Ending the year 2022 on a cheery note

I have just received this from one of my Chinese five element students.  It describes her patient's description of how five element treatment makes her feel.   

"I want to thank you very much for the wonderful treatment today. Lying on the

couch after treatment I immediately felt grateful for the healing energy coming into me from the universe, the connection that I am part of the universe and that I am being taken care of and loved.  It's wonderful.  I feel connected."

 

I don't think it is too far-fetched to hope that all five element patients will at some point echo this patient's comments, although perhaps not expressed quite so poetically.  Her words describe almost exactly how I myself felt after my first five element treatments all those many years ago.  I like to think that five element acupuncture is one of the few therapies to offer patients the opportunity to experience feelings of such profound and often transformative well-being. 

 

This always reminds me of a comment a neighbour of mine made to me some years ago whilst I was running my practice from my home.  She said that she always knew who my patients were, because as they passed her window on their way back from my house they were always smiling.  She may have exaggerated a little, but I know that I, too, after my many treatments over the years, would leave my practitioner's practice with warmth in my heart and a smile on my face.

 

How appropriate that I can complete my blogs for the year 2022 with such a happy blog.

 

I wish us all a happier, less fraught 2023.

 

Helping to unlock some of the mysteries of point selection

I have often been asked why I choose a particular point or point combination, and have always found this difficult to answer, except in very few cases.  It is easy to explain the points chosen to clear a block of one kind or other, because pulse readings require them.  Apart from these, though, we are left with a whole raft of points which depend entirely upon a practitioner's choice. This is a much more esoteric area of point selection, about which much is written but very little, I feel, is really understood.  I and others living in this country may have been lucky to learn from more experienced practitioners, particularly in my case from JR Worsley, but others in other countries have not been so fortunate.  And now, as I have often lamented, there are so few good five element acupuncturists anywhere around the world that we have in some respect to wind the clock back to a time when a five element practitioner was a kind of pioneer, each of us working out our own principles of point selection.

 

I have a precious, but surprisingly small repertoire of points whose function I heard JR Worsley describe as he selected them for patients we brought to see him.  I treasure these, and use them probably with greater confidence than I do points that I have myself accumulated over the years.  In the majority of cases, though, JR would recommend points without saying anything more, leaving it to us to work out our own explanations for why he was choosing these particular points for this particular patient.  Some of us students found this absence of explanation difficult to accept, but I did not, always regarding five element practice as being based on a question of "feel" rather than on logic. I realise now how fortunate I was that I emerged from our training without feeling confused about how to select points.

 

Basically the rules we used were very simple.  The main emphasis was on points of the element we had diagnosed, particularly its command points, above all source points.  We would occasionally add what we now call a spirit point, such as Bl (III) 38 (43) or CV (Ren Mai) 8, but often not even these.  Looking back this made for very simple, but highly effective treatment.  I can't remember any of the confusion which now seems to hover around point selection. This may partly be the result of the many books which have appeared since I graduated, listing points and claiming to explain their individual function.  This is often on very flimsy evidence and with even flimsier proof that the author has gained his/her understanding of a point's function from good clinical practice.

 

It demands much of practitioners to accept that they must learn to rely on their own subjective impressions rather than open a book to search for points to select.  I would recommend that they should instead spend the time looking at their patients, and training their senses to see, hear, smell and feel, and use this information to guide them towards an element.  As I always say, it is far better to think elements than points.

  

Getting my videos to an English-speaking audience

After just under a year of hard work, 90% from Gye Bennetts in Australia and 10% from me here in London, we have now got my first course about five element acupuncture up and running on the Web of Knowledge website.  It is entitled. The Handbook of Five Element Practice, and is the first of two which we have planned - with maybe more in the future.  Getting my videos out there has been a labour of love from Gye, and has resulted in people in the English-speaking world at long last having access to some of the many videos I have recorded for my Chinese acupuncture students.  And I have just been delighted to receive some very complementary comments from two of the very early subscribers to our course, both of which have made me feel how worthwhile this venture has been.

 

I think my aim in talking and writing about five element acupuncture over all the many years I have been doing this has always at heart been the desire to inspire others to follow the path I took those many years ago, in the hope that what I say will reduce some of the fears which people often harbour around the study of this lovely discipline.  I think this fear is mainly based on the fact that five element practitioners have to call upon their own understanding of human behaviour, and rely, not upon books, but upon their own senses to help them diagnose where a patient's problems lie. The world is now still very much a knowledge-based place, and particularly prioritizes knowledge which relies upon book learning, with too little attention paid to what is now the scientifically proven fact that all that we observe is based on subjective criteria, since the observer always forms part of the observation he/she makes.  There is nothing that can be described as objectively proven, as would have been the assumption in years past, when for a time science with its apparently objective criteria ruled the world.

 

Now that each of us has to place ourselves at the forefront of what we observe, five element acupuncture, which has always recognized this, has come into its own, but represents a challenge precisely because of this.  So anything I can say which reassures those learning this discipline will, I hope, add to students' and practitioners' confidence in what they do.  Hence my delight in receiving the following accolade from one of the first people to download our course:

 

"Thank you, I feel so much more relaxed about five element acupuncture now. You really filled in the blanks for me and gave me direction of how and where to start, so important. I am so grateful!"

 

Thank you, Debra from Canada.

 

  

Announcement of my first Net of Knowledge course: Nora Franglen: The Handbook of Five Element Practice

I am happy to announce that my first course of videos about five element acupuncture, with the title: Nora Franglen: the Handbook of Five Element Practice, is now available on the Net of Knowledge online platform.  The course is available through the Net of Knowledge website, as well as through the following websites for different areas around the world:

For the UK and Ireland:                      CPD-Cert

For Europe generally:                         Acupuncture World

For Germany:                                     Acupuncture World DE

For the US:                                         Lhasa OMS

For Canada:                                        Eastern Currents

For Australia and New Zealand:         China Books

For India:                                             Institute of Acupuncture & Natural Medicine

 

You can also see a short promotional video of the course using the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0cGWyvtSDs

 

This will be the first time that the English-speaking world can listen to some of the many videos which I have recorded for my Chinese students in the past few years. They have until now only been available in China.

 

I must also record my thanks here to Gye Bennetts, my good Australian five element friend, without whom I would never have thought of adapting my videos to fit the Net of Knowledge template. Gye did all the hard work of getting our course up and running. Having completed this course, he is now working away at editing a more advanced course of my videos.

 

I am often asked how I recorded the more than 100 videos I have sent over the ether to China to encourage my students there in their five element studies, whilst Covid has prevented us from meeting at our twice-yearly seminars in Beijing.  I often just have a topic in mind, something that has cropped up through a question I have been asked, or something that is part of a set of videos focusing on one or other aspect of five element practice.  I then set up my i-Pad in front of me as I sit on my sofa, check that I have pressed the Record button (sometimes I forget to do this!), and launch myself into what I can feel is often the unknown.  I may find that my first thoughts are muddled and don't lead me where I want to go, so I have to press Delete and start again. I am often only satisfied with what I am saying after two or three attempts, eventually finishing with a video lasting at the most 8 -10 minutes.

 

Once I am in the flow, though, I find the thoughts, and the words to express them, come, as they do when I am teaching in front of a class.  I have often told people that I seem to do most of my thinking as I talk.  So what you will see if you decide to subscribe to this Net of Knowledge course is watching me thinking my thoughts out loud, with not a note in sight.

 

 

22 - 38 Some of the challenges facing novice five element acupuncturists

One of the great difficulties of being a five element acupuncturist is that all we really have to rely on is ourselves;  we can't diagnose our patients' elements by looking at a textbook.  The only way is to look deep within ourselves and ask our senses to give us pointers to the different elements.  Can we see a white colour on our patient's skin, hear a harsh note in our patient's voice or feel ourselves drawn to one patient and pushed away by another?  It is these sensory signs which, when interpreted appropriately, will turn us towards one element or another.

 

But we do need the help of more experienced practitioners to develop the skills necessary to differentiate one kind of colour from another or interpret one patient's reactions to us from that of another patient.  This is where those who live far from other five element practitioners would seem to have problems, for it will be rare for them to have the kind of feedback those lucky enough to learn from their tutors in five element colleges can benefit from.

 

So what do this ever-growing band of five element acupuncturists living far from such help do?  And this is particularly true for all those hundreds of Chinese five element acupuncturists.  Each has to have the courage to use their own practice as a way of gaining experience.  In some sense they can consider themselves still to be pioneers in the field of five element acupuncture, and rather than being frightened by this, revel in this fact, as I did.  Even though I was fortunate enough to do my training in a five element college, I started my practice in London very much on my own, because there were few other five element acupuncturists close by whom I could consult if I had doubts about what I was doing.  I remember feeling very much alone, particularly as we were only allowed to apply to join our college's postgraduate programme after we had completed two full years of practice.  

 

Looking back I realise now that what helped me the most was my own belief in what I was doing, and also JR Worsley's insistence that, provided we followed the basic five element rules, we could all help our patients, even in the earliest days of our practice.  I learnt that it was important not to be too hard on myself, not to ask too much of myself, and avoid the trap of thinking that it was essential to diagnose my patients' elements quickly.  I took to heart what JR Worsley had told us, which was that he had had more than 40 years of practice to get to the stage he was at, and we were only starting on this path.  Once I had accepted how difficult it is to diagnose the elements correctly, and how many years of experience are required to develop the necessary diagnostic skills, I stopped asking too much of myself, and allowed myself to relax.  And a relaxed practitioner is much more likely to interpret the sensory signs accurately than one who is tense and anxious.

 

Another important lesson I learnt is that nothing I could do would harm my patient, provided I didn't needle points too deeply, drain energy from already depleted officials or add more energy to officials already with excess energy.  No patient will object to having treatment directed at an element which is not their guardian element.  All the elements circulate within us, and all will welcome some attention.  They will just not be quite as receptive to the energy boosting a treatment gives them as when treatment is focused on the guardian element.

  

22 - 37 Proof that the skin is our third lung

It is sometimes very comforting to get proof that the ancient Chinese in their wisdom knew what they were talking about.  And this proof arrived for me in the shape of a neighbour, who on a hot summer's day, was wearing shorts so that I could not fail to notice the patches of psoriasis on his knees.  "Yes, he said, "I've got them all over my body.  The worst ones are around my waist, and I can't seem to get rid of them whatever I do."  So of course I had to tell him about how I had helped quite a few patients suffering from psoriasis with the help of a moxa stick.

 

I gave him one, showed him how to use it and how to extinguish it, recommending that he should hold it over just the worst of the affected patches of skin, and one he could easily reach, for at least five minutes at a time, and as often a day as he had patience to do it.  Each time he should make sure that the skin around it had become properly warmed up and red, as evidence that heat was reaching the layer of dead skin which psoriasis leaves.  I told him that healing one area of skin also leads to healing of the skin over the whole body, and in this context I also happened to mention to him that in Chinese medicine the skin is called the third lung.  We do, after all, breathe through every pore in our body.

 

I checked back with him after a few days, and already he could see an improvement, not only in the patch over which he had held the moxa stick, but also, to his surprise, over his skin as a whole.  A few weeks later, he proudly showed me the healed skin at his knees, and told me that the patches over other areas of the body had improved remarkably.  And then he added, "And you know that you told me that the skin is regarded as being the third lung.  Well, I could hardly believe it, but ever since I've started with the moxa stick, I have felt my lungs breathe more easily and I now feel incredibly well, as though something inside me has changed.  I've always had breathing problems in the past, but I seem to breathe much more easily now.  I'm telling everybody about your magic stick."  I gave my neighbour no acupuncture treatment so it must have been his skin's response to the moxa stick which also treated his lungs.

 

And that reminded me that many years ago I used to go on long walking holidays where blistered feet were not uncommon.  Once people had seen how quickly even the most serious weeping blisters would heal, often overnight, after I had used my moxa stick on them, they would call me Nora and her Magic Stick.

 

Moxa sticks should be in everybody's first aid cabinet, because they have so many uses, particularly in drawing out infections such as boils, and for the quick healing of cuts.  

22 - 36 The fear of not diagnosing the "right" element

A wise young man told me something very important.  He said, "We grow when we are challenged", and I often think that there is no greater challenge for a five element acupuncturist, amongst the many challenges we face, than that of learning how to deal with the natural fear we all have of not getting our diagnosis of a patient's element "right".  We each have to learn to deal with this particular fear in our own way, but what it requires of us is honesty and humility, which can be characteristics some of us may find difficult to accept as forming a necessary part of a five element acupuncturist's role.  I have observed many reactions to my students' finding that the element that they think is "obviously" Fire turns out instead to be Wood or Metal.  Their reaction is sometimes disbelief, or a need to cast doubt on even the most experienced practitioner's diagnosis rather than accept that their practice requires so much of them. In extreme cases, students or practitioners have felt compelled to move away from five element acupuncture to practising other forms of acupuncture which do not rely so heavily on our subjective senses and emotional antennae to diagnose our patients.

I have said many times that five element practitioners have to learn to accept that they are themselves, as JR Worsley so beautifully put it, instruments of nature.  Rather than relying on physical equipment to give us our diagnostic information we have to rely on ourselves, on our eyes, ears, noses and emotional antennae.  I have always found this a quite lovely aspect of my work, but some people are daunted by the need to put themselves at the forefront of practice in this way.  No physical instrument can diagnose a patient's element;  only our own senses and feelings can do that.

 

And we are all fallible human beings, each with our own particular emotional hang-ups, each of us hoping against hope that we will get that most difficult aspect of any five element practice, the accurate diagnosis of our patient's element, right.  But we must learn to say to ourselves that, if we don't get it right to start with, it does not matter, because elements are elusive things, which often hide themselves behind other elements, having learnt that life often forces them to put on masks in order to survive.

 

We have to accept that a five element practice requires us to come to terms with not getting our diagnosis right immediately, and that once we acknowledge that this is so, we will, as my young friend said, grow as a result of meeting this challenge.

 

22 - 35 Thinking back on what I learnt from SOFEA's Earth seminar yesterday

Having just held a seminar focusing on the Earth element, I like to look back and think about why I like running these seminars so much and what I learn from them.  They are not just occasions for me and Guy Caplan, my co-worker, to impart the knowledge we have gained from our many years of practice.  If this was so, it would merely be a one-way process, much as though we were standing in front of a class of students teaching them something.  But it is much more than that for me, for it is an opportunity to link up with five element acupuncturists and students, both in person and now online, as we open up the occasion to a large group of about 100 people watching us in Beijing.

What I most cherish is the feeling of belonging to a community again after these years of Covid lockdown, to a five element community which spreads far and wide around the world, and offers more and more patients the chance to transform their lives. In my last blog, I said that our treatments are "making it possible for our patients to fulfil whatever destiny fate has laid down for them" as expressed through their element.  And this is how I view all that I do.  My writings and teaching give me the opportunity to open people's minds and hearts to the potential which resides within their own and others' elements.  However tired I often feel at the end of a day's teaching, I always wake the next morning with a lighter heart and the warm feeling of another job well done, something to be nurtured, particularly in these dark days.

 

I dedicate this blog to all who came in person to the seminar and to all in China who participated in our day online.

 

And now on to a day on the next element in our series, Metal, on Monday 28 November.  Make a note in your diaries if you want to join us for another happy day immersed in the elements.  You can look at our website www.sofea.co.uk for details of how to book a place.

22 - 34 What do we hope five element acupuncture can offer our patients?

There are many reasons why we find our way to a calling such as five element acupuncture, probably as many reasons as there are acupuncturists.  I have often written about my own surprising journey towards my first day sitting in JR Worsley's Leamington College hearing the magical words, the Fire element and the Heart.  That journey had started a year earlier at an encounter with an acupuncturist at a party and the subsequent overwhelming effects of the treatment I received.  So my understanding of why I eventually decided to follow the same route as my acupuncturist and study at the college he had studied at was quite clear.  My treatment had transformed my life and I wanted to be able to offer the same transformation to any future patients I might treat.

 I have always had a strong belief that each of us owes it to those around us and to the world in general to leave this world in a slightly better place than when we first entered it.  We need to feel that we have added something by our presence.  It is as though we are each given a task to do.  In five element terms I like to see this task as expressing itself through the needs and aspirations of our guardian element.  I have therefore come to see each successful treatment as in some small way forming one step along this path for each of my patients.

 

These thoughts, which have been mulling within me for many years, were originally sparked by something JR Worsley said during my undergraduate training all those years ago, and have stayed with me ever since.  He said that we should visualize how our patients would be if their element was able to express itself fully in the most creative and harmonious way.  By strengthening this element and helping it to greater balance, we are therefore making it possible for our patients to fulfil whatever destiny fate has laid down for them, as expressed through this element.  

 

I like to think that each patient leaving our practice in greater harmony within themselves is adding a tiny but important bit to the sum total of human experience, and, with it, I hope, human happiness.

 

22 - 33 The Water element's two officials: the Bladder and the Kidney

I have always been slightly confused by the descriptions given to the Water element's two officials, because I am not really sure that there is a clear distinction between the functions of the two.  The Kidney, the yin official, is said to be the Controller of Water, whilst the Bladder, its yang companion, is the Controller of the Storage of Water.  Somehow the words "storage of water" have always seemed to me to indicate a more passive, yin function than that which is usually attributed to a yang official.

 

On the other hand, I have come to see a very obvious difference between the two officials in terms of one of Water's sensory signatures, that of colour.  Water can imprint a surprisingly wide range of its basic blue/black colouring upon those of its element.  I have noted that this extends from being a very faint, almost translucent light blue colour, which appears to reflect all the colours, as flowing water in nature does, to becoming a much denser, darker colour, more approaching the black side of the spectrum.  I have come to diagnose the translucent, light blue as being that of the Bladder, reflecting the moving water of rivers as they rush over rocks or trickle lightly in their progress downstream.  This is evidence of the active, yang nature of the Bladder, which is in a state of constant movement as it works to expel urine from the body.

 

The Kidney, on the other hand, must take on a more passive, sedentary role, like all yin officials, controlling how our body learns to balance our fluid intake.  The darker colours Water seems to imprint on people's skin can then be seen as representing Water in its more stagnant Kidney phase, much as still water in a pond will reflect the depths beneath, rather than the free-flowing movement of the sky and colours reflected in the Bladder's lighter colouring.

 

I therefore see those with the Kidney as their guardian official as representing a more thoughtful side of Water, whilst those with the Bladder as being much more agile and constantly on the move, reflecting the Bladder's need to flow at all times.

 

  

22 - 32 The Metal element's two officials: The Lung and the Large Intestine

The Metal element's two officials span the widest physical distance from each other compared with any other yin/yang pairings, which means that Metal often has to take on the difficult role of being responsible for two correspondingly quite contrasting tasks.  In the upper chest lies the Lung, Metal’s yin official, whilst the lower abdomen shelters its yang companion, the Large Intestine.  The Lung is our organ of intake, our point of first contact between the world outside and what goes on inside our body, acting as a bridge between these two worlds and the place where we receive the breath of life.  The Lung filters the air we inhale and passes it on in the blood to nourish every cell in our body.  Its yang companion, the Large Intestine, has the opposing task, being an organ of elimination, responsible for disposing of waste products. 

Those with the Lung as their guardian official tend to be more open to what they allow in, whilst those with the Large Intestine will tend to feel it is important to hold on longer to whatever they are doing or thinking so as to ensure that they only dispose of what the Metal element judges to be appropriate waste.  This gives these two guardian officials somewhat different characteristics.  The one, the Lung, more openly welcomes the world, feeling inspired by new ideas.  The other, its yang companion, is more concerned with shutting itself down until it is sure that what it will eventually judge to be waste to be eliminated really is so.  God forbid, it may say to itself, that I allow what is valuable to escape by mistake.  You can therefore say that the Lung is a slightly more adventurous side of the Metal element, whilst the Large Intestine is more cautious in all that it does.

 

 

22 - 31 Wood's two officials: the Liver and the Gall Bladder

When looking at the yin/yang pairings of the officials within each element, and trying to work out how each expresses this element in its own characteristic way, it is good to visualize the yin official as hidden deep within us, with its yang companion forming a pathway along which the yin official's energy can be drawn up from within the body to the outside.  It is useful here to remember that one of the main reasons why we only tap for Aggressive Energy on the yin AEPs (back shu points) is because the yang officials have this escape route to the outside which allows any Aggressive Energy to be released.  By contrast, AE remains trapped within the yin officials, and needs to be coaxed to the surface through the needles we place on their yin AEPS, since they have no escape route of their own to enable them to get rid of any AE which has accumulated.

 

It is always good to visualize this difference when thinking of the different qualities which the yin and yang officials give to the element.  The yang officials are much more mobile and active, the yin more static and reflective, a distinction which helps us define their differences a little more closely.  Nowhere is this contrast more obvious than in the relationship of the yin and yang officials within the Wood element.  There is a very obvious difference between how we plan things, which is the Liver's task, and how we then go on to decide which of these plans we will carry out, which is the Gall Bladder's task.  I have always visualized the Liver as taking on the role of a general sitting his tent on the field of action, with his maps spread out in front of him as he makes his plans, whilst the Gall Bladder is the officer in charge of the army deployed on the battlefield, tasked with carrying out the general's instructions.

 

There is a very clear distinction here between the Liver in his tent and the Gall Bladder actively fulfilling the plans of attack which the Liver has handed over to him.  This is a clear illustration of the yin nature of the Liver compared with the very yang nature of the Gall Bladder.  When we look at our Wood patients, therefore, we may gradually learn to differentiate between these two different qualities, which will eventually help us diagnose our patients as having either the Liver or the Gall Bladder as their particular guardian official. 

22 - 30 The guardian official

It was during a postgraduate seminar at my Leamington college all those years ago that I for the first time dared to share my use of the term "guardian element".  Before that, I used to call it the CF, meaning the Causative Factor of disease, as most people still do.  I have always thought that the term CF has a slightly negative overtone, which JR himself did not seem to agree with.  I remember very clearly him telling us that we should always visualize our patients as expressing the most positive qualities of their element, rather than regarding this element as a symbol of their imbalances.  And I like to hear the echo of the words guardian angel behind my coining of the phrase, because this is how I think of this element.  I see it as a protective force when we live our lives wisely in tune with its demands.

 

I have now decided to add a companion phrase, and call the yin and yang officials which together create an element our guardian officials.  I am only surprised that it has taken me so many years to think of this.

 

We know that we are each marked by the characteristics of one element, and that each element is formed of the close association of one yin and one yang official.   These two officials within the element also imprint specific characteristics upon us, making some people of that element have characteristics which are more yin in nature, and others more yang, reflecting the different qualities of their particular dominant official. This distinction further defines who we are, so that a Wood person, for example, will have a closer association with the characteristic qualities of the Liver and another with those of the Gall Bladder, making either the Liver or the Gall Bladder their guardian official.  

 

It is rarely clinically necessary to diagnose this further level of differentiation.  First of all because it is difficult enough tracking down a patient's element, let alone trying to perceive even more subtle differences within an element, and secondly because we rarely need to move to this deeper level of diagnosis from the point of view of treatment, since we treat both officials equally.  It is, however, interesting to try to recognise the different qualities which one or other official gives us, since this is a way of helping us understand more about the role of the individual officials within the cycle of the elements.

 

Occasionally, we need to think more closely about this, particularly in the case of Inner Fire and its yang official, the Small Intestine.  This is because we are taught to avoid treating the Heart, the Supreme Controller, more than is necessary.  It is regarded as a sacred organ, and we should where possible avoid interfering in its functioning by treating it.  Instead we should concentrate treatment upon its close yang official, the Small Intestine, making this an exception to the general rule that we treat both official pairings equally.

 

This brings me neatly to another important question, which is how we make our choices about selecting points other than command points, those points which are often called spirit points.  As I have often written, all points should be recognized as having their own spirit, but in general parlance the term appears to be given to any point which is not a command point.  I have often thought that this is perhaps one of the most discussed, but least understood areas of five element practice, precisely because by calling some points spirit points we appear to assume that they have a more profound effect than those that are "merely" command points.  This is a misconception which bedevils five element practice.  In the right hands and with the right understanding command points can effect the most profound treatment of all, whilst spirit points, in the wrong hands and with the wrong understanding, can have very little effect at all.

 

I see non-command points as being able to offer specific qualities, often associated with the names they have been given over the centuries, which can add to what the officials on whose meridians they lie are there to offer.  Often we may use one point on one of the two guardian officials, rather than choosing points on both, as we do with command points or Associated Effect points, for example.  The selection of non-command points has often come to be regarded as a somewhat mysterious area of expertise, which I think it should not be. Different practitioners will choose different points, often having a long-term preference for a few, usually because they have learnt about them at some point from a more experienced practitioner, as I have done.  Or perhaps a fellow practitioner will tell me about a point they have used, either one I have never used, or, as happens, one I have forgotten about over the years, and I will be glad to welcome such points back into my repertoire of point selections again.  This is, after all, how we widen our range of points, although having observed JR Worsley recommending points for the many hundreds of patients I saw him with I can confirm how beautifully simple were always the treatments he recommended for our patients, suggesting the same small range of points for each element. 

22 - 29 Earth's two officials: the Stomach and the Spleen

The Earth element has a unique quality which helps define its position at the centre of the circle of the elements.  It is the only element whose yin and yang officials are paired so closely together that part of their meridian pathways run almost in parallel to each other over the upper part of the body. The yin and yang pairings of the other elements spread themselves over the outside aspect of one or other limb (the yang official) and the inside aspect of the limb (their yin official).  This holds true for the two Fire yang officials (the Small Intestine and the Three Heater) and the Metal yang official (the Large Intestine) over the outer aspect of the arm, and for the Wood yang official (the Gall Bladder), the Metal yang official (the Bladder) and part of the Earth yang official (the Stomach) over the outer aspect of the leg.

 

In the case of the Stomach official, however, both Earth's yin and yang officials combine to run closely together up from the lower abdomen to the chest, where surprisingly it is the Stomach which passes over the breast, having a point on the nipple itself (one for obvious reasons not needled, but nonetheless there described in all the point reference charts).  And surely the nipple can be regarded as the most yin aspect of the whole body, for it is there to draw nourishment up from deep within a mother's body to feed a child.

 

I have always felt that this helps illustrate Earth's rather ambiguous role at the centre, where it is there to give but cannot do this until it has itself received sustenance.  So I regard its two officials as interlocked more tightly together than any of the other yin/yang pairings.  They are both closely associated with the physical processing of food (the Stomach) and passing on the results of this process around the rest of the body (the Spleen), but we may tend to forget the important role they play at the deeper mental and emotional levels of our being. For they are the powerful controllers of our thought processes.

 

It is no coincidence that one of the important points on the Stomach meridian is St (XI) 8 Head Tied, a lovely point to help the Earth element release all those jumbled thoughts which Earth people often describe as being locked in their heads.  When the Earth element is out of balance, its imbalance often shows itself in its speech, which seem to churn over the same thoughts time and again, as though, as I like to put it, "it can't swallow them".  And this is how I describe this, because I have noticed that when my treatment releases Earth's blocked energy, often by needling XI 9 or unlocking an entry/exit block such as a LI/St (X/XI) block, and allowing it to flow smoothly again, I have seen my Earth patients physically swallow and immediately stop talking, sometimes in mid-sentence.  It is as though at long last their Stomach officials have cleared the blockage and are now able to pass their thoughts on to the Spleen to carry further.

It is good to remember that the Earth element's emotion is also described as not only "sympathy", which is our ability to experience others' emotions, but also by the word "thoughtfulness".  Being thoughtful has a very positive connotation, for it not only emphasizes Earth's connection to thinking but also its positive association with looking after another person in a careful and caring way. 

22 - 28 The Two Outer Fire officials

If we now look at the functions of the two Outer Fire officials, they both act as protectors of the Heart in their midst, but each with a different emphasis.  Though obviously closely associated with the Heart, they are the only officials to have functions which extend over the body as a whole, rather than being closely related to a particular organ within that body, as, for example, the Small Intestine is to the Heart.  The Three Heater acts as the body's thermostat, keeping it at an even temperature.  Its presence within the Fire element indicates its importance to the Heart, for its function is to maintain the warmth of the blood at a correct level to enable the Heart to pump it to each cell in the body.  It also works hard at maintaining an even emotional temperature so that we blow neither too hot nor too cold in our relationships to others.

 

Its sister yin companion, the Heart Protector, is doing what its name suggests, acting as physical protection on the ramparts encircling the Heart at Fire's centre.  I see the Heart Protector as patrolling these ramparts, sword in hand, preventing entry to those it feels might endanger the Heart.  I like to think of the Heart Protector asking the Heart, "Is this person safe for you to love?", whilst the Small Intestine asks, "Is this person the right sort of person for you to love?".

 

Because the two sides of Fire have such different functions, they find their expression in different characteristics which we can observe in the people around us.  Because all four officials form part of the Fire element, they have the same sensory signatures of colour, sound and smell, but I have come to see that the emotional imprint they give to those under their control differs quite markedly.  When I am with somebody who is Outer Fire I therefore feel different from when I am with those who are Inner Fire.  Perhaps I am particularly aware of this because Inner Fire, and particularly the yin Inner Fire official, the Small Intestine, is where the elements have imprinted me with their signature.  And having observed myself closely for over 40 years, ever since I first encountered the concept of the elements, I know that my approach to life differs greatly from that of my fellow Outer Fire companions.

Since each of us is intimately acquainted with one particular element, our Guardian Element and its two officials, each of us is given the gift of understanding how that element manifests itself at a deep level if we work hard at observing ourselves in our interactions with others.  In my case, I feel that I am fortunate in understanding the workings of the Fire element, and in particular of its Inner Fire aspect, the Small Intestine official, from a deeply personal point of view.  I see it as being one of the reasons why my work as a five element acupuncturist developed in the way it did, particularly in relation to my writings and my teaching.  It is the curiosity which underlies the Small Intestine's approach to life which stimulates all my thoughts, and leaves me dissatisfied until I have worked out to my satisfaction all the often puzzling dilemmas my practice confronts me with.

 

The Small Intestine's task is to sort through its thoughts and emotions to find solutions which it sees fit to pass through to the Heart.  One of the ways I have therefore learnt to distinguish Inner from Outer Fire is often the puzzled look which I notice on my face, and on other Inner Fire faces, as we try to work out what we should be doing or feeling or saying.  In a way, the whole of life can appear a puzzle to me, something I have all the time to unpick and piece together to make some of a  sense, some kind of a whole.  It is why, when I am writing things, as I am now doing, I am constantly correcting and amending what I have just written, draft after draft, until I am quite happy that my words describe the truth of what I am trying to say.  I go through several handwritten and then typed drafts during this process, each draft the expression of the point at which my thoughts have reached, but each beckoning me to do more, often by cutting out extraneous words, sentences or even whole paragraphs, until I am happy with the final pared-down version.

 

It is often tiring for those with an Inner Fire person to follow the pattern of their thoughts, as these develop by fits and starts.  For example, I often find myself correcting myself in mid-sentence and appearing to veer off sideways to express another thought.

 

By contrast, Outer Fire people show none of these hesitations, or stops and re-starts.  Their thinking is not hampered by the need to get things absolutely right for the Heart, for they leave this task to their Inner Fire companions.  Instead, they are much more articulate in expressing their thoughts, and therefore in many ways much easier to listen to, and certainly easier to be with.  They have none of the kind of jitteriness I associate with my own relationships to others.  Having the Three Heater as one of its officials, which has the function of maintaining warmth and harmony for the whole body, Outer Fire when in balance can be a very comfortable companion.  it is eager to put the people it meets at their ease, because maintaining warm relationships is also one of its principal functions. 

 

When in the presence of Outer Fire, we therefore often feel that we are at a party, happily enjoying ourselves with others.  Inner Fire will express Fire's joy in shorter bursts, interspersed with often anxious moments when it is searching around for clues as to how it should react or what it should be doing.  It is therefore not the easiest aspect of Fire to be in the presence of, often making others uneasy as they try to work out exactly how to react in Inner Fire's presence.

 

Over the years I have put together these useful pointers to the difference I feel between Inner and Outer Fire that five element acupuncturists may find useful in helping them develop their diagnostic skills.

 

  

22 - 27 The four officials of the Fire element: The two Inner Fire officials

In looking at the 12 officials we have to start at the one which is at the centre, the Emperor/Empress of body, mind and spirit, the Heart official.  It is given the number 1 in the numerical order of the officials, extending up to 12, indicating the importance of its role at the centre of the Fire element.  It is the only official not only protected by its yang companion, the Small Intestine, but surrounded by two other officials, the Heart Protector and the Three Heater, which form a protective bodyguard around it.   I call the Heart and Small intestine officials the two Inner Fire officials, and the others the two Outer Fire officials.

 

The Outer Fire officials are given different names in other branches of acupuncture, but I like to keep to the names which I was taught as a student all those many years ago, the Heart Protector and Three Heater, seeing them as part of a tradition which I feel it is important to pass on.  This is why I insist on continuing to give each official a Roman numeral (from I to XII), which places the Heart, of course, in rightful first place, not, as in other traditions, with the Lung first.

 

It is important to have a picture in our mind of how the four Fire officials combine their work, before we look at each one in turn.  Together they form an indissoluble unit, each with a very specific, individually defined task, but all working to one end, which is to to protect the Heart and allow it to function as it should.  In physical terms, this is uninterruptedly to pump blood around the body to nourish every cell.  But to do this it not only needs protection to ensure that it never falters, for even the briefest interruption to its work will usher in a speedy death, but that what reaches it, physically in the physical blood, and emotionally in the emotional impulses with which it controls our emotional life, remain as robust as possible.  Here each of the three officials which surround it have their individual part to play. 

 

It is helpful to think of the two pairs of officials as though linked together in forming the Fire element, and yet in some mysterious and significant way as separate from one another.  One characteristic that they have, which I found slightly odd when I first learned of this, is that, though so closely associated with each other, they remain at a profound level detached from one another.  When studying the concept of energy transfers between elements I learnt that it is theoretically possible to transfer energy between any one yin official and any other around the cycle of the elements, but it cannot be transferred directly within the Fire element between the Inner and Outer Fire yin officials.  It is possible, though, to do this transfer by passing energy from yin to yin of each element around the cycle until it reaches the other side of the Fire element.  In practice I have never seen this done, because the need to take from one aspect of Fire to give to the other aspect is too remote to be contemplated, since both Heart and Heart Protector need to preserve all their energy for the Heart rather than depleting themselves by passing some on.  This does, however, help me to understand that there is a barrier between the two aspects of Fire which acts as a further protection for the Heart.

 

I have always liked to visualize the Fire element as a fortified castle, with the Heart, a yin official, in splendid isolation at its centre, surrounded closely by its yang companion, the Small Intestine, and the two outer Fire officials manning the castle ramparts, preventing unwelcome approaches to the Heart.  The Outer Fire officials can be seen as forming a protective ring around the Heart and the Small Intestine in their midst.  

 

I like to call the Small Intestine the Heart's secretary, with a wastepaper basket at its feet, rather than the weapons I visualize the two Outer Fire officials holding in their hands to protect the Heart.  Its principal function is to select only what is appropriate to pass through to the Heart, and to discard the inappropriate by passing it on to the Large Intestine to expel from the body.  In physical terms it does this through its work upon the blood, but in five element acupuncture it also has what we can consider an even more important role, which is to sift for any impurities at the deeper levels of mind and spirit.  This makes it one of the busiest, if not the busiest, official of all, since it must work tirelessly at every moment of the day and night to prevent what might have passed unchallenged through the outer defences of the Heart Protector and the Three Heater from gaining direct access to the the Heart.

  

22 - 26 The Twelve Officials

There is one important aspect of five element acupuncture which distinguishes it from other branches of traditional acupuncture, and that is the importance it places not only upon understanding the qualities of the different elements at all levels of the human being, but also those of the organs which together create the energies of these elements.  We call these the 12 officials;  they carry out the instructions of the elements of which they form a part, always one yang and one official to each element.  The Fire element is the exception here, its dual function giving it two yang and two yin officials.  Each official has a specific function, and together they cover the complete range of human experience.  They therefore not only represent the physical organs familiar from any conventional medical textbook, but, appropriately for a system of medicine which claims to treat the whole person, they each also have additional qualities which extend to the deeper areas of human existence.  Each physical organ, as well as having its familiar physical function, also has a specific association with the different mental and emotional aspects of life represented by the element of which it forms part. 

 

This is something that needs to be emphasized, because it is easy to think only of an organ's physical function.  In five element acupuncture we give each official a much more important role in maintaining health than simply treating physical symptoms.  Each treatment is potentially a way of restoring physical, mental and emotional health at one and the same time, something which anybody wishing to practise five element acupuncture needs to understand.  This branch of acupuncture is one of the few systems of medicine which combines an ability to restore health to the physical body whilst at the same time addressing problems which have their cause at the deeper levels of human life.  It is, of course, possible to use acupuncture as a purely physical system of medicine, but if we do so we are doing it a disservice by ignoring its potential to help restore emotional balance.  It is surprising how easy it may be to concentrate only on the physical attributes of organs whilst forgetting that it is often their deeper functions which lead to all manner of imbalances. 

22 - 25 Are there coincidences in life?

One of my next writing projects is to add something about the 12 officials to what I have written about the elements in my Handbook of Five Element Practice.  I have been asked to do this by one of my five element students in China, who is now teaching her own students and tells me that they seem to find it difficult visualizing the 12 officials as anything apart from as organs of the body.  So I am now thinking more carefully about expanding my ideas on the elements to cover the officials in more detail.  This morning, therefore, I had just written a few paragraphs about the Fire element's four officials, emphasizing the central role of the Heart, and put down my pen to do what I always do, which is to pick up a book I'm reading to give my thoughts a little rest.  Imagine my surprise, then when I experienced this lovely serendipitous (beautiful word!) moment, when the first words I read were the following:

 

"Zen said his piece and left as soon as he could, fearful and depressed at this reminder of the primitive, messy plumbing on which all their lives ultimately depended.  It didn't seem remotely surprising that it should break down without warning.  On the contrary, the miracle was that it ever functioned in the first place.  In growing panic he listened to the thudding of his heart, felt the blood coursing about the system, imagined the organs going about their mysterious, secretive business.  It was like being trapped aboard an airplane piloted by an on-board computer.  All you could do was sit there until the fuel ran out, or one of the incomprehensibly complex and delicate systems on which your life depended suddenly failed."    (From:  Michael Dibdin: Cabal, an Aurelio Zen Mystery)

 

What a lovely coincidence, if coincidence it is, that I just came across this the moment I laid down my pen.  I think our bodies are indeed "incomprehensibly complex and delicate systems", for this describes beautifully how we should look at the work our officials are faced with at every moment of the day.   

 

I always think it is a miracle that this body of ours, a miracle of evolutionary development, functions at all, for it is always at terrible risk of breaking down by reason of its very complexity.  it is fortunate that we have devised many ways of helping us maintain as great a balance as possible so that we can live good and fruitful lives, none more so, I am glad to say, than by turning for help to five element acupuncture.    

22 - 24 Each acupuncture point is a spirit point

One of the important early lessons in five element acupuncture which has stayed with me throughout the years is my memory of JR Worsley drawing three small parallel lines one above the other on the classroom blackboard.  He pointed to the line at the top, and said, "This is the physical level", to the line in the middle and said, "This is the mental level," and, his voice dropping almost to a whisper, pointed to the bottom line, and said, "This is the level of the spirit."  He would then ask us to take a pencil and press it down on our desks, saying, "This is treating at the physical level." Then he would ask us to press it down a little more, saying, "This is treating with the mind", before finally asking us to touch our pencil gently and carefully down on our desks, telling us, "And this is treating with the spirit."  He would ask us if we felt the difference in ourselves with each touch of the desk.  I still remember quite clearly experiencing a feeling of wonder that it did feel quite different to me.  I could feel something inside me responding at a deep level when I thought of the action of the pencil at the deepest level, as it reflected what I was asked to think of, which I thought of as being both my patient's spirit and my own spirit.

 

I have never forgotten the feeling of awe inside me as I realised that something deep within me, which I would now call my spirit, was affecting the action of the pencil/needle that my hand was holding.  I understood for the first time that how I approached the treatment of my patients could determine how my patients would experience their treatment.  Accepting that five element acupuncture can affect all levels of the human being, body, mind and spirit, at one and the same time is therefore one of the first lessons that those wanting to practise it need to learn.

 

So I always feel sad when I hear practitioners talk about spirit points as though these form a quite separate category from what I assume they regard as "ordinary" points, points such as command points.  Each point has its own spirit, its own potential to add something to the patient at the level of the spirit.  And simply by understanding that this is so adds to the action of the needle in the practitioner's hand something the practitioner themselves brings to this action, which is his/her own spirit.  A practitioner who understands how profoundly the action of a needle can affect a patient's spirit adds some of their own spirit to that needle's action.  A point needled in this way then contains something within it of both the practitioner's spirit and the spirit the point itself imparts.  

 

I like to think that the treatment then has the potential to reach the patient's spirit, surely the ultimate purpose of any five element treatment.

  

22 - 23 A Water practitioner describes how he holds his hands

 

Finally, here is a Water practitioner's very detailed comments about how he holds his hands and moves his body.  This rounds off the observations relating to all five elements.

 

Thank you, Pierre, for finding the time to send me your very interesting observations.

 

 "The more I am in distress or under stress the more I move my hands but I tend to hide that with patients: I do a lot of different things like touching my nails, or rubbing my hands in a slow movement.  I can identify that other parts of my body are moving too; I move my toes in my shoes, I can move my legs too (more when I'm standing up) and I change my sitting position regularly if I am not at ease and am finding it better to face somebody.  I very often move a part of my body I realize, like if I was uncomfortable within. That's always accompanied with a heart beating stronger and a little sensation of a global vibration in the body (adrenaline or cortisol?)". 

 

This is a very good description of the sense of movement and flow in all that Water does, but we must never forget that it can also freeze and become immobile if it feels under threat. 

 

 

  

22 - 22 Treating one person is treating the whole family

One of the pleasures of my contacts with China during Covid lockdowns has been my discovery of all the different online methods of communication which have sprung up in great numbers.  I am almost overwhelmed by the information pouring towards me across the internet on any subject under the sun.  I, too, have added to this stream of information winging its way through the ether across oceans and continents, and one of the channels of communication which I had the idea to set up is what I call my "Five Element Thought for the Day".

 

This is a pale imitation of the BBC's Thought for the Day, because I don't write it every day, far from it, but I try to encapsulate something I have been thinking about in as few words as possible to set Chinese five element acupuncturists thinking.  So here is today's thought, my 26th:

 

"To treat one person is to treat the whole family

 

When we treat one person in the family with five element acupuncture we are treating the whole family.

 

We hope our treatment will make our patient feel happier and more balanced.  And when they see life in a more balanced way, they will be more likely to be kinder to their family and friends, and more tolerant of any differences."

 

I have just sent this over to China for inclusion in one of the many five element websites and chatrooms that have grown up over there.  

 

This thought has prompted me to write a longer piece for this blog, because it describes one of the heartening effects of good five element practice, which is perhaps not sufficiently understood and therefore often underrated.

 

Often patients would come to me concerned about some profound problems in their relationships with their family or friends, and what I have noticed is that, as treatment gradually started to bring their lives to a greater degree of balance, the problems which so dominated their lives when they first came to see me seemed to recede in importance, if not disappear altogether.  Once I became aware of this, I would enquire how things were now between my patients and those around them, and would find that often patients were themselves surprised to register how much things had improved, sometimes to the point of almost denying that the problems had originally been so bad.

 

I learnt to interpret this change as being the result of good treatment which helped bring a patient's guardian element to a better state of balance so that the demands they place upon others through their own imbalances were corresponding less.  This in turn helps explain the improvement in their family relationships.  I learnt to tell patients early on that this might be one of the benefits of treatment, so that concentrating upon restoring themselves to health was the most unselfish thing for them to do because they were in effect indirectly treating their whole family.

 

I remember quite clearly the day that I became aware of this in relation to my own family. I realised that my treatment had somehow helped the elements within me understand why I was having so much trouble relating to a family member.  The more my treatment helped me understand my own needs better, the less I seemed to demand of my relationships with others, particularly of course my family, and the more I was able to accept others as they were, rather than demand that they change their behaviour to adapt to my needs.

 

Treating one person is a way of treating a whole family.  And nothing in all my years of practice has made me see things differently.