Fridays: March 6, 13, 20, 27
10 am Pacific | 1 pm EST [75 mins]
Online via Zoom.
Embodied Exodus: The Inner Journey
with Julie Emden
Join us for this 4-part series to explore ways to fully embody the story of the departure from Egypt with movement and stillness, conscious awareness, reflection and intention. The Passover holiday celebrates the liberation of the Israelites from Egypt and this story is meaningful for all beings.
The Hebrew word for Egypt, מִצְרָיִם / Mitzrayim, includes in it the words Tzar (צר) and Yam (׳ם). One way of reading this word is that it describes what happened when we left Egypt long ago and also what it means to leave Egypt day-to-day in our inner spiritual journey: We move from(מ) Tzar/צר (Constriction) to ׳ם /Yam (Expanse).
The themes for this course is inspired by decades of Julie’s signature “Yoga for Passover” workshops, and are the ‘greatest hits’ of these offerings. Each week we will focus upon one line from Torah as we glean new insights for how the words of this ancient text can inform and inspire our inner lives and our embodied spiritual journeys.
This year, the series is also designed to support you in bringing small Embodied Exodus moments to your own passover Seders if you wish! There will be an option for to stay for 15 minutes after each class for Q&A with Julie and unrecorded discussion.
Class Themes:
March 6: Shal Naalecha - Unlocking our habits.
Ex 3:5 “Remove your shoes from your feet” ( שַׁל-נְעָלֶיךָ, מֵעַל רַגְלֶיךָ)
Moses is instructed to remove his sandals at the burning bush, but this phrase can also be translated “Remove the locks from your habits.” Bringing new approaches, new positions, new awareness, and new movements to our practice is essential to finding freedom from old states and ways of being.
March 13: Kaved Lev - Embracing our Heavy Hearts.
Ex 7:14 “Pharoahs’ heart is heavy.”
(יד וַיֹּאמֶר יְהוָה אֶל-מֹשֶׁה, כָּבֵד לֵב פַּרְעֹה; מֵאֵן, לְשַׁלַּח הָעָם.)
The references in Exodus to Pharoah’s “hardened” heart, “heavy” heart, and “strengthened” heart will serve as a map for our practice as we create more spaciousness in our physical bodies for the heaviness, grief, anger, sadness, or despair we may be experiencing during these times. When we create more spaciousness for the heaviness in our hearts, we are strengthened for bringing healing to ourselves, others and our world.
March 20: Manna - Not Knowing.
Ex 16:15 “And when the children of Israel saw it, they said ‘What is it?” for they knew not what it was.
(טו וַיִּרְאוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל, וַיֹּאמְרוּ אִישׁ אֶל-אָחִיו מָן הוּא--כִּי לֹא יָדְעוּ, מַה-הוּא)
The Israelites ingested Manna (literally, ‘What is it?”) in the desert. The Sefat Emet says that “The purpose of knowledge is to not know. “ Embracing the fact that we do not know, is essential to allowing new ideas and insights to appear. We needed to move through the liminal empty spaces of the desert and empty ourselves from a known way of being, so that we could receive embodied wisdom and insight (Torah).
March 27: B’toch Hayam - Finding solid ground.
Ex 14:22 “And the children of Israel went into the sea amidst dry ground.”
(כב וַיָּבֹאוּ בְנֵי-יִשְׂרָאֵל בְּתוֹךְ הַיָּם, בַּיַּבָּשָׁה)
The text says that the Israelites stepped into the sea (!) on the dry ground. The walls of the sea surrounded them as they walked through, but the initial step required faith and an establishment of stepping forward and finding their ground. In any given moment, having the courage and faith to continue, and finding ways to strengthen our capacity to find our ground - especially when life throws us chaos, this is essential to our spiritual journeys.
As we look at teachings from ancient and contemporary mystics, we will embody qualities of spiritual refinement that are hinted at in the text, and rooted in the physical experience.
Each session begins with Jewish wisdom teachings and time for dropping into the sensing body with a brief guided movement practice infused with the teachings. The majority of time is spent in gently guided free exploration in movement or stillness, with a carefully curated music playlist. We end with time for rest, integration, reflection, art-making and witnessing as we share the insights and discoveries that have arrived through our embodiment practices.
Modalities include but are not limited to: embodied mindfulness, gentle movement, gentle Iyengar-based Yoga, free-form conscious dance, messy art-making, creative writing, and journaling.
You are invited to actively participate in movement, rest or stillness for the entire time. No previous knowledge, skill level or ability is required for this class series.
Sign Up for Series Only, but you may miss a class and watch the recordings.
Via Zoom. Can’t join live? Recordings for viewing in your own time will be shared with you!