Acupuncture Point Discussion – Small Intestine 17 (Heavenly Expression)

As a window of heaven point and an acupuncture point on an organ associated with the Fire element and therefore the heart (via direct yin/yang partnership), the strategic placement of acupuncture needles at this acupuncture point may help reconnect an individual with a powerful sense of purpose and unity to one’s spirit and to heaven (as the point’s name suggests). This technique, involving acupuncture needles, aims to harmonize the body’s energy flow, enhancing the connection between the physical and the spiritual realms.

As we know in Chinese medical philosophy, we are all born with accountability to heaven (to the universe, to god, to our source of creation) and that heaven will provide us the nourishment we need if we stay true to who we are (purposeful so to speak).

The kidneys allow us to have purpose and the heart provides us with drive to maximize our purpose and express our full potential in life on planet earth (according to Chinese medicine). The Small Intestines role is to support the heart (our drive) by feeding it clear, rich and pure material from our environment (external influence) in the form of ideas, thoughts, decisions, nutritional compounds so that the heart can drive us forward congruent with our purpose.

The function of sorting of the pure and impure materials as a functional responsibility of the Small Intestine (SI) is important here. It not only separates the pure from the impure in terms of the food materials we consume, but also in terms of thoughts, ideas and decisions that serve our highest purpose (our highest priorities). This is why, and perhaps how celiac disease can affect our cognitive abilities as the small intestines dysfunctional and structurally impaired villi allows toxicity (foreign material/invaders/food compounds) to penetrate our body and physiology (but also our thoughts) and mind via the heart channel and its association in governing our mind and spirit.

The Small Intestine’s imbalanced emotional association in Chinese Medicine is said to represent behavioural traits such as being cynical, sarcastic and bitter (L, Jarrett, The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine) . So a dysfunction in our SI can often move us to a relative state of blaming and seeing the worst in everything. We do this when we experience great calamities/challenges and face constant worry and negativity that we have become a victim of our lives. We blame nature and heaven (god/universe/higher intelligence) for doing this to us and creating pain and suffering. But god (nor nature or the universe) didn’t deceived/create this for you. It is likely, that with your own incongruency to your higher values, that “you deceived yourself” the moment you deviated from being true to yourself. And pain and such challenges of suffering can be lessons we need to be guided so we can better master our lives and prevent us from emotional bondage to our suffering.

Small Intestine 17 allows us to move our “bitterness and sarcasm” to more of a pure and clean state of thinking.
A life of gratitude and purpose! Being a heavenly point, and located higher than SI16, there is a higher connection to our heavenly spirit (L, Jarrett, The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine) and it opens the window for us to connect back with our source, our heaven and allow heaven (and god/universe/higher intelligence) to once again guide us so that we can have full faith that we are here to master our lives and contribute to humanity.

Dr. Sohial Farzam
Doctor of TCM (Acupuncture)

Reference: The Clinical Practice of Chinese Medicine, Lonny Jarrett, Spirit Path Press.