Accidentally New Age*

Accidentally New Age loves nothing more than making lists.

Lists of coleoidea and decapoda cephalods in order of subjective awesomeness (1. giant squid, 2. octopus, 3. jellyfish/cuttlefish [tied], 4. all other squids).

Annotated lists of dance movies.

Lists of all the types of bodywork she’s received.

One of ANA’s favorite lists to make, though, is her semi-annual list of all the crap she’s been meaning to do, but hasn’t gotten around to doing. There’s something about putting all of this information into visible, doable chunks that makes the list a great project to do — from the writing of it, to the checking off of each item. (Last item: reach enlightenment!)

Right now, just days before the full moon in Aquarius, seems like optimal list-making time. (omg, ANA just looked at her lunar calendar to make sure she wasn’t lying about that full moon in Aquarius business, and her calendar uses an icon of a big squid to represent that sign. ANA needs to go lay down.)

The new culture seemed to whirl backward and forward—a loop of history, history as loop—calling and responding, leaping, spinning, renewing.

In the loop, there is the alpha, the omega and the turning points in between. The seam disappears, slips into endless motion and reveals a new logic—the circumference of a worldview.

—Can’t Stop Won’t Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation by Jeff Chang

Accidentally New Age is always on the lookout for ways that her everyday reading relates, metaphorically or otherwise, to her Yoga. Those of you who know ANA know she really can’t make it a day without talking about spanda—the divine vibration. Fascinated with this idea of perpetual creation and dissolution, ANA looks for it everywhere. Which makes for a pretty satisfying activity since, by definition, it really is everywhere.

It’s in her yoga practice: in the setting of intentions and the transitions within and between poses.

It’s in her work day: in a particularly creative application of editorial style to a sentence that needs a certain bit of polish.

It’s in the news: in the seemingly perpetual expansion of dark matter (shakti?) in the universe.

And it’s in hip hop…or at least in Jeff Chang’s telling of its history. The alpha, the omega, and the turning points in between. What’s not to love about that?

At a recent Anusara intensive, ANA heard John Friend talk about the goddesses Saraswati, Lakshmi, and Kali, and how they relate to creation and dissolution. Saraswati creates order; Lakshmi represents fullness, purna; and Kali is destruction. In an asana practice these three phases would be: setting up the foundation for a pose (Saraswati), finding the full expression of the beauty of that pose (Lakshmi), and then the necessary end of that pose (Kali) before transitioning into the next one.

The alpha, the omega, and the turning points.