Now that you’ve met all the elements (if you’ve missed any, look back over the weekly blogs since the start of the year!) and maybe you have an idea of the elements that you have a lot of, or that you might be a bit deficient in.
Once you’ve got that worked out, that’s key to understanding how your body runs, what I call your constitutional type.
For some people, this is going to be really obvious. For others, it might be a bit more tricky to decipher. Firstly let me tell you that we all have every element within us – because we need Earth, Water, Fire, and Air to function within the realms of Ether. Some people find it easier to recognise the qualities that are most prevalent in them, rather than to name the elements. It’s also helpful to look at what seasons link to the elements and their qualities so that it’s easier to remember and visualise. So let’s have a look at that in case you are one of those people!
The key qualities attributed to the elements and their seasons where I live go like this:
- Earth: Cold, North, Winter
- Water: Wet, West, Spring
- Fire: Hot, South, Summer
- Air: Dry, East, Autumn
You’ll notice that split like this there is a hot half of the cycle beginning in spring, leading up to its zenith at midsummer and receding towards autumn. The cold half of the cycle begins to take over in autumn, is at its depths at midwinter, and becomes less intense towards spring – when the cycle begins again.
Likewise, there is a wet half of the cycle and a dry half of the cycle. We will all be placed somewhere along the wet/dry axis and somewhere along the hot/cold axis. The quadrant you end up in will be your constitutional type and it will be governed by the elements related to that quadrant.
The next thing to remember is this one golden, simple rule:
Like aggravates, opposite balances.
This is to say that too much of a good thing will cause symptoms and to rebalance those symptoms you administer the opposite. Cold and hot balance each other, and wet and dry balance each other.
So once you’ve figured out which quality you have too much of, you simply administer the opposite quality to rebalance yourself. Think of taking a cool drink on a hot summer’s day, for instance.