Ashtanga and Ghosh: Firefly, Crane and Guillotine

Another amazing similarity between Ashtanga and Ghosh. In the Ashtanga 2nd Series, there is a little sequence of postures that starts in Firefly, an arm balance with the legs on top of the arms and pointed forward, which is similar to the Ghosh postures Crane and Heron, except that Crane is done on the fingertips. Then, in Ashtanga, the feet come down to the ground and the hands immediately bind behind the back, what we call Guillotine in Ghosh. I think it is just a Firefly variation in the Ashtanga tradition. After a few Guillotine variations, Ashtanga goes back to the arm balancing Firefly/Crane before moving on. 

I am finding more and more of these similarities between Ashtanga and Ghosh. So many of the postures are identical or variations of each other. But the two traditions have slightly different ways of combining the postures, of sequencing them. This is very interesting.

I love the idea of doing Guillotine right before the Savasana in the Ghosh series. It is an inversion and a compression of the Carotid Artery, a similar heart-slowing technique to Shoulderstand which is done near the end of the complete series to slow the heart. Placed at the end of the first half, Guillotine could act as a sort of Half-Shoulderstand.