The Five Fires

In Celtic martial systems, emphasis is placed upon five pressure points of the body. These five pressure points consist of four cavities, inside the shoulder joints and the hip joints, and one at the lumbar vertebrae directly opposite the navel. What these cavities do, at shoulders and hips, is to unlock the joints further down the body---the elbows and the knees. It is easy to judge the validity of any martial system by simply watching the adherents of the system. Many renowned practitioners of the martial arts have never actually used any martial technique in close-quarter combat situations, and therefore lack the necessary practical experience of fighting for their own lives and for the lives of others. One of the worse mistakes a practitioner could make is locking the joints of the elbows and knees, as they shall immediately be broken. No joint should ever be locked. Period. Aside from their martial aspects, the energy cannot flow in the body when any joint is locked. It's like a string of lights; by locking a higher joint, energy can't flow to the joints below that joint. So, the cavities at the shoulder and hip joints have to opened (in Celtic martial terminology, their fires must be ignited, must be lit) in order for power to descend throughout the limbs of the body, all four of the limbs. These cavities are like dimples at each of the joints.