The Earth Element in Chinese Medicine and Kabbalah
It’s common to experience what some refer to as a tea high in and after a ceremony. If I had to describe it in one short and sweet sentence, I would say it’s ‘a deep attunement to self that’s wrapped in creativity, inspiration and intuition.’
Tea leaves, especially the unadulterated and wildcrafted kind, like those I use in my ceremonies, contain natural compounds like L-theanine that induce a state of calm without a sleepy feeling. L-theanine combined with the stimulating effect of the caffeine also found in tea, makes for a more stable stimulant, without the crash one might get from coffee.
The other elements infused in my tea ceremonies, like music, meditation and the wisdom of Kabbalah and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), create a recipe for what I define as being #inflow. They also feed part of a formula for what I’ve come to call the Remember, Reclaim and Rejoice (RRR) journey. If I had to pick one season’s teachings of Kabbalah and TCM that most closely reflect the intention of my mission at RRR, it would be this time of year we recently entered with both traditions.
We’re currently in the Chinese agriculture solar season of Liqiu, a time when the stimulating caffeine-like yang energy of the Fire Element from the Summer season begins to decline, as we move into the calming L-theanine-like yin energy connected to the restorative seasons of Earth, Metal and Water (Late Summer, Fall and Winter).
In Kabbalah, we’re also leaving the shared fire-inspired season of holidays, like Shavuot, Tisha B’Av and Tu B’av, to sit more restoratively “in the field” of planet Earth with the Creator himself. This month of Elul which we’re currently in is meant to help us prepare for the historical season of the start of creation itself.
Both of these worlds of wisdom and cycles give us a chance to rest and digest in the Late Summer season of the Earth Element. It’s time to harvest all of the activity from the past two yang seasons and transform it into the wisdom we want to take with us into the next few yin seasons.
THE EARTH ELEMENT IN TCM
The Earth season is the difference between leaving a meal with food coma versus feeling delightfully nourished. Which do you prefer and are you creating the space in these last weeks of Summer to process all the travel and busyness the sun inspires in us with full force? Are you planning one last road trip or are you able to simmer down in all that you’ve already gotten from the long and brightly lit Summer days that are starting to wind down?
We live in a culture that’s all about running after more and believing bigger is better. Our systems were not designed to be constantly on the run. The burnout and stress many can feel as a result of it, is usually a byproduct of undigested experiences that haven’t had a chance to settle into the body and release back down into the nurturing mother earth space. When we go from one meal to another, a big goal to the next or relationship to relationship, without some thoughtful down time in between, we run the risk of getting indigestion because we haven’t fully processed the previous experience.
Why all the references to food here? Because the Earth element in TCM is connected to the Spleen and Stomach organs of the body. The stomach is dedicated to physically digesting food and metaphysically helping us digest emotions and experiences. The spleen plays an integral role in boosting our immune systems by removing old and damaged red blood cells. Both organs make sure that the nutrients our blood is carrying from the food we’re eating, are thoughtfully transforming and transporting healthy blood cells throughout the body. Sickness occurs when we don’t take the time to rest and receive the nourishment of our food and experiences, especially during this Earth element season of Late Summer.
In the Five Shen System of Chinese Medicine, each season is associated with a spirit aspect. As we previously explored, the Summer season runs rampant with the Shen (神 ) energies of radiance, joy and creativity. The Late Summer season that we’re currently in calls in the spirit of Yi (意) which encourages nourishment, intentional thought and the gathering of our attention.
If the Shen spirit of Summer calls for fun and joyful experiences, it’s the Yi spirit of Late Summer that guides us into thinking about where we want to settle our awareness after all of that Summer activity. Unlike the Summer’s blazing and explosive energy brought about by the Fire element, Late Summer is grounded in receiving and assimilating ourselves with the Earth Element. It’s about thoughts that are arriving at a meaningful conclusion around our experiences, as opposed to experiences that continue to accumulate and move into ruminating thoughts or already full and upset stomachs (the shadow side imbalances of the Earth element).
If our stomachs are full, how are we to receive all the wisdom and nourishment the Late Summer is trying to transmit to us?
THE EARTH ELEMENT IN KABBALAH
The Kabbalistic calendar month of Elul that we’re currently in asks us to do something remarkably similar to TCM’s Earth element - it’s the month encapsulated by the energy of Teshuva, which means to return. A return to oneself and all that might have gotten lost in the heightened energies of the busy Kabbalistic holidays that fall during the yang Spring and Summer seasons. It’s also a time to return to the loving relationship we have with our G-d, the Creator, whom we might have also forgotten while enjoying magical Summer sunsets on the beautiful beaches he created or the Summer love we seek during the holiday of Tu B’Av.
The month of Elul is strongly associated with one of the most romantic and infamous lines of the prayer called Shir HaShirim (Song of Songs) -
“Ani LeDodi VeDodi Li” — אֲנִי לְדוֹדִי וְדוֹדִי לִי
“I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine.”
The four Hebrew words of this song begin with the same four letters (א־ל־ו־ל) of the Hebrew spelling of Elul (אלול).
Having just come out of the month of Av, which we explored in a previous post as both Kabbalah and TCM’s Fire element seasons of love, we ask here in Elul, a deeper question to the questions we asked about ‘The Duality of the Heart in the Month of Av’ - how can we love another if we can’t love the relationship we have with ourselves and the Creator?
Elul is a time of closeness and return to the entity that gave us the Earth - Hashem, G-d, the Creator; not in fear and judgement like some are taught to perceive him, but in love and with a unique closeness that isn’t always available to us in other months. We are taught that in this month of Elul, Hashem comes down from his high seat in the heavens, to meet us in the realm of this physical Earth. He’s leaving his throne in the upper worlds to meet us in the field of our kingdom of Malchut, the sephira of our earthly desire to strive for a nobility like the one he created us with (here is a basic run down of each sephira). He’s here to remind us - we are all regal because we are all creations of G-d.
He’s coming down to Earth in TCM’s Earth Element season to see how we’ve integrated the wisdoms of the past year. Is our soil fertile or decaying? He wants to know what’s left to digest of his teachings before we start fresh again in the upcoming New Year. The year-long cyclical reading of the guidebook of Torah he gave us, is also starting to wind down with an ending that leaves our story open to review with what’s next. It’s our job to complete his mission behind the creation of Earth. It’s our time to meet him in the field to think about and discuss with him how we plan on doing that.
MORE CONNECTIONS IN EARTH
The customs of the Kabbalistic calendar during this time of year are very similar to those of TCM. All that we’ve manifested through the start of both traditions’ Fire seasons is settling back down into this grounded Earth season. In both traditions, we are given this designated time and space that aligns with nature’s harvest season to gather all the experiences we had in the Fire season in order to process them into wisdom we’ll utilize in other upcoming seasons.
According to the Kabbalistic calendar and vortex of time theory we discussed in the past, we are 15 days away from the anniversary of the first day of creation that occurred 5,786 years ago on the 25th of Elul. The first day of the ‘Beginning’ of creation is also the name of the first book of Torah - Bereishit (Hebrew word for ‘beginning); and the first words of Torah - “G-d began to create heaven and earth - the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from G-d sweeping over the water - G-d said, ‘Let there be light;’ and there was light.”
While the light of the sun from our Summer days may be dimming, the opportunity to be the light with the awareness we’re harvesting this season is growing. TCM and Kabbalah’s teachings highlight this time and space for us during the Earth element season to help us contemplate how we’re going to be like G-d / the light and create out of love like he did. The Yi spirit of Liqiu drops us into our light through intentional thought and nourishment, while Elul gives us a chance to have a real heart to heart about our light with the Creator himself.
If that wasn’t enough, there is yet another similarity between the two traditions and across the two seasons. Last season we explored how TCM’s Five Shen System of understanding the spirit aspect of a season, connects the Chinese word of ‘Shen’ to the Fire element season and sounds like the letter ‘Shin’ in the first letter of the fire oriented Jewish holiday of Shavuot that falls in the same Fire Element season of TCM and Fire element world of Kabbalah called Atzilut.
This season we see a similar overlap in spirit aspect and the energy of the Hebrew month of Elul we’re in. ‘Yi’ is the spirit aspect of TCM’s Earth element season. The first syllable of Yi sounds like the first syllable of the Hebrew letter Yud, which is the creative force of the month of Elul that falls in the same Earth element season of TCM and Earth meeting that happens between the Creator and his creations in the month of Elul.
The Kabbalistic understanding of the Hebrew calendar, much like TCM’s Five Shen system, works under the basic premise that each letter of the Hebrew alphabet is a building block through which creation is articulated. The Sefer Yetzirah, the most fundamental book of Kabbalah, describes 12 “simple” letters that connect with the 12 months of the year, zodiacal constellations and aspects of the human being. Each letter channels a pattern of energy that expresses itself through each associated month.
Yud is the smallest letter of the Hebrew alphabet. It kind of looks like a dot. We’re told everything in creation started with a yud, much like how pixelated dots can form an image. Each pixel contains information about color and brightness. When enough pixels are arranged together, our eyes and brain perceive them as a larger picture. The Yud, much like the Yi, reminds us that when we take the time sit and digest the season’s harvests and wisdoms, with ourselves and the King, the Creator, we too can start seeing the essence and seed of something much larger we might have forgotten in the activities of the past summer season.
In no way am I trying to force one system’s teachings into another here. Instead, I’m suggesting the overlap in wisdom that can be found in two different symbolic languages, for the shared human experience of transition, discernment, gathering and preparation, that unites us in the power of aligning with the oneness of creation.
CONNECTING TO YOUR EARTH ENERGY
The Earth Element represents the center of the healing wheel in TCM. It stabilizes all of the other elements, just like acknowledging the Creator as the source of all creation is at the center of the world in Kabbalah and in this full frontal meeting space with him in the field during the month of Elul.
Who and what is the center of your wheel? The source of your being? Without overthinking it, is this source serving you? Are you serving it? What else can you be doing to serve one another?
Instead of minimizing our experience with bite sized hits of dopamine the dominant culture likes to feed us, come sit with me in the ritual of tea where we get to expand our capacity for deep attention like the Earth element and Creator calls us to. Make time to integrate and counter the beautiful energy of the yang season with all that’s coming in the yin season and upcoming Kabbalistic New Year.
In tea ceremony, coming off of the highs of the Spring and Summer seasons won’t feel like the crash some people get with other plant medicines or sadness that sometimes comes with moving into the colder months of the year, because I work with natural compounds and ancient wisdoms that are rooted in balancing complementary and opposing energies. My offering is more of a grounding into the natural rhythms of Mother Nature that lands us into the loving arms of the Creator.