SPRING SERIES:
QIGONG & NEIGONG TO WELCOME
SPRING & THE WOOD ELEMENT
Free Introduction February 4 ~ 7:00-8:30pm
12-week series February 11 – April 28~ 7:00-8:30pm
(On Zoom)
The Yin of Winter is followed by the Yang of Spring. It is the time of opening when everything in the world begins to grow, sending out shoots and buds. The time to return to activity after having hibernated over winter.
We are shifting to a longer, 12-week format to better move with the seasons and include Qigong and Neigong practices that take advantage of the seasonal energies and support practices that balance, heal and strengthen us. This longer format will allow us to spend more time with the core practices and go deeper into ‘owning’ them and our cultivations.
The Free Introductory Class offers both a “taste” of the upcoming series and a practice drawn from the curriculum. It is not simply a “sales pitch”, and you are welcome to join even if you cannot attend the series.
The “Five Elements” is a core idea of Chinese Medicine and a “Lens” for viewing our Health, our Emotional Life, and our Spirit in a fundamentally different way than western medicine or psychology. It’s used in Feng Shui to choreograph the energies of our home, in Diet to nourish ourselves better. It shapes the passage of time through the seasons of the year and manifests the cardinal directions. There’s even more, but you get the idea: We can use the Five Elements as our guide to bringing a deep and vibrant understanding of our body, our self, and the world.
Our Springtime cycle will ground (or reground) us in the Five Elements with an emphasis on the expansive Wood Element. While we will use them in meditations and qigong to cultivate our inner balance and resilience, they’ll also guide us in honoring and connecting with what the Earth shares:
Our core inner work will bring the Five Elements to our physical, mental-emotional, and spirit bodies with Sound, Visualization and Movement. Week by week we’ll learn the basics and details of a beautiful portfolio of practices that can carry us through our life.
Our core Qigong will be Eight Brocades. We’ll take advantage of having more classes to learn two versions of Ba Duan Jin, the 12th century “Eight Brocades” qigong. We will begin with a more contemplative, gentle version and move into the more dynamic Shaolin version… a practice pair to take us from the quiet of Winter, through Spring, and into the beginning of Summer.
Alongside these meditative and Qigong practices, we will use ritual and other means to explore the other-than-human (and “other-than-me”). The Waters, the Mountains, the Plants, and the vast variety of “other-than-human” life. We’ll turn the Five Elements outward to connect with Elemental Phenomena: going to the trees, the waters, the dirt/earth… connecting to the energy and spirit of those things. We will cultivate emitting our energies into personal talisman-objects (one for each Element) that can be used to focus or even recharge us.
FIVE ELEMENTS PRACTICES:
SIX SOUNDS PRACTICE (Liu Zi Jue- referenced as early as 580 CE): In the Six Healing Sounds MEDITATION, we will sit with the parts of our mental-emotional body we usually avoid, then use sound, color, and breath to invite them to transform…
-FIVE SPIRITS MEDITATION is a variation of Liu Zi Jue that connects to the Spirit of each Organ and honors our Heart for being the Center and Interpreter of our experiences.
FIVE ELEMENT QIGONG (from Mt Emei Shamanic Qigong) A short and elegant form. Between the three practices, we’ll work with our Physical, Mental-Emotional and Shen-Spirit bodies.
-TU GU NA XIN (Exhaling the Old and Drawing in the New) is a BREATH PRACTICE that calls on the Elements and Seasons to help us purge stale and take in fresh Qi to strengthen and refresh our energy system.
SPRINGTIME QIGONG:
BA DUAN JIN:Two versions of the 12th Century Eight Brocades Qigong. A contemplative Yin form and a dynamic Shaolin form.
SPROUT QIGONG and other “small” practices to warm up and support the main practices.
HONORING THE EARTH. It is important to expand our focus beyond ourselves… to the Earth and the other-than-human residents surrounding us. We’ll use the Five Elements as a guide and support our efforts with aligned animist ideas and rituals.
Sounds like a lot! But we’ll lay the groundwork for the practices and ideas in the free-intro and Class 1. In Classes 2-6, we’ll focus on one element each class, while we repeat and deepen the movement practices.
12 Sundays: February 11-April 28
7:00 – 8:30pm (Eastern Daylight Time)
Tuition: $310
Free Intro Class: February 4
INCLUDED IN ALL COURSES:
–Privately posted videos of all Classes
–Abundant written materials provide background and support.
–Class Videos:Private Links emailed to participants on Monday/Tuesday. Allowing you to view missed classes and use them for practice on your own. Access is permanent.
–Missed Class ‘Catch-up’:Optional 15-minute zoom for Q&A etc.
Register for the Free Intro Class -Feb 4
Register for the 12-Week Series -Feb 11-Apr 28