Henrike Auroville

The Mother, spiritual guide and creator of Auroville, spent quite some time contemplating the essential nature of different flowers and trees, assigning them names to represent their deeper significance. This article explores Mother’s meaning of flowers and her special relationship to the natural world. 

The Work Tree is one of the most important ‘pioneer species’ that helped Auroville establish its current forest cover. A very hardy type of acacia, it was able to thrive in the almost barren landscape that Auroville was founded on. More than 50 years later, the Auroville unit Worktree - named after its favourite material - is turning these trees into beautiful handcrafted items. We met up with Luk, who, inspired by this beautiful material, went from Maths teacher to woodworker. 

We are happy to report that the COVID-lockdown has also had a few positive effects – for example, it has been a hugely creative period for the team at Svaram, Auroville’s instrument-makers. Since many years, Svaram has been at the forefront of ‘sound healing’, a practice that turns sound into a medicine for body and spirit. With their latest work, they are focusing on helping us tune in to the planets. 

Monsoon is knocking, or rather pattering on our door! We checked in with Dr Be, our local Ayurvedic doctor, for her tips on how to to stay balanced in the rainy season.

Essential oils are the steady helpers of nature – used in ancient medicine for centuries, their popularity and function has not changed much since then, and for good reason! All-natural and with a wide variety of uses, we explore how oils can help you achieve balance and create emotional and physical harmony.

If you have visited Auroville or have been living here for a while, it’s safe to say you have heard about Svaram, a place where you can discover new types of instruments, learn how to make them, play with sound and also, take part in something called Sound Healing. We realize that to the untrained ear, that last bit might not make much sense! To explain the basics, we have put together a short Primer answering the question - what is Sound Healing?

We met with Aurelio, the head of Svaram, where him and his skilled crafts(wo)men create innovative instruments and do research in the field of sound healing.

How does Goddess Venus give her earthy boons upon us human? She lets Cupid trim her fingernails for them to fall upon Earth to manifest into Black Onyx stones. Or so the myth goes...