Yoga: You’re doing the poses but are you doing the work?
TL;DR
Modern yoga misses the point when it stops at poses. Yoga is a complete path of breath, ethics, meditation, and devotion.
VOLT Alchemy Yoga restores that depth. We teach the full system with reverence for lineage, clear philosophy, and real integration.
Pillar 1 of 5 is yoga. We keep the roots intact while making practice accessible, trauma aware, and grounded in breath before shape.
The zodiac corresponds to different body regions. We select asana, pranayama, mudra, and mantra to support the current energies.
The goal is balance. Harmonize ida and pingala so prana flows through sushumna. Practice becomes a living meditation on presence.
Quick Links:
Join a class at Sacred Social House in Pittsburgh. 1/4 down
Train with VOLT: Phase 1 Initiation (in person) or Phase 2 Illumination (online). 2/4 down
Grab the free Zodiac Gifts for Yoga Teachers guide to explore your strengths. 3/4 down
Where did we go wrong?
Modern yoga in the West has become a performance - a choreography of shapes on expensive mats in front of large mirrors and under flattering lighting. It’s not that movement isn’t sacred; it’s that movement alone was never the point of yoga. What began as a complete system of spiritual development - one that united body, mind, and soul through breath, awareness, and devotion - has often been reduced to an aesthetic, stripped of its roots and wisdom.
When we practice only the pose, we practice appropriation - focusing only on outer form while missing the inner work. The essence of yoga was never about the perfect handstand or deep backbend or even being able to touch your toes. It was about liberation: from illusion, from separation, from the false self. Without understanding its philosophy, its energetic body, or its cosmic connection, yoga becomes another form of consumption instead of transformation.
VOLT Alchemy Yoga was created to curb that trend - to bring yoga back to its multidimensional purpose while evolving it for this era of consciousness.
The Roots of Yoga: Remembering What We Forgot
Yoga, at its root, was a discipline for seekers - a path that asked for sincerity, humility, and consistency. The word yoga itself comes from the Sanskrit root yuj, meaning to yoke or to unite. Unite what, exactly? The seen and unseen. The self and the soul. The human and the divine.
When yoga arrived in the West, it came carrying thousands of years of wisdom - the Upanishads, the Bhagavad Gita, the Yoga Sutras, the Hatha Yoga Pradipika - all teaching that the physical body is only the entry point. The postures were only one branch of a vast tree that included moral observances (yamas and niyamas), breathwork (pranayama), sensory withdrawal (pratyahara), focus (dharana), meditation (dhyana), and ultimately liberation (samadhi).
Somewhere along the way, Western culture cut down that tree and sold the branches. We kept the poses and left the roots behind. What was once a path to transcendence became a tool for self-improvement. What was once sacred service became self-branding.
When we strip away its spiritual foundation, yoga loses its potency. It becomes fitness with Sanskrit sprinkled on top. We can call that “asana-inspired movement” or “mindful stretching,” but yoga deserves its own name to stay sacred. Yoga requires surrender, self-study, and remembrance. It’s not meant to make you more; it’s meant to help you remember you already are.
A true practice doesn’t promise an escape from discomfort. It invites you to stay with it. To breathe through the resistance. To witness yourself as both the ocean and the wave. That is where the transformation happens - not in the shape, but in the stillness that follows it.
Yoga was never about what you look like while doing it. It’s about who you become while practicing it. When we treat yoga as devotion instead of performance, it begins to work on us from the inside out . Refining, revealing, and reconnecting us to the sacred pulse that animates everything.
Sukhasana (seated forward fold) - is a beginner friendly yoga pose. To perform it, sit with crossed legs, lengthen your spine, and hinge at your hips to fold your torso over your legs, resting your hands on the floor, knees, or on blocks in front of you. Maintain a long spine, and use your hands for support as you breathe and allow the hips to soften. This is a great pose to explore during Sagittarius Season.
What Makes VOLT Alchemy Yoga Different:
VOLT Alchemy Yoga is built on five living pillars that expand a traditional practice into a fully integrated spiritual system:
Yoga - the root and rhythm of embodiment. We study and teach yoga as a science of union. Not just movement but a compelete system - weaving in pranayama, mantra, and meditation to restore its original depth and power.
Astrology - the map of the macrocosm reflected in the microcosm. Every class aligns with the current luminary transits, using the wisdom of the stars to harmonize the body’s corresponding energy centers and organs.
Alchemy - the art of transformation. Through movement, breath, and awareness, we transmute heaviness into light, density into vibration, shadow into wisdom - living the Hermetic truth that “as above, so below; as within, so without.”
Energy Healing - the subtle technology behind every breath and gesture. Practices are infused with self healing as well as hands on assists, sound as medicine, and intention to clear stagnation and raise personal frequency.
Hermetic Wisdom - the philosophy that bridges ancient and modern science. The seven Hermetic principles guide the structure of our teachings, reminding us that the universe and our consciousness follows divine law and rhythm.
Experience VOLT Alchemy Yoga
Sold yet? Before we dive more into the pillars, the best way to understand this work is to feel it in your own body.
VOLT Alchemy Yoga is the first of its kind and only offered at Sacred Social House in the South Hills of Pittsburgh. Our network is growing as we complete the first VOLT Alchemy Yoga Teacher Training, with new teachers and locations to come.
Ready to practice?
Shuni Mudra - a yogic hand gesture symbolizing patience and discipline. To form it, gently touch the tip of the middle finger to the tip of the thumb while keeping the other fingers extended and relaxed. This mudra balances Saturn energy, enhancing focus, commitment, and responsibility. Practicing Shuni Mudra during meditation or pranayama helps calm the mind, strengthen inner discipline, and ground restless thoughts. This is a perfect mudra for Aries and Virgo season.
Yoga as Volts First Pillar
With VOLT, yoga is taught as a dialogue between the body and the cosmos. We honor the roots of yoga while working in rhythm with the main two luminary forces that influence all of life - the Sun and the Moon. These forces represent the sacred balance between masculine and feminine, action and rest, light and shadow. Within the body, they move as the pingala and ida nadis - the solar and lunar channels that govern energy flow and consciousness.
Each class is intentionally crafted to harmonize these currents. The Sun and Moon move through the zodiac, and each sign governs a specific region of the body - from Aries ruling the head to Pisces guiding the feet. By aligning practice with the current solar and lunar placements, we bring awareness to these areas and work with their energetic medicine. A solar practice is heat-building, dynamic, and expressive - awakening strength, confidence, and vitality. A lunar practice is cooling, receptive, and inward - tending to the emotional body and restoring balance. When we consciously alternate between these rhythms, we begin to live in harmony with nature’s pulse instead of against it. Yoga becomes both map and method, helping us realign the physical body with the greater body of the cosmos. The goal is not to favor one over the other, but to bring both into alignment so prana can flow freely through the central channel, the sushumna nadi.
By attuning our practice to the cycles of the Sun and Moon, we remember what the ancients always knew - that yoga was meant to mirror the rhythm of nature, not exist apart from it. When the breath and the body move in harmony with these cosmic tides, yoga becomes a living meditation on balance itself. It is the art of embodying both radiance and receptivity, strength and surrender, so that the inner and outer worlds once again reflect each other.
for the seekers
If this feels like home, you are already tending the deeper current of yoga. You know practice is presence, breath, and devotion. You know balance comes from honoring both masculine and feminine, strength and softness, pingala and ida. Not everyone is ready for that. Some rooms still sideline Sanskrit, mudra, or even the simple resonance of OM. If you’re choosing reverence over performance, you’re in the right place.
Deepen with us at VOLT. Phase 1: Initiation is a 200-hour, in-person yoga teacher training at Sacred Social House in Pittsburgh for those building a true foundation. Already certified at 200 hours? Step into Phase 2: Illumination, our online advanced 5 pillar framework. These trainings are taught through the lense of Vinyasa Yoga with a thread of Kundalini Yoga woven in.
Adho Much Svanasana (aka downward facing dog) This is a foundational yoga pose, and the name is derived from the Sanskrit words for "down" (adho), "face" (mukha), "dog" (svana), and "pose" (asana)
The Light You Bring
Every teacher carries a unique frequency. A medicine all their own. No two classes are ever the same because no two souls express yoga in the same way. Whether you’re a lifelong student, newly certified, or have been guiding others for years, your practice becomes a mirror for your essence. The way you cue the breath, hold space, or weave philosophy into movement all reflect the imprint of who you are.
At VOLT, we honor that individuality as part of the collective rhythm. Each teacher is an expression of the greater light, shaped by experience, guided by intuition, and illuminated by the energy of their Sun sign. Your Sun placement reveals how your life force wants to shine, the qualities you naturally embody when you teach, and the medicine you bring into the room without even trying.
Understanding this can be a profound entryway into self-awareness as a guide. When you teach from your authentic frequency, students feel it, and transformation happens more naturally.
Curious what your zodiac says about your gifts as a teacher?
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Since this is my first official blog, I wanted to show the face behind the brand. My name is Jamie Rethage, founder of VOLT Alchemy Yoga and Sacred Social House in Pittsburgh. My path began over twenty years ago with a deep curiosity about the unseen and a longing to understand the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit. Along the way, I have immersed myself in ancient and modern healing modalities - Reiki, Shamanic practices, Kundalini and Vinyasa Yoga, subtle body work, astrology, holistic nutrition, and more.
I created VOLT Alchemy out of both lived experience and spiritual vision. Having navigated and healed through mental, physical, and spiritual challenges, I became living proof of what transformation looks like when we align with higher principles. As a single mother raising two children, I’ve learned to integrate these practices into the fabric of everyday life -making spirituality not just aspirational, but practical, embodied, and sustainable.
VOLT first emerged as an energy healing modality -a hands-on transmission of light and frequency that helped people shift blocks, raise their vibration, and reconnect with their true essence. Over time, I felt called to make this work more accessible, bringing it out of one-on-one sessions and into a group and somatic experience. By weaving VOLT into yoga, movement, and cosmic alignment practices, I created a way for more people to tap into this energy and embody it directly in their own practice.
Through VOLT Yoga Teacher Trainings, group programs, and 1:1 alchemy sessions, my mission is to make transformation accessible and embodied -giving teachers, seekers, and healers tools to reconnect with their authenticity, creativity, and purpose, while bringing more light into the collective.