Blessed Year of the Yang Fire Horse from Holds the Moon!
Caoshan’s Dharma Body
Caoshan asked an old student called De, “‘The body of reality is like space. It responds to things, manifesting its forms the way the moon appears in the water.’ How do you explain this responsiveness?”
And De said, “It’s like a donkey looking into a well.”
Caoshan said, “Well, I kind of like that. But I don’t think it’s the whole thing. It’s most of it, but not the whole thing.”
“Well, what’s it like for you?”
“It’s like a well looking at a donkey.”
-Book of Serenity, Case 52
Blessed Lunar New Year and Year of the Yang Fire Horse beloved community!
Thank you so much to everyone who has supported us in navigating the shedding and change we all went through in this past Year of the Snake, through all the waves of grief and challenge personally and collectively. As we start off this Year of the Fire Horse, we’re already feeling and witnessing the intensity of our collective pulse and we are deepening our commitment to ground, center, and nourish to make this a sustainable space of refuge and resource of healing for our community.
As such, with this new Lunar Year, the temple is launching a GoFundMe campaign to help keep this space running through the new year!
This year, we are raising funds to keep the temple growing sustainably as a space of community connection, aquatic therapy, dance, meditation, healing, and learning. While we have been able to operate until now as a mostly volunteer-run effort, after this past year we've been operating at a deficit financially. In order to keep the facilities running and make necessary improvements to meet the needs of our growing community, we need your help to make it happen!
Some of our goals with these funds are to:
Begin construction of an accessible bathroom and other necessary space renovations
Replace necessary supplies and equipment including our electro-chlorinator which has been broken for about a year, pool stairs, sound equipment, floats, etc
Purchase a large well-functioning indoor air purifier, oil-filled radiator heaters, reverse osmosis water filters for drinking water, and quality flooring for the Zendo/hybrid movement, workshop and healing clinic space
Help cover monthly electricity, gas, and water bills until cash flow breakeven is sustainable
Pay down recent improvements debt (materials and skilled labor for Zendo/workshop space & Teahouse/changing room
Continue offering our scholarship and worktrade programs, prioritizing Black, Indigenous, People of the Global Majority, Queer, Trans, disabled, and low-income members of our community
Create free/donation based training workshops for community organizers to learn the basics of aquatic facilitation
Continue our discounted and subsidized offerings supporting new and student practitioners in developing their healing practice
Continue co-creating a community aquatic container culture based on care, consent, anti-oppression and accessibility, and further developing community accountability, safety, and emergency preparedness protocols
Establish onsite popup healing clinics for activists and land defenders and cover costs of services and supplies (ear acupuncture seeds and needles, acupuncture chairs, foot tubs, moxibustion supplies)
To see our offerings, please visit our website at holdsthemoon.us and spread the word!
For our newsletter subscribers, we're also offering gifts as a thank you for contributing to this fundraiser:
This first person who donates (the founding donor) will have access to a private tea and I-Ching divination with the Holds the Moon temple co-stewards.
If you donate $150+, you can receive or gift someone an aquatic bodywork session with one of our community practitioners.
If you donate $250+ you get access to a month of temple-sponsored workshops, circles and dance jams.
If you donate $500+ you can receive or gift someone an aquatic bodywork session and access a month of temple-sponsored workshops, circles and dance jams.
If you donate $1000+ you will have access to a year of temple-sponsored workshops, circles and dance jams.
If you donate $1500+ you will have access to a year of temple-sponsored workshops, circles and dance jams and can receive or gift someone two aquatic bodywork sessions.
For those interested in making larger contributions or wanting to be more involved in our overall vision, please reach out (we also welcome introductions to those we may not yet know who would like to be apart of this story)!
For those who would like to make a tax deductible donation, send us an email and we will connect you with our fiscal sponsor.
To follow up on these, please email us at info@holdsthemoon.us after you make your donation.
Many hands & hearts make this work possible and we thank you for supporting us in all the ways you do! These funds will help us sustain our work in the seasons to come so we can continue to offer this as a space of refuge in these times of great collective uncertainty and possibility.
Thank you so much for all your support,
-James Jishin Anthony & Seh-reum Tom, Temple Co-stewards
Also, join our community on WhatsApp for Announcements: https://chat.whatsapp.com/HyK5cuwBljS6I0lbzH1dJe
FEBRUARY & MARCH EVENTS
weekly sitting meditation (dry-land)
EVERY TUESDAY · 6-7:30 PM in the Zendo*
FEBRUARY 24, MARCH 3, 10, 17, 24, 31
Sitting meditation with James in the Pacific Zen Institute style: some simple instruction, a koan for the group, some silent meditation, and then some conversation and the four vows. We will be gathering in person and virtually joining David Weinsteins’s weekly zoom Koan meditation group. (www.pacificzen.org)
*free/dana based by donation
Intro to Aquatic Peer-to-Peer Bodywork Class (Triad Round)
EVERY SATURDAY · 10 AM-1 PM
Together, the group (up to 6) will explore aquatic somatic connection variously, including: solo, in triads, pairs, and the whole group, supporting and holding each other in bodywork mode--and also interacting in contact improv dance mode. Blissful to receive, delightful to give, and always amazing to connect, transform, and integrate in the moment. This is a non-professional, peer-to-peer practice of connection w/friends & family based on James's original training in the Watsu Round and blending elements of Healing Dance and Aguahara.
$40 (NOTAFLOF)
age 55+ Intro to Aquatic Peer-to-Peer Bodywork Class (Triad Round)
EVERY TUESDAY · 10AM-1PM
Together, the group (up to 6) will explore aquatic somatic connection variously, including: solo, in triads, pairs, and the whole group, supporting and holding each other in bodywork mode--and also interacting in contact improv dance mode. Blissful to receive, delightful to give, and always amazing to connect, transform, and integrate in the moment. This is a non-professional, peer-to-peer practice of connection w/friends & family based on James's original training in the Watsu Round and blending elements of Healing Dance and Aguahara.
$40 (NOTAFLOF)
intermediate-advanced aquatic dance lab series
Every 1st Monday
MARCH 2 · 6-9 PM
Guided by Kriss Rulifson
This experimental lab space welcomes aquatic dancers with existing experience to focus on specific research themes in warm water contact improv with guidance from experienced aquatic dancers and facilitators. Each session will be guided by rotating facilitators from Holds the Moon and visiting guest teachers.
6: Arrival/Opening
6:30: Lab
8:30: Closing/Departure
$70-$30 sliding scale (NOTAFLOF)
To pay $50, use code WATER50
To pay $30, use code WATER30
water babies: a monthly queer circle
Every 1st Thursday
MARCH 5 · 7-10 PM
Facilitated by Tanner Montierth (featured in our practitioner highlight below!)
$55-$22 sliding scale (NOTAFLOF)
To pay $44, use code WATER44
To pay $33, use code WATER33
To pay $22, use code WATER22
the water knows us: a monthly QTBIPOC/PGM circle
MARCH 12 · 7:30-10 PM
Facilitated by Seh-reum Tom
$55-$22 sliding scale (NOTAFLOF)
To pay $44, use code WATER44
To pay $33, use code WATER33
To pay $22, use code WATER22
beginner aquatic dance series
Every 3rd Monday
MARCH 16 · 6-9 PM
This space welcomes those new to aquatic dance to learn the basics of warm water contact improv and begin to develop familiarity and attunement in the water with guidance from experienced aquatic dancers and facilitators. Each session will be guided by rotating facilitators from Holds the Moon and visiting guest teachers.
6pm: Arrival/Opening
6:30pm: Class
7:30pm: Jam
8:30pm: Closing/Departure
$70-$30 sliding scale (NOTAFLOF)
To pay $50, use code WATER50
To pay $30, use code WATER30
pouring in: a birthworkers aquatic circle
Every 3rd Wednesday
MARCH 18 · 6-9 PM
this is a space open to non-aquatic birthwork practitioners (doulas, midwives, nurses, etc) to be held in the water in a circle of peer support, facilitated by a group of rotating aquatic dance and bodywork practitioners and facilitators who have backgrounds in birthwork
~a space to fill your own cup~
$40 (NOTAFLOF)
clarity, consent & curiosity: aquatic container culture & care pt. 1
MARCH 8 · 2-5 PM
*while this is a workshop offered as a requirement for new facilitators & practitioners before sharing their practice here in the temple, it is also open to any participants who are interested in embodied consent practices within aquatic work
please take part 1 before taking part 2
(This workshop is influenced and inspired by the Wheel of Consent® as developed by Dr. Betty Martin. We have trained with the School of Consent and have permission to share these practices, but are not yet certified facilitators. For more information visit www.schoolofconsent.org.)
$111-$55 sliding scale (NOTAFLOF)
To pay $99, use code WATER99
To pay $77, use code WATER77
To pay $55, use code WATER55
clarity, consent & curiosity: aquatic container culture & care pt. 2
APRIL 12 · 2-5 PM
*while this is a workshop offered as a requirement for new facilitators & practitioners before sharing their practice here in the temple, it is also open to any participants who are interested in embodied consent practices within aquatic work
please take part 1 before taking part 2
(This workshop is influenced and inspired by the Wheel of Consent® as developed by Dr. Betty Martin. We have trained with the School of Consent and have permission to share these practices, but are not yet certified facilitators. For more information visit www.schoolofconsent.org.)
$111-$55 sliding scale (NOTAFLOF)
To pay $99, use code WATER99
To pay $77, use code WATER77
To pay $55, use code WATER55
Sessions
For 1:1, 2:2, or 2:1 aquatic bodywork sessions, you may book with James and Seh-reum here on Acuity
If you are interested in receiving discounted sessions from student practitioners, or if you yourself are a new practitioner interested in joining our practice groups, or for general inquiries, please fill out our google form here.
with love,
Seh-reum & James at Holds the Moon Temple
