Hello friends,

I’m pleased to announce the next workshop in the Five Animal Frolics qigong series: Deer, on Wednesday January 14th, 5:30-7pm.

The deer is the animal associated with winter and with fear. As delicious prey animals, deer are ruled by fear year-round. But I think winter must be the most frightening time for them: bare trees mean less cover and less food at the same time, it’s just a time to hang in there and survive. The middle of January can feel that way for humans too: we’re back at work or school, money’s tight after the holidays, the days feel just as short as they did on the Solstice, the weather’s often colder, and so on. A good time to move and breathe together.

The deer movements act out fear by trying to put a brave face on it. The yīn step is to mimic big antlers and trying to look impressive, and the yáng one acts out rutting. But just like in Kaman’s painting above, in the yīn movement we look over our shoulders, fear showing through even as we put on the mask of the big antlers and posture. As for the yáng movements, well the man who feels the need to fight every other man like a stag in rut is hardly the picture of self assurance. And between each mimed headbutt, there’s a little prance step that is frankly the least fierce thing in the whole Five Animal Frolics set - I can only assume it’s there to make sure we don’t take the posturing too seriously.

Deer are unavoidably trapped in their fear, both because it’s there for good reasons and because they can’t escape their instincts. As humans we have the luxury of being able to see the instinctual patterns and get past them, though it’s never an easy thing to do in reality. I find this practice helps, through repetition of trying on bravado and fear, and reinforcing how silly we look in the process. The two movements together also give the spine a really nice stretch in each direction in turn. If I practice these for a while I always feel a little taller, and sometimes a little more sure of myself.

I hope you can join me.

Details:

• January 14th, 5:30-7pm

• At theDock, 722 Cormorant Street

• $16.70 / person including fees

• Registration online at https://3common.com/five-animals-deer