"There are a thousand ways to kneel and kiss the earth". -Rumi
"The Wine of Divine Grace is limitless
All limits come only from the faults of the cup.
Moonlight floods the whole sky
From horizon to horizon.
How much it can fill your room
Depends on its windows.
Grant a great dignity, my friend,
To the cup of your life
Love has designed it to hold His eternal wine."
- Rumi (C12th Sufi Mystic)
"We know that the shen are the messengers of Heaven….
Heaven is not in myself without some kind of intermediary and the intermediary between Heaven and myself is shen."
-Claude Larre.
The Following Excerpts are from:
"Five Spirits - Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing"
by Lorie Eve Dechar.
Shen: The Spirit of Fire
Inspiration, Insight, Awareness and Compassion
Associations and Correlations:
Element: fire
Organ: heart
Emotion: joy
Psychological function: awareness, inspiration, insight
Psychospiritual issue: knowing true self
Cosmological associations: starlight, lightning
Chakra: seventh -Thousand Petal Lotus: Enlightened Mind
Alchemical virtues: compassion and love
The Shen in their purest form are divine light.
The shen is the “heavenly star” that is the guiding light of our individual destiny. In this way, the shen is both our origin and our destination. It has to do with the shedding of light, the gift of perception and consciousness. The coming and going of the shen mark the beginning and end of a person’s life.
Shen is the seed mantra “I am”, which is the initiatory spark of human self-awareness. It is pure potentiality, the breath or active impulse that initiates, instills and maintains the appearance of a particular human form.
The Way of the Heart, this way of paradox, of emptiness, of wisdom is the Way of the Sage. This Way of the Sage is where the most powerful doing is accomplished by doing nothing at all. This way of doing nothing is known by zen meditators, tai chi masters, artists, shamans and dancers. (It is the way of passion, which can only rise from a deep inner stillness - wuwei).
In Taoist tradition, it is said that when the yang and yin essences of the parents unite at the moment of conception, the star seeds of the shen are scooped up in the ladle of the Big Dipper and poured down into the heart of the developing embryo. In the alchemical vessel of the heart, this pure light mixes with the essences of earth and eventually becomes the stuff of awareness, intelligence and consciousness as well as the basis of our own unique sense of self.
During our life, the shen resides in the empty center of the heart, where it continues to grow as it guides us along our path through life. Although it is invisible, its presence is reflected in the light that shines from the eyes of a healthy human being. Most of all, the presence of healthy shen results in a life that is uniquely suited to the individual and a person whose actions make sense within the context of the surrounding environment.
According to Hindu science, the element of the heart chakra is air. In her book about the chakra system, Anodea Judith describes the heart’s relationship to air. She says that air implies space and a certain kind of emptiness. It represents freedom, as shown by the birds that fly. In the airy space of the heart, there is room to breathe room for the self and the reflection of another. The airy space of the heart is the space of wuwei, the space of emptiness, the space of unknowing and of awe. It is into this empty silence that the shen come like birds alighting on a branch at dawn. Without this spaciousness, the spirits will flee and the light of the divine will no longer illuminate our consciousness and actions. In such a state, a desperate effort to control the environment replaces the effortless non-doing of wuwei wisdom. In this state, the empress cannot fulfil here crucial organizing functions on the physical, psychological and environmental levels.
Signs and Symptoms of Shen Disturbance
Common Symptoms: insomnia, dream-disturbed sleet, anxiety, palpitations, inability to concentrate, timidity, being easily startled, being overly talkative, forms of schizophrenic mania, incoherence, hyperactivity, restlessness.
Spirit Level Signs:
· Lack of coherence to life; the person’s personality does not fit the life he or she is living
· Lack of inspiration and insight; “deadness”; no “heart and soul” to life
· No sense of unique person with a unique path; “ambivalence”
· Much activity but no center so activity turns to anxiety, restlessness and, eventually fatigue
· No ability to discern what is truly “right for me”
· No self-reflection
· Inability to distinguish true from false, real from unreal
Possible Causes:
· Constitutional or “karmic” issues that are part of person’s “work” in this lifetime
· “narcissistic injuries”: parents who couldn’t see the child and consistently inhibited the expression of true nature
Anything that upsets the heart upsets the shen! Emotional trauma, shock and abuse can cause a shen disturbance, as can recreational drugs such as cocaine, nicotine and amphetamines.
“……Flying toward thankfulness,
You become the rare bird with one wing made of fear and one of hope…..”
- Rumi
Healing the Shen
The Shen spirit has a special relationship to the element of fire. In the I Ching, we read that li, fire, relates to the sun. It dwells in the eyes and is the divine substance that protects us against evil forces. Fire is related to intuition, to magical wants and to spiritual transformation. Like fire, the shen respond quickly to subtle stimulus. Like fire, the light of the shen flares up quickly, disappears, and then flickers up again. Sometimes a thought, even unspoken, is enough to set them moving. They respond to insight and to laughter but most of all they respond to being recognized, to being seen, to being illuminated by the light of another being’s eyes.
When there has been a shock to the shen, an upsetting experience or emotional trauma that has frightened the birds of the spirit away from their nest in the heartspace.
· Meditation on a candle in a ruby red glass is a good way to begin the process of calling the scattered spirits back to the realm of matter.
· A gentle foot massage or careful, intentional touch or energy work around the heart chakra may also help.
· Sometimes the most effective method is to call the awareness back into the body by simply noticing what is going on in the legs, the dantian, and the edges of the skin where the body meets the surrounding environment. Relocating the focus of awareness will often be enough to shift physiology, to soften breathing, normalise the heart rate and thus settle the disturbed shen.
· Bach Flower Rescue Remedy is very effective for shock and disturbances of the shen.
· After the shen have settle, rest without talking (talk can disturb the shen so soon after returning), quiet music, peaceful sounds. This shift in awareness can be done anywhere, any time. It is a gift we can offer to ourselves and to others.
The Balance between Fire and Water
The delicate balance of the water and fire elements regulates our sexual energy as well as our capacity to respond to danger and to love. Thus our sexual desire lives very close to our fight or flight response. The sweating, trembling and hypersensitivity of sexual excitement is neurologically connected to the sweating, trembling and hypersensitivity we experience when we feel that our lives are threatened.
Our sexual energies as well as our other instinctual energies of survival emerge from ming-men, Gate of Life, the balance point of yin and yang located between the second and third lumbar vertebrae at the base of the spinal cord. This is the balance point between stillness and action, death and life, passive surrender and active response. The spirit that regulates this delicate balance is the zhi, the spirit of water, the spirit of instinctual power, aligned will, courage and wisdom. Healthy sexuality as well as appropriate reactivity to danger and to love depends on the harmonious communication between the zhi and shen, between our instinctual drives and our insight, awareness and compassion.
Our Collective Crisis of the Heart
According to the psychology of the ancient Chinese, the heart is the mediator between above and below, within and without. Because of its position at the boundary and shuttle point between realms, it is the shock absorber that bears the brunt of our emotional agitations. Although it is scrupulously protected by the pericardium or heart protector, the level of shock that is prevalent in our modern world has increased far too rapidly for the bodymind to evolve adequate psychological protection. The result is that many people actually exist from day to day in a state of numbed-out, unconscious shock and disassociation from the self, in Zen Master Robert Aitken’s words, “rationalizing themselves into insensitivity.”
We live in a world where assaults to the heart come at us from every direction. Violence is all around us, if not in our immediate environment, then constantly tapping at the windows of our lives in the form of images in moves, on TV and in the newspapers.
The endless impersonal strain of modern culture creates an atmosphere that is the antithesis of the atmosphere required for the heart’s tranquility.
The delicate fire of the shen has been nearly extinguished by the garish, artificial lights and harsh noises of our technological world. This state of desensitisation and objectification of our selves and our world is accompanied by tight breathing, contracted chests and closed hearts. In such a state, the illumination of the shen is at best a dim and distant memory. That most of us are cut off from the light of our hearts and the ability to see with clear, true sight hampers attempts to solve our problems on a personal or global level.
We see symptoms that result from the ongoing attacks upon the shen and the shutting down of the energies of the heart in every aspect of daily life. Psychologically, we are plagued by a lack of meaning in our lives. Physically, heart disease is the deadliest of all killers in our country, taking the lives of more than seven hundred thousand people every year (USA). And beyond the realm of personal suffering, our inability to see the world around us with the eyes of our hearts results in the abuse and destruction of our living environment.
The sacred wild birds, the lights of the shen, have fled, not only from the hearts of individual human beings but from the heart of Western culture. In our perpetual shock, we are blind to the true light of the living world. The more we rush about, vainly searching for solutions to our innumerable problems, the further we get from the answers that might well be waiting for us in the tranquil, empty silence of our hearts. But if we take a moment to sit quietly and turn the light of awareness inward to the heart, the shen will return to guide us forward on our path.
Alchemy: The Flower of Compassion
Shen in its pure form is invisible light. It has no quantity or quality and cannot be felt or touched or seen. It is infinite momentum, nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It is absolute yang, completely free from the effects of time, space and gravity.
As soon as the tiny fiery spark of shen settles in the heart at the time of conception, it encounters the limitations of life on earth, the limitations of the yin.
It is only after the shen has been bathed over time in the yin waters of life on earth, after it has endured the losses, disappointments and suffering of its “descent” into the realm of time, space and gravity that the true alchemical transformation of the shen occurs. This is what the Taoists referred to as the “birth of the golden flower” when the heavenly light of spirit, after long immersion in the transformational darkness of the earth, rises up from matter as a flower: the enlightened soul of the sage. This is when the true virtue of the shen comes into being; when after all the challenges, disappointments and pain of a lifetime, the fiery flower of compassion and unconditional love blossoms from the depths of the heart space.
The Taoists recognised this light of compassion in the effortless benevolence of the Taoist sage and in the infinite healing capacities of Quan Yin, the Taoist goddess of healing and compassion.
Only rarely do we encounter this light in its fully substantiated form, but sometimes a drop of it will fall into our lives and everything is changed. As a touch, a tear or a ripple of laughter, the healing presence of love, the light of the shen takes form and we know, without knowing, that the spirits are passing by.
Being with your Heart Light: Checking in with the Shen
“Checking in with your shen” is simple and yet easily forgotten, especially in the midst of emotional upset or the excitement of a new project. However, it is a good idea, any time you are beginning something important, entering a new relationship or just starting out the day, to take a moment to notice how the shen feel about what you are up to.
This is actually not as mysterious as it may seem.
You know your shen are disturbed if you experience anxiety or palpitations when you think of a particular person, project or idea. If your sleep becomes disturbed by upsetting dreams or if you can’t sleep, you shen are probably trying to tell you something.
What to expect as you heal and cultivate the shen
As you become familiar with your shen, learn to recognize their voices and understand their messages, you will notice changes in your life, such as:
~ Lorie Eve Dechar
All limits come only from the faults of the cup.
Moonlight floods the whole sky
From horizon to horizon.
How much it can fill your room
Depends on its windows.
Grant a great dignity, my friend,
To the cup of your life
Love has designed it to hold His eternal wine."
- Rumi (C12th Sufi Mystic)
"We know that the shen are the messengers of Heaven….
Heaven is not in myself without some kind of intermediary and the intermediary between Heaven and myself is shen."
-Claude Larre.
The Following Excerpts are from:
"Five Spirits - Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing"
by Lorie Eve Dechar.
Shen: The Spirit of Fire
Inspiration, Insight, Awareness and Compassion
Associations and Correlations:
Element: fire
Organ: heart
Emotion: joy
Psychological function: awareness, inspiration, insight
Psychospiritual issue: knowing true self
Cosmological associations: starlight, lightning
Chakra: seventh -Thousand Petal Lotus: Enlightened Mind
Alchemical virtues: compassion and love
The Shen in their purest form are divine light.
The shen is the “heavenly star” that is the guiding light of our individual destiny. In this way, the shen is both our origin and our destination. It has to do with the shedding of light, the gift of perception and consciousness. The coming and going of the shen mark the beginning and end of a person’s life.
Shen is the seed mantra “I am”, which is the initiatory spark of human self-awareness. It is pure potentiality, the breath or active impulse that initiates, instills and maintains the appearance of a particular human form.
The Way of the Heart, this way of paradox, of emptiness, of wisdom is the Way of the Sage. This Way of the Sage is where the most powerful doing is accomplished by doing nothing at all. This way of doing nothing is known by zen meditators, tai chi masters, artists, shamans and dancers. (It is the way of passion, which can only rise from a deep inner stillness - wuwei).
In Taoist tradition, it is said that when the yang and yin essences of the parents unite at the moment of conception, the star seeds of the shen are scooped up in the ladle of the Big Dipper and poured down into the heart of the developing embryo. In the alchemical vessel of the heart, this pure light mixes with the essences of earth and eventually becomes the stuff of awareness, intelligence and consciousness as well as the basis of our own unique sense of self.
During our life, the shen resides in the empty center of the heart, where it continues to grow as it guides us along our path through life. Although it is invisible, its presence is reflected in the light that shines from the eyes of a healthy human being. Most of all, the presence of healthy shen results in a life that is uniquely suited to the individual and a person whose actions make sense within the context of the surrounding environment.
According to Hindu science, the element of the heart chakra is air. In her book about the chakra system, Anodea Judith describes the heart’s relationship to air. She says that air implies space and a certain kind of emptiness. It represents freedom, as shown by the birds that fly. In the airy space of the heart, there is room to breathe room for the self and the reflection of another. The airy space of the heart is the space of wuwei, the space of emptiness, the space of unknowing and of awe. It is into this empty silence that the shen come like birds alighting on a branch at dawn. Without this spaciousness, the spirits will flee and the light of the divine will no longer illuminate our consciousness and actions. In such a state, a desperate effort to control the environment replaces the effortless non-doing of wuwei wisdom. In this state, the empress cannot fulfil here crucial organizing functions on the physical, psychological and environmental levels.
Signs and Symptoms of Shen Disturbance
Common Symptoms: insomnia, dream-disturbed sleet, anxiety, palpitations, inability to concentrate, timidity, being easily startled, being overly talkative, forms of schizophrenic mania, incoherence, hyperactivity, restlessness.
Spirit Level Signs:
· Lack of coherence to life; the person’s personality does not fit the life he or she is living
· Lack of inspiration and insight; “deadness”; no “heart and soul” to life
· No sense of unique person with a unique path; “ambivalence”
· Much activity but no center so activity turns to anxiety, restlessness and, eventually fatigue
· No ability to discern what is truly “right for me”
· No self-reflection
· Inability to distinguish true from false, real from unreal
Possible Causes:
· Constitutional or “karmic” issues that are part of person’s “work” in this lifetime
· “narcissistic injuries”: parents who couldn’t see the child and consistently inhibited the expression of true nature
Anything that upsets the heart upsets the shen! Emotional trauma, shock and abuse can cause a shen disturbance, as can recreational drugs such as cocaine, nicotine and amphetamines.
“……Flying toward thankfulness,
You become the rare bird with one wing made of fear and one of hope…..”
- Rumi
Healing the Shen
The Shen spirit has a special relationship to the element of fire. In the I Ching, we read that li, fire, relates to the sun. It dwells in the eyes and is the divine substance that protects us against evil forces. Fire is related to intuition, to magical wants and to spiritual transformation. Like fire, the shen respond quickly to subtle stimulus. Like fire, the light of the shen flares up quickly, disappears, and then flickers up again. Sometimes a thought, even unspoken, is enough to set them moving. They respond to insight and to laughter but most of all they respond to being recognized, to being seen, to being illuminated by the light of another being’s eyes.
When there has been a shock to the shen, an upsetting experience or emotional trauma that has frightened the birds of the spirit away from their nest in the heartspace.
· Meditation on a candle in a ruby red glass is a good way to begin the process of calling the scattered spirits back to the realm of matter.
· A gentle foot massage or careful, intentional touch or energy work around the heart chakra may also help.
· Sometimes the most effective method is to call the awareness back into the body by simply noticing what is going on in the legs, the dantian, and the edges of the skin where the body meets the surrounding environment. Relocating the focus of awareness will often be enough to shift physiology, to soften breathing, normalise the heart rate and thus settle the disturbed shen.
· Bach Flower Rescue Remedy is very effective for shock and disturbances of the shen.
· After the shen have settle, rest without talking (talk can disturb the shen so soon after returning), quiet music, peaceful sounds. This shift in awareness can be done anywhere, any time. It is a gift we can offer to ourselves and to others.
The Balance between Fire and Water
The delicate balance of the water and fire elements regulates our sexual energy as well as our capacity to respond to danger and to love. Thus our sexual desire lives very close to our fight or flight response. The sweating, trembling and hypersensitivity of sexual excitement is neurologically connected to the sweating, trembling and hypersensitivity we experience when we feel that our lives are threatened.
Our sexual energies as well as our other instinctual energies of survival emerge from ming-men, Gate of Life, the balance point of yin and yang located between the second and third lumbar vertebrae at the base of the spinal cord. This is the balance point between stillness and action, death and life, passive surrender and active response. The spirit that regulates this delicate balance is the zhi, the spirit of water, the spirit of instinctual power, aligned will, courage and wisdom. Healthy sexuality as well as appropriate reactivity to danger and to love depends on the harmonious communication between the zhi and shen, between our instinctual drives and our insight, awareness and compassion.
Our Collective Crisis of the Heart
According to the psychology of the ancient Chinese, the heart is the mediator between above and below, within and without. Because of its position at the boundary and shuttle point between realms, it is the shock absorber that bears the brunt of our emotional agitations. Although it is scrupulously protected by the pericardium or heart protector, the level of shock that is prevalent in our modern world has increased far too rapidly for the bodymind to evolve adequate psychological protection. The result is that many people actually exist from day to day in a state of numbed-out, unconscious shock and disassociation from the self, in Zen Master Robert Aitken’s words, “rationalizing themselves into insensitivity.”
We live in a world where assaults to the heart come at us from every direction. Violence is all around us, if not in our immediate environment, then constantly tapping at the windows of our lives in the form of images in moves, on TV and in the newspapers.
The endless impersonal strain of modern culture creates an atmosphere that is the antithesis of the atmosphere required for the heart’s tranquility.
The delicate fire of the shen has been nearly extinguished by the garish, artificial lights and harsh noises of our technological world. This state of desensitisation and objectification of our selves and our world is accompanied by tight breathing, contracted chests and closed hearts. In such a state, the illumination of the shen is at best a dim and distant memory. That most of us are cut off from the light of our hearts and the ability to see with clear, true sight hampers attempts to solve our problems on a personal or global level.
We see symptoms that result from the ongoing attacks upon the shen and the shutting down of the energies of the heart in every aspect of daily life. Psychologically, we are plagued by a lack of meaning in our lives. Physically, heart disease is the deadliest of all killers in our country, taking the lives of more than seven hundred thousand people every year (USA). And beyond the realm of personal suffering, our inability to see the world around us with the eyes of our hearts results in the abuse and destruction of our living environment.
The sacred wild birds, the lights of the shen, have fled, not only from the hearts of individual human beings but from the heart of Western culture. In our perpetual shock, we are blind to the true light of the living world. The more we rush about, vainly searching for solutions to our innumerable problems, the further we get from the answers that might well be waiting for us in the tranquil, empty silence of our hearts. But if we take a moment to sit quietly and turn the light of awareness inward to the heart, the shen will return to guide us forward on our path.
Alchemy: The Flower of Compassion
Shen in its pure form is invisible light. It has no quantity or quality and cannot be felt or touched or seen. It is infinite momentum, nowhere and everywhere at the same time. It is absolute yang, completely free from the effects of time, space and gravity.
As soon as the tiny fiery spark of shen settles in the heart at the time of conception, it encounters the limitations of life on earth, the limitations of the yin.
It is only after the shen has been bathed over time in the yin waters of life on earth, after it has endured the losses, disappointments and suffering of its “descent” into the realm of time, space and gravity that the true alchemical transformation of the shen occurs. This is what the Taoists referred to as the “birth of the golden flower” when the heavenly light of spirit, after long immersion in the transformational darkness of the earth, rises up from matter as a flower: the enlightened soul of the sage. This is when the true virtue of the shen comes into being; when after all the challenges, disappointments and pain of a lifetime, the fiery flower of compassion and unconditional love blossoms from the depths of the heart space.
The Taoists recognised this light of compassion in the effortless benevolence of the Taoist sage and in the infinite healing capacities of Quan Yin, the Taoist goddess of healing and compassion.
Only rarely do we encounter this light in its fully substantiated form, but sometimes a drop of it will fall into our lives and everything is changed. As a touch, a tear or a ripple of laughter, the healing presence of love, the light of the shen takes form and we know, without knowing, that the spirits are passing by.
Being with your Heart Light: Checking in with the Shen
“Checking in with your shen” is simple and yet easily forgotten, especially in the midst of emotional upset or the excitement of a new project. However, it is a good idea, any time you are beginning something important, entering a new relationship or just starting out the day, to take a moment to notice how the shen feel about what you are up to.
This is actually not as mysterious as it may seem.
- Even without learning to meditate or to do inner visualizations, you can make it a practice to note how you feel when you think about a particular person or project. Are you relaxed, infused with steady, gentle warmth? Or are you jumpy and agitated? Is your excitement like the quick flash of a match (that will soon burn itself out), or is it a flame that glows steadily and grows as you move along this path?
You know your shen are disturbed if you experience anxiety or palpitations when you think of a particular person, project or idea. If your sleep becomes disturbed by upsetting dreams or if you can’t sleep, you shen are probably trying to tell you something.
- If you feel muddled and confused when you think about this issue….oops, you know the birds of clear awareness have flown the coop! Take some time out. Don’t move forward until you have clarity. Walk. Breathe. Get calm and wait until the shen have settled down before making any important decisions.
- Pay attention to the voices in your head. After a while, you may recognize one that is like a clear bell, not loud but somehow brighter than the others. This is the voice of the shen, the voice that organizes the others into a pattern that makes sense. This voice may come as a flash of intuitive knowing (“I don’t know how I know to stop at the post office at just that moment!”) or of sudden insight (“I get it! That’s what I need to do to pull this party together”), or as a gradually gathering clarification of an unclear situation.
- Avoid repeatedly returning to situations or relationships that you know disturb your emotions or your mental clarity.
- Avoid repeatedly returning to situations or relationships that you know disturb your emotions or your mental clarity.
- If you have had life experiences or used substances that have damaged or upset the shen, seek the help of a licensed, well-trained acupuncturist (or healer) to help you clear the heart so your spirit birds can return to the nest.
- If you are taking prescription medication that makes you feel muddled, unclear or lacking joy or a zest for life, you know that this medicine is affecting your hearty spirit. Seek assistance of a skilled acupuncturist or Chinese herbalist (or healer). With help, the shen can return to their original luminosity. If your practitioner suggests it, speak with your medical doctor to see if another medication is available or if it might be possible to lower the dosage of one you are on.
- Find a contemplative practice such as meditation, prayer, drawing, journal writing or mindful walking in nature that will clear a space for the shen. In this tranquil quiet, you will be able to hear their voices. Take time to look in your own heart and your true identity will be illuminated by the light of your awareness. This is the practice of cultivating shen.
What to expect as you heal and cultivate the shen
As you become familiar with your shen, learn to recognize their voices and understand their messages, you will notice changes in your life, such as:
- Better sleep and a sense of ease as you live in alignment with your true nature and cultivate your own authenticity
- More integrity and honesty in your relationships as you know and express who you really are and what you really want
- Less time doing things that really don’t matter to you or being with people who really aren’t part of your Tao
- Increased sense of your Tao or path so you are less easily distracted by extraneous events or tempted by dead-end streets and convoluted alleyways
- A light or glow infusing your life with the magic of the heart
- An increase in illumination, intuition and insight in your everyday life, guiding your decisions.
- A greater ease in loving as you can more clearly discern “I” from “thou” and appreciate the differences.
~ Lorie Eve Dechar
YI: The Spirit of Earth
Integrity, Clear Thought and Devotion
"What is well planted cannot be uprooted.
What is well embraced cannot slip away".
- Lao Tze "Tao Teh Ching", Chapter 54
We find Yi at the horizon line, at the boundary point between spirit and matter, above and below. With the Yi, we begin to feel earth beneath our feet. It is no longer enough for us to know, to intuit, to envision and to dream. Now we must put the solid weight of our being, the power of our intention, behind the knowing that is in our heart. When the Yi is fulfilling its function, we fully commit ourselves to manifesting our destiny and to bringing the light of our spirits into the world around us.
The Yi is the soul aspect that lets the world know that we mean to stand by our dreams.
Yi is the middle, the earth, the celestial pivot. Above is heaven, light, formlessness, infinite possibility and the yang spirits of the shen and the hun. Below is matter, darkness, density and finite form, manifestation and the yin spirits of the po and the zhi.
In the microcosm of the human bodymind, the Yi represent the powers of the earth in us. They are the spirits that give us the capacity for sustained intention, purpose, clarity of thought, altruism and integrity. They are related to the emotions of sympathy and organ of the spleen. They support our capacity for thought, intention, reflection and act of applying ourselves to our hearts purpose. They give us the ability to concentrate, study and memorize data for our work, and they endow us with the capacity for clear thought. In other words, they allow us to apply our spirit to the world of forms.
The Yi endow us with the power to stand behind our words through committed, persevering action. Through them, we stay with our task and stay on our path. And through them we gain the capacity to digest experiences and impressions and turn them into usable ideas that empower our action in the world. The yi endow us with the intent, purpose, integrity and devotion necessary to plant and tend the garden of our lives. Once we are familiar with their territory and nature we discover a powerful ally who can help us bring our dreams to fruition.
The Yi keeps us hoeing, watering, feeding and weeding the soil of our dreams so that one day we can present them to the world in substantial form, as a project, a creation, a fully worked through idea. The Yi is the spirit that moves us as we say, “Here, this is the unique gift that I bring forth.”
Yi is the connecting link between the heart and the spleen, between inspiration and intention, bringing the limitless, infinite energies of the heart into time and space.
The Yi spirits are the gardeners of the soul who plant the light seeds of the shen in the soil or matrix of the earth. Singing and mumming as they work, the yi nourish the spirit seeds with their own vibrations. They work steadily, with untiring dedication, until the light seeds sprout into manifestation. The excessive sympathy and caretaking that can become such a problem for people with an “earthy” constitution is an imbalanced expression of this sympathetic resonance between the yi and the shen. In a healthy state it vibrates between the light fields of heaven and the material fields of earth in a continuum of light to music to form. The “sound” that manifests from this is your word, your declaration:
This is where I stand.
This is what I stand for.
This is what I will stand behind.
Associations and Correlations
Element: earth
Organ: spleen
Emotion: sympathy (worry)
Psychological functions: setting intention, implantation and gestation of ideas
Psychospiritual issue: cultivating true purpose
Cosmological associations: soil, fields, gardens
Chakra: third, Navel
Virtue: devotion
Organ Correspondence
In Chinese medicine, the earth element yi is related to the stomach and spleen, these organs that digest our food and distribute the nutrients through our bodies. They create the nutrients we need to do what we do in the world. On a psychological level, this process enables us to digest our experiences and impressions and to turn them into usable ideas and concepts. In a healthy state, we readily absorb the impressions that we need for psychological growth and development, and let go of those that are not useful so we do not take on concepts that do not “belong” to us. We have a clear sense of what and how much we need to grow.
The earth’s nature is to keep still, to receive, absorb and contain the Qi, and to nourish life from its resources.
The Yi is also at the pivot point between the two aspects of the soul – the yang hun (wood/liver) and yin po (metal/lungs). Between the shen (fire/heart) and the yi (earth/spleen), the hun drifts up and down between heaven and earth. And between the yi and the zhi (water/kidneys), the po soul rises and falls like the breath between the earth and the underworld.
According to the Taoist viewpoint, our true destiny is the materialization of our original nature, our celestial sound, in time and space, which reflects the intrinsic beauty and order of the Tao. It is a mantra, a word, a sound seed in us that is waiting to be unfolded, The Yi, as earth, is the intention and purpose in us that creates the possibility for this seed to sprout.
Worry
Worry persistent, anxious thinking about unpleasant things that have happened or may happen in the future is a mental state that has a direct and very negative effect on the Yi.
This mental attitude may arise from a constitutional weakness of the spleen or it may be a patterned, habitual response to excess stress and insufficient life supports. Whatever its cause, worry is part of a self-perpetuating, vicious cycle. The more qi we expend in this useless mental activity, the less we have available to nourish our yi and to take steps to create the life we really want to live. As the yi is weakened, we have less and less capacity to move forward on our life path and manifest our Tao, the heavenly mandate of our destiny.
A central principle in Chinese medical psychology is that for every thought we have in our minds, there should be a corresponding action in our bodies. This unimpeded movement from the mind into the body, from shen to hun to yi and down into the nerves, muscles, tendons and instinctual impulses of our body allows our Tao to flow effortlessly through us and out into the world through our words and our actions.
Worry interferes with this natural flow. It ties the psychic qi into knots and causes it to stagnate. Eventually the knotted psychic qi transforms into denser qi and manifests as physical symptoms such as chronic muscle spasms, digestive and appetite disturbances, epi-gastric discomfort, abdominal pain and distension, and fatigue. Over time it can affect the heart and lungs, disturbing the shen and the po and eventually causing such stress-related symptoms as insomnia, palpitations, breathing difficulties and chest tightness. When we worry, rather than allowing the initiating energies of the shen and the visions and plans of the hun to animate the yi, we block these energies, perseverating and worrying rather than taking action. The qi backs up and the yi becomes paralysed or stuck in repetitive, obsessive thought patterns.
Brooding, mulling over past events or people in our lives, nostalgic longing and obsessive analysing have similarly destructive effects on the yi. In fact, any way of being that keeps a person stuck in excessive thinking, rather than in spontaneous living, will affect the yi. As the yi grow weak, they have less ability to move thoughts into actions.
It is crucial to interrupt this cycle. Various strategies are effective, and usually it is necessary to employ more than one at a time. In addition to the suggestions given at the end of this chapter, meditation, we discover a way to quiet the mind’s random chatter and to channel psychic energies more effectively. Whether we engage in moving meditation practices such as tai chi, qigong, or yoga, or our movement takes the form of jogging, walking, aerobic dance, or simply getting up and getting something done, motion magically quiets the mind as psychic qi is drafted by the moving body and pulled back into the vital cycles of life.
Cultivating the Yi
Symptoms of disharmonised yi revolve around the disturbed digestion and assimilation of psychospiritual experience and impressions. These disharmonies result in our inability to transform life experience into ideas and intentions that are the vital expressions of our souls. Problems with the yi are actually problems of psychospiritual digestion, creating a blockage or disturbance at the point where our soul and spirit forces are attempting to enter into manifestation in our material lives. The primary symptom of a yi disturbance is a thought pattern that goes around and around.
Worrying, obsessing and focusing continually on one’s own problems are examples of this unproductive mental state. There is thought but no movement or action. Move.
According to Chinese medicine, yi disturbance, like all psychological problems, can have internal or external causes that exacerbate a constitutional vulnerability. A person who has an earthy constitution will be more prone to these problems than others. People with a weak center and unclear sense of self will not be able to set a clear intention. Those who choose or are forced to be overly involved in other people’s stories will not be able to hear the sound of their own heart’s voice. Exhaustion, eating disorders and long-term strain will affect the yi, as will any weakness in the shen or in the hun. So if the heart or liver is under strain, the yi will have difficulty standing by the spirit’s vision.
Healing involves strengthening a person’s center. It means being able to listen inside to one’s own voice. And it also means having the power to move from the realm of abstract ideas into concrete action. Thus we nourish the seeds of our dreams.
Because our relationship to food has a significant effect on our yi spirit, any abuse of food can muddle the heartmind and interfere with our ability to set a clear intention. Food abuse includes over-focusing on what we eat, dieting and fasting, which can be ways to distract ourselves, to go in unproductive circles around our stomachs instead of moving out with our ideas and actions in the world. So the very first step in cultivating the yi is to honour our relationship to nourishment, which is the way we are fuelled to manifest spirit in our lives. If food and eating habits are a problem in your life, you already know that the yi are disturbed. If these devoted spirits do not have the strength to help you “stand by” what your heart knows you need and want to eat, how will they have the power to help you stand by your word in other areas?
The first step in cultivating the yi is to make food sacred! Make it a practice to say a brief prayer of gratitude before eating or just take a moment to center yourself and appreciate the beauty of the food that is bringing the forces of life into your body. Once you have a delightful, gracious and joyful relationship to the foods that you nourish yourself with, you are will on the way to cultivating the yi.
The following are additional ways to support and nourish these spirits:
o Avoid clutter. When you work, clear a space so that there is room to think. Don’t work in a cluttered, messy atmosphere.
o If you are expending a lot of energy taking care of others, make time to take care of yourself! Take time to rest, to walk, to just be quiet.
o Take your own words seriously! If you say you are going to do something, hold yourself accountable. Remember that with yi, we come down to earth. We mean business. Dreaming and random conversation are not yi. Yi means saying it and staying with it, so be mindful not to over-commit so that you fail to carry through. Each time we do not keep our word we create a chink in our own integrity and weaken the yi. If this is a problem for you as it is for so many people in our busy, overextended society try the following practices:
** Say “NO!” as a full sentence. The next time someone asks you to do something you can’t or don’t want to do, say No without any explanation. Notice how hard that is to just stop right there!
** Take small bites. Give yourself a very small task to accomplish within a set amount of time. Write your commitment down. Sign the paper hang it up where you can see it. Hold yourself accountable. For example, “I will clean out the glove compartment of the car by 5pm this afternoon.” Once the job is done, appreciate yourself for the accomplishment. Small practices are push ups for the yi spirit. As you go along, you can take on bigger projects with more complex schedules and feel the satisfaction of knowing you can carry through.
Signs and Symptoms of Yi Disturbance
Psycho-emotional Signs
. Obsessive thoughts and repetitive thought patterns
. Worry, obsessions and a continual focus and brooding on one’s own problems
. Excess though and cogitation and insufficient movement or action
. Eating disorders such as anorexia, bulimia and binges
. Muddled thinking; an inability to make logical connections between ideas or to order thought in logical patterns
. Over-nurturing of others to avoid one’s own responsibilities and growth
Spirit Level Signs
. Stagnation in the zone of manifestation, inability to transform ideas and thoughts into commitments and actions
. Continually generating new ideas but not taking action on any of them
Problems with the yi are actually problems of “psychospiritual digestion,” a disturbance in our soul force’s ability to digest experiences and impressions and transform them into values, ideas and actions. A block has formed where spirit is attempting to enter into manifestation in our material lives.
Possible Causes
§ Constitutional issues that begin in utero or stem from genetic makeup and karmic issues that become central psychological problems needing work over a lifetime
§ Excess worry, excessively thinking about the needs of others at expense of one’s own
§ Improper eating habits
§ Anaemia and vitamin deficiencies
§ Excess sugar. Sugar does give an energy rush but weakens endurance over time so the vibration of the self does not get firmly planted into matter
§ Co-dependence. Early childhood exposure to alcoholism and family dysfunction can result in a coping strategy of attention focused on others. People who are forced to be overly involved in other people’s stories will not be able to hear the sound of their own heart’s voice
§ Exhaustion and long-term strain. The yi is also impaired by any weakness in the shen or in the hun, so if the heart or liver is under strain, the yi will have difficulty standing by the spirit’s vision.
One Bowl eating meditation for the YI
An ancient Zen practice is called the one bowl eating meditation. In this practice, you find a single bowl that becomes your eating vessel. For each meal, fill this bowl with any foods you want to eat and eat them mindfully. Then you stop until it is time for the next meal. This practice is harder than you might expect, and even if followed just one day a month it will change your attitude toward food and the way you eat.
What to Expect as you Heal
As you develop a relationship with your yi and work to heal and strengthen them, you will notice changes in your life. You may, for example.
҉ . Take on less, but stay with the projects you start
҉ . Be able to say what you think and express yourself more clearly
҉ . Take the time to listen to your own inner voice and take its messages seriously
҉ . Feel more centered in your own self and be less thrown off balance by other people’s problems, needs, demands or opinions
҉ . Begin to feel a sense of solidity. When you meet an obstacle, you stay clear on your intention and work to find a way to solve the problem and move ahead with your project
҉ . Hold your ground
҉ . Begin to feel as if your actions in the world result in a bountiful harvest. The world becomes a fertile ground for your ideas and actions.
- Lorie Eve Dechar
PO - The Spirit of Metal
Agents of Transformation
Associations and Correlations
The “po” are related to: death, endings of cycles, the coming and going of life, the rhythms of the breath and the excretory functions.
Element: metal
Organ: lungs (and large Intestine)
Emotion: Grief
Psychological Functions: animal wit, embodied knowing, sensation
Psychospiritual Issue: discovering the preciousness of the moment
Cosmological Associations: Stones, gems, minerals, caves, labyrinths
Chakra: first/second, matter
Virtue: appreciation of preciousness
Polarisation: yin
Colour: white
Season: autumn
When we arrive at the realm of the “po”, we enter unchartered territory, a shadowy place away from sunlight that cannot be navigated by conscious mind but only by the lunar light of embodied knowing and animal wit. For this phase of the healing process, it is necessary to enter the unexplored parts of the psyche, the depths of body where the memories of forgotten traumas and wounds are stored in our neurological responses, our muscular holding patterns and the configuration of our cells.
This is the part of the healing process when old ways of being die so that new ways can come to life. Just as the lungs function to take in the air we need to live and the intestines to let go of what is not useful to our life, the po guide us in letting go of ways of being that are no longer efficient and opening to new, more efficient possibilities. In mythologies all over the over, this phase of the healing journey is known as a descent to the underworld. In alchemical terms, it is the time when we enter the alchemical cauldron of matter and the body, the phase of the healing process when real transformation begins.
Signs and Symptoms of Po Disturbance
Common symptoms are:
Obsessions, depression, anxiety
Chronic tension and pain
Eating disorders undiagnosible lumps and benign tumours
Impaired balance, movement, co-ordination
Stress-related skin problems
Asthma
Bowel disturbances
Restlessness during the day
Clouded mind
Spirit Level Signs:
o A vague feeling that “something isn’t right” but no clear sense of why
o Physical pain that takes over entire life yet seems to have no identifiable cause
o Extreme sensitivity to outer influences on a psychic level; for example, other people’s negativity “gets in” without awareness and creates somatic disturbances such as digestive upsets, headache, etc.
o Unexpressed somatised emotional issue and “stuck destiny”; the person doesn’t ever seem to move on in life.
Identifying Po Spirit-Related Pain
“Crystallized Emotions” - Chronic pain and gnawing discomfort in the body waiting to be discovered
The four signs are:
1. There is chronic pain that does not respond to standard treatment.
2. Structural imbalances, recent trauma and serious medical problems have been ruled out.
3. There is chronic emotional stress or a deep unresolved psychological issue in patient’s history.
4. Part of the patient seems to be dormant. This may manifest as a depressed affect, a lack of connectedness, a mist over the eyes, cloudiness in the person’s aura and/or a feeling that the mind is not at ease.
Possible Causes:
o Maternal vitamin and nutrient deficiencies during gestation
o Insufficient touch and tactile stimulation during infancy
o Restrictive child-raising practices that did not allow freedom of bodily movement and expression
o Ancestral and familial issues that have been “swept under the rug”
o Early childhood abuse forgotten by the conscious mind but “remembered” by the soma, resulting in disturbances of the po in later years.
o Refusal to face one’s “shadow”; trying to be “all goodness and light” while denying deeper layers of emotions.
o Resistance to life changes crucial to one’s karmic development and destiny.
o A break between the upper and lower spirits, a split between what is consciously thought should be done and the wisdom of the body.
Following:
“Emotional Resilience:
- Simple Truths for Dealing with the Unfinished Business of the Past”
- David Viscott, M.D
Questions for Your Self
What hurts and why
Why what you lost was important to you
What gave the loss such power over you
What the loss reminds you of.
How you try to avoid facing the present loss
How you avoided losses in the past
And what the loss teaches you about yourself
Agents of Transformation
Associations and Correlations
The “po” are related to: death, endings of cycles, the coming and going of life, the rhythms of the breath and the excretory functions.
Element: metal
Organ: lungs (and large Intestine)
Emotion: Grief
Psychological Functions: animal wit, embodied knowing, sensation
Psychospiritual Issue: discovering the preciousness of the moment
Cosmological Associations: Stones, gems, minerals, caves, labyrinths
Chakra: first/second, matter
Virtue: appreciation of preciousness
Polarisation: yin
Colour: white
Season: autumn
When we arrive at the realm of the “po”, we enter unchartered territory, a shadowy place away from sunlight that cannot be navigated by conscious mind but only by the lunar light of embodied knowing and animal wit. For this phase of the healing process, it is necessary to enter the unexplored parts of the psyche, the depths of body where the memories of forgotten traumas and wounds are stored in our neurological responses, our muscular holding patterns and the configuration of our cells.
This is the part of the healing process when old ways of being die so that new ways can come to life. Just as the lungs function to take in the air we need to live and the intestines to let go of what is not useful to our life, the po guide us in letting go of ways of being that are no longer efficient and opening to new, more efficient possibilities. In mythologies all over the over, this phase of the healing journey is known as a descent to the underworld. In alchemical terms, it is the time when we enter the alchemical cauldron of matter and the body, the phase of the healing process when real transformation begins.
Signs and Symptoms of Po Disturbance
Common symptoms are:
Obsessions, depression, anxiety
Chronic tension and pain
Eating disorders undiagnosible lumps and benign tumours
Impaired balance, movement, co-ordination
Stress-related skin problems
Asthma
Bowel disturbances
Restlessness during the day
Clouded mind
Spirit Level Signs:
o A vague feeling that “something isn’t right” but no clear sense of why
o Physical pain that takes over entire life yet seems to have no identifiable cause
o Extreme sensitivity to outer influences on a psychic level; for example, other people’s negativity “gets in” without awareness and creates somatic disturbances such as digestive upsets, headache, etc.
o Unexpressed somatised emotional issue and “stuck destiny”; the person doesn’t ever seem to move on in life.
Identifying Po Spirit-Related Pain
“Crystallized Emotions” - Chronic pain and gnawing discomfort in the body waiting to be discovered
The four signs are:
1. There is chronic pain that does not respond to standard treatment.
2. Structural imbalances, recent trauma and serious medical problems have been ruled out.
3. There is chronic emotional stress or a deep unresolved psychological issue in patient’s history.
4. Part of the patient seems to be dormant. This may manifest as a depressed affect, a lack of connectedness, a mist over the eyes, cloudiness in the person’s aura and/or a feeling that the mind is not at ease.
Possible Causes:
o Maternal vitamin and nutrient deficiencies during gestation
o Insufficient touch and tactile stimulation during infancy
o Restrictive child-raising practices that did not allow freedom of bodily movement and expression
o Ancestral and familial issues that have been “swept under the rug”
o Early childhood abuse forgotten by the conscious mind but “remembered” by the soma, resulting in disturbances of the po in later years.
o Refusal to face one’s “shadow”; trying to be “all goodness and light” while denying deeper layers of emotions.
o Resistance to life changes crucial to one’s karmic development and destiny.
o A break between the upper and lower spirits, a split between what is consciously thought should be done and the wisdom of the body.
Following:
“Emotional Resilience:
- Simple Truths for Dealing with the Unfinished Business of the Past”
- David Viscott, M.D
Questions for Your Self
What hurts and why
Why what you lost was important to you
What gave the loss such power over you
What the loss reminds you of.
How you try to avoid facing the present loss
How you avoided losses in the past
And what the loss teaches you about yourself
ZHI: The Spirit of Water
Instinctual Power, Aligned Will, Courage and Wisdom
Water is the turning point, the end that is also the beginning. When the water wheel turns, the cycle begins and without water, there is no turning. Zhi is the spirit of Water.
In the macrocosm, the power of the zhi can be likened to the power of a hot spring, a geyser or the steaming vents of sulphurous fire that shoots up from the trenches of the deep ocean floor. This energy cannot be argued with. It emerges and bursts upward in a fantastic display of negentropic potency.
In the human microcosm, it is related to the power of the life force, the instincts the will and the driving urgency of ambition. Zhi is the will to live, the unknowable mystery of quickening life. Zhi rises from the wellspring of our being and imbues us with the desire to grow, thrive and live fully. We encounter this mystery each time a child is conceived, a seed sprouts or a new creative impulse is engendered.
Zhi is not the ego-driven control of Western “willpower” or the initiatory energy of abstract ideas and visions. Rather it is yin fire, the pilot light that ignites the flame of organic processes. The light of the zhi spirit can be seen in the shimmering moisture of mineral-laden caves, roots and creatures that crawl beneath the earth. It can be seen in the luminous algae and phosphorescent plankton that shine from the darkness of the ocean. It is the iridescent blue-green chlorophyll, the gleaming haemoglobin, the rich red marrow of the bones, the green essences of life that slither like snakes through the spring grass.
The realm of the zhi spirits is the realm of what Vedic philosophers called karma, the realm of the unconscious forces and collective energy threads that determine the course of our lives. Here the light of consciousness is buried in darkness and the spirits bathe in the underworld waters of the unconscious. Here, the lights of the spirits wait, like the nutrients and minerals waiting in the soil, until the goddess releases them back into the life cycle to nourish new psychic structures.
Zhi is the moment when yin reaches its extremity and spontaneously transforms into yang. It is the turning point at the bottom of the taiji symbol when the tail of the black swirls into the white.
Return to Wholeness: The Night Sea Journey of Healing
Water has a dual nature, containing within itself the polarities of yin and yang. It is a shape shifter existing as a vapour, a liquid and a solid that endlessly gives birth to its own opposite. In Chinese medicine, the dual nature of water is represented by the kidneys that flank GV4 ming men, Gate of Life. The left kidney contains the energy of kidney yin and right contains the energy of kidney yang.
In the healing process, the transformation that is a prerequisite for the return to wholeness and health takes place in the underground realm of the zhi. Here in the realm of zhi, the parts of us that need to die can die, and something truly new can come to life.
The mystery that takes place “in the water” has two parts.
The first part takes place while the person is still going down into the disintegration of a disease process or psychological crisis.
The second part takes place after the turning point has been passed and the person is beginning to reintegrate, to come to a new wholeness and to heal.
Between the two parts of the water journey is a third mystery, which in the birth process is called “transition.” In Taoist alchemy, the turning point or time of transition is a moment of divine mystery they called the huntun, the realm of chaos.
Stage One: The Emergence -Holding Steady in the Darkness
…….when one stays in darkness long enough, one begins to see. C.G.JUNG ~ Alchemical Studies
This is the phase when we wait and actively do nothing. Phase One takes place when, after long struggle and resistance, we finally let go; we find the point of active stillness in our confusion and despair. This is the time when we begin to use our will to not do, even as every part of us is screaming to take action, to fix the problem to make everything okay. In the first phase we surrender, at long last, the light of consciousness, the light of the ego or small self. We sacrifice our rational knowing and plunge headlong into the unknown. At this point we do not know if we will live or die, but realize the choice is not ours to make. Whether or not we survive to tell the tales of our journey is in the hands of some greater power. All we can do at this stage is to follow the left-hand path, the path of the yin. We trust, we wait and we surrender to the unknown.
In this moment, a new way of being is struggling to come to life, and it is necessary to actively and with great intentionality do nothing to life. However, when we encounter an obstacle that may manifest as a body symptom or chronic pain, we are distracted from the need to drastically revision our life. It may be an anxiety, phobia or muscular armouring that locks in psychic energy and blocks emotional discharge. Or it may be a holding pattern such as chronic rage, drug or alcohol addiction or habitual self-sabotage that needs to be addressed through changes at the level of the physical body. But whatever the real problem is, at this point in the healing process the solution is unclear. We must call upon the yin wisdom of the water, the wisdom of receptivity and patient stillness. Like water, we must do nothing. Like water, we must wait until the next step rises spontaneously up from a deeper part of our nature.
At this time, there is often a sense of great desperation. In clinical practice, this is the time when patients are besieged by choices, none of which seem exactly right. There is a tremendous desire to break out of one’s situation. People may attempt to make radical impulsive changes in their lives, break off relationships, undergo surgery, change healing modalities or give up trying to get better. But this is the time when, according to ancient wisdom, we must follow the left-hand path of the yin and wait in unknowing.
Stage Two: Stabilizing Zhi - Becoming the Mountain
If we survive the first initiation of the water, we pass through the dark gate of chaos and enter phase two, the yang within yin. This second phase is the return. In Taoist tradition it is said that the stabilizing of will is the first step of inner alchemy. This is how a human becomes like a mountain. This is how mercury and sulphur combine to form the fixed, non-reactive stability of cinnabar. This is how the divine child, the wholeness of the self, is reborn.
In order to give birth to this divine child, the goal of all alchemical psychology, we must stabilize the instinctual life force, the zhi, as it emerges spontaneously from the lower depths. We do this by sacrificing the conscious knowing of the shen and the conscious doing of the ego. In the words of Lao Tzu, “the sage goes about doing nothing…..waiting quietly until the mud settles.” As we consciously extinguish the light of our shen, we become aware of another light shining from the darkness. This is the light from below, the light of the essences, of embodiment and matter.
The appearance of this lower light marks the rebirth of spirit, when the light of the original nature appears again after its burial in the darkness. Through the emergence of this lower light, the tables are turned and yang shines from below rather than from above. Now zhi is no longer the agent of our individual will driving us to make our way through the world. Through an alchemical marriage, fire joins water, zhi joins with shen. A new illumination enlightens us and leads the way back to our right path. We return to our self but in a new way. In phase two, we align our individual will with Tao and attain wisdom.
The light of the spirit becomes the root or foundation. Here consciousness does not direct us from above or force the instincts or ways of nature. Rather, it lowers itself down to support our original nature as we walk through the world. The power and potency of our instincts is stabilized and guided by the knowing of our hearts. In this way, wisdom is attained.
By aligning zhi with shen and shen with zhi, we become our own ridge pole. We become the mountain. We become one with the way of Tao. When we infuse our experience of illness or emotional crisis with the light of conscious awareness, then we have gained wisdom through our journey and we are twice-born, like a sage.
Encountering the Dark Mother: Facing Fear
The last and possibly most important aspect of our work with the zhi entails facing fear. In the labyrinths below the mountain, we release the parts of us that need to die and wait to see what, if anything, comes to life. In this part of the journey, there are no definite answers, no certain outcomes. We must be willing to let our own will go and trust that a larger wisdom will emerge to support and guide us.
Ideally, this part of the journey should not be attempted until we have healed and strengthened all of the spirits, particularly the zhi. However, sometimes life brings us to this phase before we are completely ready. When it does, it is particularly important to find a helper or guide to support you, to hold steady as you move through the fear and chaos of transformation.
The Sumerian myth of Innana, the goddess of above and below, is a wonderful story to meditate on during a time of life crisis and transformation. It also helps to find a symbol or image of power that calms and centres you.
Huntun - Chaos
Floods, tidal waves, tornadoes, earthquakes and thunderstorms are metaphors used to capture the numinous power of transformational processes. These forces destroy pre-existing structures and states of order and have no regard for cultural values or individual human preferences. This cosmic force is primeval, transpersonal and morally ambiguous. Taoists referred to it as the huntun, the whirling wind of chaos, a wind that sweeps through our lives as the Queen Mother of the West, the dark goddess, passes by.
The huntun marks the beginning and end of organic and psychic processes. It is present at conception and birth, when the hun and po souls join to initiate the flickering of life in the infant. And it is present at death, when the po decays back into matter with the zhi and hun prepares for its flight back to the stars with the shen. Chaos is also present at transitions and transformations that occur in the course of life – at weaning, puberty, menopause and other significant moments of change, such as marriage, divorce, illness and recovery.
While Western philosophy turned away from the disorder and dissolution of the dark goddess in its quest for a rational understanding of the cosmos, alchemy treasured chaotic states as the fertile ground from which new possibilities could arise. Although there is no way to control or contain this powerful, high-grade energy, a proper attitude toward our chaos is a prerequisite for neidan, the inner work of alchemical transformation.
Modern scientists and mathematicians use the word “chaotic” to describe apparently irregular, unpredictable systems such as cloud turbulence or the erratic shifts of decline and growth in biological populations. It is a rational method of understanding apparently irrational, erratic fluctuations in nature, of discovering reliability in something that appears to be ruled by chance.
There is a crucial difference between the modern scientific view of chaos and the creative mystery of the Taoist huntun. When the Taoist alchemist spoke of chaos, they spoke of a divine mystery that exists beyond any kind of inner rhythm, regularity or rule. The huntun precedes any possibility of order or predictability because it is the mother from which order is born. The huntun is the unknowable One, “a Unity that admits and permits the diversity for which it is the crucible, the womb of all possibility.” Webster’s defines this kind of chaos as the “confused, unorganised state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms; the state of things in which chance is supreme.” It is the primordial sea, the mythical realm of the dark goddess the primal mother and the origin of life, death and transformation. Order, structure and predictability have nothing to do with this huntun realm, and the rational mind is swallowed up in it like a speck of salt dropped into the ocean.
From a Taoist perspective, attempting to control the energy of the huntun or to use its energies to implement individual human values and goals is not only incomprehensible but dangerous, as it leads inevitably to grandiosity and madness.
Honouring chaos, holding it with awe and maintaining one’s faith while surrendering to its power – these are the attitudes that allow the Taoist sage to ride the waves of the huntun, to die and be reborn from the dark whirlwind of Tao. These same attitudes allow the alchemical healer to use the potent energies of chaos to move through the wildly destabilising energies of the healing processes, to bring vitality to deadened places and to transform outmoded, inefficient mindsets, habitual behaviours and values into new, more efficient and more potent ways of being.
Original Nature - Yuan Qi
Original nature is the ground of being. It exists in me before I know myself as I. It existed before the world was broken into the opposites of subject and object, good and bad, dark and light. Parallel to the Chinese character, our word “origin” derives from the Latin root “origo,” which also means to “rise up from a source, to become visible.” Both the Chinese and English words contain the same implicit reference to an abrupt emergence of being from the dark mystery of nonbeing.
Original nature is the unfolding of Tao into form: the original nature of the acorn is the oak; the original nature of the spark is the fire; the original nature of the black seed is the golden sunflower. This drive to manifest the truest and fullest expression of Tao can be found in every living thing. It is the most potent manifestation of qi, the life force.
When human beings deny or suppress the spontaneous unfolding of their true nature or when conditions do not allow the original nature to be expressed, the force of life turns back on itself and sickens. We see the perversion of original nature in the stunted form of an acorn kept in a small flower pot, the impoverished quality of trout grown in a trout farm, or the snarling nastiness or chronic timidity of a poorly treated young animal. In human beings, we see the pathological expression of original nature in the form of uncontrollable obsessions, addictions, eating disorders, anxiety, neurosis and psychosomatic symptoms as well as cancer and environmental pollution. It is, in fact, the primary cause of disease in modern culture.
Human beings deny their own nature for many reasons. The pressures of family or culture or even the fear of our own greatness may initiate the abandonment of our own authenticity. But as the ancient Chinese texts clearly tell us, when the spontaneous expression of original nature is resisted or blocked, the alignment between the small tao in me and the great Tao of the cosmos is lost.
In the words of Taoist alchemist Liu I-ming, “If people can be flexible and yielding, humble, with self-control, entirely free of agitation….not angered by criticism, ignoring insult, docilely accepting all hardships, illnesses, and natural disasters, utterly without anxiety or resentment when faced with danger or adversity, then people can be companions of earth” – that is, truly at one with the receptive.
The gift of the underworld is not a life free of suffering and challenge but a profound shift in attitude and values. The outcome of this kind of transformation is an inner freedom and joy that is not dependent on the outer vicissitudes of life but rather rises from our own original nature as water gushes up from a spring. Through this return to origin, to the chaos of the underworld, we rediscover our own true nature.
MAKING FRIENDS WITH FEAR
The first thing to do when encountering our fear is to stop resisting it.
When presented with a frightening situation, the body’s natural response is to activate the adrenal glands’ fight or flight response. But now, in the alchemical healing process, rather than taking action on these instinctual responses, we pause and follow the wisdom of wuwei…..
………We breathe and we wait and do nothing.
Get familiar with your fear.
Sit next to it.
Ingest it in small doses.
For example, if you discover that you are afraid to speak your truth, find opportunities to speak in public.
Tell the truth about yourself.
Gradually, you will become familiar with the water.
You will begin to learn how to swim.
Instinctual Power, Aligned Will, Courage and Wisdom
Water is the turning point, the end that is also the beginning. When the water wheel turns, the cycle begins and without water, there is no turning. Zhi is the spirit of Water.
In the macrocosm, the power of the zhi can be likened to the power of a hot spring, a geyser or the steaming vents of sulphurous fire that shoots up from the trenches of the deep ocean floor. This energy cannot be argued with. It emerges and bursts upward in a fantastic display of negentropic potency.
In the human microcosm, it is related to the power of the life force, the instincts the will and the driving urgency of ambition. Zhi is the will to live, the unknowable mystery of quickening life. Zhi rises from the wellspring of our being and imbues us with the desire to grow, thrive and live fully. We encounter this mystery each time a child is conceived, a seed sprouts or a new creative impulse is engendered.
Zhi is not the ego-driven control of Western “willpower” or the initiatory energy of abstract ideas and visions. Rather it is yin fire, the pilot light that ignites the flame of organic processes. The light of the zhi spirit can be seen in the shimmering moisture of mineral-laden caves, roots and creatures that crawl beneath the earth. It can be seen in the luminous algae and phosphorescent plankton that shine from the darkness of the ocean. It is the iridescent blue-green chlorophyll, the gleaming haemoglobin, the rich red marrow of the bones, the green essences of life that slither like snakes through the spring grass.
The realm of the zhi spirits is the realm of what Vedic philosophers called karma, the realm of the unconscious forces and collective energy threads that determine the course of our lives. Here the light of consciousness is buried in darkness and the spirits bathe in the underworld waters of the unconscious. Here, the lights of the spirits wait, like the nutrients and minerals waiting in the soil, until the goddess releases them back into the life cycle to nourish new psychic structures.
Zhi is the moment when yin reaches its extremity and spontaneously transforms into yang. It is the turning point at the bottom of the taiji symbol when the tail of the black swirls into the white.
Return to Wholeness: The Night Sea Journey of Healing
Water has a dual nature, containing within itself the polarities of yin and yang. It is a shape shifter existing as a vapour, a liquid and a solid that endlessly gives birth to its own opposite. In Chinese medicine, the dual nature of water is represented by the kidneys that flank GV4 ming men, Gate of Life. The left kidney contains the energy of kidney yin and right contains the energy of kidney yang.
In the healing process, the transformation that is a prerequisite for the return to wholeness and health takes place in the underground realm of the zhi. Here in the realm of zhi, the parts of us that need to die can die, and something truly new can come to life.
The mystery that takes place “in the water” has two parts.
The first part takes place while the person is still going down into the disintegration of a disease process or psychological crisis.
The second part takes place after the turning point has been passed and the person is beginning to reintegrate, to come to a new wholeness and to heal.
Between the two parts of the water journey is a third mystery, which in the birth process is called “transition.” In Taoist alchemy, the turning point or time of transition is a moment of divine mystery they called the huntun, the realm of chaos.
Stage One: The Emergence -Holding Steady in the Darkness
…….when one stays in darkness long enough, one begins to see. C.G.JUNG ~ Alchemical Studies
This is the phase when we wait and actively do nothing. Phase One takes place when, after long struggle and resistance, we finally let go; we find the point of active stillness in our confusion and despair. This is the time when we begin to use our will to not do, even as every part of us is screaming to take action, to fix the problem to make everything okay. In the first phase we surrender, at long last, the light of consciousness, the light of the ego or small self. We sacrifice our rational knowing and plunge headlong into the unknown. At this point we do not know if we will live or die, but realize the choice is not ours to make. Whether or not we survive to tell the tales of our journey is in the hands of some greater power. All we can do at this stage is to follow the left-hand path, the path of the yin. We trust, we wait and we surrender to the unknown.
In this moment, a new way of being is struggling to come to life, and it is necessary to actively and with great intentionality do nothing to life. However, when we encounter an obstacle that may manifest as a body symptom or chronic pain, we are distracted from the need to drastically revision our life. It may be an anxiety, phobia or muscular armouring that locks in psychic energy and blocks emotional discharge. Or it may be a holding pattern such as chronic rage, drug or alcohol addiction or habitual self-sabotage that needs to be addressed through changes at the level of the physical body. But whatever the real problem is, at this point in the healing process the solution is unclear. We must call upon the yin wisdom of the water, the wisdom of receptivity and patient stillness. Like water, we must do nothing. Like water, we must wait until the next step rises spontaneously up from a deeper part of our nature.
At this time, there is often a sense of great desperation. In clinical practice, this is the time when patients are besieged by choices, none of which seem exactly right. There is a tremendous desire to break out of one’s situation. People may attempt to make radical impulsive changes in their lives, break off relationships, undergo surgery, change healing modalities or give up trying to get better. But this is the time when, according to ancient wisdom, we must follow the left-hand path of the yin and wait in unknowing.
Stage Two: Stabilizing Zhi - Becoming the Mountain
If we survive the first initiation of the water, we pass through the dark gate of chaos and enter phase two, the yang within yin. This second phase is the return. In Taoist tradition it is said that the stabilizing of will is the first step of inner alchemy. This is how a human becomes like a mountain. This is how mercury and sulphur combine to form the fixed, non-reactive stability of cinnabar. This is how the divine child, the wholeness of the self, is reborn.
In order to give birth to this divine child, the goal of all alchemical psychology, we must stabilize the instinctual life force, the zhi, as it emerges spontaneously from the lower depths. We do this by sacrificing the conscious knowing of the shen and the conscious doing of the ego. In the words of Lao Tzu, “the sage goes about doing nothing…..waiting quietly until the mud settles.” As we consciously extinguish the light of our shen, we become aware of another light shining from the darkness. This is the light from below, the light of the essences, of embodiment and matter.
The appearance of this lower light marks the rebirth of spirit, when the light of the original nature appears again after its burial in the darkness. Through the emergence of this lower light, the tables are turned and yang shines from below rather than from above. Now zhi is no longer the agent of our individual will driving us to make our way through the world. Through an alchemical marriage, fire joins water, zhi joins with shen. A new illumination enlightens us and leads the way back to our right path. We return to our self but in a new way. In phase two, we align our individual will with Tao and attain wisdom.
The light of the spirit becomes the root or foundation. Here consciousness does not direct us from above or force the instincts or ways of nature. Rather, it lowers itself down to support our original nature as we walk through the world. The power and potency of our instincts is stabilized and guided by the knowing of our hearts. In this way, wisdom is attained.
By aligning zhi with shen and shen with zhi, we become our own ridge pole. We become the mountain. We become one with the way of Tao. When we infuse our experience of illness or emotional crisis with the light of conscious awareness, then we have gained wisdom through our journey and we are twice-born, like a sage.
Encountering the Dark Mother: Facing Fear
The last and possibly most important aspect of our work with the zhi entails facing fear. In the labyrinths below the mountain, we release the parts of us that need to die and wait to see what, if anything, comes to life. In this part of the journey, there are no definite answers, no certain outcomes. We must be willing to let our own will go and trust that a larger wisdom will emerge to support and guide us.
Ideally, this part of the journey should not be attempted until we have healed and strengthened all of the spirits, particularly the zhi. However, sometimes life brings us to this phase before we are completely ready. When it does, it is particularly important to find a helper or guide to support you, to hold steady as you move through the fear and chaos of transformation.
The Sumerian myth of Innana, the goddess of above and below, is a wonderful story to meditate on during a time of life crisis and transformation. It also helps to find a symbol or image of power that calms and centres you.
Huntun - Chaos
Floods, tidal waves, tornadoes, earthquakes and thunderstorms are metaphors used to capture the numinous power of transformational processes. These forces destroy pre-existing structures and states of order and have no regard for cultural values or individual human preferences. This cosmic force is primeval, transpersonal and morally ambiguous. Taoists referred to it as the huntun, the whirling wind of chaos, a wind that sweeps through our lives as the Queen Mother of the West, the dark goddess, passes by.
The huntun marks the beginning and end of organic and psychic processes. It is present at conception and birth, when the hun and po souls join to initiate the flickering of life in the infant. And it is present at death, when the po decays back into matter with the zhi and hun prepares for its flight back to the stars with the shen. Chaos is also present at transitions and transformations that occur in the course of life – at weaning, puberty, menopause and other significant moments of change, such as marriage, divorce, illness and recovery.
While Western philosophy turned away from the disorder and dissolution of the dark goddess in its quest for a rational understanding of the cosmos, alchemy treasured chaotic states as the fertile ground from which new possibilities could arise. Although there is no way to control or contain this powerful, high-grade energy, a proper attitude toward our chaos is a prerequisite for neidan, the inner work of alchemical transformation.
Modern scientists and mathematicians use the word “chaotic” to describe apparently irregular, unpredictable systems such as cloud turbulence or the erratic shifts of decline and growth in biological populations. It is a rational method of understanding apparently irrational, erratic fluctuations in nature, of discovering reliability in something that appears to be ruled by chance.
There is a crucial difference between the modern scientific view of chaos and the creative mystery of the Taoist huntun. When the Taoist alchemist spoke of chaos, they spoke of a divine mystery that exists beyond any kind of inner rhythm, regularity or rule. The huntun precedes any possibility of order or predictability because it is the mother from which order is born. The huntun is the unknowable One, “a Unity that admits and permits the diversity for which it is the crucible, the womb of all possibility.” Webster’s defines this kind of chaos as the “confused, unorganised state of primordial matter before the creation of distinct forms; the state of things in which chance is supreme.” It is the primordial sea, the mythical realm of the dark goddess the primal mother and the origin of life, death and transformation. Order, structure and predictability have nothing to do with this huntun realm, and the rational mind is swallowed up in it like a speck of salt dropped into the ocean.
From a Taoist perspective, attempting to control the energy of the huntun or to use its energies to implement individual human values and goals is not only incomprehensible but dangerous, as it leads inevitably to grandiosity and madness.
Honouring chaos, holding it with awe and maintaining one’s faith while surrendering to its power – these are the attitudes that allow the Taoist sage to ride the waves of the huntun, to die and be reborn from the dark whirlwind of Tao. These same attitudes allow the alchemical healer to use the potent energies of chaos to move through the wildly destabilising energies of the healing processes, to bring vitality to deadened places and to transform outmoded, inefficient mindsets, habitual behaviours and values into new, more efficient and more potent ways of being.
Original Nature - Yuan Qi
Original nature is the ground of being. It exists in me before I know myself as I. It existed before the world was broken into the opposites of subject and object, good and bad, dark and light. Parallel to the Chinese character, our word “origin” derives from the Latin root “origo,” which also means to “rise up from a source, to become visible.” Both the Chinese and English words contain the same implicit reference to an abrupt emergence of being from the dark mystery of nonbeing.
Original nature is the unfolding of Tao into form: the original nature of the acorn is the oak; the original nature of the spark is the fire; the original nature of the black seed is the golden sunflower. This drive to manifest the truest and fullest expression of Tao can be found in every living thing. It is the most potent manifestation of qi, the life force.
When human beings deny or suppress the spontaneous unfolding of their true nature or when conditions do not allow the original nature to be expressed, the force of life turns back on itself and sickens. We see the perversion of original nature in the stunted form of an acorn kept in a small flower pot, the impoverished quality of trout grown in a trout farm, or the snarling nastiness or chronic timidity of a poorly treated young animal. In human beings, we see the pathological expression of original nature in the form of uncontrollable obsessions, addictions, eating disorders, anxiety, neurosis and psychosomatic symptoms as well as cancer and environmental pollution. It is, in fact, the primary cause of disease in modern culture.
Human beings deny their own nature for many reasons. The pressures of family or culture or even the fear of our own greatness may initiate the abandonment of our own authenticity. But as the ancient Chinese texts clearly tell us, when the spontaneous expression of original nature is resisted or blocked, the alignment between the small tao in me and the great Tao of the cosmos is lost.
In the words of Taoist alchemist Liu I-ming, “If people can be flexible and yielding, humble, with self-control, entirely free of agitation….not angered by criticism, ignoring insult, docilely accepting all hardships, illnesses, and natural disasters, utterly without anxiety or resentment when faced with danger or adversity, then people can be companions of earth” – that is, truly at one with the receptive.
The gift of the underworld is not a life free of suffering and challenge but a profound shift in attitude and values. The outcome of this kind of transformation is an inner freedom and joy that is not dependent on the outer vicissitudes of life but rather rises from our own original nature as water gushes up from a spring. Through this return to origin, to the chaos of the underworld, we rediscover our own true nature.
MAKING FRIENDS WITH FEAR
The first thing to do when encountering our fear is to stop resisting it.
When presented with a frightening situation, the body’s natural response is to activate the adrenal glands’ fight or flight response. But now, in the alchemical healing process, rather than taking action on these instinctual responses, we pause and follow the wisdom of wuwei…..
………We breathe and we wait and do nothing.
Get familiar with your fear.
Sit next to it.
Ingest it in small doses.
For example, if you discover that you are afraid to speak your truth, find opportunities to speak in public.
Tell the truth about yourself.
Gradually, you will become familiar with the water.
You will begin to learn how to swim.
HUN: The Spirit of Wood
Vision, Imagination, Direction and Benevolence
Element: Wood
Organ: Liver
Emotion: Anger
Psychological functions: vision, imagination, direction, decision making
Psychospiritual issue: finding true Path
Cosmological associations: clouds, mists, tree branches
Chakra: sixth -Third Eye: Perception
In the macrocosm of the mountain, we see the hun in the clouds that hover around the peak. They are the mists and the vapours that flit in and out of the trees and tint the atmosphere with colours as the sun rises and sets. They are the intermediaries between above and below as they lift moisture from the air and release it again in the form of rain and as they soften the blinding white light of the sun and refract it into an ever-changing play of rainbow colours. The hun are also the spirit of the wood, the potent directionality of the tree branches reaching toward the light, the strength of the tree trunks swaying with the wind yet steadily holding their own ground.
In human beings, the hun represent the psychological faculty of vision, imagination, clear direction and the capacity for justice. They endow us with the ability to discern our path, stay clear on our direction, imagine possibilities, move forward toward our goals and take a stand for what we believe is right. While the activity of the imagination – especially day or night-time dreams – is energised by the coming and going of the shen, it is also influenced by the airy hun who follow the shen as they fly between the earth and heaven.
Functions of the Hun
· Sleeping and Dreaming: The hun are responsible for maintaining sound, peaceful sleep with dreams that are beneficial to the soul.
· Emotional Balance: The hun maintain the balance of the emotional life. If the emotions are repressed, over time, the qi of the liver will back up and stagnate. Physical symptoms such as indigestion, abdominal bloating and headaches may result from emotional repression. Depression is another possible complication. On the other hand, excess emotion disturbs the shen and exhausts the qi. Thus the hun’s ability to appropriately maintain emotional balance is crucial to our overall health.
· Decision Making and Planning: The hun support the psychological function of decision making and planning. They carry the insights and intuitions of the shen into the realm of matter and manifestation by creating a course of action and deciding on priorities. They give us a sense of direction and a vision for our life.
· Vision and Imagination: The hun are responsible for our ability to see the colours of the world through our eyes. They are also responsible for the inner vision and imagination, which bring creativity and growth into our lives.
Organ Correspondence
TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) relates the wood element hun to the liver and to the wind. By day, the classics state that the hun reside in the eyes, where they help us to see and think clearly, to make wise decisions and to direct our actions in the way that is best for our soul’s purpose. By night, the windy hun descend downward, sinking to the fleshy organ of the liver where they are weighted down by the yin essences of the blood. At night, while we sleep, the hun actively organise our dreams and imagine our plans for the future.
The hun inform the shape and direction of our lives as the winds determine the shape and direction of the growth of the pine trees, the rippling patterns in the sand or the shape of billowing clouds. As the wind blows heaven’s breath into every nook and cranny of the earth, the hun are the agents of penetration who bring the spiritual resonances of the shen down to the earth so that they can enter into form, space and time.
According to the Neijing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine (the Neijing Suwen) 240BC), the liver “has the function of a military leader who excels in his strategic planning.” The hun carry out the liver’s function on a psychological level by endowing us with the capacity to organise the chaos of random possibility into meaningful patterns, which give organization and direction to our lives.
As the wind disperses clouds and leaves the sky clear and serene, the liver cleans our blood and the hun clear away the clouds of muddled thinking and help us see the big picture of our lives. We are then able to see into our future and, like a great military leader, create the strategies that will help us the most. When the hun is in a state of equilibrium, its activities may never be noticed because they are achieved easily and are perfectly synchronised with the righteous unfolding of our destiny.
Symptoms of Hun Disturbance
When there is a disturbance or weakness in the liver or the body-mind is overwhelmed by longstanding emotional distress, the hun cannot fulfil their talk as messengers. When the liver is weak, the hun follow their predominantly yang impulses and fly out of the body to their home in the cloud lands. The signs of chaos and confusion that result from this disturbance are unmistakable. When the hun are disturbed, they cannot carry the illumination of spirit into our lives. They no longer sweep away the clouds so that the light of the shen can guide our path. Our capacity for clear thought and vivid yet grounded imagining is “gone with the wind.”
Without the hun, we cannot know our true selves. We cannot organise and plan our lives and put things in motion, implement bright ideas or carry through on promises we’ve made to ourselves and others.
Without the hun, our lives become chaotic and confused. We have lost our vision. We cannot see the forest or the trees, and we cannot find the inner light that will guide us toward the orderly and graceful unfolding of our destiny, our journey through life back to the stars. Instead, no matter which way we turn we run into a brick wall, which may result in feelings of guilt and self-recrimination a feeling that we are at fault - that nothing works out right. Or it may result in feelings of irritability, repressed anger and blame.
A person whose hun is disturbed may constantly be in a state of righteous indignation, ranting and raving about the unfairness of the world, unable to take responsibility for his or her own life.
When the hun are in harmony and health, our lives are grounded in a deep trust in the intrinsic wisdom of the cosmos. Our decisions are not controlled or forced but unfold organically and spontaneously from the peculiar inner logic of our personal stories. This is the “free and easy wandering” for which the healthy liver is known. This kind of decision-making is not the logic of reason or analysis but the logic of divine chaos.
What does this kind of divine chaos look like? To answer this question, look up to the sky.
The answer is there……in the clouds.
Signs and Symptoms of Hun Disturbance
Excess and Deficiency
Sometimes a person will have a mixture of both. This mixed pattern most often shows up in women and often correlates with the menstrual cycle.
In the excess pattern, people often feel angry and experience life as one injustice after another. Whichever way they turn, there seems to be a brick wall, and they often inappropriately express extreme emotion.
In the deficiency pattern, people feel timid, depressed and confused. They lack emotional expression and are usually too weak to even try to start a project. If they do make an attempt, they often cannot get past the decision-making stage.
Common Symptoms:
Depression; Insomnia/excess dreaming/absence of dreams; erratic emotions; disorientation/disorganization; repressed emotion; excess sleeping; vague anxieties - especially at night; digestive disturbances related to emotional upset; lack of clear vision on physical or psychological level; outbursts of anger.
Spirit Level Signs:
Timidity, inability to take a stand; “lack of colour” to life; wandering aimlessly with no direction; starting projects but moving on before they are done; always “running into brick walls” - can’t seem to “get anywhere”; obsession with injustice, which interferes with moving ahead with life.
Possible Causes
Constitutional or “karmic” issues that are part of person’s “work” in this lifetime; exposure to violence, drug abuse or alcoholism in family during childhood; lack of guidance and direction from family; recreational drug use, especially alcohol and marijuana; malnutrition, eating disorders, anaemia; repressed emotions, especially anger; exposure to environmental toxins or toxins at the work place i.e. paint and paint thinner, industrial cleaning products, artist’s materials, urban pollution.
Alchemy: The Rain of Benevolence
As psychic messengers, the hun carry the illuminations of the shen down toward the earth so that we can manifest the divine through the path we follow in the world. They also carry the moisture and essences of the earth up to the sky so that matter can be refined into activity and light. They endow us with the power to transform the insights of spirit into new possibilities and to envision ways to implement them.
Like the blood, sinews and tendons of our body, which are the physical manifestation of the wood element, the hun are the blood, sinews and tendons of the psyche, the psychospiritual manifestation of the wood element. Through the hun, we are able to imagine, envision and recognise our life path. They give us the ability to choose the path through which we will realize our potential, to set out on a project with certainty and determination, and to manifest heaven through our right action in the world. They are the soul forms through which the light of spirit, the shen can shine.
Hovering close to the emotional life and day-dream mind, the hun are related to sleep, imagination, mythmaking, poetry and fantastical visions, where all inspired tactical plans, acts of genuine creativity, and clear decisions are born.
According to Taoist mythology, at the end of our days, the hun follow the shen, rising back to heaven through the acupuncture point One Hundred Meetings, which is located at the top of the head. From there, they ascend with the shen back to the stars of the Big Dipper. But when the hun leave the body, they do not leave empty-handed. If the alchemy of the soul has been successful, the hun carry with them something eternal, some lesson learned from their sojourn on the earth.
The hun are not only the messengers of the heavens to earth but of the earth to the heavens. Through them, we here on earth gain consciousness and self-awareness and the ability to make decisions, which help us turn the fickle winds of fate into the currents of our destiny. But through the stories of our lives that the hun carry back to heaven, the spirits gain other lessons, lessons that can only be learned in a physical body through the experiencing of emotion and the passage of time in the temporal realm of the earth.
Through the alchemy of the spirits, the propulsive, yang, forward directionality of the hun is tempered by the yin through the challenges and resistances of embodied life. The original nature of wood, which shoots forth in spring and pushes forward against all obstacles to achieve its own purpose, is alchemically transformed into the movement of clouds.
The quality of benevolence is the rain that showers down from the cloudy hun
as we gain the ability to move in ways that not only benefit the self but also benefit others.
The emergence of benevolence marks the transformation of the hun from yang windy potency to
illuminated soul.
The golden gift of the hun is the quality of justice,
the ability to weigh the righteousness as well as the effectiveness
of our decisions and our actions in the world.
Vision, Imagination, Direction and Benevolence
Element: Wood
Organ: Liver
Emotion: Anger
Psychological functions: vision, imagination, direction, decision making
Psychospiritual issue: finding true Path
Cosmological associations: clouds, mists, tree branches
Chakra: sixth -Third Eye: Perception
In the macrocosm of the mountain, we see the hun in the clouds that hover around the peak. They are the mists and the vapours that flit in and out of the trees and tint the atmosphere with colours as the sun rises and sets. They are the intermediaries between above and below as they lift moisture from the air and release it again in the form of rain and as they soften the blinding white light of the sun and refract it into an ever-changing play of rainbow colours. The hun are also the spirit of the wood, the potent directionality of the tree branches reaching toward the light, the strength of the tree trunks swaying with the wind yet steadily holding their own ground.
In human beings, the hun represent the psychological faculty of vision, imagination, clear direction and the capacity for justice. They endow us with the ability to discern our path, stay clear on our direction, imagine possibilities, move forward toward our goals and take a stand for what we believe is right. While the activity of the imagination – especially day or night-time dreams – is energised by the coming and going of the shen, it is also influenced by the airy hun who follow the shen as they fly between the earth and heaven.
Functions of the Hun
· Sleeping and Dreaming: The hun are responsible for maintaining sound, peaceful sleep with dreams that are beneficial to the soul.
· Emotional Balance: The hun maintain the balance of the emotional life. If the emotions are repressed, over time, the qi of the liver will back up and stagnate. Physical symptoms such as indigestion, abdominal bloating and headaches may result from emotional repression. Depression is another possible complication. On the other hand, excess emotion disturbs the shen and exhausts the qi. Thus the hun’s ability to appropriately maintain emotional balance is crucial to our overall health.
· Decision Making and Planning: The hun support the psychological function of decision making and planning. They carry the insights and intuitions of the shen into the realm of matter and manifestation by creating a course of action and deciding on priorities. They give us a sense of direction and a vision for our life.
· Vision and Imagination: The hun are responsible for our ability to see the colours of the world through our eyes. They are also responsible for the inner vision and imagination, which bring creativity and growth into our lives.
Organ Correspondence
TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) relates the wood element hun to the liver and to the wind. By day, the classics state that the hun reside in the eyes, where they help us to see and think clearly, to make wise decisions and to direct our actions in the way that is best for our soul’s purpose. By night, the windy hun descend downward, sinking to the fleshy organ of the liver where they are weighted down by the yin essences of the blood. At night, while we sleep, the hun actively organise our dreams and imagine our plans for the future.
The hun inform the shape and direction of our lives as the winds determine the shape and direction of the growth of the pine trees, the rippling patterns in the sand or the shape of billowing clouds. As the wind blows heaven’s breath into every nook and cranny of the earth, the hun are the agents of penetration who bring the spiritual resonances of the shen down to the earth so that they can enter into form, space and time.
According to the Neijing (The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine (the Neijing Suwen) 240BC), the liver “has the function of a military leader who excels in his strategic planning.” The hun carry out the liver’s function on a psychological level by endowing us with the capacity to organise the chaos of random possibility into meaningful patterns, which give organization and direction to our lives.
As the wind disperses clouds and leaves the sky clear and serene, the liver cleans our blood and the hun clear away the clouds of muddled thinking and help us see the big picture of our lives. We are then able to see into our future and, like a great military leader, create the strategies that will help us the most. When the hun is in a state of equilibrium, its activities may never be noticed because they are achieved easily and are perfectly synchronised with the righteous unfolding of our destiny.
Symptoms of Hun Disturbance
When there is a disturbance or weakness in the liver or the body-mind is overwhelmed by longstanding emotional distress, the hun cannot fulfil their talk as messengers. When the liver is weak, the hun follow their predominantly yang impulses and fly out of the body to their home in the cloud lands. The signs of chaos and confusion that result from this disturbance are unmistakable. When the hun are disturbed, they cannot carry the illumination of spirit into our lives. They no longer sweep away the clouds so that the light of the shen can guide our path. Our capacity for clear thought and vivid yet grounded imagining is “gone with the wind.”
Without the hun, we cannot know our true selves. We cannot organise and plan our lives and put things in motion, implement bright ideas or carry through on promises we’ve made to ourselves and others.
Without the hun, our lives become chaotic and confused. We have lost our vision. We cannot see the forest or the trees, and we cannot find the inner light that will guide us toward the orderly and graceful unfolding of our destiny, our journey through life back to the stars. Instead, no matter which way we turn we run into a brick wall, which may result in feelings of guilt and self-recrimination a feeling that we are at fault - that nothing works out right. Or it may result in feelings of irritability, repressed anger and blame.
A person whose hun is disturbed may constantly be in a state of righteous indignation, ranting and raving about the unfairness of the world, unable to take responsibility for his or her own life.
When the hun are in harmony and health, our lives are grounded in a deep trust in the intrinsic wisdom of the cosmos. Our decisions are not controlled or forced but unfold organically and spontaneously from the peculiar inner logic of our personal stories. This is the “free and easy wandering” for which the healthy liver is known. This kind of decision-making is not the logic of reason or analysis but the logic of divine chaos.
What does this kind of divine chaos look like? To answer this question, look up to the sky.
The answer is there……in the clouds.
Signs and Symptoms of Hun Disturbance
Excess and Deficiency
Sometimes a person will have a mixture of both. This mixed pattern most often shows up in women and often correlates with the menstrual cycle.
In the excess pattern, people often feel angry and experience life as one injustice after another. Whichever way they turn, there seems to be a brick wall, and they often inappropriately express extreme emotion.
In the deficiency pattern, people feel timid, depressed and confused. They lack emotional expression and are usually too weak to even try to start a project. If they do make an attempt, they often cannot get past the decision-making stage.
Common Symptoms:
Depression; Insomnia/excess dreaming/absence of dreams; erratic emotions; disorientation/disorganization; repressed emotion; excess sleeping; vague anxieties - especially at night; digestive disturbances related to emotional upset; lack of clear vision on physical or psychological level; outbursts of anger.
Spirit Level Signs:
Timidity, inability to take a stand; “lack of colour” to life; wandering aimlessly with no direction; starting projects but moving on before they are done; always “running into brick walls” - can’t seem to “get anywhere”; obsession with injustice, which interferes with moving ahead with life.
Possible Causes
Constitutional or “karmic” issues that are part of person’s “work” in this lifetime; exposure to violence, drug abuse or alcoholism in family during childhood; lack of guidance and direction from family; recreational drug use, especially alcohol and marijuana; malnutrition, eating disorders, anaemia; repressed emotions, especially anger; exposure to environmental toxins or toxins at the work place i.e. paint and paint thinner, industrial cleaning products, artist’s materials, urban pollution.
Alchemy: The Rain of Benevolence
As psychic messengers, the hun carry the illuminations of the shen down toward the earth so that we can manifest the divine through the path we follow in the world. They also carry the moisture and essences of the earth up to the sky so that matter can be refined into activity and light. They endow us with the power to transform the insights of spirit into new possibilities and to envision ways to implement them.
Like the blood, sinews and tendons of our body, which are the physical manifestation of the wood element, the hun are the blood, sinews and tendons of the psyche, the psychospiritual manifestation of the wood element. Through the hun, we are able to imagine, envision and recognise our life path. They give us the ability to choose the path through which we will realize our potential, to set out on a project with certainty and determination, and to manifest heaven through our right action in the world. They are the soul forms through which the light of spirit, the shen can shine.
Hovering close to the emotional life and day-dream mind, the hun are related to sleep, imagination, mythmaking, poetry and fantastical visions, where all inspired tactical plans, acts of genuine creativity, and clear decisions are born.
According to Taoist mythology, at the end of our days, the hun follow the shen, rising back to heaven through the acupuncture point One Hundred Meetings, which is located at the top of the head. From there, they ascend with the shen back to the stars of the Big Dipper. But when the hun leave the body, they do not leave empty-handed. If the alchemy of the soul has been successful, the hun carry with them something eternal, some lesson learned from their sojourn on the earth.
The hun are not only the messengers of the heavens to earth but of the earth to the heavens. Through them, we here on earth gain consciousness and self-awareness and the ability to make decisions, which help us turn the fickle winds of fate into the currents of our destiny. But through the stories of our lives that the hun carry back to heaven, the spirits gain other lessons, lessons that can only be learned in a physical body through the experiencing of emotion and the passage of time in the temporal realm of the earth.
Through the alchemy of the spirits, the propulsive, yang, forward directionality of the hun is tempered by the yin through the challenges and resistances of embodied life. The original nature of wood, which shoots forth in spring and pushes forward against all obstacles to achieve its own purpose, is alchemically transformed into the movement of clouds.
The quality of benevolence is the rain that showers down from the cloudy hun
as we gain the ability to move in ways that not only benefit the self but also benefit others.
The emergence of benevolence marks the transformation of the hun from yang windy potency to
illuminated soul.
The golden gift of the hun is the quality of justice,
the ability to weigh the righteousness as well as the effectiveness
of our decisions and our actions in the world.
Following Excerpt from:
“Nourishing Destiny” - Lonny S. Jarrett
HUN: WOOD - Far Away
After receiving their personal names, children begin to judge the world.
With discernments of right and wrong, good and bad, should and should not,
children are led away from the unity that lies in their hearts.
For the heart is only able to discern the truth that lies at the heart of each moment;
it is not able to make decisions on the evaluation of data.
The mind, in contrast, the judge and evaluator of data, is only able to perceive duality.
Located halfway between water and fire on the sheng cycle, wood, like the chongqi, (whirling abyss situated between heaven and earth which perfectly blends the qualities of these two universal poles so that duality is returned to unity) must fuse these apparent opposites into one. In the primordial five elements, the three return forever back to a chaotic unity.
However, in later Heaven, habitual conditioning has destroyed the primal unity of the five elements and the mind seeks explanations and reasons for all it perceives. Yin and yang, water and fire, separate as we embody the vision of duality in the world. This separation is ultimately reflected in compromised integrity of the heart/kidney axis and a tearing apart of the yuanqi, (original, primordial qi).
Cut off from these sources of intuition the mind now governs alone.
It is the wood element that governs the quality of our vision and empowers our balanced perception of both duality and unity in life.
The Nature of Wood
Bamboo offers a perfect model of healthy growth in nature. It derives its strengths from its
emptiness, rootedness, and flexibility.
When a wind blows, bamboo bends in exact proportion to the strength of the wind blowing it.
Its rootedness allows it to yield without falling over, and its emptiness represents
nonattachment in the moment to its goal of rapid directional growth.
Hence it is “empty” in the sense of not trying to fight the direction it is being
momentarily taken. We may resist and become frustrated when faced with obstacles while pursuing a goal.
To emulate the virtue of bamboo would be to remain calm and unattached to momentary
deviations from our course while maintaining a steady view of the big picture.
As the wind subsides, bamboo springs up to immediately reassert its purpose and pursue its path.
Exhibiting the virtue of Benevolence,
bamboo carries no grudge toward the wind that has temporarily waylaid its progress.
It continues unencumbered its journey toward heaven.
The Nature of Wind
The environmental condition associated with the wood element is wind.
In nature, wind moves in an unpredictable fashion, making it difficult to navigate through the world.
When external events are rapidly changing, the facility of the liver and gallbladder to make decisions and implement plans is critical if we are to remain oriented.
If the integrated functions of liver and gallbladder are compromised by our habitual reaction to anger,
then an internal state of wind may be engendered.
Internal wind may be indicated by any symptom that exhibits chaotic and unpredictable
movements, e.g., convulsions, muscle twitches and spasms, headaches, or pains that move around.
Emotionally, wind may manifest as anger that blows up like a storm whenever we must alter our plans in order to accommodate present circumstance.
With vision so obscured by anger, we may be unable to contact the fixed reference point provided by the liver’s plan.
In such a scenario, dizziness may present as a symptom indicating our inability to navigate when life changes
so rapidly and unpredictably.
Indecisiveness and poor planning may make it difficult for us to chart a course as we appear to
be blown through life “like a leaf in the wind.”
Jing-Qi-Shen
Jing, Qi and Shen are known as the Taoist Three Treasures.
The Jing, associated with the kidneys, is the storehouse for all of life’s varied manifestations.
The Shen of the heart is that creative spark which must illuminate potential to make it
manifest.
Situated between water and fire, the liver regulates the smooth flow of Qi between these two microcosmic poles of water and fire that represent the duality of heaven and earth.
In fact, the jing, qi and shen are the innate influences that empower the implementation of the plan stored in our seed of potential granted us at the moment of conception.
The hun is the evolutionary spirit that is raised in virtue as we strive toward manifesting the highest which heaven has placed within.
“Nourishing Destiny” - Lonny S. Jarrett
HUN: WOOD - Far Away
After receiving their personal names, children begin to judge the world.
With discernments of right and wrong, good and bad, should and should not,
children are led away from the unity that lies in their hearts.
For the heart is only able to discern the truth that lies at the heart of each moment;
it is not able to make decisions on the evaluation of data.
The mind, in contrast, the judge and evaluator of data, is only able to perceive duality.
Located halfway between water and fire on the sheng cycle, wood, like the chongqi, (whirling abyss situated between heaven and earth which perfectly blends the qualities of these two universal poles so that duality is returned to unity) must fuse these apparent opposites into one. In the primordial five elements, the three return forever back to a chaotic unity.
However, in later Heaven, habitual conditioning has destroyed the primal unity of the five elements and the mind seeks explanations and reasons for all it perceives. Yin and yang, water and fire, separate as we embody the vision of duality in the world. This separation is ultimately reflected in compromised integrity of the heart/kidney axis and a tearing apart of the yuanqi, (original, primordial qi).
Cut off from these sources of intuition the mind now governs alone.
It is the wood element that governs the quality of our vision and empowers our balanced perception of both duality and unity in life.
The Nature of Wood
Bamboo offers a perfect model of healthy growth in nature. It derives its strengths from its
emptiness, rootedness, and flexibility.
When a wind blows, bamboo bends in exact proportion to the strength of the wind blowing it.
Its rootedness allows it to yield without falling over, and its emptiness represents
nonattachment in the moment to its goal of rapid directional growth.
Hence it is “empty” in the sense of not trying to fight the direction it is being
momentarily taken. We may resist and become frustrated when faced with obstacles while pursuing a goal.
To emulate the virtue of bamboo would be to remain calm and unattached to momentary
deviations from our course while maintaining a steady view of the big picture.
As the wind subsides, bamboo springs up to immediately reassert its purpose and pursue its path.
Exhibiting the virtue of Benevolence,
bamboo carries no grudge toward the wind that has temporarily waylaid its progress.
It continues unencumbered its journey toward heaven.
The Nature of Wind
The environmental condition associated with the wood element is wind.
In nature, wind moves in an unpredictable fashion, making it difficult to navigate through the world.
When external events are rapidly changing, the facility of the liver and gallbladder to make decisions and implement plans is critical if we are to remain oriented.
If the integrated functions of liver and gallbladder are compromised by our habitual reaction to anger,
then an internal state of wind may be engendered.
Internal wind may be indicated by any symptom that exhibits chaotic and unpredictable
movements, e.g., convulsions, muscle twitches and spasms, headaches, or pains that move around.
Emotionally, wind may manifest as anger that blows up like a storm whenever we must alter our plans in order to accommodate present circumstance.
With vision so obscured by anger, we may be unable to contact the fixed reference point provided by the liver’s plan.
In such a scenario, dizziness may present as a symptom indicating our inability to navigate when life changes
so rapidly and unpredictably.
Indecisiveness and poor planning may make it difficult for us to chart a course as we appear to
be blown through life “like a leaf in the wind.”
Jing-Qi-Shen
Jing, Qi and Shen are known as the Taoist Three Treasures.
The Jing, associated with the kidneys, is the storehouse for all of life’s varied manifestations.
The Shen of the heart is that creative spark which must illuminate potential to make it
manifest.
Situated between water and fire, the liver regulates the smooth flow of Qi between these two microcosmic poles of water and fire that represent the duality of heaven and earth.
In fact, the jing, qi and shen are the innate influences that empower the implementation of the plan stored in our seed of potential granted us at the moment of conception.
The hun is the evolutionary spirit that is raised in virtue as we strive toward manifesting the highest which heaven has placed within.
Grace