After the second Round Hand, also called ‘Cloud Hands’, or ‘Wave Hands Like Clouds’, we go into Snake Creeps Down. When done with a wide stance, (feet wide apart), this part is very aerobic, and a great exercise for young people.
With the feet close together this exercise becomes more internal, what Mrs Chow would call “Small circles”.
Mrs Chow could perform the entire form with Small circles incredibly fast, and perhaps do the entire form in under two minutes (I never timed her), all with perfect grace and balance. Even with small circles (feet relatively close together, not necessary to scrape the floor or ground with hands), I find a wonderful, delicious healing stretch in coming on to the back foot with hands together and raised and turning 135 degrees to the outside (Right), circling, and coming back to the front foot.
After this, we then perform ‘Rooster Stands Up’, also known as ‘Stand Up and Make Seven Stars’, which takes us to the second backwards walk.
I sometimes ponder how this part may relate to the Pleiades, or Seven Sisters, a constellation in Taurus, near Orion. They are actually the seven brightest stars in an open cluster of stars, the closest star cluster to our solar system, and about which there are numerous myths and stories from many diverse cultures around the world.
Later, after the second Snake Creeps Down, (After the third Round Hand), we go into a section of the form in which we perform the same 135 degree turn balanced on one foot while our hands circle in a large figure eight, or infinity sign, and then proceed to the conclusion of the form. (The subject of a future discourse).
Expand Eden Into Space
We return back to Stand Up and Make Seven Stars. In this part the hands separate (open) vertically, and then sweep around horizontally as the right leg comes up and one stands on one foot, while the other foot sweeps around and is planted behind one to begin the backwards walk.
This movement seems to acknowledge the vertical and horizontal space all around us, and when performed consciously, perhaps may expand our Chi out into space towards infinity.
The step by step, or ‘Square Form’ can be very useful in acquiring the details of this part of the form, and also in perfecting Snake Creeps Down.
