Yoga Wicca Buddha

Exploring a personal, eclectic path by looking at the intersection of three great traditions.

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Archer

Archer

 
Archer has been trying to make sense of religion since her parents first abandoned her at Sunday School in the 60s. She’s a mom, yoga teacher and repository of useless bits of information on ancient religion, spiritual practices and English grammar. Check out her column “Connections” in Witches and Pagans.
 

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My Own Personal Jesus

On my beside table are a Loki action figure, a Goddess rosary…and a prayer card with an image of Jesus showing off his sacred heart.

 

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  • Anthony Gresham
    Anthony Gresham says #
    I've got recordings of that song "Your Own Personal Jesus" both by Depeche Mode and by Johnny Cash. I think it's a cool song.

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Who Am I?

The man who taught me yoga was lean and stringy—the very image of a traditional yogi, except for his greying mullet and tendency to sound like a Baptist preacher. But today his voice was soft as he led 70 would-be yoga teachers in one of our last exercises: getting over ourselves.

 

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Homeless

Folklore is filled with the homeless. There are pilgrims and fugitives, persecuted teachers and those unfortunates fated to wander eternally as punishment or curse. Jesus said “Foxes have dens and birds have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). Dionysus fled persecution from Greece to India to the ocean to the underworld. Sara-Kali was a wanderer and patron saint of wanderers, the Rom. Buddha left home in spectacular manner, abandoning wife, child and duty, never to return.

 

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  • Archer
    Archer says #
    I took the teacher training at Kripalu under Yoganand Michael Carroll. It was excellent--intense, transformative and thorough. Kri
  • robin fell
    robin fell says #
    Archer, Thanks once again. I am considering doing a 200 hr. yoga teachers training couse. Do you offer one or can recommend one to
  • robin fell
    robin fell says #
    Dear Archer, A brillant read about the existentialist condition. Thank you for sharing this blog, "Homeless" Can you please tell
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Dear Robin: I did write this article but I was inspired by some words of Pema Chodron about how following a spiritual path means
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Thank you so much!

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The Hanged Man

 

 

The words were a pained cry at the end of long email, and probably as hard to write as they were for me to read. 

 

“I can’t be who you want me to be. Please just give me some space.”

 

My friend was having a tough time, and though she’d made it clear she needed privacy, I had not been able to resist “checking in” through email, extending invitations. A few times.

 

Had I actually been pursuing a campaign, not of concern, but of subtle aggression?

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Hide and Seek

“It’s a joy to be hidden, but a disaster not to be found.” —D.W. Winnicott

As children, we are vulnerable and know it. We hide from bullies, from punishment, from mockery and scorn. No matter how loving our parents, our lives are not in our control, and so we hide to stay safe. But we also hide in order to have our hiddenness acknowledged and respected. I remember running up to my room after some perceived slight, hoping that my mother would notice and worry over my disappearance, but not necessarily that she would find me and force me to talk about my feelings.

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Touching the Earth

Pre-dawn yoga. As we flowed from pose to pose, the teacher’s words emerged from the rhythm of her own movement:  “Since we were in the womb…the universe has never stopped… supporting us. That’s why…we are still…alive.”

I knew in my bones it was true. Looking at the moon, wandering the woods, touching the earth, I find that truth again. When I disappoint myself, I know the trees and the sky do not judge. Good or bad, I am held in the web of life and known by an awareness that goes beyond my own. 

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  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Thanks, Ted. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
  • Ted Czukor
    Ted Czukor says #
    This is great, Archer; it really speaks to me! OM Mani Padme Hum.

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Five Days of Silence

Five days of silence…my friends laughed in astonishment. I’d signed up for a retreat at a Buddhist centre in the woods: no reading, no writing, no talking, no eye contact. My friends were amused (amazed?) because they were familiar with just how much I could talk. But maybe not with why.

 

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  • Robin Harris Rickard
    Robin Harris Rickard says #
    this is such a rich, concise peek into your wondrous experience.
  • Archer
    Archer says #
    Thank you!

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