Musings
From Music to Medicine
Sean Trace is joined by Chinese Medicine Doctor Cass Naumann for an insightful discussion on the transformative potential of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Medical Qigong.
December 2024
Yo San University of Traditional Chinese Medicine with Sean Trace
Watch and Listen HERE
In this episode of the Yo San University 39Gen Podcast, Sean Trace is joined by Chinese Medicine Doctor Cass Naumann for an insightful discussion on the transformative potential of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Medical Qigong. Cass shares her journey from being a musician to becoming a healer, exploring the profound effects of energy medicine, vibrational healing, and the biofield. They delve into the interconnectedness of mind, body, and spirit, examine the role of intuition in healing practice, and reflect on the remarkable and often mysterious possibilities of healing. This episode will inspire you to embrace the wonder of life’s transformative processes and consider the potential of alternative medicine. Dr. Cass Naumann is an intuitive teacher and healer whose decades of studies and innate gifts bestow upon her clients an elevated sense of well-being, awareness, and self-compassion. People who work with Cass report subtle changes to all levels of their body, mind, and spirit. She has mastered a myriad of healing modalities including: Qigong, Tai Qi, vibrational sound healing, acupuncture, cupping, energy work (medical qigong/reiki), breath-work, bodywork (tuina), yoga, and meditation. In recent years she has also been working in the psychedelic integration spaces through internal theory, shadow work, spiritual direction and coaching. In essence, Cass is a light-worker, devoted to the heart and spirit of this medicine, ushering the collective consciousness toward more peace, balance, and loving kindness.
Bathroom Chronicles
Bathroom Chronicles podcast:
With Kimberly and Peggy
March 2024
Bathroom Chronicles: with Peggy and Kimberly
Watch and Listen HERE
Kimberly and Peggy are joined by their friend Dr. Cass Naumann, DACM, an esteemed acupuncturist and herbalist. Cass unveils her latest venture, "Ling," a line of medicinal incense crafted from herbs traditionally used in teas, offering a unique way to experience their therapeutic benefits. The conversation delves into the power of scent as an activator, exploring its ability to evoke memories and emotions. Peggy shares a poignant trauma story involving thunderstorms, while Kim shares a tale inspired by the Greek gods Zephyr and Flora. They also discuss the profound connection between music and soulmates, before delving into the transformative practice of meditation. Join them for an enlightening discussion that touches on healing, spirituality, and the magic of ancient traditions.
Canvas Rebel magazine interview
an interview on mentorship, authenticity, ordination, resilience, grace and virtue
An interview on mentorship, ordination, authenticity, grace, resilience, and virtue
https://canvasrebel.com/meet-cass-naumann/
Ceremony Circle
Ceremony Circle podcast:
Integration Support and Incense Making
with Alyson Charles
November 2023
Ceremony Circle: with Alyson Charles- the rockstar shaman
Watch and Listen HERE
The most enlivening organic conversation with my friend Alyson discussing our journeys. I can’t wait to listen to this conversation again.
We have a special connection as medicine women to smoke as well as thunder and lightening and it was such a joy to weave this together.
This week’s Ceremony Circle “Incense Making & Integration Support” features dear friend @doctor.cass, an esteemed Integral Chinese Medicine doctor, licensed and board-certified acupuncturist, and herbalist.
Her journey into the spiritual realm saw her being ordained as a Daoist priest, and her proficiency extends as a medical qigong and reiki master teacher.
Dr. Cass is recognized as a wisdom keeper, blending the rich medicine traditions from both the East and West.
As a ceremonialist, she has deep connections to the rituals of incense, tea, and plants, skills which she meticulously honed in Kyoto, Japan. Furthermore, she stands out as a trauma-informed integrative medicine expert and a KAP trained ketamine guide.
Beyond her extensive medical repertoire, Dr. Cass shines as a musician and has made a mark as an international retreat leader and facilitator.
Top 5 Things You’ll Learn from This Episode:
1️⃣ The story behind Dr. Cass's calling to become an ordained Daoist Priest & Integral Chinese Medicine Doctor
2️⃣ How her cinematic pursuits, from the Cannes Film Festival to assisting magicians, played a role in her life
3️⃣ How Dr. Cass guides and supports you in both preparing for & integrating after journeys and even medicine work
4️⃣ Deep, heartwarming medicine stories of smoke, fire, and incense ceremony that’s been passed to her to share
5️⃣ The touching tale of honoring music producer George Reiff and the profound role he played in her spiritual awakening and musicianship
🧘🏻♀️✨ this episode’s Closing Ceremony Circle Practice: Dr. Cass immerses us in chanting a very potent mantra
Reflections on spiritual cultivation
Reflections on cultivation
I continuously return to the remembrance of the teachings in the classics:
Dao
Yin and Yang
Keep a calendar
These 3 simple steps.
In preparing to give a talk titled “You are the Medicine.” I was challenged by a dear friend as to what is medicine.
And why do we need healing. Are we not already whole?
For him medicine meant a substance to ingest. And it essential to his practices that these medicines are sacred.
What I mean by I am the medicine- is informed by Daoist thought. By what Sabine Wilms translates of Sun Si Miao to be called virtue power.
That is to say that my personal spiritual cultivation, the way I lived my life, purify body speech mind, accumulate merit and dedicate it to ehe benefit of all- the vibration that I carry living in unconditional love- this love, energy qi- I am using these terms fairly interchangeably here- this is the medicine.
Everything that is needed is within. To shine that light of truth bak to one another is good medicine.
To hold space with non judgement, with unconditional love, grace and ease. With boundaries as love.
Authentic, spontaneous, showing up in each moment as best I can, flowing with the circumstances of what arises. Ziran.
By alchemizing emotions- transmuting anger into forgiveness, grief into acceptance, worry into trust, benevolent, property, humility, compassion… who I am, my character, my essence, my virtue power expands. I am more resilient, patient, strong, kind. This is what I think of when I say I am the medicine.
Resting into heart-cohernece- my PNS at ease and regulated- sending out a frequency of love. This can sync us with another- through he electro-magnetic field of our hearts. Literally. We can co regulate. My serenity, equanimity has an effect on you.
My cultivation of love-light can bathe my beingness. And yours. W can remind each other, remember together that which we forgot from the stories of childhood, the traumas of adolescence, that said we were not enough. We are perfect exactly as we are- simply because w exist; because we are here now.
Yin-Yang
Stillness-Movement
A time and season for everything
Postpartum care in Chinese/Daoist Medicine-
A 2 hour course for the doctoral students at Yo San University on the Chinese Medicine perspective on postpartum care. Sitting Moon, 40 days, closing bones, nourishing foods are all highlighted.
A 2 hour course for the doctoral students at Yo San University on the Chinese Medicine perspective on postpartum care:
Sitting Moon, 40 days, closing bones, nourishing foods are all highlighted.
Canva slide-deck full of resources HERE.
Earth Element
A gorgeous slide deck with beautiful images highlighting ancient wisdom guiding the viewer through the Earth element as seen from the perspective of Chinese Medicine.
A 1 hour conversation for the Yin Semester of Earth element school.
A gorgeous slide deck with beautiful images highlighting ancient wisdom guiding the viewer through the Earth element as seen from the perspective of Chinese Medicine.
Canva slide-deck of images and teachings HERE.
Somatics- Embodied Awareness
embodied awareness- somatics
How identifying what and where are are experiencing a feeling in our body can be a tool for our healing by pointing to root causation
If thoughts exist in the mind, feelings exist in the body.
If “the root of all dis-ease is emotional imbalance”- then the root cause of many physical manifestations can be addressed by assessing our emotions and where they appear in the body.
This image shows some possibilities to explore.
Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths.
Then notice what is going on inside of your body.
What is most alive?
Is there heat or cold anywhere? Any pain? Is it sharp, dull, aching, stabbing? Do you feel heavy or light?
What do you feel in your body and where do you feel it in your body?
Where does it manifest? How does it manifest?
For example- is it in your chest? The back of your heart? Deep in your gut?
Does it have a color, a sound, a sensation, a texture, an impression?
Perhaps allow the diaphragm to be a demarcation line of the upper and lower half of the body.
Most often “anxiety” is above and warm. It flutters, pulsates, pounds. In the chest. In the ears. Blood pumping, skin flushing.
Most often “depression” will be below. It will feel damp, heavy maybe like a wet blanket. Sluggish. Lethargic. Unmotivated.
When determining herbs for treating, often symptoms above the diaphragm will need more anchoring and grounding herbs (shells and stones) whereas symptoms manifesting below the diaphragm could use more liftng and floating herbs (flowers.)
My favorite guided meditation for modulating stress, including PTSD- a technique I learned at Walter Reed working with war veterans- is to bring the self or another back to the present moment using the sense gates.
What do you hear?
What do you see?
What do you smell? And taste?
What do you feel? Where your feet are touching the ground, your bum on a chair or bed.
Sometimes even more guidance is helpful. For example:
What do you hear outside of the room- how far away can you hear?
What do you hear inside of this room? My voice?
What do you hear inside of your body- your breath, your digestion, your blood pumping…
Create a daily practice of doing a sfull body can from the top of your head to the bottom of your fingers and toes. Get to know what is “normal” for you so you can pick up on, sense, when something is “off.” And then make choices to balance and harmonize the body mind.
This can also be a lovely practice as you are falling asleep at night- to relax every muscle of the body and melt into your bed to rest.
These exercises will bring more awareness to the body , rather than the thinking mind, and help us to engage with the full human experience.
This holistic approach will also guide us to root causes and thus lead us to do the emotional work on our selves to lead a more fully integrated life.
Bathroom Chronicles
Bathroom Chronicles Podcast:
Kimberly Van Der Beek and Peggy Rometo
July 2023
Psychic breadcrumbs…a few stories on how I became who I am.
Meditations with trees, plant dietas, the importance of daily meditation, grounding exercises, my healing journey:
My dear friends and soul sisters- Kimberly VanDer Beek and Peggy Rometo had me on their 25th episode of their new podcast, “The Bathroom Chronicles.”
Please take a listen and let us know what you think!
You are the Medicine
You are the Medicine: practices to expand your consciousness
Watch the video HERE.
Doctor Cass gives a 40 minute talk on “You are the Medicine: practices to expand your consciousness.”
Drawing on the concepts of Medicine, Healing, and Wholeness. The origins of these words in Chinese: Medicine, Music, Happiness.
If we need healing- are we broken? Or are parts fractured that need to remember their innate cosmic goodness and return to the One? To wholeness? to Love?
Is medicine something external to ourselves? Can we produce it within ourselves? How?
What is consciousness? What is reality? Which reality?
What are some practices to help expand out awareness of what is?
In this video are a mediation, a qigong practice, and some suggestions to nourish life. To consider what IS working. To reframe. To expand the peripheral mind. To open the heart to limitless possibilities.
See just the Canva slide deck HERE.
Playlists of Original Music by CASS
Playlists of Original Music and Jazz Standards:
All Vocals by Cass
CASS ORIGINAL SONGS:
All songs written, sung, and played by Cass 2008
CASS JAZZ STANDARDS:
All songs sung and played by Cass 2001
Original Spirit “Yuan Shen”
By experiencing one's original spirit, the unity of life is realized, the inseparable nature of life is realized, the clarity of one's true nature is realized.
Original spirit- "Yuan Shen"
All that we encounter in life holds a seed of truth within it, sent to us from the heavens, the eternal Tao of Universal Consciousness, the Wuji, Source, Origin, the emptiness of limitless potentiality, for us to hear and see and touch and know: to water, nourish, and grow to fruition. But it is up to each of us individually to follow our path and make the most of the wisdom, virtue, and compassion that we cultivate, living to our fullest potential and fulfilling our destiny.
By experiencing one's original spirit, the unity of life is realized, the inseparable nature of life is realized, the clarity of one's true nature is realized. This insight is essential to self-realization, health, happiness, and transformation. This insight can provide the inspiration and motivation to change a life, to live in a way that allows synchronization with shen (spirit), to be a living expression of shen. Acupuncture can have a profound effect on releasing attachments and imprints that prevent an individual from realizing original spirit. And it can guide one's focus or attention on self- realization.
Taoist teachings are like master keys unlocking all doors and help us to become like a child returning to the original Source, the original force that is our birthright. The ultimate purpose is to return to our original state- the source. This is beyond the boundaries of time and space, so to "return to Source", we must broaden our minds and empty ourselves, we must let go of the fixed, limiting ideas of Newtonian physics and realize that we are the universe, we are stardust.
According to The Secret of the Golden Flower as translated by Timothy Cleary, the original spirit is the formless essence of awareness; it is unconditioned and transcends culture and history. It is the celestial mind, primal and universal. The Secret of the Golden Flower is devoted to the recovery and refinement of the original spirit.
One of our foundational medical texts, The Ling Shu- Spiritual Compass, says that we need to understand how life experiences and interactions can create imbalances and illness. It is also a guide that creates awareness of them and offers ways to understand, change, and transform them and our life. Understanding creates awareness and a chance to take conscious action to change. Awareness allows for the opportunity for the natural expression of our intrinsic, free-flowing nature. That single activity- becoming aware- is the most significant process for realization of our original spirit.
The above is an excerpt from a chapter of my Doctoral treatise inspired by and taken from these sources:
Chia, M, (1993). Awakening Healing Light of the Tao. Huntington: Healing Tao books.
Jarret, L.S. (1998). Nourishing Destiny. Stockbridge: Spirit Path Press
Cleary, T. ( ). The Secret of The Golden Flower. New York: HarperCollins Publisher
Morris, W. (2015) .Transformation Treating Trauma with Acupuncture and Herbs. Lexington:22 Publishing
Twicken, D. (2013). Eight Extraordinary Channels. London: Singing Dragon
A gorgeous slide deck with beautiful images highlighting ancient wisdom guiding the viewer through the Earth element as seen from the perspective of Chinese Medicine.