Tadasana Heron

HOQUIAM, Wash.

I know. I take a lot of photos of the great blue heron. They are such elegant birds though, and they have been readily presenting themselves as subjects on my walks along the river and the harbor.

I found this one while walking across Riverside Bridge a couple weekends ago.

It was hunting up and down along those beams. At first I assumed it was fishing, but then I watched it catch two wriggling snakes.

Tadasana (mountain pose in English) is a standing yoga pose. Practitioners ground themselves through the feet, aligning vertically (like the heron in the headline pic) and stretching up through the crown of the head. The pose teaches groundedness, stability, and confidence.

As a mythological symbol, the great blue heron can also spur confidence. In his seminal work “Animal Speak,” Ted Andrews writes: “According to North American Native tradition, the Blue Heron brings messages of self-determination and self-reliance. … The long thin legs of the heron reflect that even though we must be able to stand on our own, we don’t need legs that are great massive pillars to remain stable. Blue Herons have the innate wisdom of being able to maneuver through life and co-create their own circumstances.”

According to guru B.K.S. Iyengar, tadasana teaches awareness of the connections of the body, beginning with the feet to the legs and upward through all connections of the torso. “In the correct positioning … the mind is engaged in watching the limbs and trunk, resulting in a turning of the mind inward towards the core.”

The core is where one can find their innate wisdom for moving through life.

Lately, I have been looking to find my feet and figure out my way through life, having been in and out of work for the past six months. Seeing the heron standing in tadasana affirmed for me that, even though I’ve felt lost a good chunk of the time, I have been finding my own way forward (beginning a journey of co-creative self-determination and self-reliance through Steem, for example) and it reminded me that I’ll find the best next step by looking inward.

Of course, the purpose of yoga (the spiritual sort) is to position the body to awaken the kundalini, or life force. Kundalini is often represented as a snake coiled at the base of the spine: when awakened, it flows upward along the spine, often in a serpentine pattern.

The heron uses a statuelike pose as a hunting technique – it was standing motionless in tadasana in order to catch the snake. So maybe the message that the heron brought to me, is that I need to restart my yoga practice in order to capture my best life flow.

Namaste!

References

Katherine. “Great Blue Heron.” Mulberryshoots. Accessed May 29, 2019. https://mulberryshoots.com/2011/05/09/great-blue-heron/.

Labbe, Michelle. “Kundalini Yoga Life Force.” Love to Know. Accessed May 29, 2019. https://yoga.lovetoknow.com/kundalini-yoga-life-force.

“Mountain: Tadasana.” Yoga Basics. Accessed May 29, 2019. https://www.yogabasics.com/asana/mountain/.

“Tadasana.” Iyengar Yoga Aspen. Accessed May 29, 2019. https://www.iyengaryogaaspen.com/tadasana.html.