Meridian Archetypes Part 15: The Healer
Cultures around the world revere healers for their ability to understand and transform pain into wellness. In Infinity’s meridian archetypes, thymus energy is represented by the healer. But healing isn’t about one person making another well. Instead, the healer facilitates an individual’s journey to wellness, providing support and connecting them to Source.
The healer archetype has many faces and combines several major archetypes including the coach, counselor, guide, medicine man, wise woman, wounded healer, and shaman.
To find the thymus energy within yourself, you need to look at your relationship with the healing arts.
Do you often sacrifice your health and wellness in the face of others’ pain?
Are you drawn toward healing professions, such as a doctor, massage therapist, nurse, or therapist?
Are you in tune with what feels healthy for you, including the foods that your body likes and the type of exercise that suits you best?
Unlike the other meridian archetypes, the thymus doesn’t directly correspond to a meridian in Traditional Chinese medicine. However, the thymus and its balancing meridian the appendix both play an important role in immunity.
Whatever the status of the thymus in Chinese and modern medicine, strengthening and stretching the meridian will give you access to the energy of the healer archetype. This article will also help you correct imbalances in the lats and delts.
To better understand the thymus’ place in our series, we will examine its western medicine functions, eastern medicine functions, archetypes, common imbalances, and exercises to restore the healthy flow of the meridian.
Western Medicine Immunity: The Thymus’ Role
The thymus is primarily active during childhood. It creates adaptive and smart immune responses to defend the body against outside pathogens. As we approach adulthood, immunity is fully operational and the thymus reduces in size. Eventually, it becomes little more than residual fatty tissue in the upper chest behind the breast bone.
While it’s active, the thymus gland trains lymphocytes from your bone marrow into more specialized white blood cells called T-cells. Once mature, the T-cells travel throughout the body to the organs related to the immune system including the lymph nodes and spleen. Once there, they are directed by the immune organs to any area of the body where disease or infection is detected.
Modern medicine does not fully understand why the thymus shrinks with age. Some studies speculate that free radical damage which occurs as we age impedes the thymus’ ability to protect the body. Others believe that it’s related to the decline of sex hormones that naturally happens in the later stages of life.
Some holistic medicine practitioners speculate that the increasing reliance on modern medicine for immune health has led to the atrophy of the thymus gland in adults. If that is the case, what does that mean for the future of the healer archetype?
Another possible explanation is the lack of available nutritional content in the United States due to the plethora of genetically modified foods.
More study is needed into the purpose the thymus serves during adulthood as well as why it becomes less active as we age.
Thymus Exercises
Beginner
Kneeling Crossbody Pull Downs
Intermediate
Wall Roll Downs
Advanced
Tricep Dips (fingers facing toward feet, to the side, and backward)
Shoulder Stand
The Guiding Light: Connection to Universal Energy with the Healer Archetype
Other Archetypes: Coach, Counselor, Guide, Medicine Man, Wise Woman, the Wounded Healer, and Shaman
The thymus personality links intuitively to the universal energy wellspring, referred to as Source Energy. For this reason, the thymus is represented by the healer archetype in the meridian archetypes series.
Source is the wellspring of energy that connects all of humanity and contains the blueprint for wellness according to your highest potential. Healers tap into Source to help people heal – acting as a conduit to allow them to facilitate their own healing.
Thymus energy also fuels the world of health and fitness. People with healthy thymus energy are attracted to diet culture, regular exercise, and mind-body practices like yoga. Their innate understanding of health and interest in healing usually draws people with this energy toward the fields of medicine, psychology, and holistic wellness.
Like all archetypes, the healer has positive and negative attributes. Their empathy makes them the most understanding of the meridian archetypes, but can also be their downfall. They may take the pain and suffering of others into their own bodies, resulting in illness and fatigue. Active work to protect your energetic body is necessary for anybody who works with healer energy.
The thymus’ ability to understand body and mind makes it easy for them to manipulate others. A shadow healer doesn’t want their patient to get well and will only give them enough information to keep them coming back for more.
Traditional Chinese Medicine and Immunity
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) supports the immune system by triggering essential immune functions and suppressing harmful processes that cause imbalance and disease. For example, acupuncture stimulates the immune cells and organs while fighting inflammation, allergies, and autoimmune disorders.
Your immune system’s number one job is to return the body to homeostasis. The other meridians in the meridian archetypes series all connect directly to well-known systems in western and eastern medicine. However, the thymus meridian isn’t directly represented in Traditional Chinese medicine.
While the thymus is mentioned in Chinese medicine texts, it doesn’t have a meridian line. Similar to western medicine, the thymus has connections to the immune system but also to the digestive system. Treatment of the meridian is essential for balance within the body.
Thymus energy can be influenced using other channels, notably, it responds well to manipulation via the spleen meridian. TCM sees the body as a whole and treats the immune system as it relates to other problems – physical, emotional, or spiritual. Therefore, a smooth and flowing thymus meridian is essential to wellness.
Learn more about how you can support immunity at Infinity Flexibility in this article.
Healing with the Healer: A Thymus Case Study
“Our wounds are often the openings into the best and most beautiful part of ourselves.” David Richo
Pain isn’t revered or sought after, but it’s an inevitable part of life. The real power in pain is the lesson that can be learned when we heal it. Thymus energy helps us to recognize the resistance that often precedes pain.
For example, one of our patients was a D1 soccer player in college. However, after one semester or two, he recognized that he wouldn’t be able to perform academically at the level he wanted to get the education he desired.
He gave up soccer to focus on his studies – a decision guided by his ability to see the healing path. Although he loved soccer, he never regretted the decision to focus more attention on his studies. The internal conflict was easily resolved because of his ability to know and do what was best for himself.
In the past, people looked for answers to wellness outside themselves. The pain was inherited or a product of their environment. And if they got well, the doctor or nurse received all the credit for healing them.
But how much healing comes from within?
We know that when people are loved and supported, they are more likely to survive life-threatening diseases. When a spouse dies, the life expectancy of their other half decreases dramatically – often called the widowhood effect. In general, emotional health and wellness are integral to healing.
Knowing yourself and seeing the path to wellness is an important part of healing. As one of the physical types, thymus energy is responsible for the decisions you make on the journey to wellness.
Looking Ahead
The final meridian in the Meridian Archetype series is the thymus’ balancing meridian – the appendix. The appendix is often considered a residual organ in western medicine, only acknowledged when it causes a problem. This meridian is represented by the archetype of the sage.
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