This is an old article I touched up and re-released.  I hope you enjoy it! Guizhi – Cinnamon twig – Emperor of Emperors  In my opinion, there is no more important herb in the materia medica than Guizhi.  It is used in so many formulas, spanning all organ systems and…

脾 Pi – Spleen : Lessons learned from Yin Earth Earthly Branch Si – The Snake : Lesson – You can take in a lot more than you think, but don’t overdo it The Spleen is associated with the 6th Earthly Branch 巳 – Si. This is one of the…

I wrote this article in 2007, and have updated it a little bit.  What’s interesting is that my view of what makes a great Chinese medicine practitioner hasn’t changed that much.  That’s because I have created my ideas about this by watching those practitioners whom I respect the most, who…

I hope this reflection will be useful to all those Chinese medicine students out there who struggle with figuring out what TYPE of Chinese medicine to practice… Today, on a walk I was taught an important lesson by some late migrating geese. In the late summer and autumn, we get…

Ma Huang – Ephedra – 麻黄 Mahuang is one of the most famous herbs in the Chinese Materia Medica – and with good reason. In a world where medicine is mostly unable to deal with the most common illnesses that people encounter, colds and flus, an herb that can handily…