Pt.1
Ben: So Gabriella, what are the Five Elements?!
Gabriella: The Five Elements are Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal. These each represent one quality or expression of energy. The Chinese described the elements as phases, most easy to recognise when we look at the seasons. Each element corresponds not only to a season but to a multitude of other qualities found in nature, which means, these qualities are also found in us. Can you tell us why that is Ben?
Ben: Because we’re beings of nature!
Gabriella: You’re getting closer to that gold star Ben!
Ben: Yay!
Gabriella: For the purpose of explaining the concept of the five elements, today I will just talk about the seasons, to provide an overview, setting the stage for delving deeper into each one in the next season
Ben: Next season? Do we have to wait until Spring then?
Gabriella: I mean the next season of our podcast, Ben! Because (cue sad violin music) … today is the last episode of our first season.
Ben: Oh no it’s not! You’re going to have to answer our listeners’ questions before you’re off the hook for this season Gabriella!
Gabriella: Oh yes, now our listeners get to be infuriating too! Anyway, as I was saying, it’s not too long to wait until season 2 and you know what, it may just about be spring by then. So, getting back to talking about the seasons…
Ben: But wait a minute, what does all of this talk of seasons have to do with Five Element Acupuncture?
Gabriella: Remember last episode I quoted my late father-in-law - who said you have to build the foundations before you can build the roof? This podcast is designed to start at the very basics and build up. I cannot explain the profound depth of an acupuncture point if we haven’t got the foundations upon which this system of medicine is built in place.
So, you’ll start to gain an understanding of the significance of the seasons by the end of this episode. It’s the foundation on which we’ll build as you learn more about how these seemingly external energies are actually the foundation of our own health! And it all starts with the seasons. Observing the unique qualities of each one will help us understand the differences between each element, or phase of energy, and how each of these different energies manifests in our bodies.
Ben: I’m familiar with the seasons, this sounds like an easier one than last time that’s for sure! Let’s get going then!
Gabriella: As I was saying… each element corresponds to a season, when nature responds to the qualities of that element. Water is expressed in Winter, Wood in Spring, Fire in Summer, Earth in Late Summer, and Metal in Autumn.
Nature is our biggest teacher. Let’s acknowledge that nature is not something we’ve invented, it existed before us and will exist after us. We observe it, we don’t - and we can’t give it its rules. It is greater than us and yet we are a part of it. Humans, or homo sapiens is…
Ben: You’re going all Latin, Gabriella…
Gabriella: Alea iacta est, Ben
Ben: Ah, you took the words right out of my mouth!…
Gabriella: (sigh) You monkey! Homo Sapiens. Us! We are the most common and widespread species of primate. We may live lives with all the unnatural trappings of modern times, but, much as we’d like to think otherwise, we are part of nature.
Ben: You wouldn’t think it, the way we treat this planet…
Gabriella: Excellent point Ben. We are all not just witnessing, we’re facing the consequences of what happens to nature when we upset its balance. Global warming doesn’t just mean British summers are hotter…our Autumns are longer and later, and we have more flooding, to name just a few consequences. So upsetting nature’s balance within us - could lead to us having symptoms not unlike the effects global warming has on the planet - remember, we are the microcosm of the macrocosm! So, that could mean we’re feeling hotter (hot flushes), or our digestive system could become more sluggish (constipation) or we become water-logged (with oedema) to name a few examples. We’ll learn more about imbalance as we go along, but, let’s start by looking at nature in balance and in particular the seasons of the five elements, as the five different phases of energy give each season its unique qualities. Ben, you’re twitching, I can already sense a burning question. Go on then, ask it!
Ben: But um Gabriella, I thought there were only 4 seasons!
Gabriella: I knew you’d say that! Well that’s what us in the West have recognised. But the Chinese say there is a fifth and distinct season. That time of year when it’s not really summer any more and it’s not really autumn. We call it Late Summer, or perhaps Harvest is a good name for it. ‘We plough the fields and scatter’ kind of time. Let’s hold back and talk more about Late Summer as we go through each season, but for now, can somebody tell Vivaldi he needs to get back to the drawing board and bung in that fifth season?
Ben: Bet you’re about to tell me there’s a 10th planet now and we should resurrect Holst to compose that final piece of his Planets Suite too?
Gabriella: No Ben. We’re not changing the number of planets…Now, as we all know, the cycle of nature (just like we said of the Tao) has no beginning and no end. The Earth never stops in its tracks on its orbit around the sun. Changes in temperature and climate, depending on where you are in the world, create our seasons. One season flows into the next and exists by virtue of what has come before.
So it doesn’t really matter where I start or finish as it will always come full circle. But I can’t talk about them all at once as that would just be confusing. So let’s start somewhere and end somewhere, remembering that there is no beginning and no end.
Ben: Okay with that in mind, let’s begin somewhere…
Gabriella: Great plan, so let’s start with winter. Arguably the least popular time of year, although I love it.
The days are shorter. The sun is at its lowest in the sky. Nature is stripped bare, the silhouettes of leafless trees emphasise the stark landscape. With less sunlight and colder temperatures, nature knows this is a time to rest. Just like we need a few hours sleep every day, nature needs to take a rest before normal service is resumed in the spring.
Ben: Does that mean that nothing is happening in winter?
Gabriella: From outside appearances, that may seem to be the case, but, to quote Aristotle, ‘Nature abhors a vacuum’. I’m not a physicist, but I can translate that in our terms, this implies that there is never a moment of complete stillness and inaction. Just like in our bodies, important processes continue while we sleep - our hearts can’t take the night off, they still have to beat! And what about the constant action of the lungs, we can’t survive more than a very few minutes without taking a breath! Not to mention our livers, kidneys and what about our brains, dreaming away, subconsciously working all sorts of things out while we sleep (hopefully) in peace. In the same way, there is always something happening in nature during Winter, even if it’s not outwardly visible. While growth is minimised, the rains, snows and frosts of winter perform a cleansing process, levelling out last year’s debris, transforming it into useful matter, reserves for what’s to come. So, nature both draws on reserves in order to survive winter, and also creates reserves in order to sustain.
Let’s think about some of the qualities of Yin, as winter is said to be the most Yin of the seasons. Yin is quiet, still, dark, hidden, cold, damp, low. Winter has predominantly more of these qualities than other times of year. A tree without leaves isn’t a dead tree, it has to circulate enough nutrients to keep it alive. It has to carefully allocate reserves to create buds that will burst out in spring. We can’t really see all this from the outside, but that doesn’t mean to say it’s not happening. Spring doesn’t just burst out randomly on a particular day at a particular time, nature has been quietly preparing for it throughout the winter.
One of the questions I ask when I first meet a new patient is “is there a season you like or dislike?” It’ll come as no surprise that winter gets the most votes for ‘dislike’. “Why don’t you like winter?” I ask. Usually the answer is something like ‘because it’s cold and dark and the days are short.’ Some people say they like winter, because they can make themselves cosy, and describe being all wrapped up in warm, comforting clothes sitting by a log fire, or for most of us these days with the heating on making our home warm and cosy.
Meanwhile, out there in nature, enduring the harsh, cold environment are seeds in the ground. Birds, animals and insects are lying low, either hibernating or engaging in just enough activity to sustain life. As days start to get longer and the colder temperatures gradually thaw, nature starts to stir. And as momentum picks up, so nature bursts out, up towards the light and the warmth. It’s as if the downwards, levelling force of winter has compressed the coils of a spring, it can resist no more and bursts upward. Spring is springing! The time of year when nature goes bonkers. Out of the quiet and still of winter bursts the noise and exuberance of spring. There’s a beautiful scene in Disney’s Fantasia, showing a wood nymph painting colour back into the landscape after the monochrome of winter. Spring! Spring flowers, spring lambs! Frog spawn in ponds, chicks in nests, ducklings, goslings, cygnets. Anything and everything is being born, hatching or pushing out of the ground. New birth, new growth, new generation: in short, hope after barren times.
Ben: But I was born in November….
Gabriella: Well, humans seem to give birth all year round…I wonder why that is! Anyway, a dear friend of mine has often said that for him, the most disappointing season is spring! Why, I wonder? Because, he says, it’s full of promise that never quite fulfils. Well, that may be because spring isn’t about fulfilment, its very purpose IS the promise of things to come. Looking forward, looking to the future. Remember when you were a kid, you longed for the next birthday so you could say you were a year older? The pride on your 8th birthday when you no longer had to say you were 7? Oh, 8 is SO much more grown up! That little bit taller, that little bit more able, perhaps allowed to stay up that little bit longer! You’d left 7 behind and had moved that little bit further towards being grown up. Adults may wish to regain their lost youth, but kids rarely want to stay a kid forever. They hopefully enjoy the moment but look to what the future can bring, when they are an adult. Just as spring is the planting of a new seed that will feed us at harvest time, or the hatching of a chick that will fledge in the summer.
Ben: Ooh summer! My favourite!
Gabriella: Yes and no prizes for guessing what always comes up as the most popular season when I ask if there’s a season you particularly like or dislike! The very thought of the summer, the zenith of the cycle of nature, seems to bring joy and warmth to the hearts of most. And with good reason! The sun is at its highest in the sky, the days are at their longest. Nature at its peak after the upwards movement of spring, has expanded and stretched outwards. Flowers bloom, crops grow, and we can sit back and enjoy the party!
I lived in Nepal for a few years in my 20s. I had a jewellery workshop, manufacturing designs that I sold worldwide. In certain months, work often ground to a halt, because there was always a festival or a wedding to go to. And in other months, there were no festivals or weddings at all. There’d be a glut of them in between the spring and the harvest. The time when the planting had been done and patience was required to allow the crops to mature before the hard work of reaping the harvest would begin. People would sit back, relax, and have a party or ten!
And here is when nature is having its own party. The glorious colours of the flowers, the lush canopies of green leaves, bright turquoise dragonflies lazily buzzing over ponds. The laughter and chatter of people coming together, in parks, or cafés with tables on the streets, or a family barbecue. The Yang to winter’s Yin, everything out there on display, strutting its stuff. The light and warmth brings us outdoors, encouraging community and connection, love for others and for the world around us. Life is good!
Pt.2
Ben: So what’s this mysterious fifth season then?
Gabriella: So let’s move into that golden time of year that the Chinese call late summer. By golden, I mean that rich glow of the sun at this time of year, bathing fields of golden wheat, the ripe heads bowing under their weight. Trees in orchards full of juicy fruit, vines offering plump bunches of grapes. If summer was nature’s party, the time has come to harvest nature’s feast, the gift of Mother Earth. Back in Nepal, no festivals take place at this time and no weddings allowed in these weeks. The serious work of gathering crops takes over.
It’s a time of satisfaction and fullness, the completion and fulfilment of the promise of spring. Care must be given to what can be stored and preserved in order to get through the coming months of austerity, and what can be feasted upon to give extra fuel stores for the winter months. Ok, so in the modern world we have fast ways to ship foods from one part of the world to another, but I’m talking about times when we couldn’t do this, or the many parts of the world whose people still can’t afford to, and in more recent times of those few of us who think about the impact shipping food from one side of the planet to the other has on the environment. Out there in nature, animals and birds feast on the bounty, some even clever enough to hide away tasty meals like nuts and seeds, they too stocking up for the coming months (as long as they remember whey they buried them!)
Ben: I’ve still got a Snickers from last year hidden at the back of my snack cupboard…
Gabriella: Are you a squirrel then Ben? So, Autumn is the point in the year when it’s time to let go of what is no longer necessary. The warmth and light of summer has gone, the abundance of harvest has been feasted upon or stored, the chill of winter is on the horizon. Skies grow grey, daylight and temperature decrease rapidly, leading to nature’s final display of glorious colour as leaves turn to red, golden brown and yellow. Trees stop sending nutrition to their leaves - not needed in winter - which in turn dry up and die, falling to the ground where the process of rotting will begin, so returning nutrients to the soil. Many people turn inward at this time of year, both physically and mentally. A nostalgic longing for days gone by. But without this purge of all that isn’t vital to survival over the coming austere months, how would there be room for the new when nature is ready to burst into action at the return of spring?
Nowadays we’re obsessed with sweeping our streets, but when I was young I used to love shuffling through the autumn leaves on my way to school, taking in the earthy smell of decay as I crunched through ankle deep piles, constantly seeking shiny conkers as I kicked through the crisp leaves. It was such a disappointment if it had rained making the leaves all damp and soggy!
Ben: Ok, so that’s here in a country that has recognisable seasons (all five of them!), but what about countries near the equator, surely they’re hot all year round and don’t have winter?
Gabriella: Of course, nearer the equator the balance will be tipped way more to what we experience in summer in terms of heat although the length of days varies little year round on the equator, unlike the contrast of our short winter days and long summer ones. It’s hot year-round, but the same processes must go on in hotter climes. Seeds must grow, mature and be harvested. Waste must be eliminated, and reserves must be built. So there will still be these energies performing these functions, but it may appear less obvious than the more distinctive seasons of temperate climates. And in the poles of the planets, summer still happens. It’s a much briefer and faster season, everything turbo charged to get done all that needs to be done while the light and warmth lasts. I love living in a country where we have all the seasons. I love the changes, like the anticipation of spring, and the loss of the autumn. We can’t have unchecked growth nor can we have eternal loss. It’s an ever-changing cycle that I love to observe and experience.
Conclusion
Ben: So what’s the point?! What do the Five Elements and the phases of energy have to do with acupuncture?
Gabriella: Well that’s simple Ben, as you correctly said at the beginning, we’re beings of nature, so all this energy of nature is contained within us. The qualities of energy that manifest in the seasons also manifest within our bodies and the acupuncture meridians move those five different phases of energy around our body. Each type of energy gives us qualities and performs essential functions within us that none other can do, for example it’s a fairly simple connection to make that the Fire element is the one that warms and regulates heat in us. We’ll learn more about what qualities each element gives us and what that means in terms of functions in the body mind and spirit as we cover each one in more depth in the next season. But broadly speaking, when I put a needle into a point, it is encouraging the flow of nature within us. The idea being that nature balanced as it should be brings our greatest potential for health.
Ben: Thank you for that explanation!
Gabriella: Don’t thank me, thank nature!
Ben: Alright then! Thank you nature! So, as we wrap up this episode on the seasons and the five elements, we hope you've gained a deeper appreciation for the profound wisdom of nature and how it connects to the principles of Five Element Acupuncture.
Gabriella: Remember, the Five Elements - Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal - are not just abstract concepts; they're tangible qualities of energy that manifest in the world around us.
Ben: Absolutely, Gabriella. Exploring the seasons and their unique qualities has opened my eyes to the intricate dance of nature and how it influences our lives. I’m beginning to see the possibility of how acupuncture could be a medicine that works in harmony with nature.
Gabriella: That's right, Ben. Nature serves as our greatest teacher, and by observing its cycles, we gain valuable insights into our own well-being. In the coming season, we'll delve deeper into each of the five elements, exploring their characteristics, correspondences, and how they relate to our health and vitality, and what might happen when they aren’t in balance with each other.
Ben: I can’t wait for next season!
Gabriella: What you mean Spring?…
Ben: That’s my line!
Gabriella: Haha. I can’t wait either.
Ben: Looking forward to it! Feel free to get in touch with us if you have any questions or suggestions. Stay tuned for our upcoming episodes and please consider subscribing or becoming a patron to gain access to our bonus episodes and have your questions answered by us.
Gabriella: Thank you, Ben, and to all our listeners. Next week instead of Ben’s pesky questions, we’ll be answering yours in a special end of season episode! Remember, the cycle of nature never truly ends; it's a continuous, ever-changing flow. We invite you to join us in the exploration of these timeless principles and their relevance to our modern world. So until next time, stay curious, stay connected with nature, and keep the questions coming! Goodbye for now!
Ben: Bye!!