The Fires Are Burning
As Within, So Without
The fires are burning. Will we cast blame to the winds, lack of water, climate change, political parties and their leaders, or to “conspiracy theories?” Or will we turn to a Truth that remains constant?
He who blames others has a long way to go on his journey. He who blames himself is halfway there. He who blames no one has arrived. —Chinese Proverb
Earth is a closed system. There is only the distribution and redistribution of elemental resources in a flow governed by yin and yang, the guiding principles of Energetic Healing. These primary forces are yang expansion and yin contraction, described as the “ceaseless rise and fall of opposite, yet complimentary forces.”
Everything is constantly expanding, dispersing, and eventually contracting back into itself as it comes to rest to build up enough reserves to express itself again. One continually flows into the other, never static, ever-changing, collapsing into one and giving rise to the other. It is a dance that has been scientifically described and poetically sung for millennia. It is the ebb and flow between one state of being and another. The ebb and flow of nature, and within our bodies, through all the cycles of the seasons.
Water is yin, and it creates reserves. When the yin of Water is deficient in our body or the environment, it cannot control the yang of Fire. The result is flooding in one area and droughts and fires in another. Exploiting the deep, dark, watery feminine has brought us to the point where it can no longer create reserves, which is its purpose. Our masculine-dominated, over-driven society leaves us yin depleted, with all the energy and attention going toward yang activity. Excesses of any kind, whether food, sex, worry, or spending, overheat the Liver (the underlying cause of inflammation) and deplete yin reserves. We are burning ourselves out and the world down, literally. We are a world on fire. Fire burns out of control without the deep, watery, feminine yin to cool and control it.
Partially responsible for this proliferation of deficient yin may be the dominance of the yang principle. It is prevalent throughout society in general and our current generation but also through previous generations of accumulated stress and competition. Gradually, in our offspring, the ability of the body as a whole to supply sufficient yin fluids has deteriorated. Yin nurtures and stabilizes. Yin deficiency is evident not only in people and the institutions they create but in the earth itself as high-quality food and water sources dwindle. Actions that build a substantial yin foundation for an individual are those that restore the planet. As within, so without.
Our culture glorifies yang activity. We don’t get rewarded financially or in terms of status or reputation for how much we rest, nurture ourselves, play, or do things that have no market value but are enjoyable. We are rewarded for how busy we appear, expending or dispersing energy. We need to build yin reserves if we are to fund future activity. That holds true not only for our bodies but also for our planet. As above, so below.
If health is a dynamic balance of yin and yang, and disease an imbalance, then where does that leave the health of our planet? Earth’s imbalances are reaching epic proportions. We have only to look at how we live on the Earth to see the cause of our dis-ease. To what end have we chosen this suicide plan? We have squandered our inheritance.
Indigenous peoples have studied relationships and patterns in nature to better understand the relationship to All-That-Is. Chinese Medicine’s Five Elements helps us to understand these patterns and relationships through alchemical correspondences. One of the Fire Element’s correspondences is Heart and Mind (Heart-Mind), with one not separate from the other and spirit residing in the Heart.
Shock is the root emotion that corresponds to the Fire Element. If a person experiences shock or trauma, the spirit is said to flee the body. That happens so the body can survive and is akin to what is known as soul loss in the Shamanic tradition. In Chinese Medicine it is called a Shen Disturbance or Heart-Mind disconnect. In mental health, it is a coping mechanism. In extreme cases it becomes the split we know as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We must first restore spirit (shen) to the Heart if lasting healing is to occur.
Chinese medicine is based on thousands of years of empirical observation in an unbroken lineage, unlike Western Medicine, which burned its healers at the stake. During COVID, “the science” threw empirical observation out the window, and we lost a whole data set. That disconnect from our environment has been rolling out for decades.
Before Western medicine’s autopsy and cadaver research defined the physical heart, the ancient Chinese had identified it as an energetic, yin organ. What Western medicine recognizes as the heart, Chinese Medicine recognizes as Heart-Mind. This energetic organ complex consists of physical, emotional, and psychospiritual functions, and the process of thinking is accomplished by the Heart. Clarity is an attribute of a harmonious Heart-Mind that facilitates seeing effortlessly through problems to arrive at brilliant solutions. We need a system that considers our connection to each other and the natural world, which can inform our healing and protect our hearts.
One of the most important relationships in our overheated Western culture is Fire’s relationship with Water. They are two ends of the same spectrum and have a symbiotic relationship. The coolness of Water keeps Fire in balance, and Fire keeps Water from freezing or becoming stagnant. Burning out of control, Fire depletes Water, causing both planetary and cellular burnout.
Rather than fitting Chinese Medicine into the box of Western rational thought, exploring the Five Elements is an invitation to expand Western consciousness to contain another way of organizing reality. That may be the only way we can be touched and changed by the transformational potential of Fire, using it as a springboard to a new and more efficient system of physical, emotional, and psychospiritual healing. Fire is Transformational.
When spirit becomes sufficiently concentrated in the Heart, superficial thinking stops and integrated thought begins. One becomes fully present and rather than thinking about reality thought becomes reality. —Paul Pitchford, Healing with Whole Foods
The nervous system is also part of the Fire Element, responsible for intracellular communication and information collected primarily through the senses. The Heart is responsible for collecting all this information and generating a response to bring things into harmony. But with the dumbing down of our senses, the information coming in is unreliable and we may no longer trust it. The ability to extract meaning from interactions becomes distorted. In Western culture, what we associate with mental illness is an imbalance of the Fire Element in Chinese Medicine.
All language is a series of codes, and the Fire Element decodes and generates symbolic communication so that we may interpret the symbolic language of life. The Heart’s job is to collect and interpret sensual and emotional experiences and imbue them with meaning. However, we are losing the ability to decode symbolic language and have become easily programmable through repetitive messages broadcasted from the sensory-deprived world of 2D.
The highest emotion that corresponds with Fire is joy, and the sound correspondence is laughing. The inability to experience joy and laughter is symptomatic of a Fire Imbalance, specifically, a shen disturbance due to shock or trauma. Understanding and improving the Heart’s yin and creating a protective barrier of yin essences can restore its health. The world is on fire, and we owe it to each other and ourselves to bring more joy. It will take an intelligence of the heart.
The Heart is never without treasure, yet it is called empty. The Heart is alive and it possesses knowledge, it knows, and from knowing makes its distinctions. To make distinctions is to know all parts of the whole at once.” —Chuang Tzu
CALLING FOR RAIN by Thea
May my yin resources increase. However, it is the yang in me that keeps Bobby T so active, vibrant and full of life, love and his pursuit of happiness.