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Indigenous Indian Massage
Line:
Zapotec line
Practice type:
Massage
Characteristics:
This is an art of interacting with human body, energy, and spirit by applying certain efforts. In the olden days this defined the process that nowadays we call “massage”.
Indian massages need to be performed in a specially designated place, appointed time (taking into consideration season, time and duration), and with maintained performance rhythm.
Description:
The Indians never considered body to be one-dimensional model but rather a spatial one with its own centre and energy structure. For interacting with the environment, Indian massages are structured in a certain way, which initially helps maintain and strengthen the energy structure of the body.
According to Indian culture, a human body acts as some conductor, which allows guiding the energy towards the spirit. In one of its higher destinations the art of massage can be considered to be a preparation of the spirit through working with the body for continuing its existence after the physical death of the body or for achieving immortality (in Indian tradition this “approach” is justified by the concept, which says that a Human is a Spirit in human body, hence immortal by default).
Any type of massage is a holistic system, which means that there is a complex theory of human body, energy, and spiritual anatomy. Within each particular system this knowledge is presented in a certain way, according to the traditions of certain culture, in which this particular type of massage originated.
In general, it is impossible to consider massages separately from their traditions and cultures. South and Central American Indian cultures bring their own understanding into the significance of body work and into the meaning of interaction with the body. It is impossible to understand the goals of Indian massages without understanding the cosmogonical views of the Indians and taking into account their idea of the interaction between macro- and microcosmos, i.e. human and Universe.
Whether Indian massages are effective depends on the force of the place, where they are performed. This group of massages includes Hawaiian and African massages, primarily aimed at impacting human spirit through human body.
Nowadays we traditionally consider massages from the same point of view, which was officially confirmed from 18th Century, and focus on medical aspects of the practice. In the olden days massages had absolutely different characteristics and implemented special tasks, which are often misunderstood in our days. We can say that massages were a part of initiation ceremonies (during initiation processes they helped cleanse, nurture, treat, and strengthen the energy).
During Indian massages a special attention is paid to the rhythm – the rhythm of performing a massage and the rhythm of its sensation.
It is necessary to follow certain requirements during Indian massages due to the need to develop an ability to tune the person, which is being massaged, into the certain frequency of his/her sensation. |
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