WINDOWS TO THE SKY - KEY POINTS IN THE NECK
"Just as sure as we're living, just as sure as you're born
Look up, look up, seek your Maker 'fore Gabriel blows his horn."
~Bob Dylan
The human face is home to the infinite variety of human expressions and facial gestures. It is as well the entryway for sensory impressions through our eyes, nose, mouth and ears. And behind and above the face rests our brain, home to the infinite variety of thoughts, dreams, memories, anatomical and physiological control and awareness , both conscious and unconscious.
Above the cranium of course lies heaven. No matter what we do or don't believe, when we need inspiration often we look up to the sky for guidance or insight. Commonly we don’t look down for inspiration.
However, when we look down, we do see, can come to understand, and more deeply appreciate what supports our face, cranium, and brain from below – namely the neck. This cervical region is also the passageway for breath, song, and the expression of heartfelt feeling. From a Western anatomical standpoint it is wondrous to reflect upon the graceful curve of the cervical vertebrae and the throat with its passageway for breath and nourishment. Here reside as well the thyroid and parathyroid glands. Then there are the 26 muscles (also 26 bones in the foot and letters in the alphabet - what is it about 26?) that support and uplift the 10+ pounds of the head on rather delicate structures that allow us to swallow, to vocalize, and to sing.
While there is a usefulness to Western anatomical nomenclature, eastern anatomy commonly displays a much more vivid imagination in their choice of anatomical names. They often hint at the spirit of the point or the meridian or the locus on the body and its role in our lives.
The back of the neck is home to, among other points, ones that are sometimes grouped together as among the “Windows to the Sky”. These points and their names direct us toward appreciating the higher existential purposes of the neck:
• Wind Mansion
• Gates of Consciousness
• Heavenly Pillar
• Heavenly Window
• Celestial Windows
• Shoulder Well
1. GV 16 - Wind Mansion Wind Palace (in center just below occiput)
2. GB 20 – Gates of Consciousness (Just below occiput, immediately lateral to the trapezius)
3. B 10 - Heavenly Pillar (aka Wind Pillar, Celestial Pillar) (just below C1 in middle of the belly of the trapezius)
4. TW 16 Heavenly Window (On the posterio-inferior depression of the mastoid process)
5. SI 16 Celestial Windows (along superior posterior aspect of sternocleidomastoid, level with Adam’s apple)
6. GB 21 – Shoulder Well (in middle of the belly of trapezius, near the base of the neck and the “roof” of the thorax)
In terms of soft tissues these largely overlap with
1. Nuchal ligament / rectus capitis posterior minor
2. Rectus capitis posterior major
3. Trapezius (and, deep to it, semispinalis capitis)
4. Insertion of sternocleidomastoid (SCM)
5. Halfway up SCM
6. Middle of belly of trapezius
These points help remind us that, along with Ida Rolf’s dictum, “gravity is the therapist”, it is equally true that “grace is the therapist.” Through the freed neck and head, we have amplified access to that grace and inspiration from above that helps lift our lives and concerns to things of a higher order.
Be encouraged to help your clients by paying your respects with high quality work for these vital places within us.
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