| Between Heaven & Earth ACUPUNCTURE AND HERBS Happy New Year and Spring! Year of the Yin Earth Pig Dear Friends and Patients, A very Happy New Year! This new moon marks the beginning of the celestial Qi node Li Chun, "Beginning of Spring", one of the 24 seasonal segments in the lunisolar Chinese calendar. It marks the regrowth of the fire element after the watery winter. Such is the meaning of the Chinese New Year. 24 Qi nodes節氣 We are still in a very yin, wet and cold period, as evidenced by the recent snow in West Marin (!), but sap has begun flowing deep inside the trees, sometimes swelling up the buds, readying them to burst into foliage and bloom. Ministerial fire, the yang qi responsible for our expression in the world, our actions, our emotional response to external events, has likewise started to come up toward the surface of our beings. Still hidden, but preparing for full action later in the year. This is a good period for incubation, the soft nurturing of essence, not yet springing into action, but carefully consolidating energy and resources so you can build when the time comes. For those of you who have a difficult time grounding energy, this is a good time to anchor qi through restoring rituals, deep breathing (bringing qi down to the kidneys as the diaphragm descends). For those who have more yin constitutions or are yang deficient, and have a hard time in winter, this is a good time to start gentle movement and use the upward and outward impetus of nature to get your sap flowing! xin yi hua Personally, I am taking stock of the wonderful things that came into my life over the past year, and that will take me into the next. The new clinic continues to be a comfortable, welcoming place of healing, and I am so grateful for all your visits! My newly acquired land is bursting forth with an amazing variety of plants. It is a continual feast for the eyes! The garden promises to be a great source of herbs for the clinic. I have already harvested xin yi hua (magnolia buds, good for nasal congestion), weeded and aerated the large patch of mature peonies which will give bai and chi Shao (white and red peony roots to nourish blood), and started germinating the chai hu (buplerum). Bai shao and chai hu are the two bulk herbs I use the most in the clinic in terms of weight per year, so this will greatly reduce my carbon footprint: I am so excited about this! Stay tuned also for the wonderful golden wild calendula oil that started sun infusing, which will be part of skin healing preparations for skin conditions and pregnancy belly oils... and other herbal gifts from the earth, which will become available as Spring progresses! wild calendula paeonia lactiflora Please come in and get a harmonizing treatment! The widest, grandest and most poetic meaning of the character representing meridians (經 jing) depicts heavenly influx coming down onto earth, via a divine altar. Acupuncture is meant to restore harmony with the world, when dis-ease has changed our relationship to it. As the seasons shift, it is helpful to get acupuncture and herbs so as to keep healthy through the seasons. Sending you all my gratitude for your continued trust, and my best wishes for a very restorative year of the Yin Earth Pig! HAPPY SPRING!!! Genevieve. P.S.: for the nerdy ones out there, here is a very interesting scholarly article about the relationship between the 24 qi nodes and the harmonics of music. All of acupuncture and classical Chinese herbalism is inscribed within this cosmological system of correspondences, each formula being an archetype for a seasonal period and corresponding to a constellation. Enjoy! www.betweenheavenandearth.org |
Between Heaven & Earth
ACUPUNCTURE AND HERBS
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Happy New Year and Spring!
Year of the Yin Earth Pig
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Dear Friends and Patients,
A very Happy New Year! This new moon marks the beginning of the celestial Qi node Li Chun, "Beginning of Spring", one of the 24 seasonal segments in the lunisolar Chinese calendar. It marks the regrowth of the fire element after the watery winter. Such is the meaning of the Chinese New Year.
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We are still in a very yin, wet and cold period, as evidenced by the recent snow in West Marin (!), but sap has begun flowing deep inside the trees, sometimes swelling up the buds, readying them to burst into foliage and bloom.
Ministerial fire, the yang qi responsible for our expression in the world, our actions, our emotional response to external events, has likewise started to come up toward the surface of our beings. Still hidden, but preparing for full action later in the year. This is a good period for incubation, the soft nurturing of essence, not yet springing into action, but carefully consolidating energy and resources so you can build when the time comes.
For those of you who have a difficult time grounding energy, this is a good time to anchor qi through restoring rituals, deep breathing (bringing qi down to the kidneys as the diaphragm descends). For those who have more yin constitutions or are yang deficient, and have a hard time in winter, this is a good time to start gentle movement and use the upward and outward impetus of nature to get your sap flowing!
| |
Personally, I am taking stock of the wonderful things that came into my life over the past year, and that will take me into the next. The new clinic continues to be a comfortable, welcoming place of healing, and I am so grateful for all your visits! My newly acquired land is bursting forth with an amazing variety of plants. It is a continual feast for the eyes!
The garden promises to be a great source of herbs for the clinic. I have already harvested xin yi hua (magnolia buds, good for nasal congestion), weeded and aerated the large patch of mature peonies which will give bai and chi Shao (white and red peony roots to nourish blood), and started germinating the chai hu (buplerum). Bai shao and chai hu are the two bulk herbs I use the most in the clinic in terms of weight per year, so this will greatly reduce my carbon footprint: I am so excited about this!
Stay tuned also for the wonderful golden wild calendula oil that started sun infusing, which will be part of skin healing preparations for skin conditions and pregnancy belly oils... and other herbal gifts from the earth, which will become available as Spring progresses!
| |
Please come in and get a harmonizing treatment! The widest, grandest and most poetic meaning of the character representing meridians (經 jing) depicts heavenly influx coming down onto earth, via a divine altar.
| |
Acupuncture is meant to restore harmony with the world, when dis-ease has changed our relationship to it. As the seasons shift, it is helpful to get acupuncture and herbs so as to keep healthy through the seasons.
Sending you all my gratitude for your continued trust, and my best wishes for a very restorative year of the Yin Earth Pig!
HAPPY SPRING!!!
Genevieve.
P.S.: for the nerdy ones out there, here is a very interesting scholarly article about the relationship between the 24 qi nodes and the harmonics of music. All of acupuncture and classical Chinese herbalism is inscribed within this cosmological system of correspondences, each formula being an archetype for a seasonal period and corresponding to a constellation. Enjoy!
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