Exercise to learn immunity to whiny energetic neediness. Audio file, duration 27:34, recorded during MWF in Colorado, August 2012.
Apr 232013
Apr 232013
In this recording, Thea leads a class through the “I Have Needs” exercise. 22:52.
Apr 212013
Understanding What Herbs “Do”
Herb Intro: Gan Dong and Heart Voice
How Chinese Herbs Works
Spirit of the Herbs: SI Style
Who’s Invited to Herb Class
Herb Intro: Dosage is a Mystical Art
Apr 092013
What makes a good beginning? The months of spring are said to be the months of fa and chen which are beginning, but it’s two characters for beginning. For the Chinese, beginning actually has two parts. There’s fa which shows a kind of bursting up through the soil. And then there’s chen which shows a kind of spreading out kind of quality.
Click here to read “What Makes a Good Beginning“
Apr 092013
Wood is about the power of movement and cessation, not the power of impulsiveness and uptightness. What would it feel like to be free? What if I were to heal? What would that look like? What’s that going to feel like? Can I open to a future in which I am healed?
Spring is the time for letting my mind, my imagination, go forward even more, with the power of the hun. The power of the Wood element is to fly into the future and then come back again, bringing us a vision.
After the fa comes the chen, this spreading. This is how it’s going to be! Not only am I fully healed, but I’m free. I’m free of the past, and I’m free to walk into the future.
Apr 092013
The left wrist middle position has to do with me being able to stand fully in what I am — because without me standing fully in what I am, especially when I see it differently than you do, then there would be no dance. This is what goes on in Wood, the capitol city of the left wrist: endless meetings, pivots, endless points at which everything I have ever been and every experience I have ever had until now, comes to this point of meeting everything you have ever been or experienced, up until now. From here, what could happen? I won’t know unless I am really fully here, meeting you in the capitol city of the left wrist.
Read “Left Wrist, Middle Position“
Apr 092013
Growth is a very particular type of change. Growth is not “How am I going to accommodate to this situation?” Growth means: as a result of being in this situation, there’s going to be more of me out in the world, living.
To understand the transformation from anger to constructiveness, it helps to understand something about plants and growth. Growth is always towards the light. You never see a plant growing towards the dark, ever. We grow from the dark. Anger in its healthy essence is the sense of “Hey, there could be some momentum here, and I don’t think what we are doing now is moving towards the light.” Well okay, in that moment of recognizing that this aspect of a situation isn’t moving towards the light, are you moving towards the light? The deep arousal of anger in the spirit of growth towards the light is what makes heroes.
The word for the virtue of Wood, which I have been translating as Constructiveness or Heroism, is usually translated as Benevolence. I think that’s a lousy translation; it does not convey the spirit of the word. Even though I am using different words to translate the Chinese character, I’m trying to be true to what Confucius was talking about.
The character shows a person, and the number two. It’s being two-eyed. It is exemplified by eyesight, or rather is it exemplified by vision.
Click here to read “Growth, Anger, Direction, and Benevolence“
Apr 092013
Healthy planning and decision-making have a number of different aspects worth exploring in detail. The most basic differentiation worth considering is between the two primary Wood element questions: “Where am I going?” and “How am I going to get there?”
Mar 042013
Kidney 3
KI 3 is the deep roaring groan of all the waters of the entire body, all being commanded by one spot, the place where all the waters return, and the place from which all the power of the waters is deployed.
Kidney 4
ZHONG is the character for “collecting.” If you take the character for “collecting” and
put the foot next to it, it means the heel. The heel is a collecting point of power. Here’s
the full circulation of Kidney qi and we’re taking it down into an even more condensed form.
Kidney 5
Mastery is being in the low position. Mastery is being the magnet. Mastery is being on the bottom. Sense of competence in Water has to do with that basic sense of solid bottom line.
Kidney 6
There’s a quality to the kinds of insights that come about through Kidney 6 or Water-type introspective processes. I think of the idea of Endarkenment rather than Enlightenment. There’s a quality of insight that’s like a shaft of light in the darkness. You’ve got to be sitting in the dark and in the unknown for a long time, and in the silence something comes to you.
Kidney 7
When we are trying to be something other than what we are, then the harder we try, the sicker we get. Everything we desire that is not of our proper nature, anything that we desire that is not the desire to say “yes – life” on the terms that are written in us is going to take us off course.
Kidney 8
KI 8 JIAO XIN Exchange Trust is a place of reunion between the Kidney’s and the Spleen’s notions of faith and trust, and dependability, as foundation for community. I’ve got my destiny, you’ve got your destiny, but can we count on on each other?
Feb 272013
In week #1 we will explore what it means to be in your body, and how to tell if you aren’t. We will swap notes on different ways of “coming home.” Some included topics will be: the difference between dissociation and inhibition, shame and body image, immunology, balancing qi and blood, and learning to dance.
“Are You In Your Body?” documents:
What Does It Mean To Be “In Your Body”?
On the Computer, In Your Body – part 1
On the Computer, In Your Body – part 2
Si Wu Tang Part One (on youtube, and parts Two through Six can be accessed there also)
Feb 202013
The documents below are Thea Elijah’s Medicine Without Form articles specifically tailored for post-Intro class review, and to help integrate the practices into daily life. These are also for use with her online Integration 12-week course.
PRACTICE #1: Are You In Your Body?
In week #1 we will explore what it means to be in your body, and how to tell if you aren’t. We will swap notes on different ways of “coming home.” Some included topics will be: the difference between dissociation and inhibition, shame and body image, immunology, balancing qi and blood, and learning to dance.
“Are You In Your Body?” files:
What Does It Mean To Be “In Your Body”?
On the Computer, In Your Body – part 1
On the Computer, In Your Body – part 2
Si Wu Tang Part One (on youtube, and parts Two through Six can be accessed there also)
PRACTICE #2 TRUST: The Physiology of Perception
In week #2 we will work with opening perception through learning how to shift our bodies into the state of trust (trust the chair, the ground, the bed, the river, the Tao). Some included topics will be: what is rest, contacting the parasympathetic nervous system, distinguishing between casualness and relaxation, trust and “other people.”
“Trust: The Physiology of Perception” files:
Trust the Chair, Trust the Fish
PRACTICE #3: Sheriff of Love, Part One
In Practice #3 we will focus on fully claiming our sovereignty in “our town,” and not waiting for others to give us permission to be welcome. We offer permission to others, welcoming them into a new standard of politeness: health. Included topics: entering new situations, meeting new people, new people entering established groups, shifting ourselves within long-standing relationships or situations.
“Sheriff of Love, Part One” files:
PRACTICE #4: Sheriff of Love, Part Two
In Practice #4 we will deepen our relationship with heart-through-pelvis into legs and feet taking root in common ground. Included topics: Feeling your tool belt, infinite weight and height, being a community resource vs. “too much,” empowering instead of intimidating/ being intimidated.
“Sheriff of Love, Part Two” files:
Domineering and Empowerment, part 1
Domineering and Empowerment, part 2
Kidney Point Intro to Non-Acupuncturists
PRACTICE #5: Front Body and Back Body
In Practice #5 we will develop our awareness of our back body and front body in ourselves and in relationship with others. Topics will include: bonding and individuation, “who’s got your back,” back of the heart, sacrum and heels, head on two legs, back of the head/neck alignment.
“Front Body and Back Body” files:
Front and Back and Side, part 1 of 3
Front and Back and Side, part 2 of 3
Front and Back and Side, part 3 of 3
PRACTICE #6: Speaking in Heart Voice
In Practice #6 we will practice speaking in heart voice, with special attention to how much we can “max out” on opening the back and front of the heart (as well as opening all the way down and all the way up). Topics include: “maxing out” on hearing ourselves being heard, and speaking directly into the listening (pacing is love).
“Speaking in Heart Voice” files:
Common Misunderstandings About Heart and Speaking in Heart Space
PRACTICE #7: Light Coming Through
In Practice #7 we will surrender to the pleasures of being Light Coming Through a woman or man, and connecting with the light coming through others—no matter what they show us in their eyes, we will acknowledge it, but give their name to the light. Topics include: people we dislike, parts of ourselves we dislike, heart love and connection vs. personal love and connection.
“Light Coming Through” files:
Donut Hole – Light Coming Through
PRACTICE #8: Thinking vs. Feeling vs. Heart Void
In Practice #8 we will practice the distinctions between thinking about someone, feeling in response to them, and making infinite space in heart void to hold them and know them in that extended light. We will practice each of these states as separate, and also work with common combinations. Topics include: dealing with “difficult” people, openness vs. vulnerability, spacious connection with those closest to us.
“Thinking vs Feeling vs Heart Void” files:
Think-Feel-Void Teaching Outline
The Donut Hole Goes Through Both Ways
PRACTICE #9: Me First: The Cup That Runneth Over
In Practice #9 we will deepen our capacity to ask and receive through the back of the heart, for the sake of being able to give more than we have to give. Topics include: not living on a starvation diet, using our sense of inadequacy to access the infinite, balancing generosity with “richness” from beyond ourselves, complete surrender to receiving fully while giving.
“Me First” files:
Inadequacy / Cup Runneth Over transcript
Inadequacy / Cup Runneth Over audio
PRACTICE #10: Loss of Heart and Self-Healing
In Practice #10 we will develop our shamelessly compassionate awareness of our own times and places of loss of heart, and recognize these as moments for self-healing. Topics will include: despair and soldiering on, “bank vault” statements, asking and basking in the heart, self-healing practices.
“Loss of Heart and Self-Healing” files:
Basking and Asking: This is the most basic foundation of MWF self-healing practices.
Self-Healing part 1: Here is a guided process for self-healing that, with practice, you can use almost any time.
Back to Back Healing: This is a wonderful exercise to do with a partner, sitting back to back. It’s a great way to introduce loved ones to some MWF healing and mutual support. It can also be done sitting with your back to a wall, imagining your partner (in that case, a pillow at your back would be really nice).
Flower and Sun: This is a partner exercise that can be done with a live partner present, or by imagining someone sitting across from you.
PRACTICES #11 and #12: To Be Determined
In weeks #11 and #12 we will choose focus topics based on the group’s needs. Further Medicine Without Form practice includes:
1) “I Have Needs”
2) Wounded Child / Magical Child
3) Inner Adult / Giving and Receiving Criticism
4) Flower and Sun
Feb 182013
In week #2 we will work with opening perception through learning how to shift our bodies into the state of trust (trust the chair, the ground, the bed, the river, the Tao). Some included topics will be: what is rest, contacting the parasympathetic nervous system, distinguishing between casualness and relaxation, trust and “other people.”
“Trust: The Physiology of Perception” documents:
Feb 172013
In Practice #3 we will focus on fully claiming our sovereignty in “our town,” and not waiting for others to give us permission to be welcome. We offer permission to others, welcoming them into a new standard of politeness: health. Included topics: entering new situations, meeting new people, new people entering established groups, shifting ourselves within long-standing relationships or situations.
“Sheriff of Love, Part One” documents:
Feb 162013
In Practice #4 we will deepen our relationship with heart-through-pelvis into legs and feet taking root in common ground. Included topics: Feeling your tool belt, infinite weight and height, being a community resource vs. “too much,” empowering instead of intimidating/ being intimidated.
Domineering and Empowerment, part 1
Domineering and Empowerment, part 2
Feb 152013
In Practice #5 we will develop our awareness of our back body and front body in ourselves and in relationship with others. Topics will include: bonding and individuation, “who’s got your back,” back of the heart, sacrum and heels, head on two legs, back of the head/neck alignment.
Front and Back and Side, part 1 of 3
Front and Back and Side, part 2 of 3
Front and Back and Side, part 3 of 3
Feb 152013
(Part 1 of 6) Thea teaches us how Si Wu Tang tonifies Liver Blood. From the Spirit of the Herbs series.
Feb 152013
(Part 2 of 6) Thea teaches us how Si Wu Tang tonifies Liver Blood, from the Spirit of the Herbs series.
Feb 152013
(Part 3 of 6) Thea teaches us how Si Wu Tang tonifies Liver Blood, from the Spirit of the Herbs series.
Feb 152013
(Part 4 of 6) Thea teaches us how Si Wu Tang tonifies Liver Blood, from the Spirit of the Herbs series.
Feb 152013
(Part 5 of 6) Thea teaches us how Si Wu Tang tonifies Liver Blood, from the Spirit of the Herbs series.
Feb 152013
(Part 6 of 6) Thea teaches us how Si Wu Tang tonifies Liver Blood, from the Spirit of the Herbs series.
Feb 152013
This is Thea’s discussion of the differences between Chinese herbalism, modern Western herbalism, and shamanic herbalism.
Feb 152013
Thea describes the foundation of her teaching style. Gan Dong is translated by Heiner Fruehauf as “the transmission of knowledge that takes place only when the heart is moved.”
Feb 152013
Thea speaks on the Art of Dosage: How many times do I have to tell you, how often, and how loudly, before you get it?
Feb 142013
In Practice #6 we will practice speaking in heart voice, with special attention to how much we can “max out” on opening the back and front of the heart (as well as opening all the way down and all the way up). Topics include: “maxing out” on hearing ourselves being heard, and speaking directly into the listening (pacing is love).
“Speaking in Heart Voice” files:
Common Misunderstandings About Heart and Speaking in Heart Space
Feb 132013
In Practice #7 we will surrender to the pleasures of being Light Coming Through a woman or man, and connecting with the light coming through others—no matter what they show us in their eyes, we will acknowledge it, but give their name to the light. Topics include: people we dislike, parts of ourselves we dislike, heart love and connection vs. personal love and connection.
“Light Coming Through” files:
Feb 122013
In Practice #8 we will practice the distinctions between thinking about someone, feeling in response to them, and making infinite space in heart void to hold them and know them in that extended light. We will practice each of these states as separate, and also work with common combinations. Topics include: dealing with “difficult” people, openness vs. vulnerability, spacious connection with those closest to us.
“Thinking vs Feeling vs Heart Void” files:
Think-Feel-Void Teaching Outline
The Donut Hole Goes Through Both Ways
Feb 112013
In Practice #9 we will deepen our capacity to ask and receive through the back of the heart, for the sake of being able to give more than we have to give. Topics include: not living on a starvation diet, using our sense of inadequacy to access the infinite, balancing generosity with “richness” from beyond ourselves, complete surrender to receiving fully while giving.
“Me First” files:
Inadequacy / Cup Runneth Over transcript
Inadequacy / Cup Runneth Over audio
Feb 102013
In Practice #10 we will develop our shamelessly compassionate awareness of our own times and places of loss of heart, and recognize these as moments for self-healing. Topics will include: despair and soldiering on, “bank vault” statements, asking and basking in the heart, self-healing practices.
“Loss of Heart and Self-Healing” files:
Basking and Asking: This is the most basic foundation of MWF self-healing practices.
Self-Healing part 1: Here is a guided process for self-healing that, with practice, you can use almost any time.
Back to Back Healing: This is a wonderful exercise to do with a partner, sitting back to back. It’s a great way to introduce loved ones to some MWF healing and mutual support. It can also be done sitting with your back to a wall, imagining your partner (in that case, a pillow at your back would be really nice).
Flower and Sun: This is a partner exercise that can be done with a live partner present, or by imagining someone sitting across from you.
Feb 092013
What is a need? Thea’s definition is “that without which there is functional impairment.” Naturally there is hierarchy of needs– which is one of the reasons why we must not assume that the identification of a need equals the right to demand its fulfillment instantly.
“I Have Needs” files:
Healthy Needs and Community Ecology (pdf)
I Have Needs Audio file, duration 22:52, recorded during MWF in Colorado, August 2012.
Needy Vampires Exercise to learn immunity to whiny energetic neediness. Audio file, duration 27:34, recorded during MWF in Colorado, August 2012.
Feb 082013
“Inner Child” files:
Feb 082013
Who is invited to study Spirit of the Herbs:
Feb 072013
“Inner Adult” files:
This is an excerpt from a recent MWF class. As far as I’m concerned it is the heart of the medicine of today: how to be a voice and an active force for heart-based morality, without being judgmental or militant? It’s not “all good,” and sometimes this needs to be stated clearly. Things are happening in this world that are unacceptable to the ecology of life. None of us wants to get cold, hard and nasty; and yet we do need to find clean clear ways to stand strong and say No to what is unacceptable. Most importantly, we do this as part of the Whole, as spokesperson for the Heart.
These are parts 1 and 2 of a Medicine Without Form assistant training section. This section’s “inner themes” address atrocity and remorselessness. The audio speaks in general about how Thea prepares for a class, and in particular about how to be in our bodies so as to face some very difficult things with an open heart, without judgment, but with a clear moral compass.
Part 1 audio duration: 23:42
Part 2 audio duration: 22:33
The giving and receiving of criticism can be deeply empowering when it is a gift to someone’s ongoing commitment to excellence.
Listen to “Criticism”
Feb 062013
Feb 062013
Sufi Wisdom Series: The Chickpea
Feb 062013
Sufi Wisdom Series: Time of Severity
Feb 062013
Sufi Wisdom Series: The Opener Al-Fatah
Feb 062013
Audio of “The Lover and the Beloved”
Feb 062013
Audio of “The Flower and the Sun”, an in-class exercise for working with the heart mediator in the role of the practitioner.
Feb 062013
Audio clip on Self-Evident Truth. The qualities of being part of a group and skills to exercise when we come together.
Feb 062013
A video of Thea talking about the arrival of Spring:
Feb 062013
Thea’s approach to teaching herbs:
Feb 052013
“Safety and the Group Heart” files:
“…a calling to a level of tender attention and calling to a level of mastery in being with each other”. An article exploring how members of an MWF can have permission and safety during the course.
When the group heart comes together and the healing transmission is just wooshing through, it’s glorious but it’s not intimate. The chance to love you in detail comes in this process of coming into actually trusting that who we are belongs here…fully.
Feb 052013
Self-assess, field assess, and receive guidance
“50-50 Field Assess and Self-Assess” files:
Feb 012013
This transcript from the Whole Heart Acupuncture series is an in-depth orientation to the functions of the bladder meridian, and to the functions of BL 1 and BL 2.
Feb 012013
There are many kinds of intelligence. Bladder meridian traversing the head is a deeply penetrative – or deeply penetrated – intelligence. This is intelligence like rays of light going out into the darkness, mapping the most distant stars. This is intelligence like rays of light coming in from the darkness—otherwise known as inductive insight.
Feb 012013
I have often used BL 4 for an alternate Window of the Sky point. This is absolutely the point that I use when reading in the newspaper about what is going on in the world makes you want to take your head and put it in a bag and hide; when you can’t take it. It’s not just the world that begins to look dark, but the nature of the cosmos.
Feb 012013
The intelligence that collects silently in BL 5 is not what is usually called intelligence on tests. It’s like the Taoists who sit in a cave and go deep into the wells of silence. Who can say what it is that you learn from this, exactly? You don’t come back from the cave or sitting on the rock with something that you could publish. But you may walk back into the house and say something to your kid or to your husband that is very different somehow. Or maybe you say nothing, but you can hear them better, with a much quieter ear.
Feb 012013
All intellectual knowledge seekers, all of them, what they are really longing for is to receive light—to receive this direct illumination of true knowing right into the brain, the direct penetration into the mind of pure knowing.
Feb 012013
This whole area is why many people cover their heads when they pray, and why people who want to live a life of prayer may keep it covered all the time. It’s where we receive heavenly transmission, and so it’s understandable that a devout seeker might want to shield the area a little bit, so that there isn’t a lot of static and buzz and chatter. I’m communing with the mind that is the infinite mind, the darkness penetrated by shafts of light, the stars; it’s the illumined mind beyond my little thinky dinky.
Feb 012013
LUO QUE Declining Connection can be a nice reassurance to the earnest seeker who had an illumination on their ten day retreat and now they’re coming back and they are afraid of losing it. It can help them not so fear losing it that they lose it – and instead they ‘lose it’ in a sense but softly; there it is in the dark. It’s in there unconsciously, guiding quietly.
Feb 012013
YU ZHEN Jade Pillow is truly at the back of the head which is about the entry into full unconscious. Sleep! This is the part of the Bladder cycle where the light’s completely off, and Bladder’s completely empty.
Feb 012013
TIAN ZHU is translated by JR Worsley as Heavenly Pillar. I think I know where Worsley was coming from when he said that, because there is that sense of solidity, and the kind of effortless standing when we are standing in our bones. The character ZHU doesn’t really show a pillar, though. What it shows is some kind of wooden post that is a stable, and that supports a big torch. TIAN ZHU is like a lighthouse that just stands and sheds light. TIAN ZHU might be translated as Heavenly Stable Point of Radiance.
Jan 082013
Interview of Intention for MWF Mentorship
1. Please list the courses (and general time and place) that you have taken with me thus far.
2. Do you have a regular foundational contemplative/spiritual practice? Please briefly describe.
3. Please give examples of how you are currently practicing MWF skills in your life. eg: family, profession, community action etc.
4. Which skills are you most comfortable with? Which skills need more fine tuning?
5. What issues – internal and external – do you bump up against in your MWF practice?
6. What are your personal goals and challenges in joining the 2013 MWF group?
7. How do you envision your personal expression of MWF evolving over time?
e.g. stealth healing, individual coaching, group teaching, different professions and walks of life
8. Are you interested in assistant teaching with Thea, mentoring with local students….etc.
Jan 022013
This is an excerpt from the Treatment Blocks session of Whole Heart Acupuncture.
Jan 012013
Wintertime is about vitality: the power of life force and vital essence. Where and how is that gathered and maintained?
Jan 012013
KI 1 is a good point for the impatience that is born of fear. It’s a good point for staying at the starting line for longer; for not leaping right away, for sticking with step one, or what comes before step one. Stop. Or, it’s very good for, “Okay – Start! Go!” It’s jumping into life, making beginning. Water into Wood. Sprouting. It’s that courage, that bravery, either way – because it certainly takes bravery to do nothing; as much bravery as it takes to do something. It’s just, for some people, it’s harder to do nothing than to do something.
Pre-solstice, every single day is darker than the one before. KI 2 is a very good point for those pre-solstice times in our life when we’re not really sure why we should continue to live; there isn’t a light that we can see at the end of the tunnel. From where we stand, it’s pretty clear, in fact, empirically, that it’s dark and getting darker every day. From which circumstances, one might deduce that we’re doomed. Every time we go into pre-solstice winter, it’s a KI 2 time. What do you draw on inside yourself when there’s no rational proof that you’re anything but doomed? KI 2 is a point about knowing that you’re winter-hardy. There’s a fire on the inside. Even when there’s no light at the end of the tunnel, there’s a light under your foot that keeps you putting one foot in front of the other, until the light returns.
If we’re working with somebody and they haven’t said YES TO LIFE, what are we going to do? What does it take to talk a suicide off the bridge? What does it take to pull a traumatized recluse out of a cave? Sometimes without even being conscious of it, people can be very scared to come out of the“safety” of deep negativity, hiding in the darkness. KI 16 is a good point, especially in combination with kidney 2, for the courage to take the biggest risk there is – being alive – especially for people who have lived through great terror and need to know that it’s safe to come back out again.
KI 11 is about a deep level of commitment: “Am I going to go all the way down to my own depth and to my own foundation and really stand there in this life?” For people deeply retreated from life because of fear, first, with the help of KI 2, I’ll establish Ki 16. Next comes KI 11. Are we ready to commit to having legs? All the other workings of my inner world, and strengthening of my survival capacity, can’t happen until I’ve pinned down this commitment. After being born, this is learning to walk.
View “KI-2 and K-16 and KI-11″ pdf
Nov 272012
What does it mean to have been born into our particular family of origin? In order to answer this question fully, we may begin with looking at the influences of our own nuclear family– but we must not stop there! As children, the influences of immediate family are paramount; they form our matrix for knowing ourselves. In adolescence, the emergence of our own reproductive capacities opens a doorway into our individual manifestation of the infinite resources of our ancestry. This allows us, as adults, to find our own direction as a flowering of capacities that come to us from much further back than our own parents, and have the power to carry us much further forward.
Download Focus on Ancestry part 1 pdf
Nov 272012
Even if you do not know herbs, it’s worth listening to this audio for a portrait of the dark side of the Metal element – and how it heals.
Download Xie Bai San part 1 audio file
Download Xie Bai San part 2 audio file
Nov 142012
Excerpt:“What happens when two come together, and a dynamic arises? There’s you, there’s me, and there’s a unique dance that comes about between us. You, and me, and the dynamic between us makes three. The relationship, the dynamic, this is the three space– and it’s always moving and always changing, like the Wood Element. It reminds me of what J.R. Worsley used to say: “Every time the client comes in, it’s like you must do a new intake. Anything could have happened since the last time you saw them. Why, they could have gone to London.””
1.5 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Points / 1.5 CA CEUs
$30 ($22.50 for premium subscribers)
You must be logged in to purchase CEUs
Nov 142012
Excerpt:“One of the most important things about a person’s Wood element is…looking at what kinds of force they are willing to exert in order to get their way. Very often we speak about Wood in terms of justice, and of anger as being the sign that justice has not been done: “That’s not fair – you are taking my thing, stepped on my foot, you are holding me down!” Theoretically, things happen that are not fair, and I get angry because this is not fair.”
1 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Points / 1 CA CEUs
$20 ($15 for premium subscribers)
You must be logged in to purchase CEUs
Nov 032012
This is an excerpt from Spirit of the Herbs discussing how to pay a compliment to someone with a strong Metal element without getting blown off. Clip duration: 9:33
Nov 012012
This excerpt from Whole Heart Acupuncture takes on the long journey from the surface (Lung) to the depths (Kidney). When life events beyond the bounds of what I can conceive of as acceptable to Heaven (loss of a loved one, ecological devastation, war or cruelty) shake my sense of the meaning in life, I may raise my voice in the night crying out, “Why? Why!?” LUNG 5 takes us on the journey back to the silence that opens the door to the only answers that can satisfy us. Audio file duration: 16:46
Nov 012012
STOMACH 1 -2-3-4 Receiving Nourishment With Trust
This excerpt from Whole Heart Acupuncture explores the complex nature of the simple and obvious, and our capacity to receive input so as to be nourished and transformed.
Oct 162012
Here’s the crew singing together…. An audio clip recorded at an AMWF weekend in Massachusetts, 2012. Duration 3:59.
Oct 092012
Excerpt:“We’re drawing out the connections and making explicit what it is that winter teaches us about human nature, and I’d like to spend a little time just on that before we go to the specific lessons of winter. Let’s just stick with: what is winter like? and give ourselves us a chance to state some of the obvious, and after that some of the less obvious, and after that perhaps even less obvious. This is because when we say winter, we are speaking not only of nature but of human nature. How would we recognize winter happening? What happens in winter that does not happen at any other time. Would somebody just name something about winter that doesn’t happen at any other time?”
1.5 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Points / 1.5 CA CEUs
$30 ($22.50 for premium subscribers)
You must be logged in to purchase CEUs
Oct 022012
What makes a successful recovery from addiction? The focus on HEALTH more than illness.
The Chinese 5 Element tradition is a rich resource for learning to recognize how individuals are expressing the need for particular kinds of support in addiction recovery. Even more important, it is a priceless opportunity to learn to recognize even overt pathology as an entry way to virtue, and a means to assist others in making the transformation. In the 5 Element tradition, pathologies are classified as being primarily associated with Fear, Anger, Grief, Neediness and Anxiety. Each of these pathologies has a corresponding virtue: Wisdom, Activism, Impartiality, Considerateness and Connection. All of us carry within us the potential for strength and clarity. All of us have a unique potential. Learning to support individuals in their discovery of strengths and virtues that they didn’t even know they had inside them can be instrumental in recovery from addictions.
This is the final installment of the 5 Elements of Recovery articles. Parts 1-3 can be found by clicking here.
Sep 052012
What makes a successful recovery from addiction? The focus on HEALTH more than illness.
The Chinese 5 Element tradition is a rich resource for learning to recognize how individuals are expressing the need for particular kinds of support in addiction recovery. Even more important, it is a priceless opportunity to learn to recognize even overt pathology as an entry way to virtue, and a means to assist others in making the transformation. In the 5 Element tradition, pathologies are classified as being primarily associated with Fear, Anger, Grief, Neediness and Anxiety. Each of these pathologies has a corresponding virtue: Wisdom, Activism, Impartiality, Considerateness and Connection. All of us carry within us the potential for strength and clarity. All of us have a unique potential. Learning to support individuals in their discovery of strengths and virtues that they didn’t even know they had inside them can be instrumental in recovery from addictions.
COMING NEXT MONTH: Parts 4, 5, and 6 of this lecture.
Sep 042012
Excerpt:“LU 3: Tian Fu, heavenly storehouse, department of heaven, palace of heaven, talent. It’s the biggest point; it’s the most physically large point on the lung meridian. It’s enormous. It is a window of the sky point. What does that mean? What is a heavenly storehouse? If we’re using a rain analogy, this is where the mist exhaled from the earth, rises up and actually condenses into clouds.”
1.5 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Points / 1.5 CA CEUs
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Aug 152012
Excerpt:“These are very important assumptions that are built into the medicine, and they may not be shared from culture to culture. Deep questions are inherent in a medicine; even questions like, What is the meaning of life? Why are we here, what are we doing here, and what happens next, after this life? All of this is inherent in a culture’s cosmology, which in turn informs its medicine.”
2 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Points
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Aug 152012
Excerpt:“OK, it’s all about falling in love. There’s such a thing as a healthy progression – falling in love has certain stages, and we can go well or ill through those stages. This process of falling in love is a process much like a magic show filled with mirrors and illusions, and how do you work through the whole illusion and mirror thing to an actual partnership or union with a real person? The illusions and the mirrors can be seen as pathology if they are interacted with in a pathological way, or they can be seen as natural process within the Metal element. We start with seeing heaven out there – the idol, the shiny object. Value starts out there, and ends up being internalized. So even the illusions are to be engaged with, but healthily, because they’re not random. They all have a teaching.”
1.5 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Points / 1.5 CA CEUS
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Aug 152012
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Aug 012012
Excerpt:“CO 1 is Merchant Yang Ming, the hot bright visible aspect of something. Itʼs a show of strength, of Blood and Qi together; itʼs bartering from a position of richness greater than any other meridian. There is a sense of the fullness of the Large Intestine, all the blood and qi and all the rude good health, coming out to the world to figure out whatʼs the best the world has to offer – “Iʼll take that one. No, Iʼll take that one,” picking out which Jaguar you want. I like the green one. No, I like the yellow convertible. Whatʼs the richest thing out there. The deluxe. This is the real deluxe finger, the richest of the rich.”
1 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Point / 1 CA CEU
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Jul 102012
Here is a lecture I gave on diabetes. This segment is the introduction.
To save to your own computer, right click and select “save as”
Jul 092012
This is part 2 of the lecture on diabetes: Healing Themes.
Diabetes part 2: Healing themes
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Jul 082012
This is part 3 of the lecture I gave on diabetes. It revolves around Earth issues.
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Jul 072012
Here is the final segment of the lecture I gave on diabetes. The material covers Water issues.
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Jul 052012
This audio file of Donut Hole Cultivation was recorded at 2012 AMWF weekend in Massachusetts. From Thea: “This is something I’ve taken to doing right after Awaken the Soul qi gong, when the donut hole is at its most clear.” Duration: 25 minutes.
Download Donut Hole Cultivation audio file
Another version of after-Qi Gong donut hole awareness cultivation– can’t have too much of it! An audio clip recorded at an AMWF weekend in Massachusetts, 2012. Duration: 9:21.
Jun 202012
This audio exercise was recorded at a 2012 AMWF weekend in Massachusetts. Very exciting, really powerful new material re: different ways of connecting with other humans. Duration: 1:06:25.
Download Front and Back and Side audio file
Another round of back front side exercise, part two, recorded the same weekend. Duration: 17:01.
Jun 082012
Exam
Jun 082012
Between the end of one meridian and the beginning of the next is a place of openness, transition and input. The Worsley 5 element tradition considers these Exit-Entry places to be of great clinical significance for consciousness. Here is an introduction to Exit – Entry Blocks, followed by an extensive discussion of each of the Exit – Entry blocks in the chest (including extensive discussion of additional strategies for resolving recurrent Exit – Entry blocks then the simple protocol is not enough)
Download File
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Jun 082012
The kidney meridian’s journey through the middle burner and its emergence above the diaphragm at Kidney 22 is a long, dark wordless journey finally opening into light at the end of the tunnel in the region of Heart Mediator 1. Here in the space between our solitary winter sojourn and the ability to share in warmth, love and intimacy is the terrain of the Kidney – Heart Mediator Exit – Entry zone. Does what I have lived through in silence prevent me from speaking? Does what I know of love from my past relationships overshadow what I know love can be? What does it mean to be strong, and also able to melt in the arms of the beloved? These and other questions are addressed in this audio clip describing the Kidney – Heart Mediator Exit – Entry Block treatment.
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Jun 082012
Where does thought end and insight begin? What kind of mindfulness supports direct knowing, and what kind of mind-”fullness” squashes it? How does worry become trust, and how does shock become an opportunity to open to a greater reality? These and other questions are addressed in this audio clip describing the Spleen-Heart Exit – Entry Block treatment.
Download File
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Jun 082012
Between Liver 14 and Lung 1 is a long inner journey between hope and acceptance, between dreams and disappointments, between plans and the actual circumstances of our lives. This lecture is an exploration of the acupuncture points that are charged with the task of keeping this space open, and allowing us to have a very different relationship to time, space, circumstances and the pacing of both our individual and collective progression through the epochs and eras of our lives. (I have no idea how to describe this audio but I think it’s one of the best things I’ve done)
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Jun 012012
Excerpt:“The bladder is the night watchman. Pang guang is the word for bladder in Chinese. Pang is a vesseled space, a container. Guang is in a lot of GB points, and is an alternate name for GB 24 sun and moon. The character either means a person carrying a torch, or a person with their head on fire, in which case they may be a human torch. It is translated as light, radiance, brilliance, light bearer.
That is the bladder: pang: a vesseled space, guang, light. It’s a night light. It’s the light in the darkness. It’s the stars in the sky. It’s the campfire in the dark. It’s all about light in winter.”
2 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Points / 2 CA CEUs
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May 272012
Through different bodies, the same light comes through. My body with all its particularity, my body with its loves, and its disgusts. I’m the light that comes through all that. These bodies have loves, have preferences, have patterns, have ways of being, and there’s a light that comes through it.
May 122012
Online Focus Groups – Wood
Exam
May 072012
Excerpt: “One of the things the things that is difficult about teaching the HM meridian is the issue of understanding the trajectory in terms of a dual direction of flow.”
1 Core Knowledge NCCAOM® PDA Point / 1 CA CEU
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