Yoga Nidra -- Vishnunabhi

I just returned from a Yoga Nidra meditation class. Yoga Nidra is sometimes referred to as the yoga of sleep, but it is far more than that. It is one of the deepest meditations. It cultivates a stillpoint of the mind so that one can be in the deepest sleep vibration while conscious.

One of the reasons I love my yoga teacher, Katerina, is that she is so in sync with universal energy. Tonight's class started at 7 pm, when the constellation of Sagittarius with the galactic center, Vishnu's navel, was rising. I had wanted to include this image of Vishnu dreaming with my last post on the GC, but I thought it was too esoteric.

In tonight's class, Katerina began her instruction with the story of Vishnu's dream:

Brahma (Ultimate Creator) sits on a lotus,the symbol of divine energy and divine grace. The lotus grows from the navel of Vishnu, who is the sleeping god, whose dream is the universe. . . . Brahma opens his eyes and a world comes into being. . . Brahma closes his eyes, and a world goes out of being. ~Joseph Campbell

She also described the esoteric meaning of AUM as three states: A=Brahma/creator, U=Vishnu (preserver)/, M=Shiva (destroyer) and it reminded me of the four elements of the structure of the aum symbol that refer to waking, sleeping, enlightened and dreaming states -- as in the prayer flag illustrated here. I can't help but compare them to the four yugas -- each with its own state of consciousness. I believe that the alignment of the solstices with the galactic center, Vishnunabhi, marks the point in cyclic time when the Kali Yuga (Iron Age) shifts to the Satya Yuga (Golden Age). . . when we go from sleep state to enlightenment. Or could the opening and closing of Brahma's eye refer to the pulse generated by the periodic explosions at the GC? For more on this theory see http://www.jayweidner.com/2012Topology.html.

As I just described my last post, the ancient seers of the Vedic culture referred to the Galactic Center as Vishnunabhi, or the navel of Vishnu. What a perfect time to practice Yoga Nidra, as Vishnu's navel was rising. I have to say it was easier than usual to activate this state, perhaps because the planetary line up is so supportive with Pluto's transit of this region all rising at the horizon.

I am looking forward to sleep tonight. Since I started the Yoga Nidra practice this spring, my restless sleep pattern has changed. My dream world has shifted to what it was in childhood, a reflection of what I wanted to create in reality. As Katerina also quoted from Joseph Campbell:

Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths.

As mythology has developed around man's stories about the constellations, perhaps we are the public dreams of stars; and each of us are stars within stars creating our own private worlds. The archetypes in my dreams are playing out in amazing ways and coincide beautifully with stellar messages. As above, so below, and within. Sweet dreams!

Namaste!