Divine Human Mystery School, Part 6: Somatheeram

Psyche & Co. presents · Divine Human Mystery School · Part 6 of 7

In the monsoon's green hush, the body remembers it is a temple.

The sixth gathering of the Divine Human Mystery School is the longest and the gentlest. For ten days on the Kerala coast, at Somatheeram, an Ayurvedic health resort at Chowara near Kovalam, the focus turns to the body: to rest, healing and integration after the journey so far. Andrew Harvey offers teachings on the body as the dwelling place of the divine, alongside time for Ayurvedic care, sleep and stillness.

Spiritual traditions have often treated the body as an obstacle. The Divine Human path insists otherwise: whatever awakening we come to must live in flesh, nerves and breath, or it does not truly live. This is a week to let the body catch up with the soul.

The place

Ayurveda, India's traditional system of medicine, remains a living practice in Kerala. Here the monsoon is traditionally regarded as the best season for Ayurvedic treatment, above all during Karkidakam, the last month of the Malayalam calendar, which falls between mid-July and mid-August. In Kerala tradition the cool, moist air is thought to make the body especially receptive to oil therapies and to cleansing and strengthening treatments, and this is known as the season for rejuvenation.

Somatheeram lies at Chowara, south of Kovalam in Thiruvananthapuram district, on the Arabian Sea coast. Kerala Tourism describes it as the first resort to have made Ayurvedic teachings widely known beyond India's borders. In July the coast is green and rain-washed, the sea runs high, and the days take on the slow rhythm the season invites.

The teachings

• The body as temple: why embodiment is the ground, not the obstacle, of spiritual life, in the mystics and in the Divine Human vision.
• Rest as a sacred act: unlearning the belief that worth must be earned through exhaustion.
• Healing and wholeness: the old link between the words, and the difference between curing and being made whole.
• Integration: gathering up what the earlier parts of the Mystery School have opened, so that insight settles into daily life.
• Receptivity: the monsoon as an image of the soul's need to be watered rather than to strive.

A sketch of the days

1. ArrivalArrival on the Kerala coast, settling in, and an opening circle introducing the theme of the body as temple.
2. Days 2–4A slow rhythm of gentle morning teaching, individual Ayurvedic consultation and care as arranged, and long afternoons of rest.
3. Days 5–7Teachings on healing and wholeness, contemplative practice, and time by the sea in the monsoon light.
4. Days 8–9Integration: reflecting on the journey through the series so far, in pairs and in the whole circle.
5. DepartureA closing blessing and preparation for the final gathering, Part 7 in Pondicherry, in August. A sketch of the days; the final programme will be confirmed.

This is an outline to give you a feel for the days. The final programme, teachers and timings will be confirmed with the dates.

What you'll take home

• Deep, unhurried rest during the season Kerala tradition holds best for Ayurvedic care.
• A more loving and attentive relationship with your own body.
• Ways of honouring rest and receptivity in a working life.
• A sense of how the teachings of the Mystery School have settled in you, ready for the culmination.
• Time to be cared for, rather than always caring for others.

Who it's for

This gathering is for therapists, psychologists and caregivers who know the cost of their work in their bodies, and for anyone who senses that their spiritual life needs to come home to the flesh. Ayurvedic treatment is individual and not suitable for everyone, so any care will follow consultation with the practitioners on site. It can be joined on its own or as part of the seven-part series.

Photographs via Wikimedia Commons: Vyacheslav Argenberg (CC BY 4.0); Hans A. Rosbach (CC BY-SA 3.0); Manu M G (CC0).

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