Stuart Alve Olson—beloved Taoist teacher, translator, author, and lifelong practitioner—passed peacefully from cancer on August 14, 2025, in Phoenix, Arizona, surrounded by the love and care of his closest students and caretakers, Patrick Gross and Suzanne Nosko. Even through all he endured, his att...

The following is the concluding talk I gave during our Tracing the Wall workshop on August 22, 2026. The workshop has since been developed into Tracing the Wall: The Complete Internal Cultivation Method, now available as a self-study program through the Sanctuary of Tao. I’m sharing the talk here be...

In his fifth talk on The Secret of the Golden Flower, Tim begins by reviewing the central teachings developed through the first four talks before moving into Chapters 11 and 12. The main theme throughout is the gradual movement from deliberately turning the light inward to a more natural, formless a...

This 7th Moon contains the Chinese Solar Season of “Ending Heat,” signifying that during this Moon, the peak summer energy begins to gradually lower its high intensity.

Swinging in as the ruler of this 7th Moon is the Yang Fire Monkey! Fire Monkeys are generally strategic, know how to leverage, and...

The hexagram for the month is Hexagram #12, Adversity (Pi), which represents standstill, stagnation, and/or obstruction. Its image is Heaven (☰) above Earth (☷), symbolizing disconnect, lack of communion, blockage, and frozen movement. Because Heaven rises upward and Earth sinks downward, their ener...

When Does an Exercise Become a Cultivation Practice?

I’ve been thinking lately about what actually makes something a cultivation practice. We use words like Qigong, Taijiquan, meditation, and Internal Alchemy, and we often assume that because an exercise comes from one of these traditions, it’s aut...

On the 7th day of the 7th month of the Chinese lunar calendar, the Double Sevens Festival (also known as the Qixi Festival) is celebrated. The Qixi Festival is primarily a traditional Chinese folk and astronomical festival rather than an exclusively Taoist holiday. However, because Chinese folklore ...

Liezi (or Lie Yukou 列子) is one of the three foundational masters of Taoism, along with Laozi and Zhuangzi. He occupied a unique space in Chinese thought, living during the Warring States/Hundred Schools of Thought period, and serving as a bridge between philosophical Taoism and early esoteric, mysti...

This talk explores the movement from meditation practiced in quiet conditions to active meditation in the midst of daily life. The Secret of the Golden Flower presents turning the light around not as an escape from the world, but as a way of remaining rooted in the mind of Tao while fully engaged wi...

When I first began studying with Stuart in the early 1990s, I wanted to learn everything he knew. I wanted to learn the Taijiquan form, sword, saber, staff, the two-person sets, Taiji Ruler, Qigong, meditation, and Neidan (Internal Alchemy). If Stuart taught it, I wanted to learn it.

Like many stud...

The 6th Moon is symbolized by the Goat. This month will be a Yin Wood Goat, which will come scaling in as the previous month comes to an end. Goats are peaceful, domestic animals, but they're also mountain climbers. They have incredible endurance and are fiercely territorial. In metaphysics, Goat en...

This moon will be governed by Hexagram #33, “Retreating,” within a year ruled by Hexagram #46 (Ascending), which creates a classic dynamic tension: strategic retreat tucked within an overall period of growth. For this combination, picture a massive, ancient tree pushing its way up through the soil (...