Eight Energy Circle Walking

Classical Chinese physical arts for health and wellbeing

There are eight postures in this circle walking Qi Gong relating to the eight trigrams and the I Ching, the Book of Changes in Taoist philosophy. Each holds a unique energy. There are many health benefits of circle walking, from helping to balance emotions, connecting the upper and lower body, increase circulation, help create more energy and harmonise the activities of the brain and heart. The external movements exercise the whole body, coiling and spiralling to help coordination and balance.  The internal movements help calm the mind, drop tension from the organs and open the energy channels.  The name Qigong is a relatively modern term, previously known as Daoyin from around 4-5000 years ago.

Each trigram is a natural phenomena: thunder, wind, fire etc. Each trigram in the early heaven set is a geographical location in China: thunder in the north east, fire in the east where the sun rises, water in the west where rivers originate, metal (ultimate yang) in the south where the hottest weather is, earth (ultimate yin) in the north where the coldest weather is.

Each trigram is a combination of three yin and yang lines.

• Yin = broken line (gap in the middle).
• Yang = unbroken line (solid line).

Double trigrams are known as hexagrams and are the basis of 64 states of change, found in the I Ching, the Book of Changes.