Practice suggestions for...

Posture Work

Surya Namaskara (See Surya Namaskara Salutations to the Inner Sun by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait & Sandra Anderson for a suggestion as to how to combine physical and spiritual dimensions of Surya Namaskara)

Egyptian Salute to the Sun

Breathing

Surya Bhedhana Pranayama

Relaxation

Visualisations/Sensations that feature the sun e.g. Path of the Sun and Among the Sand Dunes.

Meditation

Repetition of the Gayatri or Asato Ma Mantra. Christian Yogis might also like to use the Aramaic word  Amarantha which means ‘Come, Lord’ as used by The World Community for Christian Meditation.

Gayatri Mantra

om bhur bhuvah svah

tat savitur varenyan

bhargo devasya dhimahi

dhiyo yo nah prachodatat

Om. In each of the three planes of existence,  we recall within ourselves and meditate upon that wondrous Spirit of the Divine Solar Being; may he guide our inner vision. (Translation by Rolf Sovik)

To find out more about the Gayatri Mantra read Awakening to the Gayatri Mantra or Awakening to the Sun: The Gayatri Mantra by Rolf Sovik. The second article is a reworking of the first and contains much the same material. Both include a meditation practice using visualisation of the sun at anahata chakra with repetition of the Gayatri Mantra.

Surya Namaskara Salutations to the Inner Sun by Pandit Rajmani Tigunait & Sandra Anderson gives a Gayatri mantra practice that is accompanied by repetition of the seven vyahritis while taking the awareness through the seven chakras.

Asato ma Mantra

asato ma sadgamaya
tamaso ma jyotirgamaya
mrityorma amritam gamaya

Lead me from what is unreal to what is real.

Lead me from darkness to light.

Lead me from what dies to what is eternal.

(Translation provided by Paul Harvey)

Both gayatri and asato ma mantras are included on Ravi Shankar’s CD Chants of India and you can hear asato ma being chanted over the credits of the film Matrix Revolutions.

 

Excerpt from Carmina Gadelica written by Alexander Carmichael in the second half of the 19th century.

‘Old men in the Isles still uncover their heads when they first see the sun on coming out in the morning.

The reciter said “There was a man in Arasaig, and he was extremely old, and he would make adoration to the sun and to the moon and to the starts. When the sun would rise on the tops of the peaks he would put off his head-covering and he would bow down his head, giving glory to the great God of life for the glory of the sun and for the goodness of its light to the children of men and to the animals of the world.’

Winter Solstice - December 21st 2009

Winter deepens and the days are short. It is a time of death and darkness. Although there may still be hard times ahead the shortest day marks a turning point - the rebirth of the upward movement of the sun. It’s a time to re-energise. The suggestions for practice at Samhain are still appropriate but we can also include the following practices to celebrate the rebirth of the sun.