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The Blossoming of Black Lotus Yoga

– A Conversation with Ty Landrum about creative vitality, compassion, and Black Lotus Yoga –

For more than two decades, Ty Landrum has been immersed in the practice and teaching of yoga. A devoted Ashtanga Vinyasa teacher and somatic explorer, Ty is celebrated for his beautiful vinyasa practice and deeply philosophical approach. 

In recent years, his teaching has blossomed into something new: Black Lotus Yoga. This is a curriculum born from years of practice, philosophical inquiry, and the creative possibilities that unfolded during the pandemic.

In this conversation, Ty shares the story of Black Lotus, the philosophy behind its name, and how he hopes it can help practitioners reconnect with the essence of yoga: awakening the creative vitality within.

 

You’ve been practicing yoga for 20 years. Can you tell us the story of how Black Lotus Yoga came to life?

Ty Landrum: It really started during the pandemic. Like many others, I found myself in lockdown, practicing alone. I had been practicing Ashtanga from the very beginning, always following the script, but in that strange, uncertain time I began moving off-sequence. Other patterns started emerging spontaneously.

I wasn’t trying to invent anything. The movements just came, and I felt exhilarated by them. They carried me through the pandemic, and when I began teaching again, I started sharing them with students. They loved it. That’s when the idea of systematizing what became Black Lotus Yoga took shape.

Over the years, I had also noticed that the Ashtanga sequencing didn’t always serve my students in the way it served me. The Primary Series can be tough for beginners. It’s hard on the knees, heavy on forward folding, and light on backbending. For students spending their days hunched over screens, that imbalance wasn’t always helpful.

So Black Lotus grew out of both my personal experience and my wish to offer students something more balanced, adaptable, and sustainable.

What makes Black Lotus different from traditional Ashtanga sequencing?

Ty Landrum: I designed Black Lotus with a few types of students in mind.

One is the total beginner, who might find Primary Series overwhelming or even brutal on the joints. Another is the modern practitioner whose lifestyle creates patterns in the body that Ashtanga doesn’t fully address: the rounded shoulders from endless hours at screens, the closed heart-space.

Then there are long-term practitioners who sometimes plateau. Maybe they’ve moved into Second Series but struggle with postures like leg-behind-the-head, which some bodies are simply not designed for. Or perhaps they’ve entered Third Series, which is so massive and formidable that it becomes unsustainable. I saw friends and colleagues reach that point and feel stuck.

Black Lotus offers another path. The curriculum includes six main series plus a foundation sequence, each with three variations: white (accessible), gray (more challenging), and black (the most demanding). You can mix and match depending on your body and energy. You don’t have to master the most difficult version of a sequence to move forward.

To me, that adaptability is crucial. It allows people to listen to their bodies, to choose variations with intelligence and sensitivity, rather than forcing themselves into a mold just to “progress.”

The name Black Lotus is striking. What does it mean to you?

Ty Landrum: The lotus is an ancient symbol of creative energy and the cosmic womb; the blossoming of life itself. In many traditions, you see the white lotus used as a symbol of transcendence: lifting above the body, the earth, or the darker parts of the self to reach something pure and light.

But the shadow side of that symbolism is that it can encourage us to reject the darker, more difficult aspects of ourselves. We turn toward what feels elevated and away from what feels threatening or uncomfortable. In doing so, we miss the chance to embrace ourselves fully.

The black lotus is different. Its roots reach down into the dark waters of the subconscious. It doesn’t deny that darkness. It draws it upward, spreads it open, and holds it toward the light. For me, it represents the courage to touch into the parts of ourselves we might prefer to avoid, and to hold them with compassion.

That, to me, is yoga. Not selective openness, but unconditional openness. The black lotus reminds us that the darkness has its own beauty, and that true compassion means embracing all of it.

Many people are curious about transitioning from Ashtanga to Black Lotus. How do you see that relationship?

Ty Landrum: First, there’s no “one right way” to do it. You don’t have to fully replace Ashtanga with Black Lotus.

If someone borrows elements from Black Lotus to enrich their Ashtanga practice, I think that’s wonderful. I’m not trying to pull people away from Ashtanga. My love is for the Mysore style; the quiet, breath-based, prana-flowing style of practice. Black Lotus is simply an expansion of that repertoire, a widening of the possibilities within it.

What I’ve noticed is that when people try a little Black Lotus, they often find it enhances their Ashtanga. It helps them reconnect to the essence of practice, which is about energy and vitality, not just posture achievement.

And of course, there will be more resources coming – videos, workshops, and the immersive retreats at Purple Valley are among the best ways to experience it deeply.

Speaking of retreats, what can students expect if they come for a four-week intensive with you?

Ty Landrum: My hope is that people leave feeling a renewed and revitalized relationship with their yoga.

It’s not about learning more postures. It’s about reconnecting to the energetic dimension of practice. When people start to sense how to work with their own prana, their own life force, practice becomes vibrant again. It inspires them, not only on the mat but in life.

Many students arrive feeling stale in their practice, as though they’re going through the motions. My intention is to help them rediscover the creative vitality at the heart of yoga. That vitality makes practice magnetic. You want to come back, because it’s not about meeting an outer standard. it’s about listening to the life energy within you, and that’s endlessly renewing.

You speak often about keeping practice alive. Have you ever struggled with motivation yourself?

Ty Landrum: Honestly, no. I’ve been practicing for 20 years and I’ve never had a day where I thought, “I don’t want to do this.” It’s always been the most exciting thing in my life.

But I do understand why practice becomes stale for many people. If your orientation is toward achieving outward forms — hitting certain postures so you can move on to the next — then the relationship you have with yourself can become alienating. You’re trying to control the body, rather than listening to it.

When you reframe practice as an opportunity to awaken life energy, to let it circulate through you, it changes. It becomes about receptivity, exploration, and intimacy with your own breath. That never grows old.

You describe yoga as awakening the life force. What does that mean in practical terms?

Ty Landrum: Life energy is always moving through us. In yoga, we call it prana. Sometimes it’s described as Kundalini — the serpent power coiled at the base of the spine, waiting to awaken. These are metaphors, but they point to something very real: the unexpressed creative vitality within us.

When practice helps us connect with that vitality, we feel more alive, more authentic. It guides us in ways that the calculating mind cannot. It’s the voice of the heart, of the soul.

Following that voice is not always easy. It can lead you in unexpected directions, and society doesn’t always welcome that. But it’s the only way to live authentically. For me, yoga is about creating the sensitivity and receptivity to hear that voice and to trust it.

That’s also why I see yoga as a form of self-expression — not the expression of the ego, but the expression of that deeper life force moving through us.

Before we finish, a few lighter questions. Do you have any book recommendations for students?

Ty Landrum: Yes. Hinduism and Buddhism by Ananda Coomaraswamy, and Myths of Light by Joseph Campbell. Both are wonderful resources for understanding the mythological and symbolic dimensions of practice.

Your favourite posture right now?

Ty Landrum: Compassion.

 

Join Ty Landrum at Purple Valley.  Ty will be leading a one-month intensive at Purple Valley Goa this season, as well as a two-week program in Tenerife. These are rare opportunities to experience the Black Lotus curriculum directly and to revitalise your relationship with practice in the company of an inspiring teacher.

Goa Retreat

Tenerife Retreat