The earth element goes with the season of late summer, the time of the harvest. The seeds laid down in the spring have matured over the summer and have come to bear fruit in the late summer. This is the season of bounty, of nourishment, and of gathering in. When we have a full harvest we are secure, certain of our future. We know we will make it through the coming winter.
But our harvest isn’t just about crops. Our harvest is the income we reap from our work, or the knowledge we gain as we study and learn. It’s the wisdom we gain as we grow and mature. Our families are our harvest. The work done on ourselves during the earlier part of our lives -- the growth and strengthening of the body, the cultivation of meaningful relationships, the challenging and developing of the intellect, our spiritual practice - all will determine the quality of the harvest we reap - and what we have to share with others.
Earth is about nurturing. Our ability to care for ourselves and others. Our mothers’ care and love teaches us how to care for not only ourselves, but for others. The patience and compassion that come from the mother are needed for years, as we grow and learn how to care for ourselves. From our mothers we learn sympathy. The whole element can be summarized by the child at the mother’s breast. They are both content, one giving and one receiving. The mother is sympathetic to the child’s needs and wants. The love of the mother is unconditional and feeds our spirit and makes us secure.
Earth is also about transformation. Our stomach rots and ripens the food and our spleen transports the nutrients to the rest of the body. Our bodies transforms the food we eat so we can absorb the nutrition. Our spleen then transports that nutrition to the rest of the body.
But transformation is not just about food. It is about the richness of ideas and how they nurture our minds. We take in and digest ideas, chew things over, and we transform information and experience into understanding and wisdom. We study and learn and fill the store house of information in our minds. This information makes us feel secure.
On a spirit level, the earth element is about feeling secure, content, grounded, centered. Our hopes and dreams have good ground to grow in. Love and warmth are absorbed into the soil and continue to nourish us so our spirit has root; life feeds us and we can recognize where needs exist and how best fulfill them. We are at home within ourselves, we recognize the abundance in our lives and it makes us feel secure and content.