255 Puzzling Through the Heavenly Stems • Deborah Woolf

Everyday we sit with people in our clinic and puzzle through the questions of “What is going on for them,” “Can I see clearly what they need,” and “Do I understand how this person is an expression of yin/yang, heaven and earth?”

Our patients have a story. And so do we, except we usually call it Chinese medicine theory and we are seeing if we can take our Western minds into the world of East Asian medicine, and come back with something helpful. Our Western minds orient us towards the linear, but Chinese medicine thinking– that has us going in circles, cycles and waves.

Today’s conversation with Deborah Woolf came about because I had some questions, and more than few, about the Heavenly Stems after her recent Qiological Live presentation on the topic.

It’s not that I previously gave this topic of study a pass, I’ve talked about it with friends who have investigated this aspect of medicine in a significant way. But I wasn’t able to grasp the dynamics of the Stems in any meaningful fashion. That changed with this conversation.

Deborah has been studying and teaching this stuff for a while now. And thanks to this conversation. I think I’m starting to get it.