March 4, 2008

Of heptads, rebirth, solar energy, tai chi and everything

It's a special day today. I'm buzzing with enthusiasm. Now lots of people especially in our youth-oriented culture would say I'm completely nuts about being happy it's my 49th birthday today. But I am. I've been looking forward to this day for weeks.

It all has to do with cycles of seven. Rosicrucian teachings say that human life unfolds in cycles of seven. First of all, there are seven days in the week. Then the years can be divided into seven periods of 52 days each, and then there are cycles in our lives consisting of seven years each. Anthroposophists and Waldorf teachers and parents will be familiar with the latter. Well... I have now finished the last year of a seventh cycle of seven. Something very "complete" about that. And what makes this year, and especially this day, so special?

Look at the star illustrating this posting. That star can be found in the Occult Philosophy of the Renaissance mystic/philosopher/magician Cornelius Agrippa, along with explanations of how to use it to calculate the planetary influences of a given day and hour. Every week starts with the day of the sun (Sunday), followed by the day of the moon (Monday) and so forth, following the lines of the star. The first hour of Sunday is the hour of the sun, followed by the hour of venus, following the points of the star clockwise. There are 24 cycles of seven hours per week, bringing you back to the hour of the sun in the first hour of the week. So, obviously the first year of each cycle is a solar year, and the first cycle of seven years is the solar cycle. So... I have gone through seven cycles, meaning this new cycle of seven is a solar cycle. This is the first year of that cycle, so this is the solar year, And this is the first 52 days of that year, so this the solar section of that year. And it's the very first day!

I am reborn today!!!

The wind is in my sails! And I know I had better take advantage of this, and use all this energy wisely, because times of such positive momentum are precious. Honestly. I feel an electric buzz all through my body and mind.

It was thinking a few days ago that I needed to do something special to mark this occasion, when I got a serious brain wave. And here's what occurred to me.


As my loyal readers know, I started relearning the Yang tai chi form about five weeks ago. I say "relearning" since I learned a short version of the Yang form in an Experimental College class at UC Davis, back when I lived in northern California. First of all, that was twenty years ago, and I didn't really remember much of it anymore. And I don't recall – if I ever knew – what particular style of Yang tai chi my teacher taught, but it wasn't as rigorous, nuanced, or detailed as the form taught on the videos of Erle Montaigue. Essentially, I had to learn it over from scratch.

Well, two days ago it occurred to me that I was only two moves away from finishing the first third of the Yang Cheng set, which is considered to be a short set in an of itself. I realized that if I busted my butt and learned the last two moves, I could do the whole set. That represents an accomplishment to me. Five weeks of daily work to not only regain something I could do in my late twenties, but to even learn it at a higher level than I could do it back then.

For the first time, this morning, the first day of the first 52-day cycle of this first year of the second solar seven-year cycle of my life (hope you could follow that), I performed my new Yang Cheng Fu tai chi set. It was still dark outside, and my family was still asleep, but I felt vibrant. What a wonderful birthday present to myself!

In a few weeks, once I've ironed some of the nastier wrinkles out of the form, I'll have my son make a video of me doing the routine, and I'll upload it to the blog.
I'll have a big party next year to celebrate my 50th, but that'll be for everyone else. This year's the important milestone to me.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I wish you a happy birthday,
A joyous and celebrated birthday,
To my friend Theo,
May you live a long, long life!

Can't wait to see the video.

victoria.lambert said...

Happy birthday to youuu! :)