How may we best serve
those who are suffering and
in need of support?
Hello Friends of Flying Needle!
Happy Cold Dew!
- fifth autumnal solar node -
cold dew begins 10/7
Hope this finds you well during these interesting times!
Seasonal Musings & Reflections
Crickets and grasshoppers are still sounding. Hummingbirds and hawks are moving southward. The Pleiades rise. Hurricane season is upon us with astounding force.
My heart goes out to all our kin impacted by Helene across the Southeast. Folks in Western North Carolina are living through the unimaginable. If you want to lend aid and support, but don't know how, here are a few options:
Lansing Recovery (Fitch Lumber donations go there)
Here are two open source resource lists (please share widely):
This has been one of the wettest Autumns I have experienced in North Carolina. Autumn is associated with Metal/Dryness which can make this combination particularly challenging as it is out of seasonal coherence. Excess dampness is obstructive. If that doesn't make immediate sense, think about how challenging it can be to walk through a marsh. Obstruction tends to generate discomfort and pain. If you are finding yourself feeling out of sorts seemingly without a reason, it's worth considering that this may be connected to our incredibly damp Fall.
If you need support on this front, or in any other way for which I may be of use, please don't hesitate to reach out.
Prior to Helene, I had planned to share some thoughts on clinical practice and current studies. What follows is an ammended version for those that have the bandwidth and interest.
Approaches to working with the body can be mapped on a yin/yang gradient. In this context we would position yin as passive/indirect and yang as active/direct. The most passive approach would be witnessing and observation, then moving into listening, positional release, and unwinding techniques. Active approaches would be the range of techniques that seek to make specific changes to the system – bonesetting and mobilizations whether chiropractic, osteopathic, or Chinese medicine in orientation are good examples of this.
Many practitioners have preferences for some location along this gradient. Often when they do, they will make a reasoned case for why that location (craniosacral, non-force chiro, fascial release, HVLA mobilization, boneset focused tui na) is the Way. And, it may be that more often than not, in their work that proves to be the case.
My perspective is that any of these approaches can be of benefit if they are employed when it is the optimal moment to make use of them. Each of them requires a substantial amount of training, practice and skill to be done well. However, the deeper skill is the cultivation of perception that allows us to see when it is the ideal time to employ a particular technique/approach. My primary guide in this process is the Daoist concept/practice of wuwei.
Wuwei is often translated, not particularly helpfully from my perspective, as non-action. As a person who's work in the world is to help alleviate suffering, I prefer the translation, non-coercive action. This resonates more clearly with an engaged approach to seeking to support being and becoming moving into greater levels of harmony and coherence with the movements of breath in the macro and microcosm.
Or in a more personal rather than transpersonal framing – it helps guide us in supporting folks suffering less, and thriving more. Wuwei invites us into a collaborative realtionship with experieince. It teaches us that working with is always an available option no matter how the transformations appear in the realm of the 10,000 'things'.
May your Autumn days be filled with beauty, mystery, and friendship!
May you and your kin feel both rooted and free!
May we walk in gratitude with our Ancestors!
May all being and becoming receive nourishment!
Excessive dampness
Within Fall's dryness may bring
Counterflow concerns
It is my sincere hope that you have found something of use in these words.
If you know folks who you feel would enjoy this newsletter, please forward it their way! Thank you!
Wishing you and all your relations wellbeing and good medicine!
With gratitude,
Taran
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