Returning Unity to Yoga with the Seasons

“If, over the millennia, yoga had been handed down from mother to daughter through
a female lineage, what would an authentic women’s Yoga be like?” This was the unanswered question that had beckoned me onto the path of Seasonal Yoga.

Patanjali is considered to be the “Father” of yoga and over the millennia yoga has been handed down from father to son, through a male lineage. If Patanjali had had a sister,
what is the yoga she would have handed down to us? And if her wisdom had been included in the yoga canon, how would we be different, both on and off our yoga mats? During a period of meditation, I asked (an imaginary) Patanjali’s sister for guidance on creating an authentic united yoga. This is the answer that came back to me:

​“Listen to the Earth- that’s all. Listen to the Earth.”
​
Patanjali’s Yoga Sutra is divided into four Padas, and this gave me the idea to divide
my inquiry into one pada for each season of the year: spring, summer, autumn, and winter.
That is how the seed of Seasonal Yoga was born. ​

​Yoga Through the Year Book

All year round you can dip into the Yoga Through the Year book to find seasonal inspiration and guidance. Each of the eight seasonal chapters consists of the following elements:

• A summary of the relevant seasonal themes, and pointers as to how best to work with the opportunities and challenges of the season.
• A yoga practice inspired by the season.(See Spring Page and Autumn to Winter Page for examples of the seasonal yoga practices to be found in the book).
• A seasonal meditation or visualisation.
• Tree wisdom section
• A set of seasonal meditation questions.​

About the Author

Jilly Shipway is a yoga teacher and author of Yoga Through the Year, and Yoga by the Stars, and her forthcoming book Chakras for Creativity: Meditations & Yoga-Based Practices to Awaken Your Creative Potential, will be released by Llewellyn Worldwide in December 2022. ​She regularly contributes to various publications including the Yoga Magazine, Spirit and Destiny magazine, Llewellyn’s Witches’ Datebook, Llewellyn’s Moon Sign Book, Aspire Magazine, and the Llewellyn Journal.