practice on the full or new moon. This applies to everyone, both women and men. Pattabhi says that any injury incurred in these days will take much longer to heal. The underlying reason for this advice hark back to a lunar system that was understood in ancient India at the time of Patanjali. These two rest days in the month depend on the pull from one kind of energy in the waning phase to another in the waxing phase.
In other ancient spiritual traditions, the moon is a guide for planting crops, for times of healing, and for times of releasing. The moon rules the tides. High tide is at full moon and low tide is at the dark or new moon. For our ancestors, who were much more in touch with nature, the moon cycle was enigmatic and powerful. It was thought that when the moon was full and tides high, human emotion reached peaks. Even the ward lunatic derives from Luna, the Latin name for goddess of the moon who moved humans in ways that were sometimes excessive. The moon has long been linked symbolically with emotion and there are more accidents and violent outbreaks on, or around, a full moon.
In western symology, the moon has always been linked with women and the feminine. This is also true in India. It does not mean that men are not also connected to the moon, but the link for women is so strong that many anthropologists believe that women in tribal cultures menstruated at the same time on the dark of the moon. Ovulation would therefore occur on the full of the moon or just before, when the energy was rising.
Women practicing Ashtanga may also find that their menstruation may be in sync with the dark or full of the moon and also with other women in their practice group. This cycle was so important historically that the evolution of words for moon are also etymologically connected to menstruation and measurement. So importantwas the moons link to community menstrual and ovulation cycles that spiritual practices developed to channel the different emotional responses of a group. Times of the full and new moon were considered times to stop work and perform other kinds of spiritual practice. At the dark it was time for divination and looking within. At the full it was time of celebration, sexuality, and group gatherings. Ashtanga is a tool for transformation it is possible to conceive of a moon cycle as the time to develop a plan or a wish. The practice works in harmony with nature to provide us with a place to work our higher intention. |