Meridians are much less known than chakras in western occultism. Whether this is due to English orientalism in the 1800s, a sense of Indoeuropean solidarity, or the Chinese government’s cultural decisions of the last century, they simply aren’t discussed in the serious way that chakras are. In fact, the primary demographic of meridians users outside of Asia seems to be anime fans. This is rather strange when one considers that the meridian system is what determines where acupuncture needles are placed. The meridians also don’t seem to be becoming less obscure despite available knowledge increasing due to the internet.
As I mentioned in the last entry, meridians are energy pathways through the body. They’re comparable to blood vessels in both appearance and function with constant energy flow. There are about a dozen major meridians through which the energy usually spelled qi and pronounced chi circulates. The Japanese spelling is ki, off of which is based the term radical ki, which was the topic of an internet community about 20 years ago. The qi that flows through meridians is traditionally considered a lower form of energy and is related to the function of the physical body. East Asian internal alchemy deals with transmuting qi to a spiritual energy in hopes of immortality. Martial arts are supposed to use the meridians too.
I haven’t personally mapped the meridians because it’s complicated and their flow is counterintuitive. They twist around the body and cross over one another. One that goes down the legs wraps around at least once on its way. While chakras are arrayed conveniently, the meridians simply aren’t. Nor do they branch out from a central point like blood vessels do. In traditional drawings they go from one seemingly random organ to another by an inconvenient path, presumably determined by the 5 elements’ correspondence with those organs. The accuracy of this model can be shown in acupuncture, if anyone is willing to test that. I haven’t personally.
For a long time, because they sound silly and because nobody in the west takes them seriously, I didn’t consider their existence seriously. However, supposing there are meridians makes it possible to actually test that. My tulpa and I have both been able to reach a place with the intent to astral project to my meridians. As with chakras, we have no idea whether it’s in the astral realm or elsewhere. When my tulpa is in them, wherever that place actually is, I can feel her moving through my physical body. When I go there I can feel myself as well. These structures are energy pathways, as is obvious when sending energy through them (which conceptually doesn’t require special paths). Because the natural paths we followed mostly match what are called meridians, that’s what I’ve decided to call the structures I observed. So far I’ve only explored a tiny fraction of the pathways, whose dimensions and aesthetic seem to be dependent on personal perception, but the energetic manipulations done inside can be felt physically, leading me to be confident in their genuine existence.
Naturally, modern scholarship is very quick to dismiss the existence of meridians. Wikipedia’s second paragraph on the subject explicitly states they aren’t real (quoting a book called Trick or Treatment, of course). In doing some research for this post I found it quite strange how much emphasis was placed on the incontrovertible unreality of eastern concepts in general. Digging slightly deeper, they admit they simply haven’t tested any of it, which means that declaring it fake is dishonest.
Such things can in fact be scientifically tested, though not necessarily by dissection. Moving energy through the body should allow one to determine a network of passages which can be drawn by somebody with artistic skill. However, it should be noted that there can be other sets of passages which can be used instead of or simultaneously with the meridians. As with chakras, the exact structure probably varies by individual. An acquaintance of mine, for example, figured out a way of moving qi/ki along his skin. Directing energy through such systems seems to reduce the importance of the meridians, but interestingly the people I encounter on the astral plane seem to have more robust meridians than the vast majority of humans.
Most of what I’ve learned about meridians beyond what I’ve written so far is confidential and people will be mad if I share it. But there are some observations that I’ll share since they’re mine. The meridians seem to link to chakras, most notably the zeal chakra at the base of the skull, chakras on the soles of the feet, the fingertips, and the heart chakra. One meridian also touches the base of the kundalini, which leads me to question whether it might be a “meridian” kept secret from the uninitiated (which would be the people who would write books). Taoists were certainly aware of energy traveling up it in sex magic. There’s also a path parallel to the kundalini which transports other energy. Astral projecting into the meridians, one can reach any part of the body and supply it with energy. I have not been successful in using this fact to go super saiyan.
Despite finding meridians real, they haven’t had much impact on my practice and there hasn’t been much that I’ve done with them aside from maintenance. Unlike with chakras I don’t think that meditating on them does much good. Regardless, I hope this has been informative and that you’ll be able to find some utility from the knowledge that I’ve missed. The next installment will cover more details about both energy systems and how they interact.
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