Class 26: Passover East and West: Cross-cultural Rituals for moving out of Inner Slavery towards the Promised Land

Description

The final class and culmination of a 26-week Body-Mind-Healing Qigong series focused on integrating Eastern and Western wisdom traditions, emphasizing the concept of sacralizing time, the human body, movement, and the human psyche. Fittingly as our final episode, we use the symbolic meaning of Passover, the escape from Mizraim (the Egyptian land of constriction) as a metaphor for the pathway to freedom from personal constraints through actualizing your transpersonal Self.

Some specifics you’ll learn about:

• The psychological challenges of Life turn us into “Reluctant Metaphysicians” as we are induced by the vicissitudes of life into needing to find “the world behind the world” to heal. As described more fully in the book “The Path of a Reluctant Metaphysician,” our life challenges lead us to find healing pathways from the world behind the world, of energies and symbols. The word “symbol’s” etymology comes from the word “symbolin,” which originally was a trading stick broken apart when two people did a trade deal. The buyers stick symbolized the bigger trading stick from before the deal was struck. Similarly, symbols link us to the wider whole of which we are a part. So, the symbolism of Passover links us to a mythic reality that can restore our wholeness, particularly when we practice it as embodied imagination.

• Each symbolic part of the Torah, when read on four levels, contains not just the literal meaning (P’shat). You’ll learn how a deeper Interpretation of the Torah (Remez, Derash and Sod) can involve seeing the journey out of Egypt as a cosmogenic creation myth, and how the Israelites’ path is a metaphor for the pathway to transformation and finding the promised land. For example, after the Red Sea waters are divided and the Jewish people go through the Red Sea, Miriam (Moses’ sister), leads the freed slaves in a circle dance of gratitude. We’ll explore the cross-cultural symbol of the circle in the Jewish ritual of using a group circle to heal a sick member of the tribe, and the Chinese Bagua practice circle walking for healing. You’ll discover the synchronistic parallels of the Bagua Lion practice and Jewish mystical group healing rituals.

• The symbol of the circle and the embodiment of its healing meanings are explored in indigenous and mystical traditions. Walking the Bagua circle of the Zodiac, a ritual for embodying the archetypes of the circle of life. Walking the Bagua circle while embodying ancient animal Qigong practices: The deer, dragon, and lion.

• Energy exchange with nature. Everything in life is connected and part of the greater whole. You’ll be introduced to sounds and Qigong postures for activating a unos mundos trance state with plants.

• Rebirthing your energy through Bodymind Healing Qigong practices: Qigong bouncing for activating the piezoelectric effect on the bones and tonifying internal organs; discovering the circle that arises from stillness for healing, lifting hands Tai Chi mudra for preventative medicine for the lower back (Ming men), dispersing stagnant chi,

• Opening your central channel by turning light headedness into experiencing “the light divine.”

• A Wounded Healer’s Morning Qigong Ritual

• Walking Meditation Qigong, a next step on your Path

• As you move out of your own slavery to whatever you’re enslaved by and is constricting you, you can find the pathway through the Red Sea, into the circle dance of life, embody the chosen archetypes of the circle, and practice becoming the sphere of your true primordial Self. Learn how to put this into practice through imaginal Qigong practices. Blessings on your journey to the Promised Land.

As always, the Bodymind Healing Qigong Extended Short Form set will be used to illustrate and build upon the topic of the day. To see the PDF description of the 9 sets of Bodymind Healing Qigong Extended Short Form set CLICK HERE.