What Resistance Looks Like, According to the Elements
Cynicism is the resistance to the Element of Wood, since Wood is the phase relating to re-emergence, the Sacred Fool, and play.
Avoidance is the resistance to the Element of Fire, since Fire is the phase associated with courage and momentum.
Impatience is the resistance to the Element of Earth, since Earth is the phase that relates to maturation, fruition, and actuality.
Greed is the resistance to the Element of Metal, since Metal is about priorities, values, and sustainability.
Perfectionism is the resistance to the Element of Water, since Water relates to authentic and depth of emotions, surrender, and endings.
In herbalism, according to Traditional Chinese Medicine, the remedy is found in the balancing of energy, in other words, where there is an overabundance of Wood, we balance the Wood with Metal.
Here lies helpful responses and potentials for receiving Elemental Medicine. There are two main cycles when discussing the Five Elements (Wuxing), generative (the enhancing) and degenerative (the restricting).
Returning to the list above,
If we are cynical and resist the playfulness of Wood, it maybe helpful to ask ourselves are we listening to the Water Element enough - those inner stirrings, the depths of our emotions, perhaps even grief and fears, as oftentimes, creativity and play are natural healing and regulatory responses to these. If we are overly rigid, as a distorted Metal Element can be, we might be stifling the Sacred Fool, or preventing any proximity to risk and adventure.
If we find ourselves engaged in avoidant behaviour, it may mean that we have not played and explored enough in the Wood Element, the necessary phase to experience enough where we can generate our Fire, where values and voice begin to emerge. Or it’s possible that we’ve been overwhelmed by Water, particularly the people-pleasing aspects, that lead us to avoiding the necessary decisions and conversations that Fire gifts us with the courage to do.
If we feel impatient, the remedies may be through staying with the Fire Element a little longer, where we can bask in the warmth and self-making impulses that help us see more clearly and trust the process of maturation of Earth. It could also mean it’s important to learn from the Wood Element a bit more, a phase that asks us to not take ourselves so seriously.
If we feel greedy impulses, likely it’s because we are not grounded in our bodies and the physicality of the Earth. Spend time with Earth, somatic practices, and avoid spiritual expressions that separate spirit and body. To help us locate what may be melting the Metal aspect within us, explore within if your Fire is rooted in over-idealism, which in many ways, can trick us in avoiding accountability for hoarding or bypassing tendencies.
And if perfectionism is a struggle, it means that Metal as an Element can teach you about taking honest inventory and setting those priorities, help create pleasurable discipline and boundaries around your inner critic. A return to walking with the Earth through her seasonality can also help one accept the inevitable cycles of endings, unknowns, and new beginnings.
If you’re looking to work with Elements, who are custodial beings walking with you throughout your whole life, it may be insightful to explore your Elemental native chart rooted in Chinese Astrology. More information can be found via my website, under Five Elements Zodiac Readings.