DAGAJI AT WORK

ASTRASANA

I spent the better part of the 1970s writing dream poems.  I would get up in the morning, get out of the house, and walk the mile to the Continental Cafe on University Way in Seattle, where I would sit at my table in the back corner, with my coffee and Danish, and write the poem from last night's dream.  I wrote in standard free verse form for a long time, and then switched to prose poems.  At a writer's conference in Napa, California, the poet (later Poet Laureate of the US) Robert Hass, after reading my manuscript, told me, "After reading some of these pieces, I stopped reading critically, and began to read for what I could learn from this poet."  In one of those poems, the yoga posture in the photo above was given to me.  I was a star fallen splat to the earth.  After I entered into Shamanship in 1990, I proceeded in my trance work to a point where I moved from my trance chair to the yoga floor.  When I got to Yakima in 2006, I began a project which culminated in Jesus becoming my Nagual (projection from my loins).  During the many trance tasks which were necessary to perform this ploy, my trances were all during the waking, walking around in daily life state of consciousness.  But the energy consumed in these trances, having to negotiate daily life and trance life at the same time, caused me to spend many hours a day, for days on end, lying on the yoga floor in astrasana, either asleep or in a deep drowse.

Astrasana has amazing benefits.  Nothing teaches you like the floor.  My yoga mat is 60" x 90", canvas painted with latex house paint both sides.  Beneath it is the carpet and an electric blanket covered by other canvas mats, so that it is firm but comfortable, and warm enough in winter.  The hardness of the floor supports each part of the skeletal frame uniformly, so that the non-uniform structure of the bones becomes evident.  Using the Concentration Breath, each part of the skeleton can be manipulated into contraction or relaxation, in an evenly controlled rhythm.  This manipulation brings the Mental Body deeply and thoroughly into yug (union) with the physical body.  This union (yoga) allows the body to become an extension of the mind and the entire energy field becomes a mechanism of perception and awareness.

The heart area is opened, and each of the chakras is open and in relaxation.  Raising arms and legs, or moving them in any direction shifts the flow of the chi, and Chi Mudras can begin to manipulate the physical body.  Any time you feel like it, you can roll over and watch TV.  (This style of yoga developed when I one day realized I would never develop a home practice if I didn't get out of my chair to watch TV!)

The belly position is called the Missionaryasana.  For those in Earth Centered disciplines, this pose brings obvious benefits.