One of my yoga heroines Vanda Scaravelli spent years exploring the body and its many connections to the natural world. Vanda only discovered yoga in her late 40’s and practised advanced postures up until her death aged 90.
Vanda uses many natural images in her teaching, in addition to waves, she spoke of trees whose roots grow deeply down as their trunks and branches grow, waterfalls that pour powerfully down only to disperse into clouds of light spray…
In the following extract from her book, ‘Awakening of the spine’ she compares the spine to a tree:
‘…There is a division in the center of our back, where the spine moves simultaneously in two directions: from the waist down towards the legs and the feet, which are pulled by gravity, and from the waist upwards, through the top of the head, lifting us up freely….. this is a natural process, ever present in all upright living things…the roots of a tree are pulled deeply down towards the centre of the earth while the trunk grows vertically towards the sky, elongating and spreading through the branches into the space around it. The deeper the roots penetrate into the ground, travelling below the surface of the earth, the taller and stronger grows the tree…’
She talks passionately about our body’s relationship with gravity:
‘It’s about the way the spine moves from the heels to the top of the head with gravity. You let the body sink, sink, sink, and the upper part becomes light. The more you sink, the more the upper part becomes light and there is a beautiful wave in the body, and the body moves with the wave. The wave to the ground allows the gravity in the spine and through the spine, and energy goes through the top of the head. The body is pulled down, and from the waist up there is a wonderful way of feeling, of behaving, of moving. It gives a sense of authority, of freedom, of beauty.’
Scaravelli combined ease of movement and breath to create flexibility and lightness in the body, something we will be exploring in a variety of postures in our forthcoming classes.