Elemental Alchemy is a form of Qi Gong + Energy Medicine and is one of SOUL CENTRE’s main signature program’s and trainings.
Founded by Wilhemeena Isabella Monroe, Elemental Alchemy brings us into deep awareness of our physical and energetic selves and creates a powerful understanding of our qi (energy) flows. It gives us ways to tap into vibrational medicine. It helps us refine and enliven the intrinsic healing potential for ourselves, for others and the planet. It enables us to live with optimum vitality. It is a blend of Elemental Chi Kung, Energy Medicine practices, and plant medicine.
Cultivated over 30 years of practice and learnings, with practices time tested for thousands of years.
Through the Elemental Qi Gong lineage - Chinese Qi Gong healing arts have been derived from scientific and logical analysis and conclusions over thousands of years of healing and health maintenance experience.
Qi gong is about not just obtaining and maintaining physical health but also enhancing mental health with a meditative mind and eventually an opening of higher consciousness.
Historically pure qi gong is said to have originated in China around 2500BC. Changing form with the introduction of Buddhism from India around 206BC. This led to a more developed qi gong practice including meditation.
Around 502 AD, the martial art qi gong become practiced, which is about harnessing your internal strength and discipline. It is called the Mother of martial arts, as before learning the many fighting forms, one had to master their own internal alchemy first and foremost.
The movement of Buddhism from India and Tibet into China where it was mixed with Daoism, meant that for many centuries, the secrets of qi gong were kept within the monasteries as a way to achieve buddahood.
Only in this century has it been available to the general population.
In some of the intervening time, Acupuncture, with its meridian system was blended into the qi gong practices, followed by the 3 treasures (jing (essence), shen (spirit) and qi (internal energy)).
In 1911, the Qing dynasty was overthrown and a new era of qi gong training was mixed with practices from India, Japan and many other countries. These are still a big part of the practices today.
Today, there is mainly 2 broad types of qi gong:
- Self-Mastery - (Confucian and Daoist) for health maintenance of ourselves
- Medical Qi Gong - for medical purposes (to heal others).
And a myriad of teachers and forms circumnavigating the planet each with their own unique style and nuance.
Qi Gong holds at it’s centre, the Tao - the natural way, which incorporates the energies, cycles and inter- relationships of heaven + earth and humanity, all in a natural balance.
As practitioners of Elemental Alchemy - we are utilizing the forms and meditations used for thousands of years and tuning more deeply into the rhythms and cycles of the earth, encorporating the seasons in our practices, cycles of the year and the harmonics of plant medicines from many traditions. Alongside these deeply held traditions we bring in fundamental elements of modern somatic wellness practices and traditions from a variety of lineages including: Skinner Releasing Technique, Feldenkrais, SOUL + Soma, BodyMind Centering to name a few.
As a professional dancer for many years, EA’s founder Wilhemeena Monroe built her fundamental knowledge base of human movement systems from a pure fluid movement base - as a professional dancer one had to be ready for any movement the choreographer might require of you - it is being an athlete of every sport and the body awareness required is acute. Through this rigourous physical training, Wilhemeena discovered her love of the somatic arts and became a student of mind/body practices for over a decade, training in every technique she could find.
Some of these teachers and modalities have been: Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen (BMC), Sondra Fraleigh (Shin Somatics), Joan Skinner (SRT), Mosche Feldenkrias, Biodymanic Craniosacral therapy,…..
She also became interested in Butoh a Japaneze dance art - which became one of her main forms of artistic expression towards her later dance years. This introduced her to Zen philosophy, meditation and practice.
Her qi gong practice started in 2007, when she met Ged Sumner, at that time working with the International College of Elemental Chi Kung, after a year of training under his lineage, Ged asked her to teach his training course which she did for over five years. In 2015 Ged split from the International School and released Wilhemeena to start her own teachings and programs. Elemental Alchmey was born……with her background in somatics, the sacred and healing arts as well as herbalism and plant medicine, this medicine training was created, bringing in a wholistic earthy approach to more traditional qi gong programs.
Some of her more notable qi and meditation masters include Ged Sumner, (one of the founders of the International School of Elemental Chi Kung in London) Peter Caughey (Forest Rock Monestry teachings and the founder of Forest Rock Qi Gong), Peter Fernando (Thai Forest Monestry tradition) Sonja Devi, (who Wilhemeena has collaborated with and taught with many times in New Zealand and also in Bali - founder of Wild Sacred Feminine focusing on Women’s empowerment) and Mantak Chia.
How does EA flow?
Elemental Alchemy has blended these ancient principles and modern somatic embodiment practices into two vital harmonics - Elementals and Alchemy. (Hense the name)
The first year of practice has ten distinct modules of learning and discovery: Elements and Alchemy forms -
The 5 Elementals work with the five elements - Fire, Water, Earth, Wood and Metal - where we look at the organs, meridians, forms and meditations for each element, we also encorporate animal forms, energy medicine, planet medicine and tea meditation and ceremony into every elemental training.
The 5 Alchemys, work with deeper qi pathways, including Embriological qi gong and repatterning, Dragon forms and transformational qi gong forms, Five Element theory, and Healing qi gong.
After this first year - once all modules and homework is complete, students can graduate with teaching diploma and teach the EA forms.
The second year of practice is for those who feel called to deepen into their practice and learn more healing qi forms, for themselves and also to begin to work with others and the greater systems we are apart of. This is a deepening year where not only the forms are learnt, but deep inner personal work and mentoring alongside one of the core teachers.
At the completion of this year, students can begin to use the EA medicine practices to work one on one with clients, building health programs and working with healing qi gong medicine.
To begin your traninng you can start on any module and can apply to train in person OR ONLINE, so you can work through the program in your own time and space from wherever you are in the world.
For more information on this amazing system of knowledge tune in here…