Tag Archives: Fire Element

Calm Perspetive

Rest and be Thankful, Argyll, Scotland

It’s been a strange summer in Australia. La Nina has given us more rain and lower temperatures than usual such that it seems summer has hardly started. So it might come as a surprise to hear that summer is drawing to a close. February 4th, midway between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox, will be the start of Autumn, so we are already in the Late Summer season. I should by rights be writing about Earth points. But I too have been caught unawares of the lateness of the season.

Last time we looked at the xi-cleft points of the “Outer Fire” functions of Triple Heater and Heart Protector. Now we turn our attention to the “Inner Fire”, the actual organs of the Fire Element, Small Intestine and Heart. Xi-cleft points are typically used for acute conditions, blood conditions and for emotional overwhelm. Yet as we shall see, the use of the points extends wider than that frame.

Small Intestine 6 ~Yanglao ~ Support the Aged

The name of this point is intriguing. The left-hand character yang is composed of a sheep seen from behind together with spoons of boiled rice. The overall sense is one of gentle nurturing. Meanwhile the right-hand character lao depicts a 70 year-old man whose hair and beard have turned white. Yanglao can therefore be variously interpreted as Support the Old, Nourishing the Aged, or even Debra Katz’s elegant rendering, “The Nourishment and Cultivation of the Elders”. As a whitebeard approaching 70 myself, I find some affinity with these characters.

The organ of the small intestine is indeed devoted to the extraction of nourishment from food. However, the significance of the name lies in the fact that Small intestine 6 treats a range of conditions that tend to be experienced by the elderly: lower back pain, stiff and painful wrists, shoulder pain, joint pain, poor eyesight, deafness, toxicity, confusion and digestive problems. Many of these conditions lie along the pathway of the Small Intestine channel which travels from the little finger, up the side of the arm to the back of the shoulder, through the neck and finishes at the ear.

Yanglao therefore treats pain along the channel, especially in the shoulder and arm, pain so severe is feels as if there is fracture or dislocation.  It also treats lumbar pain with difficulty sitting and getting up, and foot pain with difficulty flexing and extending the foot. The channel connects with the outer and inner edges of the eye, so is known for eye problems, especially blurring and dimness of vision. It is believed to strengthen the constitution and help long standing conditions.

The yang xi-cleft points are known to work at the emotional level. The emotion of the Fire Element is joy, so in cases where there is a lack of joy, an absence of joi de vivre, Yanglao is good for raising the spirit. It is particularly called for when cynicism, sarcasm and bitterness from past experiences have replaced joy.

A psychological function of the Small Intestine is sorting. Just as the organ itself sorts the components of our food, absorbing that which is nourishing and passing out that which is not, our mind also sorts out the good from the bad experiences of life. When we are weighed down by the negative and have difficulty seeing the positive, Support the Aged can benefit us, no matter how old we are.

Heart 6 ~ Yinxi ~ Yin Cleft

We now reach the fourth of the Fire xi-cleft points. I’ve left this point until last because the Heart is the most delicate, most precious of all the organ-channels and must be approached with care and sensitivity. The ancient classic, the Ling Shu, (chapter 71) tells us that the Heart is the shelter of seminal essence and spirit and any appearance of injury there causes the spirit to depart. Injury therefore appears in the Heart Protector and it is that which must be treated. Some practitioners take this teaching to heart and do not use points of the Heart channel at all. I do treat Heart points, but I do so with the care and sensitivity they require.

Because xi-cleft points treat acute conditions, Heart 6 can be used to address heart pain, stabbing pain in the heart region, chest fullness, palpitations, racing heart from fright, epilepsy and loss of voice. Blood diseases are typically treated using the yin xi-cleft points. However for Blood conditions of the Heart, it is the Heart Protector that is better treated for reasons discussed above. It does however treat night sweats, dry mouth, insomnia and anxiety.

When a person has depleted their inner resources and there is a feeling of “running on empty”, Heart 6 is called for. The original meaning of the word yin was “the shady side of a mountain”. Yinxi can provide a cool and shady respite from the agitated mind, a calm space in which to rest, restore and find a new sense of perspective.

Location of Small Intestine 6

With the hand resting palm downwards, place a finger on the styloid process of the ulna, the large bump on the back of the wrist towards the little finger side. Now bring the hand so the palm is resting on the chest. Your finger will now be in a hollow on the radial (towards the thumb) side of the styloid process. This is Small Intestine 6.

Location of Heart 6

Find Heart 7 on the inner wrist crease, between two tendons and about a quarter of the way across the wrist from the ulnar (little finger) side. Heart 6 is half a cun (about the thickness of the little finger) proximal to (above) Heart 7.

Location of Small Intestine 6
Location of Heart 7

Openings

Summer is upon us in the southern hemisphere, the season hurtling with open arms towards its rendezvous with the solstice next week.

Time then to open the box of xi-cleft points once again to discover what the Fire Element can provide us in the way of acupoints to ease our path through the summer.

(Northern Hemisphere readers can find their season-appropriate Water points here:
Kidney 5 and Bladder 63

Fire is the most yang and expansive of the Elements, so it is fitting that it has four meridians rather than the usual two. Three of these are, in a way, in service of the fourth, namely the Heart. In this blog post, we look at the meridians of the “outer” Fire, Triple Heater (Sanjiao) and Heart Protector (Pericardium), while in the later part of summer we’ll have a look at the “inner” Fire of Small Intestine and Heart.

Triple Heater 7 –Huizong – Ancestral Meeting

What a wonderful name this is, suggesting a point that connects to ancient wisdom.

The character Hui means a meeting, but also refers to the words that people say when they meet: a greeting. The meeting suggested is of a reunion.

The character Zong means an ancestral hall, from which emanates the wisdom of deceased ancestors. It was also the name given in ancient China to the meeting of government ministers that took place in the summer, season of the Fire Element.

Together these characters suggest a convergence and communication of accumulated wisdom. This is appropriate for the xi-cleft point where the Qi of the meridian accumulates before diving deeper into the energetic body. And the meaning echoes the nature of Triple Heater as a harmoniser of all the meridians, keeping peace and balance among all the other organ officials.

The point moves stagnation in the three burners, namely the lower belly, upper belly and chest which together encompass all the internal organs. It will also regulate the thermostat of the body so can be used for excesses of heat and cold.

As is the remit of these xi-cleft points, Huizong treats conditions along the channel: pain in the arms, shoulders, ears, temples and eyebrows as well as pain in the skin, epilepsy, tinnitus and deafness.

Triple Heater also governs the Wei Qi at the surface of the body and so is closely associated with defence against the external pathogens of cold, heat, damp, dry and wind. In other words, it comprises part of the immune system. Huizong is therefore ideally suited to protecting us from invasions from the outer world.

These functions also extend to the psycho-emotional level. Triple Heater is responsible for regulating and mediating our relationships in social contexts: colleagues at work, acquaintances, people we meet briefly in our day. Therefore this point can help to smooth such social interactions when we are feeling cut off from the world. In short, Ancestral Meeting harmonises the inner and outer realms.

Heart Protector 4 – Ximen – Xi-Cleft Gate

The Heart Protector official is responsible for mediating closer relationships such as those with partners, family and close friends. It protects the Heart from the shock of emotional disturbances like personal attacks, breakups, divorce, betrayal and abuse. We know that xi-cleft points treat acute conditions, so Ximen would be useful treatment in the early stages of such invasions upon the heart. But it is also known for its capacity to help resolve stagnation caused by past heartbreaks which have caused the emotional heart to close down and shut the gates against further assaults to the heart.

A healthy Heart Protector official has the emotional intelligence to know when a person is loving and supportive and to open appropriately; it also senses when someone poses a danger or means us harm, and screens the heart from hurt. When the official is out of balance, these functions can be impaired, resulting in closing to love or opening to harm, or both. In such situations Xi-cleft gate can be used in conjunction with other points such as HP 7 and CV 17.

Xi-cleft points of the yin meridians such as this are also known to treat conditions of the blood. This is particularly true of Heart Protector, one of whose functions is the smooth operation of the blood vessels of the circulatory system. Ximen is therefore known to treat bleeding, especially nosebleed. It calms the heart and mind, so treats palpitations, arrhythmia, chest pain and heart pain at the physical level, while at the emotional level it addresses agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, melancholy and fear of other people.

The point clears stagnation in the channel, in other words from the breast, along the inside of the upper arm, the middle of the anterior forearm and to the middle finger. More locally it will address pain or paralysis of the anterior forearm and fingers.

As we move into the holiday season and extended families meet to celebrate, it can be a time of joyful reunion. However, many people are faced with relationship challenges posed by the resurfacing of old issues and hurts. The dynamics of families rarely change much, and family gatherings can sometimes transform strong adults back into the small children they once were, reacting out of old patterns rather than from a place of understanding. These two points, Ancestral Meeting and Xi-cleft gate, can be utilised to strengthen the capacity to relate with open-hearted wisdom.

I wish you a truly heart-felt holiday season.

Location of Triple Heater 7
3 cun above (proximal to) the outer wrist crease, slightly toward the ulnar (little finger) side in a depression between the ulna bone and tendon.
Location of Heart Protector 4
5 cun above (proximal to) the inner wrist crease, in the middle of the forearm between two tendons.