The Metal Element in Chinese Medicine & How it Manifests in Kabbalah
While my first time sitting in a Traditional Chinese Tea Ceremony was really breathtaking, it was the second sit with tea in ceremony that really broke me, in a good way; one that I would liken to what Kabbalah describes as the “shattering of the vessels.” A concept and feeling of being torn open by an overwhelming source of truth we don’t want or have the capacity to accept. A truth that’s asking us to let go of what was, in order to receive what will be; to take what we feel is already so good but know deep down could be so much better. A truth that asks us to repair what has been shattered in order to bathe in an even greater light our souls came to this world to reveal.
I was the first to cry in a group of about thirty beautiful souls who were at the retreat where I sat in my first experiences with tea ceremony. I was that girl. The overly emotional one who opened the gateway for others to join in on being vulnerable and connect in serendipitous ways only a higher power could be responsible for orchestrating.
For once in my consistent biannual retreat going life over the past 20 years, I wasn’t even looking for a spiritual experience at the time. Somehow spirit always finds me. I came to the retreat with a desire to learn about the tea industry and left with an even greater respect for the wisdom of trees that produce tea and fuel the teachings of both Kabbalah and Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM). I also received my first integrated download of what I would officially come to launch about a year later with my mission at Remember, Reclaim & Rejoice.
The tea served on the retreat that stirred up a steep of emotions for me is categorized as a Metal Element tea in TCM. An element that invites us to release and cut ties to any energies getting in the way of breathing more easily and moving forward on the path of who we’re meant to be.
Breath is a fundamental element of creation in Kabbalistic wisdom and the basic medicine offered by the Metal Element season in TCM. When we’re disconnected from our breath, we threaten our souls connection to spirit. We know this from one of my favorite lines in Torah (the source of Kabbalah) - “Then the LORD G-d formed man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” - Genesis 2:7
Only two out of the four elements taught in Kabbalah (Water, Fire, Earth and Air) overlap with the five elements of TCM (Water, Wood, Fire, Earth, and Metal); while Metal is not one of them, its value for breath and letting go plays just as an important of role in this season’s teachings of Torah and Kabbalah, as it does in TCM’s season of the Metal Element.
THE METAL ELEMENT IN TCM
Of all the traditional four seasons we experience here in New York where I’m based, Fall is definitely my favorite. I realize now that maybe the reason why I loved that second tea from my retreat so much, is because it is a Metal Element tea which corresponds to the season of Fall that I love so much. When we’re tuned into our senses, which tea ceremony helps us do, we realize why nothing is ever a coincidence.
Fall’s beautiful foliage and crisp cool air engages my fascination with nature evermore so deeply than any other time of the year. It’s a little less rainy than the transition to Spring, more tempered than the overwhelming heat of Summer and invites us to take in as much of the outdoors as we can before we hibernate in the Winter.
Fall is also the time we harvest the last bits of the bountiful Summer gardens we first planted in Spring. Breath is a tool that can help us do all the gathering we need both physically in our gardens and energetically in our bodies. The lungs and the large intestine are the body parts that govern the Five Shen System of TCM associated with the Metal Element season and Po (魄) is it’s corresponding spirit aspect of the 24 solar term phases.
In TCM, there are a total of 24 Solar Terms that mark the seasonal movement between increasing and decreasing sunlight, warmth, and cold. These changes are associated with the waxing and waning of Yin and Yang. TCM teaches us to use the solar terms as a beautiful way of tracking the body's relationship with the seasonal environment and how our emotions may be affected by it. When we sync up with the natural highs and lows of nature, we’re better able to stay balanced and #InFlow.
The previous larger Five Phase System we explored was the Late Summer’s Earth Element and its associated spirit aspect of Yi (意). It took us from the first solar term of Lìqiū (秋立 ) within the Late Summer Phase to the current fifth solar term of the full Autumn’s Metal Element season called Hánlùle (寒露). The time period we’re currently in ushers in the cold dew that comes before the frost’s descent into the sixth and last phase of Autumn called Shuāngjiàng (霜降).
As we explored in our studies of the Earth Element, Liqiu signals us to start digesting all the heightened activities of joy and creativity we experienced in the spirit aspect of the Shen solar term from the previous Fire Element season. It gets us ready for the transition toward Fall / Autumn. Liqiu is when the masculine action oriented energy of yang begins declining and the feminine restorative energy of yin begins increasing. The peak of the yin energy happens during the Winter season of the Water Element and what many understand as the Winter Solstice, which falls on December 26th this year.
Each season or element is connected to a different part of the body and sense of spirit. The lungs and large intestine of Autumn’s Metal Element season control respiration and the final tracks of digestion that began in the Late Summer’s Earth Element season. The emotional dimension of Metal is grief and letting go, which make sense given the function of the associated body parts. When we grieve, we usually cry and when we cry we usually choke up, which makes it hard to catch our breath. The large intestine is one of the last stops in the body after digestion; conducting and transforming waste and separating what is no longer needed so it can be eliminated.
During the Fall season of the Metal Element, we’re encouraged to experience the grief in loss and release of what has passed. Just like how trees shed their leaves in the Fall from the source that gave them life, we too are encouraged to let go of any experiences we no longer need. And just like the falling leaves of a tree decompose and are used by mother nature (and wise gardeners) to both fertilize and keep the ground they fall on warm and protected through to the Spring, so too will the memories of the emotional experiences we’re letting go of from the past few seasons, fuel us in renewing our next steps in the next few seasons.
Sometimes we hold on to things not because it feels right but because we’re afraid to feel the grief that comes from doing what’s right. If we can’t bear to sit in the cracks of our brokenness then how can we be ready and aware to receive the light and wisdom that’s able to come through those open wounds? As we studied more deeply in last month’s blog post, Kabbalah is all about learning how to be like the light. The word Kabbalah means ‘to receive’ (the light). This season’s chapters of Torah that we read around this time every year, are full of light, and a few other shared aspects of TCM’s Metal Element season.
METAL-LIKE ELEMENTS IN KABBALAH
The classical regimen of the Metal Element season guides us to gather and restrain, rather than allowing one’s spirits and intentions to continue to expand like what is encouraged in the Fire Element season. Having just come out of the highs of what’s called the “High Holiday Season” for the Jewish people, we can find some very similar and comparable virtues between the energetics of the Jewish calendar during this time of year and TCM’s Metal Element season.
For starters, the first chapter of Torah we just started reading a few weeks ago, describes the Earth as being “dark and void” before G-d said “Let There Be Light.” In last month’s post about the Sephira of Keter, we explored at length about the opportunities offered by the “darkness and void,” whether it was during the time of creation or how a person can feel in their lives at times. We can apply these same lessons to the teachings of the Metal Element season. The void or hole that exists when we cut things out of our lives, as a sharp piece of Metal can do, can sometimes feel dark and painful. The emptiness in that hole is the same space that provided a vessel for the light of the Creator to be received. The same can happen in other aspects of our lives. When we let go of the things that no longer serve us and embody the darkness and void that may come with it, we have the space to let in and create the light of new experiences.
In this week’s chapter of Torah, we read about how Abraham, the forefather and first emissary of Kabbalistic light and wisdom, had to cut ties from the culture of idol worshippers he was raised under, in order to share his truths about worshipping the one G-d of unity.
This past week we celebrated the memorial of the biblical matriarch Rachel who cut her desire to marry the love of her life, Jacob, in order to honor the desires of her father and sister Leah. For this, she’s known as the foremother who spent the rest of her days and the memory of her soul grieving (the same emotion associated with the Metal Element of TCM) not just for the loss of a great love but for the generations of her Israelite lineage who were to be exiled from the Promised Land.
This season’s Torah readings are full of examples of biblical figures who cut ties to basic physical realm desires and experiences, in the Metal Element- like ways of TCM, in order to make space for the metaphysical benefits of a life connected to the light. There are also many stories about how these same people failed to align with the light the Creator designed them to receive.
Let’s take Noah, from the classic story of Noah’s Ark, for example. We read about him in last week’s Torah chapter. Ten generations after the creation of humankind, G-d is disappointed in the ways of the people he created. Noah was the only man standing in that tenth generation who stayed true to the Creator’s commandments and intentions for creation. For Noah’s sake, G-d decided to destroy everybody except for Noah and all those he instructed Noah to save alongside him in the ark.
There was one crucial shortcoming in Noah’s commitment to G-d though. He failed at influencing others to join him in honoring the light of the Creator. Abraham was the first to spread the light of monotheism and thus earned his title and destiny as the "father of many nations." The name was a symbolic representation of shifting the focus on individual greatness, like that of Noah, to that of an all encompassing founder and leader for many people.
Abraham’s mission is still incomplete. While we’re still trying to figure out how to cultivate unity and peace amongst all G-d’s created nations, there might be some clues that are hidden in the Jewish month of Cheshvan that we’re currently in. Interestingly enough, these clues are similar to the wisdoms of the Metal Element season and solar term phase of Po we touched upon above.
MORE CONNECTIONS IN METAL
The solar term phase of Po in TCM is similar to both the sound and energetics of the Hebrew letter and word ‘Peh’ (פֶּה) which means ‘mouth.’ Between the stories of the above mentioned historic biblical figures and the vortex of time we’re in with the current Jewish month of Cheshvan, there is a sense that we are to be more mindful about how we use our ‘Peh’ (mouth).
Because Cheshvan is a month that’s empty of any Jewish holidays, unlike the spree of non-stop holidays we’ve had over the past six months, we are left with a ‘darkness and void’ to create some light of our own. We can’t rely on the customs of the holidays that usually help do that for us because there are none this month. As we learned about last month in Kabbalah’s story of creation, the most powerful way to create and feel light is with our mouths and our words.
Now that all the “highs” of the high holiday season are gone and the active yang energy of the Fire element season is dwindling down, many of us feel a void. Outdoor nature activities or the fullness of gatherings with family and friends at home or in synagogues, to pray, eat and commemorate holidays, are no longer available to us. Some of us might be feeling a little empty and grieving the void of any holidays. If flipped upside down and looked at differently, we’re also left with an opportunity to breathe and speak into all the light gathered during the Jewish High Holiday Season and digested in the Earth Element season, in order to light up and fuel us through the slowly darkening days of Fall and Winter.
I use the words breathe and speak here because according to Kabbalah, that’s what the Creator used to create us; breath is also what the associated bodily function of this Metal Element season in TCM asks us to do in order to shed whatever might be left to go of before we enter the Winter Element season of effortless wisdom.
In dissecting the Hebrew letters of the word Cheshvan (חשוון), we find another clue on the path to achieving peace that’s connected with the Metal Element. When you put the first and last letters of the word Cheshvan together, you get the Hebrew word Chen (חֵן), which means grace. This season calls on us to ask - How can we walk this Earth with a little more grace? What do we have to let go of and grieve in order to feel embodied in the grace of the Creator and the cycles of nature?
CONNECTING TO YOUR METAL ELEMENT
The biggest wisdom I learned from the Metal Element and this empty month of Cheshvan is that grief and gratitude sit next to each other in the spectrum of spirit and the ‘Duality of the Heart’ of what it means to have been created as humans. Gratitude is the light at the end of the dark tunnel of grief. When we give ourselves the space to breathe and grieve, we can find ways to say thank you for even our most grueling experiences.
As we concluded with the other two elements explored in previous blog posts, the cross examination of the two ancient traditions of TCM and Kabbalah, aren't saying exactly the same thing, but they offer a meaningful point of comparison. In Kabbalah, the breath of life connects human existence to the divine and in TCM, the breath connects the body with cycles of nature embedded in the experience of being human. For both customs, breath is more than just a mechanical process; it serves as a symbol of the relationship between life, body and spirit. It can be understood as the threshold between the invisible and the embodied.
I have to admit that when I sit and breathe into writing my tree truths blog posts, they don’t always come easy to me. Sometimes they feel like I’m birthing a child. My bountiful contractions of ideas and thoughts, require many hours of pushing to get the final draft published and out, only to realize it’s just the beginning of all that’s left to keep feeding this child. What keeps me #InFlow with the painstaking process, are the sacred steps offered with my Remember, Reclaim and Rejoice mission - Nature Retreats, Tea Ceremony and Meditative Torah.
This post came to me a little easier than the others. Perhaps it’s because when we do the work and sit through the active callings of the Fire Element and High Holiday seasons, like I’ve been writing about over the past few months, it’s easy to let go and sit in the restorative yin energies of the Metal element season and dark void of the month of Cheshvan.
When we cry out our grief and breathe into the light, like I’m grateful I was able to do at my first Tea Ceremony retreat, what might feel dreadful, shameful, laborious and vulnerable at first, will eventually yield a new, bright eyed baby and way of being. It also helps bring us closer to the effortless wisdom of the Water Element season we’re about to enter soon. And before you know it, we’ll be bouncing back into the giddy delights of Spring visions for growth that throw us back into the joy and creativity of the Summer season.