Acupuncture with Galen

Tree of Life

One thing about trees is that they shelter in place. They are rooted, there is no escape. About half their existence is hidden from view in a vast network of underground interconnectedness.

In traditional medicine there is a vital relationship between facets of a tree: the roots, the trunk, the branches and leaves.

As living beings we each have unique roots, a web of ancestral ingredients be they elements as in 5 Element acupuncture, doshas as in ayurveda, humors as in ancient Greek medicine, the simillimum in homeopathy, genes in biomedicine. We are grounded both in commonality and in uniqueness. Hence the saying: treat the patient, not the disease.

Our trunk is the embodiment of living strands of nourishment and transformation; we manifest an earthy connection between community and immunity. Hence healing is attention to wholeness.

We constantly express our present condition in our branches - our signs and symptoms, our response to what's happening. It is vital to address these branches, even to prune them away, but never to suppress their expression. In healing we honor the creativity of the moment. 

Chinese Medicine recognizes three treasures: jing, shen and qi.

Jing is our ancestral energy, our constitutional roots, what we are given at birth.

Shen is our heart/mind/spirit, the light that shines in the eyes, our capacity for flowering.

Qi is energy, our vital force, the invisible energizer utilizing food and air to generate our state of health or dis-ease.

With acupuncture needles we tap into the tree of life, we tap the qi flow that allows change.  Acupuncture is surgery of the subtle body; the subtle body in any healing modality is the interface between the depths and the surface, between constitution and condition, preferably utilizing a minimal dose  curatively or preventively towards full expression of the 3 Treasures.

One Swaying Being
Love is a tree
with branches
in forever,
roots
in eternity,
And a trunk 
nowhere at all.
Rumi