I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I have been talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and in my recent articles I have been talking in a lot more detail about the emotions of the elements.

Now in some blog posts I am talking about particular states of mind that derive from each element and which relate to a particular body organ. Today we talk about…

The Mental states of Metal

Metal, the element of autumn, represents concentration, condensation, drawing in; Metal is concentrated energy, the opposite of Wood. Metal is represented by the Lungs and the Large Intestine, the ‘organs’ responsible for energy transfer on all levels; they receive and they release.

The Lungs

The Lungs receive chi from heaven and replenish us. The Lungs are the receivers of energy, taking it from the outside into ourselves. We receive on all levels, so we breathe emotionally and not just physically. In the Hindu tradition, the essence of breath is called prana which is of course analogous to the Chinese qi, and breath control is an important part of meditation techniques, where our breath is our connection to the universe. With each in-breath we take in energy from the universe, and with each out-breath we release toxic substances, creating space for new energy production.

If we follow thoughts of breathing a little further, we can imagine a couple of different sorts of people. In the first category are those who breathe in too much and breathe out too little. They strut around with inflated chests, they hold on tightly to what they have, and they cannot let go and relax. In the second category are those who breathe out more than they breathe in. Their chests are collapsed and they are continually lacking in energy. They constantly look needy.

The Large Intestine

The Large Intestine is rather like the dustbin man and its function is to store and dispose of waste. It can also be seen as the generator of evolution and change. If there is an imbalance in this organ then the rest of the system is put under strain, waste begins to accumulate and the other organs are put under more pressure. Symptoms such as feeling bloated, swelling, constipation, emotional ‘stopping up’, bad acne and boils, headache and stuffy nose, can all point to a Large Intestine imbalance. These descriptions are on a physical level, but the Large Intestine is seen as working on all levels of the body-mind-spirit. If a person is unable to let go then they will be constipated and stagnate on all levels, so the Large Intestine is just as important as the Lungs in terms of our ‘connection to heaven’ (heaven is a synonym for our mental and spiritual world). We can only grasp fresh ideas and think new thoughts if we can let go of mental waste and obsolete mind patterns. So on the mental level, the Large Intestine represents clarity of thought and the power of discernment, the striving for intellectual quality.

Connection

Since Metal represents our energetic connection with the universe, a Metal imbalance can show in a person as an inadequate bond to one’s environment. Imagine a person who is lonely and withdrawn, who seems hard, cold and isolated from their surroundings. They show little feeling. These people have a Metal imbalance.

Sometimes the imbalance can show in people who have high ideals, striving for something that they can never achieve. Some may follow religion in a fixed and dogmatic way. They are intent on getting to heaven, know how to purify themselves, and want to convert others to their beliefs. However, and this is an important point, they are unable to let themselves go sufficiently to receive the spiritual quality of the essence of Metal. Too shallow breathing and too little excretion increase the desire for inner and outer purification, and we can think of cleanliness and hygiene fanatics, and highly dogmatic followers of a religion, as compensating for this Metal disturbance through their behaviour. Metal’s striving for intellectual quality can turn into a rigid outlook, intolerant Puritanism, religious fanaticism, a type of spirituality that is lacking in enthusiasm or warmth, or spontaneity. These characteristics are typical of many religions, unfortunately.

The essence of Metal is not easy to deal with. Metal is concentration, letting go, grief, going within, leaving the world. At the same time Metal is our connection to the environment, to our vitality, to heaven. Often we need to go deeper within to perceive a deeper connection that is not visible in our daily lives. Only when we let go can a space be created in which the old can die and the new can be born, completing the circle. By letting go of our outer form our essence can be revealed.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: woodleywonderworks

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I have been talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and in my recent articles I have been talking in a lot more detail about the emotions of the elements.

Now in some blog posts I am talking about particular states of mind that derive from each element and which relate to a particular body organ. Today we talk about…

The Mental states of Earth

Earth represents the time of year of harvesting, sorting, collecting together and storing. While spring looks forward, and summer enjoys the pleasures of the present, late summer – Earth – looks back at what was, and processes it. Earth is the pause between the upward and outward movements of Wood and Fire, and the inward and downward movements of Metal and Water that follow it. Earth is also the transition between each season or phase, the time for looking inside and collecting oneself; Earth’s direction is horizontal, a closed circle.

On a mental level, Earth can be described in terms of the late summer: gathering, processing, selecting, mental nourishment, survival, and gaining the wisdom that gives us the security to deal with difficult situations in life.

The Spleen-Pancreas

The Spleen-Pancreas holds qualities like logical thinking, a rational intellect, the ability be critical, the ability to think things over, and a good memory. The downside of the Spleen-Pancreas is represented by worrying about a thousand and one things, brooding over the past, and indulging in reminiscences.

An ‘over-stimulated’ Spleen can show itself in greed for knowledge and the latest news, and an addiction to reading. The most characteristic example of this is the person who accumulates knowledge about detailed areas of human life. This is the type of knowledge that specialists have: concentrated without seeing the context, the connection to the bigger picture. Another characteristic of an excess energy in the Spleen is seen in the person who can’t stop thinking, who has to think through and consider everything.

Yet another example would be the one-sided advocates of science and reason, people who judge and reject every other way of looking at things. These people are said to compensate for a deficit in Earth by mentally clinging to an apparent security in the logical verification of things. Compulsive behaviour, fixed ideas, obsessions and a passion for collecting that has become obsessive, also represent an excess of energy in the Spleen.

It is interesting at this point to note that it is not only desirable to have balance between the elements, but to also have balance within an element. The energy in earth has to express itself on many levels: physical, mental, emotional etc. If a person takes up a huge amount of energy in digestion and nourishment then there will not be a great deal of energy left over for thought and reflection. If lots of Earth energy is used up in intellectual activity, then there will be a deficit on the emotional level, leading to a lack of compassion. Excessive intellectual activity can also produce problems on the physical level, with allergies, menstrual problems, stomach ulcers or metabolic disorders.

The Spleen and the Stomach are good examples of the way that Chinese medicine interprets the idea of an ‘organ’ differently from Western medicine, even on an organic level. The ‘Spleen’ for example is seen as encompassing the part of the Pancreas that produces digestive enzymes used in the Duodenum. The ‘Stomach’ is seen as including the duodenum and the first six inches of the Small Intestine, which is why digestion, nourishment, assimilation and absorption are classified under the heading of ‘Earth’. The ‘Spleen’ also represents the lymphatic system: nodes, vessels, tonsils and thymus, it represents the red bone marrow and the mucous membrane of the intestines, since they have a large lymphatic component. So the idea of ‘nourishment’ also extends to providing oxygen – via the red blood cells – to every cell in the body.

So the ‘Spleen’ oversees the transportation of water from the tissues back into the bloodstream, the absorption of fat from the intestine into the lymph system, the production of white blood cells and the storage and breakdown of red blood cells. The Spleen is the ‘mother organ’ of the whole body. It regulates the distribution of water and blood, it nourishes the body, and it maintains the integrity of the body through the immune system. It is also seen as responsible for fertility, pregnancy and birth, together with the Kidney and the Uterus (an extraordinary organ that is not assigned to an element). The breasts are assigned to Earth.

The Spleen is important, and can be seen as being responsible for distribution, and the transport of energy throughout the body-mind. If there is a Spleen-Pancreas imbalance then other parts of the body-mind wouldn’t get the energy they need, and for this reason it is said that the ‘five viscera’ all get their breath of life from the ‘Spleen’.

The Stomach

The Stomach can be seen as the organ that receives nourishment, integrates it and brings it to fruition, and then passes on the food energy to be distributed by the Spleen. The Stomach is almost the most important function in the body-mind because our energy feeds from it, and it takes in every aspect of our lives.

If there is a Stomach imbalance then we cannot get the proper benefit from what we take in, whether this is food for our body or food for our mind. What we take in won’t be utilised properly. If we can’t get energy from our food properly then we will feel weak, lethargic, we will be depleted and debilitated. Obviously, many digestive problems are associated with an Earth imbalance.

So in practice, Earth imbalances could show as various disorders of the digestive system like indigestion, gastritis, gastric or duodenal ulcers, incomplete digestion, pancreatitis, diarrhoea and constipation. The immune system could display allergies, auto-immune diseases, immune deficiencies, a tendency towards illness, menstrual problems, infertility, pain and swelling in the breasts, inflammation of the mammary glands, problems with lactating, skin diseases, oedema, as well as diseases of the lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels.

On a different note, disturbances in the natural rhythm of life point to an Earth imbalance. The rhythms of sleeping and waking, of appetite and digestion, breathing, the menstrual cycle would all depend on a balanced Earth. In early Chinese writings on the five elements, Earth was in the centre, and Wood, Fire, Metal and Water were arranged around it. Not only that, but there were medical and spiritual schools based on handling every physical and spiritual complaint by bringing Earth into balance in a variety of ways encompassing the use of herbs, massage, acupuncture focusing on the Spleen and Stomach meridians, and mental and physical exercises.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: Alan Levine

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I have been talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and in my recent articles I have been talking in a lot more detail about the emotions of the elements.

Now in some blog posts I am talking about particular states of mind that derive from each element and which relate to a particular body organ. Last week I spoke about the mental states of Wood. Today we talk about…

The Mental states of Fire

Fire is the only element that is represented by four organs: the Heart (yin organ) and Small Intestine (yang organ), the Heart Protector (yin organ) and the Triple Heater (yang organ). The Heart Protector is also known as the Pericardium or the Circulation Sex and, along with the Triple Heater or Sanjiao, has no physical Western counterpart.

The movement of Fire is vertically upward, from deep in the earth up into the sky, from the material to the spiritual, from unawareness to consciousness. On the mental-emotional level, Fire brings out joy, dancing, laughter, awareness, and the ability to have an encompassing view of things.

The Heart

The Heart can be viewed as a ‘supreme controller’ overseeing the workings of the body-mind-spirit, and in Japanese acupuncture writings the Heart is seen as so sacred that it is not treated directly. An imbalance in Heart energy is like chaos ruling in a kingdom, with a lack of peace and harmony, and leads to feeling a kind of inner panic and loss of control. The Heart is seen as the centre of consciousness, feelings and thoughts, and is one of the places where ‘Shen’ resides.

Shen can be translated as spirit or soul. A person is said to ‘have spirit’ and this gives an idea of what is intended by the word Shen. Shen lives in the heart, its Lower House, and here it makes sure we have balanced feelings and a clear, honest way of speaking. Its higher house is the third eye chakra, where it brings forth clarity of thought and a conscious life direction. When a person has these characteristics, then their Shen is powerful and healthy, and it is said that you can se this by a sparkle or light in the eyes.

If Shen is confused or lacking in energy then it is noticeable in unclear thinking or an inability to organise thoughts, in speech defects like lisping, stammering, stuttering or even muteness. It produces emotions full of highs and lows: one minute you are shouting for joy and the next you want to die. This description would fit with hysteria and manic depression also. A dispersed and confused Shen shows itself in nervousness, fearfulness, stage fright, insomnia and dull, unfocused eyes, all caused by a disturbance in Fire.

If there is too much energy in the Heart then there can be talkativeness, excessive perspiration and nervous tension. People believe that they must do everything themselves and not delegate, they must keep control of everything and they are incapable of letting other people take responsibility. This behaviour equates with the ‘Type A’ personality – manager sickness – with its stress-related illnesses from high blood pressure to heart attacks. This imbalance is usually connected with an energy deficiency in Water, the element that controls Fire.

On the other hand, when the energy in the Heart is weak, a person may become unable to express themselves clearly, or it may result in partial or total muteness, and a dulled or non-functional sense of taste in both the gastronomical sense and in terms of the psyche.

The Heart Protector

The Heart Protector, or Pericardium, is seen as a ‘buffer’ that takes the bumps and bruises that would otherwise go straight to the heart and disturb the integrity of the body-mind, so the Heart Protector allows the ‘supreme controller’ to carry on its work without interruption. It works as a bodyguard. On an emotional level, the Heart Protector helps to protect the ’emotional’ heart, and it brings out the ability to be generous to oneself and to others, to radiate warmth and to love. It also affords us the ability to give and the ability to accept complaints, criticism and love from others. A healthy Pericardium produces a person who is able to speak from the heart and be cordial and affectionate, enthusiastic, humorous and ‘hearty’. The opposite of this can be seen in someone who is ‘cold-hearted’ or small-minded, someone who has a ‘heart of stone’.

On a physical level, the Pericardium meridian would be treated when there were problems like heart pains, angina, tachycardia, heartbeat irregularities or circulatory problems. The Heart Protector governs the ‘pulse of life’.

The Small Intestine

The Small Intestine can be seen as separating the pure from the impure, sorting and grading and redistributing, and this is seen as happening on all levels. The Small Intestine sorts particles of food: keeping those with nutritional value and passing on the rest as waste, but you can also see this process carrying on at the emotional level, and at the mental level, with the sorting and sifting, the assimilation, of ideas and thoughts. An energy deficit in the Small Intestine is displayed in a person who takes in knowledge, convictions and beliefs from others in an ‘undigested’ form, and they are unable to develop personal views and belief systems out of this. It is said that the appearance of a person who is able to assimilate is displayed through a fine, silent laughing in the eyes and around the lips.

If this organ is out of balance, then we may see symptoms that express confusion of the body-mind. For example, hearing difficulties could be seen as an inability to sort sounds effectively, and digestive problems could be seen in a similar light.

None of the elements exist in isolation, separate and unaffected by the others, so if there is an absence of proper sorting, if there is unclear information coming through, then decision-making is going to be affected (the realm of the Gall Bladder).

The Triple Heater

The functions of the Triple Heater are closely connected with those of the Heart Protector; in fact it is ‘assigned’ to the Pericardium. Again it does not have a Western physical counterpart, and its functions are protective. It is the most complex of the ‘organs’. The Triple Heater’s function is to guard all the body’s organs and control their temperature. The torso is seen as being split into three ‘burning spaces’ or ‘burning cavities’, with each space corresponding to certain organs. The upper space contains the Heart and Lungs, the middle space contains the Stomach, Spleen, Gall Bladder, Liver and Small Intestine, and the lower space contains the Large Intestine, Bladder and Kidneys. Thus the upper space is concerned with respiration, the middle with digestion, and the lower with elimination and reproduction. The Triple Heater co-ordinates these three areas of the body. For example, it co-ordinates the depth and frequency of the breath in relation to digestion and sexuality, it maintains the body’s temperature at optimum levels within the three burning spaces, so that the organs can carry out their functions in harmony.

Because the Triple Heater is so complex it is the easiest to bring out of balance, and in Acupuncture the Triple Heater would be considered whenever there was an imbalance in the energy of one of the organs, otherwise the cause of an illness might be misdiagnosed.

In Five Element Reiki we are able to work on the level of dealing with energy imbalances in a particular organ, though initially we focus on bringing balance to each element in its entirety. By balancing an element and flushing its energy through its organs, we usually bring its organs into balance, and bring balance to the other correspondences of that element. By balancing Fire, and flushing Fire Energy through its organs, we will be bringing the Triple Heater into balance without having to consider it specifically, though we can focus energy on it, and the Heart Protector, using intent.

Finally, what does balanced Fire bring to us? Well, when the Fire element is balanced in a person, summer brings us joy and fulfilment. We have an inner balance from which to oversee events, we know when to speak and we know when to remain silent. We can feel joy without becoming excessive. We can steer and lead others, while knowing when the time is right to pull back. Our eyes glow, we know goodness and magnanimity, and we have good taste.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: DammitKarissa

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I have been talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and in my recent articles I have been talking in a lot more detail about the emotions of the elements.

Now in the next five blog posts I am going to be talking about particular states of mind that derive from each element and which relate to a particular body organ. Today we talk about…

The Mental states of Wood

Wood brings forth the desire for movement and growth. Its nature is expansion, growing in all directions. It brings forth the creative processes of planning and decision-making. It gives us the desire to undertake a new project, to set sail for new horizons and new discoveries.

Wood is represented by the Liver (yin organ) and the Gall Bladder (yang organ).

The Liver

The Liver represents the ability to make plans and to see life on a material level; it embodies the power of imagination and creative energy that results in growth. It is the inventor, the discoverer. It sees the meaning of life. It develops the vision, the plan. Every new idea that we take hold of, every new concept, broadens our horizons. We take risks and go into the unknown. We grow, and growth or expansion is the essence of Wood.

You might imagine that when this ability falters then some symptom would arise. For example, a migraine may appear when Liver energy is out of balance, and you could see this as frustration with the system because plans were not made or followed. So a person with a Wood imbalance might say that they felt ‘jammed up in the head so that I can’t think, or plan, or do anything’.

The Gall Bladder

Related to the Liver’s planning is the Gall Bladder‘s function in decision making: the ability to assert our needs in the outer world. If you see the Liver as an architect, then the Gall Bladder is the builder who makes the decisions and arrangements necessary for the blueprints to become a reality. Imagine a person who has difficulty in making decisions, even very little simple ones, and you are thinking of someone with a Gall Bladder imbalance.

The two functions of Liver and Gall Bladder are very closely connected. Without an all-encompassing concept, the decisions in day-to-day life are incoherent, and similarly the best plans and projects are worthless if they cannot be carried out. Depression and resignation may have their roots in a Wood disorder: the vision is missing, the plan is lacking, or a person may have many plans and ideas but cannot make them into reality.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: Shaggy Paul

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I’m going to be talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and in my recent articles I have been talking in a lot more detail about the emotions of the elements.

But elements do not just appear as physical organs, meridians and emotions: they appear as particular states of mind, and each ‘organ’ relates to a particular state of mind. That’s what I’m going to be talking about briefly today…

States of mind

Each element is represented by a couple of ‘organs’, and in the case of Fire, by four ‘organs’ – two of which do not have Western anatomical counterparts. The ‘organs’ for TCM purposes are much, much more than what we think of in the West.

Each organ has a number of correspondences attached to it, so when in TCM someone thinks of the Liver, they are not just imagining the anatomical structure, but also anger – as we have seen in a previous blog post – and the ability to plan ahead (as we will discover later).

The ‘organs’ operate on all levels of the body-mind-spirit, they are energy fields that resonate throughout our being and exhibit their characteristics in different ways.

The diagram below shows how the organs relate to the different elements, and their associated emotions and states of mind.

In a series of posts I am now going to go into a lot more detail about how imbalances in the energy of the ‘organs’ show themselves in our lives.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: Hey Paul Studios

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I’m going to be talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and outlined the main emotions that derive from Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Today we are going to focus in more detail on the emotion of Water…

About Fear

The emotion of Water is fear, which is a healthy and natural response to dangerous situations, a normal and adaptive human emotion. We fear something concrete, recognise the danger in time, and we take action to get away from something that is threatening to us. Fear ensures our survival.

But anxiety and terror are more intense because they are emotional states where the threat can’t be assessed properly, and in fact the threat may be imaginary. Anxiety exists when a threat can’t be judged correctly, or may no longer exist. We develop anxiety when we isolate ourselves and we aren’t in harmony with things and people around us any more. Being able to ‘resonate’ with our environment is a characteristic of Water: to be soft, to surrender oneself and to not offer any resistance.

So a serious imbalance in Water can show itself as panic attacks, paranoia, a persecution complex, fear of the dark, a variety of phobias or even a general amorphous feeling of dread or foreboding, a pervading sense of anxiety about life. We may become rigid, immovable and paralysed by fear.

Fear involves holding on to an anxiety rather than letting it go and, rather like a river that has been dammed; one can feel overwhelmed, inundated, sinking into despair. Only when the anxiety has been released can we move forward.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: freestocks.org

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I’m going to be talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and outlined the main emotions that derive from Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Today we are going to focus in more detail on the emotion of Metal…

About Grief

If we follow the analogy of the seasons, and remember Metal’s association with autumn, then we can imagine the state of mind in simple agricultural communities: wondering how they are going to last the winter as the cold dark days approach. There would be worries about the future, and Metal imbalance can display itself in just such a worry, but in an exaggerated form, with perhaps a pessimistic attitude, a hopelessness. By contrast, a healthy Metal would display trust in life, optimism and a positive view of the future.

The feeling autumn is sadness, a sadness that fills us when we have to leave something that has be come precious and dear to us. This feeling is exaggerated in people who are unable to let go of something that they can never get back. Thus the emotion of Metal is grief. An imbalance in Metal will show itself as being unable to grieve, suppressing grief, or in feeling a sense of loss continually, perhaps a sadness about things that have not yet happened, when we realise that we have not taken advantage of our opportunities.

Grief is a natural and a healthy process, of course, but a person who is overwhelmed by sorrow is likely to be displaying a Metal imbalance. Someone who is going through grief may experience breathing difficulties or bowel problems for a while, and sometimes these problems may persist; we will see later that the Lungs and the Large Intestine are the ‘organs’ of Metal.

Our Lungs hold the emotion of Grief, and they are directly involved in the expression of this emotion: a normal and healthy expression of grief and sadness is sobbing that originates in the depths of our lungs, deep breaths and the expulsion of air with the sob. Sadness that remains and becomes chronic can create a disharmony in the Lungs, weakening Lung chi, and this will interfere with the Lungs’ many functions and energetic processes.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: Sarah Gath

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I’m going to be talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and outlined the main emotions that derive from Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Today we are going to focus in more detail on the emotion of Earth…

About Sympathy

Earth expresses itself through compassion, recognition, sympathy and a feeling of love and unity with one’s environment, through a basic feeling that one is welcome and at home where one is at that moment. There is a self-assurance that does not need to be proven, an inner security and calmness.

So people with a deficiency in Earth feel insecure, sometimes begging for attention and affection. Beneath this behaviour lies the belief that warmth and affection could be taken away or denied. Childhood experiences can lead to this belief becoming established in a person. In fact, the search for missing security is the driving force and main occupation of people with a ‘weak’ Earth. They look for this security in eating or smoking, they might be overly affectionate – grasping for love – and constantly looking for the security of motherly love in their relationships. They can hide their fear of abandonment behind a romantic ideal of love and partnership.

The basic emotion of Earth is sympathy or compassion, so an imbalance in Earth can show itself in a person who lacks compassion, or who does not seem to enter into relationships with others. The affairs of others do not seem to touch them very much, and a critical stance towards others can go hand in hand with this, with harsh judgements and low tolerance masking an underlying insecurity. Voicing criticisms helps to build up the person’s sense of superiority.

An imbalance could show itself as self-pity and constant whining about one’s own problems, in martyrdom. An example that I read was that of a woman who sacrifices herself for her husband and children, not treating herself to anything; she can moan and point to her destiny as the reason for this. Maybe the person would seek sympathy continually, obsessively, and perhaps even make up symptoms to attract more compassion towards them. By contrast, they might be unable to receive sympathy themselves. Whether someone asks for sympathy all the time, or cannot receive it, they are ‘stuck’ and aren’t able to move easily in and out of the emotion. In a balanced person, the emotions can flow freely.

So a person with a healthy Earth has an ‘inner abundance’ from which to give and care for others, rather like the fullness and abundance that nature displays in late summer. When this element is deficient, this ‘sweetness’ can turn into a constant overflow of ‘sticky’ emotional outbursts, or over-exaggerated generosity which serves to make others dependent; think of a mother who prevents her children from becoming adults by limiting their responsibilities and not allowing them to make decisions. Perhaps the person would be far too sympathetic, to the point of being obsequious.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: IdeasAlchemist

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I’m going to be talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

I have written about how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, I’ve spoken about the meridians and body organs that relate to each element, and outlined the main emotions that derive from Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Today we are going to focus in more detail on the emotion of Wood…

About Anger

The emotion of Wood is anger and aggression, together with the associated feelings of irritability, hatred, fury and rage, resentment and frustration. Anger and aggression are a sign of an obstacle in our path, preventing us from growing, and we become frustrated if we cannot find the space for expression. Anger and aggression are seen as positive emotions that allow us to overcome impediments to our growth, but irritability, hatred, rage and fury are seen as signs of a Wood imbalance, and are not healthy emotions.

Rage, for example, can be seen as anger that has lost its purpose and gone out of control. We speak of ‘blind rage’. A person might be continually angry with themselves or on edge with others, irritable and always wanting to pick a fight with someone. They might feel ‘stuck’, paralysed because they are unable to escape their fury. Annoyance and irritability can also be seen as energies that have yet to be focused.

If a person keeps their rage inside, it can seethe under a cold and polite surface; underneath there may be a feeling of great frustration or inner conflict, and if the rage ever broke free there might be dangerous consequences. Such suppressed aggression also goes hand in hand with suppressed and inhibited sexuality, so healthy sexual behaviour is seen as related to healthy aggressive behaviour.

Emotional imbalances in Wood can be expressed in different ways. For example, chronic irritability and unreasonable temper tantrums can be indicative of an excess of chi in the Gall Bladder. This can cause headaches in the crown and at the temples, and if this state of rage continues not to be expressed or cleared out then high blood pressure or Gallstones might result.

A person may exhibit suppressed rage: sarcasm, cynicism, bitterness and a general inability to become angry. This can be associated with apathy, sluggishness, resignation and depression, which in themselves are what we might see in a person who has given up making plans and manifesting goals (some of the other characteristics of the Liver and the Gall Bladder – see later). Such an outlook may have arisen because a person has been confronted continually with obstacles to their self-realisation. Continued failure can lead people to give up, perhaps leading to alcoholism or drug addiction, which are in themselves injurious to the Liver.

The last two paragraphs represent an excess of Yang energy in Wood, and a deficiency of Yang energy in Wood respectively. A lack of Yang energy might be caused by too much Yin energy in the Liver (the Yin organ) or a lack of Yang energy in the Gall Bladder (the Yang organ). This is where it all gets rather complicated and, when practising Five Element Reiki, fortunately, we do not need to go deeper into the Yin and Yang characteristics of the elements, the organs and their emotions!

If over the years a person cannot express and clear their hatred and rage, and turn these emotions into a positive striving towards goals, then the aggression can turn itself against the person’s own body, leading to gout, arthritis, rheumatism, and other auto-immune or auto-aggressive disorders. Interestingly, these diseases are more often found in women, and in patriarchal cultures women have less opportunity than men do to express themselves, especially when it comes to carrying through with an idea or venting their anger.

The healthy situation is where anger and aggression can be expressed and then will turn naturally into joy and love, the emotions associated with Fire, the element which follows Wood in the endless cycle of the elements.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Photo credit: Alex

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I’m going to be talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

In “Five Elements: The Basics” I explained how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, and in “Meridians and Organs” spoke about acupuncture meridians and body ‘organs’ and how they relate to Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water.

Today I wanted to flag up how the Five Elements show themselves in terms of human emotion. Read on to find out more…

The Emotions of the Elements

In Traditional Chinese medicine there are a number of internal causes of disharmony that are termed the ‘seven emotions’. They are Anger, Joy, Sadness, Grief, Pensiveness, Fear and Fright. Sadness and Grief, and Fear and Fright, may be taken together, giving five basic causes of disharmony, one for each element.

In traditional Chinese medicine the emphasis is on balance, so none of the seven emotions are considered to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ in themselves. What is important is how they balance. Negative connotations are not placed on anger, or any of the other emotions of the elements, though Western society tends to frown on the expression of anger and so this emotion tends to become suppressed, with knock-on effects in other areas (see later).

All the emotions have their place in a healthy individual and they should be felt and expressed. Most people experience a wide range of emotions that vary in intensity; some are appropriate and adaptive, others are less so. Too much Joy is as out of balance as too much Grief, but the disharmony will express itself in a different way.

You can see the elements, the associated ‘organs’ and the associated emotions, below:

In as series of blog posts I am now going to touch on the emotional associations of each element, and then we will move on to look at more basic characteristics of each element, particularly their associated ‘organs’, and the ramifications of these on various levels.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Photo credit: Andrew Leahey

I mentioned in my earlier post “An Introduction to Traditional Chinese Medicine” that I have created a Reiki healing system based on working with the “Five Elements” of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). In a series of articles I’m going to be talking about different aspects of the Five Elements and how they impinge on people’s lives: how imbalances in the five elements can show themselves as physical conditions and particular emotions and states of mind.

Last week in “Five Elements: The Basics” I explained how the elements support and control each other through the nourishment and control cycles, and today I’m going to talk about meridians and body ‘organs’ and how they relate to Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water…

The Meridians

Meridians are channels of energy running throughout our bodies, and each meridian is related to a particular body ‘organ’ from which it takes its name. There are twelve major meridians and number of minor meridians related to each organ, and you will have seen diagrams or posters depicting the course of the various meridians over the surface of the human body. Although the majority of the meridians are related to physical organs that we in the West would recognise, not all of them are, and they do not necessarily work on the same physical basis.

For example, there are two ‘organs’ that are unknown to Western physiology: the Pericardium (or Heart Protector) and the Triple Burner, Sanjiao, or Triple Heater. The Pericardium protects the heart from emotional upsets and ‘knocks’, and protects us from external ‘attacks’ such as infections. The Triple Heater harmonises the organs and ensures the safe passage of energy and fluids through our bodies; malfunctioning is seen as causing Chi or body fluids to become blocked in our systems.

The ‘Organs’

The word ‘organ’ does not have the same meaning in Chinese medicine as we would understand in the West when we think of the liver or the heart, for example. Each organ also has a much wider range of associations, characteristics, functions and influence than the physical organs we perceive in the West, and we are going to look at this in more detail later on.

Each ‘organ’ functions on all levels of our body-mind-spirit, part of an overall dynamic energy process.

In the Five Element Reiki system the meridians and particularly the ‘organs’ are important because each organ is allocated to a particular element, so if we want to work on Wood then we can focus energy on the ‘organs’ of Wood: Liver and Gall Bladder, and their associated meridians. We will we be focusing energy on these organs and we will be sending the organ’s characteristic energy through it, intensifying the beneficial effect by making the ‘organ’ and its meridian resonate at its characteristic frequency.

When we work on the Liver and the Gall Bladder we will be sending Wood energy through those organs, to produce balance in Wood on a deep level. We will produce balance in all the various ramifications and associations of Wood: anger, planning, decision-making, the tendons, the eyes, tears, and so on (see later blog posts for discussions of the associations of each element).

Usually two organs represent each element, one Yin organ and one Yang organ, one solid organ and one hollow organ, and listed below are the major meridians/organs and their associated element.

The Yin organs are the solid organs: Liver, Heart, Heart Protector, Spleen/Pancreas, Lung and Kidney. These organs are considered to be deeper in the body and are concerned with the manufacture, storage and regulation of the fundamental substances. They each have an emotion associated with them.

The Yang organs are hollow: Gall Bladder, Small Intestine, Triple Heater, Stomach, Large Intestine and Bladder. These organs are considered to be closer to the surface of the body, and have the functions of receiving, separating, distributing and excreting body substances.

Interestingly, in the same way that one element supports another in a continuous cycle, in TCM one organ/meridian can be seen as supporting the next. So the Heart supports and nourishes the Spleen, and this in turn nourishes the Lungs. The Lungs support the Kidneys, and these nourish the Liver. The Liver supports the Heart and so on.

There are two other meridians outside the element classification, and they run down the front and back of the body in the midline. These meridians will be familiar to those carrying out the ‘microcosmic orbit’ meditation: The Conception and Governing Vessels.

Did you like this blog?

If so, you are going to love this book…

Five Element Reiki

“Excellent and informative book. Great guidance and exercises to follow with ease.

As a 5 Element Acupuncturist and Reiki Master Teacher, I can only say I would have loved this to have been a course support book on my TCM Degree.

It has been a wonderful refresher and one to keep close with those few special books that need picking up all the time. Once started I found I needed to keep reading, it was like a breath of fresh air, the author has gathered and passed on some gems on 5 Elements and Reiki. It has been a pleasure to read and review this book.”

Ann Charlton

Five Element Reiki

A Unique & Powerful Healing System for All Reiki Practitioners

Five Element Reiki is a unique way of working with Reiki. It’s acupuncture without needles, or acupressure without pressing on anything, and without having to learn about or focus on the body’s meridians or their acupoints.

This system, created by Taggart King, is a way of working with the energies of the five elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine so that the meridians and organs ‘resonate’ with the energy you channel, removing blockages and bringing a state of balance on all levels.

You’ll use special symbols and creative visualisation, focus your intent and hone your intuition through a whole series of practical exercises found in this comprehensive guide. You’ll learn the essence of five element theory and understand how imbalances show themselves in your body, emotions and states of mind.

This book will be of interest to anyone who is interested in exploring and experimenting with the energy and who wants to learn a unique and powerful system for self-transformation.

This professionally-printed Reiki book has 292 A5 pages, a glossy soft cover and we will send it to anywhere in the world!

Read the contents list before you order, if you like, by clicking on this link: Table of contents

Book: 292 pages.

Price: £13.99 + p&p

Or Download a PDF version now for only £10.99

Picture credit: Wonderlane