The summer solstice usually comes and goes. I often don’t even know its come until I notice the days starting to get shorter. However, this year I brought in the solstice with a bang. My mom and I went to a yoga camp in Mahtowa with nearly 2 dozen other women who wanted to join in the celebration with women around the world.
These summer solstice camps began when Yogi Bhajan brought kundalini yoga to the US from India in 1969. Now people all around the world celebrate the longest day of the year as a time to revitalize, awaken, and join together in solidarity. A gathering in the Jemez Mountains in New Mexico has become the largest yoga gathering in the world.
Each year, this gathering focuses on one of the five elements. Last year, they focused on the Earth and new beginnings. This year we focused on Water and the passions of the soul. By 2012, the themes will culminate with Ether: Nat Sam.
What might one do at these yoga camps you might wonder? Well, I was wondering the same thing before going. I’ve done yoga a few times, but never really considered myself somone who “practices”. I went more for the fellowship amongst empowered women and as a part of being open to new happenings and new experiences. Throughout the course of the event, we did yoga 3 times a day, starting at 5:30 in the morning. There was EFT training, mendi art, palm reading, and runes. We chanted, ate some of the best food I’ve ever had, read aloud, relaxed in hammocks, and on the final night danced around the campfire with drums, bells, shakers, and sang, chanted, and howled at the moon. It was a very freeing moment, everyone dressed in festive scarves and flowing skirts, unbridled and freespirited! We tried to do Bhangra dancing to high-energy music under the stars.
It was a wonderful time to spend getting to know new women and making new memories and laughter with my mom! Put on by co-owners of the Blue Zone Studio, Patricia Nolin (Guru Gopal Kaur) and Cheryl NcNulty, the event brings Northland woman together for a very healing and empowering gathering. They plan on doing it annually on the 40 acres of beautiful land in Mahtowa. To attend in the future, contact them through their studio in Duluth.
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wonderful event it was perfect. from the food to the people to the yoga and the venue. see you next solstice!
a wonderful and empowering event. I look forward to next year’s solstice celebration