It took me a long time to even start writing this tribute to Shanti Devi, Julie Hemmings. I didn’t know her that well. I hadn’t even met her in person. I scrabbled around to try to find some biographical information to put together an obituary that would do her justice. In some ways my desperation to get something together quickly may have meant I unintentionally disrespected some people’s grief. This was perhaps my way of dealing with my grief at losing a teacher that I felt I could have learned so much more from.
I realised that this was a better way to approach writing this piece - from my personal memories of Julie and the things she taught me in life and in death. I have reflected over the last few months on how we as teachers are the makers of our own legacy – the legacy of the teachings that we impart to others. The best way that I can honour Julie’s memory is to embody her wisdom, and to pass it on to others.
Teachers come to us when we are ready for them. Yes, Facebook has some clever algorithms, but fate has its part to play. And so it was that I saw an advert for Julie’s Mantra and Meditation course in early 2021. I remain grateful to the Covid lockdowns for the way that teaching online expands our opportunities to learn. Without it, Julie may never have considered teaching the course remotely, and I most likely would never have the chance to learn from her.
The Mantra and Meditation course was crammed full of content (consequential courses would be split into two). As someone who has enjoyed singing and playing music throughout my whole life, the mantra was what I was particularly interested in. Julie’s passion for creating sound shone through the screen. Her beautifully resonant voice echoed through my laptop speakers every month. She guided us through the rudiments of Sanskrit pronunciation over the six-month course, providing the tools to discover this wonderful language for ourselves.
I will be forever grateful to Julie for introducing me to the Vigyana Bhairava Tantra, in particular Swami Nishchalananda’s interpretation of it in Insight Into Reality. I am still working my way through the dharanas of this incredible meditation guide. Julie’s feedback was honest and discerning, and the wealth of information in text, video and audio was invaluable.
I loved learning from Julie and I leaped at the chance to develop a pranayama practice when she ran another six-month online course at the end of 2023. This was when I really grew to appreciate her skills as a course creator. Her pranayama teaching was so well designed, providing a structured journey through the Mahat Yoga Pranayam, rhythmic control, kumbhakas, bandhas towards Bhastrika and Kapalabhati. She combined ancient texts and modern science in that distinct way that the best yoga teachers demonstrate.
At the end of our second class in December 2023, Julie revealed to us that she had lung cancer. She joked that this wasn’t necessarily what you would want to hear from a pranayama teacher! The following month she updated us by telling us about a brain tumour. By February, she had tumours on her spine. It was testament to her commitment to teaching that she continued with the course, although she struggled with a full day and sometimes cut the sessions short. It is also testament to her preparation that we had plenty of content to learn from, even if she could no longer demonstrate everything live. The more forceful techniques were no longer possible for her, but she had pre-recorded video to support her and us students.
Our final session in April was an emotional one. She knew she was dying. She talked about her legacy, and her hope of holding a one-day course so that we could continue her work. Sadly, she ran out of time. Many of us took the opportunity to tell her how grateful we were for her teaching. I mentioned how sad I would be that we had never had the opportunity to meet in person.
On 22nd May, she sent our WhatsApp group a voicemail, explaining that she considered us all to have passed the course, but that she no longer had the energy to mark our final assignments or create certificates. She recommended that we should still complete the written work for our own benefit. I still haven’t even started mine. It almost feels too final.
She told us the cancer had spread to her bones and that she had fallen and broken her hip. She also revealed that she was on end-of-life care and pain relief.
I would like to share some of Julie’s own words from that voicemail.
“So, I’m just closing all the doors and getting myself ready for the next journey which is, in some ways, quite exciting. Having the spiritual beliefs that I’ve got, it doesn’t faze me at all really.”
I sent her a voicemail on 27th May. I reiterated that I would love the opportunity to meet her if she had the energy, but that I suspected she would be saving that energy for her close friends and family. I don’t think she ever received that voicemail. On Friday 7th June, a fellow pranayama student messaged the group to say she had seen a notice that Julie had passed away the week before.
In the weeks following news of Julie’s death, I grappled with finding out more about her in order to write an obituary. As a founder member of Yoga Teachers Together, it seemed fitting that we somehow memorialise her on our page. I reached out to my pranayama group and informed the 2021 mantra and meditation group. I also posted on the YTT Facebook page to see if anyone could provide more information or would like to share memories. My fellow pranayama yogini Sarah Wilson shared the following beautiful tribute which sums up many of my own feelings:
“Julie was such a knowledgeable and wise teacher and she shared her knowledge so generously, even during the last few months when she became more poorly. I feel honoured to have known her and studied with her over the last couple of years. I wish I had got to meet her in person and regret that I never got to experience kirtan with her, but her online training was excellent and always so thorough. I hope I can do justice to Julie’s teaching and pass on that knowledge to my students now too. I’m pleased that those of us on her last Pranayama course got to express all of our love, gratitude, and admiration for her before she had to leave.
“My thoughts are with her family and friends.
“Rest in peace beautiful Julie and thank you for everything.”
Karen Haydock posted, “Last night in my class in the woods I shared a beautiful practice Julie taught me. And whilst we practised, I felt such great gratitude to her. She was capable of moving voices, hearts, minds, and bodies in a way that was such a pleasure and honour to witness and share.”
One of my fellow Mantra students Theresa Samworth sent me the following lovely words:
“Some teachers come into your life at just the right time and Julie was one of those.
“During the long covid lockdowns I felt drawn to studying meditation and mantra at a deeper level so I signed up for Julie’s online mantra course, which opened my awareness of the power of mantra meditation at a much deeper level. We practised mantra every day, journalling on our experiences, learned the Sanskrit alphabet and learned so much about Hindu mythology that inspired me after the course to dive deeper into tantra and shakti goddess energy. It was just wonderful. Her course changed my life, and my teaching, and japa meditation became part of my daily practice. After I finished the course I almost immediately signed up for her pranayama course which again had a profound influence on both my personal practice and teaching. She also introduced me to the teachings at the wonderful Mandala Yoga Ashram and the last time I saw Julie was at the ashram in Wales. We were both booked separately on their kirtan course, it was the first time we’d met in person. On the last night, we shared a kirtan together for the group, Julie on drums, me on harmonium and singing. It was a special moment and a memory I shall cherish. Back then in the summer of 2022, she was full of optimism for the future and we talked about her spending some time in India. When I left the UK in 2023 to go travelling for a year, she was full of loving support for my plans and excited for me, and we talked about meeting in India one day.
“She had so much to offer to the world not only as a talented teacher full of curiosity and thirst for knowledge, but also as kind and compassionate soul.
“The next kirtan I share will be for her … may her onwards journey be full of light, love and kick arse goddess energy!”
Julie often spoke with fondness of the time she spent at the Mandala Yoga Ashram. On hearing of her passing, Krishnaprem from the ashram said, “Such a spark of life, so committed to the yogic path, a quality person and a very experienced yoga teacher.”
Two words came up time and time again as people spoke about Julie. From those who she taught; it was “inspiration.” Julie adored yoga and the practices that gave so much to her life. She was a teacher who was always learning, and who knew the value of sharing her practices with students.
From both those who knew her and those who did not, the word was “light.” Those who first learned of her life on hearing of her death commented on how she shined in the photo I shared. The quotation from Blade Runner often ran through my head as I witnessed her fading in those last six months: “The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long. And you have burned so very very brightly.” Julie never let her light go out, even as her energy became depleted. It was an honour to have been amongst the final group that she passed her knowledge to.
Towards the end of July our pranayama group discovered that Julie’s website had been taken down. So many beautiful recordings of her voice suddenly disappeared and I felt a strange emptiness. One of the group had saved the Pranaya Mantra and forwarded it to us. I played the audio and sat quietly as her strong tones reverberated from my phone. I shed a tear, but I knew her teachings would live with me forever. I shall remember her for her voice; joyful in kirtan, resonant in mantra, soothing in meditation.
At the Yoga Teachers Together Gathering, I finally let go of my grief by chanting the Durgā Dvātriṁśat Nāma Mālā. Durga was Julie’s favourite goddess, and this garland of the thirty-two names of Durga is one of my favourite mantras from her course. Our chair Debbie Farrar closed the dedication by chanting the Maha Mrityunjaya Mantra:
Om Tryambakam Yajamahe
Sugandhim Pushtivardhanam
Urvarukamiva Bandhanan
Mrityor Mukshiya Maamritat
We meditate on the three-eyed One, who is fragrant and nourishing to all. How a ripe fruit falls effortlessly off from a plant’s stem, may it liberate us from ignorance, untruth, and death, for all of immortality.
This moment of my two yoga teachers being drawn together was particularly special to me and it sums up three pieces of wisdom that Julie’s death has brought to me. Firstly, that we come to teachers and teachers come to us when we are ready. We cannot force students to yoga, but when they are ripe, they will fall from the stem of reticence ready to receive our wisdom.
Second, just how important our role is as teachers. Julie was concerned about her legacy, but she had already created it. Her legacy lives on in every soul that she touched, every mantra that she sang, every pranayam that she taught. Her legacy lives on every time any of her students repeats a practice that they learned from her. Our legacy is the legacy of the teachers who have gone before us, and we all carry that torch in every class that we lead.
Julie’s final inspiration was to be fearless in the face of death. Even in that final message her voice is light and breezy. She made death almost seem like little more than a mild inconvenience. She had no sense of death being a finality and showed a true sense of being emancipated from the concept of death.
While Julie’s website is no longer available, videos of her are still available on YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/@DivineWorksYoga/
