Additional Context for Module 2
Optional imagery and teaching background for students who want to go deeper into this work
Why this module
This module focuses on the second half of the central channel: the connection to the Above. In Module 1, we worked with grounding and the Below. Here, we complete the other half of the structure by learning how to relate to the energies above us, how to keep that connection active in daily life, and why that matters for our balance, clarity, protection, and capacity to express ourselves.
Just like with the Below, we are aiming to move beyond the abstract and cultivate a felt and reliable relationship with the Above so that our inner system can hold both ends of the central channel at once. The grounding cord gives us root, stability, and nourishment. The connection to the Above gives us radiance, benevolence, blessing, and protection. Rather than just an isolated technique, our work with the Above in this module is helping us build an integrated energy body.
The whole channel
The first four modules are about building an internal energy body through qigong and repeated visualization. We begin with grounding because a deep yin root is necessary before we can move into yang, expression, and upward connection. But the central channel is not complete if we only know the Below. To be fully resourced, we need both the Earth connection and the Above connection, and we need to learn how they work together.
Remember that the work we are learning here is not about arriving at some perfect place. It is about building an integrated structure, building relationship with it, noticing how it changes with life, and upgrading it as needed. As our responsibilities, capacities, and life conditions change, the energy body structure we build may need to become stronger, larger, or more flexible. This is how energy habits evolve.
The Three Components
The work in this course moves through three parts:
Qigong to cultivate qi.
Visualization to shape that qi into the structures of the energy body.
New choices that match the structure we are building in lived experience.
This is not just conceptual material. We are not visualizing for entertainment. We are structuring thought so it becomes energetic habit, and then living in accordance with that habit. If the energetic structure changes but our choices do not, the system is not in coherence. The practice only becomes coherent when energy, thought, and action move together.
Don’t get stuck on one thing
A major teaching in this module is not to get stuck trying to perfect one component. Some people may find grounding easy and the Above difficult. Others may love the Above and struggle with the Below. Others may resonate strongly with one of the later practices, like boundaries or truth, but feel less connected to the first two. That is normal.
These practices are like working out different muscle groups in one body. We are separating them into modules for learning purposes, but each component we are learning is all part of a single energy ecosystem. The point is not to become excellent at one thing and stop there. The point is to keep moving through the whole sequence so the whole system can mature.
Connecting to the Above
The Above is the other half of the central channel. It is related to what some traditions call yang energy. The Above connects us to the Highest Power of the Universe: the energies of the stars, the sun, the moon, the galaxies, and all that is greater than our individual human life.
This is not about deities in the usual sense of a superhuman figure sitting somewhere above us. It is about relationship with something we are already a part of that is vast, alive, and real. We are not trying to believe in something separate from us. We are learning to feel our place within the great field of Life, the cosmos, and radiant energy.
In this way, the Above and the Below are both relational. The Below gives us rootedness in Earth; the Above gives us connection to the great expanse of Life beyond the Earth. Together they help us experience both wholeness and orientation.
The Above is not a person in the sky
Many people carry heavy baggage around the word God. In some cultural or religious systems, the divine has been made into a judgmental, masculine, or exclusionary power. That can create real harm in our capacity to relate to the Above. For many people, the word God is tied to patriarchy, punishment, colonization, and exclusion.
So in this course, we are not trying to reinforce a superhuman authority figure. We are working with the living, radiant, animating force of the cosmos itself. Different people may call that the Divine, the Great Mystery, the All That Is, or something else entirely. The important thing is not the label. The important thing is the relationship.
Many of us also carry inherited stories that diminish belonging: God is male, God is white, light is good and darkness is bad, some bodies are more divine than others, some people are less worthy of connection than others. These stories are not neutral. They shape how we experience ourselves and what we believe is available to us.
In this module we are being invited to notice those stories and not let them define the practice. We are not cultivating belief in a distant deity. We are cultivating relationship with a living force that is already part of us and part of All Life. The practice helps us reconnect to what may have been obscured or abandoned by the stories we inherited.
Speedbumps and weather
Many of us have unresolved stories that arise when we try to connect upward. These stories are not random; they often come from patriarchy, religious harm, abuse of power, fathers who were absent or violent, or systems that taught us some people are more divine than others. Those stories can cause “speedbumps” in our connection to the Above.
The instruction here is not to deny those stories, analyze them endlessly, or pretend they do not matter. For now, when working in your visualization practice, treat them as weather. Notice them. Acknowledge them. And then move through them. Keep rising through the storm and keep reaching for the radiant energy that is still there above it.
If you have no major speedbumps, that is beautiful too. The point is not to assume damage everywhere. The point is to make room for the material that does arise so we do not spiritually bypass it.
The Microcosmic Orbit
This image illustrates the microcosmic orbit as a living cycle of energy moving through the body. For our Module 2 purposes, this image helps us visualize the function of the Central Channel that runs through our center and connects us to the Earth below and the Highest Power of the Universe above. We can see the Earth energy spiraling upward through the central channel and the golden energy from above radiating down into our crown.
The red and blue lines around the body are meridians that correspond to yin and yang energy. These lines help illustrate how energy circulates through us. Healthy energy is not stagnant. It circulates.
Together, these channels illustrate that we are not isolated beings, but part of a greater flow of life moving through the body, the Earth, and the cosmos. The image points to the deeper truth that our energy is always in relationship — grounded below, open above, and continually moving through the center of our being.
Notice how the connection to the Above is more diffuse than the grounding cord. Grounding is like a taproot and it connects us to denser yin energy. The Above connection is more like light received through branches and leaves. Like fire and air, yang energy is more moveable. It is still real and embodied, but qualitatively different from yin energy.
The Microcosmic Orbit &
the Three Hearts
This version of the Microcosmic Orbit again shows us the circulation of energy through the meridians corresponding to yin (blue water droplets) and yang (fire). And this image adds the three tiens or three heart spaces. These are the primary qi/power centers along the Central Channel in Taoism and many systems of shamanism.
The Dantien is the “heart of the Earth” and it connects us to the Earth and Nature. It is the lower tien and is located at the root and procreative energy centers.
The Zhongmai is the “heart of humanity” and it connects us to humanity and life. It is the middle tien and it corresponds spacially to our heart energy center.
The Niwan is the “heart of the universe/heavens” and it connects us to the All That Is. It is the upper tien and it corresponds spacially to our sixth energy center area of our mind.
Yin and yang
The transition from grounding to the Above also brings us into the relationship between yin and yang. Yin includes qualities like solitude, restoration, deep feeling, accountability, dependability, and emotional wellbeing. Yang includes qualities like generosity, expression, radiance, creativity, playfulness, blessing, protection, precision, excellence, devotion, and joy.
These are not meant to be read as rigid feminine or masculine categories. In fact, one of the reasons to use yin and yang language is to get underneath cultural conditioning that has artificially sorted certain qualities into gendered bins. The work is to notice what qualities are alive in us, what qualities have been distorted by culture, and how to bring them into better balance.
The truth cord
Truth is a central teaching in this module. Because the collective field is full of lying, manipulation, distortion, and abuse of power, many people have lost confidence in their relationship with truth. Some swing into mistrust of all authority. Others get numb to dishonesty and learn not to notice it. The truth cord helps us move beyond both reactions.
The truth cord helps us feel resonance with truth. It links the belly, heart, and mind so they can all begin to align around what is true. The goal is not just to detect lies. The goal is to cultivate an inner capacity to resonate with truth when it is present, no matter the source.
Truth Cord Mantra:
I resonate with the truth
No matter the source
No matter whether or not I like the truth
And no matter the impact of the truth on my life.
Our truth cord must be anchored to the Above and Below. Truth is bigger than just our personal truth in any moment. For example, our personal truth in a moment might be that we feel afraid, while the larger truth may be that we are safe, protected, and held. The truth cord helps our gut instinct, heart intuition, and head knowing come into greater harmony with one another and with the larger universal truth we are anchored into through the Above and Below. That larger field helps stabilize and refine our inner sensing, so truth becomes something we can resonate with more fully as we explore our inner landscape and as we engage with life around us.
We strengthen the truth cord by bringing things to it, listening to it, and repeatedly bringing our choices, words, and actions into alignment with truth. Over time, the more consistently we practice this alignment, the more our truth cord becomes part of our energetic habit. We begin to notice truth more quickly, resonate with it more clearly, and trust that resonance more fully in ourselves.
One of the ways we strengthen the truth cord is by committing to speaking the truth, which is how we align our words and actions with truth. But it is important to remember that truth telling is an art. It requires right timing, right context, and right audience. Sometimes we can think we are telling the truth when we are actually trying to dominate through victimhood, appear more moral or more “good” than the person we are with, or defend ourselves from someone we perceive as attacking us. These are understandable motivations, and they are not the same as trying to communicate our truth in a way that can actually be received. Speaking the truth is not a license to bludgeon others with “my truth.” The aim is clear, truthful communication that can actually be received by the person we are speaking to.
The three hearts
The union of the three hearts visualization brings together belly, heart, and mind as three centers of relationship: the Earth heart, the Heart of Humanity, and the Heart of the Universe. The belly is our intimate relationship with Earth, Nature, and the physical world. The heart is our intimate relationship with humanity and our own humanness. The mind is our intimate relationship with the cosmos and the great beyond.
Each of these hearts also has its own way of knowing. The belly knows through gut instinct, the heart knows through intuition, and the mind knows through a kind of clear knowing that arrives in thought that we didn’t think ourselves. The Union of the Three Hearts visualization helps these three centers come into resonance with one another and with the truth cord, so they can work together harmoniously with the truth.
During the visualization, as we move energy in and out of each heart, remember that we are not leaving the body. We are staying embodied while moving our love out and receiving love back.