Women in the history of yoga
The context, the sources, the divine, power, feminism and the #metoo movement.
Thanks to those of you who came to my free masterclass on the history of women in yoga.
I am now officially open for bookings for my 4-part course on the same topic. If you enjoyed the masterclass you will LOVE this.
Here are practical the details:
Course: Women in Yoga: An Exploration
Dates: 17th & 24th April, 1st & 8th May (Wednesdays).
Time: 7-9pm (UK time).
Location and format: live, online, lectures and discussion.
If you can’t make it live there will be recordings available to catch up with.
Cost: early bird £210, full price £260,
Reduced cost bursary place £110. See the course page here for more info on the bursary and to apply.
Have you come across the idea that there are few sources about women in pre-modern yoga? (Maybe you got that idea from me.) If YES, you might be thinking, Amelia, how can you teach, and what can I learn, on this topic for over four sessions?
Let me tell you!
Each week has a theme and I present specific texts and evidence, based on research I’ve done as part of my MA and PhD work. This is a well researched course.
Week 1 - Sources
In the first week I’ll introduce and contextualise our search for women in yoga by examining the framework and definitions we need on this journey. When teaching yoga history, I often start here, with the big questions - what is yoga, what does ‘history’ mean, how can we understand gender - so everyone’s on the same page from the outset.
We’ll look at pre-modern hatha yoga textual sources, specifically the Amanaska, the Dattatreyayogasastra, and the Hathapradipika, from the 12th, 13 and 15th century, respectively. There are some interesting verses on women, mudras and pranayama.
Week 2 - Divine
I’ll widen the search beyond hatha sources towards divine representations of women in tantra. We’ll look at yoginis, śakit, and duti in ritual contexts, as written in the Brahmayamala (8th century) and ask: what can textual sources tell us about the spiritual lives of real women? I include a Buddhist source, to bridge the gap between the pre-modern and modern, the real lives and the representations of women.
Week 3 - Power
Here, we’ll move into modern yoga. Is there room for women in the living lineage of hatha yogis today? I consider whether or not women in India are entitled to become ascetics, in the same way men are, if at all.
I’ll talk about some of the powerful women that influenced the global spread of yoga. You’ve probably heard of Swami Vivekananda and T. Krishnamacharya but what do you know about Madame Blavatsky or Indra Devi? And how did the media, the Olympics, and beauty ideals impact the role of yoga in modern society?
Week 4 - Feminism
In the final week I continue to look at the cultural space yoga occupies. What social movements and forces made yoga a practice that women engaged, and continue to engage, with in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries.
The discussion will bring us right up to contemporary times and issues - we will discuss yoga in relation to feminism and differing ideas of liberation, the natural childbirth movement, and the #metoo movement. We will look to the future and consider how moving beyond traditional lineage towards the post-lineage in yoga could act as a support to women in yoga.
There will be time for reflections, discussion and questions in every session but in the final week there will be extra dedicated time for this.
Does this sound interesting? I’d love you to join me!
If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ve probably noticed that I’ve moved my mailing list over here, to Substack. I hope the transition works for you? It works for me! It gives me more space to share longer essay-style pieces based on my work and research, which I want to share with you, as well as news on upcoming courses.
This piece is the latter but in the coming weeks I hope to write more essays based around women’s relationship with yoga throughout history. If you have any thoughts or questions about the course, I love to hear them, pop them in the comments.