“To have bitten off the matter with a smile,
To have squeezed the universe into a ball
To roll it toward some overwhelming question,
To say: ” I am Lazarus, come from the dead,
Come back to tell you all, I shall tell you all”-
If one, settling a pillow by her head,
Should say: “That is not what I meant at all;
That is not it, at all.”
T.S Eliot excerpt from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock
The mid- late stages of Fall, constitute Metal time. Organic matter collects on the earth’s surface and decomposes into a rich mineral content, the nutrient humus feeds and facilitates new growth in the Spring.
Popular words to describe this time are decay, death and grief. We witness the turning of the planet towards the dark, the depth, an introverted time in the calendar year.
This is felt in the upper chest where we inhale the cool oxygen and exhale the warm carbon dioxide. Our breath makes misty clouds in the morning air. These are the places in our body- consciousness that call our awareness to the emotions of loss and sadness. Symptoms often expressed during this season are a constricted or collapsed upper back, a feeling of restriction along the diaphragm, shortness of breath, bronchial infections, chest heaviness, tight pectoral muscles, a feeling of stuck-ness or phlegm in the throat/ neck, allergies.
I over used the word grief, whilst describing the Metal element. After time that word became limiting and while reading elemental writings, I stumbled upon… Sorrow, a reaction to all change in our lives (good or bad). Something we feel, each time the world shifts beneath our feet.
Metal is about distilling the essence of matter and taking in the pure while letting go of the waste and debris that suppress growth.
There is an edge to Metal, a sharpness that defines itself with a direct cutting force. It is represented in the mini- cycles of birth and death that we rotate through as we experience change. The Yang feminine energy that ripples with pain and pushes us forward into our next stage of development. It is an unforgiving energy that catapults us, that elicits sadness as we release old incarnations of our -selves. This cycle reoccurs as we move through the aging process.
Metal energy is about the end that makes way for the beginning. It is spirituality and religion, a relationship to the greater energies of heaven and the stars. Metal time is about connection and movement, the cyclical patterns of life and death.
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