17. Metal – key resonances
Chapter contents
Metal as a symbol129
The Metal Element in life129
The Metal Element in nature129
The Metal Element in relation to other Elements130
The key Metal resonances130
The supporting Metal resonances134
Metal as a symbol
The character for Metal
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The character for Metal is jin. Jin includes the character for Earth (see Chapter 14). The Earth character has only two horizontal lines – a base line and one other. The Metal character has an extra horizontal line. The third line indicates that metal is deep within the earth, under many layers. This depth has been described ‘as if in a mine shaft’. The top of the character is a sloping roof indicating in addition that something is covered over. The two shorter lines at the bottom represent nuggets of gold buried deep within the earth (Weiger, 1965, lesson 14T).
The meaning of the character
Many Elemental systems have been created, but only the Chinese included a Metal Element. This Element was named in antiquity before the invention of steel mills, aluminium production or the discovery of many of the metals we use today. So what does this character reveal about the nature of the Metal Element? The character suggests something small in quantity, but of great value, buried deep within the earth.
The Metal Element in life
Metals have always been valuable. For centuries, gold has been regarded as the most precious metal. Its scarcity is one reason for its value. Buried within each of us there is something scarce, hard to find and at the same time very valuable.
We can also think of Metal as the minerals or trace elements in the earth or in our food. Four per cent of our bodies are made from trace minerals. These are used to regulate and balance our body chemistry. For example, a person may require 400 or more grams of carbohydrate a day, but less than a millionth of that amount of chromium. Yet chromium is also essential. The valuable Metal is deeply buried within.
The Chinese also sometimes described the sky as an inverted metal bowl and the stars as holes in that bowl (Hicks, 1999, p. 11). Our Lungs draw in qi from the Heavens and thus a link is made between air, Metal and the breath of life.
The Metal Element in nature
‘Metal in nature’ demonstrates something interesting about this Element. The other Elements – Water, Wood, Earth and Fire – have very obvious manifestations in nature. Tidal waves, forest fires, giant redwood trees and soil all manifest something elemental. But what is Metal’s manifestation in nature? After all, the ancient Chinese had not developed metals to the extent that modern people have.
In nature, Metal revitalises the earth. In autumn, leaves and fruits fall off the trees and fall to the ground. They rot and enter the earth, providing minerals and nutrients that nourish and enrich the earth’s capacity to grow new plants. Today, we are increasingly aware of the dangers of industrialised farming where we attempt to accelerate the natural process. We take the maximum from a field by using it every year and fertilising it artificially. ‘Natural’ farming would allow fields to lie fallow and for part of the plants to rot and almost invisibly return vital nutrients to the earth. The agrarian Chinese understood this kind of farming and appreciated the necessity to return essential minerals and nutrients to the earth. Metal provides the quality for the earth.
Metal also describes the role of impervious rock within the earth. Without rock all the water would soak through to the centre of the earth. For life to be possible on earth it is essential that water is returned to the surface in order to nourish animals and plants. It is in this way that Metal creates Water along the sheng cycle.
The Metal Element in relation to other Elements
The Metal Element interacts with the other Elements through the sheng and ke cycles (see Chapter 2, this volume).
Metal is the mother of Water
Along the sheng cycle Metal creates Water by containing it. Water has no shape unless contained by the impermeable rocks in the earth. If patients have obvious Water Element symptoms, such as urinary symptoms, these may have originated in the mother Element, Metal. A practitioner may treat the mother to assist the child.
Earth is the mother of Metal
Along the sheng cycle Earth hardens to create Metal. So there is a close relationship between Earth and Metal. Metal provides the minerals and nutrients that give Earth its quality and at the same time Earth creates Metal. When patients have signs and symptoms associated with the Metal Element these may be caused by imbalance in the Earth Element, the mother. For example, loose bowels or chest problems can be caused by an Earth imbalance. If the mother is the original cause, treating it will permanently help with the signs and symptoms whilst treating the Metal will have only a temporary effect.
Metal controls Wood
The Wood Element is controlled by Metal. A common symbol of this is of a metal saw cutting down a tree. If a person’s Metal Element becomes weak it can lose control of the Wood Element. The Wood Element in turn may become too strong and symptoms of fullness such as extreme anger and hostility may develop. An apparent imbalance in the Wood Element may therefore actually stem from the Metal Element.
Fire controls Metal
Fire controls Metal. It softens it and helps to shape it. When fashioning beautiful objects in gold, the gold must be heated in order to mould it to the desired shape. Should the Fire Element become deficient, then the balance of the Metal Element is harder to maintain. In this case the Lung itself is more likely to weaken, fail to distribute protective qi and fail to receive qi from the Heavens.
The key Metal resonances (Table 17.1)
The colour for Metal is white
The character for white
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The character for white is bai (Weiger, 1965, lesson 88A). This character describes the sun which has just appeared in the sky. This represents the dawn in China where the Eastern sky has become white.
| Colour | White |
| Sound | Weeping |
| Emotion | Grief |
| Odour | Rotten |
Colour in life
The colour for Metal is white. In the West people often wear black clothes or a black armband when someone dies. In contrast, in the East white is worn as an outward manifestation of the grieving process. The ‘celebration of the white’ is a three-day funeral party. Wreaths are placed outside the entrance of the home and over the three-day period, which is the established time for the passing of the dead, the guests eat, drink, play mah-jong and talk (Zhang and Rose, 2000, p. 73).
Facial colour
A white colour manifests on the face when the Metal Element is chronically out of balance. This colour usually appears under and beside the eyes. Unlike a simple paleness or lack of a healthy pink, white often appears ‘shiny’ with the colour appearing almost off the face. It is not just the paleness of ‘lack of red’, but a distinct colour in its own right.
The sound for Metal is weeping
The character for weeping
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The character for weeping is qi (Weiger, 1965, lessons 125A and 1F). This character is made up of two parts. The first represents water (shui). The second part describes a man standing on the ground (li). Together these two radicals represent a person weeping or sobbing.
Weeping in life
This voice tone is based on an emotionally expressive but non-verbal sound, that of weeping or crying. These expressions are normally associated with loss or grieving so the ‘sound’ resonates with the emotion of Metal, which is grief. Metal CFs often have difficulty expressing their grief and it then remains locked inside their chest. If practitioners hear their patients expressing a weeping sound when the conversation is totally unrelated to loss, this may be labelled inappropriate weeping and could indicate that the patient is a Metal CF.
When sadness is induced or arises, the intensity of the weep can be indicative of the extent that the Element is out of balance.
The voice tone of weeping
It is easier to demonstrate a sound, through a recording or mimicking, than a verbal description. The weeping sound has, however, some distinctive characteristics. There is a hint that the person speaking with a weep might easily begin to cry or weep in the ordinary sense. Sometimes there is a slight faltering in the words, almost a choking back, as the person struggles to stop the underlying emotion breaking through. There is also a weakness or lack of density in the voice and it may trail off at the end of a sentence.
Were the voice box like a flute, it would be a flute that was partially blocked and could not play at full volume.
To experience the sound of weeping, sit with the head dropped and the chest squeezed in order to prevent the free flow of qi through the chest. Think of anything sad and let yourself feel the sadness or the loss of what ‘might have been’. Then say to yourself ‘This is awful and I can’t do anything about it.’ Then say it again out loud. Speak slowly and let the voice crackle, break and drift off.
The odour for Metal is rotten
The character for rotten
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The character for rotten is lan (Weiger, 1965, lessons 126A and 120J).
The odour resonating with Metal is rotten. Like some of the other odour translations, ‘rotten’ is not consistently used in English to describe a specific smell. There is, however, a characteristic odour of animal or vegetable matter that is rotting. Probably rotting meat is the best verbal description, but the odour of a rubbish bin or garbage truck where many different substances are decomposing is also close.
The best way to learn odours is by smelling Metal CFs, but there are some descriptions of rotten which might be useful:
• like rotten meat
• fills the inside of a person’s nose with tiny prickles
• clenches the inside of a person’s nose
The emotion for Metal is grief
The character for grief
The two main characters that are used to express grief are you and bei.
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The Chinese term for grief is you (Weiger, 1965, lesson 160). At the top of this character is a head. Below this is a heart and at the bottom a pair of dragging legs that accompany the troubles in the head and heart (Larre and Rochat de la Vallée, 1996, pp. 145–149). ‘You’ is sometimes translated as oppression or worry and can be associated with more than one Element.
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Sadness, bei, is also associated with Metal. The character has two parts to it (Weiger, 1965, lessons 170A and 107A). The first, fei, means the notion of something in opposition or not communicating. Instead the two sides are back to back. The second radical, xin, represents the heart. Together they represent the negation of the Heart and a brutal sadness, desolation or loss.
Grief in everyday life
Many people’s everyday notion of grief is that it is the emotion felt when, without warning, a loved one dies. There is often shock and then an outburst of grief. This extreme emotion is sometimes seen on TV, when there has been a plane crash, ‘terrorist’ attack or a passenger ferry sinks. The bereaved wail and cry and their faces show the typical ‘collapsing downwards’ of grief. Ai, not you, is the Chinese word that conveys the howling and wailing that is normal behaviour during the mourning period in China or the keening that people sometimes express when someone close to them has died.
Such extreme grief is not typical. Everyday life brings many instances of loss from very small to large and for each of these there is an appropriate emotional response associated with the ability to let go. The range of people’s losses varies from physical objects (some highly valued, others less so), to loved ones or friends, to dreams about what they might have done or who they might have become. Over the course of people’s lives, possessions wear out, relationships change, people’s prestige or self-worth can lessen and, indeed, people are all getting a little older with all the potential loss of abilities, possibilities, health and future. Of course, as time moves on, many aspects of life may get better, but in the end all that people have acquired in a lifetime will be lost, if not during the passage through, certainly by the end.
It is natural for people to own or possess or in some sense hang on to ‘things’. Concepts of ownership and private property are well entrenched in most cultures and most people. ‘Mine’ seems to be one of the first words that children learn. The acquiring of material possessions is one of the most powerful driving forces in many people’s lives. However much spiritual teachers recommend that people continuously let go and simply pass through life, humans tend to hold, possess and hang on to things. A farmer may have a caretaker role with respect to his farm, but he nevertheless believes it is his farm, if only for this lifetime (Kornfield, 2002; see pp. 15–16 for one of many anecdotes about passing through).
Grief and letting go
Attachment to other people or things is inevitable. As people get older it is probable that many of those they have loved during their lives will die. If people love someone it meets a deep need and that inevitably creates a degree of dependence. Intense or prolonged emotions often arise when people lose something or someone they depend upon. For many children intense feelings of abandonment, of grief or loss will be the most powerful cause of disease that they will face. A sense of loss is the most intense emotion that some people have to endure. Whether a person’s spirit remains alive or becomes deadened and diminished by this has a huge effect on the person’s Metal Element.
Loss can, of course, evoke other feelings such as anger or anxiety. But grief is the emotion most appropriate to the process of letting go of, or mourning what has been lost in preparation for moving on. After all, people think it odd for someone, after a heavy loss, just to shrug it off, apparently feeling no intense emotions and carry on in the changed circumstances as though nothing had happened.
The range of expressions of grief
Grief is experienced in many different ways. In some people, feelings of disappointment and yearning are intense. In others, regret is powerfully felt. When these feelings are intense or prolonged, it is often too painful for a person, especially a child, to fully experience.
Su Wen says that when grief is present the qi ‘disappears’ (xiao). This yin expression of an emotion implies a withdrawal of the qi leaving a void behind. This entirely fits with the feelings of emptiness which are common in Metal CFs. Many would not perceive themselves as ‘empty’ at all but there is a deadened, inert aspect to them. As Havelock Ellis wrote, ‘Pain and death are a part of life. To reject them is to reject life itself’ (On Life and Sex: Essays of Love and Virtue, Volume 2).
A life with something missing, and a part of the spirit that is not fully alive, is the price that people pay if they repress this aspect of their being.
Grief in health and sickness
The Metal Element, the Lungs and Large Intestine, gives people the capacity to confront loss, let what they once possessed go, feel the pain and then move on. When the Metal Element is reasonably balanced, this process happens smoothly. The ‘disappearing’ movements of the qi run through the face, chest and abdomen and dissipate. Tears may flow and sobbing may occur. The movements of qi are fluent. When the Metal Element is out of balance, grief is less fluent and people can get stuck, not having truly let go. This stagnation, or inability to come to terms with change, has the oppressive effect on the spirit depicted by the dragging legs in the character you. A person’s physical health may be affected.
The chest in particular holds tight in order to stop the feeling. One of the most common descriptions of stuck grief is that of ‘choking up’ where the chest and throat tighten up, impeding the flow of qi.
Dealing with feelings of grief
For many people the need to numb the pain of grief and sadness is an emotional necessity. To deny that anything is amiss can become compulsive. If something has gone wrong apologies are seldom offered as that would involve admitting to themselves and others that they failed to behave appropriately to the needs of the situation.
The tendency to be somewhat inert and lacking in passion is a key characteristic of many Metal CFs. They can be inclined to be somewhat withdrawn and morose. Others maintain a perfectly bright exterior in an attempt to convince themselves and others that everything is fine. (A character in literature that comes to mind is Dr Pangloss in Voltaire’s Candide. Despite experiencing much suffering he was stubbornly determined to maintain that ‘All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds.’) This bright exterior, however, has a quality of brittleness that hints at its function of masking or holding in the underlying grief. It should not be confused with the joy of a Fire CF which although often brighter and more joyous than that of a Metal CF, can also be more precarious and more easily move to the other extreme of joylessness (Table 17.2).
| Grief | Loss, emptiness, resignation, longing, regret, remorse, mourning, feeling bereft |
A Metal CF had suffered from endometriosis since 21. When asked whether anything had happened around that time she said she was sure that there was nothing she was aware of. When asked what had been the most difficult time in her life so far, she replied that her boyfriend had committed suicide when she was 21. She laughed nervously as she talked about it and said that she had not grieved at all. She had moved away but when she returned to her home town five years later had had ‘a bit of a nervous breakdown’ as she started having ‘panic attacks’ and having nightmares about his death.
The supporting Metal resonances
These resonances are considerably less important than the ‘key’ resonances given above. They can often be used to indicate that a person’s Metal Element is imbalanced but they do not necessarily point to it being the person’s CF (Table 17.3).
| Season | Autumn/Fall |
| Power | Decrease |
| Climate | Dryness |
| Sense Organ/Orifice | Nose |
| Tissues and body parts | Skin |
| Generates | Body hair |
| Taste | Pungent |
The season for Metal is autumn
The character for autumn
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The character for autumn is qiu. The first part of this character, ho, represents an ear of corn that is so heavy it is bending over. The second part is the character for fire, huo (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 121C (qui), 121A (ho) and 126A (huo)). Autumn is the season when the leaves of the trees and plants become golden like fire and everything needs to drop and be cut down. It can also be translated as the season when the grain is burned.
Autumn
The yearly cycle of growth was close to the hearts of the agrarian Chinese. Any plant goes through different phases and manifests a different quality of qi according to the season. Autumn is the time that the yang qi of the summer becomes more yin.
The leaves of the tree wither and drop to the earth – it is a time of death and a falling downward. The acorns of the oak tree, the seeds that will carry on the species, fall to the ground with leaves attached. Thus what has fallen contains both the seeds for the next generation and the material which will rot, enter the soil and provide nourishment and quality for the new plants.
This yin phase in the growth cycle is the opposite of Wood with its emphasis on birth and upward movement. Many people feel a sense of melancholia, an indefinable slight sense of sadness, at this time of year. ‘The melancholy days are come, the saddest of the year’ (William Cullen Bryant).
The power for Metal is decrease
The character for decrease
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The character for decrease is jian (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 125A and 71P).
Decrease
After the thrusting up of spring, the growth of summer and the harvest of late summer, autumn is a time of decrease. It is the time of letting go, when the qi is drawing in. At this time of year the nights draw in and the temperature becomes cooler. Stillness often accompanies the dropping leaves and seeds. Grief resonates with this phase, as there is death, a letting go and a preparation for new life.
The climate for Metal is dryness
The character for dryness
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The character for dryness is zao (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 126A (huo) and 72L (tsao)). This character combines the character for fire, huo, with the character for a tree with three singing birds in it, tsao. It can be assumed that when it is hot the birds singing in the tree will get very thirsty and dry.
Dryness
Dryness is considered to be an external ‘evil’, which can invade and cause illness. It is more likely to occur in autumn in Northern China, although it rarely occurs in Britain. A comparison with Earth is useful. For the Earth Element, the opposite or too much fluid is often the problem. External humidity attacks and causes the already Damp person to feel worse, often with stiff and aching joints or a muzzy head. In a similar way, external dryness causes dryness patterns that are treated via the Lung, hence the connection with Metal. The main symptoms of dryness are a dry nose, throat and skin, a dry cough and possibly thirst. For those who are already dry, living in a desert region or one with very low humidity can cause this pattern to occur.
People living in extremely dry climates are especially prone to respiratory illness. For those, however, who suffer from asthma or recurring bronchitis, brought on by a damp environment, a holiday in a dry climate can be therapeutic.
The sense organ/orifice for Metal is the nose
The character for the nose
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The character for the nose is bi (Weiger, 1965, lesson 40C).
The nose
The Metal Element is associated with the nose and the sense it governs is the ability to smell. The connection between the Lung and the nose is an obvious one and free communication should take place between them. Breathing through the nose both warms and filters the air before it enters the Lungs. This protects against pathogens entering the fragile Lungs. If the nose is blocked and a person can only breathe through the mouth the air is not filtered or warmed and pathogens are more likely to enter the Lungs. If a person continually breathes through the mouth rather than the nose the lung qi will become weakened and the person will begin to feel depleted and low in energy.
The tissue and body part for Metal is the skin
The character for the skin
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The character for the skin is pi (Weiger, 1965, lesson 43H).
The skin
The body part resonating with Metal is the skin. Naturopaths have often said that the suppression of a skin disease, for example by steroids, may drive the disease into the lungs. The connection between asthma and eczema is well known. Chinese medicine does not make this particular connection, but a weakness of the Lungs leads to weak ‘protective’ (wei) qi. One function of this qi, which flows between the skin and the muscles, is to ward off external ‘evils’ or pathogenic factors such as Wind, Cold and Damp. At the same time, however, it nourishes the skin and thus the quality of the skin depends on having good quality Lung qi.
When a patient has poor quality skin, for example, dry skin, clogged or inelastic skin, this may indicate a weakness of the Lungs or Large Intestine. This is not a reliable factor in diagnosing Metal CFs, however, as there are too many other factors that can affect skin.
Metal generates body hair
The body hair, like the skin, is connected to the Metal Element via the protective energy. The state of the body hair may, like the skin, indicate a weakness of the qi of the Metal Element.
The taste for Metal is pungent
The character for pungent
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The character for pungent is xin (see Weiger, 1965, lesson 250H).
The pungent taste
Garlic, cinnamon and ginger are examples of the pungent or acrid flavour. Anything pungent is said to move or scatter qi. For example, when a person has a cold or flu, the energetic pattern may, depending of course on the symptoms, be called an ‘Invasion of the Lung by Wind-Cold or Wind-Heat’. In both cases, a pathogenic factor is stuck at the level of the skin and muscles. In this situation the qi needs to be moved to expel the Wind and scatter the Cold or expel the Heat.
Foods with pungent flavours move the qi. They also frequently produce sweating, which is one of the ways the pathogenic factors are released. If, however, the Lung qi is weak but not invaded, it could be a mistake for the person to eat too much pungent-flavoured food. Expelling or scattering is appropriate only when pathogenic factors have invaded.
Some Metal CFs enjoy pungent food. A craving for this taste may sometimes indicate that people have problems with their Lungs. This is not, however, a reliable indicator of the CF.
Summary
1. Along the sheng cycle Metal is the mother of Water and Earth is the mother of Metal. Across the ke cycle Metal controls Wood and Fire controls Metal.
2. A diagnosis of a Metal CF is made primarily by observation of a white facial colour, a weeping voice tone, a rotten odour and an imbalance in the emotion grief.
3. Metal CFs rarely express grief forcibly as might be assumed from the use of the word in English.
4. A sense of loss or a feeling of melancholy and longing or alternatively being ‘cut off’ from feelings of sadness are common emotional expressions arising from an imbalanced Metal Element.
5. Other resonances include the season of autumn, dryness, the power of decrease, the nose, the skin, body hair and a pungent taste.
