Zen Pagan: How Yoga Enhanced My Pagan Path

The popularity of yoga has boomed over the past five years or so and many people enjoy it for fitness. However, delve a little deeper into yogic practices and you become aware of subtle changes—not only in your body, but in the way you approach life. You come to the core purpose of yoga, which is to prepare for meditation and to advance your spirituality.

At this point there are a couple of possible reactions: You can run for cover because you are committed to your beliefs and not interested in converting to something else, or you might want to explore Buddhism and/or Hinduism. The latter has a rich pantheon of deities some of which are familiar because they have filtered into Western Pagan circles. Actually, yoga began during the Vedic period of India’s history around 3000 B.C.E. and pre-dates Buddhism and classical Hinduism.

The yoga mat was a lonely place for the first several years as I tried to reconcile this Eastern practice with my Western Paganism. I suppose it would have been easier to accept yoga as simply an activity that felt good and was good for me, but I have never been one to take the easy road. If there’s a hard way to do something that’s usually how I do it. But more seriously, as someone who considers herself a spiritual person I couldn’t help but feel the pull of the yogic path and just doing the postures (asanas) wasn’t enough for me. Eastern practices are extensive and well documented, which brought me to the conclusion that they might provide some kind of guidepost or at least a new perspective on my chosen path.

The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, a great Indian sage, are a compilation of ancient teachings that he wrote down around 200 C.E. The sutras are short verses that are meant to be chanted. As I studied these during the course of yoga teacher training, my instructor said something that made me go “Hmmm”. He told us that the sutras did not prescribe what to believe, but how to believe and actually validated all paths and religions. The most important tenets are integrity and true devotion. And so I came to realize that I could bring my spiritual beliefs with me to the yoga mat and go from there.

Another important thing I learned was that in the Vedic Golden Age when yoga began, poetry was composed in honor of the forces of nature. This resonated with me since as Pagans we honor and connect with the energy of the natural world through the use of ritual. The ancient yogis believed that the purpose of life was to experience energy (prana) flowing through all aspects of ourselves. In order to receive this flow of universal energy we need to be in the moment, and it is through spiritual practices that we can create the space we need to be present and open to receive.

Yoga seemed less and less a separate part of my life and became another way to access energy, plus, it was providing a new in-road to my spirituality. My time spent on the yoga mat blossomed into spiritual time that I have come to cherish. In front of my altar and accompanied by the familiar Celtic pantheon, my practice of yoga evolved, but not into a tit-for-tat Pagan version of it. I felt that by tapping into the energy and essence each posture embodied, I could gain a more subtle awareness and insight about my beliefs as well as the rich tapestry of myth that is woven into the fabric of Paganism from the land of my ancestors. After all, myths weren’t created for entertainment; they personify powerful archetypes and convey meaningful lessons. According to Jean Markale, the word “myth” originally meant sacred story.

In all three warrior postures (especially warrior II), the chest area is wide open. Above all else, the warrior is compassionate—energy from the heart flows out to the world. The warrior works through peaceful means and not by the sword, unless absolutely necessary. Being a warrior is about truth and service. Celtic hero Cúchulainn’s name gives a hint of this: Meaning “the hound of Chulainn”, Sétanta took this as his name as well as his life’s purpose serving others. Also, in the Druidic path that I follow, service is an important component of life; it’s an active form of truth and sharing of one’s own energy.

Through the warrior postures I try to access the spirit and energy of strength and commitment for purposes beyond self and personal gain. In order to do this, it is necessary to quiet our chattering monkey brains that jump from one thing to another, and gently guide our thoughts beyond everyday concerns. Rather than letting the mind wander to think “gee I never noticed that muscle before” or “what am I going to eat after class”, focusing the mind while holding a posture can be a challenge but it can also be a rich learning experience. Yoga truly becomes a unifying force for body, mind and spirit; a harmonizing of personal energies.

B.K.S. Iyengar (a living legend who was instrumental in bringing yoga to the West) noted that the study of the self is one of the cornerstones of yoga. The Druid Greywind says that to know self allows you to know your true potential. Eastern and Western sages are saying very much the same thing: We need to find out who we truly are.

Getting to know more about myself and defining who I am (to myself) has brought me closer to the core of my beliefs. I always knew that my spirituality was a major part of who I am, but I began to sense this on a different level. I found that moving inward was not a static experience and that over time our lives can become like a Möbius strip—a circle created by a strip of paper (metal or whatever) that has been twisted once before the ends are joined so that the inner surface flows onto the outer surface and vice versa.

Like a Möbius strip, in meditation we move inward but eventually connect to the world outside ourselves. In time, we may feel the presence of the Divine in both our inner and outer worlds. As a Pagan, I have always thought of the Divine in terms of a Great Goddess and felt more at home with yoga the more I learned about the people of India. In Celtic as well as Indian (Vedic and Hindu) cultures the goddess is fully immanent. In an ancient text called The Devi Gita (Song of the Goddess) the Mother Goddess advises people about the practice of meditation for self knowledge.

While there are forms of meditation that require emptying the mind to rest in the grace of silence, most of us need a paddle to steer our canoe of chattering monkeys. Meditation has been likened to the flow of water in a river because it is a continuous flow of perception—a thought wave. Staying focused on this flow leads to realizations and truths. Like my perception of the warrior, it leads from outer to inner worlds and to the deeply personal. A room full of people can start with the same thought—the meaning of being a warrior—and in the end there will be a room full of different results because each person’s thought wave will be unique. Also, from day to day our own thought waves vary because we are not the same each day; time and energy are fluid.

Perhaps because I have practiced my faith mainly as a solitary it was relatively easy for me to explore a circuitous path through the proverbial Druidic woods. The search for self transcends cultural boundaries and time. “Who am I” and “what is life” are age-old questions. The answers evolve as we grow and so exploring and re-exploring is an ongoing quest that takes us to new and different levels to find our deeper selves. We come to understand that we are embodied spirits and that being alive in these physical bodies allows us to become aware of our true nature while we are in nature.

Each time I return to mundane activities after yoga, meditation or ritual, I bring a bit of that deep experience with me. It’s an affirmation that my life continues to be a Möbius strip, integrating all the parts of who I am. From yogic practices to everyday life, active stillness becomes movement; intention becomes manifested as I hold my strands in the web of life. I have found yoga to be a powerful tool for self exploration and empowerment, and I no longer feel that dichotomy of cultures.

In the introduction to one of his books, Peter Berresford Ellis points out the linguistic relationship, parallels in ancient books of law, and other similarities as well as possible origins between Irish/Celtic and Indian/Hindu cultures. I would like to think that one of my very distant Irish ancestors may have also practiced some form of yoga.

© Sandra Kynes
Published in
Llewellyn's Witch's Companion