This section of the Chi Guide is more understandable if you are familiar with the basics of Chinese Medicine or have reviewed Ancient Chinese Medicine, Balancing Yin and Yang, Human Blood and other Chi Energy transformation pages found on HappySoulHealthyBody.com.
Learning to understand and consciously guide Chi is a lifelong process. In my experience, it began when I was young and wanted to understand life’s mysteries that lay beyond my five senses.
For me, of the many books directly dealing with these mysteries of expanded consciousness, the most important ones are ‘Tao Te Ching’, ‘The Secret of the Golden Flower’, ‘Cosmic Consciousness’ and ‘In the Light of Truth’.
And of course ‘Huang Di Neijing’, a Chi guide that gives practical steps on how to purify and heal the body so that a unified and glorious state of awareness becomes an ongoing life experience.
These pages are my sincere attempt to share with you as simply as possible my understanding of this subtle process which carries unimaginable benefits for each of us.
Chi Guide for Unifying Shen and Jing in Sacred Marriage
If you have read the Chi Systems section, you know that the kidney domain which houses Jing, includes the sexual center, the bone marrow, spinal cord and the brain. The brain or ‘the sea of marrow’ can be nourished and re-built in order to expand consciousness. (even here in the West much research is being done on ‘brain plasticity’).
Huang Di Neijing says, “The Essence (Jing) of kidney produces marrow that forms the brain.”
So the nutritive and supportive Jing is that Generative Force (Kundalini) that can be cultivated by conscious intention with other Chi qualities, especially the Ancestral or Spiritual Chi – Shen, which connects us to our spirit and therefore to our free will.
For this focus and contemplation are needed, and utilizing Acupuncture and Natural Remedies, as well as Healing Tao practices, can be of great help.
The Ultimate Chi Guide
When our free will is aligned with the great Will of Wu Chi – when we claim It as the ultimate Chi Guide, we can begin to clear the organs, tissues and glands along with their channels.
By consciously practicing the virtues this commitment implies, we’ll then begin to experience the abundance of the creative Power of our Generative Force.
However, it is easy to ignore the subtle promptings of the ultimate Chi Guide. And if, through our thinking, feeling and action we fail to work on clearing the organs and Chi channels for that alignment, we automatically become subordinates to wrongly and excessively used sexual and other forces with their limitations.
We then have only a static connection to the endless supply of Light Chi. This leads to weakening of the body, unhappiness, deterioration of all faculties and final death with the life spent devoid of its true purpose.
Huang Di Neijing says, “Overindulgence in five emotions of happiness, anger, sadness, worry, fear and fright can create imbalances. These emotions can injure Chi, while seasonal elements can affect the body.
Sudden anger damages the Yin Chi, to become easily excited and overjoyed will damage the yang Chi. This causes the Chi to rebel and rise up to the head squeezing the Shen out of the heart and allowing it to float away.
Failing to regulate one’s emotions can be likened to summer and winter aiming to regulate each other, threatening life itself.”
Once again – since Jing Chi operates as the substratum of life, it follows that it is, in addition to its kidney ‘home’, within every cell of the human body.
The question is, what else does each cell carry as a result of the person’s thinking and actions, including eating and drinking?
These limiting elements may take ‘the upper hand’ therefore can, temporarily or even for a lifetime, repress the more refined principal Jing Chi. This makes the following the ultimate Chi Guide even more difficult.
The Role of Shen Chi
Shen or Ancestral-Spiritual Chi is associated with breathing, the heart and the circulation of blood. The Heart controls blood, blood vessels and houses the mind including feelings. Spirit, consciousness, memory, thinking and sleep are all dominated by the heart function or Shen.
Shen, when not over-run by base desires, passions and other negative emotions, is the pristine spirit that is one with the Law of Love – Wu Chi.
Shen is Yang in relation to the receptive Jing Chi
Shen is cultivated through prayer, contemplation of the virtues such as gratitude, love, compassion, generosity and other divine qualities.
Also, yearning to understand the riddle of existence opens the heart to intuitive knowledge.
The boundaries of the ego begin to soften and Shen awakens the need to cleanse the energies, to transforms negative emotions lodged in the organs, tissues and glands into positive Chi in order to vitalize the body and expand consciousness.
As the driving force behind the personality, ‘Shen is the awareness that shines out of the eyes when we are truly awake’.
Practicing Chinese Meditations, applying non-invasive Nano Acupuncture and Chinese Healing Herbs clarifies and strengthens all Chis of the body. They help in keeping the connection to the ultimate Chi Guide constant.
The Sacred Marriage
Not done in a day, but eventually, Shen (spirit-fire-yang) transforms into a ‘Heavenly Heart’ and unites with Jing (seed-water-yin) in a sacred inner marriage with a beyond description orgasmic bliss described in many ancient texts.
The Generative Force or Kundalini
With the experience of the sacred marriage, the biological mechanism of the Generative Force is ignited and it’s life giving nectar, ‘The fiery Dragon’ – rushes up to the brain. The gates of Wu Chi’s reservoir of a new, brilliant reality of Life open wide. Return to Brilliance!
Consciousness, from the isolated sense of ego toward expanded, all-embracive awareness, has taken a major leap. . . AHA!
This leads to an inspired sense of freedom, creativity, qualities of genius and can lead to cosmic consciousness. This then is the complete healing of the human body, mind and spirit.
For this reason, the Chinese medical tradition speaks of Jing, Chi and Shen as the Three Treasures.
The microcosmic spaces for transforming and channelling Chi Energy are in and around the following acupuncture body points.
Each cosmic pool represents physical-emotional-spiritual qualities. When it is closed the qualities are often negative.
However, they can be transformed into positive intention/energies when space is opened through concentrated work using Tao Meditations, Acupuncture-without-needle and Chinese Healing Herbs.
Baihui or Hundred Meetings (governing channel 20)
Baihui at the top of the head is the most important of the cosmic spaces. You can feel its small indentation with your fingertip (in most people the point is tender to pressure).
According to ancient acupuncture, its function is to clear the senses, calm the spirit, balance the ascending Yang, promote resuscitation. The point is used to alleviate mental disorders, headaches, blurring of vision, nasal obstruction.
As a cosmic space for spiritual energies, Baihui connects to the pineal gland and governs the upper brain in building new nerve connections for expanded consciousness. The colour is a combination of all colours and is inwardly seen as the expansion white-golden flower (resembling a lotus or a mum, sometimes with a violet hue).
When Hundred Meetings point is closed the person may experience pride, delusions, headaches, erratic mood swings and feelings of being a victim or a slave.
When open she/he feels guidance by higher forces, radiates happiness, gratitude and trust. In higher practices, the senses are sealed so that the spirit can leave through this cosmic space at will.
Yintang or Seal Hall
An extraordinary point between the eyebrows, Find it with a fingertip.
This point’s traditional function is to eliminate wind/heat and calm the spirit. It is used to alleviate a frontal headache, hypertension, dizziness, infantile convulsions, rhinitis, insomnia, loss of consciousness.
Yintang, sometimes called Third Eye, is associated with the pituitary gland. When the cosmic space is closed the person may experience a sense of indecisiveness, the mind wanders without a direction.
When this point is open she/he has a sense of purpose with a definite direction and intuitive knowing. Through Yintang we can define our spiritual nature.
Throat Front Center – Tiantu or Heavens Prominence (Conception 22)
A large depression below Adam’s apple.
Its traditional function is to facilitate and regulate Lung Chi, clear voice and cool the throat. Co 22 is used in cough, asthma, sore throat, hoarseness of voice, hiccup.
Associated with the thyroid gland, this cosmic space is a communication and dream center. When it is closed the person feels choked up, unwilling to change.
When the center is open his/her expressions flow and there is a greater lucidity of dreams.
Heart Front Center – Shangzhong or Penetrating Odor (Co 17)
It represents Pericardium, the protective sheath around the heart. You can feel a small depression at the level of the fourth intercostal space (between the nipples in males).
The traditional function of Co 17 is to regulate and suppress rebellious Chi, expand the chest for breathing, benefit the diaphragm. The point is used to alleviate asthma, bronchitis, chest pain, mastitis, intercostal neuralgia.
The heart center is associated with the thymus gland, therefore our immune system, also with Co 14 – Juque or Great Palace, which represents the heart itself. Of all the cosmic spaces, this area is important for it houses the spirit or Shen, one of the ‘Three Treasures’. (To learn more please read the Chi Guide page).
When the center is closed the person may feel being under attack, sorry for oneself, unloved and incapable of love.
An open heart is a seat of joy, respect and surrender, you are filled with unconditional love, generosity and compassion toward all living things. Passion for creative participation in helping humanity to re-build our now ravaged earth springs from the spirit of an open heart.
Solar Plexus – Zhongwan or Middle Cavity (Co 12)
About four inches above the navel.
Co 12’s traditional function is to transform and suppress rebellious Chi, regulate the stomach, strengthen the spleen/pancreas. Middle Cavity is used to alleviate epigastric pain, abdominal distention, vomiting, diarrhea, dysentery, constipation, hypertension, neurasthenia, mental diseases.
Associated with spleen/pancreas (therefore over-thinking), when this cosmic space is closed there is a sense of panic and worry.
The opening of the center creates a feeling of freedom with an ability to take risks. Solar Plexus is a clearinghouse for emotional sensitivities and issues of personal power.
Naval Center – Shenque or Middle o Naval – (Co 8)
The traditional function is to warm and stabilize the Yang, strengthen the transporting function of Spleen and Stomach. The point is used (with only Moxibustion or needle-less Acupuncture!) to alleviate abdominal pain, chronic diarrhea, edema.
When the naval center is closed it can manifest in sloppy, distracting behaviour, when open it contributes to a sense of balance and centring.
Sexual Center – Zhongji or Middle Summit (Co 3)
About an inch above the pubic bone, Co 3 is the meeting point of three Yin channels of the legs (Kidney, Liver and Spleen).
Co 3’s traditional function is to assist the transforming function of Chi, regulate the uterus and alleviate damp/heat. It is used to alleviate menstrual, sexual and urinary dysfunctions, female sterility, nephritis.
When this ‘Ovary or Sperm Palace’ is closed it is hard to enjoy life; the person feels self-destructive, negative and listless.
When the cosmic space is open he/she has a sense of creative and personal power with an ability to get things done.
Perineum Center – Huiyin or Yin Meeting (Co 1)
Between the anus and the scrotum in males, between the anus and the vagina in females.
Huiyin is used in irregular menstruation, pain and swelling of the anus, sexual and urinary dysfunctions, prostatitis, a revival from drowning.
Perineum relates closely to earth energy. When this center is closed the person feels insecurity, fickleness and loneliness, and can fear change.
When Huiyin is open she/he feels grounded, solid and peaceful. peacefull, grounded,
Sacral Pump – Changqiang or Long Strength (Gov 1)
Between the anus and the tip of the coccyx.
Gov 1’s function is to regulate the Conception and Governing channels (the inner channels meet in the lower abdomen), and to improve the work of the intestines. It is used to alleviate intestinal bleeding, prolapsed rectum and hemorrhoids, pain in the lower back, epilepsy, sexual dysfunctions.
When the sacrum center is closed, the past is a prison and unconscious fears arise, there is hopelessness.
When this cosmic space is open the person can, with awareness of the generative force, blend the three treasures, Jing, Chi and Shen for the taming of the Dragon Fire (Kundalini). The past is then a resource and a foundation for expanding consciousness.
Life’s Door or Mingmen (Gov 4)
Below the second lumbar vertebra, parallel to the navel.
Opening this acupuncture center nourishes source Chi, strengthens the kidneys, benefits the lumbar spine. The point is used to alleviate sexual dysfunctions, low back pain, sciatica and nephritis.
When the Life’s Door is closed there is a feeling of imbalance and fear, particularly fear of unfavourable circumstances.
When open Mingmen balances the kidneys, yields a sense of peace, generosity, abundance and gentleness.
T 11 – Jizhong or Middle of Spine (Gov 6) – Adrenal point
Below 11th thoracic vertebra, opposite the solar plexus.
Traditionally, this acupuncture point is used to improve low back pain, hepatitis, epilepsy, paralysis of limbs.
T 11’s cosmic space corresponds to the adrenal glands. When it is closed the person can feel hyperactive – or listless, and old fears may return.
When the Adrenal space is open he/she is filled with vitality and confidence, there is an abundance of energy to serve the good intentions of the heart.
Back Heart Center – Shendao or Spirit’s Path (Gov 11)
Below 5th thoracic vertebra.
The point is used to improve memory, anxiety, palpitations, cardiac pain, pain and stiffness of the back, cough.
When closed the person may feel a sense of burden, hopelessness, melancholy and chaos.
Opening this important cosmic space gives a feeling of freedom, a deep-felt sense of life. Virtues of love, compassion, gratitude and forgiveness emerge through an open heart.
The Back Throat Center – Dazhui or Big Vertebra (Gov 14)
Below 7th cervical vertebra.
Six Yang channels meet at this point. It regulates Yang and clears the spirit. Gov 14 is used in common cold, febrile diseases, cough, asthma, neck rigidity, a stiffness of the back, epilepsy.
The person may feel inappropriateness, stubbornness, not fitting in, when this cosmic space is closed.
When Gov.14 is open he/she feels connected, embracing others in a feeling of one humanity.
Fengfu or Wind’s Dwelling (Gov 16)
A tender point below the external occipital protuberance.
Traditionally the point is used to improve mental disorders, headache, blurring of vision, neck rigidity, sore throat, epistaxis, post-apoplexy aphasia.
Gov 16 area, also called Jade Pillow and Mouth of God controls breathing.
Gov 15 Yamen or Doors of Muteness is located within this cosmic space and has a traditional function to clear the senses and consciousness.
When the center is closed there is a feeling of burden and suffocation.
Opening this cosmic space expands the breath and helps awaken intuition and inspiration – a prelude to expansion of consciousness.
The Governing channel goes from here to the deep brain, the seat of intuition and through it to Baihui.
Catch that moment-in-between! At the computer while waiting for a process to finish, or in the kitchen while waiting for water to boil. Anywhere you have a moment, tap it or it flies with the wings of the morning.
There is no need to aim at the exact locations of the acupuncture body points while doing self-massage. Focus on treatment areas, through them you can connect to and affect the points and their channels.
Try it! Tap for a minute or so all around the head and you’ll find that the head feels clearer afterwards, at least that’s what I experience.
Tap, Tap, Tap All Around your Head
There are so many points located around the head and on it that you can hardly count them. The translations of the Chinese names are descriptive and very interesting indeed.
Points with names such as Suspended Regulator (GB 6), Flowing Valley GB 8), Celestial Pouring (GB 9), Root of the Spirit (GB 13), Eye Window (GB 16), Upright Management (GB 17), and many others including those on the UB channel, are used to to release headache, nasal obstruction, to help tired eyes, blurring vision and ear problems such as ringing in the ears.
Other points helping eyesight and hearing are on the forehead and both sides of the head – Eyes Bright (UB 1), Yintang, Yang White (GB 14), Taiyang, Pupil Seam (GB 1), Hearing Assembly (GB 2), Lower Hinge (ST 7), Palace of Hearing (SI 19), Whites (ST 2).
Tap to prevent Cold and Flu
And if you tap the upper part of the neck, all around the occipital bone you catch many ‘wind – window of the sky’ points – Wind Pool (GB 20), Wind’s Dwelling (Gov. 16), Jade Pillow (UB 9), Final Bone (GB 12 – also used in insomnia). They help you, among other indications, in Flu Prevention – to clear out the toxins and viruses that tend to collect in the glands.
Add to them Person Welcome (ST 9), Heavenly Appearance (SI 17), and lower down in front, Heaven’s Prominence (Co 22) and at the back Big Vertebra (Gov 14) and To Grasp Wind (SI 12- a crossing point for LI, TW and GB channels). Tapping them daily you help your throat and Lung functions while building resistance to cold and flu.
The Upper Yin and Yang Channel’s Chi Flow
In the upper Yin channels, Chi flows from the chest area along the inner arms to the fingers.
The points on these channels have names such as Central Mansion (Lu 1), Cloud Gate (Lu 2), Spirit Gate (He 7), Inner Connection (PC 6), Labour’s Palace (PC 8).
The functions are to harmonize the Chi flow the Lungs, Heart and Pericardium. Therefore, your self-massage helps to alleviate cough, asthma, pains in the chest, palpitations, anxiety stress, and it calms the spirit.
The upper Yang Channel go from the fingers along the outside of the arms over the shoulder ending in the face.
Some names for their points are descriptive also. Coming Together (LI 4), Curbed Pool (LI 11), Welcome Fragrance (LI 20), Outer Gate (TW 5), Wind Screen (TW 17), To Nourish the Old (SI 6), Heavenly Ancestor (SI 11), Cheekbone Seam (SI 18). When you tap, self-massage or even brush with your hands these channels you’ll open the Chi flow in them and within the inner organs.
The Lower Yin and Yang Channel’s Chi Flow
The leg Yin Channels begin in the feet and run along the inside of the legs
Bubbling Spring (Kid 1), Extreme Stream (Kid 3), House Guest (Kid 9), Official Grandson (Sp 4), Yin Crossing (Sp 6), Supreme Pouring (Liv.3), Curve Spring (Liv 8). Again, the purpose of self massaging in these areas is to spread Chi, harmonize the blood flow, and to bring a sense of balance.
The leg Yang channels begin in the face and end up in your toes
Inner Courtyard (St 44), Foot Three Miles (St 36), Abundance (St 40), Foot Above Tears (GB 41), Suspended Cup (GB 39), Kunlun Mountain (UB 60), To Support Mountain (UB 57) are a few of their numerous points.
The Front Channels of the Torso
Kidney, Liver and Spleen channels run up the torso in the front. They have names such as Chi’s Cave (Kid 12), Vital Corridor (Kid 16), Spirit Storage (Kid 25), Document Gate (Liv 13), Hope Gate (Liv 14), Abdominal Knot (Sp 14), Large Envelope (Sp 21).
Of the Yang Leg Channels, the main trunk of Stomach channel runs down toward the legs and have names such as Breast Source (St 18), Heaven Hinge (St 25) and Chi Rushing (St 30). Your self-massage on these areas should be gentle, yet as deep as is comfortable for you.
Of the Extra-Ordinary Channels in the front, the best known is the Conception channel. Its points have names such as Sea of Chi (Co 6) and Great Palace (Co 14).
The traditional functions found in acupuncture textbooks often mean to open up blocks, to harmonize and spread Chi. While tapping or self-massaging, make sure to cover the sides and the buttocks to help GB channel in its Chi flow.
The Back Channels of the Body
The UB channel, running down at the back has two lines. Its numerous points include Wind Door (UB 12), Heart’s Hollow (UB 15), Liver Corridor (UB 18), Kidney Corridor (UB 23) and other ‘vital corridors’ that are expressive in their names.
Enjoy
I hope you enjoy your daily self-massage. Better yet, if you have an opportunity to exchange acupressure-massage with your partner or a friend, go for it!
When playing with my grandchildren I sometimes asked them to give me a barefoot massage. They have fun taking turns in walking on my back, and I loved it!
May your Rejuvenating Energy flow abundantly! And may you live in thankfulness for all that your life offers.
While the use of Natural Healing Remedies grew primarily to help cure illnesses, healing herbs were, and still are, also used to maintain youthful vigour and smooth flow of Chi through our physical networks.
Ideally herbs are used for prevention. There is an old saying, ‘It’s better to dig a well before you run out of the water.’
However, the classification of Chinese Healing Herbs developed because of the need to cure illnesses with complex symptoms.
What makes these substances correct dis-harmonies or help revitalize the person who is using them?
Human beings and herbs have one thing in common – both are of nature, which encompasses the entire material universe and its phenomena.
The root of the word nature is Nasci< Latin – to be born. The cells of plants, animals and humans are in perpetual renewal, nothing ever dies, forms only change according to the movement of Chi with its myriad qualities.
Being born is an essential character in all things and beings, not isolated, not even a part but the integrated whole. Being in renewal is innate – of nature!
Natural healing remedies are of nature, not broken down into chemical components like drugs, but working in a roundabout way, holistically resonating with the same kind of Chi.
Marshall McLuhan said, “Matter does not matter!”
Since all Life is radiation and resonance, let us forget matter for a moment!
Vibrating, resonating life includes plant, animal and mineral kingdoms as well as human life, nature’s most complex expression.
Life’s very purpose is its process – to evolve naturally, to remain harmonious.
The mineral kingdom is a simple form of vibratory life fossilized into a certain frequency. In vegetation, the cells breathe in and out the changes in constant continuum and each cell re-creates itself naturally in the process of life and death.
This diversified continuum is directed by Wu Chi, the Primal Creative Energy, manifesting in all and everything. It is harmonizing and creating new combinations according to two of the basic laws in Creation. . .
Motion and Attraction of Similar Radiations. ‘Birds of the Feather Flock Together!’
The overall harmonious co-operative is Tao – the Way, a still point within everything while causing movement – like an axis in the centre of a wheel.
It seems that healing herbs with a particular quality and magnetism – a particular vibratory frequency, are drawn to a similar ‘milieu’. Through it, the herbs’ qualities affect the channel and organ functions and through that the entire body.
Therapeutic potential of an herb depends on its taste and temperature as well as its ability to move within the channel network. The herb must also be able to lead or to harmonize and support actions of other herbs in a formula.
Variations in combinations create possibilities for different actions.
The practitioner works on the basis that natural healing remedies do not cure, but they assist and support nature in her ongoing process to harmonize and nurture life.
For a certain deficiency in the body, such as of blood (Anemia), the herbs can supply certain constituents so the body may improve its blood. This way an overall vital force is strengthened and harmonized.
Here is an example from my own experience. When I was studying Chinese Medicine in the eighties, the pressure to study day and night had built to such an extent that I was totally exhausted, began to have palpitations and chest pains.
After examining me, my teacher prescribed a common patent formula called “Gui Pi Wan’. Soon the pains were gone, and this medicine has come handy through the years whenever I am overworked and need an energy boost.
Also, ‘Let your food be medicine and medicine be your food’ is another old Chinese proverb.
A twentieth-century scholar Lin Yutang wrote: “The Chinese do not draw the distinction between food and medicine. What is good for the body is medicine and at the same time food.”
Daily meals are often flavoured and supplemented with the same herbs the herbalists use in their formulas.
The essential message of this short introduction to Chinese Healing Herbs is that the wonderful nature we all share within and without, is a subtle co-operative vibrating creatively, being born in an ongoing continuity and newness.
The connections are intricate yet each part fits into the greater whole. This working together seems to be the primary aim of nature when we view its uniqueness, its harmony and its beauty.
Animals search in nature for those plants that benefit their well-being.
Shouldn’t we as human beings, who have been bestowed with greater co-operative intelligence also accept, that it is wise to look for answers in nature, of which we are the most evolved and exultant expression?
Chi Energy transformation within the Five Phases or Elements is central to Chinese tradition.
Five tastes of pungent, salty, sour, bitter and sweet are used in everyday cooking to affect the flavour of food, and five tones in music make music sound truly Chinese.
Melting and mixing of colours white, dark blue or black, green, red and yellow are used in chi energy transformation if something disagreeable is sensed in the environment.
The Five Phases or Elements of Metal, Water, Wood, Fire and Earth are regarded as five features inherent in all living things and should be understood as processes or tendencies in chi energy transformation rather than concrete physical manifestations.
The processes express the interdependence and restraint that is evident even in tiniest particles of life. The Five Phases are one with the natural progression toward balancing Yin and Yang, while each phase simultaneously represents its own related functions and qualities.
Nature is intelligent beyond our comprehension through its constant chi energy transformations. We can only fathom that within every cell of each living organism is a ‘Tao code’, which determines the form, function and quality of the cell’s unique expression of life.
And that expression, when not interfered with from its alignment with Tao, is always life-giving and harmonious, even in time of decay as the beauty ‘burns’ to ashes and nourishing continues in a new way.
The Interaction of Five Phases within the Body
The cyclic interaction within the body mirrors that of the Five Phases in greater nature. In the practice of Chinese Medicine, they are used in diagnosis and treatment.
Metal – Lung/Large intestine – represents autumn, decline but also substance, strength and structure. The colour is white, the flavour pungent and the negative emotions are grief and sadness; positive courage, dignity, appropriateness.
Water – Kidney/Urinary bladder. The associated season is Winter when nature is at rest before starting another cycle of growth. The colour is black or dark blue, the flavour is salty and the emotion fear or fright, which through the chi energy transformation becomes alert stillness and gentleness.
Wood – Liver/Gall Bladder – is associated with spring and activity, constantly growing and rapidly changing. The colour is green, the flavour sour and the negative emotions, when Chi is not flowing naturally, are anger, resentment, jealousy; positive are kindness, forgiveness and assertiveness.
Fire – Heart/Small Intestine and Pericardium/Triple Warmer – is associated with summer. It represents a function which has reached its maximum stage before it begins to decline – Fire is dynamic and moving, brilliant in its activity. The colour is red, the flavour bitter and the negative emotions are hate, impatience; when transformed they are love, joy, gratitude, creative enthusiasm, honour, etc.
Earth – Spleen-Pancreas/Stomach – is associated with the harvest time. It is the patient and nourishing mediator, it represents balance and neutrality. The colour is yellow, the flavour bland or sweet and the negative emotions are worry and over thinking; positive is fairness and openness – and singing is associated with the free flow of spleen Chi. You can learn more by watching the following short video. The Five Phases correspond to each other through nourishing and controlling cycles. Metal nourishes Water, Water nourishes Wood, Wood nourishes Fire, Fire nourishes Earth, Earth nourishes Metal.
In the controlling or destructing cycle Metal shapes Wood, Water quells Fire, Wood controls Earth, Fire forms Metal and Earth controls Water.
Each element within the phases relates to the functioning and chi energy transformation of the internal organs. It promotes the following element and controls the element across the cycle.
However, if the organ function is unbalanced, that organ, not being able to complete the chi energy transformation within the natural meridian circuit, may act adversely across the cycle.
For instance, if Chi within the heart is unbalanced it may overact on the lung (since fire controls metal) causing congestion. This results in a lack of oxygen, which can lead to congestive heart failure.
The law for nourishment and control is an important consideration in any treatment plan. “In order to bring the body into harmony, one observes and keeps constant the standard of the Five Phases of Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal.” – Neijing.
In this constant chi energy transformation, we could describe Chi as matter OR matter as Chi. Divisions dissolve . . . AHA! Could we correlate this to the ongoing quandary about quantum objects which Einstein described as being light waves OR particles?
“The cosmos itself is an integral whole, a web of inter-related things and events . . . Within this web of relationships and change, any entity can be defined only by its function and has significance only as a part of the whole pattern.” – ‘The Web That Has No Weaver’ by Ted Kapchuk.
When we habitually attune to the unseen, unified dynamics of life we learn to understand the interrelationships or patterns within the web of our wonderful creation.
By doing this we can knowingly assist Mother Nature in her constant chi energy transformations, and balancing Yin and Yang, not only within our own being but also within the greater cosmos.
