Yellow Path - Gerad Kite’s Five-Element Acupuncture Training

It's spring. Thank goodness. There's a cold breeze blowing from the east and the sun is rising. And wow, what a difference. We've just had a long winter and it's so nice to feel that change. And look. The leaves are back. The green, the green is abundant. And there's a real sense of newness. And sometimes we need this because what the spring does, what the wood element does for us is it says have another go. And what a relief that is. Some years are terrible. Some years are great. I mean, that's just the way it is. But the wonderful thing about the wood is it comes in and it's crisp and it's snappy and it says, let's go again. It's this eternal optimism of keep going, it doesn't matter. Up you get. And we all need that in life. We all need to have another chance at something because life's tough, you know. We're going to stumble and fall. Sometimes we succeed. Sometimes our plans work out and sometimes they don't. So the wood, the spring is a wonder. Wonderful, fresh, exciting feeling. The wood is all about growth in this system of medicine. When we talk about wood, the elements being in people and we talk about wood, and for some reason it's always, always the wood that people say, oh, that's ridiculous. How can you have wood in you? So we can't take this too literally. What we mean is, is the capacity to grow, the capacity to come from nothing into something.

 

And that is when we see the most happening in spring, we see all those little shoots popping out of the ground and all those seeds that we planted  maybe in the autumn ready for the spring pop up. But what's amazing about the spring is how it just keeps coming back, no matter what. And even when you've cut things right, right back in the autumn and maybe being disappointed that you've cut too much back. It comes back stronger and stronger. And doesn't that say something about us, too? Doesn't that tell us that no matter how much we get trodden down, how much we might get squashed, how tired we might get, there's something in us that will bring us back and give us another go. So growth. It's important that we grow. Life is about growing. I mean, we come in as little babies and we become toddlers, and then we grow up. We talk about growing up. We say to people, grow up. There is a real enthusiasm for the process of growth. We love the idea of things getting bigger, things getting greater. And it really, really ties into the Western attitude of more and more and more. Now, what we do already know is that this is only one part of a whole cycle. And this is the creative part. So this is the really exciting part. This is the mystery.

 

We have no idea what's going to pop up from one minute to the next. I don't know what I'm going to say from one minute to the next, because the creative process is kind of magical. It's just kind of unfolding in front of us. And that's the beauty of spring and the wood element. It is just unfolding in front of us, and we kind of follow along the path that leads. But within us we have this same strength, capacity, resilience to to find something new, to find new optimism, to come up with a new idea, to take an inspiration that maybe has been buzzing around inside of us through the winter. And then suddenly we have the impulse to make it happen. Suddenly we're all popping up with ideas. We're suddenly coming out of the dark, chatting to each other and talking about what we're going to do for that year. So it is a natural time of the year when things start to emerge within us. As without, so within. This is such an important part of  Chinese philosophy that what's happening in nature is happening in us. At the same time, the nature of nature in spring. This spring right now is a unique spring. There's never been one like it. There never will be again. And that spring is resonating with my own personal spring. The way that the spring this year manifests will have a huge impact on how it manifests in me and how I respond to it, will also have a huge impact.

 

And this is part of what we talk about being in balance, that we're in sync with the seasons. This spring, it's a strong spring. There's a lot of growth. There's a lot of early growth. We can see that there's a lot of energy. That's probably because there was a good winter. The winter gives birth to the spring. So we see this incredible force moving upwards. The  wood gives us our get up and go in life. We have to get up and go. If we allow ourselves to stumble and fall and not get up again, it gets harder and harder as time goes by and we know there are certain people that just have that natural get up and go. They're the ones that will say, come on, let's do something. They're the ones that are going to plan birthday party celebrations. They're the ones that come up with the great ideas. They're the ones that are going to encourage you to do something with your life. But whatever these people have, we also have it within us. And the spring teaches that every year, because what we know from spring is it does the same every year. It comes back and it goes. So in the Chinese tradition, they saw the spring as being a very structured time. It was a very important time to set up the whole shape and movement for the coming year, typically in the ancient times.

 

And of course, now in the agricultural world is the time to plant the seeds. This is the time that you have to make sure that you know what you're going to do, what kind of crop you want, what the expectation of when you're going to harvest it. You have to get the timing right. You have to make sure you do all the work to get everything in place so you can get those seeds in and that they survive. They grow, they mature in the summer. And then you have a harvest in late summer. This organisation and structuring is absolutely essential. And nature has that blueprint. Nature knows what it's going to do in each given season. So the seeds deep within the ground that are giving rise to this spring, and the nature of the trees that have been resting through the winter already know what's going to happen. They have the blueprint and then the wood. The capacity to grow and expand automatically takes the blueprint and starts to produce that in the world. So this is true of us two while we're resting in winter? While it seems like we're not doing very much, or maybe sleeping more. The gestation is there. The plan is being made in the blueprint, and when the spring comes, we have to take action.

 

So we have this concept of the architect. Nature is an architect. It constructs shapes. For example, these trees, they all have their own natural shape and order, and the way that they live together is an ordered one. There's a communication there that they make sure they have room for each other, that the branches will move in a certain way to match how the roots go. And there  is a very structured communication between them. This is true of us too. Whatever plans or whatever we hope to do for this year, it has to fit in with other people's plans. We have to learn how to work around people, how to work with people so that we can realize our own plan. And sometimes what may seem like an obstacle, or may seem like something that's getting in the way of your plan.. It comes back to the whole idea of the oneness that we're not operating as individuals. These trees are not just individual trees. They are part of the whole wood element. They are living and working together. And although they're very unique, many, many different kinds of trees, they have to find a way to be with each other. So what this tells us about the wood is that it's incredibly flexible. It's the most flexible of all the elements because it has that intelligence. It understands that if a structure is going to be in place, that is going to set the whole year up, that is going to produce the flowers, it's going to produce the fruits and the harvest and give the promise of another cycle.

 

It is important this first line of structuring is done properly. So we know in our lives that planning is really important. It's all very well having some incredibly inspired idea, but if you don't sit down and make a proper plan, you're probably going to trip over and fall. Nature does the same thing. We are part of nature. The same mechanism operates within us. We have the capacity to sit down and make a great plan. Now, in the Chinese tradition, the planning is considered the side of the liver. The liver is one of the wood officials, and the other side of the wood is the gallbladder. And the gallbladder is considered to be the builder. And the builder has to then come in and realize the plan. We had a plan to build this wood cabin or cabana, as we call it. Lovely. Drew it on paper and when we first came here, we were going to have a roof slanting the other way. And then our neighbour got very upset, very angry, and said, no, there's no way that your roof is going to tip over my land. So from a distance I had to change my plan and say to the builder, can you do something to change that? And so he flipped it around.

 

It wasn't what we planned, but it actually turned out better. And I think when you get these great examples of where you can be flexible and the architect and the builder are working together, you see how it's an organic process, this idea that we have this rigid plan or a set idea, and then we get upset if it doesn't happen, it's really quite foolish. So that brings us to the emotion and the emotion that's associated with spring. And the wood is anger. Now anger gets a lot of bad press. We're not supposed to be angry. We're supposed to be nice, loving human beings. But the truth is, anger is one of the emotions that we are gifted as human beings. If we take the whole perspective of anger, what we really have is a thing called assertion. To be able to assert yourself is a form of anger to be able to say, I'm going this way, and now I'm going that way, and now I'm going backwards, then I'm going forwards. It's assertive, clear action that gives everyone else a sense of what's happening so they can make adjustments too. We're all adjusting to each other. So when anger is a healthy emotion, it's seen as assertion. It's seen as pushing a point forward but not dominating. Then if we go to the flip sides on the far left, we have timidity.

 

So timidity means you can't assert yourself. It means you're easily pushed back. You can't say what you think, you can't say, I want that, or I want to change that. And of course, that's no good. We need to move forward. The spring is about moving forward and creating. And on the flip side of the pendulum swing, we have belligerence. I'm not going to change my plan. I love that's where it is. And you know what. This is where we see the whole range of anger. Now we have access to all of them because sometimes it's appropriate to be a bit more timid. Sometimes it's appropriate to get quite angry to make your point. But there needs to be flexibility within this emotion, and we need to know when it's appropriate to use it. So nature is angry by nature in the springtime, meaning it is fighting for itself. It is coming back from the dead. It is determined to move forward and create again. The cycle of life must turn, and it is the wood that has this very unique kind of fighting quality that brings us out of the darkness, brings us out of the apparent death of winter, and moves us forward. So wood isn't stronger than the other elements, but it has this very kind of external, powerful, active feel to it. It feels confrontational sometimes because it says go and then it says stop.

 

So it's a very particular kind of strength, and often it can be misconstrued. The wood is all about seeing. And the reason we associate it with seeing is because when you come out of the dark, the first thing that you do is you see again, as the sun rises, you see again, you get a different perspective. So for example, we've created a decking here so we can have a view. A view is important to have that kind of sense of distance. To have short distance, to have all these different perspectives is how we play and enjoy the fact that we live in this incredible world where we can see all kinds of things in different dimensions. The wood is kind of playful with that. It wants to do everything. It wants to travel through time and space. It wants to create new things. It wants to experiment. It's risky. It wants to try new things. There's a lot of room and a lot of freedom and flexibility within the wood, because within the season of spring you can try something. If it doesn't work, try something else. There's no one there judging you. There's no limitation to what you can do. As long as you work within the bounds of what's appropriate, and you recognize that you're working with a collective whole. Now, I talked about anger and timidity and belligerence. And in this tradition, when we're diagnosing patients, and if we've diagnosed them as having a causative factor in the wood element, we then have to ask the question, what is the state of the wood? Is it too little or is it too much? Because we're looking at what's inappropriate, and it's easy to see the people that are inappropriately angry.

 

They're ranting, they keep shouting at you. They're telling you things are going on. They get irritable when you don't move fast enough. They question why you're doing certain things. They want to cancel their appointment and they don't want to pay the fee. They're ranting. Is easy to diagnose that, but there are many, many people who are on the opposite side of things, and these are people who are not having a good spring are not feeling that power rising within them. They don't feel the ability to assert themselves or to know what they want or to move forward. And this is what we describe as lack of anger, a lack of ability to start your own life, to move your life forward. And you see these people who are kind of resigned, they give in to anything. So someone says, oh, I don't want to go for dinner. Now. They go, okay, no problem. And can you go and get me something from the shops? I'm too tired. Okay then. But what happens with people like this is deep down, they feel frustrated because they know they want to say no, I don't want to go to the shops for you.

 

And actually I do want to go for dinner. They want to be able to assert themselves and come out of the dark and say who they really are. So even though there's a lack of anger, what you see is this building, building energy of frustration. And that can be absolutely soul destroying. It can be so depressing to know that you want to move forward, but not be able to to know that you want to become a photographer, but you can't for some reason find the course you want, or you do it and you can't sustain it. So what you find when the wood's not working properly is that although the vision is there, although the passion is there, there's just not enough energy to lift it and move it forward. It's just like trying to start an engine that won't start, or fire a pistol that won't fire the wood gives us the capacity to look and see what's going on around us, to make an assessment, because it is the power of vision. The wood element is associated with the eyes and is how we look and see to find our way forward. Because in this planning stage of the cycle, we have to be able to see which is the best way. How is it best to move forwards to get our end goal? And because of this incredible vision and power of vision, we see things sometimes we don't want to see.

 

And what we know is that in the world, things go wrong. In the world, there are injustices. People are doing things to other human beings. We see things in political systems. We see things within families. We see things within ourselves. And that can bring up a deep sense of injustice and fury and anger. And this, for someone who's unable to assert themselves, can eat away at them if they feel there's nothing they can do about something they know is wrong, rather than be able to kind of exercise some energy and fight for what they believe in, they feel they're trapped, hidden away, and totally frustrated. And this can be a very, very dark, dark place to be. It's not dissimilar to waking up at the end of winter and no spring arrives. When the wood is working well in us, it's all about optimism. And optimism is about looking forward. It's about feeling hopeful. And hope is a big word. When we're talking about spring. It gives us hope. That's the feeling we have when we first feel the spring coming. Like now with the east wind coming, the cool air that is stimulating, it suddenly makes us feel, oh, there's hope for the future. We can look forward, we can fantasize. I wonder what's going to happen this year. So optimism and another big word that comes with the wood element is purpose. Every human being needs some kind of purpose.

 

There is no judgment about how that purpose should be. But the nature of spring is that it is purposeful. Its purpose is to create. Its purpose is to grow and evolve, and the wood is limitless. It can keep growing and growing and growing. It doesn't really have an internal idea of stopping because it is so powerful. It's the other elements that come in and correct that balance. It's the metal that will come in and cut the wood. The wood is free, and free is another big word optimism, purpose and freedom. The ultimate goal or wish for most human beings is to be free, to be free who you are and to be free to be in the world in the way that you want to be, whilst living with your fellow human beings and taking responsibility for the world that we live in. So hopefulness is absolutely essential to every human being. And many, many people that we see as our patients have lost hope. They've been knocked back so many times that they're now literally just on this kind of very, very dull treadmill, just really just waiting till it all ends. And how sad that is when you think that that that seed of potential is there. Waiting, just waiting for someone to activate it, for the wood, for the liver and the gallbladder to come in and take something magical and turn it into something.

 

When we look at the associations with the wood, when we're making a diagnosis, the colour that we're seeing in the face, the side of the face here is green. And it's an interesting colour, because it's the only colour that you see that kind of flashes at you and the motion or the way that we receive the green. It does. It kind of alerts you to something. You see it as, wow, there's a colour, even if you don't see it as green, but it kind of shouts at you. And then interestingly, the sound that we hear in the voice is a clipped or a shout. The person talks like this. Hello, how are you? And it's so fascinating in this example to see how the colour and the sound and the emotion of anger all have that same motion, the exact same motion that you see when a leaf pops out of the bud on a tree. And I think with this element, you really see clearly how what happens in nature, this movement of life in nature manifests in us in exactly the same way. This is true of all the elements. But there is something particularly striking about the wood the colour, the sound, the emotion, and the odour. The odour is rancid. It's a sharp smell. It's an oily. It really catches your attention as a spoof. So with the wood, we're looking at how this manifests in us as human beings body, mind and spirit.

 

In the body, the associated organs or physical body part are the tendons and ligaments. That gives us the flexibility to move, to fight if we have to, to stretch up, if we have to, to pull our coat in, if we have to when it's cold, it gives us that ability to be super flexible. It also governs the eyes, the ability to look up and down, to look behind, to know exactly what's going on all the time. It also has a deep pathway that goes to the top of the head. It stretches us up just like a tree. It's the only Yin official. It's the only of the eye, the internal yin officials that has a deep pathway that goes right to the top. And this is where the magical spirit of wood can release themselves at night. Travel in time and space give us this huge global perspective, universal perspective, and then bring that wisdom back to us to stimulate us for the next day. So that's kind of on the physical level. On the mental level, it gives us that mental flexibility and that ability to see things strategically. We need to be strategic in how we speak to people in when we speak to people, when to write something down, when not to write something down. So everything about our mental acuity is about how we order things, how I deliver this to you right now, how do I structure this in a way that you can hear what I'm saying and understand what I'm saying? This is the wood right now making a plan of how I speak to you.

 

The order and structure is the wood. So that's the mental level. And then we have the spirit level. And the spirit level really is about how we are free. We are not trapped in this body. We are not trapped in our lives, no matter how terrible they might be, no matter how you perceive your own existence. What this spiritual tradition teaches us is that we are free. Nothing can trap us. We are spiritual beings in human form, and it is the wood that maintains that freedom. It holds the essence of freedom within us. There are no restrictions. And when we look at spring, when we look at how liberated it is, how it just takes over, how it spreads everywhere within moments, how the leaves appear from nowhere, how the communication between all the trees works. We realize that nature is showing us that there is an incredible amount of freedom, because each of the individual elements and the seasons, they have their own gifts for us, and they are all part of the human experience. But what the wood does, most importantly, is it reminds us that we are free. This is a moment in time for us being as we are as human beings, but we are free permanently.

The metal is a key part of and acupuncture training gives the acupuncture student a way to understand the workings of nature both externally and internally.

 

The Metal Element is written by Five-Element Acupuncture Master Gerad Kite