Year of Yin Fire Pig – Predictions. China Dream Trip Photos. (sending to elist)

note to newbies – this is the eletter you receive if you ask for free Inner Smile ebook.
michael

Inside Chi Flows Naturally:

1. Year of the Fire Pig – what’s coming in the next spin of the earth around the sun. Energetic analysis and chinese astrology predictions that can affect your health, your wealth, and your spiritual practice.

2. Some top photos I took on China Dream Trips. This is just a small sampling of 40 pics, with captions. I plan to post more soon. Landscapes, people, temples, quirky details, doing qigong in wild places. I’ve travelled to nearly 100 countries – just fulfilling the demands of my astrology. China is amongst the most deep, rich, profound places I’ve visited in this lifetime. The Dream Trip is designed to be a portal to what I call “deep earth” – we tap into layers of ancient consciousness that helps to ground us in the core of our soul’s immortality.

There is still space on the May 18-June 4, 2007 Dream Trip. We have a great group signed up – I invite you to join us and fulfill your own hidden dreams. Come practice “Tai Chi for Enlightenment” a.k.a. Primordial Qigong, on three marvelous sacred Taoist mountains of Mt. Emei, Mt. Qing, and Mt. Hua. Plus all the exciting cultural highlights of China, at below-market cost. We usually can squeeze in last minute signups and help you get creative with financing of the trip. See full trip itinerary at: http://www.healingdao.com/chinatrip2007.html

Amusingly, my favorite Taoist hangout on Mt. Hua (Flower Mtn) has hit it big time. A Super bowl TV ad for Snapple Green Tea features a hiker on Huashan’s spectacular sheer cliffs. The ad exploits the spiritual authority of a monk living on top, to tell the hiker that what’s in the green tea is good for him. Better hurry and see these remote parts of China before they are engulfed by the new face of China….which looks a lot like the face of big western corporations. To see the ad: http://www.cbs.sportsline.com/nfl/postseason/superads and then click on fourth quarter ads, Green Tea.

In the past, I think some Taoist monks and nuns chose monastic life to escape the bleak realities of communist China. The dream of big money sweeping across China makes it very challenging for young people to choose the lifestyle of a Taoist mountain recluse. Perhaps it is positive, useful in weeding out those who chose temple Taoism for the wrong reasons.
See my photos at: http://www.healingdao.com/china_dream_trip_photos.html

3. Time to plan for summer fun at Dao Mountain in the New York Catskills. 25 Retreats featuring, according to one happy camper, “the highest quality energy body training on planet Earth”. These are very special – do yourself a favor and scan down the list of stellar offerings. You only need to make a $100. deposit online to hold your spot. It’s low-cost, high-energy, good-people place to cultivate your chi! The accommodations are spa quality, with two pools, sauna, & hot tub. http://www.HealingTaoRetreats.com or if questions, email retreats@healingdao.com

4. “Cultivate True Feeling” at the Fusion of the 5 Elements workshop in Asheville, N.C. March 10 & 11. This is very powerful energy work that cuts to the heart of dissolving negative emotion and growing the seed essence of one’s soul. This takes qigong practice into the realm of Taoist depth psychology and five shen theory. It trains you to FEEL the five-phase cycles in your body that lie at the heart of the astrology cycles described below. Only $144. for the weekend, $90 to review. Prerequsite: Qigong Fundamentals 1&2, life or by homestudy. Contact: winn@healingdao.com.

5. A quick winter season Kidney-building Qigong Breathing tip. The healing sound for the water/kidney element is “chuuu”. Normally this is exhaled in certain positions to detoxify the kidneys and release the cold/fear that can get trapped in the kidneys. During winter season you can also REVERSE and INHALE the “chuuu” sound so the cool air is sucked between one’s teeth. The teeth are your only exposed bones in your body, and they vibrate into the kidney spirit and charge it up with the chi extracted from the incoming air (metal/gold element).

Inhale by sipping the “chuuu” sound in 3 or 5 times (any odd number), keeping the mind focused on the mingmen, the point between your two kidneys near the center of your body. Then close your mouth, and exhale gently but forcefully, feeling the breath is directed into the mingmen. Do this for five minutes every day, and your kidneys will glow like a recharged battery. Most powerful when done between 3 and 7 pm. Can be done before or after other kidney qigong, such as the Cosmic Swimming Dragon, Deep Earth Kidney Pulsing, or the modified Marriage of Heaven and Earth qigong forms taught on the Sexual Vitality Qigong DVD. See: http://www.healingdao.com/healinglove.html

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Dear Cultivators of Nature’s Great & Mysterious Cycles,

The Year of the Yin Fire Pig (Ding Hai) , a.k.a. Year of the Female Red Pig, began on Feb. 4, 2007. That’s the first day of the lunar Tiger month. Because the Chinese lunar calendar needed to insert a “short leap month”, the Chinese New Year itself doesn’t begin until the new moon of Feb. 18 in China (Feb. 17 in USA and Europe). Chinese astrology is fundamentally lunar. But it also uses solar calculations which make it complex, but contributes to its accuracy as being energetically attuned to the macro cycles of change.

That’s why I’m currently constructing an online Healing Tao Chinese Astrology center that will allow readers to calculate (at no cost) a natal chart that shows your strong and weak elements and ten year luck cycles. If you combine that information with qigong practice and 5-element nutrition and feng shui, it becomes an extremely powerful practical tool of Tao self-cultivation. I will have available ebooks by Mantak Chia and David Twicken on how to interpret and use that information in sophisticated ways.

Chinese love the Year of the Pig, the 12th and final animal in this cycle. It’s not just because they’ve mastered the art of making pork tasty. Note: the pork in China tastes very different from American pork, so different in fact I thought it was a different species of pig. I mention it because I had been a vegetarian for 7 years when I first visited China in 1985, as a photo-journalist following Marco Polo’s route for four months across the remote parts of China. It was the tasty Chinese Pig that ultimately caused me to switch diets…But I digress.

2007 is a Fire Pig Year, considered one of the most auspicious years to give birth to children, out of the whole 120 year astrology cycle (10 celestial stems x 12 terrestrial branches = 120). A higher rate of reported pregnancies in China – up 30% from last year by one count – is one reflection of the popularity of the Pig Year. Websites for “Golden Pig Mothers” have sprouted up, and special “Pig Mother” maternity deals are being offered by hotels. So we’re not talking about the quaint superstitions of peasants. Even the Chinese government has issued a Pig stamp and commemorative gold and silver coins with a Pig on them. Why the big fuss over a Pig?

Role of the Pig in Chinese Culture

First, Westerners need to put on a new pair of cultural lenses. In the West, pigs are often seen as dirty, fat, lazy creatures who lie sleeping all day in filth. Call it the Year of the Boar if you cannot get over your image of dirty pig. In China, pigs are highly respected. In ancient times they ran wild and were considered to have strong shamanic powers. In the famous novel “Journey to the West”, the Monkey King (symbolizing the evolving human travelling on a spiritual adventure) has “Pigsy” as his main companion. Together they get into a lot of trouble – and fun. I summarize the story (see Godchecker.com for more details):

Pigsy the Pig spirit was actually the ex-Marshall of the Hosts of Heaven, who was sent down into a pig’s body after lusting after angels and stuffing his face with food at every opportunity. The last straw was one day he guzzled too much immortal peach wine and got fresh with Chang-O, Goddess of the Moon.
An uproar ensured, and the Jade Emperor turned into a monstrously ugly pig spirit on earth to teach him a lesson.

But it didn’t work. As Pigsy, his lustful nature multiplied and soon he was revelling in troughs and chasing pretty ladies for all he was worth. After many mis-adventures, with the help of Kuan YIn, their quest was fulfilled and Pigsy achieved enlightenment. In heaven he was rewarded with the title Cleaner of the Holy Altar, and thousands of worshippers send him offerings to this very day. Moral of the story: it CAN pay to be a pig – just play your part well!

Note: To read this delightfully fantastic tale, try Arthur Waley’s short version or Anthony Yu’s 4-volume classic. I found this 16th century novel dramatized as a Chinese TV serial when I first visited China, so it is very much present in the modern culture.

The modern Chinese are acutely aware of both their long history and their current rise to prosperity on the global stage. In 621, a Fire Pig Year, the Tang dynasty marked a golden age of art, religion, and prosperity that lasted for nearly four hundred years. In that year, the emperor introduced a single national currency called the “Jin Zhu” which literally translates into “Gold Pig.” This communist government is happy to reclaim the ancient Gold Pig mantle for itself, heading into the 2008 Olympics.
The Pig Character

In China, the Pig’s character is considered to be honest, tolerant, well-meaning, and friendly. The Pig is noble and courageous; its steady perseverance leads it to prosperity. Pigs are known for ending their days well-off and contented. The Fire Pig is especially known for its traits of wealth, prosperity, luck and fertility. So naturally everyone wants their “one allowed child” to be born in such a year, as it will make the parents life easier.

The shadow side of the pig character is they can be very naive, gullible and overconfident, or even downright stupid about money. But even though they can lose lots of money, it always seems to come back to them. Some might see the Chinese national character reflected in the way pigs eat food with great gusto, enjoy sleeping all day long and worry about nothing – life works out for them in the end.

The Fire Pig is more vivacious, bold and relentless in achieving its goals than the other types of Pigs. The Pig is ordinarily associated with the water element, and thus appears lazy. But even the Water Pig may just be biding its time until the opportunity ripens. Once in motion the Pig, like a strong river current, is unstoppable. A Fire Pig “boils” the Water, which makes this year’s energy potentially turbulent. I will discuss the political and economic implications of that shortly.

I have a personal story to relate here. On the small Caribbean island where I winter, my neighbor Sam raises pigs. Sam told me how he bought a baby pig once, put it inside a gunny sack, effectively blindfolding it. The piglet was tied atop a donkey, which took it some five miles over a mountain to its new home. The baby pig slyly waited for an opening, escaped and immediately ran back the 5 miles to its mother. That is a very clever and persistent pig.

Bad Weather Hidden Inside a Silver Cloud

The Fire Pig year will be generally auspicious, but it may also bring calamity. This is mostly due to the conflict between the heavenly Female Fire and the earthly Water. 2006 was a Yang (Male) Fire Dog year, and this yang Fire played itself out much as predicted in relationship to the Dog/Earth element – civil war in Iraq, sudden change of political power in the USA, and public outcry over global warming threatening the earth. Trials that “outed” corrupt politicians and lobbyists. More media exposing the inconsistencies around 9-11.

The Female (Yin) Fire is described by some astrologers as “candlelight”, i.e. gentle and soft. This is a big mistake, like under-estimating the potential fury of ordinarily sweet women that slowly cooks within until it explodes. Yin Fire is ultimately more powerful than Yang Fire. It gets held in suppressed emotions, hidden tension, anxiety and continuing struggle over failed dreams.

The problem here is that the celestial Yin Fire is ABOVE the Watery Pig energy below, which means they are separating. This is revealed in Hexagram 64 of the I Ching, the Classic of Unchanging Changes. Fire (Li) is above water (kan). Look it up in whatever I Ching translation you have. This separation of fire and water leads to chaos and conflict.

This volatile water-fire energy in 2007 can explode into natural disasters such as hurricanes, El Nino, tsunamis, earthquakes, chemical fires, or industrial explosions. In 1995, a Wood (expanding) Pig year, an earthquake rocked Kobe, Japan. Natural disasters can strike anyone, anywhere. Be thankful if you avoid them and instead find the Pig’s good fortune – and share your wealth to help the less fortunate. This female fire celestial energy is generally beneficial, but in certain places and people it will produce excess or deficiencies, particularly to the South (excess fire) and West (controlled/deficient metal).

The destructive 5-element cycle reveals that Metal-dominant people will have the most difficulty in a Fire year, as Fire melts Metal/Gold. Water types are a close second, as uncontrolled Fire plus Water in spells disaster. Health issues are most likely to involve the heart, tongue,and small intestine in Fire types. The negative results of too much passionate fire activity could include stress, strained relationships, and a hot temper. In Metal types the problem would be lung infections. This could get played out on a macro scale as a bird flu virus spreading in certain areas, perhaps the south and west of whatever country you live in.

On the other hand, the Pig Year is great time to use the fire to move with great gusto to finish projects and engage in passionately chasing your dreams or true love. The secret, as always, is holding the balance point. Depending on your personal astrology, that could be natural or terribly challenging. Based on the “Law of Mutual Attraction”, the three animal signs that will benefit the most in 2007 will be those born in Rabbit, Dog, and Tiger years. Pig Years favor those who hold the space of peace and mediate for stability vs. violent change.

1947: The Last Fire Pig Year

Yin Fire is very explosive and can symbolize firearms. The AK47 assault rifle was designed and began production in 1947, the last Fire Pig year. It has become a global symbol of revolution. The CIA was established in the US (water rules secrets) and that year marked the birth of the Cold War that lasted another 40 years. The seed energy of East-West separation.

In 1947 the separation of India and Pakistan took place and resulted in 4 million Hindus and Muslims changing their homeland. By the end of the year, the two were at war, and it is still flaring up. Palestine was partitioned in 1947, another case of water and fire, arab and jew, not finding harmony 60 years later. Hopefully, we are in an upward spiral, but more purification may yet be needed.

2007 may thus be a good year for terrorists and violent upheavals, even if they ultimately fail. I predict the partitioning of Iraq into Kurdish, Sunni, and Shiite territories will begin, a solution that will ease the civil war but is unlikely to bring lasting peace to the region.

As we shift to the second half of 2007 the Fire element may lose its explosiveness as the Pig watery force begin to re-assert itself. The Fire chi will begin to ground itself as it flows into the next Earth Rat cycle. But the water element resurgence in the second half of the year may bring into consciousness contraction and fear in various forms. Secrets are also ruled by the Water element. With Fire (ideals) and Water (secrets) co-existing in the 2007 chart we can expect clashes of values over secrecy. The US government has never been so secretive as under the Bush administration, and I expect this year will bring fierce attempts to restore transparency.

1947 brought the report of a crashed UFO near Roswell, New Mexico. This crash has since dominated UFO research. I think the UFO issue may arise again very strongly in 2007 as more of this secrecy gets unveiled. I find myself reading material on this topic. If you want more dramatic and detailed evidence of US government MJ-12 (Majestic, top secret agency) relations with aliens, listen to intereview of an MJ government scientist Dan Burisch who was assigned to medically heal a captive sick alien. He says he’s been allowed to speak because the govt. finally wants the truth to start seeping out….
http://www.eaglesdisobey.net/ scroll down to navigation links on left side for 2 hour free video interview.

Economic Effects of Fire Pig Year

Financial markets will be influenced by these fire-water tensions. Investment themes for 2007 may center around the effects of peak oil and global warming, disease and famine. Commodities, especially the softs (grains) should do very well. The economy will blow hot or cold from geopolitical events and psycho-social trends. Financial mergers and acquisitions will continue and we will see widespread consolidation. Larger Pig companies will gobble up smaller companies. Water-related businesses will do well by the end of this year.

Fire and Water can contribute to sudden breakthroughs in technology or new and dramatic inventions to generate power or solve medical problems. Note in 1947 Bell Labs invented the radio transistor and a plane flew fast enough to break the sound barrier for the first time.

The Stock market may benefit from the fire/heat in the first half and cool in the second half. In 1997, also a Yin Fire year, the Asian markets collapsed in the second half.

Spiritual Practice in 2007

This year, the water and fire are NOT naturally harmonized – so it is up to humanity to mediate the struggle that unfolds. That means you and me! This water-fire conflict within the Lunar Pig sign is somewhat analogous to the energy of the Scorpio sun sign in western astrology. Scorpio is a very deep, penetrating energy controlled by water, but also simultaneously containing fire.

An un-evolved Scorpio type can do a lot of damage with the unconscious sexual-water power that gets unleashed. They have to harmonize the fire and water within themselves. Hence, an evolved Scorpio is often an alchemist. This relates directly to the heart of the Healing Tao path of Water and Fire alchemy, which focuses on harmonizing the two forces by reversing them so the fire stabilizes below and gently “cooks” the water above. Another way of describing inner sexual alchemy, the coupling of the male and female forces within one person.

Note: the Healing Tao has attracted many people with sun, moon, and/or rising signs in Scorpio….my webmaster is a triple scorpio. I’ve got my moon and rising sign in Scorpio. Scorps, we need you during this Pig year! Good time to do lots of Taoist inner alchemy on behalf of the planet, to speed up its process and thereby reduce the collective suffering.

Other advice for dealing with a Female Fire year: avoid burnout. Avoid accumulating internal fire/emotional stress. Seek the Earth element in your life – a great reason to go on the China Dream Trip this year, or tale the summer retreat of your choice. Those who took that advice during last year’s Yang Fire Year certainly were grateful for it.

Slow down and make relaxation an art form. Do lots of qigong and tai chi, yoga, other body-centered activities. Gardening, working with clay, and petting animals will increase the Earth element in your life.

Love, Chi, and Blessings during the Fire Pig Year,
Michael

“Who takes Heaven as his ancestor, Virtue as his home,
the Tao as his door, and who becomes change – is a Sage.”
– Chuang Tzu, Inner Chapters

“The Tao is very close, but everyone looks far away.
Life is very simple, but everyone seeks difficulty.”
— Taoist Sage, 200 B.C

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