C A R Y L U N A

to call myself beloved, to feel myself beloved on the earth

Contemplative Yoga Practice

Practice Your Life

Centering In This Right Here, This Right Now

Practice happens in the present moment of your life as you’re living it; practice your life.

Yoga at Xenana

Monday 9-10am

Wednesday 9-10am + 12-1pm (yin)

Saturday 9:30-10:45am + 11-12pm (sliding scale $1-15)

Sunday 10-11am

Continuous & Connected

This is my response to the contemporary 200hr training model, an aspiration/attempt to honor the more traditional guru-shishya or parampara that is central to the heart of the practice. Each week I send out 3-4 recordings 60-90 minutes in length that include discussion of the teachings and a physical posture practice. While I do offer alignment techniques I am not an alignment-based teacher. My intention is to honor the moon, not necessarily the finger pointing at it. You have lived in your body this entire time, your wisdom is already vast.

I understand bodies to be the current iteration of the evolutionary brilliance of the cosmos, all those billions of light years having brought each of us precisely to this moment connected to everyone and everything in all the circles and dimensions of time AND we are living through a massive shift in planetary life as we know it. How can practice support us?

By deepening into the real-time research of our own bodies the feeling of trusting what emerges can be established; and utilizing with humility the profound teachings of this indigenous practice from India, and incorporating them into daily life, we can reclaim and be reclaimed by the beauty of simplicity, reestablish ourselves in right, reciprocal relationship with our most vibrant planet and all of her people.

Cary Spaeth

I have been a dedicated practitioner of Yoga for more than half my life, and have been teaching for a little more than a decade. I came to Shadow Yoga after the death of my father when I was in my  early 30s, having felt the instinctual/intuitive pull to an established and strong container that I understood to be authentic in its approach, and have been on that particular path ever since. The elegance of that practice informs the facilitation I offer, and supports my life in every other way. In another life I was the steward of North Portland Yoga, and that was an honor in the highest. I attempt to be a humble guest on this path and bow deeply to the lands whence it comes, hold that Yoga cannot capitulate to capitalism, and that we have to learn that radical wisdom in our bodies so that we may continue imagining and shaping a livable world for all beings. I have studied in-depth with Sarah Trelease (completed YTT in 2011/12), from whom I received certification to teach hatha + vinyasa yoga; and I have learned the Shadow Yoga practice from Mandy Kruger. I have recently embarked upon the path of deathwork, having  participated in the training retreat with Alua Arthur and Going With Grace in November, 2022. I am currently enrolled in the course and plan to become a nationally certified death doula. I am so very honored to be in this practice and in this life with you.