Gall Bladder 14 ~ Yangbai ~ Yang White
A few weeks ago, in the middle of the night, I walked into a door. I was going to the bathroom and in the fog of sleep, missed my bearings and barrelled headlong into a door jamb. The shock was immense, the pain intense. I was left with a lasting headache, neck stiffness and a cut-bruise above my left eye.
When I surveyed the damage the next morning, I realised that the encounter with the door had left a neat round red dot just below the acupoint Gall Bladder 14. Which left me pondering the significance of this particular point. To start with, it’s spring time here, season of the Wood Element. Then I realised that the time was about midnight which is the time when the high tide of Qi moves through the Gall Bladder channel. And add to that it was lack of vision that caused the accident and vision is the sense of Wood.
Correspondences were piling up.
When a number of the resonances of an Element coincide, it is often an indication that an Element is calling for attention. So what was my Gall Bladder Official calling on me to see? I went to my library to review the significant uses of Gall Bladder 14. One of the sentences that resonated with me was from the Acupuncture Point Compendium:
“Yang Bai: Good for Wood constitution types whose spirit needs encouraging into action or who are in a muddle; they have a plan but are failing to firm it up and move on… The clarity which this point brings is emphasised.” Indeed, clarity is embedded in the point’s name: while one translation of bai is white, another meaning is clear.
It’s true that I’m much better at making plans than carrying them out. Our constitutional Element seems to gift us with a mix of strengths and challenges that relate to that Element. I can come up with all kinds of ideas but I’m slow to make the firm decisions that are needed to put them into action. It seems my unconscious was bringing this lesson home in a very firm way.
Upon reflection, there are a number of things on my to-do list that have been there for a long time. The certificate program for my students, making videos to promote classes, changes to my website. These are all about moving forward with my work in the world. Could it be that I was being whacked over the head so I’d get the message to get my finger out?
Another indication for Gall Bladder 14 is that it clears wind. Not the kind that embarrasses you in public, but wind that is climate of Wood and which can invade the body. When there is wind invasion, the result can be headaches, neck stiffness, and jerking and shaking conditions like Restless Leg Syndrome. In my case I’ve had a lifelong susceptibility to wind invasion, and headaches have never been far away.
But in the four weeks since my whack on the head, I’ve noticed that I’ve been much less troubled by wind, even though it is spring when I’m most susceptible. For five days after the collision I had a stiff neck and headache, as if I’d had a small car accident. But on the sixth day I noticed that the pain and stiffness had gone. In fact my neck has since felt better and more flexible than it has in years. What’s more the whole experience has prompted me to focus more on following through on projects and moving into action.
It seems the bodymind has an intelligence that is below consciousness. It provides information to us in dreams, in intuitions, and if we don’t pay enough attention, it can find a dramatic way to bring the information to us. Bringing awareness to the threads of the fabric of our lives can offer guidance. And the Five Element model offers us a framework that can provide connection and meaning to things that may seem otherwise unrelated.
Location of Gall Bladder 14
On the forehead, 1 cun above the middle of the eyebrow , directly above the pupil when the eye is looking straight ahead.
To find more about the resonances of the Elements, I recommend my book
The Way of the Five Seasons