Biggest order yet. Seventy for a new store, the Goldenfinch Boutique, opening in Washington, IL. As I am now head of production for Kate Kilmurray Designs, I’ve become a weaving machine. Helpful to stay productive during Covid. (Would rather be traveling and teaching, but reality has other ideas!) We are now carried in over 65 stores worldwide, including Denmark, Canada and Japan. Visit katekilmurray.com for more examples of my latest output.

Weaving as Meditation…On a larger loom. Not original, but it was challenging!

Homework for December: Basic

How well do you know your pelvis?  There are  six different bones that constitute the pelvis, three on the right, three on the left, plus the cartilaginous pubic symphysis linking the two sides. In the photo of the left pelvic bone, we see how the bowl shaped acetabulum triangulates into three 120 degrees segments, linking the pubic bone, the ilium and the sitting bone or ischium. For our explorations, consider the pubic bone as shown above, including the superior and inferior rami.

In Bonnie’s fall series on releasing the spine, one of her major points of emphasis was the awakening and activating the pubic bones and symphysis as the energetic and informational link between the two legs, with the pelvic bones being included as parts of the leg. When the pubic bones are alive, engaged and integrated, the sacrum and coccyx can be released from their patterns of strain and holding. Carried further, spinal liberation comes from the awakening and engagement of the front body structures (adding sternum and hyoid bone), combined with awakening and integrating the tone of the organs, (in the next post we will visit the pelvic and respiratory diaphragms to help here), to create a whole body postural tonal field that supports the spinal energy and releases the unnecessary tension in the spinal muscles. From our Taoist perspective, awakening and liberating the “Yin Conception Vessel frees up the Yang Governing vessel, allowing the Micro-Cosmic orbit to flow freely, and integrating and sustaining the field of postural- psycho-physiological tone.

To find sensation in the bones, or anywhere in the body, we have three major tools: Direct touch, movement and imagination. Use what works for you. Start in any sitting posture and find the pubic bones. Trace along the rami to the acetabula, and from the acetabula into the illia and ischia. On each side, feel the almost vertical line from the bottom of the sitting bone to the top of the illia. (See photo above.) Lengthen in opposite directions and sustain the action with as little effort as possible. Release your coccyx. Notice how your sitting posture changes. This will be the central action in the next two movements.

From any sitting pose, find the vertical length as just explained, bring your attention/qi back to the pubic bones and then initiate a slight forward flexion/bending action. Did you initiate this from the superior or inferior rami? Like cars at a traffic light, in forward bending the inferior rami must lead or else you will compress to top front of the groins onto the bottom of the groins.

Now try a slight pelvic extension of backbending action. Leading with the superior rami will led to space and ease in the upper front. Leading with the inferior rami will compress the bottom groins into the upper groins. Ideally, in both actions, the ischia and illia move away from each other lengthening the groins. Take this action into tadasana, uttanasana and any other poses that inspire you. And then into walking and all aspects of your daily life.

Homework for December: Challenging

The cells and tissues of the body have piezoelectric properties. Piezoelectricity literally means “pressure electricity. As  pressure increases in any region (squeezing/condensing/heating) or decreases (expanding/spreading/cooling)  we can ‘feel’ the fluctuations in the fluid-tissue matrix of the body. Postural ‘tone’ is a  dynamic piezoelectric field. Stretching and twisting also change the overall quality of the field. Dive into the pubic bones, center your selves here and let this field emerge through the soft tissue structures into consciousness. Allow its self-organizing properties to weave its way throughout the body, helping awaken sensation and spaciousness everywhere.

Teaching in 2021

I am hoping to set up some form of teaching in January. Is the way of working in this post of interest to you? What subjects and questions would you like to see covered?

Happy Holidays, Support Small Businesses, Support Democracy, Stay Safe,
Stay Present.
Keep your heart open and your mind alert. Enjoy every moment. They are Divine gifts and it is easy to forget this.

My son Sean is a fan of actor, comedian and activist Russell Brand, a vocal participant, in his own unique way, in the attempts to bring about major changes on the planet. My wife Kate’s favorite teacher is a delightful Jamaican by the name of Mooji, who reminds me a lot of Swami Dayananda, my late Vedanta teacher and spiritual guide. So here is a gift from my family to yours: a video exchange between Russell and Mooji, and if you have yet to run across Mooji, you are in for an Awakening !

Also, my son Sean and I are setting up our own YouTube channel with all sorts of posts. More will be coming on that, but as a teaser, here is a YouTube video film maker and dear friend Charlie Birns produced of a dialogue (more a monologue!) we had last month.

Notes from Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen’s fall series of classes on the spine:
These are a few observations from my own practice. Each student will have their own unique set of experiences.

Class 1: releasing holding patterns in the spine by mobilizing the pubic symphysis and its two joints. Right and left pelvis bones, continuations of the legs, meet in a large piece of cartilage and each pelvic bone can move independently from the other around this. When you initiate movement of the pelvis and legs from here, at the front of the body, clearly differentiating right and left, the sacral area becomes free of needing to stabilize itself through tension and the hip joints also have more freedom. But, as I have found, although these are not large movements like at the hip joint, the two sides are likely to be radically different. Explore this in as many ways as you can imagine. Allow all movements to be as effortless and free as possible, as the cellular intelligence reveals itself as the root of embodiment.

One of my many discoveries was that with my damaged hip, one of the pieces of my inhibited movement at the pubic joint was a locked up pectineus muscle. As a life long external rotater, I have always been trying to open and release the ‘pectineal gate’, primarily by going into deep forward flexion, but never quite finding the depths of freedom. This is a small and hard to access muscle for me and I realized that in order to mobilize the pubic bones and deepen the action, as Bonnie demonstrated in the class, I had to explore this activation in a variety of other movements. By moving from the two joints (right and left, just like two hip joints) of the pubic bone the post surgical opening is coming more easily and I may actually regain my lost lotus. Maybe.

BTW, CV-2 sits at the top of the pubic notch. Mobilizing the front body is analogous to awakening the points and flow along the Conception Vessel, relieving strain from the yang, governing Vessel, back body/spine.

Class 1 continued: Mobilizing the side body through anantasana and variations. Side body links front and back and also takes away strain accumulation from only using the back body to initiate movement. Side body in TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) is the Gall Bladder meridian and is also engaged by the girdling vessel (Dai Mai). Rotations come from here, the only horizontally flowing vessel.

Stay Awake, and clear and grounded in the coming weeks. Hold the space of clarity, discernment, light and love for all.
Support small businesses, get out the vote, keep practicing.

Whatever happens, we will make it through these very challenging times.

This post is based upon notes from a lecture by Taoist master Jeffrey Yuen  (Hun, Po, Shen and Ling: November 2000), Dr. Daniel Keown’s  book on acupuncture and embryology, ‘The Spark in the Machine” and my own personal explorations. In a series of posts over the past few years we explored some of the fundamental principles and components of Taoist practice and I highly recommend you review these to help integrate them and this current post into your practice as we progress into 2021 and the Collective Awakening. “The Spark in the Machine”  will be very helpful to follow our organ system explorations somatically. A very quick overview will be included at the end of the post.

The Seven Lessons of Incarnation

The Three Treasures of Taoism,  Jing, Qi and Shen are the fundamental energies or substances that sustain human life, each associated with both one of the Three Dantiens and some of the yin organ systems. A useful image to help get a feel for these is a candle. Jing is like the wax and wick; the flesh and blood substances and primary sources of our embodied soul, related to egg, sperm and DNA. Qi is the flame, the burning energy of aliveness, also known as prana in the yoga world. Shen is the light radiating out from the flame. We want to come to know these ‘Three Treasures’ in a deeply embodied way. In the Taoist internal alchemy known as Neidan, Jing (matter) is refined and transformed into Qi (breath); Qi is refined and transformed into Shen (Spirit); and Shen is refined, reverting to Emptiness.

From the Taoist perspective, at conception, Shen or Spirit,(the Light), is captured by the most dense substance, Jing, to begin our embryological development. (Embodied Shen is also known as Ling or ‘Soul’.) What also begins is the journey of the soul to fulfill its destiny or life purpose. We all incarnate, consciously or unconsciously with a karmic history, including a set of skills to be cultivated and lessons to be completed in this life time.

In this Taoist model of Karma, there are seven lessons to be learned, unique to each individual and also universal, as the continuation of the CosmicEvolutionary journey. These lessons correspond to the chakra system of India and the Microcosmic Orbit and organ systems of Chinese Medicine which make them a whole lot of fun to explore. The specifics of these correlations will be included after the lessons are listed and in subsequent posts. We can also find equivalent lessons in the evolution of cultures and societies that we are awakening to in our historical moment.

Lesson 1: Can I accept this incarnation, this body, this set of circumstances that I am being born into and that I will inhabit for the course of this life time. Our genetic make-up, the root of our Jing comes from our parents DNA and this lesson is related to our root chakra. Can I root myself in this incarnation, beginning with my 1st chakra, with stability?  Can I accept myself as I am, at all times in my life, in all circumstances. Although our primary rooting takes place in the first 8 – 12 years, this is a lesson that is always relevant especially at major changes in life arise. (Can Humans accept the reality of being just one of millions of species inhabiting this planet, each with right to life and habitat?)

Lesson 2: Can I own my own creative processes and their results? Relating to the 2nd chakra, our sexuality is awakened at puberty with a burst of hormonal activity. The re-creating of our selves though our offspring is an obvious aspect of this lesson, but this also includes any and all of what we create in this life time. Can what we say, write and make, at any level come from our own authenticity, from the depths of our own soul ? (Can we as humans accept that our creativity comes with an awesome power to destroy life and the conditions that allow life to thrive? )

Lesson 3: As a member of a society, can I learn work within my tribe/community/country/planet. There is a loss of innocence as we engage with others, with their own sets of issues and challenges. The demands and organizing beliefs of society may lead to sense of shame and embarrassment if we do not ‘fit in’, or fulfill family’s, friends, or society’s expectations. Thus the third chakra is the one of discrimination. We decide what values and life choices to pursue and which to reject, and create a sense of response-ability to others as we find our way in the world as adults. (Can we as humans accept that our power comes with a tremendous responsibility to life itself?)

Lesson 4: Opening the Heart: The heart chakra opens as feelings begin to take over from thoughts, ideas and beliefs. Following up on lesson three, can I (we) hold the course of the heart, even when society is heading in the opposite direction? Can I trust my inner knowing, can I find faith in the Ultimate Mystery of life, even if the world is oblivious. Can I let go of any attachment to even my creations, realizing the impermanence of all creation? This lesson is a major leap from the first three and thus is highly challenging on many levels. Modern Culture is poised at the brink of this lesson. We need ‘all hands on deck’ to keep growing. (Can we as humans open our hearts to not just understand intellectually our responsibility, but to feel it at the depths of our collective heart?

Lesson 5: Lesson four, opening the Heart Chakra , gets the door open to our innate spirit, but to get through the door, and thrive, another set of responsibilities arises. Can I truly honor myself as a Divine Being, not from an egoic perspective, but from my own depths, from the full Realization of my True Nature? The 5th or Throat Chaka opening allows us to fully inhabit our spiritual selves, without guilt or conflict. We speak our Truth easily. It is related to the third chakra’s response-ability, only at a new level and invites us to bring forth the wisdom from all the lessons that have come before. The three questions from the earlier lessons: who am I? ; where am I going? and who is responsible?, are all answered. (Can we as humans take dynamic action to change the direction of destruction we have initiated?)

Lesson 6: An inner tranquiltiy arises. You are true to your unique self, without being attached to the self. We do not need to impose anything onto the world, but just allow the inner light to be. The 6th chakra opening, the third eye, begins the opening into transcendental wisdom. All the teachings of the world are at your disposal. Action flows through you from the spontaneity of wholeness.

Lesson 7: The tao that can be spoken is not the True Tao ….

These lessons are not necessarily linear. I have found myself returning again and again to the earlier ones, even as the later ones are being explored, especially as the embodiment challenges arise. It is a magical mystery spiral of learning. Take them into the world with you. What follows is a more subtle approach to this awakening using a Taoist Spiritual Energy model.

Some guidelines for practice

Even if you have no familiarity with the Microcosmic Orbit, there are enough anatomical references to help guide your explorations. I do them either sitting or lying down and using the breathing. We are not doing acupuncture so we can just looking for the feel our way to the linking of energy (breath) and structure (jing). Being able to track energy flow is required, however. This is perceptual at its core even if we begin with written words and concepts. They are the map. The territory is your embodied spiritual energy field and this is fundamentally a journey of embodied spiritual awakening.

We can palpate the points on the front of the body with the xyphoid process, navel and pubic symphasis as specific references. I highly recommend this as this is a rich region to explore. Eventually the various layers of your abdominal wall will become more conscious. Visualize the fetal blood vessels passing through the umbilicus from the placenta, flowing up into the liver and down into the groins, to help integrate the Conception vessel points.

To find the Governing Vessel points on the back (yang) body, initiate a very subte tucking/untucking action through the pelvis, feeling acetabulae and femurs, sitting bones and coccyx. The activation through the lessons is from the bottom up but feel the current of release as downward. In other words, once you can find the coccyx energy curling toward CV-1, one by one add the sacrum to the downward curl and continue to L-4, L-1 etc. Notice the direction on the front body is also down so both Vessels meet at the root and feed each other. I have found supported bridge pose also to be helpful for this exploration.

You will feel some fluid flowing and fascia disentangling; the organs (front body/Yin) beginning to differentiate from the spinal column (back body/Yang);  and the major blood vessels in the core of the body freeing up. This will be more obvious in the next post when we link the organ systems to the lessons. Many years ago, when I first began studying with Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, she said something about asana practice that struck me as being very important. “If the pose you are in is not supported by the organs, you have gone too far”. There are many layers to this, but one is the need to awaken the yin/front body/ inner organs to relieve the pressure on the back body /yang/spinal column, by linking and balancing the Conception Vessel with the Governing Vessel in the Micro Cosmic Orbit.

Embodying the Lessons:
The Link to the Microcosmic Orbit

At conception, Shen or Spirit is captured by the most dense substance, Jing, to begin our embryological development. GV-1 and CV-15 are switches that turn on, Qi flows, as yang and yin, sperm and egg energies begin the developmental process and prepare for the embodied soul lessons.

Practice 1: In any seated pose, visualize the whole Micro-Cosmic Orbit and rest for a moment. Feel the three Dantiens in balance, your attention centered in the heart. Rest in Stillness for a moment or more. This will be the starting point (and ultimate refuge 24/7) for all the practices.

Now bring your attention to the pelvic floor. You can start with the sitting bones if that is easier. Oscillate between rolling slightly forward and slightly backward, feeling about a two inch arc. Then do the same with your attention without moving the bones, letting the mind direct the Qi.

Feel the coccyx sitting between the sitting bones and notice it curls forward. With your attention, roll the Qi back and forth a few millimeters and then land at the tip of the tail bone and rest there as a vibrancy. This is GV-1. Move the pelvic bones if necessary. Feel the subtle arc connecting GV-1 (Du-1) with CV-1 (Ren-1) on the center of the perineum. Root yourself here with a quiet subtle attention/sensation/vibrancy. This is the root of all poses, all times etc)

Practice 2: In any sitting pose, find CV-15 at the bottom tip of the xiphoid process, with a finger. Then, using your finger, draw the energy slightly downward, imagining it eventually linking with GV-1. Feel the whole region below the diaphragm as a container.

Practice 3: Lesson 1 begins to stabilize the rooting by activating GV-2 on the sacrum and CV-13 on the abdomen  and then adding them to GV-1 and CV-15 the whole Micro Cosmic Orbit circuit. Cv-14 is skipped as it involved with the sovereign ruler, the heart and left alone. Use your finger to approximate CV-13 and your sitting bones to help find your sacrum. Link these two back and forth, letting attention direct the Qi and finally stabilize with a gentle double action. General feel in the area is much more important than precision.

Practice 4: Continue in the same vein as above, adding the following pairs for the other six lessons.

Lesson 2: GV-3 (aka Du-3) at L-4) and CV-12. (With the second chakra connection, there is also CV-5). This section between the sternum and navel is a rich one for me as I carry a lot of subtle (or perhaps not so subtle any more!) tension here.

Herr are two more poses that I have found helpful, alllowing me to access front and back simultaneously. Urdhva mukha prasarita padottanasana ( a combination of LOY plates 148 and 170); try 1: supporting pelvis with blanket or bolster to release upper vertebrae and 2:  groin lengthening to bring pelvis down to floor.

Modified ardha navasana (legs supported)
1. Pelvis neutral on floor.

2. Coccyx lifting pelvis like a rising wheel. Experiment with height of head with a mini sit-up action. You can take the pelvis a lot further up than the photo shows, especially when the head is neutral on the floor. These photos are just hints and glimpses into a much wider range of actions that fit your body/mind.

There is a lot of gross work lengthening/releasing the psoas and differentiating psoas major (lengthening down through the groins) and psoas minor and illiacus lengthening upward through the pelvis and lumbar. Stay soft and allow the body to teach you how to open. Feel the ever present Stillness not matter what is arising,

Lesson 3: GV-5 (at L-1) and CV-11 (skip GV-4 – Ming Men)
Lesson 4: GV-6 (at T-11) and CV-10, CV-17 (notice we skip over the ever challenging T-12 but access either side of it.) The transition for lesson 3 to lesson 4 is the most difficult on all levels.
Lesson 5: GV-7 (at T-10) CV-9 (also locally at the throat at  CV-22
Lesson 6: GV-8,  (at T-9) CV-7 (skip CV-8 – umbilicus) CV-7 in Yin Jiao, the meshing of yin
Lesson 7: GV-9  (Extremity of Yang, at T-7, related to releasing diaphragm and spiritually the release of the breath at the moment death.

Feel free to explore any of these on combinations on their own and in any poses or actions that inspire you. We are looking to help open and integrate pelvic floor, diaphragm, spine and the connective tissue matrix in the core of the body. Next post we will add the organ systems relationships to the seven lessons.

Review

We begin with the integrating capacity of using the Qi/ breath in linking the yin, front body Conception Vessel (ren mai) with the yang, back body Governing Vessel (du mai), to form the Microcosmic Orbit. They meet at the mouth and anus. Feel this at whatever level your sensitivity allows, as specific points, or the flow of qi between them. Root chakra is where GV-1 (not shown, behind the anus) links with CV-1, anterior to the anus on the perineum. Crown Chakra is at GV-20. Root and Crown are linked by the yin ‘Thrusting Vessel’. or chakra line.

The Three Dantiens refer to the energy fields contained by the Micocosmic Orbit that inhabit the three bony cavities of the body: pelvis, ribs and skull. The endocrine/hormonal system is a Western correlate to help feel these fields. These are the easiest to find because of the correlation with the bones.

The Three Treasures, Jing, Qi and Shen are the fundamental substances, each associated with both one of the Three Dantiens and some of the yin organ systems. A useful image to help get a feel for these is a candle. Jing is like the wax and wick; the flesh and blood substances and primary sources of our embodied soul, related to egg, sperm and DNA. Qi is the flame, the burning energy of aliveness. Shen is the light radiating out from the flame.

Jing or essence (there is no good English translation of Jing) is related to the Lower Dantien and the Kidney Organ System; Qi (prana) has its home in the Middle Dantien and the Spleen/pancreas and Liver systems; Shen or spirit resides in the skull, but is governed by the Heart Organ System, which in Traditional Chinese Medicine rules the brain. (Our modern world has totally lost this heart-brain connection!)