The Zhi + Ancestral Resolution
In Chinese, Wu is translated as a number of words. A few relevant to this series include: Five (wǔ), as in five spirits or elements, shaman (wū), and dance (wǔ), which is also symbolic m the context of the five elements/spirits.
In this series, I’ll write about the context of healing through Chinese medicine and what it means to be supporting the continuity of humanity and helping people maintain or return to their sense of being human. That’s quite a feat living in today’s sped up and fragmented world, though I hope to offer inspiration and maybe some clarity when you think about health, healing, medicine, humanity, and what you’re doing here.
Trigger warning:
Below is discussion/mention of collective traumas and injustices that have happened to marginalized folks, including violence. Please read at your discretion.
Acupuncture is actually based on astrology. It’s a rather specialized form of treatment in the spectrum of Chinese body, though you wouldn’t know it based on the way we use it today (maybe a few times a week or once every couple of weeks, for example).* (Liu Ming) If we practiced the way it used to be practiced, it would be specific to some conditions and it would be done when points were considered open. Acupuncture points are recognized as having specific windows of time when they are open to use and it’s based on astrology.
In this way, we see that Qi is also time itself.
When we acknowledge this we can more holistically tie together practices that naturally existed in relation to one another. It’s not the “right” way or the “best” way. But it was the way in another era, and considering the value of both, it behooves us to recognize this so as to offer continuity to the roots of this medicine that we still look to today, as well as to repair some of the fractures that have happened (rather than try to distance ourselves in order to appear more scientifically advanced).
To be fair, this mythology is quite different than our modern mythology that teaches science as objective reality or truth and cultural practices and beliefs as something that science is above or different from. China’s ancient cosmology also differs from much, if not all, of the world’s various philosophies that willingly define their spiritual orientation and its integration into their entire world view. Discussions and ideas about karma, for instance, aren’t standard cookie cutter explanations. For some, we possess karma and something like a more personal story that goes back over many lives. When we consider that a person is made up of 5 spirits (aka 5 elements), the suggestion is that these spirits will continue to exist somewhere else when we pass as each departs and goes its own way, and in this way, part of us takes life in another existence (be it the trees, the soil, the water, etc). It’s less personal and more universal. We are nourished by our ancestors and meaning is found in the fact that humanity keeps going. (Liu Ming) This is much more intricate than I’m treating it at the moment but is beyond the time and energy I have to give to this Wu Wednesday.
So when we remember that Qi is also time and that a person is born of a given hour, in which they take their first breath—consolidating heaven and earth Qi— they officially inherit a natal chart, which comes with promises, images, opportunities, challenges, and all that their relatives passed down (the Yuan Qi/original Qi or ancestral Qi).
From this perspective, we’re acknowledging that
we are karma— not that we simply have it or create it. (Liu, Ming)
We are of our ancestors and all of their predispositions (including to health, sickness, talents, and habits) and this is the image of the natal chart.
The Zhi spirit (the spirit associated with the Kidney) is responsible for the regulation of the Yuan Qi, thus the Kidneys are known as the storage place of the Yuan Qi (though it’s helpful to remember that Chinese medicine physiology isn’t based primarily on western anatomical models). When we contemplate fear, and more specifically its influence on a person’s physiology, we can notice the way it conjures our survival instinct.
Survival—and reproduction, which aren’t completely different in this context— are aspects of existence that the Zhi spirit facilitates. From a neurobiological model, we’d associate this with what’s known as the reptilian brain. Compared to the Yi spirit (associated with the Spleen), the Zhi spirit is very simple, and yet we very much depend on it in our everyday lives, because if we didn’t we would starve from the lack of will to live. It thrives on routine, repetition, and predictability, demonstrating our capacity for memory and our body’s consequent intelligence to heal itself by remembering what it was like to be well**. (Liu Ming)
Along with this innate bodily memory to repair, recover, and regenerate comes genetic material passed down from our ancestors, including fears we may inexplicably hold onto. Some have given this a newer vocabulary, relating it to epigenetics. As incredibly complex instances of karma, we inherit predispositions toward similar patterns of sickness as our blood relatives before us (and it’s not always directly in order) and it’s this (Pre-natal/constitutional Qi) along with our post-heaven Qi (cultivated and assimilated Qi) which determines how we’ll not just survive, but thrive as a ren zhen (true human).
In Embodied Astrology, I wrote about the incidence of anxiety connected to many people’s relationship with astrology, to which I would like to encourage people experiencing this to begin a dialogue with their nervous system responses (even if they don’t suffer from trauma) in which tracking the breath, imagery, sensations, and their bodily rhythms become more apparent— including and especially in their participation in astrological study or consultation. I say this for both astrologers and clients because to be human means to experience a healthy spectrum of activation and down regulation. Practicing pendulating between these two with awareness, often through titrating our experiences of stress responses, is how we learn to navigate ups and downs (and self-regulate or co-regulate) in a profound way. Our breathing patterns are a key to all of this and those patterns are directly tied to our holistic somatic wellbeing. Part of this is constitutional, and part of this is a matter of cultivation, assimilation or lack of through lifestyle, habits, and environmental Qi (described by astrology).
In the last year alone, most everyone has been dealing with varying degrees of activation, high stress, and trauma as a pandemic and vitriol have poisoned the air. Not only are we on our devices and screens more as we watch/read the news and stay vigilant to what’s unfolding for Black, Asian, transgendered people and other marginalized people without the privilege of just letting things fall as they may, many are also losing sleep. All of this grief that also leads to fear, along with our eyes glued to light from our screens begets a deficiency of the Kidney yin. The depletion of Kidney yin, common in new (and not new) mothers, when untreated, often manifests as hyper-vigilance and anxiety. Considering lack of resources and support that many Black mothers face, it’s no wonder there is a higher rate of maternal death amongst Black mothers and babies who are suffering at the negligence of our modern medical system and society that undermines their complaints and needs.
As a mother and a practitioner of the healing arts and divination, I’m highly interested in the conversation of the epidemic of sleeplessness, especially for young, new, and/or other sleep deprived parents. A topic to discuss more in depth another day, though not irrelevant to the current state of the world and the fragmentation of society and multigenerational homes.
Sleep, and the phenomenon of dreaming, is one of the most important aspects of routine that our post-heaven jing depends on. It’s essential (not an extra or a nuisance) to our Liver, Spleen, Lungs, Heart, and Kidneys. (Liu Ming) Considering this, self-care is much more than the delicacies of hot bath (which best be avoided unless there’s a specific ritual practice of activating the wei Qi [immune Qi] and washing/scrubbing before sitting in water).
Self-care is indeed not just personal, but cultural, political, and ancestral resolution.
Without sleep, we lose the ability to feel inspired and to integrate our total experience (day and night) which reflects the Liver’s disregulation and a sort of depressed Hun spirit unable to fly and aspire; we can grow wary about what we cannot foresee or predict and therefore try to standardize or filter everything through a lens of fantasy that betrays us by making us think that we can control that which we wish to; we struggle to be decisive and life feels muddled; we struggle to get out of bed and to see the value in living or we fail to see that the world isn’t completely dark and depraved and we grow hyper-vigilant.
Chinese medicine isn’t about avoiding sickness, aging, or death. It seeks to keep us well enough so that we may be able to resolve our ancestral predispositions when they do arise, and in doing so we resolve karma. (Liu Ming)
We put ancestors at peace, and in doing so we move away from disease. With that comes responsibility. If it isn’t yet obvious, this means that the rage and pain transpiring in our world is a direct reflection of our ancestors. It must be a very complex experience to be a descendant of the Black, Indigenous, and enslaved folks who were brought to this country, who were born in this country, and who lived, fled, fought, died, and survived from White colonizers. That is a lot of karma to resolve, and many are hard at work doing the work of dismantling systemic racism. That means that descendants of White colonizers also carry an immense degree of karma of those who directly or indirectly participated in enslaving, stealing from, and murdering those folks. (Liu Ming)
With reluctance to make blanket statements or come from a disembodied place, looking out at the landscape reflects much disorganized and deficient (even vanquished) Kidney energy amongst the world’s population right now. Does it mean this is beyond repair? Not for everyone. Not for a lot of us. We must realize, however, that self-care is a must. Self-care truly is an act of revolution for those who find themselves in less privileged positions and it is the responsibility of some of the more privileged to support the marginalized in assisting that to happen through empathy, shutting up to listen and make space, de-centering the White colonial perspective and language that dominates, speaking up when it matters, not discriminating against the need for sleep and dreams (even the bad ones), nourishing the appetite, and tracking the breath (especially when hard conversations and situations present themselves). It’s all a web of relationship from the context of Chinese medicine and there is much a relationship we are in need of repairing.
To start, I propose making more effort to getting enough sleep and nourishment and recognizing the value of rapport with others, particularly if you happen to have the chance to speak with those around you, distanced, digitally, or otherwise. Sharing tea with someone and drinking soups together (making them for others) are wonderful ways to support the yin.
Speak to your neighbors or the cashier at the store, speak with your grandparents in nursing homes especially, say hello to passerby on the street. Establish a bedtime ritual that reminds you of the joy of resting your head, closing your eyes and dreaming so you get to bed early enough to make it to deep sleep. Share your dreams with others and don’t dismiss them as mere fiction that doesn’t matter because those are experiences too, even more incredible than when awake in many instances. (Liu Ming) Find your rhythm in the day to day and connect with your family and ancestors to allow for repair to happen within and without.
You are cyclical and so is your presence. Let your rituals reflect this so you might regenerate with resilience so long as you walk the earth.
Comments
*Indeed standardized curriculum in the US hasn’t weeded out the notion that the body is a microcosm, and yet, many facets of the much earlier traditional practices do get overlooked. From the modern scientific model of what medicine is, there isn’t room for these older, indigenous approaches. When Mao went to France in the 50’s he saw that astrology was culturally seen as superstition in a society that favored materialism, so the practice of acupuncture and astrology together was later discouraged (to put it lightly). To many that don the white coat, medieval Chinese medicine (and even pre 1940’s), is superstitious, barbaric, and inferior in every way. There is no sterility, surgery and removing sickness from the body isn’t the pinnacle of its accomplishments, and it doesn’t even know how to analyze the panels of blood chemistry according to cellular biology. Chinese medicine has a completely different vocabulary based on indigenous wisdom practices for at least 8,000 years. It hasn’t always looked the same.
The last 2,000 years or so it has become catalogued and the earlier shamanic practices were exchanged for language that’s more aligned with what practitioners are familiar with today (of course much of the context has still been intentionally left out and/or been shaped to fit into a different médica paradigm). We might not have Chinese medicine in the modern West like we do now if it weren’t for this, though it has left much of the fullness, beauty, and humanness out of the picture and so it must not be disregarded for mechanical recipes. (Liu Ming)
**In modern TCM we often articulate this by saying the Jing Qi is stored in the marrow.
Edit: As of January 24, 2022 this entry and following entries that were part of the series called “Wu Woo Wednesday” are being left with the title following the designated category of “WWW” posts. This has been done in response to and out of respect for the word Wu and its meaning as “shaman” in the Chinese language. This post script is here to create accountability rather than to erase a poor choice and to show respect for the culture, people, medicine, and ancestors of East Asia.
Recognition:
Vocabulary and articulation of Zhi, Hun, dreams, karma and astrology, and affect responses have been facilitated by the late Liu Ming and his Healing Apprenticeship for whose insight I’m endlessly thankful for. If you’d like to learn more about this from Liu Ming’s teachings, you can support Da Yuan, where his teachings are posted in recorded and PDF format for sale.