A mother she-goat teaches her baby the Way of Sure-Footedness.
1. Watch a very funny 30 second video:my 1-year old son Emerald chasing a goat on all fours on Chinese New Year’s: http://youtu.be/YVloS6nWQwA
2. Workshops this spring: mark your calendar! Full descriptions at: https://healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=117
in Asheville, NC:
a.April 18-19: Open Your 8 Psychic-Soul Channels Fusion of 5 Elements 2 & 3,
b. May 16-17: Taoist Dream Practice – Lucid Living & Dreaming Qigong
45 min. video on lucid dreaming: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_-_F5cXVJQ
To register, email info@healingtaousa.com or all 888 999 0555.
In New York:
c. April 12 (Sun): Primordial Tai Chi for Enlightened Love (NY Open Center)
d. May 22-25: Omega Super Qi Summit, Rhinebeck, N.Y.http://www.eomega.org/workshops/super-qi-summit?source=Fweb.WinnM.ws#-workshop-description-block
3. Book your fabulous Tao summer retreat near Asheville, North Carolina NOW! http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com or see below.
4.. Get ready for spring romance! Sexual Vitality Qigong DVD discounted 35% (save $15). Healing Love/Taoist Secrets of Sex Audio + DVD package save up to $100. ! Offer valid until April 15, 2015. To purchase at discount, call 888 999 0555 or email info@healingtaousa.com.
FEEL FREE TO HIT REPLY and RESPOND. I love hearing from you!
Dear Lovers of Earth Cycles that Ground Us & Help Us Change,
The Chinese Year of the Goat Spring Festival just finished this last week. As long time readers know, I prefer to wait and actually experience the shift in energy before I write about it. Are you ready for another year’s spin with Mother Earth? Every year she has new energetic lessons for us, that help us change and grow. 2014 was a Male (Yang) Wood Horse – did you enjoy its thunderous changes and tap its creative impulse?
2015 should be much more relaxing, a Yin year of consolidation. We can still make leaps, but you’ll want to know where you are landing. The goat is the master of sure-footedness. It makes gentle and steady progress, one hoof at a time, even when the way seems dangerous or scary. It can move in harmony with the herd yet still pursue its own needs.
Is it a Goat or a Sheep or a Ram Year?
In the West, many astrologers call it a Sheep or Ram Year. But in China, Year of the Goat is standard. The confusion arises because the Chinese word yang in oracle bone script – the ancient characters found on bones used for divination in the Bronze Age – looks like an animal with two horns and a pointy face. This character can be interpreted as goat, sheep or ram in English. A goat is a “mountain yang”, a sheep is a “soft yang” and a Mongolian gazelle is a “yellow yang”.
But Chinese scholars agree it was a Goat that earned the “yang” a spot on the zodiac.
Why goat? One reason is because several thousand years ago the ancient Chinese highly valued goat – it was the food of royalty. While they valued the wool of sheep, few ate sheep, according to excavations from fire pits.
In ancient China, people ate six types of animals – horse, cow, goat, pig, dog and chicken – all included in the animal zodiac. China is a food-centric culture. The modern Chinese greeting for “how are you” is literally the phrase “Have you eaten?” The Chinese word for “envy” originally referred to a person salivating over a goat.
Han dynasty (206. b.c.e) scholar Dong Zhongshu described three virtues that people should learn from goats:
1) the goat doesn’t hurt people with its horn;
2) it never cries or howls;
3) its kids always bow down on front legs when drinking milk, symbolizing filial piety.
The word ‘beautiful’ in oracle bone script looks like a person wearing a head ornament of goat horns.
“Yang” is part of the Chinese character “xiang”, meaning auspicious. The two words were interchangeable in ancient Chinese. Yang is also a part of “shan”, for kindness and benevolence. Year of the Goat thus symbolizes blessings and good fortune. A 1,500 year old fable depicts five goats carrying crops in their mouth to save people suffering from years of drought in Guangzhou. Today it’s still known as the City of Goats.
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Green Goat Temple in Chengdu China. Statues are in front of the Palace of the Three Pure Ones. The Chinese rub different parts of the bronze goat statue for good luck, children, promotion, etc. The head gives long life and good health and has been polished by countless thousands of hopeful hands.
One of the most famous Taoist temples in China is the 1400 year old Green Goat Temple (Qing yang gong) in Chengdu. I have never heard of a temple in China to honor a sheep. My China Dream Trips often visit the Green Goat temple – it is one of my favorite temples, with a very special spiritual energy. According to legend, Green Goat Temple was originally a farmer’s market, where the founder of Taoism, Lao Tzu, gave his first teachings about the Natural Way (Tao). This temple was later built on the market site, and is said to be a holy place where immortals get together.
According to legend, Qing Yang Gong was said to be the birth place of the founder of Taoism, Lao Tsu, and is where he made the first sermon about Taoism. Ever since Taoism was established, this temple was said to be holy place for immortals to get together. – See more at: http://www.chinaodysseytours.com/chengdu/qing-yang-gong-temple.html#sthash.kvzWNrPn.dpuf
According to legend, Qing Yang Gong was said to be the birth place of the founder of Taoism, Lao Tsu, and is where he made the first sermon about Taoism. Ever since Taoism was established, this temple was said to be holy place for immortals to get together. – See more at: http://www.chinaodysseytours.com/chengdu/qing-yang-gong-temple.html#sthash.kvzWNrPn.dpuf
Sheep Are Defenseless, with Only One Row of Teeth
Even if goat is the correct zodiac animal, we may still find something instructive in the sheep archetype. The Chinese depiction of the virtuous goat mirrors the Christian depiction of sheep. The Bible describes Jesus as a lamb before he was crucified. The lamb’s lack of defense implies a total surrender to God for its protection.
George Harrison, born in Year of Water Sheep (1943). Was he inspired to create the Fab Four hairdo from his sheepish nature? Perhaps the sheep desire for harmony amongst the herd accounts for all his songs on love and peace..
Sheep cannot easily defend themselves. There are over 200 species of sheep. But only a few species – like Big Horn sheep – have horns. Most sheep are defenseless. They can flee or band together, but mostly have come to rely on shepherds and dogs for protection. Did you know that sheep only have only a lower set of teeth – but no teeth in the top row of their mouth? I find that quite amazing, and wonder about their evolutionary karma. Is the spiritual job of sheep to mirror to human their co-dependency on others to survive?
Sheep travel in flocks and follow their leader to new pastures. But not all sheep are meek followers. The leader is chosen for physical strength and aggressiveness. Sheep tracks are erratic, because when walking their head wags. As their head wags, they look behind with their left or right eyeball to spot predators hundreds of yards behind them.
To read an amusing parable on the Sheep Who Refused to be Food for Wolves, go to the Daily Sheeple site at: http://www.thedailysheeple.com/the-parable-of-the-sheep. This is a “prepper” or survivalist site. The parable illustrates the weak side of Sheep people who may tend to be followers rather than leaders. The parable’s message is: even if you are born a sheep, you can still take charge of your destiny.
Human Body as a Mini-Zodiac: Tao of Living Astrology
You would think measuring Time – the calendar business – would be a somewhat stable commodity. But wikipedia lists 28 different calendar systems around the world. It suggests that our perception of Time is strongly shaped by cultural influences. One reason I appreciate Chinese astrology is that it is generally based on actual natural cycles of Sun, Moon, Earth, and Polestar alignment, so the connection with nature stays immediate and fresh. It’s not a bunch of abstract mathematical-calendrical symbols imposed on Time by groups in ancient times.
The Chinese calendar is based on the interaction of earth cycles with heaven cycles. Human love and free will is designed to be a cosmic point of balance between Heaven and Earth. The Twelve Earthly Branches are popularly known as the Twelve Animals. It’s essentially an earth-centered zodiac instead of the Western sky-zodiac.
My readers know I teach experiential astrology, what I call Taoist Living Astrology. The principle is that mental information about astrological symbols and cycles is unlikely to change your life. Information that is not converted into Qi and absorbed into our body will ultimately either be discarded or become psychic-mental baggage that slows down our process of Self-realization.
The Way to use astrology to change our destiny is to get in touch with the actual natural beings that generate and chape our astrological chart. These are the beings of Mother Earth and iher inner zodiac with its twelve-animal psychic aspects; planetary beings, and beings like the sun, moon, and stars who have stellar- infused natural bodies arising directly from the Tao. These beings cannot be manipulated by dark forces or corrupted, so they offer a reliable and clear path back to Source. The dark side wants us to feel separate and far removed from Source.
Living Astrology requires that we meditate, use body-centered cosmological qigong, tai chi, rituals or properly focused prayers to communicate with these natural beings so that they have permission to assist us on our highest path in life. We humans must exert our Free Will, our creativity, if we want to harness these larger forces of the sky and deep earth. It is our job as humans to convert their impersonal cycles into creative and loving energy that benefits human personal growth.
The Twelve Animals are reflected within the human body by twelve organ and bowel spirits, the model used by Chinese medicine to map the body’s meridians. These twelve body-spirits are what forms our body-mind. They control all the functions of our personality and health. As the earth’s inner zodiac of 12 Animals changes, our animal body with its 12 organ-zodiac changes with it. It’s simple alchemy: as without, so within.
L: 12 Animal diagram shows repeating sequence. R: Bronze plate in Green Goat Temple in Chengdu.Goat is the 8th animal in 12 zodiac signs.
In addition to the “eight pillars” of a Chinese astrology chart, the ninth and most powerful force that cannot be charted is the factor of human free will. The whole point of Taoist self-cultivation is to transcend our astrology chart and shape one’s destiny using the astrological influences as guidance and support, not resistance and limitation.
To capture these astrological forces closer to their source requires attuning oneself to the Being or Spirit of the planets (including Mother Earth), the sun, moon, stars, and beyond. The closer we get to the source level, the easier it is to shape our highest worldly and spiritual destiny. This requires raising the vibrational level of one’s Qi using inner alchemy meditation and qigong or related body-centered practices. When these cosmic forces are initially viewed from the level of the personality, they may seem overpowering and unchangeable.
Learn How Your Chart Relates to Current Astrological Phases
The female wood goat in 2015 has a mix of yin fire, yin earth, and yin wood – stimulating the heart/small intestine, spleen-stomach, and liver/gall bladder. Thus in a heavenly-stem wood year like 2015, our liver & gallbladder Qi is especially stimulated to flow more strongly. That will nourish folks who are deficient in wood, and put others who already have a lot of wood into excess.
To find out if you have any Goat energy in your chart, or if you have weak or strong wood, please get a Chinese Astrology reading on my website (ironically, the software was written years ago as sheep, not goat). Get your FREE Chinese astrology reading at: https://healingtaousa.com/astrologycenter.html
My astrology program will generate a diagram with five circles that tells you which of the five elements/organs are weak and strong, so you can have insight into how this year might affect you. For example, if you have a weak wood element at birth (small circle in the diagram representing liver-gall bladder), then you will feel nourished by the influx of Yin Wood energy this year. That will overlfow into creative activity in your life this year.
There are many terms on the astrology site that require interpretation by a professional Chiinese astrologer. If you wish to be referred to one, please put Get Reading in the subject line and hit reply, or email info@healingtaousa.com.
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Be sure to read the valuable information about upcoming Tao workshops, retreats, and special discounts!
2015 Tao Summer Retreat Schedule near Asheville, NC
Demonstration of rooting power of Iron Shirt Qigong, Rooting practice is taught in both retreats Week 1a. and 2b. at the summer retreat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAQ49oR8tDs
Retreat tuition is still only $495. for an entire week!
These are the spiritual bargain of a lifetime. Price is subsidized by my non-profit; the tuition cost has not been raised in 10 years! Any amount you do pay is also partly tax deductible as a contribution to our 501c3.
We’ve upgraded the shopping cart on our retreats site so that you can now LOGIN in your own account and add payments or change extra nights, etc. anytime at your convenience.
Visit http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com to plan your summer fun!
3c. Inner Sexual Alchemy (Lesser Kan & Li) – Michael Winn
3d. Tai Chi Qigong #1 Rooting + #2 Fast Fighting Form – Steven Sy
3e. Chi Nei Tsang 1: Deep Organ Massage – Jampa Stewart
Week 4 July 10- 15, 2015 (Fri-Wed)
4a. Chi Nei Tsang 2: Open Wind Gates – Jampa Stewart
4b. Planetary Alchemy Greatest Kan & Li: Living Astrology
– Michael Winn
4c. Deep Healing Medical Qigong – Steven Sy
Week 5 July 17- 22, 2015 (Fri-Wed)
5a. Iron Shirt Qigong 2 & 3: Tendon/Bone Marrow Washing
+ Meditate with Our Ancestors – Andrew McCart
5b. Bagua Zhang as Moving I Ching – Frank Allen
5c. Northern Wu Taiji Quan: Final Refinement of Classical Taiji Quan
– Tina Zhang
5d. Heaven & Earth Alchemy: The Great Oneness – Michael Winn
Julia Considine, Registrar, is available to help you choose the right retreat and get the best discounts possible.
For more info, email her at: info@healingtaoretreats.com
or call registrar Julia Considine at 828-575-3825
Five Types of Goat & Famous Goat People
A goat can take a leap without taking a big risk – because it is so sure-footed. It represents mastery of grounding. When we are deeply grounded, we trust our every step.
The last Wood Goat Year was in 1955 (sixty years ago). Other recent goat years are Fire Goat 1967, Earth Goat 1979, Gold/Metal Goal 1991, and Water Goat 2003. Note that the month of January is assigned to the previous year, as most modern Chinese astrologers use Feb. 4 as the solar start date of the New Animal Year. The lunar calendar didn’t start until Feb. 18 of this Goat year, leaving a very large two week cusp between Feb. 4 and Feb. 18 where both the Horse and Goat are influencing one’s chart (if born in that time period).
The Five Phases or Five Elements cycle of wood, fire, earth, metal, and water comes from the heaven cycle. These five phases move in yin-yang pulsations called the Ten Heavenly Rays or Celestial Stems. 12 animal- earth years x 5 heavenly elements = 60 year cycle. (It’s actually a 60 year cycle that repeats itself twice, 10 Stems x 12 Branches = 120 years). This calendar year 2015 is mapped back 4712 years in Chinese history. but as an actual calendar was only officially used for the last 2200 years. The earlier 2500 years were calculations back in time to a hypothetical point of greatest alignment between axis of the earth, sun, moon, and polestar.
The 60-year calendar cycle was used in the earliest written records in China, recorded on almost every oracle bone divination dating back to 1250 BC (over 3,250 years ago!). The 60 year calendar was adopted by Japan in 553. Vietnam, a former province of China, still uses it with Goat rather than Sheep, reflecting the ancient Chinese preference. The Tibetan calendar also borrowed this 60 year cycle in 1024, and also uses goat.
One key point is that everyone on the planet is influenced by the Goat Year cycle, not just people born in it. It is also misleading to attribute a single set of qualities to people born in the Goat Year. Chinese astrology is more sophisticated than this. Someone born at noon will absorb some qualities of a Fire goat, in the evening you’ll absorb Water goat influence, etc. So there is a wide range of goat personalities. But all goat/sheep/ram people w ill share some traits in common
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The 12 Earthly Branch are embedded within the 12 two-hour periods of Chinese medicine’s body clock. It means that there is more Qi in the body this year during the hours of 1 – 3 pm (the small intestine-yin fire goat branch hour). This is basic Taoist microcosmic – macrocosmic theory, the alchemical principal “as above, so below”. So if you want to tune into the Green Goatess that dominates the body of the Earth and our human body in 2015, the best time to meditate on this is in the afternoon, from 1- 3 pm.
Third Year of Zodiacal Animal Fire Hidden in Goat Year
The 12 animal cycle of the Chinese zodiac include Rat, Ox, Tiger, Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog and Pig. But these animals move in elemental trinities.
This year is the final of a three year cycle of fire. 2013 was a water element from heaven, but snake from earth held intense solar fire. The 2014 wood horse was about fire from sun absorbed into the earth surface, via pounding hooves. The 2015 wood goat is about fire whose heat is sustained deep within the ground.
This third kind of fire is the source of Goat Year’s good fortune. The deep earth fire nourishes growth of things that grow – the wood element – the ripening of plants and trees that goats feed on. In this third year of fire we can harvest the fruits of our labors during the previous two fire years. Perhaps some of us did not work hard on ourselves for the last two years – you will not have as much to harvest by way of good fortune.
2016 is the year of Yang Fire Monkey. But Monkey’s nature is a metal-gold animal. (You can read this nature by using my astrology calculator online and checking the chart on Feb. 4 in the year of any animal). Thus 2015 is the bridge year between Yin Wood and Yang Fire at the Heavenly Stem level, and between Goat’s inner yin fire & yin earth and Monkey’s inner yang metal on the Earthly Branch level. It means 2015 can be a double turning point. If you had great difficulties in 2013 and 2014, 2015 could be a chance to do better. If you’ve been working hard, the harvest in 2015 should be sure-footed and easy.
Susan Levitt, author of Taoist Astrology, is a master of capturing the essence of these cycles in a few words:
This year is a time for diplomacy, kindness, and healing…intimacy, family, and friendships. We can be more caring, gentle, and sensitive with each other. This is the year to develop a wild heart, open to love and acceptance on all levels. …Express your creativity, artistic and spiritual development, and cultivate beauty. Like fresh growth in springtime, a Wood year is time to grow, branch out, and explore.
Last year yang Horse 2014 was the time to go out and get. Sheep {or goat} is a yin, receptive animal so allow things to come to you. It’s approach is far more gentle. We can slow down and make plans with the support of friends and family. The time for risk and daring will be yang Fire Monkey 2016. Monkey adventures have more chance of success if you strengthened your foundation in Sheep year.
I sell a lovely T-shirt with the fabulous bagua cover art with kind permission from Susan Levitt’s book Taoist Feng Shui, To order, email info@healingtaousa.com.
Goat, in addition to Female Fire element, contains Female Earth, which has the magical power of creating something from nothing (empty womb births life). Goat also contains Female Wood element from its Earthly Branch, which is amplified by the 2015 Female Wood Celestial Ray from heaven. This is double wood nourishment for growth, from above and below.
Wood is also the seed, the power to self-impregnate all that flourishes when properly implanted in Female Earth. This combination is what makes the Goat 2015 a year of potential good fortune. This is especially true for those with a constitutional weak wood/liver or gallbladder. Again, visit my free astrology calculator on my site to determine your 5 elements constitution..
Yin Personality of the Goat/Sheep
Most astrologers emphasize the yin virtues of gently grazing sheep or goat, and some feel it is the most yin animal of the zodiac. Wikipedia summarizes well these yin qualities:
People born in a year of the Goat are generally believed to be gentle mild-mannered, shy, stable, sympathetic, amicable, and brimming with a strong sense of kindheartedness and justice.
They have very delicate thoughts, strong creativity, and perseverance, and acquire professional skills well. Although they look gentle on the surface, they are tough on the inside, always insisting on their own opinions in their minds. They have strong inner resilience and excellent defensive instincts.
Though they prefer to be in groups, they do not want to be the center of attention. They are reserved and quiet, most likely because they like spending much time in their thoughts. Goats like to spend money on fashionable things that give them a first class appearance. Although goats enjoy spending money on the finer things in life, they are not snobbish.
Famous Goat People with Strong Yang Leadership
L: Bighorn Sheep. R: duelling mountain goats, each holding their ground.
Both goat and sheep are docile, peaceful animals who can live closely with humans. But they have remarkable endurance that sustains their spirit and gives them strong yang vitality to keep moving ahead. People born in a Goat Year are considered to have an iron will and enterprising spirit underlying their soft, fluffy façade. In alchemy, this is called yang-within-the-yin.
So we should not overlook its yang aspect. Sheep and goats gather in a herd around the most aggressive male yang animal as their leader. These leaders hold a very strong dose of the yin or female fire hidden within every one of these pacific grazing animals. Examples of business leaders born in Wood Goat Year 1955 who had great, sure-footed persistence and gathered “large herds” include Steve Jobs and Bill Gates – the two most successful entrepreneurs of our time.
When dealing with tasks, they are not impulsive. They prefer to analyze a situation carefully so they can complete it satisfactorily – one sure-footed hoof at a time. In relationships they are gentle and cultivated, liked by others, but this can vary depending what time of day they are born. Those born at noon (more fire) tend to be irritable.
Those born in the morning or evening tend to be more passive and conservative, but very reliable. They make great home-keepers or fit comfortably into large corporations or other team structures. They like family/group order. In terms of business, they offer a wonderfully stable helping hand.
One chinese site describes people in this sign as having “a flexible and bright body. The men may look like sissy. The women have a devilish charm to the opposite sex, as they are mostly beautiful, plump, clear in skin and slim in waist”. Some well known “sissy” creative artists born in a goat year include Mick Jagger, Robert de Niro, Mel Gibson, Gene Hackman, and Michael Caine…:)
Mark Twain, arguably America’s greatest literary genius, was a Goat. Michelangelo, one of the world’s greatest artists, was also a goat….these are creative leaders…not followers. But it’s true that the number of followers in the herd are far more numerous than the leaders. But followers don’t have to be weak; it can mean being a strong supporter and advocate of art, beauty, family values, group harmony, corporate/team success. All goats/sheep have that sure-footed persistence, whether they are yin or yang versions of it.
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UK reader Brian Lowry identified another famous sheep/goat person story: Coco Chanel, an poor orphan who became a fashion queen. She started sewing things in the orphanage as a child, and persisted at it until she reached the top of her field.
Lowry also pointed out the goat-year born Dowager Empress CIxi of the Manchurian Ching (Qing) Dynasty. Cixi was a powerful and charismatic woman who displayed the goat’s inner will power. She was the only woman to rule during the 400 years of China’s last dynasty.
The daughter of a manchurian merchant, Cixi beat out sixty young girls to join the flock of hundreds of imperial concubines. She got pregnant with the emperor’s only son, then when he died, she used her reading and writing skills to overcome a traditional ban on women in politics. She broke many political rules (appointed her weak nephew as emperor) while maneuvering her way as Dowager Empress into ruling a third of the world’s population from “behind the curtain” for 47 years (1861 – 1908).
Cixi was considered compassionate, another goat quality. She refused to use the traditional “slow slicing of the body while alive” torture method on the chief minister she deposed in a coup, She instead had him quickly beheaded….standards of compassion are relative. :). Two other deposed ministers were “given the white silk”, a cloth to honorably commit suicide by hanging themselves. She displayed her high moral standards (for imperial China) by allowing the families of eight deposed ministers to live. A ruler had to be tough to hold China – the world’s largest human herd – together during the extremely difficult times of Opium Wars and foreign invasions.
This tension in China between the shepherd (currently China’s communist party inner circle) and the herd (1.5 billion group-minded Chinese people) is still being played out today. As long as the people trust the party shepherds, the herd will follow them. But if the party is not sure-footed enough, and loses the trust-earth element of the people, it could mean a revolution. The Goat embodies both the qualities in this dynamic within one animal – wilful inner independence but outer harmony with the herd.
April 18-19: Open 8 Psychic Channels: Fusion: 2 & 3
• April 18-19, 2015 (Sat/Sun) in Asheville Sat 9-6; Sun 9:30 am – 6 pm.
OPEN YOUR 8 SOUL CHANNELS: FUSION of FIVE ELEMENTS 2 & 3.
Open Macro Orbit: 8 Extraordinary Vessels, Develop Psychic Abilities
with Michael Winn
Internalized 8-trigram bagua (I CHING symbol) opens out into the 8 Extraordinary Vessels
Secrets of growing a powerful Energy Body Psychic alchemy: Open 8 Core Channels
• Supercharge spine in spirals of golden light • Open thrusting, belt, arm & leg channels • Heal chronic illness & deep pre-natal trauma • 8 Extraordinary Vessels Qigong (on DVD) • Pangu Mystical Qigong (on DVD)
To read full description of the 9 Major Benefits of Fusion 2 & 3: https://healingtaousa.com/fusion2.html
Open the Macro-Cosmic Orbit by linking chi flow in the Eight Extraordinary (“psychic”) channels. These channels link your pre-natal and post-natal energy bodies, i.e. the deep structure of how you birth yourself each flowing moment. Learn to purify your aura & regulate your Energy Body with belt & thrusting channels. Give to and Receive chi from the environment with Positive & Negative Arm & Leg channels.
The 8 Extra Vessels connect the inner and outer chi field, and allow you to “dance” between your inner and outer life. The Wudang Mountain version of the macro-cosmic orbit will also be taught as the most powerful internal method I’ve found for integrating the 8 Extraordinary Vessels into a continuous flowing circuit.
The macro-orbit is the foundation for opening chi flow to 8 Original Forces of Universe (I Ching trigram-tones). Powerful “8 Extraordinary Vessels” qigong form makes this practice simple to remember. It heals deep psychic imbalances not reached by acupuncture. Many mysterious and chronic illnesses can be healed at the level, much faster than using acupuncture or herbs.
Another new practice taught is my custom developed “9 Spirals of the Energy Body” in the four directions to integrate the Five Shen with the Five Directional Dragons. This practice connects the internal flow of your macro-cosmic orbit out to the edge of the universe and back! A wonderfully empowering and healing journey.
This course lays a strong foundation for Healing Love and Water & Fire (Lesser Kan & Li) Inner Sexual Alchemy.
Pre-req: Qigong Fundamentals 1&2 (Orbit, Healing Sounds) by live or homestudy. It’s also optimal to learn Fusion 1 Emotional Alchemy first, but they can be learned in reverse order.
Location: Asheville Training Center, 261 Ashland Ave, two blocks south of downtown Asheville.
$144. for weekend, $90. reviewers. Price not raised in 15 years!!!
Call 828-505-1444 to register or email info@healingtaousa.com
Why You should Sleep on a Wool Mattress
Have Astrologers Pulled the Wool Over Our Eyes?
Most Year of Sheep analyses have missed the most important point about sheep: the wonderful qualities of WOOL itself. What a gift to the world it is! I sleep on an inch of New Zealand organic wool atop an organic latex mattress. The wool holds the Qi I cultivate with Taoist Dream practice, as well as providing cool airflow space between me and the latex foam even in summer. I also have shawls made from baby goat hair that are much finer than wool, called pashmina in Nepal where I bought them.
I’m planning to buy 75 mattresses for my to-be-built retreat center. So I did a lot of research and tested many mattresses to find the highest quality of Qi. I discovered many beds are physically comfortable but their Qi is too synthetic and disturbs the body’s meridians. They may be too hot or too cold. I eventually settled on Natura, a canadian company that uses organic New Zealand wool to top every organic latex mattress. They are guaranteed to last 30 years without sagging.
As a service I’m currently selling Natura mattresses to Tao Dream practitioners who want the ultimate feng shui edge in their nighttime journeys. I’m happy to extend this my readers.
Visit http://www.naturaworld.com/products/product_types/mattresses/ to see what you want. Tthen ontact me if you want to get it at near-wholesale prices. I can save you several thousand dollars. A good mattress is a major investment, but we spend a third of our lives on it, so its worthwhile to get the best.
And be sure to sign up for my Tao Dream practice sleep-shop on May 16 – 17 in Asheville. If you cannot make it, get the homestudy audio – a recording of a three day workskhop in Holland is now available, with my most recent insights and refined qigong methods.
Love Your Body: Grounding is Key to Good Health
Wearing natural wool from very grounded animals or sleeping on their vibration at night is a nice external support. But ultimately, we must ground ourselves internally. Most modern people are poorly grounded, and are not living fully in their bodies. This is the real cause of a world-wide epidemic of stress-related diseases. If you can just relax into your body, it may heal spontaneously because Qi will flow into it more easily.
This grounded goat year is supportive of those who practice body-centered methods
like qigong, tai chi, yoga, feldenkrais, other body-work systems.
This is a good year to get regular massages — a year to Love Your Body. Getting grounded in your body is the first step to Sure-footed Good Fortune. Our resistance, our body-inertia, often comes from Qi stuck in our stressed out heads. This is a constant focus in most of my DVDs and homestudy courses.
Sexual Vitality Qigong Offer – Save $100.
Best Deal – SAVE up to $100. on Sexual Vitality DVD + Tao of Sex Audio. Offer Extended until midnight April 15, 2015.
1. DVD DISCOUNT: Sexual Vitality Qigong DVD. Full retail is $45. Special price for my readers is $29.95, plus s/h. Save $15! See detailed list of 26 Qigong Movements on this DVD below.
2. : Healing Love/ Tao of Sex PACKAGE DISCOUNTS. Audio courses are highly recommended as they go much deeper than the DVD, which is movement practice only. If you buy the DVD + the home study Audio, you receive 25% off retail. Save $54 to $100 !!! Plus get an additional 50% rebate on homestudy cost if you attend the Taoist Secrets of Sex summer workshop! It will be paid to you at summer registration.
1 DVD + 17 Audio CDs 23 hr (4 hrs. w/Joyce Gayheart on female practice): reg. $295. Special: $195. Save $100!
1 DVD + 7 Audio CD 9 hr (Michael only) reg. $154. Special: $99. Save $55!
For fuller description of these courses: https://healingtaousa.com/healinglove.html#nmb
Other Tao of Sex products (jade eggs, books): https://healingtaousa.com/sexualqigong.html
TO GET DISCOUNT ON PRODUCTS, please email Jan, office manager: info@healingtaousa.com OR call at 828-505-1444 (in USA toll free is 888-999-0555).
3. HEALING LOVE RETREAT INFO: June 26 to July 1, 2015 in Asheville, N.C. The Sexual Vitality Qigong DVD or Tao of Sex Audio CD are a great start. But if you really want to go deep, and get hands on help from two Senior Instructors with over 60 years experience between them, attend the Taoist Sexual Secrets/Healing Love summer retreat taught by Michael Winn and Minke de Vos.
See http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com
or Contact: Julia Considine, Registrar. info@healingtaoretreats.com 828-575-3825
I Ching Goat Hexagram. Why Wear RED Underwear?
I Ching Hexagram 11: Great Peace, “3 Yang” below is often interpreted as thaving Goat energy. The hexagram is named Great Peace or Harmony as Heaven’s 3 Yangs below are supporting Earth above.It is also known as Pervading and Great Rituals.
In Chinese New Year festival of the Goat Year, Chinese like to greet each other with san-yang-kai-tai , which means a”May Triple Yang energy bring Great Good Fortune to you!” Yang is the positive, growing Qi of the universe. Since the goat is also pronounced Yang, it is a play on words – “May you enjoy Triple Goat Good Fortune!”
The saying comes from Taoism, which is the foundation of Chinese culture in many ways. The “triple yang” phrase is actually taken from the 3000 year old Taoist I Ching, The Book of Unchanging Changes. Three solid lines in the bottom are three Yang, which represents Heaven (Sky) rising up from Earth. Three broken lines on the top are three Yin, which represents Earth (Ground) relaxing down to Heaven below. IHexagram 11 a perfect alchemical polarity. I consider it the most auspicious hexagram out of the 64 possibilities.
Strong Yang energy is going up from the ground. This natural phenomenon is connected to the New Year’s time as beginning Spring, but it is also the energy of the Goat Year.
Hexagram 18: Clearing Corruption changes to Hexagram 46, Ascend the Sacred Mtn.
I did my annual I Ching reading on the Chinese cycle for 2015. I use Stephen Karcher’s Total I Ching, which I strongly recommend all my readers to purchase (I keep it in stock, email info@healngtaousa.com).
This Goat Year I got hexagram 18: Renovating Pestilence & Corruption. It means we have to clear out our old psychic garbage and ancestral patterns before we have room for our full abundance. It’s a positive hexagram (“The Way is Open”). I’m personally dealing with cleaning up corruption in the leadership of a Tao organization, so very appropriate for me.
Line six changed the situation to hexagram 46, Ascending the Sacred Mountain. Hexagram 46 is definitely a goat activity, climbing the mountain, one sure-footed hoof at a time. It’s similar to Capricorn in Western astrology, sign of the she-goat. But before we can ascend to the heights, we need to clear the corrupt energies in the valley of our daily life (hexagram 18).
Is Goat UN-lucky for those born in it? Cure is Red Underwear!
Some Chinese accept the superstition that nine out of ten born in a Yang (Goat) year will be unhappy in life. Some expectant mothers scheduled Caesarean sections to give birth during the horse year, to avoid this curse.
In Chinese culture, a year of one’s birth sign – benmingnian, or ‘origin life year’ – is unlucky. So it applies to about one-twelfth of the population every year.
One feng shui cure for this is to wear red underwear. You will see red underwear sold at supermarkets and street markets in China. Red is believed to have the spiritual fire needed to ward off bad luck and misfortune. For the people born in a year of the goat (1919, 1931, 1943, 1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003), red underwear is a must for 2015.
For the Chinese, New Year’s Eve is often marked by embarrassing interrogations of singles as to why they are not yet married (= misfortune). To solve this problem an interesting, but often ridiculous solution has appeared — renting a boyfriend or girlfriend for the New Year. There are websites and agents specialized in this business. Taobao, China’s largest online retailer, has a section for fake boyfriend and girlfriend rentals. The price is about 100 yuan (16 USD) a day.
Do 60 Year Goat Cycles Repeat History? 1955 to 2015
Goat folks are generally described as “peace loving” and “kind”. Presumably this would carry over to the whole planet during goat years, especially during a Wood Goat Year with its flowering Qi. The zodiac theory is that Goat Year is one of increased harmony and cooperation. Is it historically true?
Checking wikipedia’s calendar for 1955 (last wood goat year) seems to bear this out. There were an amazingly high number of treaties that year. Among the many treaties signed were the Baghdad Pact, the Middle East Treaty Organization, the Warsaw Treaty on Friendship, and the first Geneva Summit between Soviets and allied powers, West Germany joined NATO only ten years after the end of WWII. 16 nations joined the U.N. simultaneously, after years of moratorium on admitting new members during the Korean War.
The AFL-CIO merged, and the movement towards racial integration in America made huge leaps. Rosa Parks famously refused to give up her bus seat in Alabama, and racial segregation ithat year was outlawed on interstate trains and buses.
Hopefully this will replay itself this year, since there are plenty of wars happening around the planet that are in need of a good peace treaty – Ukraine, Syria, widespread sturggles across the Middle East, and the perpetual struggles against racism, sexism, religious bias, etc.
But let’s not forget there are elemental clashes this Goat year: wood is attacking the earth element, and can lead to clashes. In 1955, a soviet battleship exploded at its moorings in Sevastopol, killing 608, the worst soviet naval disaster. Ironic that 60 years later they seized a Ukrainian battleship along with Sevastopol and Crimea.
One very black sheep was born in 1955, destined to destroy one of the great harmonizers on the planet. This was Mark David Chapman, the murderer of John Lennon, a global bard for love and harmony. The moral? Sheep who lose their protective herd-sense can go crazy.
Goat Year is supposed to be a time for nesting with family & friends. 1955 saw the opening of Disneyland, the Mickey Mouse club had its debut on TV. Ray Croc opened his first MacDonalds in Illinois. I remember clearly the novel thrill of our family eating in our car at one of its first drive-ins….fortunately my dietary standards have evolved since then. But that was also before chemists took over the food industry. They used to serve real food. 🙂
Goat years are said to favor artists. One of my favorite authors, Vladimir Nabokov, published Lolita in 1955, rockering him to international fame. Lolita was a lyrical, dark parody on obsessive romantic love. I wrote my Senior Fellow thesis at Dartmouth on Nabokov as a master of the absurd, reviewing his entire oeuvre in Russian and English. But perhaps Nabokov never would have been discovered had it not been for the 1955 Goat Year support for artists.
Financial Outlook for 2015 Goat Year
It is silly to generalize about one’s destiny or how the stock market will do based on just the animal yearly influence (Goat this year). That is what you will find on a chinese restaurant placemat.
Eight Pillars, the most popular Chinese astrology system, charts the heaven-stem and earth-branch influences on the year, month, day, and hour. Each of us is a unique complex of these eight forces – plus the 9th force of human Free Will. Any national or planetary astrology chart is equally complex.
Yet the energy of elestial wood may have a general beneficial effect on finances. It represents an expanding economy, which some believe is beginning to flower. Unemployment is down, wages are moving up, and costs have stabilized or lowered. The wood energy from Heaven will support these trends, and make a serious economic crash less likely.
Goat Years are generally regarded as a time to not take unnecessary risk. Be sure-footed in your investments.
Wood industries represent growth and change. Wood industries include architecture, manufacturing, fashion, food, publications like newspapers, magazines and books, and education.
The strong Wood element in 2015 may attack metal businesses according to 5-element Control Cycle theory.
Metal industries that might suffer includes banking, technology (hardware), automobile manufacturing, engineering, and entrepreneurs or CEOs. This year’s energy supports those who are humanitarian and lead from a team-building mission.
But I would not invest big money in the stock market based on these broad energetic principles. Some industries may be nurtured to do better than others this year, but ultimately everything depends on the individuals in the management teams formed within any business. A team of determined goat managers could overcome large cycle forces and suceed.
The general goat year management advice is to avoid direct confrontations. Compromise and negotiation will achieve more than conflict;
Sat. March 21: 7 pm Spring Equinox Green Goatess Ceremony
• March 21, 2015 Sat 7 – 9:30 pm FREE EVENT at our home in Asheville, N.C.
• SPRING EQUINOX CEREMONY, intensified by New moon and solar eclipse on March 20. This is the time of Growing New Energies, so plan on expanding what is positive and nurturing of your highest destiny.
We would normally do a Green Dragon ceremony, but feel its more powerful to invoke and align with the Green Goatess this year. Please join our powerful Green Goatess Ceremony, plus live spontaneous music concert (performed by everyone present!). Afterwards a deep silent meditation.
This will get you aligned with the cosmic feeling of harmonic balance at Spring Equinox and give you a boost in manifesting whatever you need to nurture in your life.
Schedule:
Arrive by 6:45 pm
7- 7:30 pm Spontaneous Wu Wei Music Concert
7:30 – 8 pm Green Goatess ceremony with custom wood element qigong to connect to this dynamic part of Mother Earth’s psyche in this Year of the Female Green Goat.
8 – 8:20. break
8:29 – 9:30 silent meditation (in chairs). Only one sitting.
9:30 – can leave or stay for light refreshments (welcome to bring something if inspired).
RSVP is required. For details and driving directions please email: info@healingtaousa.com
Do Sheep Practice the Inner Smile? Photo
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Flock of Taoist sheep manifesting their Inner Smile, naturally appearing in their wool. This is the kind of wool you want on your bed mattress for Taoist Dream Practice.
Following the Sure-Footed Way to Good Fortune in the Green Goatess Year,
Michael Winn
“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
Register online for on Healing Tao University, the largest Tao (Dao) Arts & Sciences program in the
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