Chua Ka was a self-massage technique practiced by the Huns which they believed would increase success in battle.
Today it can be used to clear cellular memory and increase success in whatever personal battles you face.
Cellular memory is the physical remembrance of occurrences that were not cleared on the emotional and mental levels. They can take the form of past injuries, but more often than not it is just that dull reoccurring ache that acts up once in a while.
Sometimes people become emotional during the massage because massage can trigger and clear cellular memory. I have been with several clients that have suddenly reacted emotionally because the emotion that had been blocked is now seeking expression.
As the therapist, I usually don’t know (and often the client doesn’t know) what the experience is, and it is not necessary for either of us to know. After the emotional release very often the client feels better emotionally, and the body has more movement and range of motion in the area I was working on that triggered the emotion.
I also find that people have more range of motion in their lives as afterward. What I mean is that a release of cellular memory is often followed with a new reaction to an experience that has already occurred often in the person’s lifetime.
As a very basic example, if someone played softball once as a kid and was hit in the arm with the ball, but wasn’t able to express the pain that he/she was experiencing at the time (due to embarrassment or whatever), that person carries that cellular memory around until it is released. If that person comes to me and starts crying when I massage his/her arm, the next time he/she is asked to play softball, he/she might agree to play even though, previous to the emotional release, the same person had refused for years.
The Huns practiced Chua Ka (also described as “cleaning the bones”) because felt that if they were still energetically holding on to old issues and experiences when facing the challenge of a new battle, those experiences would hold back the warrior emotionally, physically, mentally and psychically from being the best warrior that he could.
The Art of Chua Ka
Chua Ka is a very slow process so put at least an hour aside. The Huns would spend several hours ‘cleaning’ every bone in the body, but I highly recommend you start with the feet (which will take some time, since there are 26 bones in each foot) and work your way up. It is better to take your time than to rush through the whole body.
I like to enjoy Chua Ka as a special ritual, so I take a salt bath beforehand, and then light some candles, release a few drops of aromatherapy essential oils into a burner (I like myrrh essential oil because it reminds me of the incense they used to burn in church when I was a kid) and put on some instrumental music or a CD of nature sounds. Sometimes I also place my favorite crystals around me for even more energetic healing support.
Take 5 minutes to breathe deeply and relax.
If you know how to ground your energy, this is a great time to do that.
If you don’t know how to do that, become aware as best you can of the energy field around you. Imagine a bubble of white or colored light around you, ten feet in all directions, and that there is one cord connecting you to the center of the earth coming out of the bottom of your spine, and another cord coming out of the top of your head connecting you to the infinite heavens.
Gently place your hand on the bone you are choosing to work on.
Allow it to stay there for a while and become aware of the different levels there, both the soft tissue and bone.
Gradually apply more pressure. Imagine your hand actually sinking into flesh, through the layers of fascia. If you do this slowly enough, you will feel as if your hand has sunk into the body and that you are touching the hard surface of the bone.
This is the part that involves a bit of creativity.
When I get to the point in the Chua Ka ritual when I am ‘touching’ bone, I imagine a white light radiating from the tips of my fingers.
I consider it to be energy drawn up from the earth and drawn down through the heavens through the cords I created earlier.
I visualize the white light surrounding the bone (or part of the bone, if you’re working on a big bone like the femur) and that this light is washing away any and all debris around the bone. I visualize the debris gently falling off into the ground to be neutralized. I send love to that area of my body through this light.
As I’m writing this I’m noticing there is the potential for a lot to be lost in the translation between the actual process to the written word.
“Visualizing light surrounding the bone” sounds a bit silly even to me, and I’ve been doing Chua Ka for some time now.
Please trust the process and know that intention is everything, particularly in regard to healing (especially energy healing).
We live in a quantum physical universe where nothing is truly solid. I don’t want to get too deep about it, but if you want to learn some basic information about quantum physics, I highly recommend watching What the Bleep do We Know.
When I feel I have thoroughly cleaned the bone, I slowly start drawing my hand away from the bone.
Please take at least a couple minutes to do this because it will be jarring to the muscle if you remove your hand quickly after being ‘inside’ the muscle so deeply.
When my hand has returned to the surface, I remove my hand from that part and move on to the next muscle.
Repeat the process with the next bone.
When ready to complete the ritual, again, mentally visualize the cord from the bottom of the spine to the center of the earth. I like to also assert, “All energy that is not my own, return to source.”
Tips For Your Chua Ka Ritual
- You may or may not have emotions come up during the Chua Ka ritual. If you don’t, don’t worry… the process is still quite effective. Sometimes the release comes up to a few days later.
- If you don’t think you are ‘getting it’, try it a few more times. Most people don’t ‘get’ Chua Ka the first time (I didn’t). After a while, you will start to understand what it feels like to touch different layers of the body energetically. I would advise you to take more time to sink through the muscle into the bone because the body won’t let you in if you attempt to sink too fast.
- If you are ‘getting it’… GREAT! If you are a massage therapist, it is helpful to know that Chua Ka is a precursor to deep tissue, which is all about sinking into the body. I still recommend you stay away from deep tissue if you are not a professional massage therapist, but this will give you an idea of what it feels like during a deep tissue massage as the massager.
- After a Chua Ka session, I strongly recommend staying in and having some quiet time. Your energy field will probably be more open than usual, so it’s best to NOT enter spaces that are chaotic, noisy and/or crowded.
- If you’ve tried several times and Chua Ka still isn’t doing it for you, try something that is less oriented toward the energetic body like the tennis ball self-massage.
Conclusion
This massage is part massage, part visualization, and part meditation.
You can do it for as long or as short as you like but a quiet, focused mind is the most important thing.
If you don’t want to “clean” every bone in the body or are not familiar with the skeletal structure of the body, that is ok.
Knowing the human skeleton will help you to visualize, but you can still do this with a general sense of the body and bone structure.
(I’m pretty sure the Huns weren’t reading Grey’s Anatomy). 🙂
Please let me know how you did in the comments and if you have any questions about the process.
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