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This paper is an introduction to the ideas and treatment methods used in Constitutional Five Element Acupuncture (five-element). Five-element aims to treat the person as a whole and to look deeper into a persons being, knowing that as important as the patients symptoms are they are simply signposts to an energetic imbalance in the person. By diagnosing and treating this deeper constitutional imbalance a five-element practitioner aims to help the person grow and change and be all they can be, knowing that treating the cause of the person's distress the presenting symptoms will dissipate. With an emphasis on spirit and emotional level causes five-element is very different in theory and aim to modern Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) styles of acupuncture and encompasses more than the commonly taught five-phase theory. While a modern TCM acupuncturist will look for external causes of disease such as damp, heat and wind, a five-element practitioner will view these as symptoms of a person who has moved away from their own centre. By nurturing this movement back to centre the patient experiences an allover change in their understanding of themselves and the world in which they live. The five-element style was first brought to the West by Prof. J.R. Worsley from his teachers Ono and Hsui in the late 1950s, after which he set up the first college dedicated to Constitutional Five Element Acupuncture in Leamington Spa U.K. 1). It has been said that this acupuncture style most closely adheres to the values and priorities expressed in the Nei Jing and other classics of Chinese medicine 2). To understand this elegant and transformational form of acupuncture there are certain ideas that are best explored first. The Five-Elements Though shrouded in mystery we have records and legends tracing Chinese medicine back to around 3000 BCE and the time of the Three Culture Heroes. One of these heroes, the Emperor Fu Xi was thought to have developed the 8 tri-grams of the I-Ching along with the concepts of the five-elements and yin & yang. This apparently happened after the emperor saw a dragon-horse rising majestically from the Yellow river in a vision one day. The ideas of yin & yang and the five-elements developed through Daoist and Naturalist (precursor to Confucian) thinking into the Han dynasty (500BCE to 500CE) to become some of the core principles for diagnosing and treating in Oriental Medicine 3). These 5 elemental energies - fire, earth, metal, water and wood - are evident in nature and can be seen in the annual march of the five Chinese seasons. They can also be observed in ourselves as they create the twelve main acupuncture meridians that make the body's energetic system. Each of these elements is thought to be part of our emotional, spiritual, physical and mental make up. Let's briefly look at these 5 elements both in nature and in ourselves. |
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Constitutional Five-Element Acupuncture |