HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!!

Also known by MidWinter, Yule!

At the darkest moment of the year, light is reborn. From the womb of the night is born the child of light who is the returning year.

Solstice reminds us that the Goddess is, beyond all, associated with regeneration. Death gives way to birth, ending in new beginnings. Another reminder that every quality contains and gives to its opposite. There can be no light without darkness, no darkness without light.

Winter is officially here, the time of death and conception, the Yin peak of the year in the Taoist calendar, a special time for us women, where the yin prevails...!

We dive into the Water Element represented by our kidneys, guardians of ancestral QI/CHI, the storehouse of genetic energy, holding the reproductive essence, our life force. Associated with the virtues of wisdom and gentleness (and the negative emotion of fear).

• Jade is a great crystal to heal the kidneys, you've one more reason to keep connected with your Jade Egg!

A Good Tip for this Winter and actually you can apply all year round:

***Keep your kidneys warm, don't forget they look after your life force, (your creative energy which is present in everything you do!...) - give them a good rub every day. 

*And if you're rubbing your kidneys just bring the movement down and give an energetic rub, and some tapping in your sacrum (the triangle bone in the base of your spine), keep it warm! The sacrum is in the back of your sexual, creative centre, connecting with all pelvic nerves, for the Taoist the sacrum is the gateway to the Universe beyond the visible... This is a simple thing to keep this important area of your body healthy and free of tension and lower back pain!

 Here is an extra:

**When people ask me what to do if they feel this part of the body is cold, I recommend wearing a scarf around their waist, keeping the kidneys and sacrum warm. This can apply to everyone who spends a long time in the same position (like sitting with their computers, playing an instrument, etc...)

*And of course, ladies, it is especially good to keep your kidneys warm when you're with your moontime (your period) and if you are cold or tired. 

Another great practice for the above and to keep your kidneys and adrenal glands (a little helmet above them) rejuvenated and healthy, is to do the kidney breathing - for those familiar with this practice, to the others who want to learn, keep posted for next year workshops and evening circles!

© Anamarta

!! CeLebRaTing 2 !!

I'm back from India, after two months of inspiration and renewal and looking forward 2 see you and meet you! :)
We started this 2nd month, with the New Moon on 2nd, and yesterday the New Year of the Rabbit, female energies are in high!
February is a special month for us! I'm celebrating 2 years of writing newsletters to you, 2 years of Jade Circle Blog.
As a celebration month I'd love to see you all, the ones I saw two months ago and the ones I saw last year, or two years ago!
As February is itself NR 2, the lunar number, believed to be very feminine and receptive.
Let's start the Rabbit New Year in the greatest way!... Unveiling the mysterious feminine! Celebrating ourselves!
"Rabbit brings a year in which you can catch your breath and calm your nerves. To gain the greatest benefits from this time, focus on home, family, security, diplomacy, and your relationships with women and children."
Here we go!
The rabbit is said to be gracious, peaceful, gentle, virtuous and financially lucky. It's a symbol for mercy, elegance, amiability and worship of beauty.
According to the Chinese tradition, it's a welcome move into a more placid time after the ferocious year of the Tiger!

The highlight of this month of celebration will be on Sunday 27th, with the Awakening Your Inner Goddess Workshop...Follow Your Inner Wisdom! A special workshop to celebrate and embrace the Yin Peak of the year!
We're celebrating the love of Valentine's with the couples workshop, Tao Tantra 1.
Celebrate love with more love!... Following in love with your beautiful self! Loving yourself unconditionally, no matter what!
The news of the year!... An Advanced Jade Circle workshop to deepen your Jade Egg & Taoist Yin practices is coming in September, I'll let you know more about it: keep posted!

I'd to take the opportunity to thank you for being part of the Jade Circle with your physical or virtual presence! This beautiful sisterhood we've been cultivating, exploring the mysterious feminine, reaping the fruits of wisdom, wellbeing, pleasure and enjoyment of being a women, and honour the Divine feminine within and its outer manifestations! I feel truly blessed for you to be part of my life and to hold this sacred circle which provides the space to grow, explore and make the most of the beauty of our feminine essence and harmony of our yin & yang energies!

"The Jade Circle gives the chance to really tune in to how I'm feeling in a way that's unique...While being surrounded by other women in such a respectful place it totally opens up a new way of being. It has amazed me just how much energy and insight can be gained by tuning into the yin energy and after all my years of 'doing'- I feel I'm receiving a profound wisdom of how to not so much 'do' and more how to 'be'. This comes from your support, wisdom and sweetness. You give us absolute permission to leave all the hard edges of the outside world at the door- and to be nourished by the space you so generously hold for us. I also feel like I'm not in London for the time we're with you...it's a great feeling!"
Thank you for sharing Christine!

• Regarding your personal practice, have you been smiling to your kidneys (Happy New Year post) and keeping them warm (Happy Winter Solstice post)?

A great way to keep them rejuvenated, (they regulate our life force and carry our ancestor chi, they play such an important rule in your sexual energy!) is to practice the kidney breathing. For the ones who learnt it, here's a reminder: keep on doing it! The ones who would like to learn or review it, together with Chi Kung exercises to keep your kidneys radiant, join me in the coming workshops!
Here a nice way to keep your kidneys clear and happy with the healing sound:

• Find yourself in a quiet place. If its not freezing outside, its lovely to do it in nature. You can be sit on the floor or in a chair, take your time to connect with your kidneys; in your mind's eye delve into the waters of your kidneys, acknowledging any fear, any nervousness, breathe in through your kidneys and let all these emotions go with the sound WHHHOOOOOO. The movement is placing your hands on your knees, round the back in a C shape and pull in the abdomen. Imagining, feeling the sound vibrating inside your kidneys; and now breathe in the blue silk filled with gentleness and wisdom and wrapped around your kidneys; visualize, imagine, feel your bright blue healthy kidneys. Give them a smile!

With all these energies of new beginning launching the month, its time to concentrate on what you wish to manifest in the coming year, or reinforce your last month's wishes!
******* Do you need to stir a bit of magic in your life? Well, magic is no more than a change of consciousness. Become the magician: embrace the feminine mystery, honor your inner Goddess and inner wisdom, trust them to illuminate your sacred path of beauty and infinite being you are!

© Anamarta

!! HAPPY NEW YEAR !!

Namaste & Happy New Year!!

And Happy New Moon; yes, yesterday in Capricorn, such a good kick for the new year! This moon connects with personal ambitions, dedication, a good time to develop strong structures, set boundaries and rules.
Well, have you set your intentions for this new year?... I'm really excited about it!! And you?
As we're in the new season as well, started two weeks ago with a full moon and a total lunar eclipse!
What a start to embrace this Yin peak of the year, the Winter!
We'll have our own celebration next month with the workshop Awakening Your Inner Goddess...Follow Your Inner Wisdom!
And for the end of the season we close in grace with the Jade Circle workshop!
You can find more in the posts above.

Look upon the water element, its just amazing what water can do! The element which best describes our yin, feminine, nature.
Water is nature's shape-shifter, freezing, solid as ice, boiling to steam, flowing as teardrop or tidal wave. As plain water it adapts to any shape, fits in any container and left to its own devices always flows down to find the lowest level, a good thing to remember when "going with the flow".
Rivers flow into the ocean which evaporates into clouds which rain on the earth and refill rivers.
The water element is represent in our kidneys and genitals.
** Take a moment for yourself, time to stillness, time to just being, cultivating your yin energy.
Be aware of your kidneys, and smile at your kidneys, you can place the palm of your hands in your back, you may feel a warm feeling raising, keep smiling and breath in the blue light of wisdom and gentleness, connect with your inner wisdom. Smile at your kidneys, let your gentleness act and your inner wisdom talk.
** If you want to continue, or you can do it in another meditation, move your hands or place your hands in your womb, cover your ovaries, your uterus, your Jade Gate. Smile, feel, visualize or imagine the warm of your hands blending with the cooler water, alchemy is trigger. Smile and appreciate your Jade Gate everything it does to sustain your life, appreciate your ancestors and your descendants, appreciate one of the sacred parts of your beautiful female body, thank it for its power of creation and the pleasure it can give, and understand pleasure as opening the door of bliss in path of ecstasy.

This is a great time of the year to go inwards, connect with yourself in a deep and profound level. Allow this time to be, let go of the doing now, and just be, allow the yin energy to emerge from the depth of your inner-self, allowing your inner-wisdom to be your guide, awakening, stimulating, enhancing the Goddess within.
Is good for us to have time to retreat, "Retreat is not an act of weakness; its an act of strength. In order to access your gifts of inspiring and renewal, you must be at peace with yourself and rested enough to recognize blessings being offered." (Jamie Sams).
All the answers are inside us, we just need the time to receive the information, digest it and then apply it to our lives. Find your self-healing and self-mastery, and is what the Taoist practices are about.

Good news! The inspirational and long-awaited book Taoist Shaman - Practices from the Wheel of Life by Mantak Chia & Kris Deva North is going to be released soon! click here for the special offer! If you are into e-books you can get it here!
If you want to learn more, we're running a Taoist Shamanic Healing workshop at the end of the month.

© Anamarta

Self-Nurturing!

Here we are, end of the month, tomorrow is the last full moon of this Winter. A couple of weeks and we go into the new season, the Spring, when things begin.
Do you start to smell, feel change in the air?
We are in the transition from being, the Yin peak of the year to the time of doing, with the Wood element.
I'm looking upon this time as self-nurturing, looking after ourselves, our bodies, still delving into our yin, water energy and letting emerge the beginning of Spring, welcoming this alive and healthy energy within! I see the time and care invested in ourselves as the greatest investment! From here we can spread our vibrations, inspiration and support towards others.

From inspirational Jamie Sams in Sacred Path Cards:
~"The way we view life is dependent, to a certain extent, on how we feel and how we respect and care for our bodies."
~"All nurturing comes from the ability to pay attention to our needs and our feelings. If we don't know what we need, how can we nurture ourselves? If we don't know what others need or feel, how can we give comfort? If we are out of touch with our bodies, how can we keep them healthy and strong?"
~"If we are willing to nurture ourselves through connection to our Earth Mother, then we will learn how to nurture others."
Our body is a vehicle for processing energy, and the healthier we are, the more energy it will process at a faster rate.
~One thing to be aware of is the physical effect on our body of our thoughts and feelings. So as Dr.Christiana Northrup says in Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: "If our bodies are nothing but a field of ideas, lets make sure that those ideas represent our best interest."

A great way for nourishment and self-nurturing is the inner smile, smile to your organs giving special attention still to your kidneys and give a special look to your liver. When doing your inner smile...notice if any of the organs feel different? Can be a message from your internal universe.
**Focus on the breath coming and going through your nose... With your minds eye, look in front of you and see the sun, warm and shining, lighting up all your being, all your organs, all your cells, all your bones... Smile at your organs... when you arrive at your kidneys:
*Keep smiling at your kidneys, breathe in the blue healing light of gentleness and wisdom; be gentle with yourself, be gentle in everything you do.

Fear being the emotion of the kidneys, it creates cold, associate negative emotions as phobias, trauma, nervousness, which are very deep emotions; fear contributes as well for the loss of the primordial and sexual energy, loss of life force, (the nervous system becomes stressed, the body becomes acidic). Do the kidneys healing sound to let go all your fears:
**Connect with your kidneys, feel or imagine the warmth from your palms going into your kidneys, you can be sitting on the chair or in floor, place your hands around your knees, your feet on the floor, round the back, and pull in the abdomen. Look inward, into your kidneys and breathe out WHHHOOOO releasing, letting go fear.
Breath in the fresh bright blue light of gentleness, calmness and wisdom.

Self-nurturing is essential to connect with the Divine Feminine within.
*What makes part of your self-nurturing routine?
Do you know is important to integrate one self-nurturing practice towards ourselves every day?
**You can make a list of everything that makes you feel good, nurtured and happy with yourself. Then add one of these to your daily life. May different days reflect different self-nurturing practices.

Enjoy the end of the Winter and the beginning of the Spring!

© Anamarta

Keeping Warm!

Hello!

How is your Winter?
This time of looking inwards, to focus and embrace the flow of your yin energy, the time of just being. And do you know each moment is a precious gift in BE-ing? Enjoy!

Are you keeping your kidneys warm? (check the Happy Winter Solstice post).
Another good thing to keep you warm, as you already know, is to have warm feet. And do you know why?
We've the KD1- Kidney 1 point in the sole of your foot, (where you keep your feet on the ground), named 'Bubbling Spring'.
**Do some tapping, massage in your KD1, awaken and stimulating this point; which can be very helpful in your connection with the Earth. Through it you can easily access the healing and abundant energy of Mother Earth and Water Element, imagine drinking from it. You can also use this point to discharge anything you want to let go from your body (physical, emotional and even energetic), you can do a meditation or just dance, dance with the rhythm of the Earth, surrender to Her pulse. Remember that Mother Earth is always open to recycle everything you send and the Water element to dissolve it.
A good way to stimulate your circulation:
**To rub, massage your ears. Yes, the ears are linked with your kidneys. Also helping you to keep warm!

© Anamarta