How I love the Meridian Clock, or Meridian Flow Wheel.

There is so much information in this simple graphic. Sometimes I wonder what it might have been like to have lived at the time that folks observed these energetic relationships. They were aware that energy is most available to different organs and their associated meridians at different times of the day. And they noticed that there is an exquisite order to this pattern. I suspect this knowledge was so embedded in people’s experience at the time that they didn’t think very much about it. Perhaps it was similar to people knowing the time of day and the changing seasons by watching the movements of the sun.
Later someone bothered to record this information. I wonder how that came about as well, with considerable gratitude. The meridian clock describes the natural order in which we are organically embedded. Familiarizing myself with the clock has helped me re/member myself as a small connected cog in the wheel of the natural world. This helps put experience in a context, and decreases my resistance to the life force.

Patterns in the meridian clock that draw my interest include
1. The yin and yang meridians in an element follow each other, giving the element a contiguous 4 hours of energy
2. At the same time the yin and yang alternate so there are also alternating 4 hour patterns of yin and yang energy throughout the day.
a. Ex: Large Intestine is followed by Stomach, Yang energies in the 4 hour block from 5-9 AM. This gives us get up and go energy at the time of day that most people are getting up and starting their day.
b. Liver is followed by lung, yin energies in a 4 hour block between 1 and 5 AM allowing in ordinary circumstances for deep rest and restoration when most people are sleeping.
c. Many people wake at 3 AM, the onset of lung time. It has been said that if you wake at that hour “Buddha is calling”, making it a wonderful time to meditate. Not only does our breath enter primarily through the lungs, but the breath draws with it great amounts of chi, or life force, and especially so between 3 and 5 AM. With meditation practice one can draw increased amounts of chi through the pores of the skin; the skin is an extension of lung energy.

I find my attention drawn as well to the polar relationships across the meridian clock. These pairs connect meridians from different elements, as well as consistently pairing a yin with a yang meridian. Most of us become familiar with the important relationship between Triple Warmer and Spleen. Triple Warmer, a Yang meridian infused with energy between 9 and 11 PM, is closely associated with the endocrine system, and especially the adrenal response. It thus tends to become over-energized in response to perceived stress. As Triple Warmer works to keep us alive, the yin Spleen energy, the polar opposites in terms of the meridian clock, active 9 and 11 AM, often become depleted. This familiar example, however, is just one instance of the importance of this polar relationship, while each of the six polarities can yield significant clues when tracking symptoms.
Here is one poignant example of an instance where I found this information useful:
A student came to class complaining of an irregular heartbeat. It was clear that she was worried. I’ve noticed myself that if my heart is racing it is very hard to think of anything else, let alone to access any of the many tools that might help me to calm it. This individual had attended my classes for years, and I knew that her gall bladder meridian often needed attention. On the meridian clock, gall bladder meridian gets its infusion of energy from 11 PM to 1 AM. Meanwhile, Heart meridian’s time is at the polar opposite end of the clock, between 11 AM and 1 PM. It occurred to me that we might be able to help the heartbeat return to its calm regular rhythm by calming her gall bladder meridian.

I’ve often observed when I work with a group that, although one person may be the only one with an overt symptom, the energy configuration contributing to her symptom(s) is shared by the group members. It’s also reassuring to know that Eden Energy medicine interventions are very safe, unlike medications that may have side effects. Thus the activities I would lead the group through would only strengthen and balance everyone’s energy for the day, even though only one member was having an irregular heartbeat. I also was confident that we could do what I had in mind quickly. If it didn’t help there would still be plenty of time to get her any needed medical attention.

A meridian can be “off” with either too much or too little energy. The most usual pattern is for a yang meridian, such as gall bladder, to be over-energized while a yin meridian, such as heart, is more likely to be under-energized. I joke in class and say that it is as if the yin, feminine energy, says “Oh, do you need more energy dear?” It will sacrifice its own needs to donate its resources to the yang energy. The yang energy is more likely to hold on to life force, rather than to share it. This relationship between yin and yang pairs is likely to show up between the yin and yang meridians in the same element as well as the yin/yang polarities across the meridian flow wheel clock.

In class that morning, we focused our attention on the gall bladder meridian. First we made sure the source point, at GB40, a little hollow in the front of the lateral side of the ankle bone, was open. The source point most directly connects the meridian energy to the physical organ. Often, in stress, the source points on meridians lock, keeping energy from flowing freely. To get the energy flowing again, one can spin a low gauss magnet, but one can also flip the palm and then the back of one’s hand over the point in question, or shine a flashlight on it. When it’s locked the source point can be tender to the touch.
Once we had the source point open, we flushed the gall bladder meridian on each side of the body, first tracing them backwards once, then forward three times.
Ironically, it has taken me at least three times as long to describe what we did in detail than it did to actually do what was needed.
By the time we finished flushing the gall bladder meridian the student who had complained of a rapid heartbeat reported that she felt fine. She went on to compete in a tennis match when our class ended.

Meridian Flow Wheel diagram from The Be-In-Better-Balance-Book by Judith Poole [ http://bin.nu/pn8 ]