David Crow – The Matrix of Magic
Experience deeper levels of healing by revitalizing the spiritual dimensions of your being by activating your prana and qi with essential herbs and oils.
Discover a complete system of study and practices based on millennia-old lineages of medicine, meditation, and mysticism.
Receive simple and direct ways to perceive how the body is a matrix of cosmological energies and terrestrial elements animated by nature’s profound evolutionary intelligence.
What You’ll Learn In The Matrix of Magic
In The Matrix of Magic, David Crow will guide you through the fundamental skills and competencies you’ll need to have a deep, meaningful, and sustained internal relationship with the intelligence of nature as it operates in your body and mind.
Each training session of The Matrix of Magic will build harmoniously upon the previous one so you’ll receive a complete, holistic understanding of the practices, tools, and principles based on millennia-old lineages of medicine, meditation, and mysticism. The Matrix of Magic will provide simple and direct ways to help you perceive how your body — and its complicated matrix of energies — are animated by nature’s profound evolutionary intelligence.
Module 1: Introduction to the Matrix of Magic
Chinese, Tibetan, and Ayurvedic medicine are rich repositories not only of ethnobotanical knowledge for healing the body, but also of spiritual practices and mystical insights from the cultures they evolved in. Along with the lineages of yogic and contemplative disciplines of its time, classical Asian medicine explored and recorded the subtle energetic systems that lie at the interface of body, mind, and spirit.
The Matrix of Magic is a complete system of study and practices based on these millennia-old lineages medicine, meditation and mysticism, that offers simple and direct ways to perceive how the body is a matrix of cosmological energies and terrestrial elements animated by nature’s profound evolutionary intelligence. As we move through the various stages of study and contemplation, we will find that these ancient concepts have valuable applications for health and wellbeing, increasing self-knowledge, giving insights into the current conditions of life, and finding inner peace through understanding our true spiritual nature and deeper cosmological identity.
Module 2: The Intelligence of Creation
The Nature of Prana
The concept of prana, life force, is central to all yogic, meditative, and healing lineages. In medicine, prana is the basis of diagnosis and treatment; in yoga and meditation it is the basis of spiritual practices. From classical Asian medicine we learn that there are numerous classifications and types of prana operating at all levels of the body and mind, from physiological functions to states of consciousness to the flow of time and the cycle of birth and death. The knowledge, perception and understanding of the nature of prana is synonymous with spiritual evolution; it is also the basis of making healthy lifestyle choices, managing stress, and myriad other important practical applications.
Module 3: Vitality, Ancestors & the Breath of Life
The Nature of Qi
Just as prana is central to Vedic, Ayurvedic, and Tantric philosophies and practices, qi is central to Chinese medicine and Taoist philosophies and practices. In many ways the concepts are synonymous, but they are also different; by studying and contemplating both lineages we are able to develop an encompassing view and understanding of the energy and vitality that animates all living things. As prana is in Ayurveda, qi is the basis of diagnosis and treatment in Chinese medicine; as prana is in yoga and Tantra, qi is the basis of qigong and Taoist spiritual practices.
As with prana, we learn that there are numerous classifications and types of qi operating at all levels of the body and mind, from physiological functions to states of consciousness to the flow of time and the cycle of birth and death. As with prana, the knowledge, perception and understanding of the nature of qi helps us understand the karmic and ancestral influences in our lives, supports healthy lifestyle choices, and can enhance our spiritual evolution by deepening our perception of unity with the intelligence of nature.
Module 4: The Mind-Stream
The Incarnation of Consciousness According to Tibetan Embryology, the Kalachakra Tantra & Taoist Mystics
Classical Asian medicine and its associated yogic influences offer profound insights into fundamental existential questions related to life, death, and rebirth. Tibetan embryology, for example, describes how the patterns of consciousness in the incarnating mind-stream determine the elemental constitution of the body at the time of conception.
The Kalachakra Tantra, one of the influences of Tibetan medicine, describes how the external world is created by the incarnating consciousness as a place for fulfilling its karmas. Taoist mystics tell us that spirit transforms into birth and back again in an ongoing cycle. Studying these profound teachings deepens our self-knowledge and spiritual awareness; it could be accurately said that contemplating the mystical dimensions of life, death, and incarnation is one of the most direct paths to spiritual growth and the development of inner wisdom.
Module 5: Form & Emptiness
The Conjunction of Mind & Matter According to Ayurveda, Tantra, and Vedic Philosophy
The inner teachings of classical Asian medicine are rich sources of knowledge and spiritual insights about the relationship of the body and mind, and how formless consciousness inhabits the matrix of elemental form. From Vedanta and Ayurveda we learn that there are five interwoven bodies, from the external elements of food and water to the most subtle consciousness beyond time and space. From Sankkya philosophy and Ayurveda we learn that mahat, universal mind, evolves into individual mind and sense consciousness.
From Tantric meditation we learn that for prana to awaken the subtle nervous system of the chakras, we must first create a mental body of emptiness as the container. Knowledge and understanding of these systems can be cultivated through contemplative methods and study, with important applications for health and wellbeing; at a spiritual level, understanding the mysteries of the body/mind relationship is synonymous with spiritual evolution and self-knowledge.
Module 6: Secrets of the Heart
The 5 Flowers, the 7 Levels of Heart Prana & the Luminosity of the Eyes
Derived from their associated yogic lineages and cultural influences, Chinese, and Ayurvedic medicine offer unique teachings and insights concerning the spiritual dimensions of the heart and their relationships to the mind and emotions. These holistic concepts articulate tangible and intangible aspects of our being, such as the luminosity of our presence, the impact of moods on immunity, and our cognitive functions. Knowledge of the spiritual dimensions of the heart informs us that we are immaterial vapor of consciousness infused in the materiality of the body, which helps us understand our true nature and the challenges of maintaining balance in the earthly elements.
Cultivating this awareness has important applications for healing mental and emotional disturbances, especially stress, insomnia, anxiety and depression, as the luminosity of the heart is directly related to how we process stimuli from the world and our emotional reactions to it. At a spiritual level, purification of consciousness so we can return to our true luminous nature is the primary goal of many yogic and meditative traditions.
Module 7: Children of Sunlight
The 5 Digestive Fires, 13 Fires of Transformation & the Evolution of Light Into Consciousness
The inner spiritual traditions of classical Asian medicine are rich sources of teachings about the influences of solar energy, its relationship to plants, and the fire of metabolism in the human body. These teachings have applications for diagnosis and treatment as well as meditation; they are fundamental to Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, as well as Tantric ritual and meditations in the inner landscape of the energy body.
At a practical level these teachings can be applied to understanding our body type, to understanding proper diets and lifestyle, and to know which herbs are best for our needs. At a spiritual level these teachings offer us a way to discover how the celestial influences of sunlight and the terrestrial influences of fire are continually active in our physiology and mental and emotional states, which leads to heightened awareness of our cosmological identity and perception of biological unity with nature. Through meditation and contemplative practices, we can become aware of how the warmth of the body and the light of consciousness are the manifestations and expressions of sunlight distilled by the alchemy of metabolism.
Module 8: Mysteries of Moonlight
The Essence of Flowers, 8 Drops of Nutritional Essence & the Nectar of Contentment
The inner spiritual traditions of classical Asian medicine are rich sources of teachings about the subtle influences of lunar energies, their relationship with plants, the water element and the human body. These teachings have applications for diagnosis and treatment as well as meditation; they are fundamental to Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, as well as Tantric ritual and meditations in the inner landscape of the energy body.
At a practical level these teachings can be applied to understanding our body type, to understanding proper diets and lifestyle, and to know which herbs are best for our specific condition. At a spiritual level, these teachings offer us a way to discover how the celestial influences of the moon and the terrestrial influences of water are continually active in our physiology and mental and emotional states, which leads to heightened awareness of our biological unity with nature.
With sustained meditation practice and mindful use of foods and herbs, we can become aware of how the nutritional nectar alchemically distilled in the body from the essences of the plant realm is the basis of consciousness and the source of inner peace and contentment.
