Acupuncture invites us to think about the spirit. Our healing art can be about more than alleviating symptoms; it can act as a “compass” for the soul, as the acupuncture textbook Ling Shu suggests.
People come to us when they feel stuck. If we know how to look, this will show on their face and body. Visibility is a major attribute of the acupuncture collaterals (luo). When everything is working well in a person’s life, they usually don’t recognize it; it’s invisible. But when there are problems, it can show up everywhere.
It is important to not only treat the physicality of a problem, but also the spirit. Nowhere is this more apparent than within the philosophy of the luo vessels.
Acupuncture in the Ling Shu utilizes several channel systems, A collateral (luo) is a vessel that separates from the main (primary) channels, creating diversion or distraction. They represent the aspects of life we are having difficulty resolving.
Luo can become a fixation: something that’s stuck, creating excessive repetitive expression. They can also cause aversion and inhibition. Collaterals use the yin substances of the body (blood and fluids) to trap issues in a latent state. Blood is substance containing consciousness (shen). The luo vessels manifest themselves in blood stasis: static states of consciousness.
Spiritual Connotation
The Ling Shu describes collaterals existing as “fullness” and “emptiness,” each of which create symptoms, both physical and mental-emotional. The spiritual connotation of this is worth examining.
The luo vessels are expressions of a person’s psychological and social development. Due to their close involvement with blood, they have strong spiritual connotations. The vessels visibly show where a person may be challenged or stuck in their spiritual development.
The channels and their luo can be divided into three developmental segments: the creation of the survival capacity, which includes the ability to perceive, discern, think and feel; the interactive ability between oneself and the world; and self-preservation ability, which allows for the creation of definitions of oneself and the world.
The lungs allow the ability to perceive sensually, the large intestine the ability to discern, the stomach the ability to have emotional response, and the spleen cognitive capacity. The luo vessels make themselves visible when there is difficulty in these areas of development.
“Fullness” manifests states of fixation, over-excitation or hyperactivity, while “emptiness” causes avoidance, lack of engagement or denial.
For example, “fullness” of the lung’s luo manifests as “hot hands,” which suggests hyperactivity in sensual engagement and stimulation. The person always needs to be busy, engaged, stimulated. They cannot sit still. “Emptiness” of the lung’s luo manifests as “yawning” or boredom: disinterest in life, lack of engagement. “Emptiness” causes difficulty becoming stimulated sensually. ADHD could be considered a modern example of a lung luo issue, as could certain types of depression.
The Ling Shu describes the luo vessels manifesting specific symptoms when they are “full” and “empty.” These symptoms are arguably psychosomatic expressions. Luo vessels utilize blood to maintain latency or fixation. Blood contains shen (spirit: consciousness), suggesting a mental-emotional component to their pathology. The spleen’s luo is a good example of this.
“Fullness” of the spleen’s luo manifests as sharp pains in the stomach and intestines, which can be psychosomatic expression of obsessive thinking. “Emptiness” causes “drum-like distention,” which can relate to states of habituation. Obsessiveness is excessive thought without resolution. Habituation is behavioral change that begins to lack consciousness and will.
While “fullness” creates hyperengagement with an issue, “emptiness” in this case loses thought-consciousness and creates a type of disengagement.
“Emptiness” suggests a lack of blood (and ultimately qi) going to the area where the issue is being held, which allows it to become phlegmatic: unconscious. “Fullness” manifests visibly as varicosity, while emptiness as swellings. Blood contains shen, but fluids do not. This is a progression of the problem.
“Emptiness” causes movement back into the primary channels, which can translocate problems again into deeper vessels: the extraordinary vessels or divergent channels, both of which enter the constitution. This is movement from the luo (through the primary channels) into the source. Something that started as mental-emotional fixation (or aversion) begins to impact our constitutional nature and the expression of our essential self.
Posture and Personality
Once an issue travels from the luo into the source, it can alter a person’s posture and personality. The extraordinary vessels, especially the wei and qiao vessels, represent this. The qiao maintain a person’s stance, both physically and mentally. The wei vessels manage the unfolding of time within a person’s life: the autobiography. The Nan Jing describes postural changes as classic symptoms of qiao mai.
Disease of the wei vessels creates extreme discomfort to the point of feeling lost within oneself. It can even lead to “loss of one’s mind.” This description resembles that of the classical syndrome “visceral agitation” (zang zao), which can result in personality changes due to disruption of the pericardium and triple heater.
Blockage creates loss of irrigation to the internal organs, leading to loss of self-expression. The Nan Jing says it can even lead to loss of self-recognition.
Disruption of the triple heater in its role as the distributor of essential qi arguably occurs within the first of the divergent channels, the bladder, as latent issues are brought into this system. Postural changes due to use of the joints to hold latency will appear, as can changes in personality.
Routes of Progression
There are several possible routes of progression from the luo vessels into the constitutional vessels. The Nei Jing says luo vessels have entry routes into the extraordinary vessels ren and du mai, while the Nan Jing says the qiao vessels act as the ditches for luo vessel overflow.
Emptied pathology from the luo can also find its way into the divergent channels through the primary channels.
Disease within the spleen’s divergent channel, for example, can alter posture and the structure of the body, especially the pelvis. Like all luo, this is a form of visibility that showcases the holding of latent material.
One could say the luo vessels cause problems within the pericardium, while the divergent channels through the triple heater: the two aspects of the “ministerial fire” – the connection between the shen and the jing (spirit and essence). This can all lead to changes in the mind, personality and behavior.
The pericardium is more associated with blood and shen; triple heater with fluids and yuan qi. The pericardium can be seen as the network of blood vessels in the body the luo vessels utilize. Triple heater is a metabolic process, but also the mechanism by which yuan qi is distributed into the organs. To work with the luo vessels is working with the pericardium, while the divergent channels work with triple heater.
Freeing the Essential Self
The ultimate goal in using the collateral systems (luo) of acupuncture is to help free the essential self (jing-shen) from the overload and contamination of unresolved issues. Treatment brings repressed issues out of hiding, encouraging engagement and ultimate resolution. Fixation is released, ideally allowing cultivation of wisdom.
According to chapter 54 of the Ling Shu the ultimate goal of the internal organs and their spiritual attributes is to develop wisdom and harmony. This is what acupuncture is classically meant to support; it is a compass for the soul.
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