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

Mosses’ 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.

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).

April is Aries & Taurus Season

April is Aries & Taurus Season

April: From Fire to Earth

Aries is a Fire sign, and Fire is interested in movement and visibility.  The head and the brain are its domain in the body, which is why the weeks of Aries season often bring a particular kind of alertness, a feeling of the mind running slightly ahead of everything else. Over the winter months, attention settled inward and downward, toward the feet and the slower rhythms that Pisces governs. March pulled it back upward again, toward the face and eyes and the part of the head where decisions live.

Taurus rules the neck, the jaw, and the throat, which is the corridor connecting all of that head-forward Aries energy back down into the rest of the body. When the sun moves into Taurus, something in the physical body responds to that shift, often first in the jaw, which many people hold without realizing it. The masseter muscle, running along the side of the jaw, is one of the strongest muscles in the body relative to its size, and it tends to absorb  whatever has not yet found its way into words.

Spring Equinox 2026: A Somatic Yoga Practice for Balance and Growth

Spring Equinox 2026: A Somatic Yoga Practice for Balance and Growth

Each year, the Spring Equinox arrives as a moment of equilibrium. Light and dark, day and night, Sun and Moon stand in equal measure, and in collaboration. In 2026, the Spring Equinox falls on March 20 in the Northern Hemisphere, following a season that has asked for inward assimilation before outward movement.

Winter and early Pisces season tend to work in the dreamscape or unconscious. Experience is absorbed, sorted, and processed often without clear conclusions. Much of this happens through intuition and bodily sensation rather than conscious language. By the time the equinox arrives, the body has already been negotiating change for some time.

The Spring Equinox marks a crossing, where direction starts to matter, both emotionally and physically, from a period of sorting, shedding, and reprioritizing. It means not everything can cross with us on the bridge, and balancing priorities within current realities becomes the task at hand. Often, these realizations arrive through mindfulness and a deep listening to the body, sometimes through somatic stretching.

The summer solstice is one of the most significant moments in the seasonal calendar, the longest day of the year, the peak of light, and a natural invitation to pause and receive. 🌞 Join Andrea on June 21 for an evening community ceremony to mark
June is a month of two energies. This month's practices begin in Gemini season, working with the shoulders, arms, breath, and nervous system, before the solstice shifts everything on June 21. Swipe through for an overview of what June holds, and head
Celebrate the arrival of summer in the warmth of a community summer ceremony at Nectar Retreat Centre. The Summer Solstice marks a special time to honour the sun and receive the generosity of Mother Earth. Led by Nectar's creatrix, Andrea, this gathe
June is a month of transition, Gemini into Cancer, and the longest day of the year on the 21st. Swipe through to explore what's coming up at Nectar on Bowen Island and online through Nectar at Home. 🌿 Explore more upcoming events through the link i
This summer, what if you gave yourself permission to reconnect with yourself? The Artist's Way is a 13-week guided journey hosted by Andrea Clark on the Nectar at Home platform, and it might be exactly what you have been looking for. 🌿 Following th