How To Make a Taoist Shrine or a Taoist Altar

Dearest friends,

Happy Lunar New Year 2018, Chinese New Year Celebration!  The 2018 Chinese New Year begins on Friday, February 16.  2018 will be the first Year of the Earth Dog since 1958. 

MEANING OF THE YEAR OF THE DOG: You come more into your power, are respected, and can emerge a leader. Main energies; honesty, stability, practicality, balance, gentleness, idealistic & unselfish.  2018 signifies a huge shift toward the earth element, and away from the chaotic and often stressful fire element of the 2016 Monkey and the 2017 Rooster. Those born in Dog, Dragon, Sheep/Ram, Rooster, and Ox years are advised to tread carefully and pay attention to to their health in the 2018 Dog year.  The Earth Element - The Year Of The Dog is about making peace with yourself and creating peace, being IN peace and peace-full.

Questions to Katherine: What is the purpose of having a Taoist Altar at home and how to make one.
Answer: Now that we are beginning The Year Of The Dog, the year of The Earth Element - (it is all about nurturing and nourishment) to give but also to nurture oneself. This is a good time too to build your own Taoist Altar at home. I have written down some ideas for you;

A Taoist Altar represents some of the core beliefs of TAO spiritual cultivations to nurture the foundations of a life in balance. Turning our attention within mindfully, we become aware of the actual conjoin of light beings, of the subtle universal divine order and we develop and see with our inner sense how all diverse universal light form energies are interplaying constantly and ever evolving, never in “danger” and always become more as a result of co-creation in contrast, meaning with elements or light forms that are diverse and at times different. Harmony, Appreciation, Divine Flow Of Well-Being are some of the natural ways of life of a disciple of the TAO. For me, to live mindfully the ways of the TAO is to freely and IN love adopt a self-discipline to harmonize with universal laws while in physical focused form and to transcend our Divine Essence into being. :)

I have created this Taoist Altar at home for prayer, cultivation and it is a corner to nurture, to evoke peace and harmony. I have also incorporated light forms that represent the five elements or five steps and foundations; Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. When I come before the Taoist Altar I come here to emptied my mind, to open my heart and to listen... to tune in to the divine visible and invisible forces of the Universe. The TAOist Altar is also a place for renewal and contemplation and most importantly, of appreciation for All There Is.

The Three Pure Ones: Formless Divine Intentional Energies
The Jade Pure One (Shen), - The Supreme Pure One (Jing), - The Grand Pure One - Qi

Divine and Perfect Order is also represented with the integration of the Five Elements, of Yin and Yang Essences and with the presence of Life Force Energy “Qi.”

The WOOD element is represented by the Altar Table made of wood, an oak wood carved yin and yang symbol, a bamboo screen that represents idealism and the status of Buddha.

The FIRE element is represented by white and gold candles, sandalwood incense for purification and transformation. Fire has great power for forging will and determination, inner light and passion for life.

The EARTH element is represented by feathers, a bonsai to honor our elders and a crystal grid depending on the healing intentional energy I am crafting into being. Earth is too about nurturing. 

The METAL element is represented by a bell, a statue of Francis of Assisi patron of animals and nature and an inspiration for peaceful ways, a white box containing a list of heartfelt dreams I am currently manifesting into being and a 15 piece geometry set used for technical drawing supplies. I have included this curious set of utensils because the Metal element is about structure and methods and building up characteristics and these supplies remind me of drafting something that is visually created by the imagination, it is like giving birth to a formless idea into functional visual language.

The WATER element is represented by a water fountain, an Earth-Heart shape water glass and a water statue of Archangel Metatron the guardian of the Tree Of Life. Water also represents constitution, an agile mind, flow and emotions.

It is important not to lose the message in the symbol, to choose symbols that could evoke the essence of All There Is, the TAO, the formless energy of infinite possibilities.

I wish you joy, harmony and prosperity in your divine journey and in the process of designing your own TAOist Altar.

I LOVE YOU, I DO!

Katherine

Self-Healing Cultivation With The Moon - Lungs (Metal Element)

Dearest friends,

Here is a simple self-healing cultivation, (gathering and trans-forming) good energy practice or spiritual exercise. Bring into your awareness the presence of nature, our extended body. Tune-in to the energy of love, well-being, bliss or flow to live in freedom and joy.

Taoist QiGong Self-Healing Cultivation: Transforming "blocked" emotional energy into nourishment-at-ease of the five organs; elements of nature present in our physical composition; Heart (Fire), Spleen (Earth), Lungs (Metal), Kidneys (Water) and Liver (Wood), as described in Chinese Energy Medicine.  We are physical extensions of the environment we live in.

In this specific cultivation, (exercise practice), we transform the stuck energy of grief, located in the lung organ-system, into the lung's virtue, (the positive essence of the lung in Chinese Energy Medicine is courage.)

Time Required: 10-15 minutes, or longer if you wish
Modulation: Sound, Light, Metal Element

1. Find a quiet place to practice. I do recommend you create your own PEACE CORNER(1) for your daily cultivations. Sit upright on the front edge of a straight-backed chair, facing South since this is a cultivation for enrichment, with your feet flat on the floor, directly beneath your knees. It's also fine to sit in a cross-legged position on a cushion of the floor, if this is comfortable for you.
2. Calm your mind and your body. Focus on the present moment at peace. Take a couple of deep, slow breaths. As you exhale, smile gently, which will help to release any unnecessary tension in your face, jaw, neck or shoulders. Feel your energy settling into your lower abdomen - the lower dantien. 
3. Bring your focus - your conscious attention - to your lungs: a huge organ, comprised of five lobes, which occupies the majority your mid- to upper chest (everywhere except for where your heart is). Smile gently to your lungs, as you shift your focus toward the co-creation of good healing energy.
4. Take a deep, smooth, soft inhalation, and as you exhale, make the healing sound ssssss - like the sound of a snake hissing. Direct, with your visualization, the vibration of this sound into your lungs, and feel that it is helping the "stuck" emotional energy of grief (your inner vision can see it as a gray cloud), to become "unstuck," i.e. to flow again as simply energy, without a specific name or shape.
5. Make the ssssss sound, with your focus in your lungs, at least three times - though it's fine to repeat as many times as you'd like. This is the first part of the self-healing practice: using sound to release the energy of grief.
6. In the second part of the practice, we're going to use the vibration of light to nourish the lung's virtue of courage. Here's how: First, focus your attention and exhale completely, and with your inhalation, imagine that you're drawing into your lungs a beautiful shimmering white light - the color of a full moon.
7. "Breathe" this white healing light in through your nostrils, and mentally direct it to your lungs. Alternatively, you can "breathe" this healing light in through every cell of your skin, directing it to your lungs.Visualization and concentration are important components of this self-healing cultivation.
8. Feel your lungs opening to receive the gift of this beautiful healing light - as though they were drinking a wonderful nectar, a powerful elixir. The energy of the moon is refreshing, cooling, reinvigorating and gives you strength.  See your lungs beginning to pulse and glow - to vibrate with this beautiful white energy, fill them up as if they were actually made of white light.
9. With each inhalation, draw into your lungs this beautiful moon-white light. With each exhalation, simply notice the lung's "virtue" of courage. This is a quality that already exists within you. We're simply using a particular frequency of light to nourish it, to invite it to reveal its full splendor to us.
10. Draw the healing light into your lungs for five or six breaths, at least - though you can continue for as long as you like.
11. To end the practice, smile once again down to your lungs, and notice how you feel.
12. Smile to the moon and do remember to practice this cultivation with the Full Moon, however, remember that the white lady, the Moon is always there. I had a student once that told me that she was not able to practice this exercise because there was no moon during the new moon cycle. Oh! The moon is gone, the moon is gone I said to her. :) Of course the moon is there and it is always there even when we don't "see it" with our physical eyes. 

Remember that in Taoist Qigong practice emotions can be understood as forms of blocked energy. We use the healing sounds, the power of focusing the mind with an "INTENTION" to shift energy and the power of visualization to direct and craft energy, AND  to break up a particular emotion/shape, so that the energy bound in that shape can once again flow freely.

Write to me if you wish to share your experience with this self-healing cultivation or if you have further questions. I am here to help you in any way I can. :)

Love and light!
Katherine


My Divine Travels - Lotus Bioenergy Clinic
Chinese Energy Medicine - Doctor Medical QiGong  
Gerontologist - Taoist Meditation Instructor Certified
Kundalini Yoga Teacher