From 2001 to 2002, I studied Classical Five Element Acupuncture at the Institute of Taoist Education and Acupuncture in Louisville, Colorado. I was truly fascinated by this intricate and beautiful system of healing and preventative medicine. What particularly interested me was the deeper emotional and spiritual levels that were an intricate part of the healing process.
The following is an excerpt from an essay I wrote about the Earth element, which has everything to do with food, the stomach and digestive system, late summer and the harvest, and feeling nourished and nurtured which goes beyond the physical level into the emotional and spiritual.
The field of plenty of Mother Earth gives forth prosperity and abundance during the Harvest of Late Summer, producing and offering nourishment to all of the bodies, minds and souls of all children and creatures of this world. As John Robbins expresses, “Eating is essentially an act of communion with the living forces of nature” (p. 21). Every bite we eat of the food that is produced from the commingling of the Elements connects us to the source that created it.