Over a month ago, we were discussing the coming of autumn in my yoga class. A few of us spoke of the "dread" of the change from summer to fall season; the change of light and temperature. I find this time of year has its beauty but it is not simple to adapt to. From the full openness that the summer warmth has created in us, we begin the journey back inward of autumn. The darkness and the coolness outside forces us inward, our bodies are pushed to close the pores of our skin in order to conserve warmth. Since I began studying Chinese Medicine, I have begun to understand and appreciate each season of the year better and observe how my body/being changes with them.
 
As Claude Larre and Elisabeth Rochat de la Vallée, sinologists and Chinese Medicine scholars describe in The Secret Treatise of the Spiritual Orchid:
 
"To rise in order to fall, and to fall in order to rise, that makes circulation. It is so high that we cannot perceive the essence of it. It is so universal that everything, everybody, every animal and every plant is affected and is under the same natural movement of tian yun. The progression of this is seen through the four seasons [...] Spring manifests itself everywhere as some beginning of life or renewing of the beginning of life [...] Summer takes what has been started and progresses along the line up to an acme, to the highest point of that progress, and then suddenly, in order to protect life and to protect the universe, it has to reverse its movement. So on some uncertain morning in the autumn time, the quality of air is very different. It's shocking. Something has started to reverse. It means that the yin which has been there but covered, unable to manifest itself except as a hidden, sustaining power, is now able to arise in its own right." (Larre, Rochat 1992: 7)
 
This "uncertain morning in autumn" is upon us now and we knew it was coming. Nevertheless, it is "shocking" for our beings, just as a metallic object touches our bare skin; a certain coldness makes us contract inward. This is the effect and energetic movement of Metal, to be more inward focused and passive, more Yin.
 
From the 5-Element perspective, Metal is associated with the organs of Lung and Large Intestine. It is not surprising then that many of us will experience Lung and digestive themes, such as a cold/ flu or those with asthma can have a flare-up or a gastrointestinal virus (stomach flu) at this time of year. As with all the elements there is an emotion associated with Metal, it is sadness/ grief. The direction is the West, where the sun sets. Makes sense, doesn't it? The Yang, like the sun and daylight, is setting, and the Yin, the moon and night, is rising. The climate becomes dry, making our skin dry. This is that clear manifestation of the energy moving inward, no longer nourishing the most external parts of us, as with the trees. In humans, the skin and in trees, the leaves. 
 
For me, this is a beginning of a death that will happen in winter. But through this death, comes new life next spring. Can we find beauty in death? Yes, I believe so. I look to the trees, the Japanese Maple tree, Acer palmatum, especially. We have a few in our garden. One in particular has a longer process of a "glorious death." He, I sense him as male, is green and robustly thick all summer. Then, just as that "uncertain morning in autumn" comes, he transforms his green leaves into a rusty red. Then suddenly comes the piercing frost at the end of autumn and then begins that magnificent, crimson red phase till he drops his leaves completely for his winter's sleep. The Japanese have a practice in this time of year, momijigari, "the hunt for deep red leaves." Many go on a "pilgrimage" to places where the Maple trees are transforming life to death, to appreciate this beautiful process. I personally have not yet been to Japan but I know that I will be at least once in this lifetime on a momijigari.
 
As I have mentioned before in other posts, I look to the trees for life's wisdom. Even in this time of contraction and closing in, there is beauty and purpose for the inward movement. It is as Larre and Rochat state, it is "in order to protect life and to protect the universe."


Reference
Larre, Claude/ Rochat de la Vallée (1992) : The Secret Treatise of the Spiritual Orchid. Nei Jing Su Wen Chapter 8. Cambridge: Monkey Press.

Images by Elaine ​

I remember my first meeting with Echinacea in the late 1990s. I was at the end of my Bachelor's degree in the US. I recall being totally stressed out, as many students (and other people) are, having exams, papers due, part-time job and just worrying about life. I was also involved in dance and one of my dance professors/ choreographers, who I was working closely with on a performance, introduced me to Echinacea. She gave me her bottle of almost-finished Echinacea tincture to try, when she heard that I was having another bout of sore-throat which would progress to a cough, that I often had when I was stressed out. But that didn't help my throat and I went on to have a cough.
 
Fast forward 10 years later and I had finished studying Chinese Medicine, became a practitioner, moved to Switzerland and my children have already been born. I wasn't so prone to getting sick but when it came, it would begin with the throat. I knew how to treat it with Chinese herbal formulae but I somehow felt that I needed something simpler, a single herb. I am often aware of my throat, how it feels and the subtle changes that occur before I actually get a cold or flu. I started to experiment on myself, I tried Echinacea tincture on myself, which isn't in the Chinese Materia Medica, by the way. It is now over 10 years that I faithfully carry my Echinacea tincture in my medicine bag when I travel or have it always in my home. My kids have grown up taking the Echinacea tablets when they had a runny nose or when we got on planes, as an immune system strengthener and instead of candy to relieve ear pressure. I have grown Echinacea now in my garden for a few years and finally this year, she is thriving in a pot at my front door, grown from seed. She hasn't been simple to grow since the slugs and snails have feasted on her in my garden every year and she never could survive.
 
Echinacea purpurea or Purple Coneflower is a native of the Great Plains of North America and is a member of the Asteraceae or Sunflower family. The name Echinacea is Greek, meaning "Spiny One," referring to spiny sea urchins and purpurea to the reddish-purple color. There are a few other species of Echinacea some have yellow or white petals, E. purpurea, E. augustifolia and E. pallida are the ones used in medicine. She, I experience her as female, is a hardy plant, with a beautiful orange-yellow-green spikey cone-shaped head in the center and a skirt of light-purple petals. Amazingly beautiful! Sometimes when I stare into the cones from above, I get a trip, observing the formation of the spikes that form the cone - spiraling clockwise, anti-clockwise in never-ending complexity inward and outward. She attracts bees and butterflies (and slugs too!). Like many perennials, she blossoms only from the second year on, if planted from seed, from July to September.   
 
The part of the plant that is often used for medicine is the root but all parts are used. As I stated before in other posts, Chinese Medicine categorizes food and medicine by temperature, tastes, organs it affects and functions. Echinacea has a cool temperature, with spicy, bitter and slightly sweet tastes. She affects the Lungs but I have found some sources that also state that she affects the Liver, Urinary Bladder and Stomach. She helps to clear Wind-Heat (TCM diagnosis for some colds and flus) and Lung Heat, where the heat has passed deeper into the Lung manifesting bronchitis symptoms like fever and yellowish nasal secretions or cough with yellow-green phlegm. I have never tried her for Bladder themes or insect/snake-bites but she has been documented to be used by the Native Americans of the Great Plains, like the Cheyenne, Kiowa and Lakota Sioux, for various ailments for over hundreds of years. 
 
It is my experience that Echinacea should be used as an individual herb only in acute situations for a short period of time, about 3 but no more than 10 days, at least 3 times a day. I have heard experiences of patients, who used Echinacea daily for over 2 years and found that it wasn't effective anymore. I can understand this; it's like overusing any substance over an extended period of time will reduce its effectiveness for acute issues. Use of Echinacea over a longer period of time should be in combination with other herbs, such as with other Wei Qi (Defensive Qi) tonics, in order to strengthen the immune system.
 
Echinacea has been my doorway-opener into Western herbs. Literally, she helps me protect my body's doorways, my throat and Lungs from invasion from bacteria and viruses. Lots of scientific research is being done on Echinacea in this field. As with all herbs and with nature, use with respect and honor them. They will respond to us as we to them.  



​Images by Elaine