Why Ling Tai?
How did I choose this particular name for my practice?
In my practice while still in the student clinic, I found the use of this point, Ling Tai or Supernatural Tower, to be particularly effective. Our teachers told us that there is a unique population to be served by each equally unique acupuncturist and that we attract them to us. Many of the patients who came to see me in the clinic shared a common condition relating to back issues and I quickly became known as someone with experience in treating this area. One of my most frequently used treatment tools was this point, Supernatural Tower, Ling Tai, GV-10.
What's the back story on the landing page graphic?
The broad picture includes five elements: a building on the left, the three cranes, the Ling Tai graphic itself, a pool below the building and bamboo on the right.
- The building represents the Supernatural Tower itself.
- I have a paper mobile of three cranes in the office over my treatment table whose presence
elicits all manner of conversation.
- More about the Ling Tai graphic is explained below.
- The pool has a reflection of the moon in it; the elements of water, white, reflectivity, the moon
and mystery all contain special meaning.
- It seemed a natural thing to include bamboo in the picture given the prevalence of bamboo in
the acupuncture point names, the use of bamboo as allegory and teaching tool in acupuncture,
and the fabulous usefulness as a material in building, art, and education.
I plan to have the background color change in accordance with the season.
What is the explanation of the Líng Tái name?
Wen Wang, an emperor of the Zhou Dynasty, built a tower he called Líng Tái, the Spirit Tower, from which he could look out over all his territory. The term has by extension come to mean the faculties of reason, or the mind. In Chinese thought, the heart and mind are nearly synonymous, thus Líng Tái is also representative of the heart. The Jin Canon confirms this interpretation in a passage that states: "Taoist text consider the heart to be the Spirit Tower." This point is located just below the associated-shu point of the heart; the heart stores the spirit. It is the association of this point with the heart that results in its name, Spirit Tower.
Ling Tai is located on the back, on the posterior median line, in the depression between the spinous processes of T6 and T7.
Líng (spirit, ingenious, efficacious): this character has the rain radical yu on top. The three squares in the center originally stood for rain drops, while the bottom of the character represented shamanesses dancing for rain. Since it was the spirits that were being supplicated for rain, the character eventually took on the meaning of spirit.
Tái: lookout, tower; terrace, platform, stage
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