Metal: London Acupuncture

I used to run a jewellery workshop. Directly under his work area, each workman had a large open leather pouch. As the raw metal was filed, sawed and hammered, the off-cuts and metal dust fell into the pouch. Into this also fell the rubbish of the production process: glass, copper, stones, paper, iron filings and bits of tools. When a batch of work was returned to me, this pile of ‘rubbish’ was also returned. What a feeling of satisfaction came when I took this to the refiners: I watched as it was poured into various bottles of acid, then smelted on the fire. I was eventually handed back a solid, shining white cube of pure silver bullion, ready to be reworked. This is the essence of the Metal element: getting rid of the old to make way for the new; recycling and refining.

The two organs of the Metal element are the Lung and the Colon. The Colon clears out the unwanted, collecting potentially poisonous waste products and unnecessary excess, then it expels them from the body in order to make way for the new. If we could not let go of these wastes we simply couldn’t survive. The Colon eliminates not just our physical waste, but also our mental and spiritual waste. If we are unable to let go in these areas, there is no room to take in new thoughts and ideas, which is the job of the Lungs; inspiration on every level. The Lung is the organ who receives pure Qi energy from the Heavens. It constantly performs the action of breathing, a continual motion of inwards and outwards, extracting what we need from the gases in the air, then expelling toxic waste gases. Without the energy we receive from the air we breathe we can survive no longer than a few minutes, whereas we can survive several days or even longer without food.

The emotion associated with Metal is grief. The two actions of Metal are taking in and letting go. The action of letting go of something can give us a feeling of loss. Loss is inevitable, it is universal. Nothing, nobody is permanent. Despite the fact that loss is an unavoidable law of nature, Metal grieves for this loss. In order to make way for the new, the old must go; Metal knows this, but still feels the pain.

Metal helps us assess quality and value in everything, even the value and purpose of life. The season of Metal is the Autumn, when the leaves fall and their rich nutrients are rarified and reclaimed.