I hope you all like when I delve into some of the philosophy of Chinese Medicine – there’s so much more integration and interwoven dependency of philosophy and medicine of the East than of the West in my opinion, and the fact it’s based in nature makes it not only relevant and useful but beautiful and mystical too.
The tenets of Chinese Medicine are based on ancients texts that we refer to as the classics. The Divine Pivot is the name of the ancient text dating from the third millennium BCE, that lays the foundation for acupuncture and it’s use and practice. It is one of two parts of the Huang Di Nei Jing or Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine.
Naturally we might ask – what is The Divine Pivot? Well, the idea of a pivot comes up in Chinese Medical theory several times. One might think about a pivot being something between two things – a hinge, a turning point. So what is a hinge in relation to acupuncture? The needle of course! But what is a needle? Nothing more than a filament of metal, or back in those days more likely a thin splinter of bone or evergreen leaf. So really, the pivot is the person directing the needle, giving it purpose and action.
Is an acupuncturist divine? No, but the acupuncturist is a conduit for the divine, which I interpret as the great intelligence of the universe that conducts nature, and is what we as practitioners of this medicine must be aligned with and make use of for the benefit of the patient. How fitting a title then, to really boil the crux of it down into 2 words.
What are your thoughts? Are you curious about how nature and our health are interrelated? Stay tuned for future blogs about the nature of Traditional East Asian Medicine!
