Chinese medicine is thousands of years of applied philosophy. A history of ideas. Famous herbal formulas, for example, are (coded) strategies from the great doctors. They present methods for working with various types of conditions, types of people and mindsets.
The acupuncture channels, from a classical point of view, are similar. They are philosophical treatises: strategies to work with life and its difficulties.
“Heart Pain” Caused by Our External World
Collectively, much of the population has been struggling with a form of “heart pain”: difficulty managing events occurring in the external world. COVID was one example of this; climate change is another; and let’s not overlook geopolitical and social upheaval. We can term this “difficulty with the ‘global palace’ of the heart.”
The theory of the “Nine Heart Palaces” relates to major themes (or lessons) we face in life. They are aspects of spiritual and mental development, which are experienced as “heart pains” when we struggle with them.
Using the Wei Vessels to Work With Heart Pain
The Extraordinary vessels can be a powerful way to work with the “palaces” and their heart pains. Chapter 29 of the Nan Jing says the Wei vessels in particular are indicated for treatment of “heart pain,” especially when it leads to a sense of weakness, inability to adjust to external change and even a feeling we are losing our mind.
The Extraordinary vessels deal with jing-essence and shen-spirit: the true, core path of our lives. Contained within is the “blueprint” of our self, the basic raw material (yin), core vital energy (yang), and the process by which they unfold and solidify into our personality and reality (qi and blood). This culminates as our “stance” or viewpoint.
The Wei vessels are the process by which we live out our destiny. They are the “linking” vessels for qi (doing) and blood (being). They are record-keepers related to time: yin wei associated with the past, and yang wei with the future.
The Wei vessels meet with another set of Extraordinary vessels, the Qiao vessels, at certain regions of the body, representing the linking of time: past (yin wei), future (yang wei) and the present moment (Qiao vessels). The Wei vessels manage our ability to link together or gather our energy resources to face the challenges of our lives.
Yang Wei: A Clinical Ally
As we support our patients (and ourselves) through the difficulties of life, especially in regards to anxiety, fear and depression about a changing world, Yang Wei can be our chief ally.
Yang Wei is particularly resonant to our relationship to the external world, as suggested by its “opening point”: TH 5 (Wei Guan), which is in itself a commentary on the role of the channel. Triple Heater, like the Pericardium channel, represents the communication between the kidneys (jing-essence: our “self”) and the heart (shen-spirit: our interaction with the world). The name Wei Guan, meaning the “outer gate,” defines Yang Wei as a channel that focuses on the relationship between our self and the world. The Yang Wei vessel is classically associated with (yang) deficiency states: loss of power, strength and vitality.
The initial points of an acupuncture channel set the theme of the overall lesson. The Yang Wei trajectory begins with two xi cleft points: BL 63 (Jin Men) and GB 35 (Yang Jiao). As xi cleft points, both stop energy leakage. They also “open the portals” to promote greater perception and “soothe the sinews” to deal with pain, discomfort and numbness. They do so for both body and mind. Contained within these two points is the code for how we can deal with our “global heart pain” as we navigate this theme in our lives.
Xi cleft points are associated with emergency situations, marked by leakage and loss of energy resources, and/or pain (or numbness) due to energy being bound up. When we feel weak and vulnerable to the external world we must gather our energy resources to meet the challenges. We must make sure the energies of yang are properly connecting and exchanging.
Yet the xi cleft points associated with Yang Wei also “open the portals,” saying we must also identify how and why we are leaking energy, and begin to rectify this. Yang Wei asks us to explore how we are contributing to our own weakness.
Working with Yang Wei is a form of not only boosting the immune system, but also strengthening the mind and regulating the emotions. It is not only about strengthening our energy, but also about coming to terms with why we have loss of energy in the first place: how our thoughts and behavior continually weaken ourselves.
Yang Wei deals with yang qi, so the focus is on action and behavior. Maybe we are dissipating our mental power through too much social media or “doom scrolling.” Maybe we are weakening our immunity or muscles through anxiety-eating, lack of nutrition or lack of exercise. Maybe our relationship with fear or avoidant tendencies are hampering our yang expression.
The trajectory of Yang Wei ends on the head with a series of gallbladder points that further affect the sensory organs. Gallbladder is about making choices. It is a channel of insight.
In what way are we allowing ourselves to get bound up and stuck in our behaviors and thoughts, or allowing ourselves to become vulnerable to outside influences? Are we in avoidance? Are we behaving in ways that sap our strength and power? Do we let ourselves become victims of the external world? As we gather our energy, we can explore our habitual ways of thinking, behaving and perceiving through the gallbladder points on the head.
Help Patients Create Change
The channels and points are like portals of insight that “open” perception. By stimulating the points, we not only affect body function; we also influence awareness to impact behavior and thought patterns.
Many of us don’t know we are stuck in harmful, self-defeating patterns. Yang Wei in particular helps awaken us to our habits. We come to see in what way we are causing our own suffering, unable to course through the challenges of the Heart Palaces.
This is the intention we put into these points as we needle them for our patients, or as we meditate on them for ourselves. The Extraordinary vessels can be demanding, especially Yang Wei. Immune deficiencies, weakness, depression, numbness: yang deficiency states are difficult. It’s hard to just give someone the yang (strength, power): they must learn how to build and maintain it themselves. Yang is something we can really only give to ourselves.
Yang Wei helps to rectify the process., especially our relationship with the external world. Self-empowerment is the goal of this channel – through insight, awareness and the development of evolutionary consciousness.
