Inside Chi Flows Naturally:
1. Year of the Fire Pig – what’s coming in the next
spin of the earth around the sun. Energetic analysis
and chinese astrology predictions that can affect your
health, your wealth, and your spiritual practice.
2. Some top photos I took on China Dream Trips. This is
just a small sampling of 40 pics, with captions. I plan
to post more soon. Landscapes, people, temples, quirky
details, doing qigong in wild places. I’ve travelled to
nearly 100 countries – just fulfilling the demands of
my astrology. China is amongst the most deep, rich,
profound places I’ve visited in this lifetime. The
Dream Trip is designed to be a portal to what I call
“deep earth” – we tap into layers of ancient
consciousness that helps to ground us in the core of
our soul’s immortality.
There is still space on the May 18-June 4, 2007
Dream Trip. We have a great group signed up – I
invite you to join us and fulfill your own hidden
dreams. Come practice “Tai Chi for Enlightenment”
a.k.a. Primordial Qigong, on three marvelous sacred
Taoist mountains of Mt. Emei, Mt. Qing, and Mt.
Hua. Plus all the exciting cultural highlights of
China, at below-market cost. We usually can squeeze
in last minute signups and help you get creative
with financing of the trip. See full trip itinerary
at: http://www.healingdao.com/chinatrip2007.html
Amusingly, my favorite Taoist hangout on Mt. Hua
(Flower Mtn) has hit it big time. A Super bowl TV
ad for Snapple Green Tea features a hiker on
Huashan’s spectacular sheer cliffs. The ad exploits
the spiritual authority of a monk living on top, to
tell the hiker that what’s in the green tea is good
for him. Better hurry and see these remote parts of
China before they are engulfed by the new face of
China….which looks a lot like the face of big
western corporations. To see the ad:
http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/postseason/superads
and then click on fourth quarter ads, Green Tea.
In the past, I think some Taoist monks and nuns
chose monastic life to escape the bleak realities
of communist China. The dream of big money sweeping
across China makes it very challenging for young
people to choose the lifestyle of a Taoist mountain
recluse. Perhaps it is positive, useful in weeding
out those who chose temple Taoism for the wrong
reasons.
See my photos at:
http://www.healingdao.com/china_dream_trip_photos.html
3. Time to plan for summer fun at Dao Mountain in the
New York Catskills. 25 Retreats featuring, according to
one happy camper, “the highest quality energy body
training on planet Earth”. These are very special – do
yourself a favor and scan down the list of stellar
offerings. You only need to make a $100. deposit
online to hold your spot. It’s low-cost, high-energy,
good-people place to cultivate your chi! The
accommodations are spa quality, with two pools, sauna,
& hot tub. www.HealingTaoRetreats.com or if questions,
email retreats@healingdao.com
4. “Cultivate True Feeling” at the Fusion of the 5
Elements workshop in Asheville, N.C. March 10 & 11.
This is very powerful energy work that cuts to the
heart of dissolving negative emotion and growing the
seed essence of one’s soul. This takes qigong practice
into the realm of Taoist depth psychology and five shen
theory. It trains you to FEEL the five-phase cycles in
your body that lie at the heart of the astrology cycles
described below. Only $144. for the weekend, $90 to
review. Prerequsite: Qigong Fundamentals 1&2, life or
by homestudy. Contact: winn@healingdao.com.
5. A quick winter season Kidney-building Qigong
Breathing tip. The healing sound for the water/kidney
element is “chuuu”. Normally this is exhaled in certain
positions to detoxify the kidneys and release the
cold/fear that can get trapped in the kidneys. During
winter season you can also REVERSE and INHALE the
“chuuu” sound so the cool air is sucked between one’s
teeth. The teeth are your only exposed bones in your
body, and they vibrate into the kidney spirit and
charge it up with the chi extracted from the incoming
air (metal/gold element).
Inhale by sipping the “chuuu” sound in 3 or 5 times
(any odd number), keeping the mind focused on the
mingmen, the point between your two kidneys near the
center of your body. Then close your mouth, and
exhale gently but forcefully, feeling the breath is
directed into the mingmen. Do this for five minutes
every day, and your kidneys will glow like a
recharged battery. Most powerful when done between 3
and 7 pm. Can be done before or after other kidney
qigong, such as the Cosmic Swimming Dragon, Deep
Earth Kidney Pulsing, or the modified Marriage of
Heaven and Earth qigong forms taught on the Sexual
Vitality Qigong DVD. See:
http://www.healingdao.com/healinglove.html
————————————–
Dear Cultivators of Nature’s Great & Mysterious Cycles,
The Year of the Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai) , a.k.a. Year
of the Female Red Pig, began on Feb. 4, 2007. That’s
the first day of the lunar Tiger month. Because the
Chinese lunar calendar needed to insert a “short leap
month”, the Chinese New Year itself doesn’t begin until
the new moon of Feb. 18 in China (Feb. 17 in USA and
Europe). Chinese astrology is fundamentally lunar. But
it also uses solar calculations which make it complex,
but contributes to its accuracy as being energetically
attuned to the macro cycles of change.
That’s why I’m currently constructing an online Healing
Tao Chinese Astrology center that will allow readers to
calculate (at no cost) a natal chart that shows your
strong and weak elements and ten year luck cycles. If
you combine that information with qigong practice and
5-element nutrition and feng shui, it becomes an
extremely powerful practical tool of Tao
self-cultivation. I will have available ebooks by
Mantak Chia and David Twicken on how to interpret and
use that information in sophisticated ways.
Chinese love the Year of the Pig, the 12th and final
animal in this cycle. It’s not just because they’ve
mastered the art of making pork tasty. Note: the pork
in China tastes very different from American pork, so
different in fact I thought it was a different species
of pig. I mention it because I had been a vegetarian
for 7 years when I first visited China in 1985, as a
photo-journalist following Marco Polo’s route for four
months across the remote parts of China. It was the
tasty Chinese Pig that ultimately caused me to switch
diets…But I digress.
2007 is a Fire Pig Year, considered one of the most
auspicious years to give birth to children, out of the
whole 120 year astrology cycle (10 celestial stems x 12
terrestrial branches = 120). A higher rate of reported
pregnancies in China – up 30% from last year by one
count – is one reflection of the popularity of the Pig
Year. Websites for ?Golden Pig Mothers? have sprouted
up, and special “Pig Mother” maternity deals are being
offered by hotels. So we’re not talking about the
quaint superstitions of peasants. Even the Chinese
government has issued a Pig stamp and commemorative
gold and silver coins with a Pig on them. Why the big
fuss over a Pig?
Role of the Pig in Chinese Culture
First, Westerners need to put on a new pair of cultural
lenses. In the West, pigs are often seen as dirty, fat,
lazy creatures who lie sleeping all day in filth. Call
it the Year of the Boar if you cannot get over your
image of dirty pig. In China, pigs are highly
respected. In ancient times they ran wild and were
considered to have strong shamanic powers. In the
famous novel “Journey to the West”, the Monkey King
(symbolizing the evolving human travelling on a
spiritual adventure) has “Pigsy” as his main companion.
Together they get into a lot of trouble – and fun. I
summarize the story (see Godchecker.com for more
details):
Pigsy the Pig spirit was actually the ex-Marshall of
the Hosts of Heaven, who was sent down into a pig’s
body after lusting after angels and stuffing his face
with food at every opportunity. The last straw was one
day he guzzled too much immortal peach wine and got
fresh with Chang-O, Goddess of the Moon.
An uproar ensured, and the Jade Emperor turned into a
monstrously ugly pig spirit on earth to teach him a
lesson.
But it didn’t work. As Pigsy, his lustful nature
multiplied and soon he was revelling in troughs and
chasing pretty ladies for all he was worth. After many
mis-adventures, with the help of Kuan YIn, their quest
was fulfilled and Pigsy achieved enlightenment. In
heaven he was rewarded with the title Cleaner of the
Holy Altar, and thousands of worshippers send him
offerings to this very day. Moral of the story: it CAN
pay to be a pig – just play your part well!
Note: To read this delightfully fantastic tale, try
Arthur Waley’s short version or Anthony Yu’s 4-volume
classic. I found this 16th century novel dramatized as
a Chinese TV serial when I first visited China, so it
is very much present in the modern culture.
The modern Chinese are acutely aware of both their long
history and their current rise to prosperity on the
global stage. In 621, a Fire Pig Year, the Tang dynasty
marked a golden age of art, religion, and prosperity
that lasted for nearly four hundred years. In that
year, the emperor introduced a single national currency
called the ?Jin Zhu? which literally translates into
?Gold Pig.? This communist government is happy to
reclaim the ancient Gold Pig mantle for itself, heading
into the 2008 Olympics.
The Pig Character
In China, the Pig’s character is considered to be
honest, tolerant, well-meaning, and friendly. The Pig
is noble and courageous; its steady perseverance leads
it to prosperity. Pigs are known for ending their days
well-off and contented. The Fire Pig is especially
known for its traits of wealth, prosperity, luck and
fertility. So naturally everyone wants their “one
allowed child” to be born in such a year, as it will
make the parents life easier.
The shadow side of the pig character is they can be
very naive, gullible and overconfident, or even
downright stupid about money. But even though they can
lose lots of money, it always seems to come back to
them. Some might see the Chinese national character
reflected in the way pigs eat food with great gusto,
enjoy sleeping all day long and worry about nothing –
life works out for them in the end.
The Fire Pig is more vivacious, bold and relentless in
achieving its goals than the other types of Pigs. The
Pig is ordinarily associated with the water element,
and thus appears lazy. But even the Water Pig may just
be biding its time until the opportunity ripens. Once
in motion the Pig, like a strong river current, is
unstoppable. A Fire Pig “boils” the Water, which makes
this year’s energy potentially turbulent. I will
discuss the political and economic implications of that
shortly.
I have a personal story to relate here. On the small
Caribbean island where I winter, my neighbor Sam raises
pigs. Sam told me how he bought a baby pig once, put it
inside a gunny sack, effectively blindfolding it. The
piglet was tied atop a donkey, which took it some five
miles over a mountain to its new home. The baby pig
slyly waited for an opening, escaped and immediately
ran back the 5 miles to its mother. That is a very
clever and persistent pig.
Bad Weather Hidden Inside a Silver Cloud
The Fire Pig year will be generally auspicious, but it
may also bring calamity. This is mostly due to the
conflict between the heavenly Female Fire and the
earthly Water. 2006 was a Yang (Male) Fire Dog year,
and this yang Fire played itself out much as predicted
in relationship to the Dog/Earth element – civil war in
Iraq, sudden change of political power in the USA, and
public outcry over global warming threatening the
earth. Trials that “outed” corrupt politicians and
lobbyists. More media exposing the inconsistencies
around 9-11.
The Female (Yin) Fire is described by some astrologers
as “candlelight”, i.e. gentle and soft. This is a big
mistake, like under-estimating the potential fury of
ordinarily sweet women that slowly cooks within until
it explodes. Yin Fire is ultimately more powerful than
Yang Fire. It gets held in suppressed emotions, hidden
tension, anxiety and continuing struggle over failed
dreams.
The problem here is that the celestial Yin Fire is
ABOVE the Watery Pig energy below, which means they are
separating. This is revealed in Hexagram 64 of the I
Ching, the Classic of Unchanging Changes. Fire (Li) is
above water (kan). Look it up in whatever I Ching
translation you have. This separation of fire and water
leads to chaos and conflict.
This volatile water-fire energy in 2007 can explode
into natural disasters such as hurricanes, El Nino,
tsunamis, earthquakes, chemical fires, or industrial
explosions. In 1995, a Wood (expanding) Pig year, an
earthquake rocked Kobe, Japan. Natural disasters can
strike anyone, anywhere. Be thankful if you avoid them
and instead find the Pig’s good fortune – and share
your wealth to help the less fortunate. This female
fire celestial energy is generally beneficial, but in
certain places and people it will produce excess or
deficiencies, particularly to the South (excess fire)
and West (controlled/deficient metal).
The destructive 5-element cycle reveals that
Metal-dominant people will have the most difficulty in
a Fire year, as Fire melts Metal/Gold. Water types are
a close second, as uncontrolled Fire plus Water in
spells disaster. Health issues are most likely to
involve the heart, tongue,and small intestine in Fire
types. The negative results of too much passionate fire
activity could include stress, strained relationships,
and a hot temper. In Metal types the problem would be
lung infections. This could get played out on a macro
scale as a bird flu virus spreading in certain areas,
perhaps the south and west of whatever country you live
in.
On the other hand, the Pig Year is great time to use
the fire to move with great gusto to finish projects
and engage in passionately chasing your dreams or true
love. The secret, as always, is holding the balance
point. Depending on your personal astrology, that could
be natural or terribly challenging. Based on the “Law
of Mutual Attraction”, the three animal signs that will
benefit the most in 2007 will be those born in Rabbit,
Dog, and Tiger years. Pig Years favor those who hold
the space of peace and mediate for stability vs.
violent change.
1947: The Last Fire Pig Year
Yin Fire is very explosive and can symbolize firearms.
The AK47 assault rifle was designed and began
production in 1947, the last Fire Pig year. It has
become a global symbol of revolution. The CIA was
established in the US (water rules secrets) and that
year marked the birth of the Cold War that lasted
another 40 years. The seed energy of East-West
separation.
In 1947 the separation of India and Pakistan took place
and resulted in 4 million Hindus and Muslims changing
their homeland. By the end of the year, the two were at
war, and it is still flaring up. Palestine was
partitioned in 1947, another case of water and fire,
arab and jew, not finding harmony 60 years later.
Hopefully, we are in an upward spiral, but more
purification may yet be needed.
2007 may thus be a good year for terrorists and violent
upheavals, even if they ultimately fail. I predict the
partitioning of Iraq into Kurdish, Sunni, and Shiite
territories will begin, a solution that will ease the
civil war but is unlikely to bring lasting peace to the
region.
As we shift to the second half of 2007 the Fire element
may lose its explosiveness as the Pig watery force
begin to re-assert itself. The Fire chi will begin to
ground itself as it flows into the next Earth Rat
cycle. But the water element resurgence in the second
half of the year may bring into consciousness
contraction and fear in various forms. Secrets are also
ruled by the Water element. With Fire (ideals) and
Water (secrets) co-existing in the 2007 chart we can
expect clashes of values over secrecy. The US
government has never been so secretive as under the
Bush administration, and I expect this year will bring
fierce attempts to restore transparency.
1947 brought the report of a crashed UFO near Roswell,
New Mexico. This crash has since dominated UFO
research. I think the UFO issue may arise again very
strongly in 2007 as more of this secrecy gets unveiled.
I find myself reading material on this topic. If you
want more dramatic and detailed evidence of US
government MJ-12 (Majestic, top secret agency)
relations with aliens, listen to intereview of an MJ
government scientist Dan Burisch who was assigned to
medically heal a captive sick alien. He says he’s been
allowed to speak because the govt. finally wants the
truth to start seeping out….
http://www.eaglesdisobey.net/ scroll down to navigation
links on left side for 2 hour free video interview.
Economic Effects of Fire Pig Year
Financial markets will be influenced by these
fire-water tensions. Investment themes for 2007 may
center around the effects of peak oil and global
warming, disease and famine. Commodities, especially
the softs (grains) should do very well. The economy
will blow hot or cold from geopolitical events and
psycho-social trends. Financial mergers and
acquisitions will continue and we will see widespread
consolidation. Larger Pig companies will gobble up
smaller companies. Water-related businesses will do
well by the end of this year.
Fire and Water can contribute to sudden breakthroughs
in technology or new and dramatic inventions to
generate power or solve medical problems. Note in 1947
Bell Labs invented the radio transistor and a plane
flew fast enough to break the sound barrier for the
first time.
The Stock market may benefit from the fire/heat in the
first half and cool in the second half. In 1997, also a
Yin Fire year, the Asian markets collapsed in the
second half.
Spiritual Practice in 2007
This year, the water and fire are NOT naturally
harmonized – so it is up to humanity to mediate the
struggle that unfolds. That means you and me! This
water-fire conflict within the Lunar Pig sign is
somewhat analogous to the energy of the Scorpio sun
sign in western astrology. Scorpio is a very deep,
penetrating energy controlled by water, but also
simultaneously containing fire.
An un-evolved Scorpio type can do a lot of damage with
the unconscious sexual-water power that gets unleashed.
They have to harmonize the fire and water within
themselves. Hence, an evolved Scorpio is often an
alchemist. This relates directly to the heart of the
Healing Tao path of Water and Fire alchemy, which
focuses on harmonizing the two forces by reversing them
so the fire stabilizes below and gently “cooks” the
water above. Another way of describing inner sexual
alchemy, the coupling of the male and female forces
within one person.
Note: the Healing Tao has attracted many people with
sun, moon, and/or rising signs in Scorpio….my
webmaster is a triple scorpio. I’ve got my moon and
rising sign in Scorpio. Scorps, we need you during this
Pig year! Good time to do lots of Taoist inner alchemy
on behalf of the planet, to speed up its process and
thereby reduce the collective suffering.
Other advice for dealing with a Female Fire year: avoid
burnout. Avoid accumulating internal fire/emotional
stress. Seek the Earth element in your life – a great
reason to go on the China Dream Trip this year, or tale
the summer retreat of your choice. Those who took that
advice during last year’s Yang Fire Year certainly were
grateful for it.
Slow down and make relaxation an art form. Do lots of
qigong and tai chi, yoga, other body-centered
activities. Gardening, working with clay, and petting
animals will increase the Earth element in your life.
Love, Chi, and Blessings during the Fire Pig Year,
Michael
?Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes change ? is a
Sage.?
? Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters
“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
— Taoist Sage, 200 B.C
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