This Guided Meditation offers to guide the meditator through three phases:
The Silent Watcher – Cultivating stillness, sharpening awareness like the owl in waiting.
Piercing the Veil – Developing intuition and clarity, embracing the owl’s penetrating sight.
Balance of Light and Shadow – Integrating wisdom and mystery, harmonizing insight with uncertainty.
Please be sure to give a listen to a shorter version of this hosted over on my Swellcast channel:
https://www.swellcast.com/t/O1UmQjljGMQUHDs
Prologue:
The owl held a complex and often contradictory role in ancient Chinese symbolism, spanning philosophy, folklore, medicine, and Martial Arts.
The owl offers a many-layered symbolism - its dual nature as wisdom and omen, its silent precision, and a connection to deep insight. As such, the owl has formed the foundation of this Guided Meditation that explores perception, intuition, & balance.
Philosophy & Folklore
In early dynasties like the 商朝, Shāng Cháo - Shang Dynasty (1600–1046 BCE) and 周朝, Zhōu Cháo- Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE), owls were sometimes revered as protectors and symbols of power. Bronze vessels shaped like owls suggest ritualistic significance, possibly linked to funerary rites.
However, later traditions viewed owls as harbingers of misfortune. Their nocturnal nature and eerie calls led to associations with death and ill omens. Some folklore even depicted young owls as unfilial, claiming they pecked out their mothers' eyes before leaving the nest.
Despite these ominous interpretations, owls were also linked to wisdom and mystery, much as they have been in other cultures.
Medicine & Healing
In traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), owls were sometimes associated with spiritual insight and protective energies. Their keen vision and ability to navigate darkness symbolized clarity and foresight, qualities valued in healing practices.
Some regions believed owl effigies could ward off gods spirits and protect homes from fire and destruction, linking them to thunder and lightning gods.
Martial Arts & Symbolism
In Martial Arts, the owl’s sharp vision, patience, and silent precision made it a fitting metaphor for stealth and awareness. Some schools of thought likened its hunting techniques to strategic combat, emphasizing waiting for the right moment to strike.
The owl’s association with Yáng energy in 風水, Fēngshui also made it a symbol of strength and resilience, reinforcing its role in martial philosophy.
Substack Music Cue:
The Owl’s Gaze
a Guided Meditation infused with Dàoist imagery, qì cultivation, and the wisdom of the owl.
Introduction – Entering the Flow of Qì
Find a quiet space where you can sit comfortably. Let your spine be tall but relaxed, like a bamboo stalk - supple, yet strong.
Closing eyes slowly...
Breathing slowly, too...
Eyes now softly closed.
Presence...
Breathing easily...
Presence...
Breathing slowly...
The world softens, soon dissolving into a deepening stillness.
Presence...
Deeply breathing...
Before the owl takes flight, before the wind stirs the leaves, before the stars whisper their sacred songs - there is stillness.
Take a deep inhale through your nose…slow and deliberate. A breath drawn as if from the cool mist rolling over the mountain range. Hold this breath - like water pooling in a still basin. Then, exhale through your mouth...effortlessly. Releasing tension with the exhalation like Autumn's spent leaves drifting into a slow flowing stream.
Let your breath follow its own rhythm, flowing as the 道, Dào flows.
A breath like the wind over an ancient lake. A ripple in the Great Silence.
Let us begin.
The Silent Watcher – Cultivating Stillness
Breathe slowly, now.
As slow as the lazy tides beneath the moon’s quiet gaze.
The owl waits, perched atop a twisted cypress,
its gnarled roots tangled in the Earth's wisdom,
its needles whispering near-forgotten truths.
The owl does not chase the wind - it listens to its passing. The owl does not strain against the night - it rests within it.
With each inhale, draw in 氣, Qì - the life force that pulses through rivers, trees, and stars. Feel it...settle in your lower 丹田, Dāntián, your center of energy - there at the core of your Being. Hold this fresh breath.
Warming it like a mother owl nesting atop her clutch of eggs. With each exhale, release unnecessary thoughts. Let them dissolve like morning mist over a temple rooftop. Bell sounds and incense smoke sharing the sacred airs there.
You become the owl - still, aware, undisturbed.
Darkness pools in the Valley below - not emptiness. A landscape unseen, and waiting.
Breathe in again, steady as the river carving her banks through the ceaseless seasons of uncounted eons. Hold. Breathe out, resting in this quiet awareness.
This darkness is not emptiness - it is the depth beneath the surface, the quiet chamber within the Mountain, the moment before thunder speaks.
Your breath is the river - flowing, adapting, never forced.
Breathe deeply.
Wait. Listen.
Your breath, the river - fluid, flowing, & flexible.
Breathe deeply.
Wait. Listen.
Piercing the Veil – Developing Intuition and Clarity
Let your breath become longer, smoother, like a lantern’s glow stretching across the still water's of the mountain range's Valley lake.
With each inhale, imagine the owl’s golden eyes.
Your golden eyes.
Eyesight sharpening.
Clarity of vision a birthright.
The owl does not guess - it knows. The owl does not fear the unknown.
The owl sees what was hidden.
With each exhale, release resistance...
Let understanding come into view, into focus.
Sink into 無為, Wú Wéi - frictionless action, a flowing with the natural way.
Breathe in deeply, drawing clarity into your mind. Hold, steady. Breathe out, releasing uncertainty into the night.
Your darkness - whether ignorance, sorrow, or the unknown - is not an obstacle.
It is the empty space that makes the cup useful, the hollow flute that allows sound to emerge.
Your darkness is the ink-black sky where stars can be seen most clearly.
The owl does not judge the night - it moves within it.
(You are now the owl.)
This darkness is the silent wisdom of an unlit temple.
Breathing...
Presence...
Breathing...
Now, gently turn your head to the left, the owl’s gaze.
Pause.
Now, turn to the right, slow and deliberate, again the owl’s gaze.
Your gaze.
Breathing...
This motion, known as 五劳七伤, Wǔlǎo Qīshāng, or Wise Owl Gazes Backward, releases tension, clears the mind, & opens perception.
What truth lies beyond the veil? Let it reveal itself in stillness.
Breathing...
Presence...
Breathing...
Balance of Light and Shadow – Harmonizing Wisdom and Mystery
Let your breath settle - soft, effortless.
The owl does not fight the night - it embraces it.
(You are now the owl.)
The owl finds harmony in both light and shadow.
(You are now the owl.)
The owl finds sustenance in the depths of darkness.
(You are now the owl.)
Breathing...
Presence...
Breathing...
Inhale, gathering qì -as effortlessly as dew forming on wild chrysanthemums... Hold, now - letting it permeate your being. Exhale, distributing energy evenly, like a steady mountain wind flickering candles in the cliffside temple.
Wisdom and mystery are not enemies - they are the 阴阳, Yīn-Yáng, the Mountain and the Valley, The moment of clarity before dawn, when the sky is neither dark nor light.
When the dark is neither dark nor light.
When the light is neither dark nor light.
Breathing...
Presence.
You are not lost in the unknown. You move with it, effortlessly, Carrying newfound understanding like the owl gliding over these mist-covered hills.
With your final inhale, welcome the gift of the owl - clarity within uncertainty. Hold. Exhale - returning.
Awake, transformed.
Assured of your vision.
Closing – Returning to the Present
Let your breath return to its natural rhythm, as soft as ripples in a moonlit puddle.
Reach your wings, turn your neck, open your eyes.
Breathing...
Presence.
Now, wiggle your fingers, roll your shoulders gently - preparing to return to the waking world.
Breathing...
Presence.
When you’re ready, perhaps a smile.
The night no longer holds fear - it holds knowledge, clarity, depth, even confidence.
Breathing...
Presence.
You possess a vision which penetrates fear, which penetrates darkness.
You possess a vision which dissolves fear, which dissolves darkness.
Thank you.
Share this post