ARROWMAKER'S STORY

The inspiration for Arrowmaker Healing Arts was sown several years ago while sipping tea at a local teahouse in Portland.  Having recently graduated from my Master's program at the Oregon College of Oriental Medicine in 2020 and embarking into a four year doctoral program in California, I reflected on what facets of my Chinese Medicine education represented what I most wanted to express in my future practice. 

The name "arrowmaker" came to me, embodying what it means to me to be an East Asian Medicine practitioner practicing from a classical standpoint. A Chinese Medicine prescription is said to be rooted in the Chinese character fang 方, contextually meaning square or corner, direction, method, upright, honest, or prescription.  The corner between Earth, symbolically represented by the square, and the circular, seasonal and cyclic nature of Heaven, is the imbuement of the Earthly domain with the directional qualities of the Sun.   To prescribe medicine, therefore, is to offer a patient a directional quality or gesture that returns the body and mind to its natural and upright state, in alignment with cosmic order and flow.  This definition guides me in my prescriptions, both with acupuncture and herbal medicine.

​Further inquiry into the cultural and symbolic background of arrowmakers--as people who craft arrows within their respective communities--led me to stories and mythologies defining an arrowmaker as one who harbors qualities of profound mental and spiritual discipline, focus, and clarity, with the arrow itself as a symbol of directionality and purpose. 

And it is with these qualities in mind that I intend to serve the Gorge community.