The Spirit of Metal
“ When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”. Viktor Frankl
Connecting to the Spirit of Metal
In the autumn, when the days are getting noticeably shorter and the daily dose of the sun’s energy is declining, we are in the Metal Phase. This decline in the warmth and light of the sun triggers loss of vitality that is plain to see in Nature. It is this loss, this decline in vitality that we resonate with and experience emotionally as melancholy, sadness or grief.
The whole northern hemisphere is in the autumn/metal phase. What that means for us is that we all have an invitation into loss and decline as a normal and necessary part of life. We will feel our personal losses more acutely at this time of year. It might be the loss of a loved one, a job, our health, or a relationship…anything that you have loved and valued in your life that is declining or gone.
It must be acknowledged that all of humanity and every living being, including the Earth herself, are struggling with the effects of the loss of climate stability and social/political integrity. What that means is that our individual capacity to process loss and grief is overloaded and stressed by what is happening in the collective, leaving us little bandwidth to process our own losses in a healthy way.
We can look to Nature for guidance on how she processes the loss of vitality in the plant world. Compost. Compost is a very helpful analogy here. I am in no way making light of the pain and sorrow of loss here. Just noticing that Nature, every spring and summer, miraculously turns sun, soil, and seed into an abundance of plant life that feeds and nourishes us all, and then gracefully lets it all go to compost in the fall/ metal phase, before taking her deep rest in winter/water phase. The process of composting is one of transforming this year’s garden into a substance that is utilized by the next. In this way, this year’s dahlias become next year’s tomatoes. When we experience loss and feel grief, we go through a similar process where the physical form or circumstances of our lives is changed by the loss, often quite suddenly and drastically. The emotional/spiritual process of sorting through, making meaning and carrying all the gifts and treasures received forward into a new life phase takes a while.
This is the process we are in collectively as well. The way of life that formed the basis of the Industrial Age is over, is falling apart, and is composting before our eyes. We must sort through, taking only that which is truly of value to build a new Thriving Life global community. Humanity is in an autumn/metal phase collectively.
Bringing conscious awareness to the energetic phases that we are all experiencing either due to the time of year, the time of life, or the time in the life of a culture, helps us manage the inevitable stress that all the grief we are experiencing brings. We are all resonating to collective grief, in addition to our own personal grief, and it often translates into stress, depression, and anxiety when we can’t manage it all. Being able to sort out what is ours to work on individually versus what we are working on collectively helps bring it down to a manageable size.
Ritual
Traditionally, ritual is the science and technology used by humans since the beginning of time to work with the very real but unseen mental/emotional and spiritual levels of human existence. This time of year, we see this reflected in the many yearly traditions of the Day of the Dead festivals that were originally developed to assist in processing the losses of the past year. Unfortunately, here in the United States, our version of that ritual has devolved into the commercialized parody that is Halloween. Halloween came here with Irish immigrants who brought their tradition of Samhein (pronounced Sowen) with them and, while a lot of fun, Halloween has since lost its significance and power as spiritual medicine for tending to our yearly accumulation of loss.
Here are some ideas to incorporate the technology of ritual into your life to help you process grief and feel less stressed in these turbulent times of great unraveling.
Create an altar to your ancestors. I learned recently that in Native American culture, being mindful of our impact on seven generations means the three generations before you, yourself in the middle, and the three generations after you. Meaning you have the ability to heal and influence both directions. Whether or not you are a parent of human children, this is how you are bringing your creative energy to the world in positive ways. For your altar, you can incorporate photos or mementos of loved ones, past, present and future. Items from nature to bring beauty or evoke a feeling or memory. Something to represent a project you are working on and hope to “give birth” to. A candle to bring energy of the sun to power it up. Perhaps some incense. Be creative and make something beautiful and meaningful for yourself. You are working with intuition, emotion, and symbolism to connect with your spirit.
Choose a decluttering ritual. Find a bit of quiet time where you can enter the project as a sacred space. It could be a drawer or a whole closet, depending on your time and energy level. The point is to bring focus, attention, and ritual to your mind/spirit to the process of letting go and receiving the value of the gifts in your life. Choose a project that fits your capacity for focused attention at the moment. The bonus is the decluttered drawer or closet, but it is not the goal here.
o You might light a candle, put on some gentle meditation music, or light an incense to help create the container for your ritual.
o As you pick each item, consider that it is a gift of the union of heaven and earth. Everything you have is some combination of energy of the sun and the material of the earth, and it is a gift. Whether or not the item is “man-made,” it is still a result of this sacred union.
o Feel into whether each item is still bringing value to your life, could bring value to someone else’s life, or has it given all it has to give and needs to be “composted.” You will have three piles.
o Thank the items you are letting go of for their contributions to your life, and thoughtfully pack up those that are headed for new life somewhere else.
o Return the items you are keeping to their place with appreciation for the value they bring to your life
o Close your ritual with gratitude for all the gifts of Heaven and Earth that sustain you.
Floss Breathing. Breathe. The lung is the organ associated with the Metal Phase. The lung oxygenates us on the physical level, and at the emotional/spiritual level, it brings us inspiration. It literally inspires, takes in breath.
o Every spiritual tradition includes some breath work. Whether chanting, singing, or mindful breathing, it is ancestral knowledge that the breath connects us to Spirit. Bringing conscious awareness to your breath powers it up to take you far beyond physical oxygenation of the blood.
o Floss breathing is what I call a technique that I’m sure can be found in some ancient tradition that I don’t know about. It helps you remember that you too are a gift of Heaven and Earth.
o Gentle breath, in and out through the nose. Extend the out breath a little longer than the inbreath
o You have energy centers (acupuncture points) on the very top and bottom of your body. There is one at the crown of the head and one at your perineum. We will focus on these two points for this technique.
o It is known by ancient peoples that at the top of your inhale, in the space before the exhale, your soul/spirit plugs back into the Oneness, the Source, your higher self via the energy center on your crown. And, at the bottom of your outbreath, in the space before the inbreath, you plug your soul/spirit into the Earth via the energy center in your perineum.
o Reach up to Heaven on the inbreath and reach down to Earth on the outbreath.
o You are flossing your Heart between Heaven and Earth, bring the clear light of Heaven and the nourishment of the Earth into your soul/spirit and clearing out emotional acumulation.
o I love a breathing practice because they can be done anytime, anyplace. Put three to five conscious breaths together and you really have something!
Cleaning up. Now that you have a breathing practice, let the little cleaning projects of your day be an invitation to floss breathing.
o Doing dishes, sweeping the floor, or brushing your teeth. Take the opportunity to floss your emotional/spirit level Heart with fresh energy.
o We associate cleaning to Fall because that is what the Metal phase brings us. A cleaning up of the old and making space for something new.
o Just three to five focused breaths will make a huge difference.
The Cultivating Resilience and Joy Project is about helping you connect with your soul’s mission and your life’s purpose. The natural result of living a purposeful, meaningful life is joy. The world needs people living their soul’s mission, the reason they chose to be at this time of global body/mind/spirit transformation. It is part of my soul’s mission to share the tools of Taoist 5 Phase understanding to guide people to their ancestral knowing and reconnect great web of life. As Viktor Frankl said, “ When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves”. While there is little we can do individually about the body/mind level of climate crisis or our cultural and political chaos, the opportunities for deep work at the level of the spirit are infinite, real, and so needed at this time.