When I was with my Master Xiao Yao, throughout the years, every now and then, he would take out a yellow book and check the time, and then he would say, “ Let’s practice Pure and Bright Jieqi tomorrow at 5am.” What he referred to is The Seasonal Qigong Empowerment Series, Jieqi Qigong in Chinese.

When the Sun shines on the planet at a special angle, huge energy releases from the Earth to mix with the Sun energy and empower everything on the planet, like the energy of the four seasons. Our ancient masters meditated with this energy and through their insightfulness, they found out that there are not 4 but 24 seasons, and they called each mini season Jieqi. Each jieqi lasts about 15 days. What’s more, they also realized each Jieqi is connected to one of our vertebrae, and they developed 24 specific meditation and movement practices to leverage that energy and to empower each vertebra, and created the Seasonal Empowerment Series.

There are 24 practices in the whole series, and each practice is followed for 15 days. Seasonal Empowerment are extremely valuable practices as they follow the flow of the universal “organic“ time. Even if you cannot practice each for all 15 days, and only practice once for each 15 days during the year, you will still get huge benefit because you have meditated and empowered all your 24 vertebrae. And we all know how important it is to have a healthy spine!

I invite you to join the thousands of practitioners worldwide who practice Seasonal Qigong twice a month, all over the world. And feel free to tell your friends and to spread the word. The bigger this meditation party becomes, the merrier the planet.

Free Version Features:

• Free Jieqi class once every 15 days, in which Robert will guide us through the full practice of each mini-season. The practice is around 40-50 minutes.

• Email notification of each Jieqi Qigong Empowerment every 15 days.

• Elaboration of the meaning and theme of each Empowerment.

• Practice guidelines for each Empowerment.

• 4 – 6 minute instructional video.

• Special page for the Southern Hemisphere.

Paid Version ($6.5/Mini Season) Features:

• 40-50 minutes full practice class twice every day for each Jieqi. There is also full practice video available for you to follow with your own schedule. The video includes:

  1. How to locate the particular vertebra.
  2. Warming-up exercise.
  3. Meditation and movement practice to empower each vertebra associated with its relevant mini-season.
  4. Nourishing Qi and self-massage.

• All features of Free Version

Understanding Jieqi - the Mini Season

The Chinese seasonal calendar divides the year into 4 seasons: Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. Each season is further subdivided into six stages. A total of 24 phases make up the yearly seasonal cycle (4 x 6 = 24). For example, Summer begins with Start of Summer, continues with Grain Full, and the last one is Major Heat. Can you guess what the fourth stage of Summer is called? Look at the pictures below to take Year 2022 as an example:

Each of these 24 phases is known as a Jieqi (jee-ay-chee) and lasts approximately 15 days. The start of a new Jieqi is determined by the position of the sun. Every time the sun advances 15° on its journey around the ecliptic, a new phase begins.

Qigong Masters were keen observers of the flows of Qi energy. They noticed that during the last two hours of previous Jieqi and the first two hours of a new Jieqi a powerful wave of energy washed over the earth.

Here is a simple way to envision what happens each time a new Jieqi begins: Picture N.Y.C.’s Time Square on December 31st at 11:59 PM, just one minute before the New Year begins. The buildup of energy is palpable. The New Year's Ball hovers above the cheering crowd, about to drop. Then the countdown begins: Ten, nine, eight... three, two, and one!

As the ball hits the ground the crowd lets out a wild roar and a tremendous wave of energy is released. Many of us have experienced this surge of energy, either live or on television. At that moment we are often inspired to make a New Year's resolution, instinctively realizing that we can leverage the groundswell of exuberance to make real changes in our lives.

The last two hours of the previous Jieqi and the first two hours of a new Jieqi(Supreme Time) are like a mini New Year. And long ago, Qigong Masters realized that if they timed their Qigong practice to coincide with this narrow window of time, they would benefit tremendously. Practicing Qigong during these four hours is like raising your sails while a strong wind is blowing—a little effort carries you a long way.

Seasonal Qigong Empowerment (or Jieqi Qigong, or Seasonal Qigong) was taught to me by my Qigong Master, Xiao Yao (shiao-yeeaow). He would consult a yellow book that tracked the position of the planets to determine the precise time the Jieqi began and we would practice the Seasonal Empowerment together.

Every two weeks, I will send you a newsletter to notify the Supreme Time of the new Jieqi and will give you a link to join the practice together live. By joining the thousands of practitioners doing Jieqi Qigong Empowerment worldwide you can join our growing Circle of Cosmic Qi and partake in an ancient tradition.

The Anatomy of the Empowerment

Seasonal Qigong Empowerment is a simple yet effective practice designed to help you leverage the surge of Qi energy during each new jieqi. The basic technique is this: Each time a new jieqi begins, you focus your attention on a specific vertebra and empower it. Why a vertebra? The spine is made up of 24 articulating vertebrae and Qigong Masters established a correspondence between the 24 seasonal phases and the 24 articulating vertebras. Each Seasonal Qigong Empowerment targets a particular vertebra and, over the course of a year, you empower your whole spine, one vertebra at a time.

The Seasonal Qigong Empowerment is made up of two different parts. Let's consider each one separately:

Part 1 is the empowerment meditation. You can practice this meditation every day until the next Jieqi. You begin by concentrating Qi energy into the vertebra associated with the Jieqi and then you radiate the energy that you collected throughout your body to nourish your internal organs. Part 1 can be repeated from as little as a few minutes up to two hours. It's up to you. By the time you finish the empowerment, you feel "supercharged" with high-grade Qi that will significantly boost your sense of well-being.

You can practice both Part 1 and Part 2 together or separately. When you practice them together, you can decide at your will to do part 1 first, or part 2 first. It doesn't matter which one goes first. But overall, both can be practiced in the following 3 ways:

1. Supreme Time: The window of 4 hours during the last two hours of the previous Jieqi first two hours of the new Jieqi is you supreme time. Practicing empowerment during supreme time give you supreme benefit.

2. Golden Time: Golden time is all 15 days of each current Jieqi. Practicing empowerment during these days any time gives you great benefit.

3. Good Time: Good time is all year around. Someone feels like to do some other Jieqi empowerment in the current Jieqi and wonders whether it is fine. The answer is YES. Each Jieqi empowerment is good to practice any time during the year.

Every two weeks, I will send you a newsletter to notify the coming of the new Jieqi. Then you can go to the current Jieqi page and practice by following the organic time. Each page includes the theme of the current Jieqi, practice guidelines including a video and written instructions to guide you step-by-step through the Seasonal Empowerment, so remember to check them out.

Sample:

Wishing you Good Qi and enjoy your practice!

Robert Peng