Early Autumn Feng Shui

09/16/2019 Feng Shui Florida

We’ve passed the halfway point of the Ji Hai Earth Boar year and as expected, it’s been a changeable one. Weather patterns shifted and temperatures soared to record-breaking highs over the summer in many temperate climates around the world. Summer is the Fire season of the year – one that Chinese metaphysics describes as volcanic, untamed and often explosive. Change in summer comes swiftly and sometimes without warning since Fire’s nature is to consume then extinguish energy.

As in nature, the five elements yield to each other in predictable patterns during each day, season and year and Fire yields to Earth energy in early autumn. Lacking the Wood of spring for fuel, Fire cannot maintain its heat indefinitely and it dies. In its wake the nutrients to feed Earth are found in leaf cover and remnant ashes. Meanwhile, deep beneath the earth Metal forms in late autumn before quietly yielding to winter’s deep, still Water chi that will nourish Wood again in early spring when the cycle begins anew.

Earth of early autumn is the transitional element that connects, nurtures and grounds human life to the planet. It settles the chaos between yin and yang energies and softens the shift from one season to another to help us adapt to the change. We also transition from the glare of midday toward evening with the help of Earth’s late afternoon influence. In Feng Shui, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Chinese Metaphysics, Earth occupies the nucleus, the core of the human body and center of a building, city, community and nation. We come together in these places for protection and nourishment aware that the axis spins more steadily than the wheel. It holds the center connecting the northeast and southwest compass directions while strengthening the realm of the matriarch and mother earth.

If you been feeling disconnected from Earth’s energy, foundations may appear unstable and contact with the physical world meaningless.  Boundaries are blurred and resources dwindle while nurturing others (or being nurtured) seems just out of reach. Earth energy can be restored in your surroundings by spending time outdoors in earth-friendly parks and lowlands or gathering areas in the center of town. Include elements from the earth such as pottery, clay, stone and natural fabrics in your environment. Square and rectangle shapes and warmly lit rooms of comfortable furniture and textiles cocoon the body and support the soul. Walking barefoot on stone floors, beach sand and garden soil is grounding and helps guide you back to center.

Before the Metal season of late autumn approaches, embrace and enjoy the stability of Earth chi.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them. | Henry David Thoreau  

Diane Gallin