01/09/2025
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”.
Read the rest at https://www.shentarawellness.com/blog/the-earth-element-of-late-summer
