Just my point: KID 3

Peter Firebrace

BAcC Fellow: Denmark

Treating patients on the verge of death is an honour and a privilege, somewhat akin to being present at a birth. One is an appearance, the other a disappearance, one a cause for celebration, the other a time for grieving, but both are transitions of the deepest kind and touch our shared humanity at the deepest level. All of us take the same journey, no matter how long or short the life, how welllived or sadly mismanaged. It is the kidneys that hold the key to life and death, root of all the organs and source of the yinyang union that is life – and when that yinyang union is weakened, loosened and finally untied, there is no more integrative ability to hold together and death is inevitable and often a merciful release. It is here that we find an important role for KID 3.

So crucial in enhancing the fertility of a woman and the potency of a man, KID 3 is also ‘a friend at the end’ in those pre-death days, rooting the yin and sustaining the yang when both are depleted, when good rest is hard to find and the power to move is ebbing away. Emaciated, dry in the mouth, but unable to hold a cup to their lips themselves, hands and feet cold despite being covered, half in this world and half on their journey out, KID 3 can help to nourish the yin while warming the yang, bringing a reconnection in those final weeks and days that can make the ending more comfortable.

We find KID 3 inside the ankle, a mountain stream, a Great Torrent tai xi 太 溪on the narrow ravine-like enclave between the Achilles tendon and the medial malleolus.a Pure, refreshing and reviving, it is part of a cluster of kidney points in the area with prominent water images from the Bubbling Spring yong quan 湧 泉 of KID 1, the Water Spring shui quan 水 泉of KID 5, the Shining Sea zhao hai 照 海of KID 6 and the Returning Current fu liu 復 溜of KID 7. It is firmly set between the body landscape images of the fire point KID 2 Blazing Valley ran gu 然 谷 and the water point of KID 10 Valley of Yin yin gu 陰 谷.

Yu 俞 stream and yuan 原 source point, KID 3 is part of the series of Great tai 太, yuan 原 source points of LIV 3 Great Rushing tai chong 太 衝 and SP 3 Great White tai bai 太 白 on the foot and in resonance with the hand yuan 原 source points of LU 9 Great Abyss tai yuan 太 淵, P 7 Big Mound da ling 大 陵 and HT 7 Spirit Gate shen men 神 門 above. Like LU 9, KID 3 is found where the artery can be palpated, giving access to the vitality that wells up from deep within the body and giving a particular link to the heart. As tu 土 earth point it brings stability and nourishment, uniting the pre-heavenly and postheavenly qualities of kidneys and spleen, for example in its use in early morning diarrhoea.

Not surprisingly, KID 3 is a wonderful point for problems of ageing, such as low back and knee pain, tiredness and exhaustion, frequent urination, loose teeth, memory loss and lack of motivation. Many of these are directly related to a decline in kidney qi and KID 3 is therefore very useful in lumbar pain, for example with BL 40 Middle of the Bend wei zhong 委 中 and local lower back points. It is helpful in problems of the bones and marrow, such as brittle bones, for example with GB 39 Severed Bone jue gu 絕 骨 and BL 11 Big Shuttle da zhu 大 杼. Remember it for problems of the brain and loss of memory, for example with HT 7 Spirit Gate shen men 神 門, DU 4 Gate of Destiny, ming men 命 門, DU 20 One Hundred Meetings bai hui 百 會 and DU 16 Wind Storehouse feng fu 鳳 府, while ensuring a nourishing diet and regular meals. With deep-acting points such as KID 3 and appropriate advice on how to nurture life yang sheng 養 生, many of the pains, restrictions and inconveniences that are taken as ‘normal’ with advancing years can be reduced, postponed or even eliminated altogether.

Where the kidneys are concerned, we have to go right back to their deep resonance with winter, cold, darkness and silence, qualities which in our culture are often associated with death. But it is only death of the yang, of doing, not of being, death of the outer, while storing and restoring the inner, the yin. We could note here that the colour for the kidneys and water is not, as in most western charts, a cheery blue, but black, the blackness of night, the blackness of the depths of the sea, the blackness of the Daoist robe, the black ink of calligraphy, stark and strong against the white rice paper. Yes, it is the blackness of the tomb, the final resting place, but in the burial of every single seed within the dark earth, it is also the protective covering of the womb, without which there is no new growth, no return of new life.

In pathology it is the dark rings under the eyes that indicate exhausted kidneys, but it is also the jet-black hair that displays the strength and vitality of the jing 精 essence when the kidneys are strong. It is the power of yin to receive, to keep, to store and to preserve. Just as the stillness of sleep recharges the body, this connection with the deepest yin recharges the being so you have jing 精essence in spades and a couple of aces up your sleeve for when the going gets tough. That is when the kidneys are tested and when KID 3, in many ways the pre-eminent kidney point, can be a wonderful support.

In the Huangding Yellow Court inner alchemy tradition, the kidneys are represented as a dark deer xuanlu 玄 鹿, with two heads. Like the two-headed Roman god Janus, who gave us January at the start of the year, one head looks forward while the other looks back. One looks ahead with determination zhi 志 to the future, while the other looks back in memory zhi 志at the past. Like the deer, we need to be creatures of heightened awareness to make our own way through life’s dangerous forest. Truly learning from the past helps us to determine future action, without blindly repeating the past, so that we can indeed move forward. In medicine the deer’s horns are used as tonics for kidney yang, but it is perhaps the deer’s sensitivity that we need to cultivate, since traditionally they alone can find the anti-ageing reishi ‘mushroom of immortality’, ganoderma lucidum, ling zhi 靈 芝, also an important kidney tonic and the most famous of all medicinal mushrooms.

Like such giants as ST 36, LU 9, HT 7 and LIV 3, KID 3 is a very wideranging point that treats a multitude of symptoms and patterns and it cannot be done justice in a short article. For me it is an essential point in an increasingly kidney-challenging world! The stronger our kidneys, the more resilient and independent we are, the more we can lead our own lives, rather than be led. Align the kidneys with the heart and the natural good health and vitality of jing shen 精 神is yours. KID 3 Great Torrent tai xi 太 溪 is a key point in this process.

Xuanlü, the two-headed dark deer is a symbol of the kidneys in the Yellow Court internal alchemy system. One head looks forward to the future, while the other looks back at the past.