6 ShenJianZhanXie 神劍斬邪

Spiritual Sword Kills the Demon

"oh yes that one does what it says on the tin" -- @taalumot

When I was learning the form, this is the first movement where I was like: "Woah. Something is happening here."

(Effects of earlier moves emerged with practice.)

(This is also the first move that I recognized as a Tarot trump, Adjustment, which started my obsession with mapping LaohuGong moves to Tarot.)

LINK TO TAROT ROOT HERE.

BIG SCISSORS -- The two arms work together to define a cutting point, the intersection of the two blades is not an object, it's a self-catalyzing phenomenon, a moving place, sliding against itself, rolling out.

There is a real severing feeling here. Reminds me of the alchemical "Solve" from "Solve et Coagula"

A sharp, molecule wide edge, the momentum of the Letting the Tool Do The Work.

Stance is important -- rooting force of this Big Chop down into into the Earth. Keep weight underside. Drop your center with this sword stroke.

Align yourself with the world's texture and let gravity help you cut.

"Shen means spirit, divine, essence. Jian is a sword, which is a symbol for wisdom. Zhan means cut off with a sharp motion, chop. Xie means evil (as in Xie Qi), devil, demon, ghost. Xie also means all the factors that cause illness – it may be a blockage in your body, problems in your life, unbalanced emotions, or anything that pulls you away from or blocks you from your endeavors."

-- Master Zhongxian Wu

What is a demon? What does it mean to kill a demon? Is it destroyed?

It feels to me it can't be -- to slay a demon is to help it to transform, to let go of the false-life, the sin that keeps it distinct, divided from source, autonomous. Die and take on new life.

"Through practice, we will become stronger physically, emotionally, and spiritually. We must develop the ability to kill the inner demons that prevent us from moving into a better state. The symbolic meaning of this movement is that through the kill, a new spiritual life will be born."

-- Master Zhongxian Wu

To slay a demon is in some way to forgive it and to be forgiven by it. To reunify. But before unification there must be an judgement, an excision.

Once the self/other boundary has been made clear, transformation becomes possible.

(The next movement, QiHuaSanPan 气化三盤 – Qi Transforms the Three Layers, is about this reunification.)