Kigo by Lorie Eve Dechar

REVIEW by Jen Wade: Member - Warwickshire

As with Lorie Dechar’s other work to date, Kigo is a truly fabulous book which I believe should be on the shelf of every practitioner, as well as anyone interested in the spirit of acupuncture points or the links between humanity, energy movement and the transitions of the seasons. Lorie’s writing is hugely engaging, the imagery and the calligraphy throughout is stunning (the cover art is Lorie’s own work!) and other lucky early readers have variously described it as ‘both practical and magical’, ‘a salve for the spirit’ and ‘poetic’. I have to agree.

I will try to give a brief overview and hope to do Lorie’s writing justice, however anyone who has met her in person or on paper will already know the beauty, generosity and love she extends behind every word; for those of you who haven’t, you are in for a treat. Not to mention the fact that the book is inexpensive, making it also easily accessible for anyone feeling uninspired and disconnected, or perhaps looking for a more ‘eternal’ view as we attempt to navigate deep global uncertainties.

If today teaches us anything it is that the natural world has great power and can deliver harsh lessons when we stray too far and too blindly, ignoring the signs all around us. I believe that this book has come at just the right time, and serves to reconnect us to our world, to the magic of our art, and to the seasons of nature.

The title Kigo means ‘season word’ in Japanese, and it reminds us from the outset that we are intimately connected to the world around us. The book takes us on a journey through the energetics of each season, and as our understanding deepens, we start to see how this movement is embodied in some of our most beloved acupuncture points. Lorie presents these points in a way that ascribes them new and invigorated meaning and purpose, and makes you want to go back out there and use them clinically immediately! For each point that Lorie explores, she has also written a haiku that gathers up its essence.

At its heart, the book conveys the power of one point then, the right point, and its ability to move mountains when used in that perfect moment. It is also about how we recognise the perfect moment. The point descriptions are tangible and accessible, and she includes essential oils to supplement the use of needles as well as treatment strategies for their use.

I have never pretended to be a student of the classics and have always admired and felt somewhat in awe of those who are. What I think is one of Lorie’s gifts is her ability to pull together complex ideas and deliver them in a way that speaks directly to each and every reader, regardless of how widely (or in my case, thinly) read they are. She has a gift for taking the intangible, the hidden, and translating it into something that even the most practical and least philosophical amongst us can appreciate and enjoy. For me, herein lies the absolute joy of this book. It took me into the world of the spirits, essential oils, and even spirit animals, in a way that I can appreciate, be inspired by, and put to practical use. It reminded me that when clinical life has become remote and perhaps rather jaded that absolute magic can happen when exactly the right point is chosen. Kigo will remind you that the world, and our patient interactions, are full of wonder and moments of grace. You may also learn to look more broadly and perhaps more deeply at subjects that you thought you were done with, and you are sure to come away trusting your intuitions more implicitly. You might also aspire again to that su wen treatment we all heard about when training; one point, one treatment?

To conclude, I always understood at some level that acupuncture points are living, breathing entities. As a practitioner, I have been staggered and humbled by the impact of the right point at the right time, especially when I’m in the right heart/mind space. I struggle to articulate this relationship between me, point, and patient, but Kigo does it on every page. I’ll therefore give the last words to Lorie:

‘Each point is a poem made up of flesh, muscle, tendon, nerve, word, image, soul, emptiness and a bit of starlight. Like a haiku, each point comes to life again and again, a singular event, a moment in time, an awakening to beauty, a unique new possibility.’