Book Review: The Moon over Matsushima – an exhaustive look into moxibustion

Books about moxibustion are few and far between. Up until very recently, I wasn’t aware of any books that covered the topic separately that weren’t just poor translations of Chinese clinical manuals. My dear friend and colleague, @bravethevoid, turned me on to “The Moon Over Matsushima”, Merlin Young’s incredibly refreshing, exhaustively researched, and inspiring take on moxibustion, and after considerable effort (keep reading), I was able to finish it. Here’s some of my thoughts on it, I hope they inspire you to read the book and milk it for all the practical hints and exhaustive knowledge in it. Onward! You can see that Merlin Young loves moxibustion. His “Insights into Moxa and Mugwort” are nothing short of an encyclopedia of knowledge, sympathetic regard, clinical experiences, and research (so much research) conducted into one of the most underused aspects of Chinese medical therapeutics. As anyone who went to Chinese Medicine school knows, moxibustion is “an integral part” of acupuncture therapy, so much so that the Chinese name for the technique is 鍼灸 zhenjiu, which literally translates to “needle and cautery”. We all know this, but how many of us actually use it? The answer is “not very many.” After all, who amongst us wants to apply burning tinder directly to our patients’ skin? The book is divided into five parts. Young starts (“The Roots”) by covering the histor...
Source: Deepest Health: Exploring Classical Chinese Medicine - Category: Alternative Medicine Practitioners Authors: Tags: Acupuncture, Herbs & Other modalities Source Type: blogs