Voodoo Medicine Man (4)

how the wrist grounding point feels!

There are four main “grounding” points in acupuncture: one between the first and second (or is it the second and third?) toes in the top of each foot, one in the soft spot between the thumb and forefinger on the top of one hand, and the fourth between the tendons in the underside of the opposite wrist. This last point is a particularly shallow spot and tricky to hit; if I didn’t trust my voodoo medicine man implicitly, I would never ever have gone there the first time. He tells me it’s important and (I don’t know why) I believe him. Our compostable containers may generate their own current, but matter is bound by physical law, and one of the dandies is that electricity should be grounded or bad things can happen.

Anyway, once placed, the points are activated in the same manner as the lug nuts on a tire: top left, lower right, lower left, top right. My guy tries to spare me as much as possible, so we always get the shallow wrist point over with first.

The first time this point was activated, a small star exploded in my palm. More than a mere carpet shock but less than a lightning bolt, it was so intense that my thumb and two fingers were numb through the next three points. Adding insult to injury, my guy likes to shake them up after twenty minutes, giving each point a little twist to keep the energy humming. I’m pleased to report that the intensity of this little point hasn’t gone supernova in some time, though it remains worthy of a summoning breath before it’s activated.

Last visit, my voodoo doctor set about placing the grounding points—but this time, he reached to start with my right wrist. I gave him a quizzical look and said, “We usually do this one on the left.”

He caught himself at the same time. “It’s the right wrist on a male patient,” he told me.

I could have said, “Gee, thanks,” but I find the subject fascinating so chose to pursue the line accordingly. “Really?”

“Yes. Right on male, left on female.”

The human body is a universe unto itself. I pondered this in silence for a second, until he followed up with something that had me howling from more than the zap of an activated acu point:

“I don’t know how it would work on a trans-gender patient.”