Deirdre Saoirse Moen

Remember in June when I participated in The Great Namaste? An attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the number of people simultaneously doing yoga.

We Did It!

I got this funny email from organizer Tyler Tervooren:

Well, for those last four months, the record was only technically broken. We’ve been waiting… and waiting… and waiting for them to give us the official nod. Kind of like when you’re really excited to get someone’s phone number, but you can’t get a hold of them so you leave a message saying, “Uh, it was really nice to meet you and I think you’re super cool so, um… call me back?” And then you sit and wonder if you had bad breath or crazy eyes or something as each week passes and they don’t call.

And that’s how it felt with Guinness. UNTIL TODAY!

The only thing that’s missing at this point is they haven’t updated the listing on the website yet, which is kind of like when you start dating someone new and realize they still talk to their ex on Facebook. We’re trying not to be jealous, though. We’re certain it will be updated soon.

And Here I Am

In the detail of the above photo….

Originally published at deirdre.net. You can comment here or there.

Ever since Ben Thomas retired, I've had trouble sticking to a yoga practice.
( Cut for people not into yoga. )

I'm sitting here with my cat on my lap, wanting to get my 31 pages of handwritten notes before writing this up. However, he seems so happy, I can't bear to disturb him to fetch them.

Saturday, 9 a.m., Yoga

I've been doing yoga for a little over a year. When I started, I couldn't put my right ankle on my left knee (while sitting) and keep it there without some support -- kind of hard to do the impromptu laptop stand.

While Dorie led us through a lot of the usual yoga postures, one thing missing (especially for Pantheacon) is any sort of lead-in about why one does yoga. This exact sort of thing remained my frustration throughout the convention.

( Cut for Iyengar neepery. )

The 11 a.m. panel I went to was about Vodou, specifically as practiced in Haiti, and was a summoning of the Lwa Danbala-Wedo and his wife Ayida-Wedo, which are the more benificent (and therefore less frequently dramatized in Hollywood) spirits.

( Cut for Vodou discussion. )

At 1 p.m., I went to Orisha 101. Orisha is the religion of the Yorùbá and primarily found in Nigeria and Benin. The Orisha are not deities; Orisha is a monotheistic religion, with Oldumare as the deity and the Orishas as the emissaries. That said, one serves a specific Orisha primarily. One does not get to choose which one, either, just that it'll be one of the 401 of them.

Despite the difference in my own theology from this, I found myself very drawn to the people, especially Luisah Teish (who was not the main speaker, but who had some very good points to make during the question and answer). I sat next to a woman who'd been following the Orisha for a couple of years, who seemed like a real joy.

Thalassa's panel on Tarot will get her own entry.