This time of year, our energy slows to a deep elemental pulsing, like the pulsing of the universe and the aurora borealis on an icy night. To me, it feels like a time when an energy system known as the extraordinary vessels is preeminent.

The Chinese medical classics describe the eight extraordinary vessels as fields of energy more than as discrete meridians, hence the translation of “vessel.” They are deeper and more foundational than the regular 12 meridians, “beneath and behind” them, according to the classics. Therefore, they have a more profound influence on our well-being at all levels.

Two of the extraordinary vessels – the Conception Vessel (Ren, Sea of Yin) and the Governing Vessel (Du, Sea of Yang) - have their own points, running up the front and back midlines respectively. The other six of the eight extraordinary vessels “borrow” points of the other meridians. Physically, the meridians divide the body into eight quadrants, upper and lower right and left, front and back. Energetically, they balance the polarities.

We are naturally predisposed to having a particular extraordinary vessel that both channels our highest self, and becomes unbalanced most easily. Because of the core nature of the extraordinary vessels, seemingly unrelated symptoms are often linked in an extraordinary vessel pattern. For example, gynecological and lung difficulties are frequently associated together with Ren Channel imbalance. When someone comes in with an unusual condition – say pain on one side of the body only – I often find that it resolves only with extraordinary vessel treatment. In practical terms, I find that balancing the extraordinary vessels is beneficial for everybody, and necessary for many.

Certain acupuncturists through history have taken the treatment of the extraordinary vessels to a profound level. Dr. Yoshio Manaka was a Japanese master through whom I have studied the extraordinary vessels in depth. Dr. Manaka’s diagnosis of extraordinary vessel imbalance is based primarily on hara (abdominal) diagnosis, as well as symptoms and pulse. Treatment will often use ion-pumping cords – cords that facilitate the flow of energy between channels (via needles), yet have no outside energy sources. The cords look like miniature jumper cables, with one red end and one black end. Deliberately placed magnets might also be used to treat the extraordinary vessels.

Research on the extraordinary vessels indicates that they correspond with embryological fascial planes, and the body’s electromagnetic field. Fascia is the very thin connective tissue that surrounds every muscle, every muscle fiber, every organ, every bone – every thing in our bodies. Fascia has electromagnetic properties, for it transmits electricity. As fascia forms in humans, it leaves traces of its early developmental planes. It is these planes that some Japanese acupuncture researchers have linked with the extraordinary vessels.

The extraordinary vessels are complex, and to me, sacred. Balancing them can have a profound effect on our health and our state of mind. In these dark days of winter, you can feel them pulsing, as all energy slows and we return to our quiet center. As seeds deep in the earth, we await the quickening of new growth.