Progression from the Single Palm through Thunder Palm Changes

Here is another progression I’ve been working on.

The single palm change teaches you how to setup a single double-helix spiral. I posted a lot of detail about how you start to train this, but I never explained the progression of connecting the top to the bottom or how to go from running the spirals in the side channels to moving them into the central channel. None of it will make any sense unless you develop this fundamental spiral represented by the Heaven trigram, ☰. The point is that the single palm change is intended to create a single double-helix spiral that starts and ends in the feet. In this progression, the first pass (when you are first learning the heaven palm) is really about the bottom line only. Eventually you’ll be able to perform the heaven palm more completely, but that requires a full understanding of the lower, middle, and upper tan tiens which is impossible at this point.

In this progression there are layers of layers. The lines of the trigrams correspond to the tan tiens, but you learn the lower tan tien before trying to incorporate the middle and upper tan tiens. The spiritual aspects won’t come into play until you have a strong grasp of the single and double palm changes from the perspective of the lower tan tien. This is another way of saying you first open the channels of the physical body and then the etheric body before opening any of the higher bodies like the emotional body, etc.

So, the first pass at the double palm change is really about the bottom yin line. Just as the single palm change is represented by the bottom line, the double palm change is represented by the bottom yin line. This yin line is pictorially two yang lines – the double palm change literally doubles the spiral. In the single palm change you only activated the yin channel on one side and the yang channel on the other side of the body. You didn’t perform both at once. By opening the central channel in the double palm change, you activate both the yin and yang on each side simultaneously. The expansion of the central channel is just flooding the channels, making them conscious. You basically have two double-helix spirals happening at once. This is represented by the Earth trigram, ☷, which could be interpreted as two smaller Heaven trigrams that are side by side. But on your first pass through the material, you really only understand the meaning of the lower yin line.

The single palm change is about a single double-helix spiral in the physical body concentrated in the bone marrow. You make yin energy move in yin channels and yang energy run in yang channels. One side of the body is yin and the other side is yang.

The double palm change opens both the yin and yang at the same time. You can play with the yin channels on both sides of the body and yang lines on both sides of the body simultaneously. For example, you can make a double-helix spiral just like the single palm change except the yin and yang channels on one side will both go down while the yin and yang channels on the other side go up. This is important in the progression because you start learning how to move your chi in both directions through your channels. Note that there is a synergistic effect here: you are using twice as many lines.

The wind palm change gets more complicated. You have to clearly understand how the single palm change works, how it is generated in the feet, and the way the yin and yang channels flow and are activated. You need the Heaven trigram as a reference like knowing which direction is north. Once you know where north is you also know where all the other compass points are. You have to have this reference in order to understand how to engineer the wind palm properly.

The Wind trigram, ☴, is like a symbolic instruction manual. It says take something that is foundationally or fundamentally yin and have it act or express something predominately yang. The Wind trigram in the family is symbolized by the eldest daughter. The eldest daughter is fundamentally feminine or yin in nature, but she is strong willed and capable of great strength, an expression of predominately male qualities. In the Bagua wind palm, we are going to take the yin channels and express yang energy through them. Note that Bruce talks about the wind palm and describes it as a yin/yang palm. So instead of setting up the upward half of the double-helix spiral from the bubbling well point, it will come from the heel. You project yang energy through the yin channel.

If you watch the DVDs where the palm strike of the wind palm is taught, this might make more sense and more importantly make more sense of Bruce’s instructions and corrections. He is extremely clear about what he wants you to do, but it is very unlikely you’ll understand if you don’t get that the yin side of the arm is projecting yang chi. Although it radiates chi outward, it is equally important to get the yang movement along the length of the forearm toward the hand. Most people were pulling their arms apart to create the strike. That’s wrong. You want chi moving through the yin channel of the forearm outward (yang action expressed through a fundamentally yin channel). More importantly, you want the feet to generate the whole movement. When you watch the hands, they usually tell you what you supposed to do with the feet because the hands and feet go together in Bagua. When you work from the feet, it will be easier, stronger, and clearer how the channels are being used and activated. It also makes the counterpoint to the single palm change make perfect sense. Bagua comes from the feet.

In this progression the lower line represents the physical and etheric bodies. They are fully open as in the double palm change. The bottom line is a miniature Earth trigram. The middle line represents what you are doing in the middle tan tien. It is creating a yang action. The lower line says open your yin and yang channels. The middle line says project yang energy from the middle tan tien. Since we are doing the wind palm the frequency of energy is the emotional body. You let the body and etheric energy at in a yin receptive fashion. You project your yang emotional energy through the yin channels. Again there is more going on simultaneously. It is synergistic. You are adding physical, etheric, and emotional energy into your movement. There are three double-helix spirals: the two spirals of the double palm change and one running at a higher frequency in the opposite direction.

The Thunder trigram, ☳, should be just the opposite of the wind palm. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able attend the thunder palm seminar; however, if my interpretation is right and the pattern continues, the movement should use something that is fundamentally yang and expresses a predominately yin action through it. It should also be generated from the middle tan tien. Like the double palm change, you should open up both the yin and yang simultaneously. This starts getting too complicated to describe. There are four double-helix spirals all occurring simultaneously.

Throughout the form, you have yin and yang running in both directions in all channels. I would be absorbing on the yang side of the arm and pulling chi inward along the yang channel at the same time as I’m projecting it out. Remember chi runs in both directions in any channel. Here we are no longer reversing the natural direction. We are running it both ways in the same channel at the same time. My guess is that you concentrate on the yang side at first and then like the double palm change, mess with all of the channels at once.

There is an interesting learning progression. In the single palm change, you learn to move yang chi in the yang channel on one side of the double-helix spiral while moving yin chi in the yin channel of the other side. You then change directions and reverse the yin and yang. So you are only doing one side at a time. In the double palm change you work both sides simultaneously. In the wind palm you add a flow in the opposite direction of the flow of the yin channel. In the thunder palm, we add the opposite flow flow in both sides of the double-helix spirals simultaneously. There are four double-helix spirals occurring simultaneously; hence, the fourth palm change.

If I’m correct about the pattern, the middle tan tien will first concentrate its yang spiral in the central channel and the thunder palm will open all of the channels allowing all of the channels and spirals to be accessible at once.

I realize this may sound really complicated but in practice, it is simplifying everything for me.

Bruce, I’m I on the right track?