Traditional Chinese medicine describes each of the five seasons in the Five Element (or Five Phase) Theory as ‘energetic’ to connote an additional aspect to the seasons—one of energy, vibration and frequency. In traditional Chinese medicine, it is not enough to call a season by its mundane name. It must be qualified as energetic because each season brings with it a host of attributes and conditions that result from energy frequencies coming from both the “heavens and the earth” (meaning the cosmic and telluric energies). In this article, we discuss the element of Fire which traditional Chinese medicine ascribes to energetic Summer (May 5 until July 19).
Partake of the mystique of quantum energetic formulated plant-based skincare for your exalted natural bxeauty and well-being. Subscribe for a discount promo code, plus get truly unique holistic beauty tips and offers.
A yin and yang* energy pair of organs align with each of the five elements and these are driven by the energy of its element. This organ pairing is required for balance and vitality according to the extensive observations registered by traditional Chinese medicine over time. Energetic Summer’s and the fire element’s pair of organs is heart and small intestine.
Heart
The yang energy heart is an almost obvious organ for Fire since it pumps blood, the very substance representative of life, vitality and joy which we instinctively associate with the Summer season of explosive life and growth (the peak of yang energy).
In traditional Chinese medicine, blood represents far more than the actual physical substance. To this ancient medical discipline, blood is a liquid form of yin energy with blood following chi or vital energy flow. The Yellow Emporer’s Classic of Internal Medicine** says that chi is the leader of blood and blood is the mother of that chi or vital energy.
Louise Hay’s seminal book on holistic self-healing, You Can Heal Your Life, says that blood represents joy and flow. Hay says that heart represents the center of love and security and that a heart attack is a metaphor for “squeezing all the joy out of the heart in favor of money or position.” Hay associates heart problems with "longstanding emotional problems and lack of joy and hardening of the heart.”
Traditional Chinese medicine tells us that the well adapted emotion for the Fire element is joy-in-balance. By joy-in-balance we mean that if someone is always laughing or giggling, especially at inappropriate times, this indicates joy out-of-balance—an indication of a Fire imbalance. Conversely, if a person almost never laughs, this, too indicates a potential Fire imbalance.
Blood and the heart embody not just physical but emotional and spiritual aspects as well. Joy, the heart and blood flow are a symbiotic trio. Each begets the other. A heart of vitality and balanced flow of blood support a healthy expression of joy and consequently, greater health, love and spiritual strength. If we’re joyful in a balanced way, our hearts will be healthier and our flow of blood encouraged to be healthy, too, showing up as glowing complexion and skin and body that are slower to age.
The condition of the heart and manner of blood flow is very much manifested in our complexion. Our complexion should have a healthy pinkness with eyes that are bright and expressive. This is a sign that blood is indeed nourishing our body tissues and organs. It is cooling, soothing and hydrating the skin and body. If our complexion is either overly red or too pale, this could indicate a Fire imbalance.
Small Intestine
The yin small intestine oversees and controls assimilation of nutrients. Again, the organ applies to concepts and emotions as well as its physical makeup and activity.
In order to learn something new or to be able to process an event that has taken place, we must assimilate what is before us to learn. We must be able to come to a place where we are able to integrate the new information or feeling into our being.
In our blog of December 25, 2020, entitled Cyclical Living Is the Key to a Vitality Filled Life and Our Producing the Frequency of Love, we write that people who lived on this planet from 1 A.D. to 2000 A.D. approximately:
“didn’t just observe these cycles [of the earth and the heavens] with their eyes, they felt the significance of the cycles in their bellies–what some people call today the ‘other brain.’"
Today, the ‘other brain’ or gut/small intestine is called the second brain since scientists have realized there is an enormous number of neurologic connections and neuro-regulatory bodies in the gut microbiome—the largest macro membrane in the body with a surface area of two tennis courts.
For example, 90% of the neurotransmitter serotonin, which modulates everything from mood to focus to creative capacity, is actually produced in the lining of the small intestine. The small intestine makes everything the brain needs and signals all this information to the brain making the brain secondary to the small intestine in so many ways.
Small intestine actually helps us to process information and feelings even long after a traumatic event. So when we are unable to process our traumas or take in new information, it might mean that the health and vitality of our small intestine needs addressing.
Speech impediments like stuttering may indicate a heart imbalance because Fire is associated with communication and the speaking of truth. Fire brings out the courage in us as well as the will to explore deeper issues for clarity and understanding.
Fire relates to connection, both with oneself and others. Connection to and love of oneself is most closely associated with the heart and the blood.
Heart and small intestine are connected to the shen and chi, respectively, thereby linking the spirit with the physical processes of the body.
Shen is the spirit energy of Fire in the heart, the higher consciousness that descends from ‘heaven’ and dwells within us.
Chi, as indicated earlier in this article, is another term for the vital energy that flows through our bodies unseen but which is fundamentally essential to have in balanced flow for health and vitality to exist. The purpose of chi is expansive yang. It warms the body and causes the body to move.
#####
Endnotes:
* Yang is active, bold energy, brightly and outwardly expressing. Yin is characterized as inward moving energy, dark, mysterious and quiet.
** Also known as the Neijing Suwen, The Yellow Emporer’s Classic of Internal Medicine is an ancient Chinese medical text or group of texts that has been treated as a fundamental doctrinal source for Chinese medicine for more than two millennia.
Anderson, Sandra K. The Practice of Shiatsu. Malawi, Mosby Elsevier, 2007.
Mayer, Emeran. The Mind-Gut Connection: How the Hidden Conversation Within Our Bodies Impacts Our Mood, Our Choices, and Our Overall Health. Germany, Harper Wave, 2018.
Tucker, Tammy. The Belly Brain Solution: Gut-Brain Axis Connection to Health. N.p., CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2018.
Hay, Louise. You Can Heal Your Life. Hay House. 2004.
Image courtesy of Svetlana at pexels. (pexels-svetlanaõ-10457233.jpg)