Apparently, there was a bit of confusion out there about the moon day. Several folks I talked to were under the impression that the moon day was today, probably because of notices like this stating the full moon would occur at 3:36 AM on 5-16-03. In some parts of the world that time is correct. But, as is noted on that calendar, and several others that I've looked at, the time of the full moon is given in Universal Time, or Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). That's the time that it's full way over in England. Where I live, it occured on 5-15-03 at 8:46 PM, as shown here.

This is an interesting month, moon-wise. Yesterday, we had the first total lunar eclipse visible in North America in the last three years. And, we have a blue moon coming up at the end of the month, something that occurs roughly every two or three years.

That's about the extent of my astrology/astronomy knowledge. Our teacher will sometimes ask us at the end of class if we know what astrological events are in the offing. I always give him this vacuous look that quickly communicates my absolute ignorance. I've never given that whole astrology business much credence. At first glance, it just all seems a little too self-centered to me. Sort of a pre-Galilean perspective, that the objects of the universe revolve around we humans. I know there's much more to it all than that. I've just never had the curiosity to look into it. I do admit to being psyched out by it a couple of times. I remember him talking about a particularly malefic celestial event last year, a conjunction between Mars and Saturn. He went on and on before class about the potentially harmful influences of this alignment. By the time we finally got started, I was too scared to really try anything for fear of injury. It was my stiffest practice almost since the first day I ever tried yoga.

Astrology does seem to strike a chord with people who do yoga though. I wonder why that is. Is it the personality type of a yogi? Is there something that makes them open to exploring non-traditional, non-mainstream viewpoints? Or is it a desire to delve more fully into other aspects of Indian culture? Doubt I'll ever know. Bunch of whackos if you ask me.

Hey, that was a joke, you whackos.

So, on the first day post full moon, the highly dangerous full moon energies still buzzing about, I did another double. I did the noon first series led class and the evening Intro to 2nd series. It's really not that much more than I do in a mysore class. In mysore, I finish after kapotasana. In the Intro class, we only do four postures beyond that. Still, it's not the kosher way. I had my reasons for doing it but they would sound a little foolish if I tried pleading them before my teacher. But, he's out of town for a couple of days. Both classes today were taught by the same person. He gave me a little double take when he walked in for the second class, but he sort of smiled and moved on to other things. There's not really much of a "my-way-or-the-highway" approach in the folks who teach around here. There is a preferred or correct way to do things and there's also an acknowledgement that, for better or worse, not everybody is going to take that correct approach. Instead of needing to force the issues and exert control, they choose to keep working with those scalawags like me. Usually, over time, we evolve to follow the better path.

Today was a clear, warm, sunny day. And the heater was on in the room, so generating internal heat was no problemo today. I had pretty good flexibility, for me anyway, in both directions today, forward bending in the first class, and backbending in the second. I also didn't get as tired as I thought I would. I think being more flexible than usual made it easier to not waste energy.

I did try my handstands after navasana at the front of my mat, rather than going to use the wall as a backstop. I didn't really do it any better than usual, but I do agree that is what I'll need to do to make the next progression into stability and prolongation of the posture. I'm ready to roll, Jason. Literally. Now, if I can just find some way to make progression in samakonasana. I can tell that hanumanasana will come , if I just get enough reps. But, I really have my doubts about samakonasana. I think it's going to be an arm balance for me for quite some time. Since we usually end up doing it three times (after prasarita D: samakonasana, then hanumanasana right side, then sama again, then hanu left, then the final sama), my arms are shaking by the time we're done. That posture is definitely the edgiest one for me. I get this sense that any moment something's gonna go SPROING in my groins. Fear rules in that posture.

Well, it's late. Give my bonanza of practicing today, my chances for tomorrow are slim. Lots of sports activities for the kids in the AM. One of the people who practices in our studio runs a trapeze that you can take turns on. The circus kind of trapeze. Death defying stunts and all that. I'm gonna see if the kids want to go do it this weekend some time. We'll see how it goes for practice on Sunday. I'm sure my wife will want to be the one who gets to go to the second series class. You never know though. Sometimes celestial events occur that prevent you from doing what you want to do.