Picture yourself at a campfire, thousands of years ago, listening to
storytellers who are passing on ancient wisdom about how to live in harmony
with nature, improve health, and prevent illness. Stories that evolved into
early medical texts such as the
Huangdi Neijing and the
Shennong Bencao Jing, that gave physicians a the time a significant
number of diagnostic and treatment methods. Thus the
Huang Neijing contains a massive amount of passages relating to
treating the spirits, aligning treatments with seasonal changes, and using
incantations. And the Yellow Emperor himself is known to practice rituals
and techniques that were based upon a deep understanding of health and how
the body can harmonize with the universal energy.
And yet, nowadays, working with the spirits to bring health and healing is
not something that is taught in its full depth in traditional Chinese
medicine. The reason is simple: the knowledge is pushed into the background
or eliminated completely since the Cultural Revolution in the People’s
Republic of China in the 1960s. In the following years, its knowledge was
westernized, and therefore only the parts that were evidence-based were
remaining, dismissing the spiritual aspects as being superstitious or
old-fashioned.
You can do fine in your practice, without a deep understanding. But you can
do so much better if you understand how to use the ancient wisdom that was
passed on for thousands of years, how the rhythms of nature have an impact
on your daily life, and how universal energy and body physiology are one.
Did you know...?
• CT Holman was one of those practitioners who realized he wasn’t practicing
Chinese medicine to the depths that were possible.
• CT modifies his treatments for a certain disease pattern depending on the
month of the year, thereby relating to the energetics of its associated
animal from the Chinese zodiac. This means that his treatments are different
in spring versus winter. For example a patient with chronic indigestion due
to wood overacting on earth with symptoms/signs of weight gain, loose
stools, bloating, nausea, poor appetite, all symptoms worse with stress,
tense pulse, puffy tongue with rough sides, irritation lines in the third
eye area, pale in the bridge of the nose, nodules at LV-3, puffy and tender
at SP-9. Treating this patient in the month of December would be HT-3 +
KD-16 + KD-10 + GB-34, and in the month of March it would be LI-10 + ST-25 +
LV-3 + ST-43.
• CT found out that the weather patterns during treatment play an important
role, as he describes in his book
Shamanism and Chinese medicine,
pagina 318:
Helga, a 65-year-old female, sought treatment for chronic pain in her
left foot. She had been experiencing pain on the top of her foot for
months that worsened when wearing tight shoes. The practitioner determined
her pain was on the liver channel and decided to use a tried and true
treatment of electric stimulation on Li Gou (LV-5) and Tai Chong (LV-3).
This had worked well for other patients with similar pain and the
practitioner chose this point combination even though the treatment was in
June and the liver channel was not active. The patient returned a week
later – the pain was worse.
The practitioner reconsidered his (mechanical) treatment since the
patient’s condition was worsened by using the liver channel. Because the
time of treatment was in June, the Shao Yin channel was active. Points on
the kidney channel were chosen to stop the pain. Electric stimulation on
Da Zhong (KD-4) and Zhao Hai (KD-6) was used. Helga returned to the clinic
a week later and reported an 80% improvement. Although the pain was on the
liver channel, the kidney channel proved to be more effective due to the
channel being open, based on stems and branches.
The logic behind Helga’s treatment result was not just mechanically
explained by what channel was listed on the calendar. The practitioner
must recognize the weather patterns during treatment and understand the
reasons why certain channels are more active. Heat flares in the summer
which dries the water – the bones. The water does not nourish the wood –
the tendons. By needling points on the kidney channel, water increases and
nourishes the bones and tendons to stop pain and inflammation. It is
important to consider the effect of the six qi and how they influence
physiology. The ancient shamans understood the connection of the body to
nature and that is why the stems and branches are paramount to the
medicine.
(Source: "Shamanism and Chinese medicine"; by kind permission of publisher
Singing Dragon and author CT Holman)
• The course “Applying the Wisdom of the 12 Chinese Animals to Acupuncture
Treatment” is given on 8 and 9 May 2021. This is a perfect time for study as
it marks the beginning of the Snake month, which is the start of the summer
and a time when the body and mind are to be active and a time of full
consciousness. It is a time when nature is blossoming with colorful life,
which can be a metaphor for the blossoming of ideas and maturing your
spiritual practice. It also when the small intestine and spleen are active,
which signifies a great time to process information and separate the clear
from the turbid.
Want to know more...?
If you want to listen to what CT has to tell you about the ancient wisdom of
his predecessor storytellers, thousands of years ago, join the 2-day webinar
course on 8 and 9 May 2021. We know, it isn’t the old romantic campfire
setting, but you will be as inspired as the listeners back then, and become
a true storyteller yourself, explaining to your patients how they can take
better care of themselves, honoring the energies that are freely given to us
by the mysterious all-mighty universe and to share them with one another.
"Applying the Wisdom of the 12 Chinese Animals to Acupuncture Treatment" is
given on 8 and 9 May 2021, 10.30 AM – 6.00 PM. The price is € 314. At the
end of each day, there will be a quiz. The winner of the quiz will receive a
free copy of CT’s book “Shamanism in Chinese medicine”.
▶ If you want to read more about the course
▶ If you want to register for the course
Part of the text of this mailing is based on the book “Shamanism in Chinese
medicine” by CT Holman (Singing Dragon; ISBN print: 9781787751378; ISBN
eBook: 9781787751385).
Are you ready for these great bonusses...?
● Exclusive 25% discount offer from Singing Dragon
Thanks to publisher Singing Dragon and to CT Holman, we are able to
offer students that have registered for this course a 25% discount code for
the hardback book “Shamanism and Chinese Medicine”. After receiving this
code you can use it exclusively on the website of Singing Dragon:
www.singingdragon.com when checking out to pay for the book.
● Exclusive free cd download offer from CT Holman
CT Holman is giving each student that registers for this webinar a free
download copy of his CD “Chinese Medicine Drum Treatments”. You will receive
this download code also after you have registered for the webinar. Since the
webinar includes quite a bit of drumming, the CD will be very helpful for
you.
