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Chinese Five Elements:

The Season of Metal

by Karen Shaw

Metal  Element-LargeMetal is the element of the season of Autumn. Metal is the inspiration, the breathing into our physical bodies the “Gift of Anterior Heaven” upon our birth, our first breath. Metal is concerned with first and last moments, entrances and exitings, inspiration and closure. It is the quality of what our lives can hold and become. The stillpoint of Earth gives way to the descending energy of Fall. Nature around us has begun the descent within, and our Energy mirrors that descent. We are stopped and momentarily returned to the inside. We are meant to take time, to go within, to discern what is of value and to let go of that which does not serve.


Physically, the Metal Element governs the Organ Systems of the Lung and the Large Intestine. Like a deep breath itself, the Lung Meridian begins deep in our chest, goes up and then down in a long decent to the nail point on our thumb. The Large Intestine Meridian begins on our index finger goes up our arm, along the side of our neck, ending next to our nostril. These two Organ Systems govern so much more than our basic Western idea of the Lung and Large Intestine.


The sum of our breaths is the beginning and ending of life. To inhale deeply allows us to participate fully in life, to know the rhythmic processes of life. Our independent existence begins and ends with the breath. It is the Art of the Lung to live each breath fully.


The Metal Element honors the Sacred in every aspect of day to day living. Each task becomes ritual, each responsibility becomes ceremony. There is a connection to the heavens that permeates all that is done. The Earth Element pertained to our Mother with all the groundedness and nurturance we needed. The Metal Element pertains to the Father, the heavenly aspect of our being. It is literally our inspiration from above and from all around us. We breathe in our connection to the Universe and our Guidance. This is the loftiness, the ideal, the quality that the Metal element strives for: this level of Spiritual connection.


We feel this yearning as a poignancy of each passing moment in this season of Autumn, this season of the Metal element. We feel in our hearts what is vital to our being, vital to our life, vital to our journey. We respond by honoring what we have that is precious to us, what we have accomplished that is our Soul’s path, and letting go of that which does not serve us. We grieve the losses as we let them go. The grief process being a cleansing that allows us to bare down our lives so that we may enter into the Winter and into rest.


What are some of the ways we can know the Metal Element within us and within our lives?


We can recognize our reality. Metal can be very exacting, and when it is distressed we see everything in absolutes and extremes. Our vocabulary reflects this with the words “always” and “never” and such punctuating each statement.


We can create ritual, and honor that which we do day to day.


We can learn to trust the Earth’s seasons and allow Nature’s seasons to teach us beauty in our transience.


We can recognize that the processes of the Metal Element within us do not like to be rushed. They need to be ALLOWED to be fully experienced.


We can give space to what is, allow the bittersweet edge of life, let go and simply accept.


We can know our breath and thus truly know the rhythmic process of life.


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