The Heart Protector Official

Circulation Sex is known as the Heart Protector. It is responsible for all venous and arterial circulation as well as all internal and external sexual secretions.  It can sometimes be referred to as the County Clerk or the imperial bodyguard.. The Heart Protector takes things on rather than allowing the little things to go to the Heart. This leaves the Heart to work freely. The Heart Protector is the part of us given by nature do Sure that we are safe. It receives all the emotional blows to the Heart. When we have our Hearts in our throat or experience Heartbreak, those blows are absorbed by the Heart Protector. It protects the very center of our being, in the very center of who we are and how our energy is formed. The Heart Protector protects through giving love, protection and kindness. The Heart Protector is all about relationships. The spirit of the Heart is also protected by the Heart Protector. Sometimes we have referred to this official as the official of circulation and sex which is our physical way of giving love and kindness. The Heart Protector says, “I'm in the expression of the sovereign throughout the kingdom and the world. I serve in whatever way needed both receiving and giving forth joyful essence.”

The Heart can be likened to a queen bee being protected her workers. There's a bit of built in frailty and vulnerability to being a leader, in the role of the Emperor. The Heart Protector is an ambassador from the Heart to others. It fills this role through circulation and sexual fluids. Warmth is circulated outwardly. As the saying goes, blood follows Qi and Qi follows blood. In order for blood to be circulated, contact and communication with the Heart Protector is vital. By virtue of the Heart Protector official, generosity, compassion, forgiveness and warmth are spread to every corner of the body, mind and spirit. This is a controlled environment, making certain everything goes at where it is supposed to go. The Heart Protector carries all the love, caring and understanding that goes along with making love. This is an expression of our love and joy.

The Heart must always be treated with respect and respects all of the other officials. Many symptoms that are associated with a Heart actually arise from the Heart Protector such as heart pain, angina, palpitations and pericarditis. We can view this as they're being something wrong with the Heart or that the Heart Protector is doing its job taking on these blows before they get to the Heart. When the Heart Protector gives way, further blows go directly to the Heart. In some traditions of medicine, like Japanese acupuncture, the Heart and its meridian remain untouched in treatment, as it commends the utmost sensitivity.

When the Heart Protector is out of balance, we can be incredibly overprotective or have no barriers at all being completely open. We can present as completely open or completely closed. We can block love and be unavailable to receiving love and compassion. Without love people are less well-off. We may not be able to receive warmth inside. We may not be able to trust others. After too many blows, the Heart Protector simply shuts down and no longer wants to do its job of protecting the Heart. Physically, we may see symptoms such as varicose veins, arteriosclerosis, reynauds disease, poor circulation, and hemorrhoids. Problems associated with sexual secretions as well as sexual relationships may be associated with an out of balance Heart Protector. Warmth and spirit can be passed from one to another but not if one is closed or blocked. This repels the warmth. Conversely when we are too open the spirit may pass on through without our ability to connect to it. We might look like we are joyous all the time and laughing all the time; we are making an attempt to warm another being and then attempt to feed off of the warmth within them. Inappropriate laughter and lack of joy are associated as sound and emotion with the Fire Element. We may develop problems with our blood. We may attract the wrong people. We may be unable to let others in because our Heart is too hard. We may share expectations for others and we may present with anxiety. We may be most joyless, flat uninspired, miserable and grudging.

JR speaks about the vessels, “By maintaining the flow of blood in the arteries and veins, this official is helping to provide flow of energy to every cell in the body.” The Vessels are the fortification associated with the Fire Element. Blood is warmth, fire and passion which all of the officials need. Sex is one of the most ultimate expression of love and passion. It serves us to communicate with a partner. It requires the utmost trust to vulnerably let in and to give. Sex is one of the primary functions of the Heart Protector. The Heart Protector is associated with expression, experiencing joy and pleasure, appreciation, commitment, trust, intimacy, vulnerability and a voice of the Heart. Heart Protector is responsible for our social warmth. It is in charge of who we let in and to we don't. It informs relationships with others that are loving. When it forms that warmth it can be radiated to others. Without the warmth, the whole body mind and spirit become sick. The Heart Protector gives us the ability to develop a healthy mature relationships. A balanced expression of fire includes both the joy and the blows, there is no perfect all the time.

If the trust of the Heart Protectors is compromised the love and compassion it can produce are limited. In the Nei Jing, the Heart Protector is referred to as an Ambassador and Protector of the Heart, the official of the center, who guides the subjects and their joys and pleasures, the envelope of the Heart and our source of joy and pleasure.

JR speaks of the Palace of Weariness, “Within it is the Emperor, cocooned and protected by its walls, and its stores feed and sustain the people both within and outside its barriers. When we use points like this on patients whose Fire is ailing, we connect them to the spirit of the Fire Element and all its powers and depth.”

The correspondences of the Fire Element and hence the Heart, Small Intestine, Triple Heater and Heart Protector Officials are:

• Sound: Laughter

• Odor: Scorched

• Season: Summer

• Climate: Hot

• Fortification: Vessels

• Power: Maturity

• Taste: Bitter

• Emotion: Joy or Lack of Joy

• Color: Red

References:

Classical Five Element Acupuncture, Volume 3 by JR Worsley

Personal Class Notes ITEA 2019

The Heart Protector Official by Neil Gumenick