Complete series of Introduction, Exploration and Investigation of the Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches.
We will touch briefly on the foundations of Stems and Branches, then explore the world of Five, the ten Heavenly Stems (tiangan 天干) in more detail. What are they? How do they affect humans? When and how can we use these ideas in our practice? These questions and more will be discussed, although as this subject matter is vast, we can merely hope to scratch the surface! We will look at the relationship between Stems and space, and their role as the foundation of wuxing 五行 Five Phases. This will extend our understanding of the interactions between zangfu 臟腑 organs and open the door to a discussion of practical applications.
In this discussion we explore in more depth the world of Six, the twelve Earthly Branches (dizhi 地支). We will examine the movement from space to time, or from earlier Heaven (xiantian 先天) to later Heaven (houtian 後天) and discuss the role of the ‘organs with name but no form’. We will explore time and its relationship to the Six channels liujing 六經in the regular cyclical flow of qi around the body. This will give us a deeper understanding of the universal cycles of time and how these are mirrored in the channels in the body. We will touch on how to combine acupoints based on the human body/microcosm within the cosmos/macrocosm.