An Afternoon with a Jiao series (recordings)

Description

These are recordings of three half-day afternoon seminars with Deborah Woolf which took place in the Spring of 2021. In each seminar, Deborah uses medical and alchemical classics to present an integrative study of the acupuncture points in each of the three jiaos. She discusses point names and functions; similarities and differences – why choose this point rather than another, etc.

• The lower jiao, power from below, place of ditches and drainage, but also the power of the Gate of Life, has a variety of acupuncture points displaying its power. Ren Mai, rising from its inner source, and the ancestral muscle, zongjin, supports the power of fertility and grounding, through its points below the umbilicus. These are flanked by equally powerful points on the foot Yangming, foot Shaoyin and foot Jueyin.
• The middle jiao, concerned with digestion and metabolism through the transformative power of the digestive fire. The flow of ingested, churned and transformed substances is channelled through many gates and doors, around the central cavity of Ren 12. There are so many ways different channels and qi are intertwined to support the transformation of water and grains into qi blood and fluids.
• The upper jiao, place of fine mist and refined, subtle qi, is our communication with the spiritual aspects. It houses the middle (or upper) dantian – there are differing views on this – and is the place of the pure heart and lungs, the masters of blood and qi in the body. Here we can communicate with our ancestors, and our ability to connect with the universe through the breath and our essence. In this place of light airy spirits we can affect our external communication with the world as well as psycho-spiritual issues.

See also Deborah’s monthly sessions on The 24 Solar Fortnights