At the invitation of Bert Kemming I made my way to Rütte/Black Forest, to the “Dürckheim Centre” (Existential-psychological education and meeting place, School for Initiation Therapy). For the next eight years I spent several weeks there. The training in meditation, body therapy, guided drawing, symbolic knowledge and dream interpretation (according to C.G. Jung), movement therapy and many other courses, built on my knowledge of previous years.

One of the movement therapists, Brigitta Römer, showed me some miraculous movements called Tai Ji. I fell in love with these movements and, on my return to Austria, I tried to find someone with a deeper knowledge of them. In Linz, in the early 1980ies,this was a considerable challenge. But I found someone who knew a few extra movements, so I practised those.

During this time I had an intense dream. This dream can be found described in a little more detail in the book of my Tai Ji Master Gerda Geddes.

On the basis of my knowledge of the meaning of dreams, I felt quite clearly that I had to pursue this dream, as it was a dream of the soul. So I left behind my teaching job in Austria, with its privileges, and set off in 1985 on a very uncertain journey into the unknown, to London. There was no internet, no Google, there were no mobile phones. I was simply guided by my intuition, my trust and a piece of paper with a few addresses, namely the address of the school where I had got a language assistant job, the address of the dance academy The Place, and the address of the au-pair centre where I could stay for a fortnight before I had to look for a room elsewhere. Describing the ways I got to these addresses would fill several pages.

As a country girl from Austria, the metropolis of London was a brand-new experience for me. But I learned to find my way around and the three pillars (Body Therapy, Movement Therapy, Tai Ji) that have made up my work until now began to grow more and more.
After several courses with good Tai Chi teachers who unfortunately could not answer my questions about the deeper meaning of Tai Ji, I continued my search. Because of my knowledge of symbolism, I suspected that there must be something hidden behind all the beautiful names of the Tai Ji movements.
As so often before, heaven sent a person my way. A colleague at the Comprehensive School invited me to go along to a lecture on Tai Ji.

A petite Norwegian lady, called Gerda Geddes, wearing a beautiful Tai Ji suit, talked about the deeper meaning of the Tai Ji movements of a certain Long Form. I felt at home immediately. Then she called her assistant to show us the movements which she had spoken about. I sat there revitted by the way that she performed the movements that I had dreamed about. Neither during nor after that dream could I imagine that these movements came from a particular version of Tai Ji. At the end of the lecture I plucked up my courage and went to ask her if she would be my Tai Ji teacher. Somewhat sternly she asked me why I wanted her to be my Tai Ji master. After telling her about my dream she could see that I would fit into her classes well. I will never forget her response, “Yes, my dear, you can come. That’s the way of the Tai Ji”.

Thus began my regular classes with her and some students who she had already appointed as teachers.
Little did I know at the time that we had very similar backgrounds, despite the 40 year age difference. She came from the body therapy according to Wilhelm Reich. My background was in body-mind-soul therapy according to K.G. Dürckheim. We both had experience of various versions of modern dance. The mystical way in which she encountered Tai Ji in Hong Kong was very similar to the way that I had encountered Tai Ji.