Before you read this
Most terms pages are hard to read. This one is written so you know what you're buying, what we're responsible for, what you're responsible for, and how to leave if you want to.
It's longer than we'd like. That's because The Garden offers several different things (a membership, classes, workshops, immersions, a teacher training) and each one works differently. Read the section that applies to you.
If something here is unclear, write to support@thegarden.earth and we'll answer.
TERMS & CONDITIONS
1. Who you're dealing with, and what these terms cover
The Garden is operated by Eva Blumenfeld, sole proprietor, at 348 Palmerston Boulevard, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Contact: support@thegarden.earth
Throughout this page:
• "The Garden," "we," "us" and "our" mean that business.
• "You" means you.
• "Teachers" means Eva Blumenfeld and any other teacher, guest teacher, substitute teacher, facilitator, assistant, contractor, employee or volunteer who teaches, hosts or supports anything offered by The Garden. Every protection, disclaimer and limitation on this page applies to all of them equally, to the extent the law permits.
• "Season" means one of the four quarters of the year: spring, summer, fall or winter.
These terms cover thegarden.earth, the Garden publication on Substack at letters.thegarden.earth, our Zoom sessions and livestreams, our WhatsApp and other community spaces, and everything sold through any of them.
By subscribing, booking, purchasing or taking part in anything we offer, you agree to these terms. If you don't agree to them, please don't purchase or participate.
We'll send you a copy. When you subscribe or buy anything, we email you a copy of these terms, or a durable copy or link you can keep, together with the details of what you bought: what it is, what you paid, in what currency, when it starts, how it's delivered, and how to cancel.
For memberships and any other agreement subject to Ontario consumer-protection requirements, we will provide the information and written agreement required by law. Your statutory cancellation rights, if any, begin and operate according to the applicable law, regardless of anything in these terms.
2. Age, and practising with a parent or guardian
Adults
You must be 18 or older to hold your own account, make your own purchase, or take part on your own behalf.
Participants under 18
Young people have always practised Kundalini Yoga, and we welcome them in specific parts of The Garden, with a parent or legal guardian involved.
Open to participants under 18, with a parent or guardian:
• Live classes, in person and by Zoom or livestream
• The free tier of the publication
• Solstice and equinox sessions
• 40-day challenges
Adults only, no exceptions:
• Private sessions and mentorship
• WhatsApp and other community groups
• Immersions
• The Dream of a Yogi tier and its material
• Rebirthing workshops and other depth or subconscious work
• The Spiritual Teacher track
These aren't arbitrary lines. Some of that material is explicitly for adults, and the rest involves unsupervised contact or adult peer groups that aren't appropriate for a minor.
Conditions. Where a participant under 18 takes part:
1. A parent or legal guardian must hold the account and make the payment. A minor cannot enter a contract with us directly.
2. The parent or guardian must read these terms, sign our Consent, Health Disclosure and Assumption of Risk Form for Participants Under 18, and provide it before the first session.
3. The parent or guardian is responsible for deciding, with the young person's doctor where appropriate, that the practice is suitable for them.
4. For participants under 18, a parent or guardian must be present for the whole session, in the room in person or on camera for livestream.
5. We may decline any enrolment, or end one, if we don't think the offering is a good fit for a particular young person. We'll tell you honestly why.
3. What The Garden is, and what it isn't
This is the most important section on this page. Please actually read it.
What it is
The Garden teaches Kundalini Yoga, meditation and contemplative practice. The work includes physical postures, vigorous and sustained breathwork, mantra, long-held positions, meditation, and practices designed to move energy and surface unconscious material.
That last part is not incidental. Some of what we do, particularly the Dream of a Yogi work, rebirthing workshops and eclipse-season material, is deliberately aimed at the subconscious. It can bring up strong emotion, old memory, grief, agitation, disrupted sleep, vivid dreams, or a period of feeling unsettled afterward. These experiences can occur in contemplative and intensive practices. The work is not appropriate for everyone at every moment of their life.
What it isn't
The Garden is not medical care. Our teachers are not physicians, nurses, dietitians, or any kind of licensed healthcare provider, and nothing offered here is provided in any such capacity. Nothing here diagnoses, treats, cures or prevents any condition. Nothing here is a substitute for medical advice, and nothing here should cause you to delay or disregard advice from someone qualified to give it.
The Garden is not mental health treatment. Our teachers are not psychotherapists, psychologists, social workers or counsellors, and are not registered with any Ontario health regulatory college. We do not practise psychotherapy and we do not treat mental health conditions. Our teaching draws on depth psychology and Jungian thought as a frame for understanding practice, not as clinical treatment.
If you are dealing with a mental health condition, if you are in crisis, or if you are in active treatment, please work with a qualified professional. Practice can sit alongside that care. It cannot replace it. If something comes up in this work that needs more than we can offer, we will tell you so and encourage you to seek appropriate professional support.
No outcome is guaranteed. These practices come from a longstanding contemplative tradition. Their effects vary from person to person, and many have not been studied or validated according to the standards used for medical treatment. We make no claims or promises about results of any kind. What you get from the practice depends on you, your circumstances, and a great deal that is outside anyone's control.
Before you practise
Please talk to your doctor or another qualified healthcare professional before you begin, and especially if any of the following apply:
• You are pregnant, have recently given birth, or are trying to conceive
• You have high or low blood pressure, heart disease, or a history of stroke
• You have epilepsy or any seizure disorder
• You have glaucoma or recent eye surgery
• You have had surgery, an injury, or a hospitalisation in the past twelve months
• You have a respiratory condition
• You have a spinal condition, disc injury, or chronic back or neck pain
• You are being treated for any mental health condition, or have a history of psychosis, mania, dissociation, or PTSD
• You are taking medication that affects blood pressure, heart rate, mood or sleep
Certain health conditions, pregnancy and the postpartum period may require modification or avoidance of particular practices, including intense pranayama. Within the Kundalini Yoga tradition, certain practices are also modified or avoided during menstruation. We will tell you when a traditional modification applies, but traditional practice guidance is not a substitute for medical advice.
It is your responsibility to tell us about anything relevant to your safety before you practise, and to tell us if it changes. We can only work with what we know.
Your responsibility during practice
You know your body. Your teacher does not, especially over a screen.
You agree to practise within your own limits, to take the modifications offered, to rest whenever you need to and without asking, and to stop immediately if you feel pain, dizziness, faintness, chest tightness, shortness of breath, nausea, or any acute distress, physical or emotional.
You also agree to practise in a space that is safe: clear floor, nothing to fall against, a stable surface, and nobody who might trip over you.
Please understand what your teacher can and cannot see. In a livestream, your teacher usually cannot see you at all. In a Zoom session with many participants, your teacher may not notice you even if your camera is on. Do not rely on being noticed. If you feel unwell, say so where you're able: message in the chat, unmute and speak, or contact us afterward. Above all, stop practising and take care of yourself. Nothing in a class matters more than that.
If you are practising alone and something feels seriously wrong, stop and seek appropriate medical help. Do not wait for the session to end.
4. The membership
Where it lives
The Garden membership is delivered through Substack at letters.thegarden.earth. Substack hosts the content and provides the subscription and payment infrastructure. Live sessions run on Zoom, with links posted inside the membership.
Your agreement is with us, not with Substack. Substack is the platform we use to run the publication and take payment. The membership itself, and the money you pay for it, are between you and The Garden.
Substack's own terms govern your use of Substack as a service, and they may apply to you alongside these terms. They do not change what we owe you here or under the law.
We can cancel a subscription and issue a full or partial refund directly, from our publisher dashboard. Substack also operates its own refund process, which is an additional route open to you rather than a limit on our obligations. Where Substack's process would give you less than these terms or the law give you, these terms and the law apply.
The tiers |What is Included
Free |All newsletters, a monthly meditation, and the solstice and equinox livestreams
Paid |Everything in Free, plus the Kundalini Yoga classes and masterclasses listed on that month's schedule, on Zoom (with replays on Substack), and member pricing on all workshops
Dream of a Yogi (founding) |Everything in Paid, plus every workshop, a special drop at each eclipse, and the invite-only circle
All prices are in Canadian dollars. Current pricing is shown at letters.thegarden.earth and on thegarden.earth.
What we commit to
What's included in a given month is what appears on that month's published schedule. We publish the schedule in advance and teach what is substantially described there. We don't commit to a fixed number of sessions in perpetuity, because the shape of the offering will change over time.
Before you subscribe or renew, look at the schedule. That's the honest picture of what you're buying.
Sessions are taught by our teachers, not necessarily by Eva. Guest and substitute teachers may cover sessions for ordinary reasons such as illness, travel, family emergencies, training and immersion dates, or because another teacher is the right person for that material. Some sessions are expressly described as being taught by Eva. Where a session isn't described that way, another teacher may teach it.
Times and dates can change. New and full moon classes fall on the actual date of the moon, which means they land on whatever day of the week they land on.
If we have to cancel a session, we will do one of the following, depending on what is practical: have another teacher cover it, reschedule it, substitute a session of equivalent length and general scope, or, for anyone who bought that single session as a drop-in, issue a refund.
A cancelled session has no recording, so we can't promise one.
Recordings, replays and the archive
Replays are a membership feature only. Live sessions inside the membership are generally recorded and the replay is posted to Substack. Nothing sold outside the membership comes with a replay unless the sales page specifically says that it does.
Recordings stay up for the current season, then come down. At the end of each season, that season's recordings are removed and the new season begins clean. This applies to all tracks. It is deliberate: it keeps the practice in the present tense, and it means anyone joining mid-stream arrives with the group rather than behind it.
Recordings are for viewing inside the membership while they're available. They are not yours to keep. You may not download, copy, screen-record, re-upload, or otherwise extract any recording, by any means or tool. Where we make something downloadable on purpose, such as a PDF, it will say so.
Losing access to recordings at the end of a season, or when your paid access ends, is not by itself grounds for a refund.
Your first ten days
Ontario law gives consumers cancellation rights for certain personal-development-services agreements, including a 10-day cooling-off period in circumstances where the legislation applies.
We give every new paid Garden member a 10-day cancellation period, wherever you live.
You may cancel during that period for any reason and receive a refund of the membership payment covered by that cancellation period. You may use the membership during those ten days.
To cancel, email support@thegarden.earth and tell us clearly that you want to cancel.
Your statutory rights under Ontario law apply regardless of anything written here. If the law gives you a longer period, a different starting point, or an additional cancellation right in your circumstances, the law wins.
Cancelling after that
You can cancel at any time. You don't need a reason or our permission.
The fastest way is through your own Substack account, under your subscription settings. If that isn't working, write to support@thegarden.earth and we'll cancel it from our publisher dashboard.
When you cancel:
• You keep access until the end of the period you've already paid for, unless the law requires otherwise
• You become a free subscriber and keep getting the free newsletters unless you unsubscribe from those too
• You aren't billed again after cancellation takes effect
• Partial months aren't ordinarily refunded
We will never require a phone call or make you go through a retention conversation in order to cancel.
Refunds beyond the first ten days
Beyond the applicable cancellation period, monthly memberships aren't ordinarily refunded for time already elapsed, and annual memberships aren't ordinarily refunded partway through a term, except where the law requires otherwise.
If you've had a billing error, a duplicate charge, or you paid for a period during which we materially failed to deliver what was published on the schedule, write to support@thegarden.earth.
Monthly and annual terms
Monthly memberships run month to month and may be cancelled on no more than one month's notice.
Annual memberships run for a maximum term of one year.
We intend to offer payment structures that comply with Ontario's requirements for personal-development-services agreements, including any required instalment option.
Annual renewal
Annual subscriptions renew automatically at the end of each one-year term unless you cancel before the renewal date. That is how the platform works and we can't switch it off, so we won't tell you otherwise.
Substack sends every annual subscriber a reminder email about a week before the renewal date, showing the renewal is coming.
You can cancel at any time before that date, either from your Substack subscription settings or by writing to support@thegarden.earth, and you won't be charged again.
If you're charged for a renewal you didn't want, write to support@thegarden.earth and we'll refund it from our publisher dashboard.
Nothing here takes away any renewal or cancellation right that Ontario law gives you.
5. Drop-in classes, workshops and single tickets
Classes and workshops are also sold individually, through thegarden.earth, to people who aren't members. These are one-time purchases, not subscriptions. Nothing recurs and nothing renews.
Members get member pricing, applied through a discount code posted inside the membership and rotated each season. Please don't share the code outside the membership.
There are no replays for drop-in classes or workshops unless the sales page specifically says otherwise. If you buy a single session, you're buying the live session. Please don't buy one if you can't attend live unless the listing says a replay is included.
Refunds: drop-in classes and workshops are final sale and non-refundable once booked, including if you're unable to attend. Please book only if you're sure you can be there.
If we cancel a session, you'll receive a full refund.
Nothing in this section takes away any cancellation or refund right that applicable consumer law gives you.
6. Immersions and retreats
Immersions and retreats are multi-day containers. Some run online, some run in person at a partner venue, and some are residential. They're the deepest work we offer and they're priced and sold on their own.
In this section, "retreat" means any multi-day programme held in person at a venue, residential or not. "Immersion" means any multi-day programme, online or in person. Where a rule below applies only to one, it says so.
Paying
There are two ways to pay:
In full, at the time of booking. Your place is confirmed when payment clears.
On a payment plan. Payment plans are arranged personally with Eva, before booking, and set out in writing. A payment plan is a commitment to the full amount, subject to any cancellation right the law gives you. If you leave the plan partway through after those rights have expired, the remaining instalments may still be owed according to the written agreement.
Where a payment plan is used, a stated portion of the first payment may be identified as a booking fee that reflects costs or commitments incurred in reserving your place.
Cancellation
Subject to any cancellation or refund rights required by law, our standard immersion cancellation policy is:
When you cancel |What happens
More than 60 days before |Full refund, less any lawful and clearly disclosed booking fee
30 to 60 days before |50% refund, less any lawful and clearly disclosed booking fee
Fewer than 30 days before. |No refund
Retreats are often held at venues operated by third parties, including farms and ranches where the work involves horses. Those venues may have their own rules, waivers and insurance requirements, and you'll need to agree to theirs as well as ours. Work around horses and other animals carries real physical risk, and you take part voluntarily subject to the separate waiver and applicable law.
What's included is set out on the page where you book. Where meals, accommodation or transport are included, that page says so, and anything not listed there is yours to arrange.
You are responsible for your own travel, your own accommodation where it isn't included, your own passport and visas, and your own medication. Tell us about allergies, dietary requirements and health conditions in advance and in writing, and we'll do what we reasonably can to accommodate them.
Shared accommodation. Where a retreat includes shared rooms, we'll tell you before you book and do our best with any preference you give us, but we can't guarantee a particular roommate or a private room unless you've paid for one.
Conduct on site. Section 8 applies at a retreat as it does online. Where someone's behaviour makes the container unsafe for others, we may ask them to leave, and in that case we may refuse a refund to the extent the law permits. You would be responsible for your own onward travel.
7. Teacher training
The KRI Level One Kundalini Yoga Teacher Training is not governed solely by this page.
Training is sold under a separate written enrolment agreement covering tuition, payment plans, attendance and make-up requirements, practicum hours, withdrawal and refunds, and the requirements for certification. You'll receive that agreement before you're enrolled, and you'll sign it.
Where these general terms conflict with the signed teacher-training agreement, the training agreement governs, subject always to applicable law.
Three things worth saying here anyway.
Certification is granted under KRI's certification framework, not by The Garden alone. We currently teach the program under a licence held by Hari Kaur. Meeting the applicable attendance, practicum, examination, sadhana and other certification requirements is necessary for certification. Completing the course is not necessarily the same thing as being certified, and we cannot guarantee certification to anyone.
Enrolment involves a conversation. Before anyone is accepted into a training, we talk. That conversation runs both ways. We may decline an application where we reasonably believe the training is not an appropriate fit, subject to applicable human-rights law.
Enrolment also involves signing. Every trainee signs The Garden's own waiver and assumption of risk agreement, in addition to the KRI documents applicable to the program, including any requirements packet and code of ethics. All required documents have to be signed and returned before the training begins.
8. Community spaces
Garden WhatsApp groups, Zoom rooms, comment threads and circles are shared spaces. What holds them is not moderation alone, but how people behave.
What's expected
• Treat everyone with basic respect, including our teachers and anyone working with us
• What's shared in a circle stays in the circle. Don't repeat, screenshot or discuss another member's personal material outside the space. We can't guarantee another member's behaviour, but we take confidentiality seriously and so should you
• Don't give medical, psychological or clinical advice to other members
• Don't use Garden spaces to sell, recruit or promote your own offerings without asking first
• Don't share paywalled material, recordings, workbooks, Zoom links, login details or discount codes with people who haven't paid for them
What we'll do
We may remove content, remove you from a community space, or end your access to The Garden if you harass, abuse, threaten or demean anyone here, including our teachers and anyone working with us, or if you seriously or repeatedly breach these terms.
Where access is ended for serious misconduct or a serious breach, we may refuse a refund to the extent the law permits.
For anything short of serious misconduct, we'll generally try to talk to you first.
We may also decline to accept or continue someone's participation where we reasonably believe an offering is not an appropriate fit or where participation would materially disrupt the safety or functioning of the group. Where we do that and you've paid for something you haven't received, we'll refund the unused portion unless the law permits otherwise.
Recording
Live sessions may be recorded. Where a session will be recorded, we'll tell you. By participating with your camera or microphone on after receiving that notice, you consent to your image, voice and contributions being included in the recording and made available to the audience described for that session.
If you'd rather not appear, keep your camera off and stay muted. Tell your teacher in advance and they'll be careful not to call on you.
You may not record any session yourself, by any means, including screen recording, browser extensions or another recording tool, and you may not photograph or record other participants without their express permission.
9. What belongs to whom
Ours
Our original writing, original workbooks, recordings, original course structures, branding, the Garden name and marks, and the original design and presentation of the site and publication belong to us or are used by us with permission, and may be protected by copyright, trademark or other rights.
Your membership or purchase gives you a personal, non-transferable licence to use this material for your own non-commercial practice. It doesn't give you the right to copy it, share it, re-upload it elsewhere, sell it, or present our original material as your own. Login credentials are for you alone and may not be shared.
A serious breach of these rights may result in loss of access, subject to applicable law, and we reserve any other remedy available to us.
If you're a teacher and you want to teach something you learned here, ask. Where the material is ours to authorize, the answer is often yes and may come with a request for attribution.
Not ours
Kundalini Yoga itself, traditional kriyas and meditations, mantras, teachings in the public domain or belonging to the broader tradition, and materials owned by third parties such as the Kundalini Research Institute are not our intellectual property merely because we teach or refer to them.
Certain KRI training materials and other third-party materials may be used under licence or permission where applicable.
Nothing on this page claims ownership of the tradition itself, and nothing here restricts your right to practise or teach material that The Garden does not own.
Yours
Anything you write, share or submit stays yours.
By voluntarily posting something in a Garden community space, you give us the limited permission needed to display it within that space and operate the service.
If we ever want to quote you publicly, use your image as a testimonial, or use your words in marketing, we'll ask first and you can say no.
10. Your information
We collect and use personal information as described in our Privacy Policy.
That includes information such as your name and email when you subscribe, information you give us in intake or health forms, transaction information, and information necessary to operate the membership and teach safely.
We don't sell your personal information.
We use service providers including platforms such as Substack, Stripe, Squarespace, Zoom, WhatsApp and Google where applicable. Some personal information may therefore be processed outside Canada.
You can ask what personal information we hold about you, ask us to correct it, and ask us to delete information we no longer need and are not legally required to keep.
Health information is treated as sensitive personal information and handled according to the Privacy Policy.
Full details are in the Privacy Policy.
Email: you can unsubscribe from marketing or newsletter emails using the unsubscribe link or by writing to support@thegarden.earth. Transactional or service messages relating to something you've purchased may still be sent where necessary.
11. Payments and prices
All prices are in Canadian dollars, unless a checkout page clearly says otherwise.
We never intentionally hold your card number. Payments are processed by the payment provider shown at checkout, such as Stripe or Substack's payment infrastructure. Card details are submitted through those systems rather than to us directly.
Please never send us a card number by email or message. If you do, we'll delete the message where reasonably possible and ask you to use the payment link instead.
One-time purchases such as drop-in classes and workshop tickets are paid at checkout. Nothing recurs unless the checkout page clearly identifies it as a recurring subscription.
Payment plans are set out in writing before you start. If an instalment fails, we'll let you know and give you a reasonable chance to fix it. Where the agreement permits, access may be suspended while an overdue balance remains outstanding.
Prices can change. Existing members are told before a change affects a future billing period, and a price change does not alter a term you've already paid for unless the law or your agreement permits it.
Errors. We try to keep prices and descriptions accurate, but mistakes happen. If something is clearly listed at the wrong price or materially described incorrectly, we may correct the error and, where appropriate, cancel and refund an affected order rather than honour an obvious mistake. We'll tell you if that happens.
We may decline or limit an order where reasonably necessary, including because of capacity, eligibility, suspected fraud, safety or an obvious pricing error. If we decline an order after taking payment, we refund it.
Tax: Applicable taxes, if any, are shown at checkout.
12. Liability and indemnity
Here's the honest version.
You take part voluntarily and accept the ordinary and reasonably foreseeable risks associated with the activity you're choosing, including physical injury and emotional difficulty. Section 3 explains many of those risks, but it cannot identify every possible one.
For activities carrying elevated physical risk, including in-person immersions and work involving horses or other animals, a separate waiver and assumption-of-risk agreement may also apply.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, and subject to any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded or limited, The Garden and its teachers are not responsible for losses arising from risks you knowingly assume, from your failure to follow safety instructions or disclose relevant information, from technical outages beyond our reasonable control, or from the acts or omissions of independent third-party venues and service providers.
Nothing in these terms excuses us from responsibility where the law does not allow responsibility to be excluded.
The website, publication and online services are provided using third-party technology. We cannot promise that every platform or livestream will always be uninterrupted or error-free.
You agree to indemnify The Garden and its teachers against third-party claims, losses and reasonable costs arising directly from your unlawful conduct, your material breach of these terms, your misuse of our protected material, or your infringement of someone else's rights, to the extent permitted by law.
Nothing in these terms limits any right or remedy you have under Ontario consumer-protection law, human-rights law, or any other law that cannot be waived or contracted out of.
We carry liability insurance appropriate to our practice.
13. If something goes wrong between us
Tell us first. Email support@thegarden.earth with what happened and what you'd like done about it. We'll acknowledge your message within 5 business days and try to resolve it directly.
Most things are fixable this way and we'd rather fix them than argue about them.
If we can't resolve it, these terms are governed by the laws of Ontario and the applicable laws of Canada.
To the extent the law permits the parties to choose a forum, proceedings relating to these terms may be brought in Ontario. If consumer-protection law in your home jurisdiction gives you the right to bring a claim somewhere else, nothing here takes that right away.
If you live somewhere else, you keep whatever mandatory consumer protections your local law gives you.
Ontario residents can also contact Consumer Protection Ontario through the Government of Ontario.
14. Changes to these terms
We may update this page. When we make a meaningful change, we'll post the new version with a new date and let members know where appropriate.
Changes don't rewrite a completed transaction retroactively.
For a change that materially alters an ongoing paid membership, we'll give you notice before it takes effect and obtain any consent required by law.
Minor administrative, technical or clarifying changes may take effect when posted, provided they do not materially reduce rights you've already paid for.
15. The rest
If a court finds any part of these terms unenforceable, the rest stays in effect to the extent it can.
If we don't enforce something once, that doesn't mean we've given up the right to enforce it later.
These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, the details shown at checkout and any separate agreement you've signed for a training, immersion or participant under 18, make up the agreement between us for the relevant service.
Where a separate signed agreement conflicts with these general terms, the separate agreement governs for that offering, subject to applicable law.
We may transfer our rights and obligations under these terms as part of a legitimate sale, restructuring or transfer of The Garden, subject to applicable law and our Privacy Policy.
You can't transfer your membership to another person unless we agree.
Things outside our reasonable control, such as serious illness, power or internet failure, platform outages, severe weather, transit disruption, venue closure or government action, may force us to cancel, postpone or move something. Where that happens, we'll make reasonable efforts to provide the service another way, reschedule it, offer an appropriate credit, or provide any refund the law or the applicable section of these terms requires.
Sections that by their nature need to continue after your membership or participation ends, including provisions relating to intellectual property, privacy, community confidentiality, liability, disputes and unpaid amounts, continue to apply.
The Garden · thegarden.earth · Toronto, Ontario
Last updated 11 September 2026 · Version 1.0