August is Leo & Virgo Season

August is Leo & Virgo Season

Leo governs the heart and the upper back. Virgo governs the gut, the small intestine, the nervous system's capacity to sort and integrate. The elemental shift from Fire to Earth three quarters in the month is a shift that is both seasonal and energetic, where we move from the expansive outward brightness of Leo into Virgo's more exacting, inward attention.

This Augustโ€™s lunar cycle is also marked by eclipses, with the new moon on August 12 is a solar eclipse, and the full moon on August 28 is a lunar eclipse.

July is Cancer & Leo Season

July is Cancer & Leo Season

Solar plexus tapping is a percussive self-massage technique applied to the soft triangle just below the sternum, where the ribcage divides. The solar plexus (technically the celiac plexus) sits at the junction of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, and in yogic tradition marks the third chakra, the seat of personal agency and the capacity to act from one's own centre

Tapping here stimulates vagal tone and engages the enteric nervous system, making it a direct entry point for stress relief and nervous system regulation at any point of acute overwhelm during the day, not only within a formal practice. It also improves circulation to the digestive organs, which matters in Cancer season, as our stomachs so often gets affected when we have a lot on our minds.

Moss on Bowen Island: Types, Ecological Roles, Spiritual and Indigenous Uses

Moss on Bowen Island: Types, Ecological Roles, Spiritual and Indigenous Uses

Mossesโ€™ diminutive size belies their resilience, tenacity, and ecological significance. Mosses are essential for retaining soil and moisture (as much as 40 times their weight), preventing erosion, and providing homes, insulation, and sustenance for various organisms in their ecosystems, including at Nectar Yoga Retreat on Bowen Island.

Beyond the Benefits of Stinging Nettle: A Herb with Environmental, Medicinal, and Spiritual Significance

Beyond the Benefits of Stinging Nettle: A Herb with Environmental, Medicinal, and Spiritual Significance

Known for its stinging leaves, Nettle is a herbaceous perennial that offers a myriad of benefits ranging from environmental rewilding to medicinal uses and even spiritual significance. Nectar Yoga Retreatโ€™s wellness blog also includes lesser known fun facts, and three nettle tea recipes that do wonders for our complexions and general vitality.

Oyster Mushrooms on Bowen Island: Identification, Ecology, and Spiritual Meaning

Oyster Mushrooms on Bowen Island: Identification, Ecology, and Spiritual Meaning

Beyond appreciating them in cooking, what are oyster mushrooms good for? Pleurotus varieties are saprotrophs that are involved in providing nutrition to its ecosystem as a primary decomposer of wood, especially deciduous trees, and beech trees in particular, though here in the Pacific Northwest, oyster mushrooms are also seen growing on dying hardwood trees. Their saprophytic function benefits the forest by returning vital elements and minerals to the environment in forms that are usable to other plants, other organisms, and general soil biology.

Summer Solstice 2026: Yoga for the Longest Day

Summer Solstice 2026: Yoga for the Longest Day

The summer solstice falls on June 21 this year, the longest day in the Northern Hemisphere and the point at which the sun reaches its longest presence in the sky before beginning its cyclical return southward. The word solstice comes from the Latin sol sistere, meaning the sun stands still.

This day also marks the entry of the sun into Cancer, making it a seasonal peak and simultaneously an astrological turning point, the moment when summer's outward expansion begins its pivot toward the more inward, receptive, and home-like quality of Cancer season. At Nectar Retreat on Bowen, by late June, the forest is fully canopied, the sunlight filtering through the trees rather than shining directly.

This post offers a short yoga practice and a few ways to mark the summer solstice, whether you are on Bowen or anywhere else. Details on the ever-popular, in-person evening Summer Solstice Yin Sound Bath at Nectar are at the end.

June is Gemini & Cancer Season

Gemini's domain is the shoulders, arms, hands, and lungs. May introduced that territory and the practices that open it. June begins there and moves down into the chest, the ribs, and the breath's deeper capacity. Three-Part Breath, which this month introduces, reaches further into the body than box breathing does, expanding the lower belly, the ribcage, and the upper chest in sequence. It is the breath of Cancer's water element: receptive, layered, touching the baseline of the self.

In the Western astrological tradition, Cancer is ruled by the Moon, which governs cycles, tides, and the rhythms of the body that are not entirely under conscious control. The practices this month work with that quality. Where May's practices asked for steadiness and physical form, June's ask for surrender to sensation. The chest opens not because you push it open but because the breath makes room.

May is Taurus & Gemini Season

May is Taurus & Gemini Season

For the month of May, Taurus governs the neck, jaw, and throat, then Gemini, starting on May 21, governs the shoulders, arms, and lungs. May moves through both, meaning the month carries a natural arc from the lower, singular part of the upper body (the neck) toward the wider, dualistic, and more mobile one (the shoulders and arms).