By Paul Cavel

The many threads and layers of neigong that can be activated and integrated in the Marriage of Heaven and Earth Qigong gives practitioners a taste of what is possible from ongoing study of Taoist arts — without the complex choreography associated with other qigong sets, tai chi or bagua. Heaven and Earth Qigong bridges the beginning to advanced levels of Water tradition training, yielding much more than a powerful form of exercise for health, healing and relaxation. It is a journey into the systems, substructures and layers of your body, energy and mind.

Expanding Range and Depth of Neigong

Just take a look at Heaven and Earth’s wide range of internal-energetic layers:

• Bio-mechanical alignments
• Bending and stretching the body’s soft tissues
• Taoist breathing
• Twisting the soft tissues
• Opening-and-closing techniques (a.k.a. “pulsing”)
• Bowing and straightening the spinal column as one, integrated whole
• Lengthening (yin-yang energy flows)
• Wrapping the soft tissues (i.e. collateral qi flows)
• Feeling, moving and transforming internal energies
• Techniques for working with the etheric field
• Activating the macrocosmic and microcosmic orbits of energy
• Outer Dissolving
• Techniques for working with the left and right channels of energy
• Techniques for working with the central channel of energy
• Techniques for working with the internal organs
• Techniques for working with the lower tantien.

Each of these layers contains an incredible degree of depth. The real effort is not necessarily in learning all the relevant internal layers, but in developing your ability to integrate all of the above exceptionally well. As you do, you can practice Heaven and Earth Qigong to support healing, increase physical and mental performance, develop martial power and so much more.

Qigong is Chinese Medicine

The purpose of learning Taoist qigong is not necessarily to move your body better, but rather to move and balance your qi according to the principles of Chinese medicine. Qigong/Neigong, like acupuncture, is one of the eight wheels of Chinese medicine. The primary function of ongoing qigong practice is to exercise your body and mind in ways that allow you to relax and build your qi for health, physical healing, overall well-being and possibly spiritual pursuits — if you so choose.

With most qigong systems, the aim is to develop an aspect, layer or neigong thread in one move and then focus on different and/or deeper aspects in the following move. In this way, the qi generated in the preceding move is passed up to the next (if and only if executed correctly). Many internal exercises are designed to amplify qi circulation through a series of coordinated movements in this fashion, which together form a set. Most of the other qigongs in the Energy Arts System (all except Bend the Bow), tai chi and bagua intrinsically operate in this way to generate qi, and cultivate resiliency and vitality — albeit with caveats specific to their unique composition and primary modus operandi.

Heaven and Earth Qigong Is Different

With one continuous motion, the emphasis in Heaven and Earth Qigong is on building layer upon layer of internal qi content through many repetitions instead of varying movement sequences. As you develop depth, content and quality of motion at each stage, energy cultivation naturally follows.

Energetically Efficient

Heaven and Earth Qigong’s specialised technology is designed to engage everything in the human body and its energy, from the skin to the internal organs and the etheric field to the central channel — including all the layers in between.

• The etheric field is the layer of energy that exists directly outside of the physical body and is sometimes referred to as the “aura”. Starting from the skin and projecting outwards in all directions, the etheric field can be very shallow, e.g. several inches from the surface of the skin in an unhealthy person, to several feet from the surface of the skin in a vibrant individual. The size, density and quality of the etheric energy is strongly correlated with vitality as the etheric field is connected to and born out of wei qi.

• Wei qi is the layer of energy between the skin and the muscles, which flows at the level of the fascia, and protects the body from disease and would-be invaders in the external environment. Acupuncture meridian lines, which are born out of the left and right channels, run through the wei qi.

• The left and right channels are the two core channels in the body that govern and feed qi to all the more superficial channels, including the meridians. Clearing stagnancies and blockages from the left and right channels dramatically increases overall functioning of the body, and produces a strong and resilient individual.

• The central channel gives birth to the left and right channels, and houses the deepest aspects of a human being, including their essence.

Why Learn Heaven and Earth Qigong?

In the hierarchy of the Five Element neigong system, Heaven and Earth is the first to work at this depth, developing the bulk of the physical and internal content found in tai chi, hsing-i and bagua, as well as the foundational material necessary for training advanced qigong systems, such as Bend the Bow Spinal Neigong and Gods Playing in the Clouds Neigong.

Heaven and Earth is an incredible self-healing tool, a truly internal energy exercise designed by the ancients and honed over millennia. Practice is an exploration of what you are made of and the potential you hold deep inside yourself — that which most human beings never put in the effort to discover.

From a much broader perspective, practising Taoist arts — such as those within the Water tradition, which have a rich history and a living representative with whom to study the inner teachings — serves as an antidote to the trend towards materialism and the obliteration of ancient knowledge.

Join Us in 2025

For new students, learning Heaven and Earth Qigong will help you begin to use many letters of the neigong alphabet. Whether you are building your form for the first time or you are a long-term practitioner, you can systematically and progressively fine-tune and upgrade your practice by deconstructing and continuously weaving in new and deeper aspects of neigong into the simple physical framework provided by Heaven and Earth Qigong.

Looking forward to training with you… this summer at the center!

Prep courses:

Seminars with Paul Cavel in Yucaipa, California

Classes with Craig Barnes in Longmont, Colorado