The extraordinary vessels are one of the world’s oldest systems of energetic theory and practice evolving originally in ancient China. A simple but profound yin yang paradigm, extraordinary vessel theory represents an integrated, holistic worldview where the universe is viewed as constantly giving birth to itself.
The eight extraordinary vessels are the primordial fields at the root of the interplay of yin and yang as manifest in the dance between the descending yang forces of heaven and the ascending Yin forces of earth.
In this worldview, we are all viewed as embodied fields. Each of us is a microcosm of the macrocosm. The extraordinary vessels are our microcosmic primordial fields in which we relate to and process the primordial fields of the macrocosmic world. The extraordinary vessels were used in cultivation practices (shamanism, alchemy, qi gong) long before they appeared as part of acupuncture, where they are the deepest, most primordial pathways.
Throughout history, the extraordinary vessels have been explored, understood, and expressed in limitless ways. We have very detailed descriptions that are utilized in a clinical context that include somatic and non-somatic signs and symptoms and comprehensive anatomical and physiological descriptions, the more metaphoric, poetic, and symbolic language used to describe their manifestation as primordial fields and the direct experience of their essence that is experienced through cultivation.
Today we utilize the extraordinary vessels in a clinical setting to assist in a wide variety of health and wellness challenges. We also continue the tradition of exploring and engaging the extraordinary vessels through cultivation practices that harmonize the breath, our embodied emotional worlds, and our minds. We also carry on the tradition of expressing and communicating these direct experiences of the vessels that occurs at times with these cultivations through art, poetry, and prose.
I offer these haiku as small tastes of the spirit and essence that emerged from my cultivation and direct experience of the extraordinary vessels.
