John Kirkwood - The Way of the Five Elements: 52 Weeks of Powerful Acupoints for Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Health

Through poetry, lush visual imagery, fascinating case histories and crystal clear explanations and point locations, John Kirkwood brings the body, soul and spirit of Five Element acupuncture to life. A labour of love and devotion, this is a book clinicians, students and patients of traditional Chinese medicine have long been waiting for. I will use it in all my teaching and will cherish my copy for years to come.

Lorie Eve Dechar, author of Five Spirits: Alchemical Acupuncture for Psychological and Spiritual Healing

The Way of the Five Elements is an original and immensely practical addition to the growing literature of Five Element medicine. In addition to his lively descriptions of each element, John Kirkwood offers something new: explorations of individual acupoints that highlight their elemental qualities. In choosing a small handful of powerful points for each element, Kirkwood offers readers a highly accessible way into the very complex system of acupuncture points. Novice readers and journeyman practitioners alike will find insights and ideas for acupressure treatment of themselves and their clients.

Gail Reichstein Rex, acupuncturist and author of Wood Becomes Water: Chinese Medicine in Everyday Life and Earth Acupuncture: Healing the Living Landscape

The Way of the Five Elements

of related interest

The 12 Chinese Animals

Create Harmony in your Daily Life through Ancient Chinese Wisdom

Master Zhongxian Wu

ISBN 978 1 84819 031 3

eISBN 978 0 85701 015 5

Keepers of the Soul

The Five Guardian Elements of Acupuncture

Nora Franglen

ISBN 978 1 84819 185 3

eISBN 978 0 85701 146 6

Qigong Through the Seasons

How to Stay Healthy All Year with Qigong, Meditation, Diet, and Herbs

Ronald H. Davis

Foreword by Ken Cohen

Illustrated by Pamm Davis

ISBN 978 1 84819 238 6

eISBN 978 0 85701 185 5

Children at Their Best

Understanding and Using the Five Elements to Develop Childrens Full Potential for Parents, Teachers, and Therapists

Karin Kalbantner-Wernicke and Bettye Jo Wray-Fears

With Thomas Wernicke

ISBN 978 1 84819 118 1

eISBN 978 0 85701 093 3

The Way
of the
Five Elements

52 weeks of powerful acupoints for
physical, emotional, and spiritual health

JOHN KIRKWOOD

LONDON AND PHILADELPHIA

First published in 2016

by Singing Dragon

an imprint of Jessica Kingsley Publishers

73 Collier Street

London N1 9BE, UK

and

400 Market Street, Suite 400

Philadelphia, PA 19106, USA

www.singingdragon.com

Copyright John Kirkwood 2016

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form (including photocopying or storing it in any medium by electronic means and whether or not transiently or incidentally to some other use of this publication) without the written permission of the copyright owner except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 or under the terms of a licence issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Applications for the copyright owners written permission to reproduce any part of this publication should be addressed to the publisher.

Warning: The doing of an unauthorised act in relation to a copyright work may result in both a civil claim for damages and criminal prosecution.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 84819 270 6

eISBN 978 0 85701 216 6

Contents

Notes on the Text

Throughout I have capitalised Element, Five Elements, Constitutional Element, Extraordinary Vessel, and the substances of Qi, Blood and Essence in order to distinguish from the more common usages of these words.

I have italicised Chinese words such as shen and jing but not Qi, yin or yang, which have more fully entered modern usage.

Preface

In 1991 I was very fortunate to study with Bob Duggan, Diane Connelly, Julia Measures and John Sullivan, teachers of the Traditional Acupuncture Institute (TAI) who were presenting their SOPHIA program in San Francisco. This year-long training, in five parts, introduced me to the sophisticated model of the Five Elements and to ways in which this perspective can be utilised in everyday life to bring health and balance.

I discovered that these Elements are not constituent parts like chemical components, but rather they are five unique vibrations that arise from the void, the Tao. Similar to the way light refracts into a spectrum of colours, the nature of the universe divides into distinct notes or vibrations. These vibrations pass through and inhabit all aspects of our material world. Everything resonates with these Elements.

One of the easiest ways to understand the Elements is through the qualities of the seasons which offer a direct experience of the nature of each Element. If we study the associations of an Element in its own season, there is an ambient energy that both highlights and supports the exploration.

I was so impressed with this model that I took it into my life and began to look at my own physical body, psyche, emotions and later my spiritual life from this perspective. Each year I delved more and more deeply into myself, learning through the Elements about my functioning, my strengths and struggles, where I am out of balance and where I am balanced.

After the SOPHIA program ended, a number of us who had completed the course decided to carry on meeting to continue the exploration. Out of this arose the whimsically named Five Hands Clapping group. We offered our own experiential workshops to the public and found that real healing was taking place in the participants, including ourselves. When the workshops finally ran their course, we continued to meet seasonally, setting up an environment that would echo the qualities of the season and the Element in order to understand more about ourselves through this work.

After I returned to Australia in 2006, I brought this perspective of living with the Elements into my acupressure classes, a quinterly newsletter, a blog and now this book. At each stage I have found that in order to bring the work to others I have, of necessity, plumbed my own depths to deeper and deeper levels. My physical health is better than it has been in the past, despite my advancing age; I am far more aware of and comfortable with my emotions; I have deep understandings about the connections between the different strands of my life; and I have come to know my true nature more fully and how this manifests uniquely in this location.

I hope that in this Five Element work you will find understanding, insight, inspiration, healing and balance. As I have.

Adelaide Hills

March 2015

Landscape of the Five Elements

How to use this book

This is a book that is meant not just to be read, but to be lived, explored, pondered and played with.

For the past 25 years, since I became closely acquainted with the Five Element model, I have been living my life as best I can by following the rhythms of nature, allowing them to teach me about myself. About my physical health, my preferences and dislikes, ideas and beliefs, emotions and even my spiritual journey. At the completion of each year, I come back to where I started in the seasonal cycle, but I am not the same person who started the year. I have changed at all levels, and the next cycle is altogether new. The work is not a repetition but a widening, deepening spiral of experience and understanding.