A Taoist Alchemical Wedding + China Trip Bonus $250 (Sent to Elist)
Jan. 16, 2009
IInside Chi Flows Naturally:
1. WEDDING. Lead article is a description of a Taoist alchemical wedding ceremony which I conducted this last Winter Solstice. If you like it you could easily duplicate it for yourself or friends.
2. CHINA. The May China Dream Trip is coming up fast. Some folks are sitting on the fence because of fears about the economy. I try to see things from the perspective of larger cycles. What went down suddenly last year must go back up. By historical measurements, this econimic downturn is already half-way over, as the recession began over a year ago. But people get caught in their fears and media stories, instead of following their hearts…I know it’s not easy.
So if you trust you’re going to make it another year, which most of us are, and you’ve dreamed for a long time of going to China – don’t postpone JOY! I’m offering NO-interest financing to help folks who are nervous to spread out the cost.
See my offer of a $250. bonus for referring someone to this May 2009 China Dream Trip. I prefer to network and reward my own readers instead of using paid advertising.
3. KEEP FEEDBACK COMING. I welcomed your feedback on Love Stories…..please continue to send your own Love Stories and any other feedback. Just hit reply button.
Several folks sent me the youtube link about a love story between a tiny dog and an elephant, which is quite amazing: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4696315n
Contents:
? Ocean Surrender Qigong in my Caribbean hideout
? Obama Rides in on Year of the Ox; Sale Ends Soon
? $250 Bonus for China Dream Trip Referrals!
? Alchemy in Brazil, Primordial in NYC, Fusion In Asheville…
? Summer Retreats: Get Free $20 Feng Shui ebook and Free $45. DVD
? Taoist Alchemical Wedding Ceremony on Solstice
? New Internal Alchemy book coming soon!
Ocean Surrender Qigong in my Caribbean hideout
I am down in my Caribbean beach hideout, communing with the water elementals of the ocean and the fire elementals of the sun. I don’t come down here to escape Winter. I love winter, I enjoy the cold, it strengthens my kidneys. But here I can immerse my kidney/water spirit directly in the salty ocean….and my “kids” love it.
PHOTO
My beach looks almost exactly like this…same curve…without the buildings. Photo taken on a nearby island….I don’t want anyone tracking me on google earth…:)
One of my favorite practices is to float in the ocean. I go completely limp, letting my body-mind dissolve into the gentle waves of the sea. I invite my physical body gods (the five vital organ shen and their bowel partners) to become a totally transparent medium to conduct the chi of the cool deep waterery stillness below and the radiant hot sun above.
I become the rhythm of the ocean, and all it is energetically holding for the planet, which is far vaster than any of us can imagine. Sometimes I float for an hour or more, until my body washes up on the beach. Then I lay in the sand, feeling the earth’s pull of gravity, and surrender to it completely. I call it Ocean Surrender Qigong.
Next week I plan to bury my body in the sand for some hours, leaving only my head above ground. I will leave it to my shen to decide how long they want to stay. It’s part of my training for my particular Conscious Conception mission. You might try this yourself, especially if you’ve got a serious illness. Spending 6 to 12 or even 24 hours buried in the ground may detoxify you completely of it.
The earth chi is close in frequency to our physical body, so this is super-rejuvenating. In Five Elements thinking, Earth is the mother of Metal/Gold, which is connected with skin. We breathe in the environment through our skin. So surrounding your skin with real living earth is very very nurturing. It helps you listen to your own body/earth more deeply.
Obama Rides in on Year of the Ox; Sale Ends Soon
I’m getting ready for the Year of the Earth Ox. Have you had enough of the turbulent Rat Year?
Chinese New Year’s is Jan. 26, but the Year of the Ox doesn’t start until Feb. 4. with the start of the lunar Tiger Month. I hope to have my annual reading to you by then.
Meanwhile, the important thing to know is that Obama himself was born in the Year of the Ox. So he is riding into presidential power on his own astrological/soul power. An Ox riding an Ox. Very auspicious. But things are tough, the poor guy needs all the support he can get. Ox is a good ally to have….
As Obama rides in on his Ox, my Winter Sale discount ride out. For the people who did not get the winter sale email until recently due to technical error, I’ve extended it through the end of the month (you’ll have an email verifying that). For everyone else, its midnight Jan. 20.
Here’s the URL to the Winter offerings of discounted Healing Tao courses: http://forum.healingdao.com/general/message/17560/
$250 Bonus for China Dream Trip Referrals!
Falling in Love…with China? They did, you will too…
The May 2009 China Dream Trip is from May 8 to 24. It’s my “odd-year” trip, where I go exploring new and different places, instead of the caves on Mt. Hua. This trip is usually smaller, more intimate, but always energetically powerful and always loads of enlightened fun.
Here’s what a 2008 China Tripper had to say about the two qigong forms we’ll practice also in 2009:
“The Seven Star Qigong that we learned from Master Jiang Nan is priceless. Along with your teaching of Primordial Qi Gong, I am feeling enormous shifts occur in my practice and life every day. Thank you for putting together an extraordinary adventure for all of us. Your dedication to all on the trip inspired me. I am truly grateful for all your hard work and passion and love that went into making this trip a reality”. – Patricia R.
Complete 2009 China itinerary and photo links: www.healingdao.com/chinatrip2009.html
What the deal on getting the money together?
NO-interest financing is available…I’m trying to make it easy for those who always dreamed of going to China. Email me for full details.
To speed things up, I’m offering a $250. bonus if any of my current newsletter subscribers refer someone to this May 2009 China Dream Trip for their first time.
The $250. bonus is paid as a credit for any of my summer retreats, online homestudy courses, workshops or future China Dream Trips.
Just email me the name of any friend you are referring or have them notify us.
Alchemy in Brazil, Primordial in NYC, Fusion In Asheville…
1. Alchemy in Brazil Feb. 27 – March 8.
I love Brazil and the Brazillians. What a vibrant, young country! I’m stopping in a few days early to catch the Rio Carnival samba dance competition…Brazilian qigong?
There’s a weekend workshop Feb. 27 -29 on Sexual Vitality Qigong that is open to all, no pre-requisites.Then a week long Sun-Moon Alchemy retreat at a fabulous old plantation in the mountains outside Rio. Contact my organizer in Brazil, Eduardo Alexander, who is spearheading a renaissance in Healing Tao practices in Brazil.
2. Fusion of the Five Elements level 1:
Emotional Alchemy. In Asheville March 28-29 .
I’ve been slowly “westernizing” this practice for 20 years, to integrate it with western depth psychology and our emotional bodies, very different from the Chinese. Learn to recover your Original or First True Feeling, hidden underneath layers of reactive emotions. And capture that true feeling in your Sage’s inner pearl. You will later ride that pearl into the immortal realms….
email me or Jan in my office for hotel info. You can pay her by credit card – still only $144., based on sacred number. These practices are a priceless treasure.
Jan is at 888 999 0555 or healingtaousa@bellsouth.net
3. Inner Smile April 3 at NYC Open Center
Friday 7-10 pm: Inner Smile: Tao Path of Self-Acceptance and Inner Peace. Even if you already “know” the smile, come and we’ll go even deeper….and surrender your outer heart-mind into the embrace of your soul.
Primordial Qigong April 4 in NYC Open Center
Sat 10-5 pm. See www.TaiChi-Enlightenment.com for full description of this magical form, one of my very most favorite. Those in the area who have been practicing for a year or more can come and get certified as teachers. (Please notify me in advance)
contact: Open Center 212 219-2527 Note: they are moving their center, and maybe their phone will change?
Summer Retreats: Get Free $20 Feng Shui ebook and Free $45. DVD
David Twicken has generously offered to give away his excellent 120 page eBook on Feng Shui for Modern Spaces that he normally sells for $20. It’s a gift to anyone who signs up for any retreat this summer of 2009, all you have to do is put down your $100. deposit.
David is teaching a unique new course this summer to help people with money issues in these recessionary times. It integrates qigong, feng shui, Chinese astrology, and the ancient powerful system of directionology known as Qimen dunjia.
You can also get a free $45 qigong DVD, pick from any of Michael Winn’s collection. You must make your deposit by April 15 to be eligible.
See details on David’s course and all 25 of these high-energy, low-cost retreats at:
www.HealingTaoRetreats.com or email:Retreats@HealingTaoUSA.com
Call registrar Tynne Clifford (in USA): 888-750-1773 or 828-450-8521 if you need more info on these 25 fabulous summer retreats.
Please don’t let recession money fears slow down your desire for self-transformation. Contact us about our no-interest extended payment program. We also have work-study slots available each week to reduce your room and housing costs. The earlier you apply, the better.
Taoist Alchemical Wedding Ceremony on Solstice
I conducted a Taoist wedding ceremony this last Dec. 21 on Winter Solstice at midnight. Yes, I’m legally a priest…for me it’s a way to put into ritual practice for the community the principles of inner alchemy. This was a special wedding, with a large number of Taoist inner alchemy adepts attending.
The entire wedding party of about 25 people first meditated for four hours in total silence and darkness at my home in the mountains near Asheville. The chi built powerfully during each of our three sittings. Everyone found themselves spontaneously going deeper into the dark ocean of all possibility which is always waiting to birth, but is more accessible at Winter Solstice.
My personal practice was to keep surrendering my smiling heart deeper into the core of the Mother Earth Being. Once I arrive there, I listen to the sound frequency there. It was here that I first learned about my Conscious Conception mission…but I digress.
At midnight I lit a candle to symbolize the re-birth of the light of the new year. We each ceremoniously planted in the chi field our seed intention of what it is we individually wish to birth during the cycle of the coming year. By example, I requested that the dark-haired woman I had seen previously in a clear Autumn Equinox vision at my Stonehenge retreat in the UK manifest physically. Sometimes a request at a powerful ceremony can take all year to manifest, while you and your life situation come in alignment.
In my case, I had been working on this invocation continuously since my heart-merger with Joyce ten months previous. So when a photo showed up in my inbox two days after Winter Solstice of that very same dark-haired vision woman, I wasn’t totally shocked. The magnetic field did all the work. Visioning is a very precise spiritual science. But I was also a bit cautious. I had already visioned and physically manifested THREE dark-haired goddesses earlier in the year, a pretty good record (thank you Joyce, for the extra boost).
Each woman had a very precious gift to offer me in the inner planes, and I am grate to each for what I learned. But none were right for my Conscious Conception mission. This time, with wedding energy and the Solstice and a more explicit focus on my mission, I hoped I would get it right….but again I digress.
Then we all participated in a Taoist alchemical wedding ceremony with the ritual copulation of Water and Fire. The men and women formed two circles, on separate sides of the room, with the couple standng in the middle. The two circles sang in response to each other the soft elemental Taoist tones of fire and water. The male and female circles slowly undulated their way towards the center, and then merged.halfway into each other, embracing the couple.
These two intersecting circles created a vesica piscis, which in sacred geometry is the symbolic shape of the “womb” of creation. Gentle, pulsing sound waves continued to bathe the couple in the eye of the vesica.The Healing Tao USA logo is designed around the vesica piscis (for esoteric meaning, see: https://healingtaousa.com/aboutsymbol.html
I stood in the center of the vesica piscis with the couple, wearing a full length Taoist golden silk robe, embroidered with I Ching and alchemical Water & Fire symbols. It was designed by me, but sewn by a kindly Taoist nun at the 8 Immortals Temple in Xian, the ancient capital of China. On her own she added pink flowers on the lapel.
I was fine with this touch, as pink is the highest vibration color of Love. Pink mixes the red of female blood and the white of male semen. I use a pink pearl in the Healing Love practices as a vessel for the sexually-enlivened spiritual essence.
Back to the ceremony. I guided the group, and together we collectively invoked various spiritual powers ranging from personal guides to sun, moon, and star beings, and the cosmic copulation of primal Watter and Fire. Internally, I held that energy from my own deep practice, to stabilize its presence. It was easy to feel these natural beings and energies arrive in our purified space, after four hours of meditation.
The couple made their vows and exchanged rings. I sanctified their divine union in the name of the true authorities of Heaven and Earth – not the State (the Confucian preference). This was followed by a rather deep and very Earthly kiss….
….and then we partied our Way into the natural Solar new year, into the wee hours of the morning.
Wow – what a wedding. What a powerful love seed to plant on Solstice! Everyone left with their heart singing.
You can tell a powerful wedding by its offspring. Two other Tao adepts present at the wedding, who barely knew each other, decided to become a couple a few weeks later….and so the Tao turns.
New Internal Alchemy book coming soon!
Coming soon: a “must have” new book titled Internal Alchemy: Self, Society, and the Quest for Immortality edited by Livia Kohn and Robin Wang. It has many solid original chapters by top scholars. It also has a chapter by me that I hope definitively puts Daoist alchemy in the West into perspective. It also reveals how I was compelled to take this alchemical path by a Taoist immortal.
Also coming soon: the 2009 edition of the Journal of Daoist Studies, with a diverse and interesting mix of articles, and an essay by me on Daoist Methods of Dissolving the Heart-Mind. I will send you excepts and table of contents soon.
Wishing All to Deeply Wed your True Way,
Michael