Bright | Apparent
As you know, the Full Moon rises around dusk and sets about dawn. It’s the brightest body in the night sky and, although the Moon is always Yin — it is the Moon, after all —, the Full Moon is relatively Yang.
Yin and Yang are ostensible opposites. More precisely, they are polarities. Yin and Yang are relative, and always considered in terms of one another. Neither Yin nor Yang is absolute. Each exists within the other, and each produces the other. They are complements, and part of the same whole. Unity is plural, and the minimum is two, as Buckminster Fuller says. It seems pretty complicated, and maybe it is, especially when imagined in spherical terms. But for our purposes, the two-dimensional Taiji symbol visually simplifies it all. This picture is worth a thousand words, and then some.
That being the case, corresponding Yin yoga classes are more active than typical Yin yoga classes, but are nonetheless Yin.
Heaven
The trigram of the Early Heaven Bagua associated with the Full Moon is comprised of three solid Yang lines. Heaven!
Yang, of course, is bright and apparent, and a fully illuminated Moon against a dark sky is that exactly. Even as the Moon is itself always Yin — since it merely reflects sunlight —, in context of night the Full Moon is Yang. So within the lunar cycle Heaven represents the complete manifestation of the creative force, and the other seven phases some fraction of that full expression.
Yin Yoga Class
The Yin yoga class sequence celebrating the Yang essence of the Full Moon features an increase in postures, and a decrease in the duration of those postures. That is, in a typical Yin yoga class postures are held normally for about five minutes each. In an hour-long class that might amount to eight postures, plus Pentacle. In a Full Moon class, a more Yang affair, the duration of the postures is reduced to three minutes each. An hour-long class then might have twelve to fourteen postures, plus Pentacle. In my classes each shape more or less smoothly transitions into some complementary position, and then into another. When considered as a cohesive whole it feels something like a flow. Of course it’s certainly not Vinyansa but, per my other long-hold classes, it is Yang. Nonetheless, with those three-minute postures, it’s still Yin.
Periodic Dynamics
This somewhat challenging Yin yoga sequence is a recurring event, along with the Full Moon. As per the Early Heaven Bagua, a Heaven class represents the full manifestation of the creative force, Yang. Such a dynamic class taken once, maybe twice each month potentiates your Yin practice.
Enjoy this streaming Yin yoga replay, On Demand, anytime, anywhere! Scroll to Lunation 1247, and across to 10.27.23 | Heaven.
The sequence is:
- Deep Squat
- Dragon L
- Gecko L
- Plank
- Sphinx
- Child
- Cat / Cow
- Caterpillar
- Supported Back Extension
- Deep Squat
- Dragon R
- Gecko R
- Plank
- Seal
- Child
- Cat / Cow
- Caterpillar
- Supported Back Extension
- Pentacle