The Actual Beginnings of Reflexology are Shrouded in Mystery
In this post, we’ll begin to explore the roots of this age old modality.
What we do know is that early history refers to reflexology in China, India, Japan, Egypt, Greece, North Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, the Mediterranean, South America and North America.
Historians tell us that Egyptians practiced both hand and foot reflexology as early as 2500 BC. If you ever travel to Egypt, please visit the burial ground at Saqqara. The Physician’s Tomb there has a famous wall painting showing two people receiving reflexology. One is receiving hand reflexology and the other is receiving foot reflexology. This painting dates back to 2300 BCE.
If you ever visit Japan, be sure to visit the Medicine Teacher Temple in Nara. There you’ll find a stone carving depicting the soles of Buddha’s feet in a carving dating to 790 AD. In Buddhist tradition, the feet (or foot prints) represent his entire being. For centuries after the Buddha’s death, people did not recreate images of the great teacher’s face or body. But, eventually artists began producing images of his feet – representing the whole spiritual being to be revered.
Also, in India there are paintings of Vishnu, the Hindu god’s feet with symbols corresponding to several reflexology points.
By the time these famous wall paintings and carvings came to be a reality, reflexology was already an accepted healing modality in much of the world.
Reflexology has been recorded in ancient Chinese writings describing pressure being applied to fingers and thumbs.
Ayurveda is an ancient Indian form of medicine which is becoming popular in our country. Reflexology is incorporated in Ayurvedic medicine.
In the next blog, I’ll relate recent reflexology history and bring us up to the present.
Thanks for reading this post. Please comment with any questions you have, etc.
Peace and food for all.
Thurman Greco
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