This workshop is the fourth in the series of the “Cycle of Life” course. (Please see the relevant leaflet or web site for details).

Fire represents the heart and spirit in Chinese philosophy, and it is said that “the heart houses the Shen”. The Shen can be translated as spirit or consciousness. So when we are connected to our heart, we also have direct access to our spiritual consciousness. Our heart imbues us with feelings of openness, compassion, affection, connection, eros, joy, happiness, and love, as all these are qualities belonging to spirit.

The Shen is both individual and Universal. So when we open our heart, we connect to our Higher Self and also to Universal Consciousness. Divine love can then flow into us, which reveals a connection to all Life and to all consciousness. The more we perceive that reality, the more our own capacity to love increases, and the more human we become.

In this module, we will endeavour to deepen a core to Core Integration with others and to receive more fully, what is described in Daoism, the “Blessings of Heaven”. The more we do so, the more our capacity for joy, the emotion related to fire, increases. We will also look at what closes a heart down and separates us from others and from the experience we call spirit, heaven, or the divine.

In Reichian terms (and Body-Centred Psychotherapy in general), we will study the Schizoid character defense. This structure acts to cut us off from our body, nature and others. It disconnects us from our feelings, especially our heart’s capacity to love and feel loved. In this workshop, we will work to unify our physical and spiritual realities. Instead of having a perception of life that is split, we will aim to connect body and spirit and thus realise the unity of “Heaven and Earth”.