| Listening to the Trees By Charlotte Holtzermann Angela Farmer’s Retreat for Women at Harbin Hot Springs September 13-20, 2007 |
"It's all about healing and empowering women. It's not about the form of yoga, systems or competition. The women are here to recharge and dive deep inside to uncover parts of themselves they have not had a chance to express. I'm sitting at the helm trying to guide a ship through the ocean. What comes through is guided by the spirit of the group." A radiant and majestic muse, Angela Farmer is guiding 72 women in a week-long retreat of yoga and healing arts at Harbin Hot Springs, a renowned new age resort, north of the Napa Valley. The gathering is a reunion of yoga teachers, body workers, doulas, writers, therapists and athletes, many of them returning members who bring their arts, and healing skills. Angela leads morning and evening classes in exploring internal movement in asana and meditation. Afternoons are free to book sessions in bodywork or soak in Harbin's mineral pools, journal, sketch or explore hiking trails. On two afternoons, the women create a market of art, books, jewelry, and clothing. I visited the enclave of women at the Conference Center, nestled in tall pines with terraces for dining and sleeping, large skylights in the main room and two outdoor pools. After breakfast, the women share in shifts of chopping onions, peppers, basil and celery at tables on the deck. In crisp morning air, a round of communal life begins as the women swap stories, dreams and announcements. Simran Skie who originated the event in '92, comments: We're a sisterhood here. We're serving each other. It's a sacred place and all of us know it. We are invited to bloom as women, to explore our beauty, our radiance, our fullness in life. Morning practice is from 9:30 -12:30. I find space for my mat under red and mauve chiffon draped over the rafters. Organizer Patricia Schneider and a team of helpers arrive in advance to prepare the space with vases of lilies and birds of paradise. These are soft walking women wearing gentle smiles, pendants and earth tone leggings. We begin in Sukhasana, a comfortable sitting pose. Angela suggests we let our trunk root down into the earth and sense the light above us. Her language is rich: "Let the back of the body open out like a veil. Let your kidneys widen like wings." We explore a seated twist as Angela continues to describe actions for the back and front body: "Let the pelvis stay back, so the contents of the belly can come forward." Angela coaches us to "slowly, easily, adventurously explore every part or your body." Laying on our backs, we shake our arms and legs in happy baby pose. There is freedom in the room to emit sound. Ahs, moans and sighs fill the air. As we move into down dog pose, I hear cues to allow the palms of our hands to dome, to sense the domes inside the foot's arch, the perineum, the shoulders, the nostrils and the skull. We are exploring movement in an oily, elastic down dog, finding out how to lift and turn the abdominal organs. I am coaxing a stiff ankle to soften and remembering teachers who have instructed me exactly how to move into a pose. This way of practice feels so different; free, female, dynamic. We are winding our way from one pose to the next, each woman finding her own way. When Angela demonstrates her journey from down dog into the floor, through cobra into up dog, we see a mature dancer/yogi engaged in stretching like an animal. One can also see the clarity of her Iyengar training. She was a member of the first group of teachers certified by B.K.S. Iyengar in 1967. Before encountering yoga, Angela taught creative dance including Laban's Art of Movement. As a child, she recalled, she used to lay in bed and let every part of her body move. Growing up during the war in England, she said "I climbed trees all the time, my trees. I knew every tree, every branch." Morning practice closed with Angela suggesting that we listen to the trees, like tribal people who revere the patience, rootedness and listening presence of trees. Before lunch, sixteen healing arts practitioners are introduced to the group. In the hallway we can sign up for afternoon sessions in watsu and water dance, Taoist belly massage, cranial sacral work, Feldenkrais, acupressure, foot massage, midwifery, energy balancing and Brema Bodywork. Angela feels that we get dry and brittle in the lives we lead, and that aquatic bodywork wakes up the fluid content of our bodies. Reflecting on the milieu of women in autumn, Angela said, "It’s a special time, a beginning to close in and this space is ideal for a women’s retreat because we are secluded. We are in a valley and we are by ourselves. It feels like a big happening and there’s a tremendous amount of healing going on. The women soften and deepen their practice of yoga in its broadest and most feminine aspects." www.angela-victor.com and patricia@brainfingers.com for workshops in the US, England, Mexico and Greece. Charlotte Holtzermann, MFA,offers sessions in Alexander Technique, Aquarobics, Chi Gong, Watsu and Yoga. charlotteholtz@yahoo.com |
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