Shiva Nata: a fan-page
What is Shiva Nata?
Shiva Nata is a movement art, like Tai Chi, but from the Yoga tradition. It’s designed to drive you crazy and may also turn you into a super-genius. It’s unconventional to say the least. If you want to learn, head over to Shiva Nata.com and get the starter kit.
This is my Shiva Nata fan page. Or maybe it’s a hate page, we’ll have to see. It has some thoughts on Shiva Nata, and some of the cheat sheets and tools I’m using.
It occurred to me others might benefit from these too, so I’m sharing them here.
Shiva Nata practice sheets
I share these in the hope they will help make the practice more fun, more scrutable, and less hair-tearing for my fellow Shivanauts, and make it easier slightly less hard to access the genius-inducing goodness.
If it helps you learn, or inspires you to do your own crazy things, I have succeeded. Thank you.
These are all printable PDFs. You can bring them with you so you can practice when you don’t have your computer or DVD player handy.
Level 1 – All Positions
What it is: the numbers for level 1 arms, written down
Use when: practising without the DVD (while travelling maybe) or when you’re learning to say the numbers or learn them by heart
How does it work: For each of the four starting positions, there are two blocks of numbers. Start with the block on the left, and run through the positions row by row. At the end of each row, you’re back at the starting position. Then move to the other side for the mirror reflection, which is the block on the right.
Level 2 – Starting positions
What it is: the level 2 starting positions as demonstrated on the DVD
Use when: you’re boggled by the size and structure of level 2, or you want to learn the starting positions by heart
Level 2 – Practice sets
What it is: All the level 2 starting positions, rearranged, so you can practice them in handy chunks
Use when: it takes you several days to run through level 2 and you despair of ever learning the whole thing
Bonus Pattern: FQ (Difficulty level: 1.5)
What it is: A brand new way to hit yourself in the face!
Use when: You’re looking for a more interesting way to practice the transquarters, you’re somewhere between level 1 arms and level 3 and you’d like to try something different
Writings
New: Chaos, Infinity and Doing it Wrong
A post about the right way to do Shiva Nata, and why I think it’s OK to make up your own patterns.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh! This is so awesome!!!!! THANK YOU> This will replace my crumpled notebook scribblings taped to my wall :)
This. Is. Awesome. But I can’t help but feel like some sort of taboo has been breached. Like high holy secrets are now available to the uninitiated.
But hey, I’ll take it!
Oh my goodness, these are so delicious. One more totally incomprehensible thing to stick on my wall for my boyfriend to mock–as if the sight of me doing the movements wasn’t enough. Thank you so much!
Wow, these are awesome!
Thanks so much for putting these out there.
Hey you guys, thanks for the comments! So glad you like the sheets.
Note: @JeniaLaszlo (http://jenialaszlo.com/) rightly points out there’s a mistake in the first sheet. Challenge: see if you can find it! No, just kidding, I’ll fix it soon. EDIT: Fixed now, thank you for your patience.
@Gina: you know, I do worry about that sometimes. Then again, I also think Shiva Nata is too big to be contained; it’s bigger than you or me, or even all the practitioners and teachers put together. To think that I could ruin it or damage it somehow by putting something on a website is… it’s hilariously stupid. It’s hubris.
Also: to anyone not already doing the dance, it’s just a bunch of numbers. To me, playing with and writing down and figuring out the numbers is important, but without the movements, there’s no magic.
Can I guess the mistake? I suspect the 21 and the 12 are the wrong way round in the bottom row of the 21 positions. You’ve got me hooked on finding the patterns :o)
O M F G
I can’t even understand the cheat sheets! Why are there two columns of the numbers? Is one vertical and one horizontal or one legs and one arms?
GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Thanks for creating these, I hope to find them helpful soon.
xxoo
Hello Willie,
That thing corrected yet?
I’m getting it on in a couple of days and would love to use it.
Cheers.
Bij gelegenheid, groetjes uit Krakau (had niet gezien dat jij Nederlandse was =)
Ik ben Pool, maar ik spreek Nederlands omdat ik er gestudeerd heb (in Nijmegen, had vroeger ook in Amsterdam gekraakt).
Mvg :*
Ok, I think I might know…the left column is both arms in one direction and the right is one arm in one direction, the other in the opposite? My brain hurts, but there are ideas and epiphanies sploding around everywhere. xxoo
Giraffe man, yes, it is now corrected. Wij vragen excuses voor het oponthoud. ;) Hoe is het weer in Krakau?
Chicsinger: I hope my tweet and the added explanation above help. Or, perhaps it was good to let you figure it out on your own? (I didn’t do that on purpose, I wasn’t online yesterday.
Sho nuff Willie! Thanks, I think you are right that it was good for me to figure (somewhat) out on my own. You rock!
>>Wij vragen excuses voor het oponthoud. ;)
Doet me denken aan de NS, die eigenlijk een heel punctueel en netjes onderhouden bedrijf zijn, vergeleken met het Poolse PKP.
>>Hoe is het weer in Krakau?
Gelijk zoals mensen die naar Nederland komen niet weten wat regen is, weet je niet wat winter is voordat je eens naar de voormalige Oostblok komt.
MAW koooooooud.
Thanks for the sheets again, I promise I won’t procrastinate given you invested your time and were nice enough to share them with us. And made them look classy at that.
Cheers!
Hi Willie
Super reference sheets! I came back to print them but the level one sheet link is getting an “unfound” error :o(
You’re right, sorry about that! Fixed now!