You're Missing Out

Sunday classes with Steve Jankowiecz continue to amaze and enlighten. Today he performed a Daoist exorcism ritual on a former fighter who had been struck with a 'poison hand' in a match seven years ago and ever since has been unable to raise his right arm over his head. Jankowiecz explained that it was a type of zong qi, nearly alive, that had been put into his arm, along the Lung meridian and was trying to seep into the Heart meridian. The fighter, who had earlier told us that he practiced a Native American fighting style called San Carlos, explained that he had to do special breathing exercises to keep the pain from spreading, and had been five or six different doctors and healers with no results.

So, what did the ritual consist of? With everyone crowded around, Jankowiecz poked the affected area many times with a lancet, and put a vacuum cup on top, drawing out thick dark blood with chunky bits in it. He repeated the bleeding, each time carefully lifting and wiping away the large amount of blood. When he finished the bleeding, he held his hand over the circular area and pronounced it ice-cold. He then inserted five needles around the edge, following the controlling cycle of the five elements, and followed the same pattern with a moxa stick. A student asked if a heat lamp would have the same effect. “NO,” he said. Why not? “Demons aren't afraid of heat lamps.” He finished the moxa portion by going around the circle following the generating cycle and briefly touched the tip of the moxa stick to the middle of the circle.

The next step was to write in the characters of the five phases in bright red vermillion paste, one next to each needle, a circle around the whole thing, and in the middle, that Buddhist symbol that looks like a backwards swastika (the svastika is an ancient religious symbol that predates the Nazis by several thousand years - see picture for example). Then more moxa, and he removed the needles.

Finally came the wooden clappers, 108 times directly over the circle, which he explained to us after was meant to fix the demon in the present while everyone else moved forward. Sounds resonate in many dimensions, and this was an attempt to cover all the bases, in case the demon tried to sidestep the exorcism.

Afterwards the gentleman being worked on expressed his gratitude with a song of thanks in his native language, which I couldn't identify but was quite beautiful and nearly brought tears to my eyes.

This class is full of oohs and aahs. If you're getting bored with standard TCM and the modern zang-fu organ diagnosis, you owe it to yourself to take a class with Steve Jackowicz. He has a Phd in Chinese religion, a bachelors in acupuncture from South Korea, a master's degree from NESA, and obviously knows some off-the-beaten-track stuff that you won't learn anywhere else in PCOM. On top of that he's an engaging and nearly hyperactive teacher, insisting on high performance from everyone and getting it. Each class is like a seminar that people pay a hundred and fifty bucks for once they graduate.