In the Presence of Nymphs: genius loci
the spirit of place
Yoga Series online
Mondays & Thursdays
7:00–7:45am
September 24 - November 5
(13 Classes)
$130
Beginning at the threshold of autumn, In the Presence of Nymphs is a thirteen-class journey through the sacred landscapes where the ancient Greeks encountered the Nymphs: mountain and tree, spring and river, cave and grove, meadow, rock, valley and sea.
These are places we think we know. Yet in the ancient imagination, they were not always what they appeared to be. A spring could possess a presence. A cave could become an entrance to another world. A tree could share its life with a Nymph.
Genius loci — Latin, genius (guardian spirit) + loci (of a place): the presiding spirit, presence or distinctive character of a particular place.
Nympholepsy — from ancient Greek nymphólēptos, “seized by the Nymphs”: the experience of becoming so possessed, inspired or enraptured by the presence of the Nymphs that ordinary consciousness is altered.
Numinous — from Latin numen, divine presence, power or will; developed by Rudolf Otto as mysterium tremendum et fascinans: an encounter with the sacred that both overwhelms and attracts us—a mystery felt before it can be explained.
The Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite tells us that when the mountain Nymphs are born, “pines or high-topped oaks spring up with them upon the fruitful earth.” Their trees grow as they grow; when their lives come to an end, the trees perish with them.
Nymph and landscape belong to one life.
Each class enters one of these sacred dwelling places and listens for what the Nymphs might reveal there. Their secret teachings are carried through water, stone, root, darkness, flower, wind and wildness—not simply to enchant us, but to awaken something equally ancient within ourselves.
Through asana, storytelling, pranayama, myth, meditation and magic, we will explore the inner world of nature and the natural landscape within.
Perhaps the Nymphs ask us to remember something very simple:
the world is not merely something we look upon.
Sometimes, it looks back.
IN THE PRESENCE OF NYMPHS
Genius loci — the spirit of place
September 24 – November 5, 2026
Mondays & Thursdays · 45 minutes · All levels
Thursday, September 24
The Mountain & the Tree — Born Together
Oreads, Dryads & Hamadryads
We begin on Mount Ida, where the Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite tells of mountain Nymphs whose lives are bound to the trees that arise with them. Mountain and tree establish the ground of our journey: we do not stand outside nature looking in—we belong to it.
Asana: Tadasana → Vrksasana
Nymph's voice: “When they are born, firs and oaks with lofty boughs spring out of the earth.” — Homeric Hymn to Aphrodite
Monday, September 28
The Spring — Returning to Source
Naiads / Pegaeae
Before the river, there is the spring: water appearing from darkness, the invisible becoming visible. We begin close to the earth and allow movement gradually to well upward and outward.
Asana: fluid spine & hips → Ustrasana
Teaching: Where does movement begin before I move?
Thursday, October 1
The Sacred River — What Cannot Be Held
Naiads & River Nymphs
The spring begins to travel. The Nymphs inhabit Homer's sacred rivers flowing toward the sea. Through continuous movement, we enter the river's teaching: form remains alive precisely because it changes.
Asana: continuous vinyasa · spirals · waves
Teaching: Can I participate in change without trying to stop the water?
Monday, October 5
The Cave — Entering the Interior
Naiads of the Sacred Cave
In Odyssey XIII, a shadowy cave sacred to the Naiads contains honey, ever-flowing springs and stone looms where Nymphs weave purple cloth. One entrance belongs to mortals; another to immortals.
We turn inward—not toward emptiness, but toward what is quietly forming beyond ordinary sight.
Asana: forward folds · Pratyahara ·
Teaching: Something is being woven inside.
Thursday, October 8
The Sacred Grove — Among the Trees
Alseids / Nymphs of Groves
One tree becomes many. The grove introduces relationship: roots sharing earth, branches sharing sky, each tree distinct yet inseparable from the larger living community.
Asana: Vrksasana · Garudasana · Ardha Chandrasana · Warrior III
Teaching: What becomes possible when belonging is no longer solitary?
Monday, October 12
The Meadow — The Body That Receives
Nymphs of the Meadows
The ancient Nymphs inhabit grassy meadows as well as mountains, groves and river springs. Here there is nowhere to climb and nowhere to arrive. The meadow receives sunlight, rain, seed, animal, wind.
Asana: spacious & receptive · Supta Baddha Konasana
Teaching: What happens when receiving becomes a form of participation?
Thursday, October 15
The Rock — What Remains
Oreads / Mountain Nymphs
Rock carries a time much older than our own. Strength, bone, gravity and stillness bring us into relationship with what preceded us—and what will remain beyond us.
Asana: Virabhadrasana II · Skandasana · long standing holds
Teaching: Before my story, this was here. After my story, something remains.
Monday, October 19
The Valley — Between the Mountains
Napaeae / Nymphs of Valleys & Glens
The valley teaches descent. Water gathers here. Sound changes. What descends from the mountain finds another way of moving through the world.
Asana: lunges · bows · Hanumanasana progression
Teaching: What if descent is not falling, but entering more deeply?
Thursday, October 22
The Sea — The Great Unbounded Body
Nereids
Fresh water finally reaches the sea. In the Iliad, the Nereids gather around the grieving Thetis, filling her silvery cave. Here water becomes an image for the immensity of feeling: moving, holding, dissolving, returning.
Asana: waves · lateral movement · backbends · Matsyasana
Teaching: How much can I feel without requiring feeling to become fixed?
Monday, October 26
The Island — Surrounded by Mystery
Calypso & the Nymphs of Ogygia
Ogygia is cave, forest, meadow and water: four springs flow in four directions around Calypso's island. Surrounded by the unknown, we explore centre and circumference, solitude and belonging.
Asana: four-direction mandala practice
Teaching: Can I be alone without being separate?
Thursday, October 29
The Garden — What We Cultivate
Nymphs of Fruit & Flowering Earth
Now human hands enter the landscape. A garden exists between wildness and tending—between what grows by itself and what flourishes because we care for it.
Asana: twists · binds · flowering balances · Chapasana
Teaching: What grows because I attend to it?
Monday, November 2
The Threshold — Seen & Unseen
The Nymphs Between Worlds
The Orphic Hymn to the Nymphs calls them “seen and unseen” and finds them in caves, fountains, streams, valleys, mountains, rocks, woods and ocean.
As autumn deepens, practice moves toward the threshold between perception and mystery.
Asana: Pratyahara · closed-eye balance · stillness · meditation
Nymph's voice: “Seen and unseen…” — Orphic Hymn to the Nymphs
Thursday, November 5 - last class
When the World Looks BackThe Living World
Mountain. Tree. Spring. River. Cave. Grove. Meadow. Rock. Valley. Sea. Island. Garden.
The landscapes return, but our relationship to them has changed. We finish exactly where we began: standing upon the earth in Tadasana. Simply the human animal standing within a living world.
Asana: fragments of the twelve landscapes → Tadasana
Final teaching:
What happens when I stop assuming that I am the only one doing the looking?
Attention. Presence. Relationship.
Sometimes the world looks back.
“Surely there were spirits of forest, field, and stream long before the question of moral conscience ever existed.”
— C. G. Jung, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
“Behind the elemental beings of our study stand … Cybele and Aphrodite—in the last analysis, the Goddess Nature.”
— Emma Jung, The Anima as an Elemental Being
“Whirl up, sea—”
— H.D., Oread