Her reflections are all around us…
I see her in the spaces between sinew.
I see her in the outcroppings of plexus, gland, septa, and diaphragm.
I see her in the branches, autumn taken down her lungs
I see her in the tangled roots.
Why is the path of least resistance so winding?
Magnetically she pulls others towards her
or is that aspects of herself towards herself.
Who was that ancient yogi,
who could not see her once the spirit had left the body?
What did he think he would see?
Why do we look for such mechanistic structures
when the truth is so obvious if we close our eyes?
The birth of a religion the death of another…
A few years ago, I cobbled together an article sparked by a student's inquiry about chakras. He asked how I understood them, without subscribing to the notion that they were physical anatomical structures. Since then, many have posed similar questions regarding acupressure channels.
Every so often, we get entries in trade journals about new scientific discoveries that hint at the existence of energy channels, commonly referred to as meridians. Each time, there is an attempt to correlate them directly with anatomical structures. Some have even suggested that these meridians represent a primitive map of the nervous system. However, I believe we are looking in the wrong place. While anatomical correspondences do exist, they are not direct correlations, nor are they synonyms for the meridians themselves.
Consider this: when a vine entwines around a tree, we do not confuse the tree with the vine. Likewise, when nerves grow around blood vessels, we do not conflate the two. This analogy underscores the need to approach the understanding of meridians with a different mindset.
A more fruitful model is to conceive of the meridians as channels—or rivers—of energy that exist at a higher frequency than their physical counterparts. In this framework, the physical body influences these channels—similar to how a large stone alters the flow of a river—while the channels themselves shape the surrounding structures, just as the water of the river carves the earth around it.
Therefore, when we seek to locate the meridians in the body, we should look for their reflections, reverberations, and the clues they leave behind, rather than searching for a tangible structure we can directly identify as, say, the bladder channel.
Let’s explore the Bladder Meridian momentarily and attempt to find its essence within the body. This meridian traces a path from the eyes, over the head, down the back, along the legs, and to the soles of the feet. In this journey, we observe striking correlations with the myofascial structures along its route. The pathway from the frontalis muscle to the plantar fascia forms a continuous myofascial line known as the "Superficial Back Line." This line connects the eyebrow ridge, the spine, and the base of the foot, providing a visual representation of the bladder channel at various points along the way.
For instance, within the crevasses of the paraspinal muscles, we discern clear channels where the meridian is said to reside. As we travel along the hamstrings and the heads of the calf muscles, we can further perceive the pathway of this channel. The map of the Superficial Back Line is lines up quite nicely with that of the Bladder Meridian. The strangest thing about this is that it was mapped by a Rolfer, who wasn’t looking for correlating fascia with acupuncture channels. Instead, he focused on how one muscle relates to another and how, where one muscle ends, another begins.
It's long been believed that muscles aren’t singular structures, at least in the bodywork world.
Okay, sorry, vegetarians, but I need to make a meat analogy—after all, our bodies are made of the stuff. When carving a turkey, you may notice that one piece of meat flows into another. When thinking about Thanksgiving dinner, you aren’t thinking, "This is the infraspinatus." You are thinking, "How do I get the wing off the body? Where’s the soft and easily sliceable part? What is a wing, and what is the body?"
That’s because it depends on the lens we are looking through. If we think it’s easy to cut, we divide the body one way or another. If we’re thinking about muscle functions, we’re thinking differently. We’ve long believed that a muscle begins somewhere (origin) and ends somewhere else (insertion). However, the long-standing belief of the Rolfing movement (structural integration, if you’re nasty) has been that muscles work in continuities. Muscles don’t begin here and end there, per se, but rather, chains of muscles work in tandem with each other.
These ideas evolved over time to form new conceptual frameworks. One such idea is the "basket weave"—how the abdominal muscle group works together as a whole to protect the viscera while still allowing movement in all planes. In this model, the external oblique on the left connects with the internal oblique on the right, and the internal on the left connects with the external on the right. These muscles provide oblique plane movements. But we can connect these muscles further.
Let's start with the internal abdominal oblique on the left. If we work across the body and superiorly, we find the external abdominal oblique on the right. If we continue upward, we find ourselves at the serratus anterior muscle. This takes us to the border of the scapula, where we meet the rhomboids. We can continue this line up to the spleneii on the opposite side, eventually attaching to the head.
I used to play a goofy teacher’s game with my students. It was called "Everything Connects to the Scapula!" The idea is straightforward: How many structures can you connect to the scapula? Now, my rules were that you had to go by one muscle—from origin to insertion—and tell me which bones you could connect to the scapula.
So, we get things like the humerus (upper arm bone), which connects to the scapula via several muscles (biceps brachii, triceps brachii, etc.).
{Go ahead, muscle nerds, have at it! How many muscles can you find that attach from the humerus to the scapula? Please email me your results! The winner gets a [tenser fascia] mocha latte, my treat. Anywhere in Western Mass.}
It was during one of those goofy teacher games that our hero, Tom Myers (author of Anatomy Trains: Myofascial Meridians), played a bit of “These bones are connected to that bone." He expanded on this belief and showed how a muscle group in the bottom of the foot was connected to a muscle group in the head.
Oddly enough, the more he has mapped these continuities out, the more these myofascial “meridians” look like channels in Chinese medicine.
His discovery wasn’t the first time the channels have been noted to align nicely with myofascial continuities. In addition to the primary channels of Chinese medicine, there are several other groupings of channels. A notable set of channels for this discussion are know as the Sinew Channels.
The Divine Pivot, dating back to the first century BCE, first mentions these sinew channels. These channels are associated with Wei Chi, or the external immune system. This Wei Chi was first described to me as a shield protecting the body from outside bad things (or external pernicious influences, such as damp, cold, heat, wind, etc.), much like we think of the skin and mucus membranes being the body's first line of defense against bacteria and viruses.
As the name implies, Sinew Channels comprise of muscles, tendons, ligaments, and fascia. Rather than typical pulse and tongue diagnosis, these channels are assessed through movement and palpation - making them very much akin to the myofascial continuities we know in Western bodywork and movement practices. A careful examination of these sinew channels reveals that they are giminate to the maps detailed in the Anatomy Trains system.
Are the meridians of acupuncture and acupressure the same as the myofascial meridians? I believe they are reflections. Much like the river leaves her mark on the earth and snow around her, the energy flow influences the tissues, and the tissues influence her flow.
