Arohanui: 108 Salutations to the Sun
108 times, hands to earth. 108 declarations of arohanui. This is how we plant love in the world. A confluence of the sacred.
Date: Sunday 21 June 2026
Time: Sunrise 7.30am to 9.30am
Location: Innermost Gardens, Mt Victoria, Wellington
Occasion: International Day of Yoga and the Winter Solstice
The practice: Warm-up · 108 Sun Salutations · Restorative rest · Mantra OM chanting to close the time together
Entry: Book online - Koha
Why this day
Yoga means to unite. From the Sanskrit yuj, to join, to yoke. Body and consciousness as one.
The origin story of yoga is itself a story of union.
Shiva and Shakti, consciousness and energy, masculine and feminine, inseparable and whole. Neither complete without the other. From their union the teachings of yoga arose and flowed outward, carried by seven sages to all of humanity.
21 June is the day that transmission began. The solstice. The turning point of the year.
In 2014 the United Nations declared 21 June the International Day of Yoga. Within 90 days, 177 countries said yes. The fastest-adopted resolution in UN history.
For us in the Southern Hemisphere it lands as the winter solstice. The longest night. We meet the same sacred day from the other side of the earth.
And we are gathering at sunrise, hands to the earth, to honour it. Together.
Why 108?
108 runs through one of the oldest bodies of knowledge on earth. The Vedic tradition, passed orally from teacher to student for thousands of years before it was ever written down.
There are 108 Upanishads, the ancient texts at the heart of yogic wisdom. Malas, the prayer beads used in meditation, are strung with 108 beads. The heart chakra has 108 nadis, energy channels, converging at its centre. The Sanskrit alphabet contains 54 letters, each with masculine and feminine expression. 54 x 2 = 108.
And this. The distance between the Earth and the Sun is 108 times the Sun’s diameter.
108 is a number the universe keeps returning to. A number that points toward wholeness, toward the place where individual practice meets something vast.
The practice
108 times, your hands will meet the earth.
I will guide us through the full 108 Sun Salutations, with a simple warm-up to begin and moments of restorative rest woven through. We move together in a continuous flow, breath leading movement, movement following breath.
There is something that happens when people practice together outside in nature. The sound of collective breath. Other bodies moving alongside yours. The cold morning air and the knowledge that the light is beginning, slowly, to return. Something shifts when intention is shared. When many people move and breathe together toward the same thing, the energy of it compounds.
Rest when you need to. Adapt when you need to. Rejoin when you are ready. You do not need to complete every salutation. You only need to show up.
We close our time together with the mantra OM, voices joining, carrying the intention of arohanui out beyond the garden and into the world.
Why chant the mantra OM?
OM is considered the primordial sound of the universe. The vibration from which everything arises. The hum of existence before and beneath all other sound.
It has three parts. A, U, M. The silence that follows is the fourth state, pure awareness. A single OM contains a complete cycle.
When you sound it, the vibration moves through the chest, the throat, the skull. When many voices sound it together the resonance compounds into something you feel as much as hear.
Sound it silently or aloud. Either way you are held inside a collective field that everyone creates and receives simultaneously. Powerful.
Arohanui
Arohanui. Great love. Compassion that does not stop at the edges of the personal. Love as an orientation toward the world.
Every salutation, every breath, every moment of rest, offered in the spirit of arohanui. For ourselves. For our communities. For the wider world that holds us all.
This is how we plant love in the world. With the body. With the breath. With the hands pressed into the earth, 108 times, at sunrise on the solstice.
Together.
Come as you are
All levels are welcome. Some familiarity with Sun Salutations is helpful as this is a continuous flow. But the only real requirement is the decision to show up.
Simply choosing to be here, to breathe and move alongside others who are intentionally bringing love into the world on this particular morning, is the whole practice.
Practical details
Where Innermost Gardens, Mt Victoria, Wellington. Enter from Lawson Place. We will gather in the garden if the morning is fine, inside in the hall if it rains.
Lawson Place has on-street parking, and Innermost Gardens is a lovely walk from the city if you would like to arrive already moving.
What to bring:
Your yoga mat
Warm layers to arrive in. It will be cold at 7.30am in June.
A blanket or extra layer for the restorative rest at the end
Water
Warm socks
Dress in layers you can move in and peel off as the practice warms you
Facilities:
Toilets are available inside.
You are welcome to use them to change if needed.
Sunday 21 June · International Day of Yoga · Winter Solstice
7.30am to 9.30am
Innermost Gardens, Lawson Place, Mt Victoria, Wellington.
Garden if fine, Hall if rainingKoha entry. Pay what feels right and what you are able.
Book your place here: Arohanui 108 Sun Salutations
Hari Om
