The 5 'Waters' of Energy - technical blog
Chinese medicine owes its understandings and prowess to Taoism. The Taoist sages of ages past meticulously observed nature to garnish understanding of the mechanics of life on all scales.
I suspect that if they could appropriate an element to God that that element would be water. Shamanism is in the roots of acupuncture, it has its deepest understandings deeply entwined in nature and water is the only element that exists across all the states.
What a wonderful place to search for medicine….in nature.
Our organic elemental library;
In Chinese Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine (TCM) there exists a clinical treatment theory called five element theory, which is governed by the understandings that the organ pairs are set up across five sets of elemental partners.
Kidney / Bladder = Water ** Liver/ Gallbladder = Wood ** Heart / Small Intestines = Fire ** Lung /Large Intestine = Metal ** Spleen /Stomach ( Gut) = Earth.
A body in health wastes very little energy, it is in states of illness that much energy is wasted which leads to the states of fatigue and exhaustion associated with being ill.
The balance involved;
These organ pairs are also set up in YIN/YANG pairs, and the organs and their channels have different Qi dynamics working within them: YIN moves things gently inwards, whereas YANG moves them strongly outwards.
Here is a simplified example of this dynamic, the Kidneys / Bladder relationship could be simplified like this -The Kidney is concerned with extracting all the goodness from its filtrate and bringing it back into the body, this is a careful and gentle movement. The Bladder, however, is concerned with getting the ‘dirty’ urine out and stopping parasites getting in, hence, this is a stronger and more aggressive movement outward for elimination.
YIN organs are solid, whilst YANG organs are hollow. Perfect design to perform these movements and they are all are powered by Qi (Chi)/ bio-electricity.
These elemental organ partners have a detailed relationship with each other called The Ko Cycle. For educational sake there is another organ pair which is the Pericardium/ Triple Heater which are the Heart protector membrane and connective tissue/fascia, which are a Yin/Yang Fire pair as well.
So we have this wonderful array of organ pairs that have elemental tags, or more prudently elemental behaviours associated with them. These work better for us if the internal conditions are correct. You hear me talk a lot about conditions in the body in these blogs, and the 5 ‘Waters’ of Energy relate very much to maintenance of these internal conditions.
My Energy Therapy is based on hand applied resonance, with the Acupuncture maps and understandings at it’s core of both understanding and clinical application. If you end up at my clinic or an acupuncturist you will notice that many needles are applied ( or hands in my case from the elbows or knees down.) Also at the midline of the back and front of the body and the head and face.
Why this occurs is because the embryological growth patterns/planes finish within the structures of the body at ‘wells’ or ‘points’ and many are in these lower limbs, hand and foot zones. These points are the engine of the 5 ‘Waters’ of Energy as we can influence both the channels that lead from the organ and the organ itself from these locations.
Each of the great embryological planes of the body ( there are six major planes) have detailed relationships between the organs. One feature that they share is the channel system ( Meridians ) which act as escape routes or channels for excess energy and waste products of all kinds.
Crucially the channels also carry life enhancing nutrition and energy to power growth and repair. An easy example to appreciate is tue arterial system as the Heart Channels.
These macro and micro channels in the body keep us healthy, as there are escape routes for toxicity especially. Whenever for instance a rash appears bringing waste to the surface of the skin, it would have traversed this channel system.
Clearing these channels in clinic sessions can have fantastic outcomes, it can clear stagnation or pain, and allow the body to find its homeostasis by removing blockages that create heat, toxicity or dampness and phlegm.
This is the crux of both acupuncture and my Energy Therapy, to be able to have an effect of the bio-electricity that traverses these channels and the membranes of cells of organs. Both Acupuncture and My Energy Therapy are highly intuitive yet scientific crafts designed to keep you ‘in flow’ electrically.
Blocked electrical energy, like blocked water in nature causes problems. The body Qi (Chi) reacts identically as water would in nature. From High pressure low voltage environments like the thoracic cage ( full of electrical generating organs) to low pressure high voltage environments like fingertips ( think static electricity and your bedcovers).
If there is resistance or a block, electricity and water seek the next path of least resistance to escape high pressure environments.
The Chinese broke down the understandings of these behaviours into a nice Taoist concept. This became five element theory and part of it works like this. In honouring water for its profound nature these ‘maps’ were named in her honour and I have nicknamed them the 5’ Waters’ of Energy in honour of these behaviours.
1: At the fingertips and toe tips are “WELLS” which deal with high voltage release of heat and inflammation mostly ( full heat). Think the pressure and dynamic of an oil well for the energy here. These are often used to clear acute conditions and immune reaction heat.
2: At the ‘knuckles’ of hand and foot are “SPRINGS” which also deal with a different type of heat in the body, similar to that of an engine that is running on half the oil that it should have ( empty heat). These points are to remove heat from organs and channels that is generated more by the fluid lacking conditions of their surroundings..
“Full and empty heat are key concepts in Chinese medicine and can be understood in terms of a pot boiling water on a stove. The pot may be boiling because the flames are too high ( full heat , virulent sweating and fevers which occur in acute infections) or because there is not enough liquid within it ( empty heat , low grade fever, hot hands and feet and night sweating which occurs with menopausal symptoms and also night sweats in breast feeding ). The differentiation is clinically useful because it points toward different treatment protocols. With empty-heat, the body needs to be nourished and tonified, the equivalent of topping up the supply of fluids in the body or organs involved. Full heat however, requires the clearing of the pathogen and the heat so the body can return back to normal.” Dr Daniel Keown - THE UNCHARTERED BODY - The transport points p60-73.
3: Located at the wrists and ankles are “STREAM” points - at these points there is much more of a balance between pressure and current ( voltage ) and both are strong, which explains why these points are so widely used and powerful. These points have the strongest effect on ‘transporting’ Qi (chi) in the body.
For the Yin solid organs these points work as source points to tonify the organ and help it access crucial neural crest cell repair.
4: ‘RIVER’ points -Located at the places on the arms and legs where they start to become more muscly and fleshy. Where the tendons have mainly transformed into muscles. Which gives indication why these points are used for both nourishing tendons and sinews and problems that present as muscular complaints.
They are named aptly after the concept of water widening to a river as the channels widen here significantly.
5: ‘SEA’ points- Located at the elbows and knees including close surrounding area. These are another powerful set of points. They deal primarily with channel energy that is going the wrong way.
A fine example is of Lung energy which normally naturally goes downward, as instead going up and presenting as Asthma or allergies/sneezing.
Summary: The body has these wonderful rhythms of energy (Qi) behaviours that mimic the behavioural movements and energies of water within nature.
Taoists learned so much from simple observation of natural laws and rightly attributed them to our own physiology.
They got it completely right (👏) and we are entitled to utilise these hard won wisdoms in our knowledge and interactions with human bodies.
Note: Other great insights of Taoists is the understanding of interchanging self regulation toward balance ( YIN / YANG ), and many other wisdoms such as the active role of spirit in physiology (SHEN) and living and organising energy/ electricity (QI).
Michael Ross: The Energy Therapy Clinic
