Earth
Earth is an element of fertility, cultivation, femininity, and wrath. Earth governs the Spleen and the Stomach. The Spleen, a yin organ, regulates digestion and the metabolism. It also holds the flesh and organs in their proper place while directing the movement of ascending fluids and essences. Mentally, the Spleen aids in concentration. Imbalance of the Spleen leads to chi deficiencies, diarrhea, organ prolapses, and headaches. The Spleen Meridian begins at the big toe, moves to the inner aspect of the leg, up to the front of the torso, and ends on the side of the trunk. The Stomach, the most active yang organ, breaks down food and controls the descending movement of chi. Imbalance of the stomach leads to vomiting and belching. The Stomach Meridian begins below the eye, moves down the front of the face, torso, to the outer part of the leg, and ends on the third toe.
Read more about this topic: TCM Model Of The Body
Famous quotes containing the word earth:
“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself—for it is from the soil, both from its depth and from its surface, that a river has its beginning.”
—Laura Gilpin (1891–1979)
“For in the division of the nations of the whole earth he set a ruler over every people; but Israel is the Lord’s portion: whom, being his firstborn, he nourisheth with discipline, and giving him the light of his love doth not forsake him. Therefore all their works are as the sun before him, and his eyes are continually upon their ways.”
—Apocrypha. Ecclesiasticus 17:17-9.
“There by some wrinkled stones round a leafless tree
With beards askew, their eyes dull and wild
Twelve ragged men, the council of charity
Wandering the face of the earth a fatherless child....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)