Weed Wanderings Herbal Ezine with Susun Weed: Book Review
July 2003
Volume 3 Number 7
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Book Review... Luna Yoga
by Dianne Stannish


With so many similarly (albeit helpfully) constructed yoga books available today—featuring yoga history, terminology, photos of students in poses—it is exciting to come across a guide like
Luna Yoga
, by Adelheid Ohlig (with additional notes by Susun Weed), which is small, personal and straightforward while also expressing its potent message of healing.

Luna Yoga is both the title and the name of the actual style of yoga created by Ohlig, who was suddenly diagnosed with a class 5 (late stage) cervical cancer when she was in her mid-thirties. Ohlig responded to her diagnosis by listening to her body for what it wanted as a treatment. What it wanted, she discovered, was not drugs or surgery, but the very movements and breathing techniques and self-love which formed the foundation of Luna Yoga as she now teaches it.

This meant incorporating Ohlig’s own knowledge as a yoga teacher with the methods of Aviva Steiner, a Hungarian yogini with whom she studied, who researched a “menstrual calisthenics.” Essential to the effectiveness of Luna Yoga is the awareness and openness with which the student connects to her pelvic energy. The idea here is that warmth is generated and circulated to the pelvis, through the pelvis, during the Luna Yoga practice, which is why it is so indicated for gynecogical illness or discomfort. Within two years, Ohlig was completely free of the cancer, but her journey had, as they say, just begun.

This personal element—indeed, personalizing element—is what makes the book so unusual in terms of yoga instruction. It would be one thing, and certainly wonderful, if Ohlig’s healing journey involved an exact observance of a tradition (e.g. Yoga, The Healer). The switch here is that Ohlig made yoga her own and this is what worked, and in this personalization she makes room for other women and men to listen to their bodies for answers in healing, as opposed to simply looking to yoga (or, outside the self in general) for healing. And she does this wisely—getting into the philosophy of yoga in the early pages—and responsibly—asking that the reader “seek out a teacher” and have a health exam before attempting the exercises.

Beyond that, the reader of Luna Yoga is encouraged to be free with her body, listen to it and move it accordingly. While I am sure she is not the first to discuss this privately, I have never read before in print, from a teacher, anything like “…you need not limit your practice to these exercises. As your pleasure in moving and sensing grows, you will automatically bring your imagination into play, and find yourself creating variations. The body wants variety, just like the mind and soul.”

This book is a powerful acknowledgement of the personal in the midst of the traditional, and will refresh the continuing yoga student and engage any woman seeking herself. It is pocket-sized and without pretension, and Ohlig writes her ideas simply and compassionately. “I wrote this book,” says Ohlig, “hoping to inspire you.”

 

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INDEX  | FEATURE ARTICLE  |  HERBAL MEDICINE CHEST | WISE WOMAN WISDOM 
CALENDAR OF EVENTS  | LIVING YOUR INTUITIVE DREAMS |  WEED WISE RECIPES |  FEATURED LINKS