In the Footsteps of the Elements

I am giving a seminar at the College of Traditional Acupuncture on 14th July, and have prepared the following outline for the day. I think it neatly encapsulates some of the difficulties we all have, both as human beings in general and as five element acupuncturists in particular, in seeing others as they really are, not as we think they are. I am calling the seminar In the Footsteps of the Elements:

“We can all throw great shadows, those of our own needs, over those we come into contact with, and it requires a high degree of self-awareness and humility to acknowledge how much we may be distorting the messages we think other people are sending out, so that we may, without realising it, be misinterpreting what they are telling us. It is particularly important for five element acupuncturists to be aware of this, since our diagnosis consists of tracking to their true source the footsteps the elements leave behind on each person. An image which can be used to describe a state of balance is that of someone standing at noon with the sun directly overhead in a cloudless sky so that they cast no shadow over anybody who approaches them. An image of imbalance is then that of a person standing deeply in their own shadow, so that whoever approaches is swallowed up in this shadow.

This further day with Nora Franglen will concentrate upon helping us learn ways of pushing our own shadows aside as far as possible so that we do not allow our perceptions of our patients to be distorted by our own imbalances.”