Salon of the Month

Designed according to the principles of feng shui (the Chinese art of placing objects to achieve harmony in one's life and surrounding) and based solidly on American-style business sense, Gaia Day Spa in La Jolla, CA, is a harmonious blend of East and West.

  Lush layers of fragrance—left by a succession of patrons, of plants, of perfumes and aromatic oils—greet me as I pass from the head of the day into the cool, tranquil womb of Gaia Day Spa. In Greek mythology, Gaia was the Greek goddess personifying the Earth—the Mother of Creation.

  If the goddess Gaia personifies Earth, then the Gaia Day Spa in La Jolla, CA, personifies harmony with our living Earth—a philosophy which, it turns out, is enthusiastically endorsed by Rhana Pytell, co-owner of this miraculous spa, set a block from the Pacific Ocean on the Southern California coast.

  "Everything we offer at the spa should be congruent—harmony is vital to health and happiness. Wellness, beauty, hospitality, are all components of what we do, and they must all be in balance," Rhana asserts. Her voice is soft, like the floating panel of translucent silk that blows in the wind at entrance of the garden in which we are conversing.