LIV-14 Qimen - Gate of Hope

Gate of Hope is the Exit point of the Liver and the last gate of the Qi cycle, which begins anew at the Lung, the way one year's end opens onto the next. Opening up the gate brings renewed hope. On the Liver it comes closer than any other point to being a Window point, a powerful spirit point giving hope and vision when a person has given up on the future. Think of it also as a gate of frustration, when a person cannot get what they want. It is the gate that must open for a person to enter the Middle Palace (LU-1); blocked here, they cannot hope to reach that palace, their own center, the god inside. It smooths and opens the Qi, relieves stagnation and empowers the quality of aspiration, bringing hope for the future, the hope of getting on. At the treetop the branches reach up toward Heaven, represented by this point's Entry-Exit link to LU-1, so it speaks to both aspiration (Liver) and inspiration (Lungs). It has a very distinctive gloomy quality: anger and hopelessness turned inward, dark clouds and a negative future with no hope.

Location: On the paramedian nipple line, at the rib cage's lower border, at a height midway between REN-11 and REN-12.
Needle depth: 4 fen
Moxa: 5-7 cones

• When there is total resignation and the patient is on the point of giving up
• When the person sees no birth and no growth and has no wish to plan ahead
• When there is mental torture and shutting off
• When there is no elation and no fulfillment: they are achieving, yet every achievement feels empty
• When a person is unable to conceive of plans, or has nothing in their life to look forward to
• When there is difficulty seeing life's possibilities and no sense of direction
• When the Liver has lost its relationship with the Stomach, with hopelessness, no sense of newness, and a feeling that things never change
• When the spirit is stuck, alone, rejected, empty and hopeless, unable to see a harvest: "I'll deal with tomorrow"
• When the person sees no light at the tunnel's end and needs to keep their eyes on the future with optimism
• When the door is jammed open, with rages, anger and chaotic actions (sedate), or shut, with no desire and no will (tonify)

• LIV-13 Chapter Gate with LIV-14: one gate after another; open them together
• LIV-1 Great Esteem with LIV-14: the meridian's two end points, combined for mental stagnation with difficulty seeing life's possibilities
• LIV-13 Chapter Gate with LIV-14: also when someone keeps making the same mistake, leading to disappointment
• LIV-1 Great Esteem with LIV-14: to integrate lofty vision (LIV-14) with fundamental vision (LIV-1)
• LU-1 Middle Palace with LIV-14, Liver to Lung Entry/Exit block: a hard block from Wood to Metal. Wood is stuck, frustrated and clinging to anger and resentment, and giving Metal still does not control Wood. The person feels terrible about themselves, with unresolved anger and an inability to enter the loss behind a chronic frustrating situation or let go of grief, and beneath the frustration a deeper longing or emptiness

• Exit point and Alarm (Front Mu) point of the Liver
• Treating the Liver to Lung block can clear the stagnation of repressed anger and empower the Lung's work of grieving and processing tender feelings, so a lost relationship can be properly mourned; it is often seen after divorce, when tender feelings pushed down meet rising anger and stagnate in the middle and upper burners. An inflated pulse at the diaphragm position may point to stagnant Qi, heat, or both