Birthday of Master Yip Man (October 10)
































October 10 is the birthday of Master Yip Man (1893 - 1972).  His mastery of Wing Chun Kung Fu is unquestionable.  

This passage from Wing Chun Warrior by Ken Ing describes some of the details of Yip Man's life:
Yip Man was born in Foshan in 1893, during the reign of Emperor Guang Xu (1875  - 1908).  His family was well off, and he was raised and educated in the traditional manner.
By the time he was 13, he was accepted as the last disciple of Chen Hua-shun [Guangdongwa: Chan Wah Soon], who was the most outstanding disciple of Liang Zan [Guangdongwa: Leung Jan].  His Sifu was in his seventies when he was accepted, and it was Wu Zhong-su, his second elder Kung Fu brother, who undertook the responsibility of teaching him.
In 1908, when he was 15, Yip Man became a boarder at St. Stephen's College in Stanley in Hong Kong.  It was his good fortune that, while in Hong Kong, he met Liang Bi [Guangdongwa: Leung Bik], the son of Liang Zan [Leung Jan].  By the time he returned to Foshan, he had plumbed the depths of Liang Bi's knowledge of Wing Chun. The superiority of Yip Man's Wing Chun led to speculation that secret Kung Fu knowledge had been passed from Liang Zan to Liang Bi to him.
Yip Man witnessed the fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911, the birth of the Republic of China under the presidency of Sun Yat-sen, and the Kuomintang regime under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek.  He survived the Second World War and the occupation by the Japanese Imperial Army betwee 1937 and 1945.
After Japan was defeated in 1945, Yip Man served as a police chief in Foshan, from which vantage point he witnessed the failure of the Kuomintang regime and its retreat to Taiwan.  Before the birth of the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, he escaped to Hong Kong without his family to avoid an expected purge by the victorious Communists led by Mao Zedong.
To earn his livelihood in Hong Kong, Yip Man began teaching Wing Chun Kung Fu.  Considering the state of Hong Kong's economy at the time and the huge number of refugees flooding across the border, establishing a school was a formidable undertaking.  However, as a result of Yip Man's efforts, Wing Chun rapidly became recognized in Hong Kong Kung Fu circles as a legitimate system of martial arts.
At different times and at different places throughout his career, Yip Man had accepted students.  However, it was the students he taught in the 1950s in Hong Kong who built the reputation of Wing Chun.  Collectively they were known simply as the Wing Chun fighters.  103-104.

It is no exaggeration to say that the Sifu Yip Man's teaching changed the world.  Through his students, and in particular through the exceptional career of his student Bruce Lee (pictured above with his Sifu, Yip Man, during the 1950s in Hong Kong), the West came to know about kung fu in a completely different way than ever before.

In fact, it is not an exaggeration to suggest that those who came to study Chinese kung fu outside of China since the 1960s and 1970s owe a debt of gratitude to the teaching of Master Yip Man.  His decision to teach kung fu in Hong Kong beginning in the 1950s led directly to the incredible explosion of popularity of the martial arts around the world beginning in the 1960s.

It is also no exaggeration to say that, through the study of the martial arts, many people of other cultures and backgrounds have been introduced to the profound culture of China and its neighboring cultures and countries, and their lives have been made richer by this contact.

You can learn more about the life and teaching of Sifu Yip Man at the website of the Yip Man Museum in Foshan.  The website contains a virtual tour feature in which you can click on almost all of the photographs and artifacts at the museum itself, and see them on your computer screen.

Respect.

Jupiter in Gemini



The stars in the morning sky before dawn are always a special treat, well worth the effort of rising early to see them while the sky is still black or beginning to lighten into deep blue in the east, without drowning out the constellations.

Right now, the constellations before dawn feature some of the most glorious constellations in our sky, well worth getting out to see them if at all possible.  

Orion is high in the sky before dawn, in fact reaching his highest altitude on his arc-shaped journey across the southern heavens (for viewers in the northern hemisphere) at about 5:45 am.  Orion is the constellation with the greatest percentage of bright stars out of all the constellations, and he is also extremely important in ancient legend and sacred tradition (see previous discussions on this topic including "The importance of Orion," "Orion and the Winter Circle of mythologically important stars,"    "Leo, the Lion King, Hamlet and Osiris," and "Capella, precession, and the end of the Golden Age," among many others).

Even more spectacular, however, may be the sight of the brilliant constellation of Gemini (the Twins), with the enormous planet Jupiter passing through.  The Twins are located close to Orion, and are therefore you don't have to decide who is the most spectacular -- the entire panoply is spread out in breathtaking glory in the hours before sunrise begins to color the east with red.  Orion, along with his consort Sirius, and the Twins with Jupiter are all near their highest point in the heavens beginning around five o'clock in the morning, and the effect is truly magnificent.  

If you are somewhat unfamiliar with the precise location of Gemini, some of the links above contain diagrams that can be helpful, as does this previous post ("Gemini, Canis Minor, and the Hairy Twin") which contains a good image showing the location of the Twins with respect to Orion.  It only shows the head and shoulders of Orion -- his famous belt would be located lower and below the margin of the bottom of the image -- but you should be able to locate both Orion and the Twins using that image along with some of the others of Orion contained in the links above.

Jupiter is currently passing through Gemini and is actually located at delta Geminorum right now, the star known as Wasat.  The name "Wasat" comes from an Arabic word meaning "the middle," and Wasat is right at the middle of the lower of the two twins, as you can see from the diagram above, where Wasat is marked with the numerals "55."  Wasat is marked with the lower-case Greek letter delta in this diagram.  This discussion of Wasat on Wikipedia reveals that the star is actually part of a triple-star system.

The constellation of the Twins is extremely important in ancient legend and sacred tradition as well.  This web page contains a collection of excerpts from ancient sources which mention the legend of the Twins, known as Castor and Polydeuces or Castor and Pollux in ancient Greek and Roman mythology.  Pollux is the name of the brightest star in the constellation, the head of the lower of the two figures in the diagram above (marked with the numerals "78").  Note that the line of the ecliptic passes primarily through the figure of Pollux, who of the two Twins in legend was the immortal of the pair and the son of Zeus.  

As discussed in numerous previous posts, such as this one and this one, there is substantial evidence to suggest that the ancient myths and sacred traditions describe the motions of the stars and heavenly bodies, rather than the conventional view that the myths came first and the ancients later named the constellations and planets after their mythical gods and heroes.  Thus, from the above discussion we can see why the myth of the Twins describes Pollux as the immortal and the son of Zeus: his star is brighter, and the ecliptic path -- and hence the gods -- pass through his figure and not much through Castor (just barely going through the stars of Castor, which may be why he is granted only a very partial sort of immortality in the legend).  

Zeus, of course, is the same god as Jupiter (the Latin name of whom may well mean "Zeus Pater," according to some analysts).  Thus, the passage of the planet Jupiter through Gemini that we are witnessing now may well be encoded in the myth of the Twins by the fact that -- of the two -- only Pollux is the son of Zeus.

Due to the complex motions of the planets as they whirl through the solar system in conjunction with the motion of the earth and our speeding sun, the path of the planets along the general line of the ecliptic is not exactly the same from year to year, although their path stays in the general vicinity of the light-blue line representing the ecliptic which is seen in the diagram above.  For a truly outstanding diagram of the path of Jupiter as it moves through the constellation Gemini this month and in following months, check out this chart from Naked Eye Planets.  The full website of Naked Eye Planets, by Martin J. Powell, is located here.

Finally, no mention of the ancient sacred traditions of the Twins would be complete without a reminder that a pair known as the Hero Twins also played a central role in the sacred traditions of the great civilizations of the Americas.  In this previous post, I examine the iconography of the Maya steles at Izapa (a site which also has abundant evidence of ancient Olmec activity) and argue that the depictions of the Hero Twins along with certain fantastical birds are most likely meant to convey celestial connections.  In fact, the imagery has very strong similarities to specific iconography used in ancient Egypt and ancient Babylon, imagery so specific that it is difficult to argue that they arose coincidentally without any sort of ancient contact.  

For this reason, the Twins may be an important clue supporting "diffusionist" paradigm over the conventional "isolationist" history that is taught in school.

You may find it enjoyable to consider all these connections as you gaze out into the heavens in the predawn sky to see the passage of Jupiter through Gemini.


October 6 is the birth-date of Thor Heyerdahl





























October 6 is the birthdate of Thor Heyerdahl (1914 - 2002).  His insights, analysis and expeditions provided some of the most important evidence for what is often called the "diffusionist" theory versus the "isolationist" theory.  

The diffusionist theory argues that ancient peoples had the capability of deliberately and repeatedly crossing the oceans, including the Atlantic and the Pacific, and that they did so as far back as the time of the ancient Egyptians.  It thus stands agains the isolationist theories taught by most conventional academicians today, which categorically rejects any suggestion of the possibility of cultural contact between peoples from different continents in ancient times, despite abundant evidence around the world that seems to suggest such ancient contact.  

Thor Heyerdahl entered into this momentous question by several happy circumstances beginning in his early life, which -- when brought into contact with his boundless curiosity and irrepressible optimism and adventurous spirit -- led to several famous adventures and discoveries of tremendous significance.  

This webpage from the Kon-Tiki museum explains that as a young student at the University of Oslo, Thor Heyerdahl met Bjarne Kroepelien, who had traveled to the South Pacific, a part of the world that had fascinated Heyerdahl since childhood.  Kroepelien assisted the young Thor Heyerdahl when Thor and his new bride Liv decided to try to live on an undeveloped island (Fatu Hiva) in the Marquesas to study the local flora and try to determine the route that had brought the various species to the island.  

It was Kroepelien's letter to the Tahitian Chief Teriieroo which enabled Thor and Liv to spend a month with Teriieroo on Tahiti, for practical training in the traditional methods of living off the land.  They stayed a year but insect-borne disease forced them to seek medical attention on neighboring Hiva Oa.  There, another Norwegian who had permanently settled there on a coconut plantation showed Heyerdahl some stone statues in the jungle, which -- along with his friend's suggestion that similar statues could be seen in Colombia, in South America -- fired Thor Heyerdahl's imagination and started him on the pursuit of theories that went against the settled opinion of the historians and anthropologists of his day, and launched him on the many adventures and investigations that would become his life's work.

Heyerdahl became convinced that the islands of the Pacific had been peopled originally by people from South America, perhaps a people who were the predecessors of the Inca, who had traveled eastward on balsa rafts, and who were later joined by another wave of people from the northwest tribes of North America, who had traveled southeast on double-hulled canoes.  These two peoples later mixed (sometimes peacefully and sometimes violently) on the various islands of the wide Pacific, leaving a distinctive Polynesian culture that stretched all the way from Easter Island (Rapa Nui) to New Zealand (Aotearoa).  

Meeting solid opposition from those who said this theory was impossible, Heyerdahl in 1947 undertook his most famous adventure, the Kon-Tiki expedition, to prove that long-distance travel over the open ocean in balsa rafts was not only possible, but extremely practical.  In his best-selling account of that expedition (still thrilling reading today), he explains the origin of the expedition's now-famous name:
Virakocha is an Inca (Ketchua) name and consequently of fairly recent date.  The original name of the sun-god Virakocha, which seems to have been more used in Peru in old times, was Kon-Tiki or Illa-Tiki, which means Sun-Tiki or Fire-Tiki.  Kon-Tiki was high priest and sun-king of the Incas' legendary 'white men' who had left the enormous ruins on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  The legend runs that the mysterious white men with beards were attacked by a chief named Cari who came from the Coquimbo Valley.  In a battle on an island in Lake Titicaca the fair race was massacred, but Kon-Tiki himself and his closest companions escaped and later came down to the Pacific coast, whence they finally disappeared oversea to the westward. . .  18-19.  
Heyerdahl explains that the existence of strong traditions as far away as the Marquesas of a founding anscestor named Tiki, who had come to the islands "from a mountainous land in the east which was scorched by the sun" (18).  Hence, his voyage and the vessel he and his companions used in order to prove such a direction of travel was possible, even over the vast distances and mighty ocean swells of the broad Pacific, was dubbed the Kon-Tiki.

Later in his life, Heyerdahl undertook similar voyages across the world's largest oceans in ships built of traditional materials and design, including the Ra voyage across the Atlantic and the Tigris voyage across the Indian Ocean.

For previous posts referring to some of Thor Heyerdahl's arguments against the isolationist theories, see also:
For a partial list of some of the overwhelming pile of evidence which supports the "diffusionist" theories and casts serious doubt on the "isolationist" theories, see the links in this previous post entitled "The Calixtlahuaca head."

Also, while October 6 is an important date because of the birthday of Thor Heyerdahl, October 5 (still the date here in California as this is published) is even more important, as it is the birthday of my father -- Happy Birthday!  He taught me to make Norwegian crepes, which I had for breakfast this morning.  He also introduced me to the love of looking at the stars, beginning with the wonderful book Find the Constellations, by H.A. Rey -- and plenty of trips outside together to look up at the night sky and try to find the constellations ourselves.


Human internal organs connected to solar system planets?







































In the system of Chinese medicine, which has ancient origins stretching back thousands of years, each of the internal organs of the human body has connections to either yin or yang, to specific periods during the daily rotation of the earth, to the energy typical of one of the five elements (discussed below), to different emotional states, and -- interestingly enough -- to one of the different planets of our solar system.

This website, for example, lists the organ correspondences of each of the five visible planets, proceeding through each of the five traditional Taoist elements, or "Five Elemental Energies":

Planet: Jupiter
Element: Wood
Yin Organ: Liver
Yang Organ: Gall Bladder

Planet: Mars
Element: Fire
Yin Organ: Heart
Yang Organ: Small Intestine

There is actually a second set of organs also associated with Fire and Mars -- the pericardium (the sac around the heart -- a yin organ), and the "triple burner," which is not a physical organ but an energetic system associated with three channels in the thoracic and pelvic cavities, along which energy flows as water flows in an old water-wheel that turns a millstone (the triple burner is a yang organ).

Planet: Saturn
Element: Earth
Yin Organ: Spleen
Yang Organ: Stomach

Planet: Venus
Element: Metal
Yin Organ: Lungs
Yang Organ: Large Intestine

Planet: Mercury
Element: Water
Yin Organ: Kidneys
Yang Organ: Bladder

In his book, A Handbook of Chinese Healing Herbs, Daniel Reid provides some excellent introductory discussions of the concepts of yin and yang, the Five Elemental Energies, and the Traditional Chinese Medicine understanding of the organs.  He writes:
The Great Principle of Yin and Yang is the first and foremost law of the manifest universe.  It delineates and defines the opposite yet complementary poles that lie at the heart of all dynamic forces, initiate all growth and transformation, and maintain the balance and harmony of the vital energies on which human health and longevity depend.  Yin and yang are not different types of energy but, rather, complementary poles of the same basic energies of the universe, such as the hot and cold of heat energy, the bright and dark of light energy, and the positive and negative of electromagnetic energy.  The vital organ-energies of the human body also function as complementary couples of yin and yang: the yin heart is functionally linked with the yang small intestine; yin liver is paired with yang gallbladder; yin kidneys are coupled with yang bladder; and so forth. 13-14.
Of the Five Elemental Energies, he says, beginning with a quotation from the ancient text whose principles still infuse much of Chinese medicine:
"The Five Elemental Energies of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and Water encompass all the myriad phenomena of nature.  It is a paradigm that applies equally to humans," states The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine.  As functional manifestations of yin and yang, the Five Elemental Energies are the fundamental forces of nature whose constant transformations and interactions "make the world go 'round."  As another ancient Chinese text puts it, "The Five Elemental Energies combine and recombine in innumerable ways to produce manifest existence.  All things contain all Five Elemental Energies in various proportions."

The Five Elemental Energies transform, manifest, and maintain their own natural equilibrium through an automatic system of checks and balances based on the creative and control cycles, or mother-son and victor vanquished relationships. [. . .]
The creative cycle [see black arrows in the diagram below] is one of generation and stimulation: Wood generates Fire; Fire generates Earth; Earth generates Metal; Metal generates Water; Water generates Wood.  The control cycle [see white arrows in the diagram below] dominates and sedates: Metal sedates Wood; Wood sedates Earth; Earth sedates Water; Water sedates Fire; Fire sedates Metal. 14-15.
The diagram below is similar to one shown in Daniel Reid's book, and illustrates the creative cycle and the control cycle:





































Much more could be written about these elemental correspondences, and the fact that the organs which power our bodies and sustain life in each one of us have characteristics which correspond to these Five Elemental Energies, but it seems that one of the most intriguing and significant aspects of this ancient wisdom is the connection of our vital organs with a corresponding planet in the celestial realm as well.  

How can it be that the organs in our body have connections to the mighty orbs which whirl silently through space, the closest of which (Venus) is around 25 million miles away and the furthest of which (Saturn) averages around 890 million miles away, and sometimes reaches distances of over a billion miles from us?!

The materialist philosophy currently in vogue admits of no possible connection between the aspects of the planets and the functioning of the vital organs inside the bodies of the billions of people on our planet, and dismisses much of the teachings of Chinese medicine as well.  However, such wisdom does not survive for thousands of years, in constant practical application among the people, without some level of validity.  

Further, there is evidence that the ancients around the world, including in "the West," once acknowledged the connection between the celestial heavenly objects and the vital organs of the human body.  For example, this previous post touches on the fact that the ancients believed that each of the zodiacal signs was most closely associated with different parts of the human body.  It was taught that Libra, for instance, rules the kidneys, and Gemini the lungs. 

This concept is clearly related to the teaching of the microcosm / macrocosm (discussed in that previous blog post just referenced, as well as this one and this one) which is the teaching that each individual is a reflection of the cosmos, that each person is in fact a microcosm, simultaneously containing an entire cosmos within the individual, while at the same time reflecting and responding to the motions of the macrocosm: the Earth, the Sun, the Moon, the planets, and the wide universe.

This concept has been largely forgotten in "the West," but it has survived in other parts of the world.  The understanding of the connections between the planets and our vital organs is one manifestation of that ancient wisdom.


For other discussions which mention the very worthwhile works of Daniel P. Reid, see also:

John Michell on dragon current or lung-mei




























In New View Over Atlantis (1969), John Michell points out that a knowledge of what Alfred Watkins called "ley lines" in England survived in China right up to the modern day.

He writes:
Stories of the magic location of sacred sites are not confined to Britain, but refer to a geomantic tradition once universally known.  All over the world the centres of spiritual power were discovered by means of a system which combined science, astrology and intuition.  Above all, in China, not only was every sacred building magically sited, but the Chinese geomantic principles are known; for the practice of divining the sites of houses and tombs was carried on well into this century.  59
He goes on to explain:
A hundred years ago the practice of Chinese geomancy first became generally known in the West through the complaints of European business men, who found inexplicable resistance to their rational plans for exploiting the country.  Continually they were informed that their railways and factories could not take certain routes or occupy certain positions.  The reasons given were impossible to understand, for they had no relevance, economic, social or political to the problem of laying out an industrial network.  The Europeans were told that a certain range of hills was a terrestrial dragon and that no cutting could be made through its tail.  59.
Interestingly enough, these lines of "dragon current" were believed to be generated not only by the geological formations and alignments of energy in our own planet Earth, but also by the influences of the Sun and the Moon as well as the five planets.  John Michell explains further:
In China until recently, as long ago in Britain, every building, every stone and wood was placed in the landscape in accordance with a magic system by which the laws of mathematics and music were expressed in the geometry of the earth's surface.  The striking beauty and harmony of every part of China, which all travellers have remarked, was not produced by chance.  Every feature was contrived.  The main paths of planetary influence, determined by thousands of years of astronomy, were discovered in the landscape, the smaller lines that ran between them reproduced in the crags and fissures of the earth.  These were the lines of dragon current or lung-mei.  The various parts of the earth each fell under a particular planetary influence passed down through the lines which ran above them.  Besides their lunar or solar, yin or yang, characteristics, certain lines were related to one of the five planets, Jupiter, Mars, Venus, Mercury or Saturn.  These planets correspond to the five materials, wood, fire, metal, water and earth.  Their colours are yellow, red, blue, white and black.  Other correspondences link the planets with the materials of the body, with the internal organs, and with the fortunes of men.  Even the shape of hills should conform to their astrological position.  Steep mountains with sharp sides and peak pertain to Mars; those with top broken off to Jupiter.  Hills under Saturn have a flat summit, those under Mercury are low and dome shaped, and hills of Venus are dramatically high and rounded.  62-63.
The entire discussion, as well as John Michell's insightful elaboration on the topic and startling conclusions, is well worth reading in its entirety.

For previous posts which touch on the subject of earth energy lines and the influence of the planets upon our lives, see also: 

Back from a month in China



Apologies for the extended radio silence -- spent a little over a month in China, meditating in this secluded location.

No access to blogs or blogging.

Back in California now.

Every human life is precious







































Corpus Hermeticum:

Of all beings that have Soul,
only man has a two-fold nature.
One part, called 'The Image of Atum,'
is single, undivided, spiritual and eternal.
The other part
is made of the four material elements.
One comes from the Primal Mind.
It has the power of the Creator,
and is able to know Atum.*
The other is put in man
by the revolution of the heavens.

Man is the most divine of all beings,
for amongst all living things,
Atum associates with him only --
[. . .]

To speak without fear,
human beings are above the gods of heaven,
or at least their equal --
for the gods will never pass
their celestial boundaries
and descend to Earth,
but a man may ascend to heaven,
and what is more,
he may do so without leaving the Earth,
so vast an expanse can his power encompass.
[. . .]

Man is a marvel,
due honour and reverence.
He takes on the attributes of the gods,
as if he were one of their number.
He is familiar with the gods,
because he knows he springs
from the same source.
He raises reverent eyes to heaven above,
and tends the Earth below.
He is blessed by being the intermediary.
He loves all below him,
and is loved by all above him.
Confident of his divinity,
he throws off his solely human nature.
[. . .]

There are then these three --
Atum, Cosmos, man.
The Cosmos is contained by Atum.
Man is contained by the Cosmos.
The Cosmos is the son of Atum.
Man is the son of the Cosmos,
and the grandson, so to speak, of Atum.
Atum does not ignore man,
but acknowledges him fully,
as he wishes to be fully acknowledged by man,
for this alone is man's purpose and salvation --
the ascent to heaven
and the Knowledge of Atum.

-- The Hermetica, new version by Timothy Freke and Peter Gandy (1999), 73 - 76.

* "Although we have used the familiar term 'God' in the explanatory notes which accompany each chapter, we have avoided this term in the text itself.  Instead we have used 'Atum' -- one of the ancient Egyptian names for the Supreme One-God.  We felt that using this unfamiliar Egyptian name would allow the reader the opportunity to build up their own conceptual picture of what Hermes means by the term, free of any associations they may have with the word 'God'" (Freke and Gandy, xxxiv).