I am presenting the journey we make from conception to death at a French speaking practitioners Summer school (UFPST ) as a guided exploration through movement, meditation, breath, visualisations, as well as sharing shiatsu. I thought you might like to read this article I have written about my workshop there.
If you speak French, and are a shiatsu practitioner, you are welcome to join me!
https://www.ufpst.org/event-details/2eme-universite-dete-du-shiatsu
It’s in a beautiful place by the river Lot in the south west of France.
http://domaine-de-lembrun.com/vie-au-domaine
My work with the Vessels has deepened as I have passed through different phases of my life. This year I have now started teaching about the Vessels and endings in our lives, as well as how they nourish new beginnings. I hope you enjoy my brief summary here of the journey we all make.
Our life as a journey of growth
The Extraordinary Vessels underpin our journey from conception to death. If you believe that our soul exists independently of our current physical body, then you can even say that they influence the nature of our conception. We know they regulate our Essence (Jing), our ancestral connections ( the egg and the sperm) but I believe they also contain our soul memory. Certainly the ancient Chinese, believed that our soul chooses to incarnate at a particular moment in history, with specific parents, in a specific location in order to expose us to certain experiences so we can learn and grow. This may be through affronting adversity, or through being gifted or privileged. Our soul memory is held at our “Gates of Destiny” – in our back “Ming Men” (GV4) and in our front “Ming Men” CV4).
If you want to do an exercise to connect with the Vessels, try this movement practice
Our connection to the infinite potential of the universe
If we believe we are the microcosm of the universe, then at conception we draw its infinite potential into a fertilised egg, the size of a grain of sand (approximately 0.15 mm) and just visible to the naked eye. During our first week after conception we spiral down the fallopian tube not needing physical nourishment from our mother. We don’t grow in size but spiral apart internally. We contain all we need to grow and develop but we are self-nourishing. This is an important quality of the Extraordinary Vessels, especially those I call the Inner Four Vessels- Du, Ren, Chong and Dai (or Governing, Conception, Penetrating and Girdle Vessels). For short periods we can withdraw from the outer world.
Priming for birth and indeed life after birth begins in the womb
When we emerge from the narrow space of the fallopian tube into the larger space of the womb, it is like a mini birth, priming us for our later emergence from the womb. Yet it is not the only priming. Our body is wise and repeats movements so we can learn them. These movements prepare us not only for birth, but for life outside the womb.
We search around the womb for somewhere to implant – to put down roots so that we can draw in nourishment from outside. In this movement we are creating our first relationship. The memory of how we did this runs deep and affects all future relationships. Where we implant is where our placenta will develop. Our placenta is like our twin – our relationship with another aspect of ourselves. It is created out of the fertilised egg, along with our umbilical cord and our amniotic sac which protects us.
These structures, we could call them our “outer body” , grow along with our physical body. Although their disappear at birth, the memory of them will always remain with us – held within the Vessels. It is not surprising that CV8 (the navel) can be a powerful and sensitive point, nor that our energy exists in the space around our body. Working with the Vessels enables us to directly access the memories of our life in the womb.
Du and Ren give birth to Chong – Ming men and the primitive streak
Soon after we implant, around 2 weeks, our physical body has formed a bilaminar disc ( a 2 sided disc) which has a front and back, a top and bottom. This is the first physical appearance of Du and Ren. During our third week after conception, cells stream from an area in our future lower back, the primitive streak, to create the trilaminar disc, from which all our form emerges . It is fascinating that the cells stream from around Ming Men! The functions of Du, Ren and Chong closely represent the structures in our body which develop from the 3 cell layers of the trilaminar disc – the endoderm (Ren), ectoderm (Du) and mesoderm (Chong).
The ancient Chinese did not understand embryology in the way we do now, but how amazing that the pathway of Chong follows Du to Ming Men and flows each side of Ren in our abdomen, chest and throat. Together, along with Dai which circles and contains us as well as connecting us to our outer body, they regulate everything.
Our physical development after this is rapid. It involves folding into the fetal position, which changes the relationship between our front and back. This shows the complex nature of the Vessels. We remain in our fetal position for the rest of the nine months of pregnancy. A famous drawing of the inner landscape of the body ( Neijing Tu 1886 White Cloud Temple in Beijing) looks like a fetus. The midline of the Conception, Governing and Penetrating Vessel is quite clear, with the horizontal lines showing the Girdle Vessel. We also see Core Four organs of the Vessels: the Brain, Heart, Reproductive Organs (Palaces) and Kidneys.
Stepping (Qiao) and Linking (Wei) emerge.
Our primitive limbs buds emerge in the next week, first our upper then our lower. These form our future hands and feet before our limbs. Our hands literally emerge from and hold our heart and our feet emerge from our future reproductive organs, and play around them and our umbilical cord. It is not surprising that key regulating points for the Vessels are on the hands or feet. In this movement we feel how the Qiao and Wei emerge from the midline. The Qiao and Wei connect us more to the outer world after birth and are less active in the womb.
Spiralling through the gateway from water to earth – birth
Birth itself represents a new phase in the development of our body. We pass through another gateway. The movements we make in a physiological birth, strengthen the midline of Du, Ren and Chong along with a spiralling in the hips and shoulders which strengthens the Wei and the Qiao. I love that we literally push away with our feet, like Stepping (Qiao) into the world, making the transition from water to earth. How we are born marks us profoundly.
Uncurling to find the upright position
Our body is wise. If we do not experience these movements at birth, we make them during our first year, with the support of reflexes, some of which were present in the womb. We uncurl from the fetal position, first developing physical strength through our vertical midline (Governing, Conception and Penetrating Vessel) and then in our arms and legs, to reach out into the world through our hands and feet. At one year, as we become strong enough to stand, we are a little like the bilaminar disc, except our feet now connect us to earth and hands connect us to heaven. The Wei, are like our wings, protecting and opening up our heart to others. They help us to remember our connection to heaven and orientate to the passage of time as we fly through our lives. The Qiao connect us to the earth, helping us stay present.
Our journey through the gateways of life
As we journey through life we pass through other gateways, puberty, our first sexual experience ( ‘marriage’ in the oriental texts ), pregnancy and childbirth (for men as well as women), menopause, ‘andropause’ and ageing. Our final gateway is our death.
There are even more ways to die than to be born. Death can happen at any age: a fertilised egg which does not implant has “died”. Death can be violent or peaceful, an act of empowerment or disempowerment. As we release our connection to the Earth we draw back up from the roots of the Penetrating and Girdle Vessels. We draw back in our wings into the Celestial Pathway (CV22) so we can exit through VG20.
Death in each moment
The seeds of death are present even during our earliest development. Like any development in our life, we are prepared for it. There are many moments in the womb when our connection to the earth is tenuous. Birth itself is a death: of our life in the womb. Birth is not so dissimilar to death in that we pass through a gateway and emerge into a larger unknown space bringing the experiences of what we have lived with us. In birth, we say goodbye to our outer body and the fusional relationship with our mother. In death we say goodbye to our physical body and our relationship to earth.
Our first and last breath – the connection between birth and death
The nature of our first breath at birth imprints deeply on us for the rest of our life. Our Corporeal soul, Po, comes into our body, through our Lungs. This is the aspect of our spirit which is contained within our physical body – form, boundaries, metal, separation. Our breath is the last energy to leave our body at death, as we let go of our hold on life. The Chinese said it descends through our anus to the earth to fertilise the soil. The mouth/nose-anus connection is the basic tube of taking in and letting go – the energy of Metal.
Our out breath: dying to each moment
We could say that we die with each out breath. We die to the current moment but have the potential to nourish a new self with the next in breath. The out breath is Governing Vessel, whose regulating point Small Intestine 3 prepares for new action and a release into space. The Conception Vessel, whose regulating point Lung 7 regulates our first and last in -breath. Our soul is nourished for its journey into space. Conception and Governing Vessel are intertwined.
Endings in our lives
Every time something ends in our lives, there is a death of what was before. The present moment is always suspended between the past and the future. Do we accept peacefully or resist fearfully? Death is easier to accept if in life we have embraced the dying of each moment and the new and unknown quality of the next.
How do you navigate different endings in your life? The ending of each day, going to sleep, the ending of each night:, waking up, saying goodbye are supported by the Stepping Vessels. As you die, the Stepping Vessels withdraw from the earth so you can make the final transition.
How you navigate more complex endings like moving house, saying goodbye to friendships and relationships, the ending of your fertility, changing jobs shows the nature of your Linking Vessels. These are informed by the memory in our tissue of how you make transitions in each moment. Stepping and Linking are intertwined.
Bringing the knowledge of our journey from conception to death into our life to nourish our present
Each of the phases in our life help to nourish us and enable us to connect with the potential in our body.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this journey!
