Seasonal Yoga Introduction

Why Do We Experience Seasons?

Seasons are experienced on earth because of the tilt of the earth’s axis (not due to distance from the sun).

• The seasons occur as the earth, tilted on its axis, travels around the Sun.
• Because of the Earth’s tilt, it orbits the sun on a slant.
• Summer is experienced in the hemisphere tilted toward the sun.
• Winter happens in the hemisphere titled away from the sun.

More details:

• The tilt stays the same, meaning that the two hemispheres point toward the same position in space throughout the year. However, the two hemispheres point toward or away from the sun at particular times. (timeanddate.com)
• Earth is closest to the sun every year in early January, when it’s winter in the Northern Hemisphere.
• When the North Pole is tilted toward the sun, the Northern Hemisphere has Summer Solstice. When the South Pole is tilted toward the sun, the Southern Hemisphere has Summer Solstice.

IF THE EARTH’S AXIS WASN’T TILTED

Because of the [23.4 degree tilt of the Earth’s axis], we receive the Sun’s rays most directly in the summer. In the winter, when we are tilted away from the Sun, the rays pass through the atmosphere at a greater slant, bringing lower temperatures. If the Earth rotated on an axis perpendicular to the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun, there would be no variation in day lengths or temperatures throughout the year, and we would not have seasons. – infoplease, The Rite of Spring  

Seasonal Yoga

An intelligent yoga practice encompasses both internal and external alignment. Internally… this is about cleaning and reorganizing your internal world so that it becomes a joy to live in the body… Aligning your external circumstances is to position yourself in the centre of time and space, perceiving what is going on outside… You use the practice to transcend your personal narrative. Alignment to the seasons is a great way to participate in Nature’s external alchemy. – Kat Villain 

• The Sanskrit word for season (“ritus”) comes from “ritam,” meaning the “cosmic rhythm” or the “evolutionary pulse of creation.” (Saul David Raye)
• Honoring the rhythms of nature honors the flow of our own lives and is an opportunity to be in harmony with all of Life.
• Seasonal Yoga refers to practices attuned to the changing rhythms and energy of the seasons.