Inside Chi Flows Naturally:
1. I recently flew to the Big Island of Hawaii on an impulse. I wanted to feel the physical alchemy of “fire and water” mixing, hot lava and cold ocean. I was also seeking a powerful place to celebrate my birthday on my second Saturn return (age 58). “Return” means it takes slow-moving Saturn about 29 years to return to its position in the sky where it first was when you were born. It’s considered by astrologers to be the time of testing your direction in life.
photo: Kilauea is the world’s longest continuously erupting volcano.
I noticed immediately on landing that the chi here has a primordial feel to it. It makes perfect sense, since Kilauea, the most active volcano in the world, is birthing new land continuously. Its volcanic lava has been oozing up from the core of the Earth for decades. That lava originates close to the womb-core of Mother Earth. In Hawaiiann cosmology, it is the fire goddess Pele who births the new lava/earth. Eruption brings the primordial vibration to the surface of the earth, creates new land, and makes the process visibly manifest.
Big Island also has the highest mountain on earth. Mauna Kea rises 57,000 feet from the bottom of the sea floor, nearly twice as high as Mt. Everest’s rise from sea level. That massive cone shape focuses the earth chi to a single point of “yang rising within the yin (of the ocean)”, which is the perfect alchemical setup for any adept able to take advantage of it. More on my ascent of Mauna Kea below, and the amazing kundalini experience it triggered.
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Mauna Kea, Pacific cultures’ most sacred mountain. Painting by Catherine Robbins.
Big Island’s vibration reminds me of my years spent at a boatman in the bottom of the Grand Canyon, rafting the Colorado River 40 times as my summer job in college. In the Grand Canyon the bones of the earth have been stripped bare of the surface layers of vegetation and soft fleshy soil. The naked bare rock makes the deep earth consciousness more accessible. Living deep inside the canyon for many summers began to awaken me spiritually.
A lot of people are beginning to wake up and take seriously the possibility that Earth is going through a rebirth period, complete with planetary labor pains that take the form of rapid climate and political change. But what exactly does “rebirth” mean for the individual human, carried along by that global process?
At the core of Taoist cultivation is the alchemical process of coming into relationship with and consciously refining primordial chi, yuan chi, literally “Original Breath”. This primal chi is what births and harmonizes the yin-yang pulsation in the body of the cosmos. So every birthing process, from human to planetary, involves bringing primal yuan chi into a yin-yang polarized body, and the creative and continuous shaping of that Original Breath by yin-yang forces.
The Big Island of Hawaii evokes that process volcanically, mixing primal elements of fire and sea to birth new land. Equally interesting is the connecting between the hawaiian shamanic Huna tradition and the Taoist tradition. My reseatch suggests they have a common root in the ancient Pacific civilization of Lemuria, which according to myth, predates Atlantis. The Lemurian civilization was “earth-centered”, whereas the Atlantean (and later Western religions & spiritual paths) tended to be “sky-centered”. In other words, matriarchal vs. patriarchal. (You don’t have to believe in these myths, just notice the differences in their orientation).
See the amazing photos of lava flowing below.
Freshest air on earth….stayed on east end of the island, next to Black Sand beach…link to Estariya Venus article…..Big Dipper petroglyphs & Taoist Star Shamanic Qigong…tuning into the hearts of ancient huna…..
» Inside Pele’s Volcanic Vulva
» Primordial Qigong Oct. 17-18. Fundamentals 1&2 Oct. 30-Nov.1 (& more photos)
» Saturn Gets Me Kicked Off the Airplane…..
» Mauna Kea: Sacred Mountain Kicked off My Kundalini
» Healing Tao Contact information
Painting (In Hawaii Park Museum): Pele sits inside her volcano-vulva.
On to Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire who speaks through her volcanic throat. She is a Kali-like figure, destroying the old while simultaneously birthing new land. The land is her child, and when you watch the films of hot red lava flowing out of her volcanic orifice. I hiked around inside Kileauea, her current mouth piece/orifice. i became aware of how sexual the feeling is, the very shape of the volcano as the vulva of Mother Earth. But its primal sex – the kind of sex that alchemists relish.
Photo (take from boat by local photographer): Pele’s fluids alchemically mix hot lava and cold sea, birthing hundreds of acres of new earth.
photo: sea arch formed from lava cooling as it poured into the sea.
It’s not “horizontal” sex between male-female, its a vertical coupling between the forces deep in the core-and the sky and watery ocean on the surface. The orgasmic eruptions evoke a deep play in humans between their inner and outer self. The quality of “female fire” is quite palpable within the crater. Female fire is the “yang hidden within the yin”, and it is the vibrational force that is ruling planet earth at this moment. Male Fire is the force of change coming from above/without, it’s the sky gods of the old paternalistic religions of Hinduism, its step child Buddhism, and Judao-Islamic-Christian religions. Yes, they all have female figures/goddesses, but the females aren’t in charge.
Photo: in Kilauea Iki’s most recent eruption a mound of hot lava 1900 feet high pulsed above the rim of the volcano crater.
photo: I took this shot from a helicopter. Steam vevts reveal path of a lava tube carrying the hot stuff down to the sea.
phoyos: local glassblower Jeff Taj finds an ingenious way to artfully reveal the nature of a lava tube inside a glass ball.
photo: the same kilauea iki crater today, considerbly cooler. I hiked across the bottom of the crater.
photo: the “Trail of Devastation” next to the crater. Pele erases everything in her path, but leaves the fertile base for new life to make a comeback.
photo: Pele gifts me with a rainbow upon my arrival. Primordial Qigong is the main ceremony I used in Hawaii; it helps one gather the forces of Nature, from both Heaven and Earth, into the core of one’s being.
Oct. 17 – 18, 2009 (Sat/Sun): Asheville, N.C.
PRIMORDIAL QIGONG with Feldenkrais for Effortless Super Learning. Led by Michael, plus recorded guidance by Joyce Gayheart.
Magical, powerful 800 year old lineage qigong ceremony (a.k.a. “Tai Chi for Enlightenment”). Integrates the magic square of feng shui, the dynamic inner coupling of Taoist alchemy, the healing benefits of medical qigong, and the earthly transmission power of China’s original tai chi form!
We gather the directional chi of Heaven and Earth in graceful spirals. This is one of my favorite forms, but requires deeper commitment (20 min. practice length). Combined with Feldenkrais, it opens up many levels of healing energy and ease of movement amazingly quickly.
For more about the form, see www.taichi-enlightenment.com
Cost: $185. ($90. deposit). Reviewers: $125.
Note: The course is the certification course for Wuji Gong/Tai Chi for Enlightenment. You receive a teaching certificate from Healing Tao University. Those seeking certification should have been practicing the form well in advance. Email if you have questions.
Location: Lighten Up Yoga in downtown Asheville.
Contact: winn@HealingTaoUSA.com
Photo (Hawaii part museum): Pele stirs up deep earth forces. Taoist practices energetically do the same within the body. Both Taoists and Huna go “down” iinto the earth element in order to transcend time & space. Atlantean/sky paths tend to attempt to transcend “straigiht up” or go directly “above”.
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Oct. 30, 2009 (Fri. eve. 7:30 – 9:30 pm): Asheville, N.C.
INNER SMILE: Free Evening Meditation & Talk with Michael Winn.
This evening is part of the weekend workshop, even though it is open to the public. We will mostly smile together silently, relax from the “heart-mind” (xin) level of smiling in the body until the deeper “inner heart” or soul (ling) level of smiling spontaneously arises. I will facilitate this with a transmission of that frequency of unconditional acceptance at the soul level.
Location: At Lighten Up Yoga, same venue as weekend workshop. No pre-registration required, free to al
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Oct. 31 – Nov. 1, 2009 (Sat/Sun): Asheville, N.C.
MEDICAL & SPIRITUAL QIGONG FUNDAMENTALS 1 & 2
with Michael Winn
Day 1: Inner Smile, Five Animals Qigong, Six Healing Sounds, Taoist qigong & alchemy theory.
Visit http://www.healingdao.com/ckf1.html#top (Fundamentals 1 page with full benefits & description of practices, testimonials, etc.)
Day 2: Guided Micro-Cosmic Orbit. This famous Tao meditation unifies all energy centers/chakras into a flowing whole. Process is made simple and physically tangible with the powerful “Open Qi (Chi) Flow in the Orbit” movement qigong. Chi transmission is given to help you open chi flow spiraling in an orbit around your torso.
Includes oral transmission of the powerful Wudang Mountain “Red Dragon” internal method of circulating the orbit (NOT taught in standard Healing Tao curriculum). THIS IS THE MOST POWERFUL & EFFECTIVE ORBIT METHOD I’VE FOUND – during my 30 years search.
Good for self healing, spiritual centering and balance of all yin-yang meridians of body, and balancing blood and chi. The orbit is also the main pathway used for cultivating spiritualized sexual energy as you progress in your practice.
More info on Fundamentals 2: http://www.healingdao.com/ckf2.html
These two days are packed with powerful practices that can make major shifts in your health and energy level. They are Lifetime Treasures, simple enough to easily share with family and friends.
Open to everyone. This course is THE main pre-requisite to Fusion, Healing Love, Kan & Li. This is the best course to begin with, but suitable for advanced adepts wishing to go deeper.
Contact: winn@HealingTaoUSA.com
When you have the intention of “celebrating Saturn” on your birthday, weird things can happen. In Chinese astrology, Saturn is the ruler of the Earth element. I believe it is what the ancients meant by the Yellow Emperor; Saturn’s bright yellow color is visible to the naked eye, and its slow movement suggests a wisdom controlling the other planets/human soul archetypes. Yellow was adopted by the Chinese as the Imperial Color. In certain dynasties, you could be beheaded for wearing that color if you were not part of the imperial court.
Saturn is known to astrologers the world over as the Great Tester, i.e. testing whether you are on the path of your highest destiny on earth. Some believe that Saturn transmuted into Satan in some religions. I immediately got tested on this birthday journey. I had been sitting on the US Airways flight out of Charlotte for about 15 minutes, waiting for them to fix a broken door, when I was suddenly threatened with arrest and KICKED OFF the plane for “being a threat to the safe operation of the plane”. There was no warning, no altercation, nothing – just an arrest threat and no explanation for it!!!!!!!!!!
The air steward had apparently decided that my wearing an eye mask in an exit row was unsafe and that I was challenging his authority when he had originally asked me to remove the eye mask. It was like a page out of Kafka, where petty bureaucrats have the power to trap you in their endlessly petty power trips. The fact that the door was broken, plane was grounded, the doors still open, and we couldn’t fly didn’t seem to matter to his delicate little ego. It was a real shocker to me to learn that a steward could wield such power, but he someone managed to convince the pilot…..a carryover from Bush-era “use terror tactics against the civilians” policy.
I was grateful on one level, because the incident triggered deep Saturn-like issues over right use of (male) authority. It forced me to scan back through my ancestral patterns to see what level of my collective Self was screaming for completion, for healing of some wounded Inner Female pattern. Thank-you, ass-hole steward. I’m gratefully smiling to your soul, much as I detest your behavior…..Ah, the Great Transformation Party never ends.
Photo: was this “evil face’ in the lava flow the shadow side of the air steward who kicked me off the plane?
have 
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Photo: tourists atop Mauna Kea, at sunset. It’s14,000. feet above sea level, with about eight different observatories.
Photo: atop Mauna Kea, a secondary volcano. Astronauts trained here because it so resembled the moon.
Fortunately, Saturn had much bigger treats in store for me after this initial test (I was re-routed on a different US Airways plane, which decided I was NOT a threat to its safety).
The big big big treat was Mauna Kea, which, according to the museum diagram, is the highest mountain in the world, when measured from sea bottom – a cone that is 57,000. feet high, twice the height of Mt. Everest from sea level.The air is so clear here that there are billions of dollars of the world’s finest telescopes here. I have to admit, as I stayed up late there at night, I have never seen so many stars with my naked eye before.
It is normal to feel a little light-headed at 14,000. feet. I had previously climbed to the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, a volcano that is over 20,000. feet. And being from an ancient bird tribe lineage, I love high places. But I noticed a different kind of lightness began to take over my whole body, not just my head. It was as if my insides began dissolving as a current of extremely subtle etheric energies flowed up from the core of the Mauna Kea volcano. It felt like being erased, and left in a hugedly expanded state of bliss that was so big I couldn’t find my boundaries.
I have been through many other stages of kundalini in my long spiritual journey. First stages thrust sexual energy up through the spine, later it blasts through the core channel and connects all three dantians (belly, heart, and head). I finally realized this was like a higher-dimensional kundalini pulsing through me, originating from the very holy of holies deep within Mother Earth. It was aligning and pulsing all my subtle bodies (layers of the Energy Body) simultaneously, from earth to stars above. Wow! I was so energized as I did my Primordial Qigong / Tai Chi for Enlightenment ceremony that I didn’t know what to do with all the energy.
Afterwards I RAN, in huge leaps and bounds, from the 14,000 foot summit, about a half mile to the road – and did not feel winded. Other hikers looked at me as if I was high on drugs. As you know, at high altitudes most folks are puffing and huffing as you are getting about 40% less oxygen at that elevation.
Photo: Me atop the summit of Mauna Kea, next to a Hawaiian shrine with a coconut, honoring the peak most sacred to their spiritual tradition. I felt total alignment between the Taoist and Hawaiian pathways.
photo: the 14,000 ft. summit of Mauna Kea. You can see a tiny figure of a hiker half-way down. This is the stretch I “flew” down, perhaps lifted magically by Pele.
Photo: near Mauna Kea’s summit is a lake, one of the highest in the USA, that is sacred to Polynesian cultures. People from all across the Pacific make pilgrimmage here. It’s waters are considered to be a birthing portal for Pele, and women often toss in the umbilical cords of newborns iin the lake to ensure the child’s good fortune.
From a Taoist perspective, this sacred lake is very alchemical as it represents the reversal of elements, with Water (lake) above Fire (the volcano below). I spent an entire day meditating beside the lake, and noticed how it stabilized the fiery summit energy and allowed it to crystallize in my inner cauldron. In the I Ching this was represented by the hexagram Lake over Earth. It is no coincidence that this was the reading I drew for my annual I Ching birthday reading….
Special thanks to a local sound healer and bellydancer, Estariya Venus, for advising me about the Big Island’s sacred sites. She has some powerful musical tube & voice healing CDs on her site, www.estariya.com. I have also posted her insightul article on the Sacred Art of Relationship: Divine Union of Male and Female on my articles page: https://healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=105.
To the Greater Planetary Mixing of Fire and Water,
and Blessings From the Yellow Emperor (Saturn),
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