What is Katonah Yoga?
Katonah Yoga is a functional Hatha yoga practice with a Taoist flair. It is informed by Chinese medicine, sacred geometry, body and mind maps, numbers and lots of imagination. It is an inclusive and contemporary yoga style framed by a fascinating non-dogmatic theory based on universal principles found in nature.
Katonah Yoga® was founded in the early 1980s by Nevine Michaan in Upstate New York where she created, developed and continues to refine a style that is both practical and esoteric. She and her teachers incorporate classical Hatha yoga with Taoist theory, geometry, math, myth and metaphor — in a fun and poetic framework designed to potentiate personal and communal well-being.
Geometry of Numbers and the Katonah Magic Square. Glyph by Bruno Zalum ©2020A practical and mystical narrative
While most yoga refers to Hinduism and the Indian culture as their philosophical framework, Katonah Yoga filters the practice through a Taoist lens sprinkled with Western metaphors.
Rather than seeing it as a separate system or method, we can layer it as a lens on any other yoga style, spiritual practice; or even use it as a guideline for organizing a closet, writing a business plan or ruling a country.
While Katonah postures are inherently Hatha in nature, they are augmented with information from Chinese Taoist teachings in a useful and accessible way. Themes such as folding the body like origami, traveling maps of space and time, manipulating form for function, and developing a sense of personal measure are explored and refined in Katonah Yoga.
“The sun doesn't rise, the sun doesn't set. You rise, you set. Planets spin.”
— Nevine Michaan
The Magic Square
The Katonah theory is constructed around the Magic Square, or Lo Shu, a simple grid of numbers from 1 to 9 whose relations form a cosmic pattern of integrity and harmony.
This 3x3 grid has the number 5 at the center, mediating the polarities of 10 surrounding it. The number 5 makes it possible that the sum of any row, column or diagonal always adds up to 15, the magic constant.
In two dimensions, on paper, it is a tic-tac-toe board. In three dimensions, it becomes a cube. And in four dimensions, the cube becomes a body, a formidable form transforming in time.
Originally used for divination purposes by Chinese feng shui masters, we reference this practical and versatile map in Katonah Yoga to organize and divide any space into 9 parts: bottom, middle, top; left, middle, right; back, middle, front.
By placing the simple 3x3 grid on the body, we are shown the bigger picture, our explicit and implicit natures, our familiar and less familiar territory, where we love spending time and where we are terrified to even look.
“Yoga engages our body in a physical debate between forms that are personal, habitual, and largely unconscious; and forms that are archetypal, measured, and conscious. ”
— Abbie Galvin
The body as a house
Rather than thinking of the body as a temple, where we are required to be dutiful and obedient, we imagine the body as a house where we just get to be ourselves.
One of the central metaphors in Katonah Yoga is seeing the body as a house; an abode for the spirit to live in and thrive.
Once embodied, this house becomes a home, a triplex with nine rooms, ten doors and three floors.
The first floor is our basement.
This is the ground floor of our being, the housing of our subconscious and lunar side. Our first floor is our stability and how we connect to the planet and our first primitive nature: food, sex, money and water.
The second floor is our living quarters.
This is the heart of our home, where our conscious and solar nature resides. This is the floor of our competency and ability to articulate our feelings and desires, so we can make contact out in the world and within ourselves.
The third floor is our penthouse.
The cherry on the rooftop is where our superconscious and stellar nature lives. This is all about our vision and how we use our imagination to organize and free our mind.
Yin Yang, Pattern and Paradox
What you see is true. What you don’t see is also true. You can ask yourself, what am I seeing? and what am I not seeing? But the big questions are, where am I? and what am I looking at?
The gorgeous maps on this page are Nevine’s lifework, and act as both meditation manuals and geographical charts of the body to orient ourselves in space and time. Katonah Yoga is organized around three principles of esoteric dialogue:
All polarities are mediated by trinity.
While yin and yang appear as opposites, the magic of their relationship is the yin in the yang and yang in the yin; an integration of polarities mediated by a third thing, you.
The intelligence of the universe is revealed through pattern.
We are part of nature and abide to her patterns and cycles. From obvious ones like the seasons, cycles of the moon or aging, to more subtle ones like our sleep patterns or the unconscious compulsion to repeat behavior, pattern is at the core of our design and mystery.
With repetition comes insight.
The practice becomes a place for us to address the patterns in our lives via the patterns in our bodies. And because the narrative of our lives is embedded into our cells, we use the postures and conscious repetition to alter our psychology by reorganizing our physiology.
Sounds fancy? It’s actually quite simple. Just give it a try!
While the theory underlying the practice can sound intricate at times, a Katonah class is an embodied physical experience that is simple, lighthearted and fun. Over time, and with the gift of repetition, the material comes to life giving us insights and revelations for a true personal revolution.ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I feel immense gratitude for finding the Katonah practice and studying directly with Nevine Michaan, Abbie Galvin, Dages Juvelier Keates, Mary Dana Abbott and many other fantastic teachers from our global community. The maps and glyphs on this page are formulated by Nevine Michaan and beautifully illustrated by Susan Fierro. For more material and information about this practice, please visit the Katonah Yoga Center website.