The amazing Penetrating Vessel (PV) is part of the Traditional Chinese Medicine chest, the PV has so many connections and uses that one blog cannot contain them all!
Intrinsically connected to the Kidney meridian (both Classical and Zen), it is connected to the base and the crown of ourselves. This vertical trunk moves into branches of flowering blossom, activating the Qi of the chest (and therefore the breath, then feelings of the heart) and links to Inner Pass (HG or PC 6 acupressure point). It reaches downwards and activates our Bubbling Spring (KD 1) and Yellow Emperor (SP 4) at one end, and dreams into the brain and the Place of 100 Meetings (GV 20) at the other.
For ourselves and our clients, the PV supports
- Our connection with the past, all beings, and the potential
- Sexuality and our intimate sense of ourselves
- The mid-life stage between the childbearing years and the awakening creativity of later life
- The Blood (so, fertility, pregnancy, birth and after birth)
- Life, death and the universe as we don’t even know it yet!
It is about the lower abdomen (urinary, prostate and gynaecological issues), the chest (asthma, digestive problems), throat (heartburn), Shen (the Spirit of the Fire element, relating to depression and anxiety), brain and nervous systems, and on top of all that it lifts the Qi (prolapse etc). I haven’t the space for all the possible benefits it can bring – you need to experience it yourself.
I hadn’t felt Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) in my body until I started to work with the PV. Now I have a BodyMind sense of the ‘architectural blueprint’ (1), ‘the very first cell division, when the first cell becomes two, gives rise to the deepest of all meridians, the Chong Mai’ (2) – that is of the water element and Kidney meridian. Now, through self -Shiatsu, meditation and client work, I have made the link between my self and my forebears; the combination of grain, air and ancestral Qi; but also the coexisting, quantum layers of space/time.
What is the link between jellyfish, deep draining water, a pile of pancakes and a happy baby? Why, the Penetrating Vessel, that Extraordinary Channel. Come and feel for yourself!
The PV releases energy and stimulates your Mind.
References
1. Jeffrey Yuen
2. Daverick Leggett
Strong women’s link to Chi Gung (and tangentially to PV)
Chi Gung for the KD Chi with Sally Ibbotson
Check out this blog for a great connection between student burn-out and the PV by an acupuncturist in Portland Oregon:
SHIATSU 
