Eight Diagram Palm

Tom Bisio in 12 Posture Zhan Zhuang.
I find this breathtaking.

"In practice, the Ba Gua practitioner steps and turns moving smoothly like a swimming dragon, swooping and spiraling like a hawk, coiling like a snake, and changing postures nimbly like a monkey."

Fourth Month of Pregnancy

(Art by Shinichi Maruyama)

In the fourth month of pregnancy, the fetus opens to the essence of the element of water. This element constitutes the pool of genetic inheritance, including the "unconsious reservoir of intuitive intelligence, will, and life-force energy". It relates to the "divine love, power, and spirit" that is ancestrally available to the fetus.

In the fourth month of pregnancy, the connective tissue develops, the matrix by which everything is connected in this new being. It is the matrix of "intercellular communication," and can be thought of as the scaffold of the astral body.

Acupuncture during this stage of development can be particularly beneficial to the pregnant woman.

(Primary source: Sui Dynasty Imperial Physician Chao Yuan Fang as written in Energetic Anatomy and Physiology (Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy, Volume 1) by Jerry Alan Johnson)

What to Do When Injured

Many of my patients who see me for sports-related issues ask me what they should do, if they shouldn't run/fight/bike/spin/weight train while recovering from injury, and my answer is always Tai Chi.

There is a living master in New York City, and his name is William C. C. Chen, and he is teaching beginner classes several days a week in his studio on 5th Avenue and 28th Street.

Integrity of the Spine

 A beautifully aligned spine is a virtue, and one that is often lost in the great blow out of childbirth. The return to spinal integrity is best managed gradually, with intention, and great care.

The sculpture is fibers:connective tissue by sarah nance.

Happy Baby

East Asian fetal education principles recommend pregnant women look at pictures of happy babies to influence the nature of their own gestating babies.

Here is Oskar having a laugh with his grandparents last weekend.

Placentophagia

 Oskar's and My Placenta, Steamed

In East Asian Medicine, human placenta is a healing post-partum tonic for both mother and nursing baby.

For the mother, the placenta provides nourishment on the order of restoring the qi and blood that was lost during birth. As such, taking the placenta can enhance lactation, uplift the spirit, and provide a new mother with some much-needed ballast.

For the nursing baby, here is a rare and precious opportunity to boost her/his pre-natal jing. Pre-natal jing is the treasure and inheritance that each person receives from her/his parents, and is therefore something that cannot be renewed or restored. We consume it continuously as we live our lives, and death comes to us once this store is spent.

Personally, Dan and I felt there was something very special about consuming the placenta. It represented the organ  that grew out of the powerful love that Dan and I had for each other, so powerful as to call forth and hold a new life. It represented the organ that provided an important, sacred boundary between Oskar and me; it both bonded him to me as well as shielded him from me during his forty-one weeks inside. Eating it was the most natural thing to do. It was also very exciting and sensational!

Here is the recipe Dan used in preparing the placenta. It is best for the placenta be prepared with intention and love.

1. Rinse the placenta;
2. Steam the placenta, with a hot pepper, slices of ginger, and a slice of lime in the water, over low heat for 15 minutes;

3. Turn it over and continue to steam for another 15 minutes;
4. After steaming, slice the placenta into thin strips;
5. Lay the strips on a baking sheet and place them in the oven on warm (lowest setting);
6. Dry the placenta strips until they are dehydrated enough to snap (about 8 to 10 hours);
7. Break the dry strips into smaller pieces and then grind them to powder with a mortar and pestle.

8. Consume daily, and store in a cool, dark place.

How did it taste?

To me, very gamey and primal.

I felt like a wild animal when I took my daily tablespoon dose.

First Food

 

Oskar's pure diet of breast milk has been infiltrated by small amounts of bath water, flower essences, and (a larger dose of) nose. Some time in the coming weeks, we'll be introducing him to food. Although he's already had a first bite of banana ("It just happened," is how Dan describes it!), this will be the first time he's been fed with intention.

In East Asian medicine, the two primary choices for first food are rice porridge or millet porridge. The choice depends on whether or not the child would benefit from more heavenly or earthly influences. With rice, its fluffy whiteness is reminiscent of clouds, whereas millet is round and yellow like the earth.

We're going to start with rice for Oskar, because he is already plenty grounded and also because of the strong relationship between rice and his Korean heritage. His Danish half has not yet been able to mount a compelling argument for pork or butter, much less pork with butter.

The benefits of rice porridge are manifold: it can easily be digested and assimilated; tonifies blood and Qi; harmonizes digestion; and is demulcent, cooling, and nourishing. The longer it is cooked, the more potent its health-promoting properties.

Recipe: 1 part of white rice to 7 parts water cooked overnight in the rice cooker until the grains loose their form.

Third Month of Pregnancy

Photo by Naoyuki Kurita

In the Third Month, the mother's qi, spirit, body fluids, and primordial essence combine to cleanse the spirit of the fetus. This process creates heat, which ultimately rouses the baby's ethereal soul. The ethereal soul is what fuels our purpose in life and propels us to achieve our destinies.

In the Third Month, the Prenatal Five Agents (Wu Jing Shen) begin to energetically awaken. There are five agents, one for each of the five elements found in nature. Jing Shen can be described as the essence and spirit.

The first set of characters is for Jing, which depicts an exploding rice grain next to a young sapling shooting out of the earth. I think of the cycle of life, how the decomposition of the rice is linked with the propulsion of life in the tree. Death and destruction nourishes life.

The second set of characters is for Shen, which depicts heavenly influence on earthlyn natural forces.

We have the cycle of life bringing manifestation to the spirits of heaven and earth.

This begins in the third month when the heart beat can first be detected.

Acupuncture for Pains in the Neck

This picture shows how headaches in the temples, jaw pain, and neck pain can all be caused by trigger points (often tight and tender spots) in the shoulder muscles. With acupuncture, you can treat all these areas simply by needling the X'd areas. The sensation can be very intense and provide a very huge relief.

The Wonders of Tea

Tea-Drinking

The first cup moistens my lips and throat;

The second cup breaks my loneliness;

The third cup searches my barren entrail but to find therein some thousand volumes of odd ideographs;

The fourth cup raises a slight perspiration-all the wrongs of life pass out through my pores;

At the fifth cup I am purified;

The sixth cup calls me to the realms of the immortals.

The seventh cup-ah, but I could take no more! I only feel the breath of the cool wind that raises in my sleeves.

Where is Elysium? Let me ride on this sweet breeze and waft away thither.

by

Lu Tung, a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty

Some interpret it in this way:

The first cup: quenches thirst.
The second cup: leads to the awareness of Oneness.
The third cup: is a laxative.
The fourth cup: purges colds and flus.
The fifth cup: purifies the entire body, including the skin and the bones.
The sixth cup: opens the doors of perception.
The seventh cup: zen.

Doctrine of Signatures to Enya

Indiana Jonesing It

In the spring of 2003, Dan and I headed to Siem Reap in Cambodia to check out Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is one of the most magical places in the world.

After staying in amazingly serviceable and cheap guest houses for weeks, I deeply desired a splurge, especially to cope with the dry, 100 degree plus days exploring the ruins. So we stayed at Angkor Village. Bliss! The best gifts for a pair of dusty travelers: a large, luxurious bathtub and delicious room service.

Oddly, Siem Reap also had a very charming french restaurant. Even more oddly, the vietnamese restaurant we found was awful.

I Love Woolens

I am obsessed with woolens for Oskar.

He sleeps on Dolly (a natural, Mimosa tree-tanned sheep skin), wears Aristocrats diaper covers, and bundles up in a wool and silk pilot cap and woolen underdungarees when it's cold.

The Steiner crew lauds wool (and silks, too) for its living quality, and my East Asian medicine loves it for its value in stimulating the wei qi that flows over surface of the body.

It's easy on the eyes and beautiful to the touch.

Treating Children

The Japanese have created a wonderfully effective, non-invasive way to treat children using tools that are so Japanese in their cute-ness.

The above Kakibari Gold Rake is shown in its actual size.

This and other shonishin tools are used to lightly and gently stimulate the surface of the body, enhancing a child's ability to ward off disease and calm the spirit.

The Breath

With breathing proceed as follows:

The breath should be held and it will be gathered.

If it is gathered, it becomes magic.

If it becomes magic, it descends.

If it descends, it quiets down.

If it quiets down, it solidifies.

If it is solidified, then it germinates.

If it germinates, it grows.

If it grows, it is attracted upward.

If it is attracted upward, it reaches toward the heaven.

In heaven, it ascends upward still.

At the lower end, it descends still.

Those who follow this will live, those who act contrary will die.


Lao Tsu, translated by Helmut Wilhelm

First Month of Pregnancy: Conception

To enter the gate of inexhaustibility
And to roam in the fields of infinity.
I shall mingle my light with that of the sun and moon,
And will become eternal with heaven and earth.

Chuang Tzu, translated by Mair.

About one year ago, Oskar was conceived, when the Yin and Yang of Dan and me met within my womb.

"In the midst of the darkness there is a point of divine living potential which comes forth from the Dao, merging from out of the infinite space of the Wuji (primordial universe)."

During the first month of pregnancy, the mother cares for the embryo, nurturing the first spark of life. Her spirit enters through the umbilical cord to foster the development of the embryo's spirit, heritage, and physical form.

Expectant mothers would do well to nourish their spirits during the first month.

(From: Sui Dynasty Imperial Physician Chao Yuan Fang as written in Energetic Anatomy and Physiology (Chinese Medical Qigong Therapy, Volume 1) by Jerry Alan Johnson)

Autobiography of a Spiritually Incorrect Mystic

"In those first, early years I was so lonely that I started enjoying it--and it is really a joy. So it was not a curse to me, it proved a blessing. I started enjoying it, and I started feeling self-sufficient; I was not dependent on anybody...

I can still see myself in those earliest years, just sitting. We had a beautiful spot where our house was, just in front of a lake. Far away for miles, the lake... and it was so beautiful and so silent. Only once in a while would you see a line of white cranes flying, or making love calls, and the peace would be disturbed; otherwise, it was the most perfect place for meditation. And when a love call from a bird would disturb the peace... after his call the peace would deepen...

The lake was full of lotus flowers, and I would sit for hours so self-confident, as if the world did not matter: the lotuses, the white cranes, and the silence..."

This is how Osho describes his first seven years, seven being significant in so many other ways, seven (or eight) being the cycle of human development in East Asian medicine, the cycle of child development from Steiner's perspective. No wonder, then, that Osho became fully who he was. Always authentic.

"I am wild, and I will remain wild."

This is one of my favorite books!

Acupuncture in the Blood

I was googling myself: (Nancy Park Acupuncture) and one of the links that came up sent me to my parents!

My favorite part, in my mother's part of the bio: "Our Patients love her gentle hands!"

Some things do run in the family.

I am so tickled!

Esoteric Acupuncture

Today is my first day back to the office since Oskar's birth, and I am excited to be back. I have dearly missed my patients and my work.

There are many styles of acupuncture to practice, and my favorite is esoteric. My first esoteric acupuncture treatment was a pattern called the Spirit Path. The next day, Dan and I conceived Oskar.

When I was pregnant with Oskar, my friend Anna treated me during my final months, and I had so many breathtakingly beautiful experiences on her table. Once, the light of the universe flowed in through my crown chakra and filled my womb. Oskar swam, bathed in starlight. I felt so blessed.