The Elements – Part I
SATHeart make use of the concepts of Elements. I suppose most of you have heard about them: Wind, Fire, Water and Earth. In fact they are so obvious that we do not need to explain them so much. Or is it?
We know them by their familiar appearances. Wind makes the autumn leaves fly in the sky, blow up houses in hurricane, fly away our umbrella. Fire warm us up in winter, cook our meals, lighten our houses. Water gives life to plants, remove our thirst, carries boats and is the living space for fishes. Earth is what’s sustain our houses, the soil that nourishes our vegetables, trees, and so on.
These four elements are not only what makes up the universe and our planet: the stars, galaxies, planets, etc. but are the building blocks of our body: organs, tissues, cells, bones, etc. Each element support the others in their function and therefore form an undivided whole. Our body function thanks to them and their dynamic interplay.
The elements, according to Eastern philosophies and medicines, are not like static building blocks such as those you find in the Mendeleev table that you learn at school. Rather, the elements that we speak about should be thought of rather as principles that has a function. For example the Wind moves things, the Fire heat and transform, Water is giving coherence and allows communication, and Earth is stabilizing and structuring.
To each organ corresponds a preferred element but all elements are always active to some degree in each parts of the body. For example, the lungs have the Wind element as mostly active. The liver has the Fire element predominant and so on. Because of the dynamic collective participation of these elements, our body can maintain a state of balance and health. You can visualize the body as a gigantic patchwork of these elemental functions, working hand in hand to orchestrate your health.