Acupuncture took on different forms throughout the ancient world, not only in how the system of specific acupuncture points was defined but also in the methodologies of activating them.

These days, acupuncture is mainly associated with needles, but its origins can be traced back to different cultures and included the art of tattooing, body piercing and stone pressing, as well as other practices.

In Europe, tattoos have been found on mummified humans who lived during the ice age between 3400 and 3100 BCE. Their cross-shaped tattoos were positioned adjacent to acupuncture points known to treat lumbar arthrosis, a condition that humans of that period suffered from. In Tibet, the traditional art of tattooing is still used today. Used with a blend of herbs, tattoos are needled into specific points on the body to aid in natural healing.

In China, acupuncture was believed to have started with Bian stones, which appeared in The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine (an ancient Chinese medical text dated more than two millennia ago). These Chinese stones were believed to hold healing properties and, when sharply pressed into specific acupuncture points, provide health benefits. There are over 30 rare earth and trace elements beneficial to the human body that have been found in these stones, such as strontium, titanium, chromium, manganese and zinc. They have also been proven to create Far Infra-Red (FIR) waves, ultrasound pulses of the therapeutic ultrasound range and negative ions, known to help with antioxidation (anti-aging) in human cells and DNA.

All those in existence have Qi that can resonate with each other.

Qi is fundamental to the Chinese culture, but it can’t be fully translated into one English word. Strictly medically speaking, Qi is a person’s essential life source. It has three origins which include innate Qi, one extracted from food and drink, and one transferred to the lungs by breathing. Qi is everywhere. It is believed that a person who allows the Qui to circulate, protects him or herself from disease.

Meridians are the channels through which Qi is carried around the body, connecting the interior with the exterior. By working with the points on the surface of our bodies, we can impact our internal organs and as a result, treat their imbalances.

The Chinese have a broader definition of Qi: “Everything in the universe, inorganic and organic is composed of and defined by its Qi”. This implies that Qi is not only part of nature and the physical space we live in, but that it is also part of nurture which addresses our emotions. Because life is a balance and our existence can affect those around us, Qi is known to be transforming. This ability to influence each other is called Gan Ying, most commonly translated to mean “resonance”. When something resonates between two particular states and one Qi shares a similar frequency with another, a change occurs. For example, the Qi of illness can be transformed into healthy Qi by a medicine that resonates between two states.

The ancient medicine system went beyond human anatomy and believed in humans’ correlation to the universe.

While everything contains Qi, it’s important to understand that the human body is much more than a single being; It is a representation of the universe.

In The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine, the human is presented as cosmos in miniature, where the human contains channels, the earth is covered waterways and heaven is full of constellations. Where earth has winter and summer, humans have cold and hot. Where heaven has mornings and evenings, humans are asleep or awake. For the Chinese, it’s not only the way to describe the human body, but it’s also the way to explain how the components and forces of the universe (environment, lifestyle activities and medicine) share a resonating frequency that exists in each person.

The Chinese’ understanding of the human and his health was based on astrology and its principles. For example, by looking at the sun, moon, five planets and a person’s time of birth, they could predict a person’s destiny and health.

A numinous force ruled the sun’s path around the earth and also circulated in a network of 12 meridians with around 360 acupuncture points. Each body segment represented 12 Houses of the Chinese zodiac system and consisted of 12 two-hour (30°) divisions of the Ecliptic.

The channel names correspond to their degree of Yin and Yang (from Tai Yang to Jue Yin) and describe the position of the sun and moon.

The five elements or energy types (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal), which describe everything are also used in acupuncture. These correspond with Mercury, Juper, Mars, Saturn and Venus, as well as to the transit positions of these planets in the matching House. Each element can also be represented by a color, direction, season, taste, internal organ, body area, etc.

This astrological approach to the human being (arguing “as above, as below”) was also used in Easter Mediterranean cultures and throughout Northern Europe.

The Emerald Tablet, a section of Corpus Hermetica (written in Hellenistic Egypt in 1 or 3rd century AD) states: “That which is above is from that which is below, and that which is below is from which is above, working the miracles of One.”

Until the 17th century, European physicians practiced this so-called “astrological medicine”. They used planetary transition tables (ephemerides) to predict diseases based on astrological conjunctions, alignments and the angle between planets. According to correlative cosmology, they believed that disease was the outcome of an “interrupted flow of the numinous life force pneuma and an imbalance in four humor-blood, yellow bile, black bile and phlegm”.

Medieval medical manuscripts presented charts of a human body covered with astrological signs (called, “Zodiac Man”) to illustrate their influence on body parts and organs. They also revealed associated bloodletting points, which showed similarities to the Chinese allocation of key acupuncture points (master, command, influential etc.)