By Drago Goicovic
Sometimes, the approach is more important than the therapy itself.
In Chinese Medicine, this “approach” can take us to places we´ve never explored before in therapy.
The 8 trigrams or Ba Gua 八卦 is very powerful and I’m sure most of you haven´t heard of how this approach is used in Acupuncture. Let´s give an example with the trigram Qian 乾, the first of the 64 hexagrams, which has three continuous yang lines and is known as “heaven”. Because its three continuous lines, it´s considered inherently linked to rigidity, so it can be used to address any problem of rigidity in the body. It´s so interesting, isn´t it?
Another example is the trigram Kan 坎, related to water and therefore to the kidney in the five elements. However, it is also related to all the fluids in the body. This example shows how the trigram goes even further, as one symbol allows for movement.
Chinese Medicine is learned through symbols such as the five elements, and the reason for using symbols to understand the body is precisely that they allow for the flexibility of their meaning. One of these dialectics is about the eight trigrams.
Even within Umbilical Acupuncture schools, not all of them use the Ba Gua 八卦 in the same way, as there is no “official” book about how to use it in acupuncture. Therefore, it´s not uncommon to find differences between each school.
In my practical experience, I´ve found a technique that uses Ba Gua 八卦 with very impressive results. It’s not something to “believe in”, but seeing how it works, we can appreciate the effect is truly impressive and this dialectic allows us to go further.
In fact, the Ba Gua 八卦 can also be applied in Chinese pharmacopeia, directed through the eight trigrams.
This is definitely not magic but it´s such an amazing world, don´t you think?