So, I have thought long and hard about this, and really expect my thoughts here in the next few lines to become controversial. But here it goes anyway after years of reflection on the 2nd Fire coupled meridians, the Pericardium and San Jiao meridians. Oh boy, here it goes…it’s not really the Fire Element to me anymore.
The more I practice Tai Chi (taijiquan) the more these meridians FEEL to me, like they carry the spiritual energy of Wood Element Qi. When those meridians open in an acupuncture theory context, and a pulse balancing context I use them as Fire. They tonify Spleen and Stomach when doing acupuncture and moxibustion therapy on those meridians. But it is the sensation of Qi awakening through the opening of these meridians through specific energy postures that feels just like the Wood Element to me.
I thought about it, now you can argue it, but don’t wait up too late for it. Because the only answer is to accept that the Great Mystery, The Tao, the Great Spirit, or whatever made us a really nice anomaly. I just love that word, anomaly. The Peng energy, the Wood Element generated from Pericardium and San Jiao meridians just radiates from these meridians in the Internal Arts these meridians behave just like Wood Element energy in Hsing I Chuan. Beng Quan is the greatest punch in the galaxy, the most powerful punch there is in the known Universe comes from the Wood Element. When you do a Beng Quan and make the fist, Pericardium 8 opens from the center of the palm and envelops the whole fist, and San Jiao opens like the Wooden branches that extend from the trunk of the tree they grow from. Your tendons and ligaments get this internal stretching forward and the simultaneous feeling of lengthening inward. It’s quite a trippy internal feeling indeed.
So think about it a little while.
Why are the 2nd Fire Coupled meridians the energy opened to generate the power of Beng Quan? Why is the Wood Fist awakening the Wood energy through these meridians? Wood feeds Fire in the 5 Element control cycle, and you can make the argument that your Wood Fist is pultaijiquanling energy from the 2nd Fire couple to give Beng Quan its nasty reputation. But it is the feeling inside my tendons and ligaments that really lead me to look at those meridians as the 2nd Wood pair. I once saw a Dr. Tan acupuncture lecture, and he displayed the control cycle on a large screen for the whole lecture hall to see. He creeped down real quite like he was dropping a pearl of wisdom on the crowd, and told us in the system from Taiwan that he studied…” those were thought of as the 2nd Wood pair”.
That was over 16 years ago, I went to that lecture as a freshman in acupuncture school, and I took away 2 major pearls from that lecture. I never sought out to perfect the balance method for mastering pain like an engineer doing acupuncture was never my path. But I gotta hand it to Dr. Tan, he was a fun show to watch, and he had a great sense of humor, and he also showed us to use Stomach 31 for mitral valve prolapse. Thank you Dr. Tan for that one, I have run into so many people with heart pain, and because you shared that wisdom with me I could help so many human beings in pain. Well done Dr. Tan.
Some martial artists who practice I Chuan postures, Hsing I, Ba Gua, and Tai chi may agree with my observation that the feeling from these meridians is like the spirit of the Wood Element.
Keep practicing,
Brian