The Earth Element of Late Summer

Here we are in the golden glow of Late Summer.. a time of transition from the fiery flowering of Summer as we move towards the descending, contracting energies of Fall. As we move through the cycle of the Five Elements, reflected in their journey through the calendar of the year, there is some simple, seasonal wisdom that we can embody in our everyday lives to bring our experience into greater harmony with Nature. This is a state of balance and wellness, health and vitality.

The Earth Element is the direction of center.. representing nourishment, nurturance, digestion, integration and harvesting the fruits of the seeds we’ve planted in the garden of our life. The color is a nice golden yellow, like fields of glowing grain ready for harvest in the late afternoon sun.

The organ systems associated with Earth are Spleen and Stomach.. though if we take it from a more physiological level, we are actually dealing with the Pancreas more than the Spleen, as the Pancreas works with insulin and other hormones crucial to digestion, assimilation and nourishment. It’s actually a fascinating fact that the Spleen and Pancreas grow in utero from the same stem cells, and end up looking just like a mushroom stem and cap when fully developed.

The Spirit of Earth is what is known as the “Yi”, often translated as “intention”. It’s our ability to focus and concentrate our awareness on something. This means that when this spirit/function is out of balance, it’s easier for the Yi to get “stuck” or overfocused on something, whether a thought, experience, dynamic or memory. This is why the emotion of Earth is known as “worry” or “rumination”.

This crucial system of the body is also extremely important in its function of what we call “Transformation and Transportation”. The Stomach prepares the food we eat, breaking it down mechanically and chemically in what the ancient Daoists called the “fermentation crock” at the center of our abdomen. The job of the Spleen and Pancreas system is then to take this broken down foodstuff and process it into nutrients the body can absorb, followed by distributing this nourishment to every cell of the body. 

Then, it’s nearly just as important to carry away the metabolic waste products from the cells, or “take out the trash”.. which is a crucial part of the Transportation process and works closely with the lymph system of the body. When these wastes are not cleared fully, the resulting buildup of waste is one aspect of what we call “dampness”.

Dampness is a huge, somewhat challenging-to-understand topic in Daoist Medicine, and one that deserves its own article. So I’ll be writing one soon, but in the meantime.. dampness is something we can find in both the internal and external environments. In an external sense it is humidity and stickiness in the climate, often found in conjunction with heat or cold. If you’ve ever noticed how damp cold in coastal climates chills you to the bone and takes longer to warm up from than dry cold in inland climates… then you have some idea of this.

Internal dampness is stagnation in the body, often in the form of unprocessed food, energy, emotion or experience. This can lead to a whole host of symptoms including heaviness, sluggishness, fatigue, digestive disturbance and nausea, foggy headedness, extra weight and even cysts and tumors. It’s sticky, congealed energy which has gotten stuck somewhere in the body.

An important point is that this Earth Element system of Spleen, Stomach and Pancreas is responsible not only for our digestion of food, but also of energy, emotion and experience. So trauma which has not been addressed and resolved is a form of dampness, and gets stuck in the channels and organs of our body. This is why integration and assimilation are such important aspects of the digestion of our life experiences (and food, of course).

So, how can we best support and work with these energies throughout this season of harvest and abundance to keep our Qi flowing, process the food and experiences we take in, and keep these energies from stagnating? Glad you asked.

Diet plays a huge role in the Earth element, and avoiding food and drinks that are inherently damp can help.(even if they are delicious and/or fun). This includes sugar, dairy, alcohol, greasy and fried foods, and too much of any fermented food or drink. Focusing on well-cooked whole foods, especially grains like millet, squashes and other yellow foods we find in abundance in harvest time. 

If digestion or dampness are issues at this time, one amazingly simple food which can help is congee. Porridge made with any grain and cooked for a long time (4-24 hours) in a lot of water. This is pure, absorbable nourishment that the Spleen, Stomach and Pancreas don’t have to work to break down.

The rhythm of the Earth element is steady and grounded. This means that regularity and consistency are appreciated by the Spleen system. Taking nice, slow and steady walks. Chewing slowly and mindfully. Practicing meditation, deep breathing and Qigong help keep a smooth flow of Qi through body and mind, as well as balancing the Yi (intention and focus). 

Getting your feet grounded on the literal earth of the soil is a hugely helpful practice for balancing our being. The wisdom of the Earth Qi is able to absorb energy we are ready to release and we can receive energetic support from the planet through the soles of our feet.

Of course, somatic healing practices such as Shentara help to clear and process stuck dampness using the wisdom of the meridian system and therapeutics for interfacing between the physical, emotional and energetic.

Practices of reflection, like journaling, are great for helping digest and process experiences so they can assimilate into the wholeness of our being. Breaking down large, potentially overwhelming tasks into bite-sized pieces so our Yi doesn’t get overwhelmed and overthinky.

This is a time to come back to center. Traditionally this is when we gather the harvests and fruits of our labors throughout the year, nourishing ourselves deeply and preparing for the winter ahead. It is that peak of ripe abundance before we move into the contraction and releasing leaves of Autumn. In this time and space of allowing all the experiences of the Spring and Summer to settle and integrate, we allow ourselves to be nurtured by the Earth, by our families, friends and communities.

Thanks for allowing yourself to be nourished by these words and ideas, born of ancient wisdom and reflected through these modern minds. May you be blessed by the abundance of this Earth season.