The inner life of a patient, meridian by meridian

Stems and Branches — Volume 3: The Ten Heavenly Stems

Where Volume 2 describes the element, Volume 3 goes inside it. Each of the ten stems is a meridian with its own inner weather, and the difference between two people of the same element usually sits here.

The unlike qi is explained in full — what it is, how it shows itself in behaviour, and why it so often explains the part of the picture that refuses to fit.

Every stem closes with a recommendation written to be said out loud: a verbal description of an energy, in language the patient can take home and act on.

What this system does in your treatment room

1. It shows you how the meridians lean on each other.

Take the liver. Through the heavenly stems it is paired with the large intestine. Through the earthly branches, with the small intestine. In jue yin, with the pericardium. I know no other system that lays these connections out as clearly. With your fingers on the pulse you can tell which of these levels the imbalance sits on, and you treat on that level. That is what makes a treatment personal in the literal sense, and in my clinic it is where the better results come from, though not in every patient. Working on that level from the pulse is what the 2-Point Acupuncture course teaches.

2. It tells you which points of a combination belong to this patient.

A date of birth shows a person's tendencies, and those tendencies show up as meridians that run toward excess and meridians that run toward deficiency. When a textbook gives you points on four meridians, you keep the ones on the meridians that match this person. In my clinic the great majority of patients fall ill along their own meridian tendencies, so that is most likely where the illness began. The chart stays a hypothesis: if it does not agree with the pulse, the pulse wins.

3. It gives the patient something to take home.

You can tell the patient, in plain words, which level is involved and which meridian is struggling, and give them one thing to practice every day. That way they keep using, in their ordinary life, the energy the needles just strengthened.

What this volume adds: All three at the level of the stems: pairs such as liver and large intestine, the inner life meridian by meridian, and one recommendation for each of the ten.

Everything that is in the book

All 24 chapters, in order, plus the one-page cheat sheet that closes the volume.

PART I. The inner life

1. Readiness

2. The vertical axis, or what all this is for

3. Four emanations, ten stems

PART II. How to find your stem

4. The same stem always goes with the same great movement

5. The nomenclature: “kidney in fire”

6. Unlike qi: the challenge on the other side of the circle

PART III. Ten stages of one story

7. The five yang stems: from the sprout to the summit

8. The five yin stems: from the plan of the house to the thanksgiving mats

PART IV. Recommendations: what I say when I work on a given stem

9. Jia — beginning

10. Yi — flexibility

11. Bing — childhood dreams

12. Ding — be the sun

13. Wu — when will I start

14. Ji — what is to come of it

15. Geng — evaluation and the boundary

16. Xin — trust yourself

17. Ren — the dandruff method

18. Gui — stop

PART V. In the clinic

19. I am ill inside my own energy

20. My YouTube, or first the challenge, then the strong sides

21. The twelve-position pulse and the choice of meridian

22. Questions from the course

PART VI. Portraits, appendix, cheat sheet

23. Five exaggerated elements: portraits from the clinic

24. Appendix: find your stem

What this volume does not contain

Where this volume sits

Stems and Branches is six volumes. Each one assumes only the one before it, and each one works on its own. Volume 3 is the third.

Questions people ask

Do I need the earlier volumes first?

Each volume assumes only the one before it, and each stands on its own for what it covers. If you are starting from zero with this system, Volume 1 is the place to begin; if you already work with it, you can pick up the level you need.

Is a birth chart not just astrology?

It would be, if it decided anything. Here it decides nothing — it narrows down where to look, and the pulse settles it. Every chart in these books is read with that caveat stated out loud, and the volumes say repeatedly that a chart which does not match the pulse is wrong.

Who wrote this?

Michal Richter, MD — a physician and acupuncturist in Poland, twenty-five years of exclusive acupuncture practice and twenty to thirty patients a day. I learned this system from Joan Duveen, a student of Dr J.D. van Buren, and then spent five or six years testing what actually survives contact with a clinic. This series is what survived.

What format do I get?

PDF and EPUB, both included in the price, delivered by e-mail the moment the payment goes through. The PDF is laid out for a desk and for print; the EPUB reflows on a phone between patients.