Sharon Gannon & David Life checking notes at the March 2012 Jivamukti Yoga Woodstock Immersion

I have been blessed in this life to experience many sweet moments, strung together like mala beads. In the japa of being, my mantra is gratitude. And so it is that the highest blessings come around like the guru bead; sometimes anticipated, sometimes unexpected.

I have been living as a gypsy the last three years, my transitory locations all oddly connected by the names they have been given. New England, New Orleans, New York. NOHO & NOLA. The Big Easy to the Big Apple. Now I will be living in the city that never sleeps (but hopefully still dreams) fort the foreseeable future.

Kumari & Pashupa at Jivamukti Woodstock Immersion

Less than three years ago I took my first Jivamukti Yoga classes at Swan River Yoga in New Orleans. Last May I became a Jivamukti Yoga teacher. Today I begin my job as the Web Editor for Jivamukti Yoga in NYC. I had enrolled in the Jivamukti Immersion at the Wild Woodstock Forest Ashram before I knew about the job, and it turned out to be the perfect transition for me to my new life. The guru bead was passing through my fingers.

Dechen Thurman and a Sara Inbar stand in the light of the studio doorway at the Jivamukti Wild Woodstock Ashram

How fortunate to have spent time with my teachers and some of my dear friends from the 2011 teacher training, along with the beautiful jivas I am getting to know. The theme of the immersion was the student-teacher relationship. The lectures featured commentary on a poem from Geshe Michael Roach called “The Magic of Empty Teachers” and the inspirational “10 ways to keep a precious teacher in your life“. David Life told entertaining stories from Hindu mythology, Sharon waxing poetic with wonderous insights.

Sharon Gannon with a beloved feline friend

Sharon led us through the Jivamukti Magic 10, stretching the 10 minute sequence into an hour long class that explored each asana in detail. David’s class the next day synchronized our breathing to a metronome as we explored the same sequence. Throughout the weekend it went like this, teachings of yoga channelled through the unique perspectives of Sharon & David. To sweeten the situation we had advanced certified Jivamukti yoga teacher Dechen Thurman giving us assists and a third vantage point to ingest.

What has made Jivamukti so successful as a method is this yin/yan, Shiva/Shakti approach of the founders. Their message is similar but not the same. They have profound respect for one another and are able to fill in the spaces that the other one leaves open. It brings levity and is a living example of how two beings can live in harmony while keeping their own identities. I am not sure I can quite describe what it is about them, but they are genuine yogis and teachers, completely human and humble yet wise and confident in their message. The two that become one in yoga.

Sandhi Gayatri Ferreira at the Wild Woodstock Jivamukti Ashram. Lokah Samastah Sukino Bhavantu

The weekend was a wonderful way to transition from New Orleans to New York City and to begin my journey as Jivamukti Web Editor. Enjoy the slideshow below which features my favorites from the Woodstock Jivamukti Yoga Immersion. I have posted the rest of the photos on my Derek Goodwin Photography Facebook page.

Jivamukti Yoga School in Union Square, NYC

There is big news today in the world of Pashupa. I have been chosen to be the Web Editor for the soon-to-be-launched Jivamukti Yoga web site!

The position is my dream job, combining many of the talents and skills I have accumulated over the years of my life. I will be working with Jivamukti teachers and centers around the world overall responsibility for all aspects of developing, launching and maintaining the new website, which will become the global online hub of Jivamukti Yoga.

Pashupa hula hooping in the French Quarter during the St. Anne's Parade

I had applied for the job about a month ago when I got an email from Jivamukti about the opening. The applicant’s were to write a letter explaining why they felt they were suited for the job, and I wrote mine that same night and then edited and submitted it the next morning. It was purely a stream of consciousness, describing my vegan projects, web design skills, and passion for being a Jivamukti yogi.

On Mardi Gras day as I was walking from hanging out with my friends on the shore of the Mississippi River after the St. Anne’s Parade (see my photos here) to my job with NOLA Pedicabs, I got a call from Ganeshadas to set up a Skype interview on Ash Wednesday with Sharon Gannon, Gopal and himself. Surrounded by the madness of Fat Tuesday and costumed freaks I was hardly able to believe that it was happening.

The next day I got to see my beloved teacher on my computer screen, and had my brain inspected by three sharp yogis while I went through emotional and mental whirlings of my mind trying to represent my true self and ideas. I was still recovering from losing my voice over the weekend and had to pause the interview while I had a coughing fit I was afraid wouldn’t end, but eventually it passed and I completed the interview and was offered the job!

There are no words to tell how grateful I am, how excited, how humbled, or how incredibly fortunate. I will be moving to NYC in March to begin, and with the support and encouragement of the Jivamukti community I intend to co-create the best yoga web site in the known universe.

Stay tuned for updates and insights, and if you hear of a place available around NYC in April please let me know! Comments below are appreciated…

Pashupa flying high in Warrior III over the Mississippi River - photo by Susan Hume

Detail of the antlered figure depicted on the Gundestrup Cauldron

Sometimes I feel I am spinning around some burning sun, a celestial body held in orbit by forces I cannot see or fully understand. On my sattvic days I move closer to the warmth and light at the center of my galaxy. Other days I inevitably and inexorably move further away. The cycles come and go.

During my Jivamukti Yoga teacher training I decided to begin to use the name Pashupa as my own. In the Rigveda pashupa means ‘protector of the cattle’ and is a name of the Vedic solar deity Pushan, related to the Hindu god Shiva’s epithet Pashupati. I had learned of Pashupati through the writings of my teacher Sharon Gannon, who translated Pashupati to mean ‘protector of the animals’. This resonated with me so much that I had it tattooed onto my right calf earlier in the year (and it occurred to me just now that I have ‘protector of the cattle’ on my ‘calf’…).

Pashupati Sanskrit tattoo

Also gleaned from Wikipedia, “The Pashupatinath Temple is the most important Hindu shrine for all Hindus in Nepal and also for many Hindus in India and rest of the world. The name has also been applied to a figure, probably a deity, depicted as sitting among animals, bearing a strong identical resemblance to modern day Shiva, on a seal discovered in the context of the Indus Valley Civilization.”

Names are just one aspect of identity. I was blessed with the given name Derek, meaning ‘power of the tribe’ or ‘leader of the people’, which is hard enough to live up to I suppose. As I have spent some time in this incarnation searching for who I truly am it has become apparent that my dharma is to serve the farmed animals of the world; the most oppressed, tortured, terrorized, brutalized, misunderstood and disregarded of all sentient beings. If I am to lead human people anywhere it is to be away from the diets and lifestyles that perpetuate unimaginable horrors upon the souls who have incarnated into these gentle animal forms.

It has been several months now that I have worn the name Pashupa in various places. I tell my yoga students that it is my yogi name, but that is just a partial truth. I am still discovering for myself what the name means to me. While I was traveling to photograph the National Conference to End Factory Farming (photos here) I had some epiphanies and decided to try to put them into written words.

For me, Pashupa is the sun that I orbit around. It is my higher self, who I aspire to be. There are so many distractions that pull me away. The wondrous celestial bodies and hearts of the women who fill my life, seeming to offer some mysterious completion of my self. My struggles with money, which flows through my life but never seems to accumulate or offer relief. My back taxes and college loans that follow me like hungry ghosts, increasing every year instead of diminishing. My addictions to coffee and sugar. All these ‘flaws’ that make me fully human. All these manifestations of ego.

When I speak of Pashupa, it is usually in the third person. “Hello, I am Pashupa.” “You can thank Pashupa for giving you the opportunity to do urdhva dhanurasana.” “Pashupa loves you, holy beings.” For one thing, it makes me smile to speak of myself this way. But, I am also speaking of a specific aspect of myself. The part of me that lives his highest intentions, that teaches & practices yoga out of compassion, that is humble, selfless and kind. Pashupa is the me that I aim to be, and in naming that part of me it reminds me where I am going.

It still warms my heart to hear other people call me Pashupa. We all have our inner equivalent of Pashupa, and reflect it back to others. We all have the evolutionary urge to be Pashupati. There is a web of compassion, obscured by avidya, that connects us all. When I hear the name from others, it reminds me that they can see my inner Pashupa. My ignorance drops, my heart opens.

May we all find our inner Pashupa, whatever sound or song we may choose to call it by.

Our beloved teacher Keith Porteous plays the harmonium at the beginning of class

Swan River Yoga opened its first studio on Magazine Street in New Orleans in 2008, one year before I first came to NOLA and two years before I began wintering here. Founder Michele Baker and co-owner Keith Porteous (both Jivamukti certified yoga teachers) poured their hearts into creating a sacred space for the community to practice yoga, attend events, and grow spiritually.

Since those auspicious roots, the community at Swan River has blossomed. Swan River expanded into three additional locations, began teacher trainings, and has become one of the best known and most loved studios in the city. Last year Swan River opened in Mid-City, at a location know known as the Mandir, which has three floors filled with various rooms and opportunities. As the Mandir’s popularity increased it became apparent that it was time to leave the Shala.

yogis in meditative bliss

Last night Keith Porteous taught the final class at the Shala, and the room was full of appreciative yogis. Aaron Lind, Mary Glackmeyer, Joseph Stein and myself all showed up to give loving adjustments. Keith’s dharma talk used the metaphor of a spaceship that uses tremendous energy to leave the stratosphere and then is able to coast in space. Swan River is now coasting along without the Shala booster, with all of us yogi astronauts floating beyond gravity. Keith carried the metaphor throughout the class, at times talking about getting searched at the spaceport and eating dehydrated astronaut food.

In this year that promises to be a year of transformations, it was a class full of sweet memories and letting go. It was so wonderful to see all the people that showed up, to assist along side some of my favorite teachers and holy beings, and to work in a little bit of photography amidst a room full of arms and legs that I had to jump over and duck under.

Click here for a full history of Swan River.

Click here to see the full set of photos on flickr.

Ellen smiles for the camera

Warrior II

Keith & Aaron give downward dog assists

The Art of Healing Magazine, June 2011

While I was away at Jivamukti yoga teacher training last May I was contacted by Catherine, the editor of The Art of Healing magazine in Australia, about using some of my photos from the NOLA Yoga Photography Project. She told me that my “photography is like a sigh of relief – finally, someone is shooting yoga in the real world!” I am honored to have had my photographs featured on the cover of two consecutive issues, and also an additional one used inside!

The first photo used was one of my dear Jivamukti teacher Libby Love who recently moved with her family to Austria (I miss you so much Libby!). The photo was taken as part of a session for lululemon, as she was one of their “ambassadors” who I was hired to photograph for the New Orleans store. It ended up on the cover of the July 2011 issue of the Art of Healing.

Chloe Smith on the cover of The Art of Healing's August 2011 issue

The second photo was taken of Chloe Smith (of the amazing band Rising Appalachia) during a photo session I did with her and Libby (see gallery here). Libby’s husband Hermann is a hairdresser and did the hair and makeup for Libby and Chloe so that I could photograph them and he could use the photos to promote his business. Catherine chose an iconic photo of Chloe to use on the cover of the August 2011 issue of the Art of Healing, with the tag line being “Is this the new Warrior Woman of the 21st Century?” Several friends of Chloe have told me that she truly is.

Sheree Ferreira at Jivamukti Teacher Training

The August 2011 issue also featured a photograph of Sheree Ferreira I had taken at my 2011 Jivamukti Teacher Training. This is of course not part of the NOLA Yoga Photo project, but still cool to have included. As I collaborate on creating more images of yogis I hope that the results will be shown in more and more places. Thanks to Catherine, Libby, Chloe, Hermann and Sheree!

Mary Kuzmovich doing Utthita Trikonasana in Jackson Square

I have a wonderful former partner who always told me I had issues, and now that we are best friends she still does. I won’t get into those issues here, but I did get into one issue I will tell you about. In their August 2011 issue, Yoga Journal published and article called “10 fantastically yoga-friendly cities” and was kind enough to include New Orleans. In their search for all things yoga in New Orleans, they came across my NOLA Yoga Photography Project, and contacted me wanting to use my photos.

Long story short, they ended up using one of my photos, an iconic image of my friend Mary Kuzmovich in Jackson Square. This is a place where gazillions of tourists pose for photos in front of the statue of Andrew Jackson on his horse, with the St. Louis Cathedral in the background. We thought it would be funny to do the same, never thinking it would end up in a fancy yoga magazine. Swaha!

The only thing that stinks is that Yoga Journal failed to mention Swan River Yoga in the article, the studio where I teach and practice. It was a short piece, but Swan River is one of the best-known and loved studios in the city. Perhaps my mentioning it here will make up for their oversight, since the actual article does not seem to be archived on the web but this post is! Yay Swan River!

Click on the image below to see the article big enough to read the print.

Nasa released this image of the 'Wreath Nebula' on Christmas of 2011, created by layers of metallic dust lit by a bright star nearly 1,000 light years away.

Having passed through the winter solstice we now look forward to the hours of daylight gradually increasing as we move into the mythical year of 2012. Swan River, the studio where I teach in New Orleans, has cancelled most of their classes this week for the holidays. Studio owners Keith Porteous and Michele Baker were kind enough to let me offer classes to our community every day this week.

Tonight I taught a beautiful class at the Mid-City Mandir, subbing Michele Baker’s “Swan River Yoga & Gong Bath” class. As the rain fell audibly outside I led the students in flowing asana illuminated by candles and soft lighting. During shavasana I played the gong, using my fingers and knuckles to create a sound bath. I hope the yoginis enjoyed it all as much as I did!

Tuesday through Friday I will be teaching at the Magazine Street Shala (2130 Magazine St) at noon every day. I am really looking forward to these classes and the opportunity to develop a daily rhythm that they offer. I am hoping to come up with a fresh dharma talk and class sequence each day, which will be a challenge! This is also a bittersweet time, as the Shala will be closing at the end of January as Swan River consolidates their energies and offerings into the beautiful and spacious Mid-City Mandir.

I will take Saturday off (and hopefully take a class myself!). On Sunday I will co-teach a very special class, The Magick Male, a News Year’s benefit with donations and proceeds going to the Swan River Community Center in Arabi. Class is from 5:30 – 7:00 pm and will be taught by Haiyan Khan, Aaron Lind, Joe Stein, Ben Kappel and myself (teacher bios can be read here). As Michele Baker says, “activate your yang, pingala, surya, and Siva side!”

I hope many of you will join me at one or more of these classes during this very special week. In January I will begin teaching the Jivamukti Spiritual Warrior class at 7 a.m. on Tuesdays & Thursdays in Mid-City, as well as a community donation-based class on Wednesdays at 5:30 at Divine Kundalini. Please check my class schedule page for details on all of my classes.

May the new year bring you all light, love and blessings!

Frederic Leighton (1830–1896). ''The Return of Persephone'' (1891). Oil on canvas.

“A myth is a self-conscious lie told in the service of a deeper truth” ~Douglas Brooks

Winter is the time of going under. The time of dark long nights spent seeking warmth, hoping to excite the atoms that pretend to be my skin. Dark long nights contemplating the cycles that make up this life, whirling through an exquisite universe, inside of me. Rediscovering that I am everything. I am this winter with its cold and storms. I am the darkness and the circumference. I am this soul about to go under.

I am the goddess Persephone, riding a train down into the underworld of New Orleans. Passing by harvested fields of corn, towns with crumbling buildings, blanched paint peeling from signs and structures, flocks of birds swarming chaotically in the skies. There is the stain of pomegranate on my lips and fingertips.

Here along the River Styx I watch the sun rise. It is as gorgeous and mundane as any other sunrise I have seen. Trees sprout skyward from swamp waters. Oil towers rise up from cement foundations. Fields of parallel scars left by machines that harvest livestock fodder flash before me. Structures no longer occupied by even the most desperate of hope have become temples for the wind.

Soon the upperworld will become a snowy white icicle dream. The harvest moon will lament my leaving. Yet my departure is always a gift, for the delicate beauty of life lies between the longing for and the reunion. As Demeter begins to mourn Hades rejoices by blooming moonflower lotuses beneath my feet as I cross over.

What draws me to this netherworld? Nowhere have I seen such desperation. The lost come to chase after visions conjured by Bourbon Street spirits. The soil is laden with lead and the mouth of the great river opens into a seven-thousand mile dead zone. Ghosts rise up from the plantations at night. There is malice, poverty, violence and unspeakable pain.

Yet light is only measured by darkness. Seasons turn. Beneath the ground matter rots and nourishes new life. I am maintained by what dies within me. Death and rebirth are moments in a cycle that transcends both. New Orleans rises up from the mud as fecund as any flower, all possibility and charm. For those she has chosen there is no other city like her. She is my underworld, and I her queen.

Because of the Thanksgiving holiday Keith Porteous, Alison Androw, Lindsey Crow, Cassie Segal, and Tess Monaghan all needed subs, and I was able to help out. I give thanks to each of you for giving me this wonderful chance to serve (dhanyavada is the Sanskrit word for giving thanks, seva means selfless service). I subbed six classes and taught my two scheduled classes for the first time. Each class I subbed had several wonderful students (or holy beings, as we Jivamuktis call them).

Keith Porteous in Audobon Park, performing Eka Pada Rajakapotasana at Audoban Park with baby Louise on board

Along with all the teaching I got to check in the students for most of the classes, a task typically performed by a regular volunteer who then gets to take the class for free. Thus I was also able to get re-aquanted with the MindBody software. And to take names.

Things I noticed:

• There were seven students in the first class and seven students in the last class. They were the largest classes. My sweet friend Sarah House was the only one who showed up for my smallest class (my own class). It was wonderful. Swaha.
• I am getting better at telling stories.
• The new Swan River studio in the Marigny is gorgeous and the acoustics are beautiful for chanting and ukulele. Next I must bring my Harmonium!
• I have conquered my fear of beginner’s classes, and realize that helping a new student discover yoga is a wondrous thing.
• The feedback I got was wonderful. Some of it came from my student’s smiling faces, and some from some very kind words I heard. What a blessing to be able to share yoga with people!

Swan River founder and co-owner Michele Baker with her sweet dog Lida

After my last class I got to take the a class with my dear teacher Keith Porteous, the first time I have seen her since my teacher training. Next Sunday I will be subbing for her at 5:30pm, after teaching my own two classes.

Keith Porteous, co-founder of Swan River Yoga in New Orleans

I would like to take a moment out of my day to honor my teacher, whose current incarnation began on this day some years ago. Keith Porteous is the co-founder of Swan River Yoga, where I landed a couple years ago after following my broken heart down to New Orleans. Such a magic city, mentioned in so many songs. A place that knows of death and rebirth.

On this day I bow to the lotus feet of Sri Keith, who is one of the people who helped me immensely on my path to becoming a Jivamukti yoga teacher. Her heart is vast, her compassion deep. She perhaps does not know what a light she shines into the world. My words certainly can do it no justice. I just know that every class of hers I have taken has moved me towards engagement with the divine. When I hear her name my own heart lights up, and I feel gratitude to the universe for taking such good care of me.

Last winter while I was in the Crescent City, she was pregnant with her second child. Towards the end of my stay she stopped teaching, but I got to photograph her a couple weeks before her due date. It is always special for me to spend time with my teachers this way. She was on her way to bringing life into this world, and I was on my way to being reborn as a Jivamukti. The sunlight streamed through the trees in Audubon Park, and Keith moved through her asana as if being pregnant was second nature. As if she were a swan.

Today I am feeling the energy gathering within me that will set me in flight, back down to New Orleans. I will soon be teaching beside my teacher. What an honor and blessing. I can hear her voice, I can feel myself stretching out towards the unknown, always. Dear teacher, please remain in my life and continue to teach me. May your year be filled with transformations and blessings, and may your light ripple out into the universe through the people you touch.

Shanti, Shanti, Shanti, Hari Om.