Dear ones,
Here is the recording from our Woven session Sunday 26th January 2025, led by Emily.
Following on from our October session on the Metal element, we spent January’s session with the element of Water. The Water element is an apt and right place to be in the midst of Winter.
It happened that the day of this practice was the first day of rain in LA since last May - the rains that put out the ravaging fires.
The way that I was taught to relate with the five elements was rooted in the understanding that they are not fixed entities. The Chinese word for element is Xing which means to rise / flourish or, in other contexts, momentum / movement.
Ultimately, the understanding I’ve evolved in relationship with the elements is that they are processes, movements and qualities of energy and that each one has its own quality of Qi - or energy.
The main theoretical texts that contain the wisdom and understanding of the five elements in the context of Chinese Medicine are the Nei Jing (a text approximately just over 2000 years old), and texts within this text called the Su Wen (simple questions and Ling Shu (Spiritual Pivot). In the Ling Shu it is written that ‘nothing on earth or within the universe is unrelated to the five elements, and man is no exception’.
Water is the most yin of all the elements. It is everywhere but has no shape. It takes the form given to it by the containers around it - riverbanks, the beds of the oceans, your cup - and its very presence, powerful in stillness and in motion, can wear away rock and penetrate obstacles.
I hope that you enjoy this hour being with the element of Water in this slow and nurturing session, tending to the kidneys and adrenals, given all the ways that they serve us as we move through the world.
Much love,
E & P
<3
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