Spring
Hello friends,
Just a short email today with a few notes after some schedule reminders:
There are no classes this week (April 13-17).
The short qigong sessions at theDock restart on Monday April 20, at the new time of 1pm.
Chen taiji picks back up next week and continues until the first week of June: Tuesdays April 21 - June 2 at 10:15am, and Thursdays April 23 - June 4 at 5:45pm.
And the next evening qigong workshop is about the Tiger portion of the Five Animal Frolics, on Wednesday April 22 at 5:30pm. A little more about that below.
Most of the time when I talk about the individual pieces of the Five Animal Frolics qigong I stress the season and emotions associated with each animal. I find those the most approachable ways in for people not already familiar with Traditional Chinese Medicine. But each animal is also associated with one of the five elements (五行, wǔxíng) that TCM uses.
The element associated with the tiger movements is wood. Many cultures have some kind of classical 4- or 5-element system, and one of the things that stands out to me about wood is that as far as I can tell it’s unique to the Chinese version. Wuxing emphasises constant change and cycling more explicitly than other element systems I know about—certainly more than the Greek-rooted one that shows up in various European cultures—and wood is the element most specifically associated with change. The focus is more on wood as a living thing that grows than a static material like the desk I’m sitting at to write this.
I’ve had this on my mind lately as I watch all the trees wake up from their winter dormancy. Some are exploding with flowers while others just have those soft green new leaves. All are beautiful and dynamic and visibly bursting with the optimism that is the positive expression of spring/wood energy. When I first announced the tiger workshop I wrote about the anger and impatience that can be the challenges of this energy upswing, and it’s important to pair that with its positive side.
The tiger movements themselves embody both parts of this: there’s a slow stretch, then a quick pounce & digging in of claws, and then a release of that tension so we don’t keep carrying it around. It feels very fitting for right now, and I hope you can join me to play through these.
Details:
Wednesday April 22nd, 5:30-7pm
At theDock, 722 Cormorant Street
$16.50 / person including fees
Beginners always welcome, no prior experience is expected
Registration online at https://eldan-goldenberg.bloomtickets.ca/event/640