Reviving the Heart

In a recent conversation with my acupuncturist, she told me about a teacher of hers—an old, wise man who has spent a very long time inside and outside the system. She told me that at a certain point in his practice, he realized that, regardless of personal constitution, we are all sick in the heart.

That the world we live in, without fail, results in a closing of the heart. 

In thousands of patients, this was the through line.

In the Daoist 5 Spirits system, the hearts corresponding spirits are called the shen.

Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de le Vallée describe the shen as a precious, wild bird in their book, The Heart. Like birds, "the shen are free to come and go, to come into myself or to quit this place and to flow away… the shen go up, they want to go back to heaven."

Unless the shen are entranced, magnetized downwards, and nurtured by the yin essences of the Earth, the shen rise up and fly off back to the heavenly realms. Leaving the heart vacant.

In a healthy human being, the yin spirits, who comprise both the Earth and the physical body, quite literally invite the shen into the hollow resting place of the heart. The shen make a home in the heart, imbuing it with the light you see in another's eyes, the joyous laughter that arises from deep within the belly, the lightning bolts of clarity that strike the mind, and the burning compassion of someone living wide awake.

To maintain a suitable home for the shen, the heart must be kept close to its original nature — serene, accepting, and open.

If the precious wild birds leave prematurely, the light of the shen is no longer present to guide and inform the movements of the qi—the life force.

Without the shen, we are shells of ourselves. Wandering aimlessly through life with no semblance of connection to who, what, or why we are. We are empty. No matter how we try, nothing, besides the shen, can truly fill that emptiness.

According to this wise old man, we live in a time when we are suffering a collective loss of shen. A time where the only way forward is to do everything in our power to bring the shen back.

In Five Spirits, Lorie Eve Dechar says, "The sage's one and only concern is maintaining the tranquility of the heart so that the luminous wild birds of the shen will have a suitable resting place. As long as the shen remain in the heart space, the direction of our lives will be clear and the path forward will be illuminated."

The purpose of this writing is to talk to you about my membership, EDEN. I began with a description of the shen because when I tuned into the what, the why, or the how to market EDEN (which always feels utterly ridiculous), all I saw was heart.

It's not the classes, concepts, or practices. It's not all things you get access to. It's not the solution to your problems. Not more, better, over there. 

It's a subtle pointing at the canopy, bursting with shen, that lives in EDEN. 

This community is made up of people who have, with ferocious grace, devoted themselves to the return of their shen. They have walked through deserts of commitment, swam through seas of grief, and climbed mountains of spirit, all in service to polishing the mirror of their heart. So that the shen may see, it's safe to return now.

I see it on every call, by the lights that fill people's eyes, the depth of presence, the ever-present willingness to turn curiously towards life with acceptance.

I hear it in the song of people's voices, the raucous laughter, the rainfall of tears hitting the roof—as you relax into your body and recognize how safe you are in the presence of someone who says yes to the full spectrum of life.

I experience it by seeing how the concepts are practiced, played, and lived. How everything offered becomes uniquely theirs and authentically embodied—a fire that grows in a way I could never articulate.  

I recognize how hollow and dry everything offered would feel if it wasn't being received by an old-growth forest, alive with shen.

Because without this community — everything else in EDEN would be nothing.

The world is sick in the heart.

And, if we're being honest, being truly open-hearted requires devoted and diligent practice. 

If that's not worth investing in, cultivating, and tending – I don't know what is. 

some of what’s included

⊹ monthly class series
⊹ high holy days ceremonies
⊹ monthly attunement (community practice x sharing)
⊹ guest class and/or workshop
⊹ writing x business circles