The life a patient lives on the outside

Stems and Branches — Volume 4: The Twelve Earthly Branches

The branches describe the outer life — the part of a person that the world sees, and the part that the calendar keeps pushing on.

The organ clock is put back on its own foundation, the hexagrams are read rather than recited, and the twelve-year cycle is used for what it is good for: knowing what a patient is walking into, not predicting it.

The three groups of four at the end are the part practitioners come back to — a way of grouping branches that changes how you read a chart, and which is in none of the standard books.

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 branches: pairs such as liver and small intestine, the life a patient lives on the outside, and one recommendation for each of the twelve.

Everything that is in the book

All 26 chapters, in order, plus the one-page cheat sheet that closes the volume.

PART I. The outer life

1. Interaction with the world

2. The organ clock that finally makes sense

3. Where the hexagrams come from

PART II. How to find your branch

4. The twelve-year cycle

5. Twelve names, twelve images

6. Unlike qi: the opposition in the clock

7. The energy background of a meridian

PART III. Twelve stages: one walk

8. Six yang steps: from the tiger to the goat

9. Six yin steps: from the monkey to the ox

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

10. Zi — gall bladder — the idea

11. Chou — liver — planning

12. Yin — lung — the first step

13. Mao — large intestine — engagement

14. Chen — stomach — without hesitation

15. Si — spleen — “and what if I am right?”

16. Wu — heart — unease is natural

17. Wei — small intestine — feel, do not think

18. Shen — bladder — two minutes of stillness

19. You — kidney — listen to the end

20. Xu — pericardium — loyalty towards oneself

21. Hai — triple burner — “and what if I am not right?”

PART V. In the clinic

22. Three groups of four: the reversed hexagrams

23. Therapy at the level of the branches

24. Questions from the course

25. A digression: breakfasts and the organ clock

PART VI. Appendix and cheat sheet

26. Appendix: find your branch

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 4 is the fourth.

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.