Friday 8th of March International Women's Day.
And I would like to give a nod to two amazing women who pioneered the practice of yoga in the West. Margrit Segesman and Elisabeth Haich.
These empowered women in the post war period established the first fulltime yoga schools in Australia and Europe respectively.
Each has an incredible personal odyssey that they have authored in books.

In Margit's Wings of Power you can read how from being a model of the high fashion world, in 1945 she set out alone on a quest inspired by her family's friend Carl Jung to trek to India. There she lived for several years, slept in a cave on the Tibetan border and deeply learnt the practice of yoga under the guidance of a guru. In 1954 she came to Melbourne Australia and founded the Gita School.

Elisabeth Haich, is renowned for her epic biography Initiation.
This gripping read describes Elisabeth's wartime experiences in Hungary, including seven weeks in a cellar during the bombing of Budapest, and gives a remarkable account of her inner visions of a past life in Egypt. Haich who was also an accomplished sculptress in 1937 established a yoga school in Hungary that in 1948 she moved to Switzerland.

I highly recommend these books.