Main menu
You are here
Memorable dynamics of living and dying: Hygeia and Wu Xing
Embodying a Hypercomplex of Unhygienic Nescience (Part #11)
[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]
The cyclic dynamics emphasized above highlight the value of metaphors encompassing such dynamics (Metaphors of Alternation: an exploration of their significance for development policy-making, 1984). This is consistent with the classic text by George Lakoff and Mark Johnson (Metaphors We Live By, 1980). In a cyclic context related emphasis is required on their complement (Metaphors To Die By: correspondences between a collapsing civilization, culture or group, and a dying person, 2013). The following paragraphs are partial extracts from a separate document where the points are developed with more detail (Cycles of enstoning forming mnemonic pentagrams: Hygiea and Wu Xing, 2012).
Health as a verb: As implied by the cyclic emphasis, whether physical or otherwise, it would indeed seem appropriate that "health" should be understood through a verb -- rather than through a noun or static quality as previously argued with respect to other values (Freedom, Democracy, Justice: Isolated Nouns or Interwoven Verbs? Illusory quest for qualities and principles dynamically disguised, 2011; Happiness as a verb -- en-joying as a dynamic? 2011).
The argument is consistent with that relating to the collective health of a society -- as implied by the quest for "sustainability". This could indeed be understood as "collective health" engendered by collective "cognitive health". The phrase mens sana in corpore sano could be usefully reframed and inverted as a "healthy global environment within a healthy global knowledge-based society".
Insights from traditional health pentagrams: There are two classical health patterns based on use of the pentagram in Western and Eastern cultures:
- Hygiea: The Pythagoreans developed an understanding of health which they associated with the form of the pentagram and the Greek goddess Hygiea (also Hygieia or Hygeia) -- the personification of health, cleanliness and sanitation, and the origin of the term "hygiene" [more]. The name of the goddess is alleged to have been used as their primary greeting (perhaps, speculatively, to be considered an origin for "hug"). The snake encircled Bowl of Hygiea has long been used as one of the symbols of pharmacy. Hygiea Internationalis is now the official journal of the International Network for the History of Public Health.
- Wu Xing: This ancient Chinese mnemonic pattern in the form of a pentagram of five phases, or five elements, is widely known in East Asia. It is traditionally associated with Chinese medicine, acupuncture, feng shui, and Taoism.
The pattern is recognized as highlighting a cyclic relationship between the five constituent elements: fire, earth, metal, water and wood. It is the vectors of the "overcoming" or "controlling" cycle which are typically represented as a pentagram. Generative and destructive cycles are shown as clockwise and counter-clockwise circular motion:
| Hugieia Pentagram of Pythagoreans | Chinese 5-phase Wu Xing cycle |
 |  |
| Reproduced from Hygiea entry in Wikipedia (G. J. Allman Greek Geometry From Thales to Euclid, 1889, p.26) with labels added | Adapted from Wu Xing entry in Wikipedia Interaction arrows: black=generating; white= overcoming |
Despite the use of a metaphorical language in the above schematics, there is a case for exploring the "superimposition" of the schematic on the phase diagram presented earlier in order to highlight the systemic relationship between the phases. Of particular interest with respect to argumentation, is the manner in which these schematics call into question the language used above. "Bonding" and "connectivity" can then be understood as frames, in the "solid" terminological framework of science, misleadingly applied to "liquid" and "gaseous" phases of argumentation. Within the latter phases (and others), "bonding" and "connectivity" are experienced otherwise -- although use of the metaphor is indicative in the absence of adequate language. For example, a language of flow (or process) would be more valuable -- to the extent that this was available and enabled communication.
Static symbols of health: The Bowl of Hygiea is the most widely recognized international symbol for the profession of pharmacy today. Hygiea, the daughter of Aesclepius (Aesculapius) and the goddess of health, is usually depicted with a serpent around her arm and a bowl in her hand because she tended to the temples containing the snakes of the time. The bowl is held to contain a medicinal potion with the serpent of wisdom (or guardianship) partaking of it -- the same serpent of wisdom, which appears on the Rod of Aesclepius, namely the symbol of medicine central to the emblem of the World Health Organization.
The serpent and the bowl have since been separated from Hygiea herself -- now implicit, present in name alone -- to form the internationally recognized symbol of pharmacy (cf. Ettie Rosenberg, Bowl of Hygiea). The bowl represents a medicinal potion, and the snake represents healing -- wrapped in one manner or another around it. Healing through medicine is precisely why pharmacy adopted the symbol, notably by the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1964.
| Bowl of Hygiea one of the symbols of pharmacy. | Rod of Asclepius central to the emblem of the World Health Organization |
 |  |
| Reproduced from Wikipedia entry | Reproduced from Wikipedia entry |
The emblem of the World Health Organization consists of the United Nations symbol (incorporating a laurel wreath "clasping" a sphere) surmounted by the Rod of Aesclepius, a Greek deity associated with healing and medicine. The staff with the snake has long been a symbol of medicine and the medical profession. This is frequently confused with the staff of the god Hermes, the caduceus, most notably within the US military (cf. Caduceus as a symbol of medicine) [see also The Caduceus vs the Staff of Asclepius]. As the body responsible for global public health, WHO imposes considerable restrictions on any use of its emblem (which has therefore not been reproduced here). The staff is visually reminiscent of the stem of the Bowl of Hygiea. The Wikipedia entry offers extensive commentary on various interpretations of the symbolism of the "rod" -- readily to be understood as a staff of office.
The recognized confusion between the rod of Aesclepius and the caduceus of Hermes is suggestive of a need to recognize a degree of association -- in cognitive terms -- between a reframed understanding of "health" and a reframed understanding of governance appropriate to "sustainability" in a knowledge-based society. There is a degree of irony to the parallel between the quest for eternal youth (if not immortality) associated with "health" and that for the "eternal" duration of civilizations and empires, especially when framed in terms of "growth" and "wealth".
Of particular interest are the contrasting implications regarding self-reflexivity between the two cases. This can be understood as strongly implied by the image on the left -- with the snake peering into the bowl. This is consistent with critical self-examination in the case of health -- or dubious aspirations to it ("in one's cups", etc). Such a self-reflexive dynamic is not evident in the image on the right -- consistent with a lack of self-examination with respect to the health of governnce.
Internal alchemy and the Eight Principles of Yong in the light of Chinese calligraphy: Of potentially remarkable relevance is the thinking with regard to the elaboration of the most aesthetic form of a Chinese character (as in widely practiced Chinese calligraphy), using eight common strokes in regular script, according to the 8 Principles of Yong.
This is illustrated with the character yong, signifying "forever" or "permanence". In Japan the principles (and the associated 72 types of "brush energy") were the focus of the Daishi school of calligraphy associated with Kukai. There is clearly a strong case for exploring what is understood by yong in relationship to "sustainability" -- as it is now so widely used with respect to strategic issues of governance. Of particular relevance with respect to calligraphy are the cognitive and philosophical associations in the process of elaborating a character, as cultivated within the Zen tradition.
The directionality associated with the strokes of the Eight Principles of Young can be speculatively contrasted with that of the alternative Bagua arrangements -- as presented below. This could be done through the metaphors through which the directions are traditionally distinguished. It is appropriate to note that the Bagua "categories" are recognized as having specific correspondences to the experience of the phases of states of matter in the environment.
| Bagua Earlier Heaven Arrangement | Eight Principles of Yong (animation of stroke order) | Bagua Later Heaven Arrangement |
 |  |  |
| Images from Wikipedia; experimental animations of the Bagua arrangements are presented separately (Animation of Classical BaGua Arrangements: a dynamic representation of Neti Neti, 2008) | ||
These considerations might prove to be fruitfully associated to those of Neidan, namely the cognitive processes of internal alchemy, traditionally relating to the quest for "immortality" -- perhaps to be understood in terms of those required for "sustainability". Of particular interest, in her introduction to Neidan, Robinet cites Li Daochun in explaining that there are two directions. One of them follows the ordinary course and goes toward the end: it is the "operation" (yong), the actuation. The other goes backward, and consists in returning to the Origin: it is the "substance" or the "body" (ti) of all things.
If you know the origin and ignore the end, you cannot expand; if you know the end and ignore the origin, you cannot attain the foundation of subtlety. Those who go back to the Origin are vaguely and indistinctly joined with the Ultimateless; those who go to the end are born, transform themselves, and die endlessly. Going backward and going forward are necessary to one another, because the origin and the end are not two.
Robinet then remarks that the ordinary persons who "follow the course" generate other beings. The seekers of immortality, who go backward, generate an embryo of immortality within themselves. They self-regenerate.
In pointing to the mnemonic potential of these patterns, the purpose is primarily to indicate a suggestive possibility for exploration rather than to highlight a definitive relationship. Juxtaposing fundamental patterns of insight of Eastern and Western cultures might be understood as offering a requisite degree of "polyocular" depth perception (Enhancing the Quality of Knowing through Integration of East-West metaphors, 2000). This is a theme developed by Magoroh Maruyama (Polyocular Vision or Subunderstanding, Organization Studies, 2004).
Mnemonic possibilities towards cognitive health in cyclic terms: For the purpose of this argument, the question is whether the image of the snake and the bowl can be used as an evocative (even provocative) mnemonic device to carry further significance in relation to sustaining a healthy cognitive system, its integrity, and any processes of corrective healing.It is readily acknowledged that physical health is dependent on a set of interacting circulatory systems (blood, lymph, air, nerve impulses, etc). The question is whether cognitive health merits similar recognition. The following possibilities could be considered:
- Cyclic nature of health from cognitive perspective: This has been discussed further in relation to the traditional Taoist understanding of the "circulation of the light" (cf. Circulation of the Light: essential metaphor of global sustainability? 2010). It is appropriate to note the importance attached to the pentagram in the western neo-pagan tradition -- especially given the attentive engagement with the natural environment in that tradition, offering a degree of bridging to the feng shui insights of Taoism relating to the environment.
- Forms of enstoning as phases in a cyclic enwholing process: Use of the "bowl" might itself imply a 5-stage process discussed in the extended version (Imagination, dreams, drugs and imbibing / Promise, potential, possibility and pattern / Rocks and rockets / Memorials and monuments / Petrification and entombment). In the cycle, the last then engenders the first -- objectivity "re-cognized" and reframed experientially.
- Recognizing the systemic cycle implied by the snake: As represented in the two images above, there is little sense of the dynamic in which the snake is engaged. In both cases the image is essentially asystemic, whether or not systemic connectivity is variously implied. Further possibilities include:
- the circular stirring motion associated with appropriately mixing ingredients through that motion (in the bowl)
- the completion of the cycle by the snake to form an Ouroboros, implying a higher order of sustainability and cognitive integrity
- the implication that the snake enables and embodies circulation, as explored with respect to the above-mentioned "circulation of the light"
- the potential of any "connection" between head and tail of the snake -- especially with the head depicted as peering into the bowl -- as an indication of self-reflexivity (as previously discussed)
- Engaging with a "cosmic serpent": In a period of global environmental concern in which one preoccupation is possible disruption to the world-encircling thermohaline circulation -- the ocean conveyor -- its serpentine pattern is fruitfully echoed by the serpent in both images. This mythological theme, otherwise recognized as the Rainbow Serpent, has been extensively explored by Jeremy Narby (The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the origins of knowledge, 1995) in the light of insights from the Ashaninca, through their ingestion of entheogens, specifically ayahuasca (by which they are ritually "stoned"). As Narby argues, the serpent offers mnemonic clues to the form and dynamic of DNA. The pentagram of Hygiea might even be considered indicative of an axial view of its structure (as mentioned above in terms of a decagon).
Given the currently evident global financial crisis and that of the eurozone, it is appropriate to recognize that the serpent metaphor, in the form of the "snake in the tunnel", was the first attempt at European monetary cooperation in the 1970s. It aimed at limiting fluctuations between different European currencies. Controlling serpentine fluctuations is currently a design preoccupation in the control of circulating nuclear plasma in fusion reactors -- seen as a key resource for future energy needs. Both suggest analogues of relevance to cognitive health (Primary Global Reserve Currency: the Con? Cognitive implications of a prefix for sustainable confidelity, 2011; Enactivating a Cognitive Fusion Reactor: Imaginal Transformation of Energy Resourcing (ITER-8), 2006)
The above possibilities contrast curiously with the emphasis on health as a state rather than a process. For the World Health Organization: Health is a state of complete of physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity. The contrasting view has been notably articulated by Pierre Morin (Health as a Process: believing in change as healing and that healing is change, Creative Healing Blog, 2012): Health is not a state, but a process which is guided by a norm or standard which when threatened stimulates our awareness and motivates us to change.
[Parts: First | Prev | Next | Last | All] [Links: To-K | From-K | From-Kx | Refs ]
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
For further updates on this site, subscribe here