Nāda Nakșatra Upāsana

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Nāda Nakṣatra Upāsana

South Indian Healing Sound Practice

All music can affect the emotions, but there are particular rāgas that may be of immediate and profound benefit to your manas, your emotional and instinctual mind. We use the rāga, a scale, that is associated with the position of the moon when you were born.

Full program: $1008 = 4 one hour private sessions + 5 live group classes Sundays 5/18 - June 22 on Zoom + pre-recorded materials from previous cohorts + WhatsApp audio and video support as you integrate the practices - sign up HERE for the early enrollment special before 4/14

Private Sessions Only: $400 includes 2 one hour sessions + audio and video support through WhatsApp between sessions - schedule anytime HERE

This Nāda Yoga (Yoga of Sound) program can help you work through unprocessed emotions and complicated feelings by way of listening and resonating with rāga music, Classical Indian music.

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Vedic Astrology & Indian Music

Nāda Nakṣatra Upāsana:

Nāda Nakṣatra Upāsana,is a Nāda Yoga practice that links Vedic Astrology and Indian Music. It arises from the Temples of Tamil Nadu in South India.

Nāda = Sound

Nakṣatra = Constellation

Upāsana = Practice

Each of the 27 nakṣatras or lunar constellations are aligned with an Indian rāga, a scale or a song that creates a specific emotional response in the listener. In the private sessions you'll learn the song or scale that is best suited for you based on your natal birth chart.

We'll listen to and learn to sing śruti-based (microtonal) music for aligning emotions. This upāya, or Vedic Astrological remedy, aligns and calms the manas, the emotional, sensory, and instinctual mind.

Sliding or microtonal śruti exercises using your voice and the notes or svāras in your rāga or scale can clear the nadis, the subtle channels in the body, alleviating stagnancy and blockages.

The Sufi mystic Hazrat Inayat Khan used this upāya, as did Rukmini Devi from Kalakshetra School in Madras, Tamil Nadu.

Sarod maestro K. Sridhar has been sharing this technique with Allison since 2010. He descends from 14 generations of temple musicians and 20 generations of Jyotiși's . His mother was a famous Brahmin singer in the temples and Sridhar's lineage is the Brīhadīśvara Temple of Thanjur, connected to Mannargudi Raja Gopala Śastri and Tyagaraja, the Father of Carnatic Music. Sridhar learned directly from the Senior Dagar Brothers, Ali Akbar Khan, and Ravi Shankar.

You can learn more about Allison's music guru here.

Aligning emotions with sound

Spring 2025 Schedule

Sundays: May 18 - June 22 - 10-11:30am w/ no class June 1

Lifetime Access to materials in the Teachable portal. Videos are replaced with newer ones as the course continues to be offered, and you maintain access to the portal with all updated information.

How does Nāda Nakșatra Upāsana work?

Listening to music and singing are easy and accessible ways to uplift our mood, honor our felt experience, and give voice to our emotional life. In your private sessions you will learn the rāga (a scale) connected to the star the moon was in when you were born. This is an ancient Vedic upaya (remedy) that astrologers, musicians, dancers, and shamans have used as a way to help someone feel more aligned and in tune with Reality.

Private sessions will focus on sound practices with your birth chart as a guidepost. Group classes will teach you the practices.

What singing can do for your wellbeing:

increased focus and attention
mood regulation
decreased effects of anxiety and depression
increased levels of serotonin, dopamine, and GABA in the brain
stimulates the vagus nerve and activates the parasympathetic nervous system functions of rest and digest
social cohesion and strengthening of community
aid in our ability to overcome emotional challenges

Working with the rāga as a mantra of non syllabic vibration can be a powerful tool for calming the mind and easing worry, doubt, and frustration. If you've already worked with Allison on your moon's raga for at least one year we can begin to work with other rāgas connected to other planetary positions in your birth chart.

Allison Dennis