The Water element

headlong into winter and facing our mortality

Here we are transitioning from Autumn to Winter. For practitioners of Traditional Chinese Medicine and Taoism, we are moving from the season of Metal to that of Water, the season of letting go and grieving our losses, to the season of fear, or coming face to face with our fears.

Winter is cold and dark in the Northern Hemisphere. The ground is blanketed with snow and ice. Humans and most mammals normally spent most of their time underground in winter, tucked away in caves or shelters, out of the wind and cold. If they were fortunate, they had a good supply of food harvested from the fields in the previous months and firewood to cook the food and keep themselves from freezing. The emotion of fear is inherent in Winter. Many elders never made it through winter, even to this day.

The organs associated with the Water element are those that handle the fluid balance in the body: the Kidneys and the Bladder. Where do the Kidneys lie within the body?
Tucked up under the ribs, in their own little cave outside of the abdominal cavity, in the retroperitoneal space. And on one pole of the kidneys lie the adrenal glands, which make the hormone adrenaline which helps us to flee and hopefully survive life-threatening circumstances.

In TCM, the Kidneys hold the Jing, the essence of life. Like oil in an oil lamp, if we live our lives hard and fast, we burn through that Jing quickly. We are only given so much by our parents. It is a precious substance that must be preserved and replenished if we are to live a long life. One of the main goals of ancient Taoism was to discover ways to replenish the Jing.

As we wait out the long, cold winter in our caves it is only natural to meditate, to dream, to go within. It is in the Dreamtime that we dream the coming world into being, the world that will be reborn come spring. We go within on those long, dark winter nights by the fire and come face to face with our inner demons, meeting them head-on so that we can transmute them into our inner allies, our partners, and our friends. We retrieve and reclaim our power from them. Or not.

The shadows are reflected by the fire and as they dance across the walls of the cave we are confronted with the greatest fear of all: Death, because the ego dies alongside our bodies at Death. “The shadow, especially the shadow of death, is the greatest teacher for how to come to the light” Ram Dass.

These demons, both within and without, show up at the door during Halloween. They come to us, letting us know what we have to work on. It is up to us to do the inner work to transmute them and dispel them. Humanity as a collective, consistently provides us with fears to work through, especially if we are unwilling to go to these dark places ourselves. We are in Earth school and our lessons will often be brought directly to our doorsteps, just like the ghouls and goblins of Halloween.

So gather up your provisions and settle in for the long Winter’s dreamwork.

Gather the bones of your ancestors and place them in the cauldron over the fire. Sprinkle in some herbs:

• Rosemary sweetens our memories and grants us emotional perspective and space

• Reishi fortifies the Jing and calms the Shen, the spirit, so that it can do the heavy lifting of shadows.

• Artemisia, mugwort, calls forth our wild, untamed selves. and opens our third eye to visions and dreams.

Call in your allies, and your guides. Invite forth the shadows that play in the darkness. Give them space to deliver the messages they have for you; it is there that the treasures of life lie.

And when spring comes back around, the world will be a better place.

Don’t prolong the past,
Don’t invite the future,
Don’t alter your innate wakefulness,
Don’t fear appearances,
There’s nothing more than that!
– Patrul Rinpoche