Qigong

Qigong reads and cultivates qi, vital energy, as it moves through the body's meridian channels, the same map Traditional Chinese Medicine's acupuncture uses, through breath, posture and movement. A reading describes where a chart's placements suggest that flow runs freely and where it may be constrained.

History

The meridian system underneath qigong is documented in classical Chinese medical texts, chief among them the Huangdi Neijing, the Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic, a foundational compilation whose core material is generally dated by scholars to the Warring States and Han periods, with later material continuing to accrete onto the text for centuries afterward. What is now gathered under the single modern term "qigong" is, underneath that name, a long and considerably more fragmented history of separate practices: breathing and movement exercises from Daoist internal alchemy, meditative techniques from Buddhist monastic practice, and conditioning methods from medical and martial traditions, each with its own separate lineage rather than one continuous school.

The word "qigong" itself, as a unified category covering all of these, is substantially a twentieth century development, gaining its present standardized form particularly from the 1950s onward in the People's Republic of China, where it was organized, taught and promoted through state supported health institutions as a consolidated practice. That organizational consolidation, worth naming plainly, is what "qigong" in its modern form generally names, even where its individual component techniques reach back considerably further.

The Twelve Primary Meridians

Lung, Large Intestine, Stomach, Spleen, Heart, Small Intestine, Bladder, Kidney, Pericardium, Triple Burner, Gallbladder and Liver: twelve primary meridians, each named for the organ system it is traditionally read as governing, run through the body in a fixed sequence.

How A Reading Is Constructed

A reading maps a chart's planetary placements onto the twelve primary meridians and the further extraordinary vessels that run alongside them, describing where the tradition would read qi as flowing freely and where it may run constrained, the same body based approach the Chakras report item takes with its own separate subtle body map, read here through the meridian system specifically rather than the chakra centers.

Where To Read More

• LungLung meridian.
• Large IntestineLarge Intestine meridian.
• StomachStomach meridian.
• SpleenSpleen meridian.
• HeartHeart meridian.
• Small IntestineSmall Intestine meridian.
• BladderBladder meridian.
• KidneyKidney meridian.
• PericardiumPericardium meridian.
• Triple BurnerTriple Burner meridian.
• GallbladderGallbladder meridian.
• LiverLiver meridian, twelfth of the primary meridians.
• Governing VesselGoverning Vessel, one of the eight extraordinary vessels running alongside the twelve primary meridians.
• Conception VesselConception Vessel, a second extraordinary vessel.