Softness, Spinning & TCC

“Hold it softly, as if you were holding a butterfly.” I meditated on these words one day as I spun a brilliant blue fleece into yarn on my spinning wheel. I watched my hands as I closed the right one over the fleece and opened the left, moving it away from the right. A blue cloud formed between them. I opened my right hand, and the energy generated by my rhythmic treadling of the wheel flowed into the cloud, spiraling it into yarn. When the energy was in balance with the fibers, I closed my left hand, and moved it towards the now open right hand as the yarn slid onto the bobbin of the wheel. Smoothly, softly, without hesitation, I began the process again. But that day, there was more than the spinning of yarn. That day I felt, between my hands, the movement of Chi.

The stories and myths surrounding spinning make me think that I am not the first one to notice something happening between my hands when I spin. In ancient Greece, there was a goddess named Ananke, or Necessity. Plato wrote in the Republic that the spindle that spins the earth and heavens into existence rested on Ananke’s knees, and, he added, even the gods are subject to her.

The spindle resting on Ananke’s knees suggests that more is taking place than the simple spinning of yarn. Like the movements of T’ai Chi Chih, it is reasonable to ask how such a simple thing could spin heaven and earth into existence. Yet, I know that my TCC practice profoundly affects the creation of my world and how I rest within it. Perhaps the cultivation of Chi is a Necessity, as Ananke’s name suggests? Perhaps across cultures and time this has always been known, just in different forms? Perhaps the necessary softness of the TCC practice might cause the world to spin gracefully and with ease? That’s my belief, and it comes from the practice of TCC.