❖ Āyurveda: Fundamental Principles ❖
As we continue to shift deeper into Spring in the Northern Hemisphere, I wanted to offer some Ayurvedic tips to support our bodies through this transition!
Hello my friends!
I have been dreaming for YEARS about ways to share Āyurvedic magick with folks that have expressed curiosity, and nothing has ever felt quite right, until NOW! This is not something I share super openly, but I have been a practicing Āyurvedic Practitioner for years, and am in the process of making peace with the stewarding of these teaching when they’re not from my bloodlines. When we engage with ANY traditional knowledge, we’re engaging with those Ancestors directly, and it has taken me years to understand how to hold this knowledge in a good way, and honor the lineage-based traditions that have carried these incredible teachings across over 5,000 years!!
For now, this sharing is an expression of that gratitude. My teacher Dr. Vasant Lad always used to impress upon us that “if no one carries on this knowledge, it will die.” So here I am, holding all of the cultural complexity and learning how to share it in a good, clear way, to truly honor the GIFT that it is to receive & share these teachings.
I also LOVE the idea of these little Āyurvedic tips being sent to your inbox, to use and return to as reference throughout the seasons of life. I’m going to begin sharing more Vedic wisdom in general for patrons, specifically Vedic Mythology, Storytelling, and of course… the Magick of Āyurveda!
To begin, I thought this first writing could be about the ROOTS + PHILOSOPHIES of Ayurveda, to lay the foundation for all that is to come…
What IS Āyurveda? (आयुर्वेढ) Some of you may or may not know, but this beautiful wisdom tradition is over 5,000 years old, harkening back to Ancient stewards and rishis in India! What we know if these systems of Yoga + Āyurveda are at LEAST 5,000+ yrs old, because they were passed by word of mouth through the beautiful transmission of sutras in Sanskrit, likely for hundreds of years beyond that. To honor the teachings and my teachers themselves, I will do my best to translate some key concepts from Sanskrit (संस्कृतं, Saṃskṛtaṃ) as we go!
Āyu (आयुर्) means ‘life’, and Veda (वेढ) signifies a living system of wisdom, or ‘science’. So, Āyurveda roughly translates to “the science of Life“. It may sound dramatic at first, but in my many years of studying this beautiful tradition, it is anything but.
Āyurveda presents an intuitive system of understanding how ALL of Nature works, through elemental principles and uniting philosophies that are evident in all of the Earth’s beautiful cycles and rhythms — our bodies are included in that ecosystem. Inherent within an Ayurvedic approach is the recognition that our body is OF the Earth, and thus, the principles of Nature apply to the functioning of its systems — in health, maintenance, and dis-ease.
When we understand these fundamental principles, we can begin to understand the unique and complex organism that houses our soul — the body as a sacred vessel with its own entirely unique needs, rhythms, and language to come to understand for ourselves. Because when we can understand our bodies language, we can better understand what it needs + how to support its healing.
SO, all of that being said — now I will share some of those key principles with you! This is to lay the foundation for some of the terms I will share over the course of the coming months, alongside Āyurvedic health tips + practices to support your vitality + wellbeing!
Pancha Maha Bhutas: THE FIVE ELEMENTS: THE FORMLESS TAKING FORM AS CREATION…
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