Keepers of the Soul

The Five Guardian Elements of Acupuncture

Nora Franglen

Part of the Five Element Acupuncture series

The five elements – Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water – are fundamental to Chinese medicine and metaphysics, but it can be difficult to get beyond the purely intellectual level of understanding. This rich book gets to the heart of five element theory, and offers passionate reflections on the spirit of each element, and the practice of five element acupuncture.

The author provides accessible accounts of each element, explaining what it looks like, how it presents in an individual's characteristics, how it can become unbalanced and how treatment might be approached to restore balance. With profiles of various well-known figures, including David Beckham and Elvis Presley, the author explores what it means to live in harmony as a unique being and how the five elements help shape and cultivate our body and soul. The book explains how Chinese physicians understand and diagnose their patients and offers invaluable insights into how to practise five element acupuncture effectively.

A valuable and thoughtful addition to any library, this book will be of particular interest to acupuncturists, practitioners and students of complementary medicine as well as anyone contemplating Chinese medicine as a treatment option or interested more generally in human psychology.

Contents

Introduction. Part 1. Opening the Circle. 1. The Pattern of Things. The Quest for Our Own Identity. The Cadence of the Universe. The Guardian of the Soul. The Body as a Portrait of the Soul. Nature's Pull Towards Health. The Elements at Work. 2. Our True Shape. The Guardian Element. Why does Imbalance Occur? What is Balance? Has Imbalance a Function? Assessment of Balance. Sensory Diagnosis. Energies in Process of Change. 3. Opening the Circle. The Elements as Filters. The Messengers of the Elements. Patterns of Flow. Part 2. Within the Circle. 4. The Circle of the Elements. 5. The Wood Element. The Signatures of Wood. Wood's Two Officials. Margaret Thatcher. My Wood Mother. 6. The Fire Element. The Two Sides of Fire. Billy Connelly and Tony Blair. A Fire Patient. Fire Under Pressure. 7. The Earth Element. The Pull of Earth. Princess Diana. The Elements in Embryo. 8. The Water Element. The Shapes of Water. Alex and David Beckham. Our Place in the Circle. Part 3. Closing the Circle. 10. A 21st Century Context. A Cry from the Heart. The Medicalized Society. A Vision for Acupuncture. 11. Closing the Circle.

Reviews

Praise for the first edition

'Keepers of the Soul is an important addition to the literature of this area. I would strongly recommend students of acupuncture to read this book, which provides a spiritual context into which they can place the more concrete structures of other aspects of their training. For working acupuncturists too, however long they have been practising and from whatever discipline they may come, the book offers an insight into a subtle and very effective way of working, and demonstrates how much we all can learn from each other.'

—Review by Angela Llewellyn, Vol. 5, No. 4, The European Journal of Oriental Medicine

Author information

Nora Franglen has a degree in Modern Languages from Cambridge University, and worked as a translator whilst bringing up a young family. Her own experience of five element acupuncture led her to study at the College of Traditional Acupuncture, Leamington Spa, UK, and she continued her postgraduate studies there under J R Worsley. She was Founder/Principal of the School of Five Element Acupuncture (SOFEA) in London from 1995-2007 and continues her teaching through her practice, through postgraduate work in the UK, Europe and China, and now through her blog, norafranglen.blogspot.com. She lives in London, UK.