| WATER |WOOD| FIRE | SOIL|DAILY CYCLE |
We continue our study with the METAL season as this begins around the Autumn Equinox. The essence of macrobiotic practice is to harmonise ourselves consciously with the rhythms of the earth, simply because this is what the state of health for the human being- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually - is understood to be founded upon. Thus, we need to understand the relationships that pertain the human being and the earth during the course of the year so we can center our eating habits in the course of the seasonal rhythms in harmony with the seasonal changes.
According to the Five Transformation Theory, The Spirit of Fall creates the state of transformation called Metal and it says:
"The WEST creates scorched DRYNESS; DRYNESS creates METAL,
The Forces of AUTUMN create DRYNESS in Heaven and METAL on Earth.
They create the LUNG organ and The SKIN upon the body...
And the NOSE, and the WHITE color, and the PUNGENT flavor...
The emotion GRIEF and the ability to make a WEEPING sound."
This is from the Nei Ching (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) as reported in Naboru Muramoto's classic, "Healing Ourselves". It goes on to say about the LUNG;
"The lungs strengthen the skin and the (body) hair, and the skin and the (body) hair protect the kidneys; the lungs rule over the nose."
"Extreme grief is injurious to the lungs, but joy counteracts grief."
"Too much bitter food endangers the lungs, and 'the skin becomes withered and the body hair falls out'"
Classification by The Five Transformation Theory:
METAL:
| Yang Organ | Lungs |
| Yin Organ | Large Intestine |
| Tissue | Skin |
| Indicator | Hair |
| Sense Organ | Nose |
| Sense | Smell |
| Body Fluid | mucus |
| Direction | West |
| Adverse Climate | Dryness |
| Season | Autumn |
| Time of Day | Evening |
| Planet | Venus |
| Number | 9 |
| Emotion | Grief |
| Expression | Weep |
| Manner in Time of Excitement & Change | Coughing |
| Faculty | Vital |
| Taste | Pungent |
| Grain | Brown Rice |
| Fruit | Peach |
| Vegetable | Onions |
| Domestic Animal | Horse |
As stated, the Metal Season begins traditionally at the Autumn Equinox although I believe this is not the case everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere; the local geography and topology of the place where we live will mean the date when the change takes place will be different for different localities. Thus we each need to be attentive to the changes occurring in nature to find out when the change takes place where we live. What we are attempting to do is harmonise our blood quality with that of the seasonal changes and since the cycle of the red blood cells circulating in the bloodstream is four months (120 days), we need to begin introducing those foods which are strengthening to the lungs(and large intestine, since the large intestine is the complementary paired organ of the lungs) approximately four months ahead of the date the season changes from the Soil Season(Late Summer; Spleen/Pancreas and Stomach) to Metal.
The important point to grasp is during the Metal Season(Fall) the atmospheric chi/etheric dynamics are focused (obviously ALL the states of Transformation of chi/etheric forces are active all year round) on the lungs and large intestine and those tissues and senses related to them in such a way that they are being strengthened, cleansed and harmonised in their structure and activities. This means if those organs are toxic and stagnated (which is necessarily the case if we are eating the modern "meat and chemicals" diet) then the strengthening and cleansing of them by the Metal state of Transformation will be manifested as symptoms indicating those organs are being detoxified - sore throats, flu-like symptoms, tiredness(especially between the hours of 4-8AM; in other words, we have a great deal of trouble getting up in the morning), sadness and grief, headaches(especially at the front of the head), excessive coughing and nasal mucus discharges, as well as feeling upset in the lower digestive tract, diarrhea, being the main general symptoms of these organs healing themselves.
Of course if we get these symptoms often and throughout the course of the year, this means the lungs and large intestine and related tissues and senses are chronically toxic, which is hardly surprising since most people eat the modern "meat and chemicals" diet all the year round and year in and year out and have done so since they were born.
This of course means there are further symptoms indicating a more chronic condition of Metal Disease. Actually, the single most diseased and sick organ in modern culture world-wide is the Large Intestine, and the deep sickness in this organ is the root of all diseases hitherto known and those yet to come( for those people who do not have the good fortune to discover macrobiotics and the Ginger Compress).
My book, The End Of Medicine, is written to describe in detail how and why the Large Intestine is the "root organ" of all disease, and all the many, many symptoms of Metal Disease (LargeIntestine/Lungs) are chronicled in the chapter on Diagnosis in The End of Medicine. In order to be fair to all concerned - purchasers of the book who do not have web access, and visitors to The Alchemycal Pages, I am not putting all the details in the book on the website . (If you think I am being unfair in not putting all the details here, consider that I am providing the information on The Alchemycal Pages for free (since June 1996), which costs me 480 dollars a year plus the many, many hours of time put into adding to and maintaining the website, plus answering and giving advice to people who e-mail me, also free). In the book, Chapters 2, 6, 8-11 are taken from pages on the site and have been modified and some minor changes made. Chapters 1, 3-5, 7 and 12 and the Bibliography are not on the website). So, if you are a frequent visitor to The Alchemycal Pages, I urge you to consider buying the book in order to get a fuller picture.
Go to Menu for Metal.