Pop Culture Qigong
Pop culture qigong is arguably what the whole Tai Chi Empowerment brand/movement is all about. So this needs to be the magnus opus of blog posts. No pressure!
What’s up with the qigong rather than chi kung spelling? No clever academic reason, it just seems to sit within the phrase ‘pop culture qigong’ more comfortably. To complete the housekeeping an apology, or at least an acknowledgement needs to go to the traditionalists. Maybe conservatism and liberalism need to sit side by side to bring balance to the force. If more people realised this there might be less adversity in the world. So there’s your yin and yang.
There are two perspectives to look at this subject from. Firstly using a pop culture artifact as an inspiration e.g. a reference to internal martial arts in a movie inspiring you to take up a practice. Or to steal a joke from one of our favourite comedians when he sampled Tai Chi in Hong Kong; ‘to find new resonance in the Kung Fu Panda trilogy’. The second perspective involves an interactive approach where you are immersing yourself in real or surreal pop culture worlds through your practice and maybe evoking/invoking the power of a world or character within it.
A classic example is being a Star Wars fan and wanting to pursue the martial side of the Jedi way by training Tai Chi, as Tai Chi is arguably the best match to the type of skills associated with this path. Unfortunately the reality of Tai Chi classes is that they can be dry, boring and political and you can go through a few before finding a good fit if you do at all. This can be disheartening and not everybody has the resources and determination to go [Han] solo. Luckily we discovered various positive influences just before it was too late, such as the writing of Scott Meredith. Everybody should read at least the first chapter of ‘Juice - Radical Taiji Energetics’. Where most of the Tai Chi library is dry to say the least, this will rock your world and help you to keep the faith.
The religion of Jediism has brought the Star Wars universe in to the “real” world. There is also an abundance of light sabre duelling organisations popping up where you can learn swordsmanship within a pop culture framework. It is a great utilisation of colour magick as you use the colour of your blade to invoke the skill of the master who weilded it in the movies and spin-offs. So learning Wudang sword with a duelling light sabre is not some amusing curiosity but a serious path of cultivation.
We are also particularly drawn to Avatar the Last Airbender. Specifically because of the focus on energy work structured around the yogic chakras and the model of the elements (as found in Vedic technology/western magick) that matches ours as opposed to the standard structure found in Chinese internal martial arts and Chinese medicine.
A nod must be given to the chaos magick movement that was born in the late 20th century and it’s sub-category of pop culture magick, the combination of which with internal alchemy is described here. In pop culture magick you can call upon members of your favourite rock band for example or dip in to any fandom to populate your pantheon and be a catalyst for your chain of manifestation or the opposite chain of enlightenment. Whilst it is somewhat of it’s time, it is a rebellious and rules-lite environment where what matters is results and this really resonated with us generation Xers.
In our system we evoke and/or work practically with sights, sounds, smells, movements, visualisation and themes to create a joyous immersion. It is our take on kind of a dynamic form of fan fiction making life an adventure. A vehicle for re-enchanting your world. Every day can be like a trip to Disneyland without the queues. What could be better than that.