5 transformations

Today’s sharing is about a subject that fascinates me, and although quite practical, it took some time to assimilate, and yet I realize that there’s more to understand. The theme is the 5 elements, or 5 transformations, which are the basis of macrobiotic analysis, just like for chinese medicine.

Because we live in the West, this topic may not be familiar to many of you. However, in the East, where holistic and integrative philosophies abound, the study of the 5 elements is deepened in many areas, particularly in health.

This theory is based on the premise that everything is constantly changing, that nothing is static and that there is a dynamic equilibrium that sustains these permanent changes. This balance happens at a more macro level, as in the ecosystem, as at a micro level, as in our organism.

Roughly, in nature, the balance is maintained through the 5 elements, since the water irrigates the plants (wood / tree), which will then feed the fire, which in turn will nourish the soil, that will ultimately give life to metal. And so on. Because it is so dynamic, I prefer to call it the theory of 5 transformations.

The illustration summarizes the theory of 5 transformations, which happens in everything around us, manifesting itself in different ways.

If we look at the seasons, they also reflect these transformations. To better understand them, it seems interesting to note that the illustration presented is a recent one. A few hundred years ago, the soil was represented in the center, serving as support for everything else. If we extrapolate this analogy to the seasons, the soil would be the transition of each season, or the end of summer (in an allusion to the present representation) and we would have the energy of the tree associated with spring, that of fire to summer, that of metal to autumn and water to winter. I think that soil as transition between each season would be more suitable.

I always like to start with the seasons of the year, since it is something that, year after year, we are used to feel and observe, thus understanding its different characteristics.

Let us then go to the energy of spring, tree, in which we are now. As I wrote in the last article, it asks us to get rid of the layers and heavy clothes, so that we have the ability to move more and be more abroad, in contact with nature, giving wings to our creativity. It has therefore an upward and rapid energy, being ideal to start projects, ideas and set goals for the future. It is an energy of vision, clarity and flexibility.

Already in summer, as fire energy, we have a party energy, expansive and effusive. Everything goes out, we want to hang out like in no other season, and make things happen. It is the season of communication. Here we share with the world the projects begun in the spring.

Arriving at the end of summer and the energy of the soil, we already have a descending energy, more stable and slower than the previous ones, with an appeal to come inside, preparing us to collect more and rest of all the feast of the effusive summer, being an energy of compassion and solidarity.

In the autumn, to which we associate metal energy, we have an energy of concentration. When the wind begins to carry the leaves of the trees and the rain falls, we are asked to return to our home, to stop and think about what we’ve done. That we organize ourselves to be able to face the future and that we can reflect a lot.

And we finally reach the winter, represented by water energy. That is floating, and here begins to move. It is a mysterious and powerful energy, since water can encircle all obstacles and always get where it wants.

But how do these different energies reflect in our body? If we get to a hospital in Europe and talk about this, it may sound a bit weird… but in Chinese medicine, which instead of analyzing the mere function of organs, analyzes the flow of its energy, there is the connection of organs to each of the elements … Let us begin with those whose allusion is obvious.

What will be the organs of our body that governs water energy? Yes, that’s it, the kidneys and bladder, those that filter the blood and that store the liquid waste from our body.

And the fire, to whose do we associate it? Luís de Camões said once that “Love is a fire that burns without seeing itself“, therefore, the heart is the organ that governs the energy of the fire. In a not so easy association, we also know that the viscera that makes pair with the heart is the small intestine, therefore, the two together, govern this energy.

To the soil energy are associated stomach and spleen-pancreas and the energy of the metal is associated with the organs of oxygenation and elimination, corresponding to the lungs and the large intestine. And last but not least the tree energy which is associated with the gallbladder and the liver.

But what is all this for? The truth is that when we become familiar with this cycle and its organs, it becomes easier to diagnose health issues and even adapt our behaviors to each situation. In what concerns to our body, we say that there is health when the constant changes, which I initially described, occur naturally without the individual suffering any symptoms, and we say that there is disease when the body loses the capacity to adapt and mutate. Usually this happens because some pattern of behavior or thought blocks energy in our body giving the chance for diseases to arise.

I know that at first it may seem a little confusing, but over time, everything becomes clearer! 🙂