METAL: The Chinese Element For Fall
AUTUMN
FALL is the season of harvest, a time to pull inward and gather together on all levels, a time to store up fuel, food, and warm clothing, a time to study and plan for the approaching stillness of winter. Everything in nature contracts and moves its essence inward and downward. Leaves and fruit fall, seeds dry, and the sap of trees goes into the roots. The earth’s grasses start to lose their deep green color, turning lighter and drier.
The forces of Autumn create dryness in heaven and metal on Earth; they create the lung organ and the skin upon the body…and the nose and the white color, and the pungent flavor….the emotion grief, and the ability to make a weeping sound.
— Inner Classic
METAL
METAL is the decline of the matter, or the matter’s decline stage. Metal is the fourth phase of the cycle of elements. Metal is yin in character, its motion is inwards and its energy is contracting. It is associated with the west and autumn, old age, the planet Venus and the color white. The archetypal metals are silver and gold.
METAL ASSOCIATIONS
Yin Solid Organ Lungs
Yang Hollow Organ Large Intestine
Sense Organ Nose/Smell
Tissue Skin and Hair
Emotion Grief and Melancholy
Voice Sound Weeping
Virtue Vigor
Season Autumn
Environmental Influence Dryness
Development Harvest
Color White
Taste Pungent
Orientation West
Time of Day Lungs 3:00 AM – 5:00 AM
Time of Day Large Intestine 5:00 AM – 7:00 AM
