METAL...Quiet, confident, analytical, philosophical, stubborn, seems arrogant, but just needs life to make sense and gets flustered when their perspective might be wrong. These are the qualities, or general personality traits, of the element of Metal, according to TCM.
What may happen when Metal is blocking another element? When Metal blocks Wood, it sees itself as a wise parent trying to mold an unruly child in the right direction. Metal is obsessed with philosophical ideas, like truth, righteousness, and honor. Wood does whatever it feels without thinking about any of the larger implications. As a parent, it is one's job to guide and direct the child to help them become a functional adult. Metal, however, is in charge of processing suffering. So Metal's most powerful tool to parent is turning suffering onto Wood. This creates a toxic, emotionally abusive relationship. Wood just wants to please, but Metal is unpleasable, stubborn, harsh, cold, and never misses a chance to remind Wood what a failure it is. The best way Wood can find to avoid punishment is to be quiet, still, and obedient. It loses motivation, creativity, confidence, and the ability to manifest anything worthwhile. Metal tries to take the place of Wood, but instead of making magic, it overthinks every step to the point of never accomplishing anything.
What may it look like when Metal is the one being blocked? When Fire blocks Metal, life becomes a three-ring circus. Metal requires silence and solitude to do its work of processing trauma. If Metal had its way, one would live in a silent monastery, stare at a wall and contemplate life all day. Fire would live in a circus with all the lights, sounds, and thrills in never ending chaos. Because Fire fears the ugly emotions of Metal, it fills the monastery with monkeys. Now the only thing that anyone can contemplate is monkeys! Fire uses distraction of any kind to keep a person out of their own mind. Sleep, especially the half-conscious state as one falls asleep and wakes up, are some of Metal's favorite processing times. Fire will often ramp up the mind into circular worry or pointless chatter to keep sleep away from Metal. During the day, there is always music, videos, games, socializing or constant activity to maintain maximum distraction and minimize thinking time. The peace and knowing that Metal is supposed to provide feels unobtainable. A Fire dominated life is like a whirlwind with no direction. It is fun and exciting, but never gets one anywhere. Any kind of deep questions, like "Who am I?" or "What is my purpose?" never feel fully answered,
What happens when Metal is opened? When Metal is opened, the intense desire to escape one's problems is silenced. Metal seeks after truth more than anything else. It wants to know the truth in all things, even the dark, ugly parts. It is the only one willing to look trauma in the eyes and see it for what it is. The truth is always gray and messy. There is nothing in life that is totally black and white. After seeing the truth, the question Metal needs to process is, "What is most important?" Metal sifts through everything you ever experienced or thought. All the important things get to stay in, the less important things get to leave. When it is all complete, a person is left with only what is most important, and everything else seems so insignificant. All of the suffering, loss, and hardship cannot compare to these most important things, which can never be taken or destroyed. Most people's problem is that there are too many things in their most important category. They hold on to ideas like "Life should be fair," or "My trauma defines me", ideas which perpetuate suffering rather than seeing the truth that some things are worth holding on to. As our philosophical center, Metal is also in charge of answering big questions like "Who am I, what's my purpose in life, what's my self-worth, what do I believe in, what do I value?" It does this by reminding us what's most important. This is also where our essential confidence comes from. If you know who you are, what you're worth, and what you believe, what could anyone do or say to shake you? In the end, Metal's gift to us is peace. Peace with the past, peace with the present, and peace with the future. Joy and peace is to reunite at the end of this process, turning escapism back into childlike magic of Fire.
Metal is connected with the lungs and large intestine. They are both organs of elimination in charge of releasing toxicity from our body. Although the lungs are often viewed as bringing oxygen into the body, in Chinese medicine this action is more attributed to the kidneys which pull energy down from the lungs and so pull oxygen into the body. The lungs are only in charge of the exhale, which is solely about eliminating wastes.
Metal's most important job is in the circulation of energy. When the lungs get stagnant, energy cannot be dispersed and moved. This affects digestion, circulation, mood, and nearly every other body function. Exercise and breath work can help to keep energy moving. Expectorants can keep the lungs clear and moving. Any herb that is aromatic, pungent or acrid specifically disperses the energy within the lungs so that they can disperse energy elsewhere in the body. Some herbs that are commonly seen as circulatory stimulants are, in fact, dispersing lung herbs.
Metal has another special role, which is maintaining our external immune system. This is the defensive shield which prevents infections and other pathological invasions from entering the body. This is different from the internal immune system which fights an infection that has already gotten in. When Metal is weak, people get sick frequently and often more severely. The immune herbs that are indicated at the very first signs of symptoms of an infection are almost exclusively aromatic lung herbs.
The same energy that creates the external immune system is also in charge of our circadian rhythm. It rises to the surface in the morning to both wake us up and protect us. In the evening, it sinks into our body to calm us down and rejuvenate our defenses for the next day. Some insomnia problems are because Metal is too weak and the defensive energy cannot descend that night. Strengthening the lungs and processing grief can help this problem.
In addition to emotions, there are many other correspondences to each of the five elements of TCM. For example, Metal's quality is moldable, its movement is being malleable but it can harden, its direction is West, its color is white, its taste is pungent, its climate is dryness.
We hope you've enjoyed the information we've shared here and in the previous posts discussing the emotions of the five elements. For an explanation of the theory of the Five Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine, please see our beginning post entitled, "A Simple Introduction to The Five Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine". Previous blogs in this series explore other individual elements of the Five Elements theory - WATER, WOOD, FIRE, EARTH - and how they relate to our emotions. We encourage you to read the full series of the Five Elements of Traditional Chinese Medicine.
[The information in this blog is used with permission and taken directly from the transcript "The Mind-Body Connection in TCM" by Paige Hill of Oak Leaf Herbal. It is for educational purposes only.]
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