Pincha Mayurasana
Feather of the Peacock Pose
Drishti: Between the arms
How to
From Adho Mukha Swanasana, place the knees on the floor. Now take the elbows on the floor as well. As you look between your hands, lift the knees off the floor and bring the shoulders and chest forward. (see the first picture below). Notice your shoulders lifting away from the earth.
Try to maintain this position with the shoulders throughout the pose.
Bending the right knee, take the right foot slightly forward. The left may come slightly back (a couple of inches). Exhale as the hips move back, inhale as you jump the left foot up. Forget about your right foot, it will follow on it's own. Only when the left foot is up in the pose will you bring the right foot up to meet it.
Alternatively, you may jump into it with both legs. To work toward this if you aren't yet ready for it, try jumping with the left leg first, and then switching the legs so that you jump the right leg up.
To jump both legs together, start with the feet as they are in down dog. Bend the knees as the hips move back on an exhale. As you inhale jump the hips and legs up over the head, bringing the feet up into the pose.
Modifications
Rather than trying to balance in the pose, if you are still having difficulty supporting yourself, you may want to just start working on the strength necessary for this pose.
To do this, don't jump into it. Instead hold the position prior to taking the legs up (see below). Remember when you are here to continue to shift the shoulders and chest forward in order to work with more strength in your shoulders, which is where the support comes from. Remember also to continuously focus on lifting the head and shoulders away from the floor.
If this is working, you may try lifting first one leg, and then the other up into the pose. This will take more of your weight into the arms, making a closer approximation of the full pose:
If this is working, you may want to start working on the balance. A good first step is to do the full pose with the feet against the wall.
A nice way to begin with this is to take a block and place it between the hands, with the thumb and forefinger creating a ninety degree angle which the block fits into. This will keep the hands in the correct position, and help you to ground them in the floor.
When you feel ready to move away from the wall, a good first step is to take the block with you.
When you are first working on this pose a few things may give you difficulty. It requires shoulder flexibility and strength. Some good options to work on this follow:
Urdva Tadasana, Virabhadrasana A, and Utkatasana are all good places to work on the shoulder movement, drawing down along the back. You will need to focus on what you are doing with your shoulders in these poses to get this benefit, however, so make sure you are aware of the drawing down and forward. If you can feel it there, you may begin to develop the flexibility and understanding of this movement to take it into Pincha Mayurasana.
For beginner students, simply working with Adho Mukha Swanasana until you feel comfortable and strong in it is a good way to develop strength and shoulder flexibility.
Sirsasana (headstand) is very similar to Pincha Mayurasana, but the balance is less challenging, and it requires less strength (and flexibility) in the shoulders, because some of the weight can rest on the head. As such it is a very good pose to begin working with.
Transitional Poses
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