MOXA
Healing with Fire
Seminar • Clinic • Craft
MOXA is an intensive training and transmission on the art and practice of moxibustion therapy.
6 sessions, 36hrs • Sep 26 - Oct 31 • Boulder, CO • Limited Cohort
Tuition includes all clinical supplies and apothecary materials.
Who This Course Is For
This course is designed for acupuncturists, Ayurvedic and Tibetan medicine practitioners, bodyworkers, somatic therapists, and anyone interested in learning how to integrate moxibustion into their clinical practice.
While this training is structured as a postgraduate specialization for practitioners, enrollment is open to students from diverse backgrounds who are interested in moxibustion for clinical application and personal cultivation. No prior experience with moxibustion is required.
Three Pillars of Instruction
The pedagogy of this course is structured in three pillars: Seminar, Clinic, and Craft. Every session features a dedicated two-hour block of immersive instruction in each mode to provide a diverse and engaging learning experience—from theoretical discourse, to clinical experience, to tactile transmission.
SEMINAR → Oral Transmission
Theory, Discourse, Discussion
CLINIC → Clinical Mentorship
Demonstration, Practice, Treatment
CRAFT → Making Medicines
Apothecary, Cultivation, Formulation
Course Syllabus
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SEMINAR : History of Moxibustion — From Shamanism to Medicine
Origins in Shang Shung • Linguistic evolution • Himalayan Shamanism • Fumigation & Exorcism •.Cauterization & Moxibustion • Development in Tibet, China, & Japan
CLINIC : Methods of Moxibustion — Treatment Demonstration
Direct & Indirect Techniques • Cone • Rice grain • Stick • Salt • Ginger • Garlic • Herbal cakes • Stick-on • Compress
CRAFT : Mountain Medicine — Identifying Artemisia
Wild foraging on Flagstaff Mountain • Open space • Alpine meadows • Autumn Harvest
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SEMINAR : Metsa — Moxibustion in Tibetan Medicine
Classical texts • The Clear Crystal Mirror • Somaraja • Four Tantras • Actions & Indications • Heat & Cold diseases • Wind, Bile, & Phlegm
CLINIC : Techniques of Hormé — Treatment Demonstration
CRAFT : Hormé — Herbal Compress
Mongolian moxibustion • Warm Compress
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SEMINAR: Moxa — Moxibustion in Chinese Medicine
Classical texts • Nan Jing • Zhen Jiu Da Cheng • Actions & Indications • Japanese Meridian Therapy • French Traditional Acupuncture • Five-Element Acupuncture
CLINIC: Therapeutics of Moxibustion — Treatment Principles
Pulse Diagnostics • Tonification, dispersion, regulation • The law of least stimulus • Purification, rebalancing, rejuvenation • Meridians and points
CRAFT : Moxa Medicines — Practicum on Medicine Making
Shiunko ointment • Moxa balm • Liniment • Tincture • Teas
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SEMINAR : Marma — Moxibustion in Āyurveda
Theory of marmāni • Suśruta Samhita • Agni karma • Mugwort in Ayurveda • Actions & Indications • Balancing doshas • Herbal oil
CLINIC : Techniques of Agni Karma — Treatment Demonstration
Cones • Pinda sweda • Dosha & Dhatu • Pinda oil
CRAFT : Pinda Karma — Apothecary Practicum
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SEMINAR : Astrology of Moxa — Indications and Contraindications
Circulation of lunar essence (bla / po) • Elemental and astrological factors • Timing treatment • Treatment as divination • Mantras for clearing inauspicious effects
CLINIC: Timing Treatment — Practicum on Treatment Planning
Cautions • Calculations • Calendrics • Constitutions • Cycles
CRAFT : Artemisia Incense — Apothecary Practicum
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SEMINAR : Esoterics of Moxibustion — The Spirit of Fire
Moxibustion & the Ritual of Fire-Sacrifice • Treatment as ritual • Moxibustionist as Priest • Moxibustion & the Unconscious • Inner Alchemy • Fate & Destiny • Psycho-physical Constitution • Cultivating intention Treatment as discourse • Magic & belief •
CLINIC : Nourishing Destiny — Treatment Demonstration
Craft : Dream Sachets — Practicum on herbal incense crafting
Learning Objectives
Trace Classical Lineages –– Synthesize the history of moxibustion from its pre-Buddhist roots in Shang Shung and Himalayan shamanism and its medical evolution in Tibetan, Mongolian, Chinese, and Japanese traditions.
Master Material Craftsmanship ––Wildcraft local alpine Artemisia and formulate a complete moxibustion apothecary — including traditional moxa wool, Mongolian hormé compresses, herbal incense, shiunko ointment, and therapeutic salves.
Apply Cross-Cultural Therapeutics –– Confidently apply multi-lineage clinical protocols, managing specific heat and cold conditions, balancing doshas, regulating Qi and Blood, and utilizing diverse moxibustion techniques.
Calculate Astrological Factors –– Integrate astrological factors, lunar cycles / circulation of lunar soul (bla / p’o), and traditional calendrics to safely time clinical treatments and map complex patient constitutions.
Cultivate Sensitivity –– Develop sensitivity to the psychosomatic and esoteric dimensions of treatment, and the capability to work in the transferential space of the patient-practitioner relationship.
Enrollment Details
Location — Somaraja Clinic in the foothills of Boulder, CO
Cohort Capacity — Limited to 18 participants
Schedule — Sep 26 - Oct 31, 10:00 AM – 4:00 PM MST
Tuition — $2,100 Early bird (until Sep 4) / $2,500 full price
Payments can be made in weekly or monthly installments. Early-bird rates are available until Sep 4.
We want this course and its transmissions to be accessible to dedicated practitioners. If you are deeply called to join this course but face genuine financial limitations, please reach out to us directly to discuss options.
In-person space is limited. Course tuition includes all clinical and apothecary supplies needed for the course. Participants will be invited to join a private WhatsApp group for course-related discussion and inquiries. All participants will have ongoing access to the recorded course.
Lodging & Accommodations
If you are traveling from out of state and need accommodations, a private retreat cabin is available on-site for one participant. To inquire about availability and rates for the cabin, please contact us directly at info@somaraja.com
Please Note: Within the State of Colorado, the practice of moxibustion is recognized and permitted under the provisions of the Health Freedom Act (which allows the practice of thermal therapies without requirements for licensure). Since legal scopes of practice vary significantly by region, all participants are responsible for researching the laws within their own jurisdictions to determine the legal parameters of practicing moxibustion.
Your Teachers
Neeshee Pandit, LAc
Psychoanalyst • Acupuncturist • Professor
Neeshee Pandit is a psychoanalyst, licensed acupuncturist, doctor of Ayurveda and Tibetan medicine (vaidya /menpa), and Vedic astrologer. He co-founded Somaraja Clinic with his wife Nicole, is the founder of Parlêtre Press, co-director of Analytica Institute, and teaches five-element acupuncture and Western psychology at the Middle Way Acupuncture Institute.
Neeshee practices in the tradition of the scholar-physician and the physician-analyst — a figure found across Asian medical cultures whose clinical practice is an assemblage of philosophy, poetics, and spirituality. His clinical approach draws on Five-Element Acupuncture, Lacanian Psychoanalysis, Vedic Astrology, Ayurveda, and Tibetan Medicine simultaneously — not as a menu of modalities but as a field of inquiry into the multiplicities of the individual.
His theoretical and clinical thinking is developed in a body of published essays available through Parlêtre Press. Notable works include Méridiens du Parlêtre — which maps the historical and clinical intersections between the French acupuncture tradition and Lacanian psychoanalysis — and his Master's thesis Spirits of the Unconscious: Possession and Resurrection in Acupuncture Therapeutics.
Clinical Lineage
Neeshee comes from a family lineage of scholars, physicians, and astrologers rooted in South Asia — a lineage the name Pandit signifies. His grandfather, Dr. Y.I. Dixit, was a Professor of History and a renowned palm reader whose own father was a Vedic astrologer — an inheritance that shaped Neeshee's early understanding of medicine as inseparable from cosmology. From 2008-2023, he lived in the ashrams of his spiritual teacher, Adi Da Samraj, engaged in intensive spiritual disciplines and temple arts, which formed the contemplative foundation of his clinical work.
Ayurvedic & Tibetan Medical Lineages
Shaka Vansya Ayurveda • Initiated under Vaidya R.K. Mishra one of the last living lineage holders of an unbroken family tradition of
Ayurvedic medicine.
Sowa Rigpa (Tibetan Medicine) • Completed a four-year doctorate under Menpa Phuntsog Wangmo in the lineages of Chögyal Namkhai Norbu Rinpoche and Khenpo Troru Tsenam.
Acupuncture & Psychoanalysis Lineages
Classical Five-Element Acupuncture • Trained in Classical Five-Element Acupuncture, practices in the French lineage of Soulié de Morant and its associated styles. Master’s degree in Acupuncture from Middle Way Acupuncture Institute.
Psychoanalysis & Schizoanalysis • Trained with Dr. Scott Von at the Analytica Institute, tracing directly to Jacques Lacan's clinical
transmission in Paris and the broader schizoanalytic tradition developed
by Félix Guattari at La Borde clinic.
Nicole Ortega, LMT
Massage Therapist • Bodyworker • Herbalist
Nicole Ortega is a licensed massage therapist, advanced structural integration practitioner, herbalist, and Ayurvedic practitioner. She co-founded Somaraja Clinic with her husband Neeshee, where her work forms the somatic ground of the clinic's multimodal practice.
Nicole works at the level of connective tissue, structure, and the body's inherent organizing intelligence. Through Structural Integration and Ayurvedic therapies, she engages the fascia as a living record of experience — the place where the history of the person is held in form, and where genuine structural change becomes possible. Her primary tools are palpation, presence, and deep listening—the capacity to hear what the body is saying before the mind has found words for it.
Whatever brings a person to the table, Nicole creates a container in which the nervous system can settle, the tissue can release, and the body can begin to remember its own coherence. Her approach is rooted in a simple clinical truth: the body holds what has been lived, and she works with that inscription — reading it through palpation and responding with touch that is both precise and unhurried.
Clinical Lineage
Nicole's somatic formation began in Hawaii, where she learned from herbalists, shamans, structural bodyworkers, massage therapists, and traditional healers for over fifteen years.
Structural Integration Lineage
Guild for Structural Integration • Formally trained in 2013 by Emmett
Hutchins—one of the original handful of students Dr. Ida Rolf trained
and designated as a teacher of her method.
The Rolf Institute • Near the end of his life, Emmett personally
encouraged Nicole to pursue advanced training with Jan Sultan—one of the
few teachers personally selected and trained by Dr. Ida Rolf. Nicole
completed her Advanced Rolfer Certification with Jan Sultan and Tessie Brungardt.