LAYOGA.COM 33responded, “Am I ok? Are YOU ok?!” Then she explained, “I’m going
to Morning Sadhana. It’s Kundalini Yoga. Do you want to come?” Nor-
mandie exclaimed, “I tried that in London. You mean I can be there in the
dark and nobody is going to see me?! Yyyeeeeaaa I want to come.”
The next morning, just before 4 am, the two entered Golden Bridge Yoga
in Hollywood. Normandie recounts, “I remember walking in the door for
the first time and it was so dark. And it was so still. The feeling that was in
the building, seeing vividly the energy that was in the air, and the colors that
surrounded it. As the dawn rose, we were chanting. I knew every mantra of
the Aquarian Sadhana. Everything was in me. I felt that I had always been
there. Aside from having my son, it was the most beautiful experience in my
life. This feeling of complete wholeness, that this is what I needed to do, and
this is what I needed to be. I remember looking up on the stage, and seeing
the man who was leading the sadhana, and I said to myself ‘I will lead this.
I know this. I know this in every part of my being.’”
Sadhana ended at 7 am. Normandie stayed for the next class, and the
class after that, until the doors closed that evening, and back at dawn the
next day. She signed up for Tej Kaur Khalsa’s teacher training that began
the following week. She laughs, “Poor Finn was being dragged to Golden
Bridge every three seconds.”
Grateful for the refuge, the well-mannered, former model wanted to
send a “thank you” note to the studio owner. She discovered that it was
Gurmukh Kaur Khalsa, the woman in the turban who had flashed on her
TV screen with Cindy Crawford four years before. The wise crone was
away in Rishikesh, India, for many months. Then one day while in Gold-
en Bridge, Normandie chokes back tears, “I was walking up the stairs,
and Gurmukh was walking down and she said, ‘You’re Normandie!’ I
knew her. I mean I knew her deeply. It was like coming home to your
mother. There’s something so magical about her. She’s a fairy, or a pixie,
or an elf, and then she’s the biggest queen and goddess and saint. And
then she’s a human, in this tiny body. Like the genie in the bottle. There
was so much that radiated from her. Her aura, her energetic being, spoke
to the deepest parts of me that hadn’t been nurtured properly, that hadn’t
been called home. I know I am far from the first person who has been
transformed by her without saying a word, but when you’re in the pres-
ence of grace, this happens.”
Over the course of nearly a decade, the two developed the type of rela-
tionship that can only be described as dharmic. “I have been so incredibly
blessed by her!” Normandie weeps, “I’ve taught with her, and I have had
the most fun with her, the hardest times, and the most transformative
teachings. She’s been not only my teacher, but my incredible friend.”
For many years, Gurmukh and her husband, Gurushabd Singh lived
in Normandie’s guest house, atop La Brea. It was the same one Sadie
stayed when she first brought Normandie to sadhana that dark morning.
Normandie revels in sincere reverence for her surrogate family saying,
“Gurushabd has been protective and kind, and always a solid voice for
me. And their daughter Wah is like my sister. She is someone that I value
so deeply for her counsel and her friendship.”
Thousands of practitioners from all over the world considered Golden
Bridge to be a sacred site of pilgrimage, transformation, learning, service,
and community. When it closed its doors in 2015, it devastated the hun-
dreds who oriented their daily lives around it. “We were like rudderless
ships,” Normandie reflects, “It’s been tough, but it’s given me the lesson
that you carry your temple with you. Your sanctuary is within yourself,
and you bring yourself back home, by your thoughts, by your breath, by
your actions. You can’t depend on a physical roof.”
Though Normandie had been teaching and leading sadhana for many
years, the studio closing kicked her out of the metaphysical nest. She ex-
panded her teaching beyond those walls with an active private clientele,
retreats and workshops, classes at Wanderlust Hollywood, Soho House
Malibu, Unplug Meditation and Yoga West, and her dedication to service
work at Blessed Sacrament Jesuit Parish in Hollywood with people who
are homeless. She also has two online programs on Yogaglo: Kundalini
101 and Morning Ritual: Wake Up to Create Your Day.
These programs and initiatives create a safe space for students to
remove their own “masks of illusion” (without the severity of falling in a
drain pipe). Through her teachings, Normandie inspires others to reveal
their own true selves.
One of Ms. Keith’s favorite parables of Yogi Bhajan’s is that of a light-
house. She teaches, “What the lighthouse is, is a beacon. A lighthouse
doesn’t leave its post and go out and rescue one ship. In doing that, all of
the other ships would get lost. A lighthouse, it stays rock steady, it stays
firmly rooted, and it beckons everyone home. It leads by example.”
During her birthday week last year, Normandie was as spastic as any
single mother driving around town in legendary LA traffic. Privates,
studio classes, her son’s football games and studies, service with people
who are homeless, and her own sadhana. She didn’t feel very lighthouse-
like. “Ugh! Ack! I have GOT to get myself to a yoga class!”
After the daily hustle, Normandie dragged herself into her house,
where the Star Wars theme song blasted. She saw lit candles everywhere
and two yoga mats perfectly aligned. “Uh, what is going on...?!” Her
now 12-year-old son Finn jumped into frame announcing, “I know that
you don’t have time to go to yoga, so I want to teach YOU a yoga class.
This is my birthday present to you. I found good mantra.” She laughs,
“And ‘good mantra’ was Star Wars, but I was like, ‘Ok, Yoda’s in the
house! We got this!’” Like any proud mom, she cried through the entire
practice. Her little candle burned bright.
Later in the year, a radiant, wise, and generous teacher led Kundal-
ini Yoga classes at Coachella. New students asked about the Aquarian
Sadhana and her spiritual name. Normandie Keith, calm, quiet, compas-
sionate and still, responded humbly, “Dharam Prakash – it means one
who travels the path of righteousness fearlessly and is lit from within.”
What the shopkeeper in the Bahamas had tried to tell her all those
lifetimes ago.Normandie Keith and her teaching schedule can be found at: normandiekeith.com
Cheryl Fox is a professional photographer and yoga practitioner based in LA:
cherylfoxportfolio.com
Hair and Makeup by Kumiko Ando (IG @kumikohairmakeup)
Styling by Venius Adams: venius.net
White Yoga Outfit {Bra and mesh leggings}.
Martina Sports Bra ($49) by Lavaloka (lavaloka.com).
Brooklyn Mesh Legging ($94) by Lavaloka (lavaloka.com)
White Tunic: Aphrodite by Raj Wear ([email protected])
Select Necklaces by Darshan Sacred Jewelry (darshansacredjewelry.com)
Amy V Dewhurst is an author, producer, and yogini who is currently CSO of
Your Super in Venice, California.“There are some people who remind you that there’s magic in this world.
Beings who shine so bright they can sometimes blind. Normandie Keith, with her long
blond braids and thousand watt smile is one of these people”