Here, way
below the surface, you are closer to the floor of your soul…
Every wall is a door; every stream leads to the source.
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When you step into the richly textured
world of Chinese Medicine, you are handed new lenses, a new prescription
for seeing the world and its meaning with more depth and clarity.
Even the dark, cold season of winter takes on a fresh beauty as visual
acuity sharpens and you look further beneath the surface. In Chinese
Medicine, winter is associated with the kidney and urinary bladder,
the element of water, the color black. Its purpose is storage: to allow
the earth’s energy, as well as your own, time to reach toward
its core, to let growth move into its dormancy, in order to rest and
restore.
The emotions that can be provoked, and also healed, by the season of
water are anxiety, fear and depression – the kind of depression
where your very will is exhausted. This is when you feel isolated, tired
to the bones and hopeless. You lack the drive to make the next step
or to change. Everything is too much effort. Everything appears in shades
of gray or black.
In the darkness, it is hard to see the markers, the road signs that
guide our turns. The highways are not well lit. Life is frozen. Movement
appears to cease. Growth is suspended.
This is the deepest of the elements, the most protected. Its associated
tissue is that of the bones. When you dive deeply here, you may brush
up against your own shadows; you touch the fringes of death, see the
skeletons that have been hiding. You may peer into the dark abyss and
feel the shivers of jumping into unknown waters. To quote Walt Whitman:
“What is known I strip away, I launch all men and women forward
with me into the Unknown.” You may feel alone, but deeper
wisdom will reveal that you are not.
Here, way below the surface, you are closer to the floor of your soul,
down past the veneer, the wax and polish of looking good, below the
layers of protective carpets where worldly goods are valued. Here, at
the core, in the stillness, it doesn’t matter what kind of job
you have, what brand of clothes or make of car you drive. Your financial
portfolio and other excessive baggage are not allowed entrance.
In patches at first, and then completely, you catch glimpses that we
are of all one blood, that everything is connected. At this conjecture,
deep in this well within, our DNA links us with our ancestors and creates
visions of future generations. Our personal unconsciousness merges with
the collective. But, still, the darkness is scary sometimes, the silence
unsettling. And you yearn for the distraction of television and superficial
chatter.
Keep breathing. One breath at a time. And listen. “Cease listening
with the mind and listen with the vital spirit...” says Chuang
Tzu. Look closely. With your new lenses you see that on this same pathway,
this same continuum, fear transforms into courage, hope appears as the
first light on the horizon. Road signs stand out sharply. Shadows turned
inside out start to emit light.
As you readjust your lenses, you notice that at this deep level that
we are connected to the web of a larger universe with streams flowing
in all directions. At this instinctive level, which in Chinese Medicine
is associated with the brain and memory, you remember who you really
are beneath the layers. Way beneath where maybe love and simply being
are all that matters.
| WATER ELEMENT |
Organ
Sense Organ/Sense
Tissue
Emotion
Season
Environmental Influence
Purpose
Color
|
Kidney/Bladder
Ears/Hearing
Bones
Fear/Anxiety
Winter
Cold
Storage
Black |
Here life organizes itself around knowledge, truth, ideas and introspection.
As you become more comfortable with this silence, this time of quietness
and meditation, your ability to hear is heightened. Author Theodore
Roethke prayed thus: “May my silences become more accurate.”
Your vision also sharpens. Like entering a movie theatre, your eyes
adjust to the darkness and you take the next step with assurance.
You are free again to play in the shallow water of daily life or move
toward deeper explorations as your confidence increases. At any time,
you can locate a new stream and return to lighter elements – to
the warmth of the heart energy, to the comfort of the earth, to the
movement and creative force of wood, to the freedom of the air in the
metal element. Every wall is a door; every stream leads to the source.
You can find a tributary that leads to any or all of these elements,
any season. Within yourself, you can take short cuts, step from winter
to summer. You can dance with all of them and find that dynamic balance
which leads to wholeness. And while you are playing, notice your reflection
in others and in nature.
Still, there is no hurry. Take your time. Go at your own pace. Use
flotation devices, if you wish, to cross the river. Be your own captain,
but seek the counsel of wise friends and teachers. If the darkness is
too much, find a good mental health professional. Participate in a spiritual
community. Pray. Read time-honored books and listen for their messages.
Go outdoors at high noon and see the reflections of light on the snow.
Splurge on full-spectrum light bulbs. Keep your low back warm and protected
as you exercise. Nurture yourself with foods that warm your body’s
core: hearty soups, whole grains, beans, steamed winter greens.
The Chinese Medical paradigm allows us to embrace paradox. The darkness
of the water element also contains the fire that rises to warm your
essential biological processes. When night is at its darkest, it begins
to transform into light. The fringes of death are actually brushes with
angels’ wings. A descending slope is the beginning of an ascent,
which takes you to the next level. When you dive into your deepest thoughts,
you find the gate to your highest consciousness and are thus set free.
Focus. Listen. Breathe. Beneath even the most frozen surface run many
vital streams, many sacred pathways, directing your way homeward.
Rosemary Cody is a Licensed
Acupuncturist practicing in Anchorage. She can be reached at 227-8647
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