Earth with all its inhabitants takes a 365-day journey around the sun measuring a one-year cycle. Observing the yearly journey, the ancient wisemen through the ages witnessed and recorded the changes in nature—plants, animals, weather, and humanity itself. Over the hundreds or perhaps thousands of years observing earth’s journeys around the sun each generation investigated, defined, and documented all of nature’s changes, especially the seasonal changes that occurred each year, and how the changes governed human behavior, from personal health and survival to making life decisions. The ancient observers concluded that there were five elements of nature that influenced and affected humans, not just for the ancients in their days, but also for us today.
The sacred knowledge gathered was preserved, practiced and used through the years, most of the time in secrecy. It was privileged information for only the holy men and women who served to “do miracles” to heal and guide the population. We learn through history, cultural stories and folklore that the special group of privileged medicine men and women, often referred to as wisemen, were usually strong, healthy people known to possess special “wisdom.” The “secret information” was handed down cautiously through generations.
As more people traveled the world, sharing of information especially on health and healing became unavoidable. Soon “healing networks” of eastern healers and western doctors discussed medical and healing practices, and even today with the continual exchange of ideas and information worldwide, our understanding of health and medicine continues to shift and evolve.
All medical practices—ancient, eastern, western—strive for the same outcome—the health and well-being of the person, even if their origins evolve from different philosophies. Western medicine borrows largely from the ancient Greeks’ scientific approach using evidence-based diagnosis of the physical body and the direct symptoms of the illness, followed by “clinically proven” treatments.
On the other hand, eastern medicine practiced throughout Asia for thousands of years have evolved mostly from China and India where the practice is the treatment of the “whole person,” rather than just the symptoms. For example, Chinese medicine considers the “balance of energy” which runs through the body via “invisible energy highways” called the “meridians.” Even today throughout the world acupuncturists administer this 2,000-year-old practice by needling the meridians to release or add energy to specific body organs, in addition to using herbal medicines and remedial massage for healing to create balanced energy throughout the body.
Journey Around the Sun Qigong and Tai Chi programs, including chair yoga, borrow from both the eastern and western health and well-being practices. I’m proud of it and wouldn’t have it any other way—because it works. Personally, my American Indian doctor practices western medicine focusing on the kidneys, and my second American Indian doctor is my acupuncturist who sets needles along my meridians to release, add, and/or direct energy flow where needed. My general practitioner (GP) doctor is American and all three of my doctors have information about my medical tests and well-being. All three encourage my tai chi, qigong and yoga practice supplemented with vitamins and any medication I need for my best overall health. As their patient, I am grateful for all three of my doctors and the flow of information between them.
Now that some groundwork has been set in understanding the origins of eastern and western medicine and their relationship to the practices of tai chi and yoga, I am happy to introduce the FIVE ELEMENTS of nature that affects our health—mind, body, and spirit—over a journey of TIME—whether the seasons of a year or throughout our lifetime, often referred to as the “seasons of our life.”
The five elements are WOOD (spring), FIRE (early summer), EARTH (late summer), METAL (fall), and WATER (winter). You will notice that while the five elements correlate to what we know as the four seasons, there is a fifth season—late summer. In our western world we sometimes refer to it as “Indian summer.” Google gives me two definitions for Indian summer:
- a period of unusually dry, warm weather occurring in late autumn.
- a period of happiness or success occurring late in life.
I am writing this treatise in the month of May, the early summer season, which is FIRE. We will, therefore, get a close-up look at the five elements beginning with the Fire element. Coming up next!
Journey Around the Sun~~the Five Elements 