Hidden powers of TCM
How the Extraordinary Vessels can transform your life
A brief introduction to the Vessels and how I discovered them
You may have heard of the 12 meridians, and perhaps even how the daily cycle of our energy is nourished through our breath and food – rather like prana in yogic traditions. You may be aware of the annual cycle of five elements reflected in the seasons – spring (wood), summer (fire), autumn (metal) and winter (water) with earth holding the cycle together. But have you wondered how the ancient Chinese viewed the longer cycles of our lives? You may also have wondered why our Brain and sexual organs are not included as part of the 12 meridians, and thought that this was an important missing aspect of TCM.
In fact, these aspects were not missing. The ancients understood the power of the Brain and our sexual organs but this knowledge tended to be kept more hidden. They felt that only more “enlightened people “ should have access to this because only certain kinds of people could benefit from it.
Gradually modern practitioners of TCM are finding out more about these Vessels as this hidden knowledge is coming to light. I believe that perhaps we weren’t ready to take on this aspect of TCM before, but now we, and our world, needs it. It is the missing key that fills in gaps in the system and enables us to access more powerful knowledge to transform our lives, and our place in the world in powerful ways.
I discovered them in the 1990’s when I was working with pregnant and postpartum women and their babies and partners. I felt drawn to making connections I hadn’t been taught, like the brain and the womb. I was often drawn to a point in the lower back, Gate of Life, between the second and third lumbar vertebrae, which I now understand as deeply connecting us to ancestral energies and why we are here in this body at this time in history. The first book I read which described what I felt was Maciocia’s ( a much respected expert in the field of TCM) “Obstetrics and Gynecology in Chinese Medicine”, published in 1998. His descriptions of the Vessels, especially the Linking and the Heel (as he then called them), were fairly basic, but were the key to developing my understanding of how I was working.
Over the next 25 plus years, I have continued to develop my understanding of these amazing Vessels, and am still learning! I hadn’t realised at the time that there are key times in our lives when these Vessels change dramatically, and one of them is pregnancy. No wonder I felt something powerful at work. In searching to deepen a mother’s confidence in her body and in her connection to her baby, I began to study embryology, and was stunned by the links between our embryological development and how the ancient Chinese described the development of the Vessels.
How my work changed by more consciously using the Extraordinary Vessels
Once I started integrating the Vessels into my work with pregnancy I found that I was able to touch into even deeper levels. When I was working with only the 12 meridians, the benefits were already quite powerful. Many of the common “ailments” of pregnancy, like backache, nausea, carpal tunnel, oedema were relieved quite easily. Women felt more able to be at ease and accept and process their changing emotions. They felt more able to tune into their body and connect with their baby. Most women were able to birth using shiatsu to help them focus and birth with the power of their own body. Most didn’t need much, if any, intervention. Some women birthed naturally even after several C sections. They were able to use shiatsu to help with breastfeeding and bonding with their new born while also taking care of themselves. As well as offering individual shiatsu sessions, I ran weekly classes teaching movement practices, birth preparation and baby shiatsu and massage.
Yet once I started including the Vessels, my work was able to reach deeper. Some women began to connect with wounds from their early childhood, even their experience of their own birth, which were blocking them from fully connecting with their body and their baby. They were able to transform their relationships with their mother and other family members if that was needed. Women came to see me with more complex issues, such as more severe depression or deep lack of trust in their body, often due to childhood or sexual traumas. I felt I was able to hold safer spaces for them to work through these themes.
Now I see the essence of my work, as helping people, navigate all stages of their life, particularly key times of change within the body, such as menstrual cycle issues, conceiving, the perimenopause, ageing and dying. I support them to deeply listen to their bodies and celebrate and claim the power of these transitions.
So what are these Vessels exactly and why are they different from the 12 meridians?
The Extraordinary Vessels are the Vessels which are present at the moment of our conception. Unlike the 12 meridians, which draw their energy from the air we breathe and the food we eat, they draw their energy from the egg and the sperm which created us. They are essentially our DNA. Although modern science has only relatively recently understood that our DNA is constantly being modified through our interaction with the environment, epigenetics, the ancient Chinese already understood this. Their word for our DNA is “Essence” (Jing) and our Essence is modified constantly through interaction with our environment. Since our first environment is our mother’s body, it influences us profoundly. They understood the importance of this time in the womb, referring to it as “fetal education”. Again, it is only relatively recently, with the development of epigenetics, that modern science is understanding this. The Chinese knew the importance of the relationship between a mother and her baby and how this influences all future relationships as well as the importance of nourishing a baby in the womb to support their emotional and physical foundations. Indeed, they said that the quality of our Essence at the moment of conception and how the mother and baby are supported during not only the nine months of pregnancy during birth and the first year postnatally lay the foundations for the future well-being. Essence is the greatest gift we can give to our baby.
There are 8 Vessels and they circulate the Essence through our body in cycles of 7 years for women and 8 years for men. These cycles mirror different phases of our growth and development and this is what our Essence is for. It supports our growth, development, fertility and ageing and when it runs out we die.
As I have lived more cycles in my life, and have worked with many more clients at different stages in their life, I have developed more understanding of these cycles. Yet my intense period of working with the maternity phases of life, with mothers and babies, has given me an understanding of how these early phases are so fundamental and how they influence all the later phases. Simply put, the more supported we are in our early life, the more resilience we develop to navigate the challenges of later life.
The development of the 8 Vessels
The 8 vessels are present at our conception and since the egg and the sperm, create not only our body but also our support structures, our placenta, umbilical cord and amniotic sac, they express themselves through these structures too. Key points on the Vessels are around our navel, which connected us to our umbilical cord, and in our lower back, from where our amniotic sac will develop. The memory of these structures which we leave behind at birth, remains within the Vessels so that they offer a way of connecting with and transforming memories of our time in the womb.
The development of the Vessels can be seen in our physical growth. The fertilised egg first travels through the fallopian tube before implanting in the womb after around a week to 10 days. During this time the egg needs no nourishment from the outer world. There is a level of self-sufficiency, which is a characteristic of the Vessels. For short amounts of time, if the outer world is hostile, we can withdraw.
Once the egg implants she quickly forms our future body becoming a flat 2 sided disc with a front and back, top and bottom. This is our future midline and the physical expression of the Conception and Governing Vessels which will later run from our perineum to our mouth. At 3 weeks we form a third cell layer which is the Penetrating Vessel and from this emerges the Girdle Vessel. As we develop our hands and feet, around 5 weeks, and gradually our arms and legs, the Linking and Stepping Vessels appear.
I will write another blog in more detail on this. Here is one on the first week after conception:
The 8 organs of the Vessels
There are 8 organs for the 8 Vessels, like there are 12 organs for the 12 meridians. However the 8 organs are shared between all the Vessels. These 8 organs are:
The Brain
The reproductive/sexual organs. The Chinese name for these are the Palaces of Essence, a name I like to use.
The Heart
The Kidneys, not in the day to day function but because they are said to store our Essence
The Gall bladder – which seems curious, but actually it’s not so much the Gall Bladder in its day to day function but in relation to an aspect of our soul, the Hun, that aspect of our soul which keeps our connection to space and the broader sense of purpose in our life.
Blood
Blood vessels
Bones and bone marrow
Like the 12 organs of the 12 meridians, for the ancient Chinese, they represent much more than simply their physical function.
Their pathways
I show these in a movement practice video, which I will be posting in the next few days on my YT channel. But here is a Qi Gong based practiced to connect with them all meanwhile.
Affirmations
I connect to the fullest expression of who I am, my potential and my creative power
I contain the energy and power of the whole cosmos within my body
I connect you to heaven and earth
I connect you to your ancestors, welcoming in their wisdom and enabling you to release what no longer serves you
I navigate my way between my outer and inner worlds
I protect, guide and support you
Mudra for all Eight
I hope you enjoyed this overview, and the accompanying YouTube videos. I’d love to hear what you think of my perspective. Please get in touch.
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