Spinning Pearl Orbit: Super-charge Your Energy Body

L: Greek Ouroboros, snake (baby dragon) swallowing its tail is equivalent of Tao micro-cosmic orbit.  R: The fire Qi (spine) and water Qi (chest) channels can be guided to merge together  to unleash powerful internal energies latent in the core channel.  Otherwise, water and fire Qi in the body separate with age, dissipate our Life Force, and eventually lead to premature death.

ALERT – Major Technology Upgrade!

Michael Winn Tao Events – Fall 2018

Register for paid events: info.healingtaousa@earthlink.net
Or call Mystical Number 888-999-0555 (in USA only)
or (864) 419-4502 to speak with Zachary Fant, new office manager

Dear Lovers of Effortless Flow of Dragon Qi in your Body,

The Microcosmic Orbit is the most famous Taoist method of Inner Alchemy meditation. It is part of One Cloud’s First Alchemy Formula, so it is foundational. The Chinese call it “the Small Heavenly Round” (xiao hou tian). It has other names, like Embryonic Breathing, Warm Current, etc. It was first written about over 2000 years ago to described a method of bringing sexual essence up the spine to recharge the brain.

Let’s cut to the chase. I have been testing various versions of the Orbit since 1980. I’m promoting one particular method from Mt. Wudang, a famous Taoist mountain, called the Red Dragon Spinning Pearl Orbit.

Question #1: Why do we need a “new model” of the Taoist Micro-cosmic Orbit meditation?

Answer #1: I wrote the first book in the West on the Orbit  for Mantak Chia in 1983. His English was poor; so he must depend on others to write his books.So he’s actually what they call a “book packager”. I used his oral methods and wrote the entire book, based on my own practice.

This 1983 book Awaken Healing Energy Through the Tao started the revolution of Taoist inner alchemy  unfolding in the West. It’s Orbit method became the  standard orbit taught in the West. But it took me a decade of teaching it to realize its defect. It was  like Henry Ford’s Model T buggy. It got you there much faster than walking or on a horse. But compared to modern day cars, the Model T is clunky, slow, and gets poor mileage.

The main problem with this “standard model Orbit” is that (using breath, touch, and visualization) it runs on Post-natal Qi, the same Qi that runs our personality and its 12 organ meridians/ body spirits. Once the “driver” (ego) shifts its attention away from the Orbit meditation to some other worldly activity, the Orbit suddenly “runs out of gas”. It dissipates, because the Post-natal Qi of our personality requires constant “re-fueling” using visualization, breathing or movement methods. So adepts are constantly having to “re-start” their Model T Orbit to keep it flowing. I saw this in my own practice, and in my students. Everyone got benefits from it, sometimes very dramatic at first. But over time the effects were diminished.

[br]

Mantak begged me for years to write an “upgrade” to the 1983 orbit book, but I didn’t feel was necessary. I knew his real motive was commercial – the first book was published by one of his students, and he wanted 100% control over the rights. I was also concerned that he would make the orbit in a new book too complicated. He agreed to give me total editorial control, so I edited this 1993 Awaken Healing Light of the Tao. I kept the Orbit method very simple in my final draft. But Mantak broke his promise and turned each of my simple 3-step instructions into 15-step procedures. That is why I stopped writing books for him. He made the practice seem very heady and difficult. Tao is about simplicity. For this reason I don’t recommend this book, except to read the chapter descriptions which are very good reference material. Just ignore the complicated meditation instructions.

But this all happened before I learned the Wudang Orbit in 1998. Since then, I tell my students to learn the Wudang Spinning Pearl orbit from oral instructions. The Wudang tradition prohibits the Red Dragon Orbit’s written transmission, which is why I only make available an audio recording of it (my Qigong Fundamentals #2 Audio). Reading the two “standard model” orbit books I wrote for Mantak in 1983 and 1993 is useful as background information, but not the best method of practice.

I reluctantly taught the Wudang Orbit to Mantak Chia in 2011. I had concerns he would modify it and make it more complicated – which he promptly did, spinning the pearls in multiple directions at multple dantians. This complexity, like  many other “experiments” of his, prevented the widespread adoption of a far superior orbit method.  Mantak’s commercial success has become an impediment to his students progress. Who has the time to navigate their way through 40 books and 50 DVDs that he “packaged” – all focused on Post-Natal Qi?

Calligraphy expresses the circularity of orbital Qi flow. Note the neutral space in the center = core channel of our personal Energy Body.

This core issue of simplicity is why I’ve long separated my inner alchemy teachings and my clarification of One Cloud’s formulas from Mantak’s teachings over the last 25 years. This is a normal generational evolution that happens in many traditions. I appreciate his tireless efforts to promote Taoist alchemy in the West; he deserves pioneer status. I support his overall mission. But I frankly haven’t seen high level instructors of One Cloud’s alchemy formulas emerge from his global empire, filled mostly with beginner and mid-level Tao practitioners. I believe it’s because his students don’t evolve past the limitation of cultivating Post-natal Qi  – a seed that is planted with the Model T Post-Natal Qi  standard orbit.

iIn my system of internal alchemy, harmonizing Post-natal Yin-Yang Qi is the  foundational step. Then once has to couple Pre-natal Yin-Yang Qi forces to begin crystallizing a pearl with an increasingly higher percentage of Yuan Qi. That is the path of Returning to Origin. You gradually track Original Breath back to its place of Origin. Deep within the core of your body is a portal to the heart of the Cosmos.

[br]

[br]

Answer #2:  There are many. Some Taoists “sing” the orbit around. You can use qigong movement – I created a special form just to do this, and it is extremely effective in kick-starting the flow of Qi. Some martial artists claim standing for hours on end will activate the flow of Pre-natal Qi in the Orbit, but I have seen little evidence of this. For Westerners, the Qi that arises from standing does come from the earth (i..e. beyond the body-mind). But it mostly just goes up to the head, and does NOT descend downward to complete the orbit unless guided to do so. I’ve had a number of clients whose standing practice led to Qi getting stuck in their head, with insomnia resulting. It’s probably because the head is mostly where Westerners tend to live in this Information Age. Maybe it was different for Chinese farmers, who comprised the bulk of most traditional Taoists, who had a deep connection to the earth.

For my Western students,  the Model T Orbit helped them, just as it helped heal many clients with “kundalini syndrome” of too much Qi in their head. So the Post-natal Qi flowing in the orbit is useful. But the Taoist ideal model of super-efficiency is to imitate Nature. That’s because Nature’s Qi flow never  gets tired, stays in Yin-Yang harmony with itself,  and never runs out of fuel. Over the  eons, over many geologic ages, the seasons just keep on rolling by in eternal cycles with overall undisturbed equilibrium. Nature’s flow of Qi does not need Humans  to “push the river” to keep the seasonal Qi flowing. The Orbit should imitate this effortlessness.

[br]

Orbit as Perpetual Motion in Nature

[br]

Question #3: What effortlessly fuels Nature, and the flow of Qi into Post-natal Qi forms over the eons — as stars, planets, mountains, oceans, bugs, human beings and birds?

Answer #3: Pre-natal Qi. Also known as the subtle breath of Early Heaven.

[br]

Question #4: What is Pre-natal Qi, and where does  it come from?

[br]

Answer #4: It is patterns of living energy, called “formless or subtle forms” stored in a vast dark ocean. The dimension holding this dark ocean is a “halfway heaven”, called Early Heaven,  that mediates between Origin and physical plane (Later Heaven). These  subtle forms  of “dark light” flow into visible light shapes and colors which define the birth all Post-natal forms we call Nature.

This ocean of Pre-natal Qi originates in an invisible, completely formless Primordial Heaven known as “The Mother of All Things”, or tai yi, lit. “Great Oneness”. Beyond tai yi is wu ji, the Supreme Unknowable. Chinese Buddhist-influenced academics often (wrongly, in my opinion) translate wu ji as emptiness. If it unknowable, we cannot know it is empty. A better Taoist translation would be “pure openness”.

[br]

Question #5: How do I hook up to the cosmic fuel pump that delivers Pre-natal Qi?

 [br]

Answer #5:  Simple spiritual technology upgrade. You invoke the spinning force of Nature, seen dramatically in tornadoes and hurricanes, known to ancient Taoists as Dragon Qi. The upgrade method is called the Wudang Mountain Red Dragon Spinning Pearl Orbit. There are dozens of different methods to move Qi in the Orbit that have been developed in the last 2000 years in China. I’ve tested many of them over the last 40 years, on myself and on my students.

The Spinning Pearl Orbit is the best I’ve found. Nothing else comes close to it. It moves a deeper frequency of Qi + Jing, subtle breath + blood/sexual essence, and doesn’t dissipate like other Post-natal Qi models of the Orbit. It’s because the “spin” eventually concentrates Post-natal Qi until it is condensed enough, like a collapsing neutron star, into a tiny pearl. This pearl, aka. the Elixir, can easily flow into higher dimensions. When you do this method for a long time within your own body, it causes your entire personal Energy Body to gain fluidity and the ability to shift into the Pre-natal dimension or Early Heaven. Additional neidan training is needed to navigate that realm, and learn how to harness it higher level of causality.

[br]

Question #6: What exactly is Dragon Qi? Are there real dragons?

[br]

 [br]

 [br]

Spinning dragon guarding a Pearl, from my collection of Chinese silk paintings. The dragon’s spin causes the “shen” – the felt spiritual qualities of the surround field – to magnetically condense down into a super powerful form of “jing” called the “elixir”. It has a precious potential to speed up our spiritual evolution.

 [br]

Answer #6:  Ignore Hollywood’s popularized dragons. These are the mythical archetype of Western dragons. These dragons have wings and swoop down from the sky, often representing dark forces. It’s part of the  Western patriarchal “sky gods rule the earth” model.

Chinese dragons occupy a different mythic space within the greater planetary psyche. They serve a nearly opposite cultural function. The Chinese dragon archetype, like Taoism, is matriarchal and earth centered. Chinese dragons don’t have wings. They emerge twisting and spinning from the ocean in the spring, circulate above for six months and then descend underground in the Fall. When the spinning Dragon Qi is internalized through spiritual practice, it is a sign of Self-rulership over the forces of Nature that shape human destiny and our personal body. Traditionally, there are five dragons, each a different color and arising in a different direction, representing control over the five elements or phases of Nature’s seasonal Qi flow.

While dragons abound in Chinese arts and literature, there are very few methods I’ve found for bridging the gap between one’s personal reality and the mythic reality of dragons. I never really believed in dragons until I had the spontaneous experience of BECOMING a fire-breathing dragon. By this I mean that my personal Energy Body (functional layers of the “soul”) morphed, in broad day light,  into a dragon. I had just finished a round of spinning movements of Taoist Bagua Zhang, a circle-walking form that entailed “dancing” and invoking the Eight Pre-Natal Trigram arrangement.

It was a shock, in a full waking state with eyes open, to see flames and steam billowing  from my mouth. I wasn’t sure how to get back into my human form, but eventually I did. After that, I never doubted the reality of dragons. But it’s taken me a while to evolve a reliable practice where I can invoke Dragon Qi. The Wudang Red Dragon Orbit I’ve evolved (over deaces of practice) so that Dragons instantly arrive to work with me energetically to accomplish some spiritual task.

[br]

I have incorporated the Wudang Orbit into the Inner Alchemy Formulas of Wandering Taoist One Cloud. Over the past 38 years I’ve evolved them far beyond the seminal but limited transmission I received from Mantak Chia in the early 1980’s. This has been a gradual process of expanding my personal Energy Body to embrace and merge, step by step, with the Cosmic Energy Body. The Wudang  Spinning Pearl Orbit, and a variation I call the Pre-natal Orbit, have made it much easier to manage Dragon Qi as a natural part of connecting more deeply to Nature.

[br]

HOME STUDY VS. LIVE STUDY?

[br]

In the last decade I developed this Orbit method of invoking dragons so it works even for rank Western beginners. You can learn this method from my home study audio, Medical & Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1&2 course: https://healingtaousa.com/product/qigong-chi-kung-fundamentals-1-2-home-study-course-audio-cd-dvd-ebook-2/.

[br]

As my introductory course it is half price on the web, and has a one year money-back guarantee (if shipped, rather than downloaded).

Better, get the live transmission via workshop (Oct. 20-21, details below).

[br]

Scroll below for the Six Benefits of the Spinning Pearl Orbit.

[br]

———————————————–

ORBIT WORKSHOP DETAILS

Oct. 20 – 21, 2018: Asheville, N.C. 

Sat. 9am – 5:30 am, Sun 9:30 am – 6 pm

Cost: $144 for weekend. $90. for one day.

Medical & Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1 & 2
by Michael Winn and wife Jem Minor

[br]

————————————————————–

[br]

Superior Benefits: Wudang Spinning Pearl Dragon Orbit

I spent decades studying the many Orbit variations in China. I am confident my evolution of a version from the famous Taoist Wudang Mountain is the most powerful orbit method available. One reason I am so confident is because I’ve not only tested dozens of different orbit methods on myself, but also on thousands of Western students, and observed their positive response. I’m a spiritual scientist, and favor “what works now” over “what worked for someone else in the past” – a trap that lineage chasers sometimes make.

When you do a practice long enough, it reveals deeper secrets to you. Experimentation is at the very heart of the alchemical process. Inner Alchemy is just a way of describing our human power to speed up our evolution. Alchemy keep things simple by working directly with the 3 streams of the Life Force. Negative, positive, and  neutral; or yin, yang, and yuan Qi in Taoist language.

Two things are required to master this new orbit method: the mechanics of the method itself, and a transmission, which is essentially my guiding you to feel it. The transmission, which I give on the second day of my workshop on Medical and Spiritual Qigong Fundamentals 1 & 2, involves inviting in a dragon spirit to inhabit and spin inside one’s personal elixir, or Inner Pearl. So you first need to know how to form that Pearl, and make it real. I reveal those methods as well.

But inviting a dragon spirit inside one’s body? Dragons in Western mythology are generally regarded as extremely dangerous creatures. Most Western adults make them “safe” by not believing dragons are real. That is partly because their childhood power of imagination was beaten out of them by adults concerned for their ability to conform to social norms.. The culture does that in order to make kids grow up into well-behaved social and economic robots.  Perversely, many in Western culture DO believe in the Devil, as it wants you to sell your soul in exchange for a few creature comforts.

Personally, I acknowledge that both dragons and demons have reality. But you won’t find them in the physical plane, by looking under a scientist’s microscope. They exist in the astral plane, the dream plane you fleetingly visit at night. If you want to deal with them consciously, you have to awaken your natural multi-dimensionality.

I know for myself that dragons are real; they just aren’t “physical”. Like most spiritual beings, they live in the astral planes, invisible to ordinary sight. But pretend for the moment that “dragon” is a metaphor for a “natural spinning force”. Even the most nerdy scientist can observe that the spinning force is the dominant power in this Cosmos.

Electrons and protons spin around neutrons. The earth spins on its axis. The planets spin around the sun, the sun spins around the zodiac, and the zodiac spins around some hidden super-galactic center, whose mega black hole spin is so powerful it swallows all gravity and light even as as it burps back out 100 trillion stars.

Electron microscope photo of egg & sperm. Photo fails to show the collective force of hundreds of sperm spinning the egg, readying it for implantation by the lucky sperm. There is a physically measurable burst of light emitted at the moment of fertilization.

Men and women spin around each other, in endless sexual play. When human sperm fertilize an egg, they must first gang up and get the giant (to them) egg spinning rapidly, so the incoming soul can “spin into matter”. So spin is the key to fertility (hint: if you’re having trouble getting pregnant, a spinning orbit may help). Spinning is THE process necessary at the moment of conception, beyond all the egg-sperm chemistry. The vibratory spin of your soul is your signature, so Source can track you. “All the world’s a spinning theatre”, to paraphrase a famous bard.

But how many of us ever figure out where that spinning force comes from? Or why there has to be a still space of “no spin” in the center of it? If you did, you’d get the Nobel Prize for figuring out perpetual motion. Nature is not stupid; it spins for a good reason. Some meditators foolishly dream they can stop the spin, but Creation seems to keep on spinning despite their ambitions to achieve an Absolute Emptiness. If you could capture the spinning force, you would have the greatest power in all Creation at your “psychic fingertips”. Hopefully you would apply this spiral power to spreading love, balance, and harmony.

For a lover of Tao, learning the Spinning Dragon Orbit simply means you are empowered to EFFORTLESSLY create deeper harmony and balance in your life. That’s my experience. You don’t need to effort with your everyday mind to cause the spin. The spinning Dragon force, once you get it going, is effortless, alive and intelligent. It naturally keeps spinning.

The Taoists call this spin the True Qi, or Original Yin-Yang force. Its balanced spinning Qi silently overflows into your health, your relationships, your career. It deepens your spiritual path by internally grounding you. It guides your destiny like an internal spinning gyroscope. The orbit supports your unique virtues and your soul’s natural loving presence to flow in graceful spirals out into your everyday life. It flows into your life via the 8 Extraordinary Vessels, which overflow into your 12 regular meridians.

If you are into the yogic model, you know that “chakra” means “spinning wheel”. The Spinning Dragon Orbit method creates a Unified Super-Chakra whose spin embraces and balances all the other chakras simultaneously. I taught kundalini yoga for many years, and loved it. But I find that opening a single whole-body orbit is far more efficient than trying to “open” each individual chakra.

Or consider the metaphor of a car. Once you get it started, it drives wherever you steer it, at whatever speed you choose. The difference between a car and the Orbit is that now you are driving the “car of your Energy Body”, and the fuel source, the Life Force, is free and infinite. Your rate of internal spin determines how much Qi you will draw in from the greater field. You don’t need to pay for gas or new tires. The spinning Qi is a free gift from the Tao.

What could be more valuable than this? Do you treasure your personal Energy Body vehicle as much as you love your metal & plastic-molded automobile? Unfortunately, a lot of people treat their car better than they do their Energy Body. But it’s never too late to wake up and enjoy a life of increased spiritual power.  Are you open to receiving assistance from powerful, harmonious dragon spirits, and to effortlessly spin your Way to health and happiness?

2. ORBIT HARMONIZES ABOVE & BELOW.

Tao Cosmology holds as one of its primary principles the correspondence between Micro-cosm and Macro-cosm. There is a famous alchemical maxim that sums this up nicely: As Above, So Below. The orbit links Heaven and Earth within our personal Energy Body.

This means that if we can get our Qi flowing in an orbit pattern locally – IN OUR BODY – that we will be in harmony with the flow of Qi in the larger BODY OF NATURE. Our body and nature’s body are mirror images of each other, a balanced micro-macro cosmic relationship.But if we are energetically asleep the forces in our subconscious can act out in wild and disturbing ways.

The Fire Path Orbit flows from our navel down into the perineum, the Yin Gate of Earth. Then it flows up the spine to the crown of the head, the Yang Gate of Heaven. On its continuous pathway between Heaven and Earth, Qi flows through key points that nourish our Human life – our sexual center, navel, solar plexus, heart, threat, third eye/pineal gland.

The Water Path Orbit runs the opposite direction – up the chest, over the head, down the spine and back to the navel.

Both the Fire and Water paths embody a model of INCLUSIVE-NESS within a process of continuous CHANGE. That is a pretty good summary of the essence of following the path of Tao.

3. ORBIT CIRCULATES SEXUAL ENERGY, ENHANCES CREATIVITY

Historically, scholars believe the orbit may have originated over 2000 years ago in a sexual practice  described in ancient texts. This method was to bring sexual essence from below to nourish and enliven the brain above. This Spinning Dragon Orbit method penetrates into the “jing” or substance level much more so than orbit methods that rely on breath or visualization only. The spinning pearl literally digs into deeper levels of our Energy Body, freeing trapped creativity.

If you do this method, at some point the “above” feels full and it spontaneousl overflows and intiates a downward flow. In Taoist alchemy, sexual energy is the secret alchemical agent that is needed to stimulate and raise our vibration to a higher level. This orbit version blends all the hormonal energies and concentrates our sexual essence and blood, making it possible to more quickly transform slower, more habitual organ pathways that can dominate our personality.

4. ORBIT IS SHORTCUT TO BALANCE  YIN-YANG Qi FLOW WITH 8 EXTRA-ORDINARY VESSELS

The Orbit Meditation activates two primary deep channels in the body which help control the balance of yin and yang Qi flow. These two channels are part of the Eight Extraordinary Vessels, which is best understood as the SOUL CHANNELS that flow into the 12 BODY-MIND ORGAN CHANNELS.

The yang fire channel in the spine is known in Chinese medicine as the Governor Vessel, and the yin water channel up the center line of the torso & chest is called the Conception Vessel. Linking these two allow our personality to effortlessly shift from spirit into matter and back. The Spinning Pearl Dragon Orbit creates the ability to shift between Jing-Qi-Shen levels more quickly. Jing-Qi-Shen is the continuum of awareness from substance (Jing) to subtle breath t(Qi) o broad field of expanded awareness (aka spirit).

These “8 Extraordinary Vessels” control the yin-yang balance of the 12 meridians that regulate the 12 vital organs and bowels. So by opening and nourishing the flow in the orbit, we in effect leverage the harmony between the fire and water channels to influence simultaneously all 12 of the organ meridians that govern our health and personality. So instead of trying to “fix” things on the outer level, we balance the flow of yin-yang Qi from within, on a deeper level.

5. UNIFIED CHAKRA MODEL OF A SPINNING WHEEL

If you are a student of yoga, you might re-frame this to say that the Orbit is adjusting the flow of prana through all the chakras. So instead of trying to “open” a particular chakra, you are opening the faucet so the Qi (prana) pressure is increased and flows like an unstoppable river activating the spin of ALL the chakras. The Orbit thus creates a Unified Chakra that integrates all the other chakras into a single dynamic spinning wheel of life.

6. ORBIT IS FOUNDATION FOR CULTIVATING ORIGINAL BREATH.

Our deepest human instinct is to search for our Source. The orbit open the inner space in which we cultivate Yuan Qi (Original Breath). It offers a stable yin-yang egg-shaped vessel, where our inner embryo of our immortal soul can safely gestate.

A lot of students think that it’s enough to just balance out the flow of yin-yang Qi. This is generally the viewpoint of our personality, which is controlled by the tension between our left and right brain hemispheres.

Many have not yet awakened to the reality of a third kind of Qi that is NOT yin-yang polarized. It links us to our soul and over soul. It is known as Original Breath, or Yuan Qi. It is the energy of the Primordial Tao, the source of all creation’s many forms that we call Nature. The orbit flows around the center line of our body, exactly in between our left and right brains. In short, inner alchemy grows our CORE SELF.

Once we have balanced the yin-yang or fire/water Qi flowing around our micro-orbit, we can take the next step and begin to cultivate and grow our Yuan Qi in the core channel. This is called the chongmai, or Penetrating Vessel. This Qi flows in the center of our body, running from perineum to crown. It’s also known as the taiji pole, the spiraling axis between heaven and earth.

The outer path of the micro-orbit around our torso creates the shape of an egg. When we cultivate our Yuan Qi, it’s like we are nourishing the yolk of the egg deep inside us. That is what Taoists call the Immortal Embryo. When we shift from the outer orbit pathway to the core channel, we graduate to a deeper level of internal alchemy, the science of re-birthing our soul and making it tangible.

SUMMARY:  SPINNING PEARL ORBIT IS PRACTICAL AND EFFORTLESS ONCE SET IN MOTION

I’ve integrated the Dragon Orbit into the One Cloud’s system of water & fire internal alchemy. It kicks the alchemical process into super-high frequencies and speeds up one’s progress. It is like graduating from “dial-up” to “broad band” internet – easier, faster, and more fun.

Even if you’ve learned other versions of the orbit from other teachers, I encourage you to study this version live or by home study. Consider it a “spiritual technology upgrade” that will change the trajectory of your Qi cultivation pathway, which is Taoist “energy-talk” way of saying it will change your life.