RE: Hermetic Accupuncture

["Jon Heiner" <jonheiner@...>]

Anton-

I'm not an expert, and i'm sure there are a few people on this list who are 
classically and mystically trained in Oriental Medicine, but I have done a 
fair bit of research on the topic and may be able to point out some pitfalls 
and guide you to definitive sources.

Firstly, the 12 meridians, to my knowledge, do not correspond to the 12 
signs. The signs are archetypal, as I understand them, and serve more to 
indicate predilections for personality and "ethereal bodies" as one might 
say on this list. [This is my understanding and it is quite limited as i've 
not studied Astrology, but I believe it to be an adequate stance for the 
topic at hand.] The 12 meridians do literally correspond to lines on the 
body that influence the energy and health of the physical body. Whether 
these 12 meridians correspond to higher energies of the body, above the 
physical, I do not know, but thus far I have not seen anything to indicate 
that they relate to the astrological signs. I believe it would be possible 
to tack together some correlations, but this is more a by-product of the 
fact that there are only so many archetypes and there is a lot of crossover.

As far as interest in Oriental Medicine, I would encourage you to seek out 
texts that are geared toward Western readers. There are a lot of "fluffy" 
books out there, so let me recommend two. "The Web That Has No Weaver" by 
Ted J. Kaptchuk is a good introductory text that is technical enough, but 
easy to read. And "The Fundamentals of Chinese Medicine" by Wiseman/Ellis is 
a translation of the first-year medical textbook for Beijing. It is 
extremely technical, but will address any questions you may have had on the 
pragmatic side of OM.

Secondly, the five Chinese elements. Don't try to make analogies between the 
four Western elements and the Earth/Air/Fire/Water/Metal of Eastern 
philosophy. You CAN, but again, it's due to crossover, not any real 
correlation. One way to understand the 5 elements is thusly, life and many 
aspects of life are difficult to balance. Entropy would state that life is 
NOT a balanced state, and in fact energy must continually be added to the 
system [of life] to keep it harmonious. This is also stated in the second 
law of thermodynamics. The 5 element theory is an appropriate and 
_qualitative_ way of saying the same thing. Simply put, Life can be hard; 
how does one cope?

The 5 elements have been used in every aspect of Chinese life to explain and 
help create a qualitative model for getting a grip on complexity. In martial 
arts, an example dear to me, they are used to exemplify the complicated 
movements of the body and in particular the interactions between two or more 
individuals in conflict. In cooking, they address both the flavour and the 
health properties of the food. In Eastern Medicine, and you will find this 
if you read the books mentioned above, the elements outline the interactions 
of the ten major systems of the body. However, the analogy is not perfect, 
and modern Eastern Medicine emphasizes the fact that the 5 elements do NOT 
model all cases and DO fall apart in a non-trivial number of cases.--an 
important point.

This is why I keep emphasizing the word qualitative. Western thought is much 
more quantitative and focuses on so-called scientific thought. And this is a 
key reason why trying to mix the two is a recipe for confusion. They are 
complementary areas of knowledge, but not correlative. Knowledge of both can 
be helpful, depending upon why you are studying it, but should be kept 
separate.

Lastly, understand that Eastern philosophy is mired in cultural context and 
history. Many of the teachings go back thousands of years. The concepts of 
Yin/Yang, Five Elements, and 64 Trigrams, are all certainly complementary, 
interelated, and may have political/cultural significance that is completely 
lost on someone not raised in the culture. As such, you will see 
"explanations" of esoteric concepts that are so obviously contrived as to 
turn you off the entire subject. The latter is quite common. Frankly, this 
is one of the major up-sides to studying philosophies that are grounded in 
your own culture.

Good luck. I hope that you find what you're looking for.
Jon

---original message---

I am very interested in acupuncture and chinese medicine however I
find it very hard to get on with the chinese elements. I know that
both the Japanese and the Tibetans use the western/ Emperdolican
(earth air fire water) elements so I was wondering if any one could
help me find a correspondence to the meridians using these elements?
In addition to this I once read that the 12 meridains corresponded
tith the 12 astrological signs does anyone know if this is true?

I would be very gratefull for any help.

Anton

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