GROWTH, HOPE AND NEW BEGINNINGS- SPRING, THE WOOD ELEMENT AND LIVER ENERGY

 A word about this essential work of cycles…To understand, embody, return to and express the wisdom of natural cycles is a radical act of wildness and coherence, which is to say a radical act of resistance to the systems and spells that seek to reduce our humanity, our power, our healthful rhythms, and our rightful relationship to each other and our living Earth.

We are not just “like nature”. We are nature. The same energetic patterns and flows of life force that create seasons, weather systems and cycles of life (which include essential cycles of decline and death) flow through our bodies and our lives.

Our transitions between the seasons of the year, and therefore between all natural cycles, are nature-supported and profoundly potent thresholds, carrying wise and potent maps, medicine and mirrors for our human lives, inner and outer.

We suffer because we have refused and misunderstood the natural cycles of our internal and external lives. When we do, we lose energy, skip ahead, get stuck, resist, deny, bypass, overstay, leave too early, and orphan ourselves at critical moments of transformation, maturation and initiation. Our lives, health, and harmony depend on our reckoning and understanding of cycles. 

The following workshops offer medicine and insight  into our passage from the fallow fields and quiet gestation of Winter and the Water Element to the tremble and stirring of new life, which is the elemental phase of Spring and the Wood Element.

​Through Chinese 5-Element teachings, archetypal qigong practices and primal movement we engage a medicinal exploration of the health of your relationship to cycles, rhythms and the biointelligence of life itself, which is always seeking coherence and balance, even through what appears to be dis-ease, chaos and crisis.

Unlimited spots available at full price. 5 spots available at a 10% discount. 5 spots available at a 20% discount. 3 spots available at a 40% discount. See my SLIDING EQUITY SCALE page for details and discount codes. Payment plans ( 4 bi-weekly installments) available to all at check out.

In the Northern Hemisphere we begin our transition from Winter to Spring on February 1, the cross-quarter holiday of Imbolc, when the light leans more toward the Spring Equinox in March, rather than the darkness of the Winter Solstice. We cross a threshold of light so to speak. This transition in Chinese Medicine is understood as a transition from the Water Element to the Wood Element- from the elderhood and deep quiet of darkness toward young light, from the stillness of the fallow field toward the tremble of fresh green sprouts and shoots, from a time of incubation toward a time of birth and new beginnings…

Spring is the literal pro-creative urge of nature, a rise of energy, a return of life for a fresh cycle. There is a call from the cosmological wisdom inside toward the Springtime. It is a season of individuation and becoming. In Chinese Medicine, the organs of Liver and Gallbladder carry the expression of the Wood Element. Wood energy graces us with new vision, a heart-felt experience of hope, clarity, faith, innocence, creative beginnings, and vision…after the essential stillness, deep dreaming, rest and surrender of Winter and the Water Element.

When we move from a Water phase to a Wood phase, this same energy is rising in us, as we too are nature. This passage occurs in line with the seasons, as well as any time we move from the deep womb of darkness, incubation and the necessary relinquishment of ambition into the stirrings of new life and beginning again. What is this transition like for you? Where and how do you resist it, get stuck or feel lost about how to make this journey?

If our Wood Element is weak or overactive, this transition can bring a surge of restlessness, agitation, a feeling of suffocation, wanting to pull the covers over our eyes and go back to bed, being wired and tired at the same time, a lack of vision and hope, an inability to begin anew or imagine our futures,, flares of anger and agitation, a loss of possibility and clarity… and sometimes the desire and effort to skip this phase of young life altogether and launch ourselves into the full expression of Summer too early, thus exhausting and depleting ourselves in a multitude of ways.

What is the health of your Wood Element?

THE STAND ALONE WORKSHOP ON FEBRUARY 24 is a creative movement collaboration with Sarah Byrden and Liz Koch.  Archetypal Qigong, Primal and Fluid Movement will lay a foundation for an illuminating understanding of our transition from the Water Phase to the Wood Phase, speak to where and how we can get stuck or resist this change in rhythm, as well as offer an introduction to some of the archetypal qigong forms that embody and storytell this particular elemental transition. This workshop will be informative, and deeply medicinal  The confluence of our two bodies of work creates a unique alchemy and synergy. You will leave this workshop with greater coherence, resilience, and sustenance.

THE BIRTH OF CREATION, A 6-WEEK SERIES with Sarah is a depth-series and will be a steady touchstone of nourishment and community in this rise into Spring. A weekly mini-home-retreat is a deeper tonic of support , exploration and medicinal practice spanning many weeks of this seasonal passage.  We will more deeply explore this Wood-phase birth of creation energy, which is the story of our very becoming, and our individuation out of any time of gestation. What has been gestating in you over the Winter? What is it trying to become? What is ready to begin again? How is your restlessness and anger pointing you toward your creative impulse? Might you be denying the creative impulse that wants to come through you? Each week we will explore different aspects of this transition, have time for journaling by prompt, reflection, sharing in community, and a deeper physical practice of primal movement and archetypal qigong that will harmonize your energy and help you make this shift into your personal Spring more fully, truly and gracefully.

RISE-A VIRTUAL RETREAT FOR SPRING : These retreats are a chance to create dedicated time each seasonal transition for pause, reflection, grounding, and nourishment. You can choose between a one-night or two-night retreat time, punctuated with several live somatic practice sessions designed to guide you into the energy and medicine of each season. The rest is entirely up to you. Giving yourself these times in regular seasonal rhythms is a delicious kind of sustenance and reset. As we rise into the energy of Spring after a long Winter, what would nourish, delight and ground you? The shape and contents of this retreat is entirely up to you. Perhaps it will be one of silence, solitude and rest. Maybe you’d like to hit the trails or meander around town, meet a friend for a meal, read a book in a coffee shop, go to the movie you’ve been wanting to see. The only request / guideline for the retreat  is a commitment to refrain from digital communication and screen time, save for the practices that will be offered.  This is a time to return to a more natural personal rhythm, to hear one’s own inner voice, to pause, step back and listen to what is rising in you as nature bursts forth in her own pro-creative urge. This is a time set to follow your deeper impulses toward nourishment.

The one-night retreat format will begin at 4 pm MDT on Friday, March 22 and end at 5 pm on Saturday March 23. Movement practices will be offered to open the retreat at 4 pm Friday, at 9 am MT on Saturday, and to close the retreat on Saturday. 

The two-night retreat format will begin at 4 pm MT on March 22 and end at noon on Sunday March 23rd. Movement practices will be offered to open the retreat at 4 pm Friday, at 9 am MT on Saturday, at 4 pm on Saturday and at 10:30 am MDT on Sunday. 

These practice times are designed not to “teach”, but simply to offer nourishing practices that will bring you more deeply into the medicine of this time. Short words will be invited to open and close the retreat, but the mid-retreat sessions will be offered without any request for engagement or words. 

Please note : Sarah Byrden no longer endorses the MogaDao Institute or study with Zhenzan/Zhenevere Dao, no longer teaches or studies in association with MogaDao, operates under the designation of “MogaDao Teacher”, nor represents or endorses MogaDao as a tradition or entity in any way.