Divination - ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism · Divination is not a shortcut Divination...

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Divination in Clinical Practice Jonathan H Edwards MSOM, LAc.

Transcript of Divination - ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism · Divination is not a shortcut Divination...

Divination

in Clinical Practice Jonathan H Edwards MSOM, LAc.

Divi-What? Divi-Who?

Divination: Obtaining insight

through a “random” process

Randomness = the window through

which synchronicity can operate.

Divination as the art of “provoking an omen”

(Robert Moss’ phrase)

Divination Methods A tiny sample

I Ching (China)

Tarot (Europe)

Cowrie Shells

(Afro-Caribbean)

Temple Oracle

Sticks (China)

Ifa (West Africa)

Mo dice (Tibet)

Runes (Nordic)

Ogham (Celtic)

In many (most?) traditional cultures,

divination is part and parcel of medicine.

The idea is to seek advice from another

plane: from ancestors, deities, helpful spirits,

the higher self or the collective unconscious

Hocus Pocus…or Cutting Edge

Technology?

“Any sufficiently advanced technology

is indistinguishable from magic”

-Arthur C Clarke

Quantum entanglement and non-linearity help

explain how divination might work. Modern physics

may finally be catching up to ancient ways of

knowing.

*SUSPENDED DISBELIEF* (Skepticism encouraged)

Today’s Goals:

1. Show that these methods are still

relevant and practical now

2. Introduce the Yijing (I Ching) in the context of

Chinese Medicine and cosmology

before diving into the Yijing, let’s have a little

fun with randomness

-Write down the name of three herbs on separate slips of paper. The first three that come to mind are fine.

-Formulate a question to which the answer is an herb. For example, “what’s a good herb for me to get to know at this time?” or “what plant would help my friend Steve?”

-With your question in mind, draw one slip from the collective pile.

-Anything interesting to report?

Disclaimer: Divination is not a shortcut

Divination techniques are no substitute for diagnostic skills, in-depth knowledge of materia medica, thorough intake, or any other aspect of clinical work.

Divination works best when we apply all of the above

to the best of our ability and only then turn to

the power of randomness to take us beyond our

limitations.

This applies to things like pendulums as well.

Divination Ground Rules • Don’t ask if you already know.

• Put yourself in order first. You have to be a clear channel.

• Find your edge, then divine to go beyond it.

• Put some skin in the game—find a juicy question. But don’t

ask unless you’re ready for an answer.

• Question certainty of interpretation. There’s usually another

way to look at it. A given response may resonate on many

levels.

• Stay with the tension of not knowing and follow the

thread…

The Yijing (I ching) A Crash Course in Yin-Yang

But first, a little background…

Cosmogenesis in a Slide

Wuji primal unity

Yin/Yang polarity Qi

interaction, multiplication

The “10,000

Things”

All phenomena can be boiled down to Yin and Yang—

Just like any sound or picture can be encoded digitally using only 1’s and 0’s.

The Yijing is based on a similar binary,

digital language.

—> World’s Oldest Computer

Its basic letters are yang and yin lines

Digital Language

Yin (Broken) and Yang (Whole) lines combine

to form three-line “trigrams”.

There are 2 = 8 possible three-line combos,

so 8 trigrams.

3

Trigrams

Yang

Bright

Sharp

Active

Energy

Yin

Dark

Soft

Passive

Matter

Heaven and Earth Father and Mother of the Gua

Water and Fire

Deep

Dark

Cold

High

Bright

Hot

Thunder and Wind

Abrupt

Intense

Cracking

Forceful

Gallbladder

(Yang wood)

Slow

Gentle

Penetrating

Subtle

Liver

(Yin wood)

Mountain and Lake

Closed

Firm

Serious

Open

Easy

Happy

Bagua “Post-Heaven” Arrangement

Fire

Earth

Lake

Heaven

Water

Mountain

Thunder

Wind / Wood

Note: These trigrams are read from the innermost line out

Bagua “Post-Heaven” Arrangement

Fire

Earth

Lake

Heaven

Water

Mountain

Thunder

Wind / Wood

Note: These trigrams are read from the innermost line out

RECAP

-Yin and Yang combine to form 8 trigrams (bagua)

-Each trigram has its own characteristics

and each corresponds to an element (not one-to-one)

Element Trigram

Wood

Fire

Earth

Metal

Water

Thunder, Wind

Fire

Mountain, Earth

Heaven, Lake

Water

The trigrams combine to form “hexagrams”

There are 8 x 8 = 64 different hexagrams.

Hexagram 1, Heaven below Heaven

Hexagram 2, Earth below Earth

Hexagram 3, Thunder below Water

Hexagram 64, Water below Fire

Hexagrams

Meanings of the Hexagrams derive in part

from the meanings of the trigrams.

E.g. Hexagram 36 Mingyi

Fire above, Earth below

Standard meanings: Brightness Hiding, Hidden Potential

Medical context: Digestive Fire, Grounded Awareness

Hexagram Anatomy Hexagram 11

Trigrams: Heaven below Earth

Name: Tai - “Peace”,”Harmony”

Judgement text: “The small departs, the great approaches. Auspicious. Offering.”

Changing line texts: six additional phrases, only

some of which are relevant for a given cast. e.g. “6 in the fourth position: Flutter, flutter. Not sharing with associates, Confusion”

Additional info from cosmology…

The ‘Organ Clock’

source: https://365qigong.wordpress.com/2013/01/

Organ clock correspondences

Organ Network

Lung

Large Intestine

Stomach

Spleen

Heart

Small Intestine

Bladder

Kidney

Pericardium

Triple Warmer

Gallbladder

Liver

Hexagram

11

34

43

1*

44

33

12

20

23

2*

24

19

Animal

Tiger

Rabbit

Dragon

Snake

Horse

Ram/Goat

Monkey

Cock/Owl

Dog

Pig

Rat

Ox

The Lung and Hexagram 11

Hexagram: 11 Tai

Zodiac Animal: Tiger

First month of Chinese year (Feb-March)

Lung organ network functions:

-distribution of ‘fresh water’ (qi)

-‘upper source of water’

-keeps the vessels pressurized

-governs the pores

-rules the voice

Elements: Metal (lung zang), Wood (spring), Earth (taiyin)

RECAP

We’ve seen that there are hexagrams

corresponding to the 12 organs and the 5 elements.

What about other Chinese Medicine concepts such

as ‘excess’, ‘deficiency’, ‘jing’, ‘shen’, etc?

Excess - Hexagram 28 Da Guo

Deficiency - Hexagram 9 Xiao Xu

Jing - Hexagram 48 Jing (different character)

Shen - Hexagram 30 Li (Fire)

also Hexagram 44 Gou (goes with Heart)

A few More

hexagrams in the medical context

Hexagram 12 Pi

-Paired with Hexagram 11 (inverse of it)

-Translated “blockage, obstruction”

-Goes with the Bladder, the organ of boundaries

In medicine, Pi refers to a “hardness below the heart”

i.e. a subjective or objective feeling of stuckness at the solar plexus, often diagnosed by abdominal palpation.

When Pi is present, there is a blockage between upper and lower, heavenly and earthly. Pi often comes with insomnia and digestive distress.

Herbal treatment method is to harmonize along the vertical axis with a formula like Banxia Xie Xin Tang

Banxia Xie Xin Tang Pinellia Drain the Heart Decoction

-Harmonizing Method

-Treats pattern of Fire not descending into Earth.

Fire floating -> insomnia. Earth cold -> digestive trouble

-Combines warm (sweet and pungent) herbs with cold (bitter) ones to restore healthy dynamics between middle and upper burners.

12g Banxia (Pinellia)

3g Huanglian (Coptis)

9g Huangqin (Scute)

9g Ganjiang (Dry Ginger)

9g Renshen/Dangshen (Ginseng/Codonopsis)

9g Dazao (Jujube)

6g Zhigancao (Roasted Licorice)

Hexagram 18 Gu

-Rotten food offerings - worms in a pot

-State of stagnation, corruption, decay

-Connects to ancestral influences and

parasitic conditions

Dr. Heiner Fruehauf revived Gu

as a clinical concept and has used it

successfully in the treatment of

Lyme disease and chronic digestive

parasitism.

Integrating Divination into a Clinical session

(A) Divining with the client present

(B) Divining on the (absent) client’s behalf

-Both challenging, but in different ways.

In person, one key is to be willing to explore the symbols that come up with the patient, who may know better you than you how they’re relevant.

Warning It may be better not to start.

How to Cast the Yijing

Consulting the Yi methods

Origins - reading cracks in turtle shells

Oldest standardized method - *yarrow stalks*

Common today - coin method

Yarrow Stalk Method - Recommended!

But not for today :(

Coin Method

3 coin flips for each of the 6 lines —> 18 flips in all

Heads count as 3, Tails count as 2.

Sum the 3’s and 2’s in each group of three flips.

For example, HTH = 3+2+3 = 8.

e.g. HTH TTT HHT THT THT HTH

{Bear with this bit of math, it’ll only hurt for a second}

* Each group of three flips will sum to either 6, 7, 8, or 9 *

For example, the sequence above yields 8 6 8 7 7 8

Note: the first number corresponds to

the bottom line of your hexagram(s).

6 - Old Yin (Yin line — — changing to Yang line —

—)

7 - Young Yang (fixed Yang line ——)

8 - Young Yin (fixed Yin line — —)

9 - Old Yang (Yang line —— changing to Yin line —

—)

“But what does it mean?!” We’re getting there—just a couple more steps.

Here’s the KEY:

Thus, 7 7 7 8 7 7 would look like this

(starting always from the bottom):

While 666666 looks like: —>

with all the lines

changing from yin

to yang.

Hexagram Table Upper trigram

Lower

trigram

Yijing as a Psychological Tool

- Seems to tell you what you need to hear, providing

just the right image for the situation

- Case examples: Hexagram 29, 45—>2, 48

- Useful for big questions, too. “What on earth am I here

for?” Health flows from being aligned with one’s

purpose.

Changing: Zhouyi:: The Heart of the Yijing by the late Liu Ming

Yo Ching: Ancient knowledge for Streets Today by True Player

The Complete I Ching by Alfred Huang

Check out my article series at ChineseMedicineCentral.com.

I’m available for Yijing instruction, one-on-one or in small groups.

Contact: [email protected]

axismundihealingarts.com

http://pages.pacificcoast.net/~wh/Index.html - links to various translations.

Yijing Resources

Thank you!