The core of our new school year (June 2021 to May 2022) builds around the three sacred mysteries of Sri Vidya Tantra: The Ultimate Shakti, Sacred Masculine, Mystery Of Ganesha. While students have done these programs, a significant amount of new content expands, enhances, and embellishes the experience and understanding of these sacred mysteries.

 Program 1) Transformed By Fire will evolve into "The Ultimate Shakti." We will study the Lalita Sahasranama focusing on the first 108 mantras that are difficult. And there are two versions we will learn side-by-side. Besides, there will be esoteric Sri Vidya practices taught. We've arrived at the highest principle of the tradition! Sri Lalita Tripurasundari is the absolute feminine principle in the Godhead, which is why we call her the "Ultimate Shakti."

Program 2) The Sacred Masculine will focus on healing around the masculine. Apart from the Rudra Abhisekham, which you know, there are now litanies to Shiva, including the Linga Ashtottara, 108 names to the lingam. And there are other powerful Shaiva mantras you haven't learned included in the 12-month program. What is also new will be the focus on healing around the sacred masculine. This healing, we might say, is as essential as the healing around the divine feminine.

Program 3) The expanded Mystery of Ganesha involves powerful litanies to Ganesha and Vigheneshwara. These in themselves are excellent new practices that, while demanding, are also spiritually rewarding. If you enjoyed the Ghanapata, imagine the Ghanapata you studied to the power of ten! Now, the mantra's complex permutations go far beyond what you learned in the Ghanapata. You will also get to refresh your study of the Atharvasheersha and Vighneshwara Puja Vidhi with new insights.

As explained, while students have studied the core mysteries of Sri Vidya, one-on-one coaching revealed that many aspects of your learning require development. It would be suitable for students to develop a clear understanding of practices and rituals and proper pronunciation and devotional expression.

The new school year's curriculum seeks to develop students at the healer-teacher level to become healer-teachers in their own right, possessing the skills and ability to convey these mysteries to their students effectively.

Those who completed the very early three years of Yogic Mystery School in 2018, during which we studied the Sanskrit alphabet and the basics of mantra practice, are aware of how far we have come on this journey together. Since then, we have developed mantra pronunciation to an advanced level through the Mastery of Mantra.

We now have a track that touches on all aspects of sacred sound, starting with a broad sense of it through our new Yoga of Sound Immersion, deepening mantra practice through "Transformed By Mantra," and, finally, acquiring skill in pronunciation through the Mastery of Mantra.

For those that want an enhanced study experience for the new school year, we recommend including this track that involves a significant amount of new content that you have not experienced. It is not just "new content" but also new insights, new inroads, and new applications that are part of the process.

What is also exciting about this new track is the inclusion of musical elements. Almost all our students have strong musical leanings. Since we have not focussed on the musical and singing aspects of sacred sound for nearly a decade, we are now offering this new track on Sacred Sound, Nada Yoga, And Mantra Mastery. With this new track, students can learn vocal techniques and develop musical concepts around mantra chanting and practice through new audios and videos.

Yoga of Sound Immersion Our brand new Yoga of Sound Immersion was developed last year and in the first half of this year. This program essentially teaches integrating the four streams of sacred sound around specific deities, a Nada Yoga Tantra, so to speak, that is highly effective in working with trauma. We might even refer to this as "trauma-informed sound healing." We will continue to explore this more over the rest of this new school year.

Transformed By Mantra This new composite program combines four courses studied previously into a single process that deepens mantra practice. There is new content no student has experienced previously, especially with "Achieving Success With Mantras." The other programs are Core Mantra Practice, Spirituality of Blessing, and Enlightened Mantra Practitioner. We will revisit and deepen our mantra practice with these programs in this new school year.

Mastery of Mantra The new Mastery of Mantra curriculum has more than doubled. In the early part of this year, 2021, we have added mantras from the Mahanarayana Upanishads, entire sections from the Taitterya Upanishad, and new Shanti mantras from Upanishads no student has learned yet. Chanting these new advanced mantras can strengthen our voices and help us tap more deeply into the enlightenment experience that is the gift of Vedic mantra chanting.

The enhanced option enhances your learning experience with sacred sound, mantra pronunciation, the Vedas, Nada Yoga, and trauma-informed sound healing. This track, together with the core mysteries track, offers an enhanced study experience.

This track is included only for the complete option because it requires one-on-one private coaching to integrate. The track consists of three programs.

Journeying With Chakras And The Study of Kundalini: Any serious healer-teacher must understand Kundalini and its process, Her Process, we should say. This program expands greatly upon our Chakra Cleanse. It now features mudras, mantras, meditations, and a whole new section on "Healing The Chakras" that come with power-packed lectures and practices.

Mastery of Tantra: You will experience new insights and additions to this program that you have not experienced before. These new insights are valuable to the Tantric practitioner and those who wish to work with Tantric sound in a therapeutic manner. We can call this process "trauma-informed Tantra." It is not only something to learn but something to teach and use with the people we serve.

Sacred Alchemy: This year, 2021, has caused me to look more closely at my Christian root and ask deep questions about my Tantric practices. Since most of my students are Christian and mainly come from a Catholic background, I feel it is essential to develop our Tantric spirituality towards a Christian Tantra. This program draws from my book Jesus in the Lotus, Christian Mysticism, and Inter-spiritual Wisdom to complement our other Tantric programs. The program will develop incrementally over the entire school year (June 2021 to May 2022) to incorporate Jesus and Christian mysticism into our spiritual transformation process grounded in the authentic Hindu Tantra.

We call this study option "Complete" because it helps recap what you have learned so far with enhanced content related to the three tracks described. More importantly, it would help improve your chanting ability, puja performance, and direct spiritual experience resulting from these practices through group support sessions distributed over the school year at irregular intervals. 

Those who have done health coaching with Asha know the value of mastering the brain-body connection, which is her specialty. The loss of extraneous weight and dramatic improvement in sleep, memory, energy levels, and clarity of mental focus are so worthwhile at this time in our lives when preserving the edge of our cognitive faculties is key to our improved quality of life and relationships.

The power of Sri Vidya Tantra is, without question, formidable. However, we also need our cells, tissues, muscles, and organs to be functioning at peak so that the energy generated from a healthy body flow into our Tantric practices. Doesn't Tantric practice affect our body's cells, tissues, and organs, you might ask. Absolutely! However, the scope of that effect depends on what you are feeding your body and mind.

Many students of spirituality assume they know what is healthy for their bodies/brains. If you are dealing with energy loss, sleep loss, mental fatigue, irritability, anger, even depression, the spiritual power of Tantra by itself is only one-half of the equation. Anxiety, depression, and even PTSD need to be supported by a combination of food habits and mental training that is significantly different from what we learn in traditional Tantra, an expertise Asha offers that compliments our Sri Vidya practices.

Students may not realize the amount of research she does on their behalf to understand the particular health conditions they seek to overcome. In between each session in which she works with a student, she spends hours researching. Unlike most of us, she conducts her research with a trained eye. And her research is not confined to the internet but involves evidence-based studies/books as well.

Often, a commitment to a student consumes a massive amount of her time and energy. Not everyone applies themselves, though. For those that do, and most do apply themselves, the results are palpable.

Asha's true expertise lies in designing a viable action plan that helps students achieve their desired goals but cannot obtain through their efforts. And she helps students achieve these goals in a spirit of collaborative teamwork: this makes all the difference because, instead of students being passive participants, they sit in the driver seat and take an active part in the direction of their health and life-work. Of course, she does a lot to motivate and guide them, as well.

We introduce group support sessions during this new school year. However, these sessions will not train students in mantra pronunciation or Tantric practices. 

Instead, the group support sessions will offer expert feedback on pitch and pronunciation or refine the application of Tantric techniques through pointers. 

Group support sessions will focus on just a few students as examples to provide inspiration and insight for those interested in skill and personal training. 

Developing an individual student's skills are conducted during private sessions for the following reasons:

1. Each student should learn at his or her own pace.
2.  Each student should receive a particular rather than generalized approach to learning.
3. Many students need more time than others to learn the same mantra or practice.
4. Each student has specific ambitions or goals that are not the same as other students. 

There are many reasons for doing away with group support to help students develop their skills:

a) All students do not attend all sessions, making it difficult for the instructor to help them catch up with those students who attend with regularity.

b) It becomes laborious and highly demanding for the instructor to properly train all students who attend a group session when the mantras are long or practices are complex. 

Group support combined with private coaching will not work for students who enroll solely for group support for two reasons. 

i) We cannot guarantee personal attention for everyone who attends a group session with private time as this would prolong the sessions. 

ii) Even if we offer everyone attending the group session some private time, the quality of the training and skill level that student achieves will be disappointing.

By limiting the number of students working during a group session, the instructor can offer quality insights and inspiration. 

Since group sessions will not involve training, the group support sessions make the most sense only to those who are also receiving private coaching. 

Group sessions will point to specific aspects of chanting, pitch, or consciousness without training a student in that particular aspect since each student has different needs in terms of time and techniques to learn. 

Why presenting questions in a group is challenging: When students ask questions in a group session, it raises more questions. How many questions do we answer in a particular session? And upon whose questions do we focus? 

Furthermore, each student has their mindset that requires a customized response contextualized to that particular mindset. 

The problem with intellectual questions is that they seek to be satisfied mentally, which does not facilitate change in behavior, lifestyle, or quality of consciousness. 

The type of questions students ask in group sessions invariably point to content within the psyche that requires attention or needs integration. 

For this reason, questions presented in a group, when addressed, will often require a more profound and particular treatment in private sessions. 

For this reason, discussions, too, will be conducted within group coaching sessions among students who are also in private coaching so that all questions can receive the attention and treatment they deserve, often with privacy included as well.

Given how Covid is coming under control in the US, it appears that those of us vaccinated can probably come together in Austin, Texas, for our live annual Yogic Mystery School retreat either this year or early next year.

We do not want to set a precise date at the present moment as we want to see a consistency of normalcy prevail, which will give us the confidence to schedule and manifest our annual retreat in Austin.

As a backup plan, we will create our annual retreat entirely online. We envisage many benefits to the format, particularly your ability to rewind, pause, or replay any of the sessions after the retreat completes.

The retreat will be for three full days, followed by three whole weeks of access and process. We see this as a compelling way to integrate our Sri Vidya practice in ways that amplify what Sri Vidya offers us during this time of covid.

In other words, whether we come together physically in Austin for three whole days or whether we conduct our annual retreat entirely online for three full weeks, the event will happen this school year.