Sian Pascale: My passage into teaching Yoga
HI, I AM SIAN PASCALE
And I am the Founder and Lead Instructor at The Light Collective and an E-RYT 500 Yoga Alliance Certified Teacher.
I teach yoga in a way that is energetic, alchemical, intuitive and highly feminine. I work with tantrik principles, hatha & kundalini movements and breath & meditation practices to teach yoga in a way that connects you to a feeling.
I teach because i love teaching and right now there is nothing else in the world I would prefer to do. I also love really teaching, that is, going into depth with real yogi practices and wisdom. It’s like there is an urgency within my karmic imprint that pushes the work out of me and I must share it in as much depth and with as many people as possible.
If you who are new to my work, you might like to read some of the testimonials to hear how people experience me and what I do.
THE BEGINNINGS
I began practicing meditation at 16. I was experiencing consistent migraines, so debilitating that I was in hospital almost every month. My high school English teacher gave me a meditation tape and I began practicing guided meditation every day for 40 minutes. My migraines stopped recurring incessantly and this new daily practice did something magic for me- it connected me to my energy body.
By 19 I was studying architecture, but I had pushed myself to burn-out. It was at this time I began to practice Ashtanga yoga and Ayurveda and these practices allowed me to understand how to balance myself and harmonise myself physically and mentally, through food and lifestyle.
When I first started practicing yoga in 2001 there were no designer yoga studios in Melbourne. Teachers taught from home, or the gym or (as I found) in a primary school class room with the tiny chairs pushed to the side of the room as we sweated it out on the mat. My first teacher Njala told me I needed to practice every day and gave me his yoga mat so that I would do it. From there I ended up practicing at the Ashtanga school in Melbourne with Karen, and for the first 10 years of my practice I showed up for myself on the mat every day. It didn’t matter whether I was in Melbourne, London, Delhi, Copenhagen or Rotterdam, I was practicing yoga, learning from different teachers and totally immersed in the asana.
Yoga felt familiar to me, an imprint from many lives of previous work, and these years helped me to understand yoga through consistent practice and embodiment. It was just a part of my life.
MOVING TO INDIA
Moving to India, however was what really accelerated my spiritual path. I had already visited India for several months at a time in my 20s and loved it with my heart and soul. So, at 29, I packed up my life in Australia and moved to India, with the vague intention of working for my favourite architect and of course to continue to practice and learn yoga.
I ended up accidentally starting my own architecture and design firm and simultaneously, I began practicing and learning under my teacher (and beloved soul sister) Vandana Yadav. Her intuitive and eclectic teaching style incorporated ashtanga, vinyasa, yin, kalaripayattu (Indian martial arts), kundalini kriya, pranayama and meditation. It was like nothing I had ever experienced and those two years with her would turn me into the teacher I am today.
With her I not only practiced and learnt, but I was also given the opportunity to teach. She knew I was passionate and dedicated, and she also expected things from me- if I was going to teach for her I needed to show up 3+ times a week to train with her. She taught me discipline and commitment to a teacher, she was someone I trusted and looked up to as a mentor and senior.
TRAININGS & TANTRA
By this stage I had been practicing yoga daily for 12 years, and I also finally felt ready to become a certified instructor. I knew yoga asana in my bones, I knew all the postures, the alignment the transitions, but when I started my Yoga Teacher Training (YTT200) in Goa, (India) I was finally given initiation into the whole system- pranayama, mantra, meditation and philosophy. It was in this training that I was fortunate enough to be finally exposed to the Tantrik system of yoga, and was initiated into some tantric philosophy and lots of pranayama. I couldn’t believe that I had spent 12 years practicing yoga and had never properly been taught pranayama. I felt jibbed! I knew I had to teach this incredibly powerful work to as many people as possible.
It was at this point I knew that all I wanted to do was teach yoga, so I put aside my successful architecture career (that i loved!) and began to teach in India and Australia.
I decided to continue my studies and went to Rishikesh to delve into Vedic philosophy and mantra. Whilst there, I met another tantra teacher with whom I practiced White Tantra, (asana, pranayama, meditation, chakras) for 2 years. This was a very profound time for me as I dove into the Indian White Tantra practices and simultaneously began learning Shakti White Tigress techniques (jade egg + breast massage) all whilst working as a full time yoga teacher in Melbourne and continuing to train in yin yoga, and yogic philosophy. This time gave me insight into the extreme power of the Tantrik practice and the wisdom to only teach what I know and have embodied and what I feel is safe to teach.
IT IS THROUGH WORKING WITH THE DIVINE FEMININE
THAT I HAVE DISCOVERED MY BODY TO BE SACRED AND LEARNT
HOW TO HONOUR & CONNECT WITH MY OWN CYCLES & RHYTHMS
The very first TLC event ‘A Space for Connection’ Jan 2017 attracting 250 people
THE LIGHT COLLECTIVE & my trainings
In 2017, a series of wild circumstances led to me a point of ground zero- I had nothing- no home, no job, no partner and barely any money. It was at this point I started the Light Collective! With my biggest supporter Natalie LeSeuer by my side, we started with a free yoga workshop in a park (that attracted over 250 people see above) and from there we hit the ground running and haven’t stopped!
From the early days of Full Moon workshops and yoga retreats, to teacher trainings and now the new world of online yoga, The Light Collective seems to be a being in itself, guiding me to always grow and expand our offerings.
I have continued my tantrik yoga studies, spending 2.5 years (1,000hrs) becoming a facilitator in women’s specific practices, sexuality, neo tantra, couples sacred sexuality, Taoist practices of tantra and other feminine embodiment practices with Jenni Mears. I completed my 300hr certification in Rishikesh, India diving deep into the world of Himalayan Kundalini Kriya. And I have now began to study with Sanskrit scholar and UC Berkley Professor Christopher Tompkins, whose groundbreaking work has led me down the rabbit hole of Classical Tantra and the ancient texts, information I am slowly revealing to my teacher trainees. I am extremely excited about this body of work and as I learn, I will continue to offer my students in depth, well resourced teachings and practices.
I am here on this planet to give as many people as possible the opportunity to experience a holistic, spiritual, embodied yoga practice.
I have zero interest in westernising and colonising yoga by stripping it of it’s mantras, language and sacredness. I want to give it to you as I have been taught it in India and the West from my incredible teachers, over the course of the past 20 years.
TEACHING WOMEN & TLC
I teach everyone, but I just seem to attract women. And the deeper I go into my own body and the study of yoga the more I realise the traditional spiritual road map was set up by men for men.
Many of the practices I have been taught, much of the Vedic philosophy and the way I have been taught, were designed for the male body or through a masculine consciousness.
I have had to untangle myself from masculine teaching styles and practices, incorrect teachings and redesign the way I practice and teach so as to step into the feminine.
Creating the Light Collective has been my biggest teacher in this, it has meant living in the principle of Shakti and allowing myself to be guided all the way in how this yoga school evolves- and it continues to push me towards redefining a yoga that is taught from the feminine.
My team and I have taught thousands of classes for tens of thousands of people and we will continue to do so in the hope that we can keep the tantrik yoga tradition, its beauty and its potency alive.
My Trainings & experience*
Ashtanga Vinyasa - 12 year personal daily practice | Australia, India, Europe.
Vandana Yadav - 2 year personal teaching mentorship and training | Mumbai, India
200hr Yoga Teacher Training - Tribe Yoga | Goa, India
50hr Yogic Philosophy & Mantra - Parmath Niketan | Rishikesh, India
White Tantra - 2 year mentorship | India & Melbourne
50hr Yin Yoga training - Hugh Lee | Melbourne, Australia
50hr Yoga Practice & Philosophy - Peter Cohen | Melbourne Australia
300hr Himalaya Kundalini Kriya | Rishiskesh, India
1000hr Fembodiment Training Level 1 & 2- Jenni Mears | Online
Classical Tantrik Tests and Practice- currently | studying with Christopher Tompkins
Pregnancy Yoga - Anahat Giri - In person | Melbourne Australia
*I have chosen to omit the names of teachers accused or under allegations of abuse that have been revealed to me in recent times to avoid encouraging anyone to continue practicing with them.
** There have been many different ashrams, workshops and trainings I have taken part in over my 20 years of passionate yoga practice, but for the sake of brevity i have condensed it down to this.
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