Description

Spirit Points

shen ling hun po yi zhi 神 靈 魂 魄 意 志

The whole field of spirit shen 神 that gives life its brightness, consciousness and deep intelligence and the allied concept of effective spiritual power ling 靈 has a deep history in Chinese medicine with its origins far back into spiritual practices from early times. The spiritual aspects of hun 魂 and po 魄, our heavenly and earthly ‘souls’, and the psychological aspects of yi 意 and zhi 志, attention and willpower, require an openness from us in modern times to understand these concepts that we are not familiar with. They are all crucial parts of our authentic nature, the deepest aspects of ourselves that are essential to our health and well-being and intimately tied to our jing 精, blood and qi. Disconnection from the shen 神 spirit brings loss, depression, dullness and isolation, a disconnection from life itself, often with insomnia, fear, anger and sadness. Acupuncture can be extremely helpful to restore the connection, especially with the points we will study.

We will start these two sessions with a review of the essentials of the spiritual aspects in both health and disease and then study the various spirit points:

Shen 神 spirit points

Ht 7 神 門 shen men Spirit Gate

Bl 44 神 堂 shen tang Spirit Hall

Ki 23 神 封 shen feng Spirit Seal

Ki 25 神 藏 shen cang Spirit Store

GB 13 本 神 ben shen Root Spirit

Ren 8 神 闕 shen que Spirit Gate

Du 11 神 道 shen dao Spirit Way

Du 24 神 庭 shen ting Spirit Court

Ling 靈 spiritual points

Ht 2 青 靈 qing ling Blue-green Spiritual

Ht 4 靈 道 ling dao Spiritual Pathway

Ki 24 靈 墟 ling xu Spiritual Ruins

GB 18 承 靈 cheng ling Spiritual Support

Du 10 靈 台 ling tai Spiritual Tower

Hun 魂 po 魄 yi 意 zhi 志 points

Bl 47 魂 門 hun men Hun Gate

Bl 42 魄 戶 po hu Po Door

Bl 49 意 舍 yi she Yi Abode

Bl 52 志 室 zhi shi Zhi Chamber

We will explore why these specific points have been designated as spiritual aspect points, their full meaning, qualities, uses and helpful clinical combinations in practice. Point by point we will build up a study of the point names, so that we are aware of them as the Chinese are, by name and not just by meridian and number, which was never a traditional concept. The points were carefully named, often evoking traditional images and stories, setting a point within a larger context that is extremely useful in practice.

Date: Tuesday 21 October & Tuesday 28 October

Time: 6-8pm

Cost: £70 for both sessions

Eligibility: Acupuncture practitioners and students

Location: Online (both sessions will be recorded)

About the teacher

I have been practicing acupuncture for forty years and teaching and writing on Chinese medicine and philosophy for nearly as long. My influences have been Dr van Buren at the International College of Oriental Medicine, where I originally studied and later became the principal from 1985 to 1990. The college has a special interest in heavenly stems and earthly branches. With teachers Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée from the Institut Ricci and Ecole Européene d’Acupuncture in Paris I studied classical Chinese, the Daoist writers Laozi and Zhuangzi and the medical classics. This balanced Chinese medicine with its deep-seated cultural perspective.

I have been teaching internationally for many years. I now live in Denmark where I am focussing on four particular subjects – the nature of time and timing, Neidan internal alchemy, Yijing patterns of change and acupuncture point portraits. In time these will become available online at Guan Academy.

Watch a free presentation of Bringing the Points Alive with Peter Firebrace