Felix Vogel - Embodied Spirituality Guide

+++ CONTENT WARNING: SE❌UAL ABUSE +++

As you might know, I’ve been teaching in Yoga Teacher Trainings with a popular Yoga school on the Spanish island of Mallorca between April and November 2022.

Recently, it has been brought to my attention that several women have spoken up about having been sexually harassed and/or abused by the founder and former lead teacher of said school during the time they spent there.

This feels very disturbing for me, given that I’ve been a public face of the school for a full season, have helped to advertise the trainings on social media, and have referenced my experience there as a credential in applications for teaching jobs ever since.

First of all, I want to express my sincerest compassion and empathy for the affected women. I‘m sorry that you’ve had to go through this, and I’m in your corner.

In my experience, a Yoga Teacher Training facility attracts and invites people who want to grow, learn, transform and, more often than not, heal. In order for such a process to be effective, teachers and spaceholders encourage those people to lean into vulnerability and sensitivity, to open up and expand the edges of their comfort zone. I feel angry, sad, and disappointed, that in countless examples this highly delicate and tender state is exploited and abused by the very people in charge of making it a safe space for everyone who comes there.

I want to make it clear that during my time with the school I never personally witnessed, saw, or heard of any abusive behavior, physically, sexually or emotionally. If I would have, I could not have continued to work with the school in good consciousness.

The first reason why I still feel a responsibility to share this is for the sake of transparency: to help expose, educate and inform about the situation, in order to prevent any potential future abuse. It feels important for me to share this with anyone who considers taking a training with the school, volunteering as a Karma Yogi there, applying for a teaching position or recommending the place to other people: As far as I’m concerned, it is not a safe place at the moment.

The second reason why I feel responsible to share this is because I‘m aware that a decent portion of my followers on social media are graduates of the school who started following me during or after my time there. I want to warmly hold out my hand to anyone who has experienced physical, sexual or emotional abuse in Mallorca and has not spoken up about this yet. Usually in cases like this there is a significant under-reporting and I know that many abuse survivors can feel isolated, scared, ashamed and overwhelmed so they stay silent. Please know, that in case you did experience abuse at this school, you have allies and people who are ready and willing to support and represent you. I’m one of them. There is a structure within which you can come forward, be heard without judgment or being doubted, and share your experience without needing to justify or prove anything, if that would feel supportive.

Please know that I’m available to talk about this in a call or through text, and no matter what, confidentiality will be honored above all. In case you do want to share something you have experienced, but feel more comfortable doing so with a woman, please get in touch with my friend Lina (https://www.facebook.com/breiteryte), a female graduate and former Karma Yogi of the school who I’m closely connected with in this process.

Also, if you know anyone from your time at the school who experienced abuse there, or even if you have or had suspicions about anything of that nature happening, please share with them that this process is moving, and that they can reach out at any point.

I know it can feel like the hardest thing imaginable to speak up after experiencing abuse, so please know there is absolutely no pressure, no expectation, but simply a warm invitation to come into a safe space with this and be held and honored in your experience.

If the threshold of coming forward seems easier to overcome by remaining anonymous, it is also possible to contact me here through Facebook, through my instagram () or email ([email protected]) with a burner account.

Sexual misconduct and abuse continue to be all too common in spiritual environments, paradoxically turning them into a (re-)traumatizing space rather than a healing one, taking advantage of the vulnerability of people seeking growth, transformation and self-knowledge. It is my strong belief that especially for male-bodied spaceholders and facilitators there is a crucial need for integrity, self-awareness, willingness to look at one’s shadows, as well as skills to manage, move and contain one’s sexual energy in an oftentimes predominantly female environment. I’ve had my own fair share of challenges connected to this and continue to learn how to embody qualities that make spaces I facilitate safe. I feel compassionate for every male teacher, facilitator and spaceholder who hasn’t had access to teachings, tools and methods that educate about a healthy, safe and beneficial relationship with one’s own sexuality on the spiritual path, because frankly there aren’t many spaces providing this.

However, I strongly believe that this school cannot continue to offer Yoga Teacher Trainings, Retreats, or any spiritual work for that matter, until there is:

1) a change in legal and factual leadership and management of the school and its trainings (at least until the following points have found completion)

2) a public statement about the allegations and an ownership of responsibility

3) a compensation and public apology to every woman affected

4) a commitment to create transparency about the incidents and potentially undergo a mediation process as well as

5) a sincere pledge of the current leaders of the school to seek out professional counseling, therapy or coaching to do personal healing and integration work around sexuality, integrity, and responsibility of male lead figures in spiritual contexts, as well as a commitment to refrain from direct contact with students or Karma Yogis at least until that process is complete. I‘m happy to point the way towards excellent facilitators of such deep and important work, if needed.

As far as I’m concerned, unless all of those demands are met, this Yoga school can not continue to operate in its current form. However, it very well might, unless there is any legal action pressed by the women affected. It is my understanding that the school is currently continuing to conduct Yoga Teacher Trainings, which typically are attended predominantly by women. It is my understanding that the school’s leaders have tried and are trying to apply pressure on those who talk about the current unfoldings in order to keep all of this hidden from the public.

At the moment all I can do is inform you about this process, so you can make your own informed decisions and, guided by your own intuition, tell others about it. Just because someone claims on a website to be a „master of yoga philosophy, meditation and Ta**ra“ and goes by a spiritual name doesn’t mean they embody the teachings and provide integrity and safety (in fact, it might be more of a red flag to be honest).

I don’t believe in canceling people and condemning them. I don’t wish the school or its current owners any misfortune and I don’t have a personal agenda in this beyond what I shared previously. I do believe that Yoga is the practice of relieving suffering, and that it is also the practice of revealing truth. So I hope that by sharing this text, I can contribute to both. Keeping this hidden would feel like betraying myself and what I stand for.

Lastly I want to share that from all that I’ve witnessed in this process it is a real possibility that the owners and leaders of the school might try to publicly attack and question my credibility and throw accusations and indictments in my direction as a response in order to protect their business and reputation. Trust what you feel. I’m not here to prove anything or fight.
May this process serve the highest purpose of all Beings, of all Life, all Consciousness as we learn and grow and heal together.

If you need support please reach out. If not to me, to someone. Allow yourself to be held. Check in on your friends and hold one another. Check your impulse to be harsh or to judge. Me, them, yourself. See if you can soften it. And find compassion, knowing: everyone is always doing the best they can, as strange as it may seem.

If you made it this far please take a couple of deep breaths. I know it’s a heavy one. Thank you for paying attention, for receiving this.

Om Namah Shivaya.

In service, devotion, humility,

Felix

✨ Join Me for an Online Satsang! ✨

Are you ready to deepen your spiritual journey? 🌿 Come together with a vibrant community of fellow practitioners, students, and teachers of Yoga, Classical Ta**ra, Mindfulness, and Meditation.

In the words of the Buddha, Sangha — the community — serves as one of the three pillars of spiritual success. It’s within a sacred space with fellow practitioners that we can share, learn, and uplift one another. In Yogic tradition, this is known as Satsang, a gathering where truth and wisdom flourish.

🧘‍♂️ What to Expect:

❤️ Meaningful discussions

❤️ Heartfelt sharing

❤️ Guided meditation and breathing

❤️ Space to ask questions about practice and techniques

❤️ Witnessing each other’s journeys as we integrate spiritual teachings into the everyday human experience

❤️ Energizing movement

Format Details:

✨ We meet twice a month on Zoom

✨ This is a free gathering, donations are welcome

✨ Open to those who have attended at least one of my classes, workshops, or trainings

💐📿 This offering is an invitation to connect, grow, and support each other on our paths.

Send me a DM to join free of charge!

Let’s cultivate a space where all thrive together, where we’re held and supported, where community manifests into connection. 💖

**ra

Meditation has nothing to do with contemplation of eternal questions, or of one’s own folly, or even of one’s navel, although a clearer view on all of these enigmas may result. It has nothing to do with thought of any kind - with anything at all in fact, but intuiting the true nature of existence, which is why it has appeared, in one form or another, in almost every culture known to man. The entranced Bushman staring into fire, the Eskimo using a sharp rock to draw an ever-deepening circle into the flat surface of a stone achieves the same obliteration of the ego (and the same power) as the dervish or the Pueblo sacred dancer. Among Hindus and Buddhists, realization is attained through inner stillness, usually achieved through the samadhi-state of sitting yoga. In Ta***ic practice, the student may displace the ego by filling his whole being with the real or imagined object of his concentration; in Zen, one seeks to empty out the mind, to return it to the clear, pure stillness of a sea-shell or a flower petal.

When body and mind are one, then the whole being, scoured clean of intellect, emotions, and the senses, may be laid open to the experience that individual existence, ego, the „reality“ of matter and phenomena are no more than fleeting and illusory arrangements of molecules. The weary self of masks and screens, defenses, preconceptions, and opinions that, propped up by ideas and words, imagines itself to be some sort of entity (in a society of like entities) may suddenly fall away, dissolve into formless flux where concepts such as „death“ and „life“, „time“ and „space“, „past“ and „future“ have no meaning.

There is only a pearly radiance of Emptiness, the Uncreated, without beginning, therefore without end.

Peter Matthiessen - The Snow Leopard

Thank you for a month of grounding, holding, nourishing, slowing down, quieting, connecting, moving, resting, listening, learning, detoxing, sauna-ing, swimming, and so much space to just be.

Shout-out to my amazing co-teachers and - thank you for bringing magic to Europe ❤️

Thank you ❤️🥗

Würzburg singt und tanzt!

Nur noch 2 Tage bis zu einem kraftvollen, verbindenden und öffnenden Abend voller Musik, Ausdruck, Sanftheit, Wildheit und Annahme dessen, was ist! :-)

Singing Circle & Ecstatic Dance ist zurück in der Stadt!

Wir kommen im zusammen um unser Herz mit Mantren und Medicine Songs zu öffnen und fließen anschließend in eine Tanzreise, in der wir in unseren freien, authentischen Körperausdruck zurückfinden.

🍁❤️ Lass uns das Leben feiern mit einem herzöffnenden, verbindenden Abend mit Musik, Bewegung und Gemeinschaft. Wir begegnen uns selbst, einander, und unserem natürlichen, wahren Selbst im Hier und Jetzt und legen dafür für ein paar Stunden die Limitierungen des Verstandes ab. So kommen wir ganz im Moment an und dürfen lauschen..

🎵🪗 Wir starten unsere Reise mit einem gemeinsamen Singing Circle – wir chanten Mantren und Medicine Songs und öffnen dabei unser Herz für die kraftvollen, heilsamen Schwingungen und Vibrationen in uns und im Raum. Hierfür sind keine musikalischen Kenntnisse oder Fertigkeiten notwendig - du bist willkommen, so wie du bist.

🕺💃 Nach einer kleinen Pause fließen wir weiter, kommen mehr und mehr im Körper an und begeben uns auf eine intensive Tanzreise im Ecstatic Dance. Die Ecstatic Dance Praxis ist eine Einladung, wieder an unserem ursprünglichen, freien Körperausdruck anzudocken. Raum zu schaffen für Bewegung so, wie sie gerade fließen will. Ohne Regeln, Vergleiche, Bewertungen. Und vor allem: Ohne Scham. Mal wild, mal sanft. Mal laut, mal leise. Mal in Verbindung mit einem anderen Menschen, mal ganz mit dir verbunden in deinem eigenen Space.

Mehr Infos zum Inhalt und Ablauf sowie dein Ticket findest du im Event-Link in meiner Bio. 😍

Ich freue mich auf dich! ❤️

Bitte melde dich verbindlich an, wenn du dabei sein willst – so habe ich Planungssicherheit. LINK IN BIO 🙏❤️

Much love,

Felix

Do you want to experience life in a deeper way? Do you want to connect clearly with the true nature of who you are? Do you want to gain a new perspective on yourself without the filters of your own learnings, conditionings and beliefs? ✨

Then join me:
🪐 Soul & Source – Psychedelic Retreat 2024 ❤️‍🔥

Beneath the carefully crafted image of ourselves as a person in the world – often called the „Ego“ – lies our True Self, oftentimes hidden, hard to access, a place inside where there’s deep calm, knowledge and compassion – often called the „Soul“. Psychedelics can serve as a direct lane to access this quality of Being that unites all that is. We get to take a step back and get a look at ourselves that is less obstructed by our usual preferences, desires, aversions, opinions, values and learned belief systems. Here lies the opportunity for deep, lasting change and evolution.

Many psychedelic travelers experience a newly-found sense of purpose and meaning, the falling-away or deeper understanding of unhealthy patterns, or even the integration of traumatic, shoved-away experiences and feelings.

For sure, the medicine has had these effects on me.

So I’m super excited to hold this powerful, transformative, healing, LEGAL space this summer and guide you through a safe and meaningful journey. Some key factors to create a responsible and intentional container:

- We’ll prepare body and mind extensively for the psychedelic journey 🤸🧘

- We’ll set clear intentions for the experience 💚👍

- You’ll be journeying under the guidance of two experienced psychological-spiritual-shamanic guides 🧙🧑‍⚕️

- We’ll create a LOT of space for integrating the learnings, insights and effects of the journey 📝

- We will journey in a small, intimate group of max. 10 people 🫂👩🏼‍🚀

If you feel the call this is no coincidence. Please send me a DM to schedule your screening call free of charge. Also, please reach out in case you have any questions or concerns whatsoever 🙏🙃

❤️

Dear Yoga Asana teachers and practitioners! ❤️

🤸 Do you feel stuck in your sequencing of classes and practices?

🤸 Do you have some basic ideas about flowy sequences but you notice that you keep repeating the same things over and over again?

🤸Do you hear the calling for more creativity, fun and at the same time fundamental and deep understanding of the energetics of a Yoga Asana class or practice?

🤸Then this online event will be for you!

Join me on Zoom in this powerful, transformative Masterclass on Advanced Sequencing if you...

🧘 teach and/or practice an style and are ready to bring your Asana sequencing to the next level

🤸 are curious about a deeper understanding of the energetic qualities of different categories of Asana

🙏 want to create holistic, safe and energetically rich classes and practices

⬆️ are ready to move on from just sequencing together what flows well

😮‍💨 want to learn how to effectively sequence Pranayama techniques

💡 long for a deepening of your Yoga Asana practice and classes

📅
6.4. & 7.4.2024

⏰
16:00 – 19:00 CET (both days)

💰
Student / Low Income: 125 €
Regular: 155 €
Supporter: 199 €

All details and sign-up: LINK IN BIO 🙃

I‘m so looking forward to sharing this with you! Please reach out if you have any questions ❤️💌

Salutations to the One appearing as the many.

The silence behind all sound, the stillness beneath all movement.

The One looking through all eyes simultaneously while encompassing, permeating and containing seer, seeing and seen.

I bow to the ungraspable, incrompehensible, unmanifest and unspeakable Ultimate Reality.

The pure Being, radiant Awareness, timeless Presence in all that IS.

The One Consciousness in which all form dances.

The One Fundamental Truth that exists before, beyond and after all words, all concepts, all definitions.

I surrender to the One limitless essence-nature of the universe, the infinite container, the unshakably conscious observer, who splits into fragments of itself in order to become aware of its own everlasting, shining brilliance.

May I remember that it is who I am.

Om Namah Shivaya 🔱

And happy Shivaratri everyone ❤️🙏

**ra **rayoga

Join me next week for two nourishing online yoga classes. 🙃

On Tuesday we’ll practice flowy, dynamic Vinyasa, letting the breath guide us from pose to pose as we open and strengthen our whole body.

Friday we’ll meet for a soothing, calming Yin practice, allowing us to drop into deep stretches as we turn our focus inward and find deep rest and relaxation.

For either class, any level is welcome, all you need is an open mind and heart! ❤️

I’m looking forward to sharing this practice with you, please join if you feel the call to do something good for your body, mind and spirit. 🙏🙃

Time to regulate that nervous system! See you on the mat :)

DM me to sign up – Sliding scale 10-18€ per class.

Much love
Felix

My main learnings of 2023. ❤️🙏

Sending out love and ease for your conclusion of this cycle, may we all start into the next one with intentionality, clarity and connection to our hearts.

Thank you everyone who witnessed and supported me this year, either in-person or through social media. Sometimes it feels like whatever I’m doing doesn’t matter at all. And then sometimes someone reaches out and tells me that in fact it does. That’s one of the main factors that keep me going ❤️

Blessings! 🙏