How Five Element Acupuncture Is in the World

     The very shorthand of the beginnng is that first and always there is the Dao, out of which comes the (second) Yin and Yang, and (third) they are the originators of heaven, earth, and man - the three, out of which comes the four directions, and they produce the Five Elements or the Five Phases. Boy, what a mess of incompleteness that is!
     I may have to come back to most of that.
     Five Element is a nature-based, phenomena medicine, at least the way I learned it which may not be exactly the way I was taught.
     There are the five (!) seasons or five elements (Wood can be thought of as that green cirlce at about 9 o'clock) and each one is associated with a whole host of ideas which we practitioners observe, like color, smell, odor and emotion. The season of spring is associated with the color green and the emotion anger. The Liver and the Gallbladder are the organs of the element of Wood, the season of Spring. The concept of the Liver (somewhat different that we appreciate it in Western medicine) is associated with vision (since the meridian of the Liver opens into the eyes) and muscles.
     When the elements are well in balance we incorporate all five aspects seamlessly. When one is uneven, it shows up more.
     The "so what?" aspect is answered when we perceive a patient with anger issues, the color green observed around the eyes or mouth, problems with vision or muscles. The wood pulses, the Liver and Gallbladder ones, may evidence some unusual characteristics or be very weak or very strong. Any combination, this little scenario may direct us to treat something to do with Wood.
     Now, it's not as simple as that. It may be that the supervising element of Metal may be over controlling or Wood may be undercontolling its responsible element of Earth, so we have to allow for those interactions.
     Again, we rely on the interplay of the pulses to provide us direction.

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We should manage our fortunes as we do our health - enjoy it when good, be patient when it is bad, and never apply violent remedies except in an extreme necessity. - Francoise de La Roschefoucauld