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HEALING WITH THE SEASONS.

One of the most important conceptual tools in macrobiotic practice is the Five Transformation Theory (also called The Five Element Theory) which comes out of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Five Transformation Theory:

The illustration shows the relationship of the five paired organs to one another in relationship to the seasons. There are two cycles, both moving in the same direction. The outer cycle is called the mother-daughter or nourishing cycle and the inner one, the controlling or destructive cycle. In essence the Five Transformation Theory is the result of observing the events in nature as they change throughout the course of the year and attributing the outward manifest changes taking place in nature (seasonal changes in the vegetation and weather patterns and the behavior of animals etc.) as resulting from the activities taking place in the atmospheric chi or etheric world. The poetic imagination necessary to come up with this tool states that the Spirit of The Seasons creates the state of transformation of the etheric forces or chi designated by the name associated with those seasons. We are going to begin our study with the WATER season as this begins around the Winter Solstice. The essence of macrobiotic practice is to harmonise ourselves consciously with the rhythms of the earth, simply because this is what the state of health for the human

being- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually - is understood to be founded upon. Thus, we need to understand the relationships that pertain the human being and the earth during the course of the year so we can center our eating habits in the course of the seasonal rhythms in harmony with the seasonal changes. According to the Five Transformation Theory, The Spirit of Winter creates the state of transformation called Water and it says:

"The NORTH creates extreme COLD; COLD creates WATER, The Forces of WINTER create COLD in Heaven and WATER on Earth. They create the KIDNEY organ and The BONES within the body... And the EARS, and the BLACK color, and the SALTY flavor... The emotion FEAR and the ability to make a GROANING sound."

This is from the Nei Ching (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) as reported in Naboru Muramoto's classic, "Healing Ourselves". It goes on to say about the KIDNEY; "The kidneys strengthen the bones and the marrow, and the bones and the marrow strengthen the liver; the kidneys rule over the ears." "Extreme fear is injurious to the kidneys, but sympathy can overcome fear." "Too much sweet flavor in food endangers the kidneys, and 'the bones ache and the hair on the head falls out'"

Classification by The Five Transformation Theory: WATER:

Yang Organ Yin Organ Tissue Indicator Sense Organ Sense Body Fluid Direction Adverse Climate Season Time of Day Planet Number Emotion Expression Kidneys Bladder Bones Hair Ears Hearing Urine North Cold Winter Day Mercury 6 Fear Groan

Manner in Time of Trembling Excitement & Change Faculty Taste Grain Fruit Vegetable Domestic Animal Will Salty Beans Chestnuts Watercress Pig

As stated, the Water Season begins traditionally at the Winter Solstice although I believe this is not the case everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere; the local geography and topology of the place where we live will mean the date when the change takes place will be different for different localities. Thus we each need to be attentive to the changes occurring in nature to find out when the change takes place where we live. What we are attempting to do is harmonise our blood quality with that of the seasonal changes and since the cycle of the red blood cells circulating in the bloodstream is four months (120 days), we need to begin introducing those foods which are strengthening to the kidneys(and bladder, since the bladder is the complementary paired organ of the kidneys) approximately four months ahead of the date the season changes from the Metal Season(Fall; Lungs and Large Intestine) to Water. The important point to grasp is during the Water Season(Winter) the atmospheric chi/etheric dynamics are focused (obviously ALL the states of Transformation of chi/etheric forces are active all year round) on the kidneys and bladder and those tissues and senses related to them in such a way that they are being strengthened, cleansed and harmonised in their structure and activities. This means if those organs are toxic and stagnated (which is necessarily the case if we are eating the modern "meat and chemicals" diet) then the strengthening and cleansing of them by the Water state of Transformation will be manifested as symptoms indicating those organs are being detoxified - sore throats, flu-like symptoms, tiredness(especially between the hours of 4-8PM), anxiety, headaches(especially at the top of the forehead), excessive urination, cystitis and vaginal discharges in women, being the main symptoms of these organs healing themselves. Incidentally it both interesting and not surprising to students of the Five Transformation Theory the "Flu Season" occurs between the January I and March 1 in the United States, which is why we are hearing a lot of promotional announcements telling us to get our 'flu shots' now. Of course, it is redundant, macrobiotically speaking, to suggest the taking of 'flu shots' is a waste of time, since it causes weakening of the immune system, thus undermining what we need to do, which is to strengthen the kidneys/bladder (the kidneys being an important organ of the immune system, along with the spleen, liver, lymphatic system and the large intestines). Of course if we get these symptoms often and throughout the course of the year, this means the kidneys and bladder and related tissues and senses are chronically toxic, which is hardly surprising since most people eat the modern "meat and chemicals" diet all the year round and year in and year out and have done so since they were born. This of course means there are further symptoms indicating a more chronic condition of Water Disease and these include poor hearing, clogging of the ears, tinnitus (a permanent ringing in the ears), chronic sore throats, poor eyesight due to distortion of the lens of the eye as well as glaucoma and cataracts, incontinence, kidney stones, osteoporosis, deterioration of the ligaments and tendons, chronic pain in the middle of the back, balls of the feet and the little toes, and in women chronic problems of the menstrual cycle, vagina, ovaries, breasts, and problems in the uterus and cervix, including cancer. In men sexual

organ problems like prostatitis, swollen testicles, and prostate cancer. In both sexes, Water Disease also manifests as sexual impotency and sterility. Also chronic tiredness, hair loss especially at the top-front of head, and split-ends in women. Obviously, kidney diseases like nephrosis, nephritis, kidney stones and loss of kidney function, and in addition, adrenal insufficiency. Problems like pain, stiffness and weakness in the ankles and wrists; if a person sprains or breaks their ankles or wrists this is a symptom of kidney toxicity- left ankle and wrist means the left kidney is weak and the right ankle and wrist means the right kidney is weak. Another important condition which, at first glance, would not be thought to be associated with the Kidneys is Asthma. However, the weakness and poor functioning of the kidneys means if we are drinking too much liquid then the excess yin condition thus created can lead to the lungs becoming too yin; the response of the lungs to becoming too in is to initiate short, sharp contractions which are the asthmatic attacks. There is no question a reduction in liquid inatke is very helpful to reduce the chances of an asthmatic attack. There are also emotional/psychological symptoms of Water Disease which include fear, anxiety and lack of self-confidence. Poor ability in decision making, especially those requiring relatively quick responses. Poor long term memory. Now, all these symptoms can be cleared up by going a macrobiotic dietary program and doing ginger compresses and, in the case of women, also the daikon bath. First I want to focus on osteoporosis, which is a condition which happens in both men and women, the condition of loss of mineral content of the bones. What has this to do with the kidneys? As related in the Nei Ching, the condition of the bones is related to the condition of the kidneys. In terms of yin and yang the bones are more yang than, for example, the soft tissues. Minerals are more yang than say, sugar or fruits. Now, when the condition of the blood and tissue fluids becomes more yin, this initiates a process whereby minerals are leached out of the bones because the body is always in a process of maintaining its internal balance. In the healthy person, this means the more yang minerals are leached out, enter the more yin blood and tissue fluids to bring them into balance and when the appropriate dynamic balance is achieved, the minerals return to the bones(and ligaments and tendons). However, if we are always pushing the blood and tissue fluids toward a more extreme yin condition by our daily eating and drinking habits, over the long term more minerals are being leached out of the bones than are being replaced, with the excess being lost through urination and bowel movement. Thus, over the long term a chronic loss of mineral content of the bones and tendons and ligaments occurs. This is osteoporosis. The reason why osteoporosis tends to accelerate in women after menopause is due to the fact that the monthly menses a woman experiences from puberty to menopause is, among other things, a monthly flushing of excess blood out of the body. If the woman's blood is excessively more yin, this flushes out excess yin and therefore means less leaching of

minerals will occur. Once this stops at menopause, then the blood will be more yin than it was before menopause, and so more leaching of minerals occurs, meaning an acceleration of osteoporosis. The main foods which cause the blood and tissue fluid to become more yin include any food with simple sugar content, including fruits, milk and milk products like butter, ice cream etc., any food with a high sugar content like sodas, sports drinks as well as those foods which are extreme yang like meat, table salt, dried foods like chips etc. So, necessarily, we need to avoid eating these in order to lessen the stress on the kidneys/bladder., Now, here we come to what is perhaps the most significant reason in modern culture for kidneys becoming weakened and damaged ... excess liquid intake. It is now commonplace for people to be encouraged to drink eight to twelve eight ounce glasses of water a day, with people taking their bottle of spring water with them wherever they go, sipping it every ten minutes as if it were some kind of security blanket. This is greatly in excess of the body's needs. The reason people are strongly suggested to drink so much liquid is because when consumed animal protein is metabolized to produce ammonia and uric acid, which are both highly toxic. Thus, it is thought, drinking plenty of fluids will have the effect of both diluting their concentration and flushing them out of the body quickly. The problem here is the kidneys are not flushing organs, they are filtering organs. They filter the blood and release the toxins and waste metabolites out of the body in urine. Since they are filtering organs they only have a limited capacity of fluid (blood and plasma) they can filter in a given unit of time. Furthermore, the body can only hold a limited amount of fluid and if we drink excessive amounts of fluid we start to place undue stress on the kidneys and they start to get overworked because the excess amount of liquid is asking them to do more than they can handle. Thus, over time they become weak, damaged and lose their vitality, leading to all the various symptoms of Water Disease described above. Summarizing the foods which actively weaken and damage the kidneys: refined salt. animal protein and fats. foods with simple sugar content- dairy products like milk, ice cream, cream; alcohol; all fruits. all foods and drinks with refined sugar content- soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks. all refined, processed foods, including refined flour products. all cold producing foods like raw food, salads. excess fluid intake, including water. We also need to start on a macrobiotically oriented and informed dietary practice and one of the fundamental insights derived from the Five Transformation Theory is we begin introducing those foods which are also manifestations of Water state of transformation. The

following is a menu which is specifically designed to strengthen and harmonize the functions of the kidneys and bladder, and therefore also the sex organs, bones, ligaments, tendons, wrists, ankles and the eyes(lens and intra-ocular fluid tension) and ears. Click on the link to go to a MENU for strengthening Water. e-mail : Kaare Bursell Postal Address: 1041 Kains Avenue Albany, CA 94706. The Alchemycal Pages Copyright Kaare Bursell, 1996-2003. MENU FOR "WATER". Aduki Bean Soup w/ Dried Shiitake Mushrooms, Kombu and Barley Miso. Organic Short Grain Brown Rice. Onions, Burdock and Buttercup Squash. Watercress. Recipes(for four servings): Soup: 1 cup Aduki Beans. 8 Dried Shiitake Mushrooms. 4 x 3 inch strips of dried kombu. 1 teaspoon Barley Miso(aged at least 2 years) per cup of water. Soak beans overnight in tap water to cover. Soak shiitake mushrooms for 30 minutes or more in 1 cup of filtered tap or spring water. Take the soaking beans and pour out the soaking water, place in a pressure cooker. Take the shiitake mushrooms out of their soaking water (do not throw away soaking water, add it to the pressure cooker as part of the soup stock) and cut them into thin slices about 1/4 inch wide. Place in pressure cooker with beans. Take the dried kombu(no need to wash it unless you want to) and cut it into 1/2 inch lengths (do not be concerned about the width of the kombu). Add another 5-7 cups of spring or filtered tap water(this will be added to the shiitake soaking water plus the burdock water- see below)how much you add will depend on whether you want the soup to be thicker or thinner - generally speaking, the colder the weather, the thicker you want your soup to be). Bring to a boil and as this happens some scum will be created- skim this off and throw it into the sink. Place the lid of the pressure cooker on and tighten it. Bring to pressure and pressure cook for one hour. Bring the pressure down by running the pressure cooker under cold tap water. Remove the lid. Place back on stove and add 1/8 teaspoonful seasalt. Bring to a boil and simmer 10 minutes. Meanwhile take 1 cup of the soup stock and add all the barley miso and dissolve the miso in the soup stock. After the soup has simmered for 10 minutes, switch the heat off and wait(this is important) until the soup has stopped simmering and then add the dissolved miso to the soup. Mix well. The soup is

ready. Pour into serving bowls and garnish with finely chopped scallions. I feel it is best to eat the miso soup for dinner. Incidentally, if you are not going to consume the whole pot of soup, do not add the miso to the pot. Instead, pour the soup into the serving bowl(s) and add 1 teaspoonful Barley Miso per bowl and dissolve it in the bowl, then garnish with the scallions. This way you can place the pot of soup after it has cooled in the refrigerator and reheat it and do the same thing each day following until it is finished. This way you can make enough soup for three or four days. Also, although you generally purchase the miso (unpasteurized, which is the kind you want) in the refrigerated section of the natural food store, when you get it home do NOT refrigerate it- it is a 'live' food and needs to keep fermenting and it will keep for months out of the refrigerator (I have myself had three year old miso for eight years without it spoiling and I know of a case where some acquaintances bought some in 1968 and found it again in 1992 and it was perfect, never refrigerated in that time! Actually, the older the miso is, the better quality it is). Grain: 2 cups organic short grain brown rice. Wash and place in pressure cooker, add filtered or spring water. To measure the amount of water needed, place your index finger on top of the rice and add the water so its level comes to the first crease in your index finger. This will give you the ballpark amount of water you want. This method works for any amount of rice over 2 cups. Add 1/8 teaspoonful of seasalt(and measure this precisely, do not guesstimate) and place and tighten on lid and bring to pressure over medium heat. When up to pressure, place a heat deflector under the pressure cooker and turn the heat down to low. Pressure cook for 45 minutes. The idea is to have the hissing sound emitted by the escaping steam to be a faint hiss in the background- if it is too loud the pressure is too high because the flame is too high; if there is no sound, the pressure is too low because the flame is too low. Once the 45 minutes is up, remove from stove and let the pressure come down by itself. Then remove the lid and mix the rice well. If the rice is too dry, then the cause is either too much heat, not enough water or the pressure was brought up too fast. If the rice is wet or soggy, then not enough heat was used, too much water or the pressure was not brought up fast enough. These are adjustments you are going to make as you get more experience at pressure cooking the rice (or any grain you decide to pressure cook) and be advised that in the beginning you are going to find yourself burning or making the rice too soggy! After the rice is mixed it is best stored in a wooden bowl with a bamboo mat placed over the top. This way it will keep for three of four days in the late fall and winter months. If you live some where it is hot or warm all the time, then place the bowl of rice in the refrigerator. When you want to eat some the next day, either place the amount you want in a saucepan and add a little bit of water and heat it that way, or fry some with a little amount of sesame or olive oil.

Vegetable: Two yellow onions. 4 robust one foot long burdock roots. 1 medium size buttercup squash(you can substitute hokkaido pumpkin, butternut squash or acorn squash). Peel and cut the onions in large sized dices. Wash the burdock and cut into half inch lengths. Wash the squash, cut off ends, scoop out the seeds and cut the into bite size chunks. (Do not peel either the burdock or squash). Place the burdock in a pressure cooker and cover with water. Place lid and tighten and pressure cook for ten minutes. Meanwhile, to a cast iron pot or large saucepan add 1 teaspoonful olive or sesame oil, bring to heat and saute onions, then add squash and saute also. When the burdock is pressure cooked ten minutes, lower pressure by running under cold water, remove lid and place burdock in with onions and squash along with some of its cooking water so the water is at a level about a third of the depth of the pot or saucepan. Use the remainder of the burdock water as soup stock. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-30 minutes, until the squash is soft, add a 1/4 teaspoonful of tamari and mix. Serve. Greens: 2 bunches watercress. Wash and cut watercress in 1/4- 1/2 inch length, place in a saucepan with about 1 inch depth of water, bring to a boil and simmer 5-8 minutes. Drain and serve. The grain should be eaten along with 2-3 thin slices of pickled daikon and 1-2 teaspoonsful of gomasio(sesame salt) may be sprinkled on the grains and vegetables. Of the foods in this menu, the aduki beans, dried shiitake mushrooms, and watercress are all Water foods, meaning they strengthen, harmonize and vitalize the Water organs, senses and tissues of the body. Burdock is food which is a manifestation of both Water and Metal(lungs and large intestine and skin and nose/sense of smell). Brown rice is a Metal food, onions are both a Soil and Metal food and the squashes mentioned are all manifestations of Soil(spleen- pancreas and stomach, flesh, mouth and sense of taste). Thus this meal will predominantly help to strengthen, harmonize and vitalize the kidneys/bladder and related tissues, senses etc., and also the lungs/large intestines and the spleen-pancreas/stomach. I do have several videos of cooking classes available which are geared toward cooking for healing with the seasons so if you are interested in obtaining one or two, let me know.

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HEALING WITH THE SEASONS. WOOD.

We continue our study with the WOOD season as this begins around the Spring Equinox. The essence of macrobiotic practice is to harmonize ourselves consciously with the rhythms of the earth, simply because this is what the state of health for the human beingphysically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually - is understood to be founded upon. Thus, we need to understand the relationships that pertain the human being and the earth during the course of the year so we can center our eating habits in the course of the seasonal rhythms in harmony with the seasonal changes. According to the Five Transformation Theory, The Spirit of Spring creates the state of transformation called Wood and it says: "The EAST creates the WIND; WIND creates WOOD, The Forces of SPRING create WIND in Heaven and WOOD on Earth. They create the LIVER organ and The MUSCLES within the body... And the EYES, and the GREEN color, and the SOUR flavor... The emotion ANGER and the ability to make a SHOUTING sound." This is from the Nei Ching (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) as reported in Naboru Muramoto's classic, "Healing Ourselves". It goes on to say about the LIVER; "The liver nourishes the muscles, and the muscles strengthen the heart; the liver governs the eyes." "Anger is injurious to the liver, but grief counteracts anger." "Too much pungent flavor in food endangers the kidneys, and 'the muscles become knotty and the fingers and toe nails wither and decay'"

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Classification by The Five Transformation Theory: WOOD:

Yang Organ Yin Organ Tissue Indicator Sense Organ Sense Body Fluid Direction Adverse Climate Season Time of Day Planet Number Emotion Expression Manner in Time of Excitement & Change Faculty Taste Grain Fruit Vegetable Domestic Animal Liver Gall Bladder Muscles Toe Nails Eyes Sight Tears East Wind Spring Morning Jupiter 8 Anger Shout Control Spiritual Sour Wheat, Barley, Oats Plum Leeks Fowl

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As stated, the Wood Season begins traditionally at the Spring Equinox although I believe this is not the case everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere; the local geography and topology of the place where we live will mean the date when the change takes place will be different for different localities. Thus we each need to be attentive to the changes occurring in nature to find out when the change takes place where we live. What we are attempting to do is harmonize our blood quality with that of the seasonal changes and since the cycle of the red blood cells circulating in the bloodstream is four months (120 days), we need to begin introducing those foods which are strengthening to the liver and gall bladder, (since the gall bladder is the complementary paired organ of the lungs) approximately four months ahead of the date the season changes from the Water Season(Winter; Kidneys and Bladder) to Wood. The important point to grasp is during the Wood Season(Spring) the atmospheric chi/etheric dynamics are focused (obviously ALL the states of Transformation of chi/etheric forces are active all year round) on the liver and gall bladder and those tissues and senses related to them in such a way that they are being strengthened, cleansed and harmonized in their structure and activities. This means if those organs are toxic and stagnated (which is necessarily the case if we are eating the modern "meat and chemicals" diet) then the strengthening and cleansing of them by the Wood state of Transformation will be manifested as symptoms indicating those organs are being detoxified - sore throats, flu-like symptoms, restlessness and poor sleep (especially between the hours of 12 Midnight-4 AM), anger, irritability and frustration, headaches(especially at the temple and behind the eyes), bilious acid stomach, eye irritation and redness, and nausea. Of course if we get these symptoms often and throughout the course of the year, this means the liver and gall bladder and related tissues and senses are chronically toxic, which is hardly surprising since most people eat the modern "meat and chemicals" diet all the year round and year in and year out and have done so since they were born. This of course means there are further symptoms indicating a more chronic condition of Wood Disease and these include poor sight especially to do with the retina and optic nerve, gall stones, cirrhosis, deterioration of the muscles tissue, chronic pain in the upper-middle of the back and big toes, and deterioration of nails of the feet. Also chronic tiredness, hair loss especially at the side-front of head. Obviously, liver diseases like Epstein-Barr, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, jaundice, hepatitis and loss of liver function, gall bladder insufficiency, and in addition liver cancer. Problems of pain, stiffness and weakness in the muscle tissue. Problems of sugar metabolism. The emotional/psychological symptoms of Wood Disease include anger, irritability and frustration. Now, all these symptoms can be cleared up by going a macrobiotic dietary program and doing ginger compresses on the abdomen. The main foods which cause damage to the liver and gall bladder include fruits, milk and milk products like butter, ice cream etc., any food with a high sugar content like sodas,

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sports drinks as well as those foods which are extreme yang like meat, table salt, dried foods like chips etc. This list is pretty much the same for all the organs but emphasis must be put on spices and other strong tasting foods like garlic, peppers etc. which are particularly harmful to the liver, as are foods with a high fat content. So, necessarily, we need to avoid eating these in order to lessen the stress on the liver/gall bladder. Summarizing the foods which actively weaken and damage the liver: refined salt. animal protein and fats. foods with simple sugar content- dairy products like milk, ice cream, cream; alcohol; all fruits. all foods and drinks with refined sugar content- soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks. all refined, processed foods, including refined flour products. all cold producing foods like raw food, salads. all spicy, hot foods. any alcohol. It occurred to me while writing this that I have never mentioned the whole realm of drugs, whether they be narcotics, hallucinogens, medications, antibiotics, anthelmintics etc., or vitamin and trace element supplements and the so-called "super foods" like blue-green algae, spirulina, chlorella etc. All these without exception are toxic to all the organs, but especially the liver, as well the intestines and kidneys and it is definitely highly recommended that people wean themselves off these at the earliest opportunity. However, since many of these drugs are extremely powerful it is only recommended this is done under the guidance of someone with several years of macrobiotic experience and knowledge. We also need to start on a macrobiotically oriented and informed dietary practice and one of the fundamental insights derived from the Five Transformation Theory is we begin introducing those foods which are also manifestations of Wood state of transformation. The following is a menu which is specifically designed to strengthen and harmonize the functions of the liver and gall bladder, and therefore also the muscles and the eyes(retina and optic nerve). Click on the link to go to a MENU for strengthening Wood.

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MENU FOR "WOOD" Beet Soup w/Wakame and Barley Miso. Organic Short Grain Brown Rice w/ Unhulled Barley. Cauliflower, Carrots and Leeks. Collard Greens w/Curly dock. Recipes(for 4 servings): Soup. 4 Beet Roots. 12 Inches of Wakame. 4 Teaspoonfuls Barley Miso. Wash and cut the beet roots in medium size pieces. To a saucepan or pot add 1 teaspoon of olive or sesame oil and place over medium heat to heat up oil. Add the beets and stir so each piece of beet is covered with a thin layer of oil; add 1/8th teaspoon of sea salt. Turn the heat low and cover, stirring occasionally, for five minutes. Add the wakame which is cut up in 1/4 inch lengths. Add water and/or stock. (A word about soup stock - I always make a soup stock by taking all the bits of the vegetables I do not cook, like onion peels, and the ends of vegetables etc., and cook them in a pot of spring water without sea salt, simmering for twenty minutes. Then strain out the vegetables and you have a nourishing, delicious stock which you add to the soup pot). Add enough stock and, if necessary, water for for 4 servings. Bring to a boil and simmer for twenty minutes. Turn off heat. Take 1 cup of the stock and add 4 teaspoons of Barley Miso and mix it in the stock and pour into the soup. Serve with garnish of chopped scallions. Grain. 2 Cups Organic Brown Rice w/ 1 Cup Unhulled Barley. The barley needs to be soaked overnight in 2 cups of water. Then strain out the soaking water, add the rice and wash them together. After washing add the necessary amount of spring water or purified tap water. Follow the instructions given in the menu for "water" above. Vegetable. One medium cauliflower. Two leeks. Two medium carrots. A word about organically grown versus commercially grown. I do not have to tell readers the obvious choice is to purchase or grow organic or bio-dynamic vegetables. However, depending on where you live it may not be possible to get organically grown food but, if you cannot, do not worry. My first seven years of macrobiotic practice there were no organic vegetables available and we did fine.

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Wash all the vegetables. Cut the cauliflower into flowerettes and the stem into bite size pieces; if there are leaves on them you can either put them in with the dish or use them for the soup stock. Cut the leaks on the diagonal into 1/4 inch pieces; do the same with the carrots. In a cast iron pot or saucepan add 1 teaspoon of olive or sesame oil. Heat it up and add the vegetables. Stir occasionally for five minutes with the heat turned low. Add 1/8 teaspoonful sea salt. Stir a couple of times. Add enough water t to 1/2 - 1 inch depth, bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes. Greens. One bunch of collard greens. 6- 7 curly dock leaves (if you can find them) Wash and cut the greens (1/4 - 1/2 inch length) and place in a saucepan along with 1-2 inch depth of spring or purified tap water. Bring to a boil and turn heat down to simmer and cook 5- 10 minutes, depending on how soft you want the greens to be. Curly dock is probably unfamiliar to most people. It is a wild green which grows pretty much everywhere in the Northern Temperate Climate zone. It is the quintessential liver strengthener and cleanser. If you do not know how to identify it then go to your library and research it! Sesame Salt(Gomasio). This you need to make yourself. It can be purchased but I do not recommend you buy the commercially made kind. It is too salty and one of the major principles of my cooking philosophy is informed by a remark Rudolf Steiner made. He was asked what makes a food have strengthening or healing properties and his reply is "we have to humanize it". He did not elaborate on what he meant by this remark and I take it to mean we need to engage ourselves in personal contact with the food we are eating or preparing for others - we need to wash it, cut it and handle it. It is a fundamental tenet of my approach to macrobiotic practice that no real healing can take place if we do not take the time and effort to learn and do our own cooking. The major ramification of this remark of Rudolf Steiner is that any food which is processed mechanically or in an industrial process is harmful to the human organism. Of course, this means that all the packaged so-called "health foods" in the so-called "natural food" stores are anything but healthy, including all the vitamin, trace element and herbal pills and potions available there. In the case of commercially made sesame salt, one of the consequences is by the time you use it, it has become stale and its medicinal properties have dissipated. Recipe for Sesame Salt.

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The ratio of sea salt to brown ( or black) Unhulled sesame seeds will actually vary according to the condition of the individual. For general purposes I recommend a ratio of 1:24 /sea salt: sesame seeds. Thus you can use 1/2 teaspoon sea salt and 4 tablespoonfuls of sesame seeds. Take a cast iron skillet (preferably) or frying pan and heat up over medium heat. Add the sea salt and stir constantly for two minutes. Remove from pan and place in a suribachi or mortar and pestle. Grind into a powder. Add the sesame seeds (now, you may wash the sesame seeds first if you wish; I generally do not unless there is a lot of chaff etc., in the sesame seeds) to the pan and place on the heat source, stirring constantly. If the seeds start to pop and fly out of the pan, then the heat is too high. To determine when the seeds are ready, take some between the thumb and ring finger of your 'weak' hand (i.e., if you are right-handed use the fingers of your left hand, and vice-versa) and when they break readily on rubbing them gently between these two digits, they are ready. Place the roasted seeds on top of the ground-up roasted sea salt and grind the sesame seeds into the salt until approximately 80% of the sesame seeds are ground up. Your sesame salt is done. Let cool and store in a glass jar. Consume one to four teaspoonfuls a day sprinkled on your grains or vegetables. The sesame salt is an important condiment in that it strengthens the digestive process, it helps to alkalize the blood and also aids the process of detoxification. As far as the medicinal (what I mean by the term medicinal I will have to address another time) qualities of this meal is concerned the beet root strengthens the liver/gall bladder and the spleen-pancreas/stomach. Rice strengthens the lungs/large intestines, Barley the liver/gall bladder. Cauliflower and leeks strengthen the liver/gall bladder. Carrots strengthen the heart/small intestine and collard greens and curly dock strengthen the liver/gall bladder. Leafy greens generally also strengthen the heart/lung -circulation of the blood functions. To Top of The Page

HEALING WITH THE SEASONS. FIRE.

We continue our study with the FIRE season as this begins around the Summer Solstice.

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According to the Five Transformation Theory, The Spirit of Summer creates the state of transformation called Fire and it says: "From the SOUTH comes extreme HEAT; HEAT creates FIRE, The Forces of SUMMER create HEAT in Heaven and FIRE on Earth. They create the HEART organ and The PULSE within the body... And the TONGUE, and the RED color, and the BITTER flavor... The emotion JOY and the ability to make a LAUGHING sound."

This is from the Nei Ching (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) as reported in Naboru Muramoto's classic, "Healing Ourselves". It goes on to say about the HEART; "The heart nourishes the blood, and the blood enlivens the stomach; the heart rules over the tongue." "Extravagant joy is injurious to the heart, but fear counteracts joy." "Too much salt in food endangers the heart, and 'the pulse hardens, tears make their appearance and the complexion changes'".

Classification by The Five Transformation Theory: FIRE:

Yang Organ Heart

18 Yin Organ Tissue Indicator Sense Organ Sense Body Fluid Direction Adverse Climate Season Time of Day Planet Number Emotion Expression Manner in Time of Excitement & Change Faculty Taste Grain Fruit Vegetable Domestic Animal Small Intestine Blood Vessels Complexion Tongue Speech Sweat South Heat Summer Noon Mars 7 Joy Laugh Sadness/Grief Inspirational Bitter Corn/Red Millet Apricot Scallions Sheep

As stated, the Fire Season begins traditionally at the Summer Solstice although I believe this is not the case everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere; the local geography and topology of the place where we live will mean the date when the change takes place will be different for different localities. Thus we each need to be attentive to the changes occurring in nature to find out when the change takes place where we live. What we are attempting to do is harmonize our blood quality with that of the seasonal changes and since the cycle of

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the red blood cells circulating in the bloodstream is four months (120 days), we need to begin introducing those foods which are strengthening to the heart and small intestine, (since the small intestine is the complementary paired organ of the heart) approximately four months ahead of the date the season changes from the Wood Season (Spring; Liver and Gall Bladder) to Summer. The important point to grasp is during the Heart Season (Summer) the atmospheric chi/etheric dynamics are focused (obviously ALL the states of Transformation of chi/etheric forces are active all year round) on the heart and small intestine and those tissues and senses related to them in such a way that they are being strengthened, cleansed and harmonized in their structure and activities. This means if those organs are toxic and stagnated (which is necessarily the case if we are eating the modern "meat and chemicals" diet) then the strengthening and cleansing of them by the Fire state of Transformation will be manifested as symptoms indicating those organs are being detoxified - sore tongue, flulike symptoms, tiredness, (especially between the hours of 12 Noon-4 PM), fever, hysteria, excitability and grief, headaches, redness of the face, dizziness and a feeling of "spaciness". Of course if we get these symptoms often and throughout the course of the year, this means the heart and small intestine and related tissues and senses are chronically toxic, which is hardly surprising since most people eat the modern "meat and chemicals" diet all the year round and year in and year out and have done so since they were born. This of course means there are further symptoms indicating a more chronic condition of Fire Disease and these include poor digestion like malabsorption syndrome, bloating, chronic constipation and/or diarrhoea and dysentery and parasitical infections in the small intestine. Also poor circulation of the blood meaning among other symptoms the feet and hands are always cold, body temperature is unstable so we can get too hot or too cold easily, deterioration of the blood circulation generally, angina, high blood pressure, cardiovascular insufficiencey, heart attacks, and deterioration of the speaking voice so we get stuttering and other speech impediments. Chronic lower back pain. Also chronic tiredness from having weak and anemic blood. The complexion of the face is either very red or very pale. The emotional/psychological symptoms of Fire Disease include hysteria, over excitability and too much talking as well as feeling dull and bored and suffering from ennui and feeling blue. Now, all these symptoms can be cleared up by going a macrobiotic dietary program and doing ginger compresses on the abdomen. The main foods which cause damage to the heart and small intestine include fruits, milk and milk products like butter, ice cream etc., any food with a high sugar content like fruit juices, sodas, sports drinks, also refined white flour products, as well as those foods which are extreme yang like meat, table salt, dried foods like chips etc. This list is pretty much the same for all the organs but emphasis must be put on spices and other strong tasting foods like garlic, peppers etc. which are particularly harmful to the heart, as are foods with a high

20

fat content. So, necessarily, we need to avoid eating these in order to lessen the stress on the heart/small intestine. Summarizing the foods which actively weaken and damage the heart and small intestine: refined salt. animal protein and fats. foods with simple sugar content- dairy products like milk, ice cream, cream; alcohol; all fruits. all foods and drinks with refined sugar content- soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks. all refined, processed foods, including refined flour products. all cold producing foods like raw food, salads. all spicy, hot foods. any alcohol. It occurred to me while writing this that I have never mentioned the whole realm of drugs, whether they be narcotics, hallucinogens, medications, antibiotics, anthelmintics etc., or vitamin and trace element supplements and the so-called "super foods" like blue-green algae, spirulina, chlorella etc. All these without exception are toxic to all the organs, but especially the liver, as well the small intestines and kidneys and it is definitely highly recommended that people wean themselves off these at the earliest opportunity. However, since many of these drugs are extremely powerful it is only recommended this is done under the guidance of someone with several years of macrobiotic experience and knowledge. We also need to start on a macrobiotically oriented and informed dietary practice and one of the fundamental insights derived from the Five Transformation Theory is we begin introducing those foods which are also manifestations of Wood state of transformation. The following is a menu which is specifically designed to strengthen and harmonize the functions of the heart and small intestine, and therefore also the tongue, the circulation and the digestion in the small intestine. Click on the link to go to a MENU for strengthening Fire.

MENU FOR "FIRE" Dried Shiitake Mushroom Soup with Kombu and Barley Miso garnished w/Scallions. Organic Medium Grain Brown Rice. Cornmeal w/Onions, Brussel Sprouts and Carrots. Collard Greens w/Dandelion Greens.

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Recipes(for 4 servings): Soup. Take 8 dried shiitake mushrooms and soak them for twenty minutes in 6 cups of a combination of soup stock (see menu for "Wood" for comments about making soup stock) and purified or spring water. Remove the mushrooms and cut into strips. Place back in the water along with 12 inches of kombu cut into bite-size pieces. Let soak another ten minutes. Bring to a boil and simmer thirty minutes. Remove from heat and take a cup of the broth and add 1 teaspoonful miso per cup of liquid - 6 teaspoonfuls - and mix into the broth. When well mixed pour into the pot of soup.. Take one bunch of scallions, wash and chop into small pieces and serve as a garnish in the soup. Serve. Grain. Pressure cook the medium grain brown rice the same way as for short grain brown rice. The reason for choosing medium grain rice is it is more yin than short grain and therefore more suitable for use in the summer months. If you prefer to use short grain brown rice in the summer then pressure cook it for 40 minutes instead of 45. You can also use long grain brown rice especially if you live in a place with very hot summers and in this case it will be better to boil the rice rather than pressure cook it. Vegetable. 2 cups of cornmeal. 1 medium yellow onion- medium diced 6 brussel sprouts - quartered vertically. 1 medium carrot - quartered vertically and diced in small pieces. Heat a heavy pot over medium heat until it gets hand hot. Pour in the cornmeal and immediately stir constantly until the cornmeal emits a nutty aroma and is hot to the touch; gradually add 2 cups water per cup of cornmeal (4 cups) stirring all the time and making sure the cornmeal does not clump. Then add all the vegetables together and mix in gently. Add 1/4 tsp. seasalt per cup of cornmeal. Bring to a boil while stirring frequently and then simmer 25-30 minutes. Serve.

Greens. 1/2 bunch of collard greens and 1/2 bunch of dandelion greens. If you cannot find dandelion greens in your local natural food store then learn how to identify it. It grows wild everywhere in northern temperate climates and if you find it, dig

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up the whole plant and cook the roots in with the cornmeal dish. Wash greens and cut into quarter inch slices on the diagonal. Steam 3-5 minutes together. The shiitake mushroom will help to clean out the coronary and other arteries of calcified fat deposits as well as lower the cholesterol level in the blood and stimulate and strengthen kidney function; kombu strengthens the heart/small intestine as do scallions. The rice strengthens the lungs/large intestine and the cornmeal the heart/small intestines as do the brussel sprouts and the carrot. The onion strengthens the lungs and lareg intestine. The collard greens are beneficial for the liver/gall bladder and the circulation of the blood, enlivening the heart-lung functions, and the dandelion is the heart strengthener supreme. To Top of The Page

HEALING WITH THE SEASONS. SOIL.

We continue our study with the SOIL season as this begins around August 1st.

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According to the Five Transformation Theory, The Spirit of Late Summer creates the state of transformation called Soil and it says: "From the CENTER creates HUMIDITY; HUMIDITY nourishes the SOIL, The Forces of the EARTH create HUMIDITY in Heaven and the FERTILE SOIL on Earth. They create the STOMACH organ and The FLESH within the body... And the MOUTH, and the YELLOW color, and the SWEET flavor... The emotion SYMPATHY and the ability to SING."

This is from the Nei Ching (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) as reported in Naboru Muramoto's classic, "Healing Ourselves". It goes on to say about the STOMACH; "The stomach nourishes the flesh, and the flesh protects the lungs; the stomach rules over the mouth." "Extreme sympathy(worry) is injurious to the stomach, but anger counteracts sympathy." "Too much sour flavor in food endangers the spleen and stomach, and 'the flesh hardens and wrinkles and the skin becomes slack'".

Classification by The Five Transformation Theory: FIRE:

Yang Organ Spleen/Pancreas

24 Yin Organ Tissue Indicator Sense Organ Sense Body Fluid Direction Adverse Climate Season Time of Day Planet Number Emotion Expression Manner in Time of Excitement & Change Faculty Taste Grain Fruit Vegetable Domestic Animal Stomach Flesh Lips Mouth Taste Saliva Center Moisture Late Summer Earth 5 Sympathy Sing Belch(stubborn) Intellectual Sweet Yellow Millet Dates Squash Ox

As stated, the Soil Season begins traditionally around August 1, although I believe this is not the case everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere; the local geography and topology of the place where we live will mean the date when the change takes place will be different for different localities. Thus we each need to be attentive to the changes occurring in nature to find out when the change takes place where we live. What we are attempting to do is harmonize our blood quality with that of the seasonal changes and since the cycle of the red

25

blood cells circulating in the bloodstream is four months (120 days), we need to begin introducing those foods which are strengthening to the spleen/pancreas and stomach, (since the spleen/pancreas is considered one organ and is the complementary paired organ of the stomach) approximately four months ahead of the date the season changes from the Fire Season (Summer; Heart and Small Intestine) to Late Summer. The important point to grasp is during the Soil Season (Late Summer) the atmospheric chi/etheric dynamics are focused (obviously ALL the states of Transformation of chi/etheric forces are active all year round) on the stomach and spleen/pancreas and those tissues and senses related to them in such a way that they are being strengthened, cleansed and harmonized in their structure and activities. This means if those organs are toxic and stagnated (which is necessarily the case if we are eating the modern "meat and chemicals" diet) then the strengthening and cleansing of them by the Soil state of Transformation will be manifested as symptoms indicating those organs are being detoxified - sore mouth, flulike symptoms, tiredness, (especially between the hours of 8.00AM -Noon), fever, worry, doubt and skepticism, headaches, yellowish tinge to the skin, stomach ache and feeling of upset stomach. Of course if we get these symptoms often and throughout the course of the year, this means the spleen/pancreas and stomach and related tissues and senses are chronically toxic, which is hardly surprising since most people eat the modern "meat and chemicals" diet all the year round and year in and year out and have done so since they were born. This of course means there are further symptoms indicating a more chronic condition of Soil Disease and these include poor stomach digestion like acid stomach, belching, chronic irritability manifesting as ulcers and vomiting and parasitical infections in the stomach. Also poor sugar metabolism meaning among other symptoms we are always hungry and have a craving for sugar-rich foods, we alsways tend to feel tired and have the 'sugar blues'. Diabetes and hypoglycemia have their origin in spleen/pancreas. Also stomach pain, 'heartburn', indigestion etc.. The complexion of the face and skin generally is either pale yellow to yellow-red. The emotional/psychological symptoms of Soil Disease include worry, doubt, skepticism, cynicism, jealousy as well as being suspicious, being overly obsessive and in the more yin expression, self-pity. Now, all these symptoms can be cleared up by going a macrobiotic dietary program and doing ginger compresses on the abdomen. The main foods which cause damage to the spleen/pancreas and stomach include fruits, milk and milk products like butter, ice cream etc., any food with a high sugar content like fruit juices, sodas, sports drinks, also refined white flour products, as well as those foods which are extreme yang like meat, table salt, dried foods like chips etc. This list is pretty much the same for all the organs but emphasis must be put on sugary foods, sweets, sugary drinks, and other strong tasting sweet foods like fruit juices and sports drinks, which are particularly harmful to the spleen/pancreas, as are foods with a high animal fat content. So,

26

necessarily, we need to avoid eating these in order to lessen the stress on the spleenpancreas/stomach. Summarizing the foods which actively weaken and damage the heart and small intestine: refined salt. animal protein and fats. foods with simple sugar content- dairy products like milk, ice cream, cream; alcohol; all fruits. all foods and drinks with refined sugar content- soft drinks, fruit juices, sports drinks. all refined, processed foods, including refined flour products. all cold producing foods like raw food, salads. all spicy, hot foods. any alcohol. It occurred to me while writing this that I have never mentioned the whole realm of drugs, whether they be narcotics, hallucinogens, medications including pharmaceutical drugs, antibiotics, anthelmintics etc., or vitamin and trace element supplements and the so-called "super foods" like blue-green algae, spirulina, chlorella etc. All these without exception are toxic to all the organs, but especially the liver, as well the small intestines and kidneys and it is definitely highly recommended that people wean themselves off these at the earliest opportunity. However, since many of these drugs are extremely powerful it is only recommended this is done under the guidance of someone with several years of macrobiotic experience and knowledge. We also need to start on a macrobiotically oriented and informed dietary practice and one of the fundamental insights derived from the Five Transformation Theory is we begin introducing those foods which are also manifestations of Soil state of transformation. The following is a menu which is specifically designed to strengthen and harmonize the functions of the spleen-pancreas and stomach, and therefore also the mouth, the flesh and the digestion in the stomach. Click on the link to go to a MENU for strengthening Soil.

MENU FOR "SOIL". Sunburst Squash Soup w/ Wakame and Barley Miso. Organic Short Grain Brown Rice w/Millet. Butternut & Acorn Squash w/ Onions and Carrots. Swiss Chard.

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Recipes (for 4 Servings). Soup: 5 medium sized sunburst squash, either the yellow or the green ones. 4 x 3 inch strips of dried wakame. 1 teaspoon Barley Miso (aged at least 2 years) per cup of water. Wash and cut the squash into bite-size pieces and add to soup stock . I may not have discussed this before but it is a good idea to make a soup stock out of the bits and pieces of the vegetables you are using in your meal - like the ends of the greens, carrots, onion peel (which is one of the very few vegetables that are actually peeled- generally speaking, always eat vegetables with their skins intact), the seeds of the squash etc. You add all these to a pot of water and bring to a boil making sure you do NOT add any seasalt and simmer for 15 minutes or so. Then drain the broth into the soup pot and discard the cooked vegetable pieces, preferably by composting them. If there is not enough soup stock for the meal, add spring or purified tap water. Add the wakame cut into small pieces. Bring to a boil and simmer 15-20 minutes or so. Switch off the heat and let the water settle. Then take a cup of the soup stock, add the miso and mix it into the stock. Pour the dissolved miso into the pot of soup. It is ready to serve. Serve garnished with chopped raw watercress, celantro or green onions. Grain: 1 1/2 cups organic short grain brown rice. 1/2 cup organic yellow millet. You can either pressure cook or boil and simmer these, depending on the weather or where you live. The hotter the weather, then it is better to boil and simmer. In either case, use the method I give in the menu for "Water" to measure the amount of water you will need. Then add 1/8 tsp seasalt per cup. Pressure cook, or bring to a boil and simmer, 40 minutes.

Vegetable: 1 medium Butternut Squash. 1 medium Acorn Squash. 2 medium Yellow Onions. 2 medium Carrots.

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Wash and cut the squash into small bite-size pieces. The onions are cut into small dices and the carrots are cut 'matchstick' style. Place the vegetables in layers, with the onions on the bottom, followed by the carrots and then the two squash. Add water to a depth of approximately two inches. Bring to a boil and simmer for 25 minutes, keeping an eye on the bottom of the pot to make sure the water doesn't boil away and you end up with burnt vegetables! Toward the end of cooking sprinkle and mix in approximately one teaspoonful tamari as a seasoning. Greens: One bunch Swiss Chard. Incidentally, in many of the macrobiotic books it says Swiss Chard should be avoided along with Beet Greens and Spinach. These plants contain oxalates which have been found to combine with calcium in the body and interfere with proper calcium metabolism. However, this only occurs in the presence of animal protein. So, if we are not eating animal protein regularly, the oxalates are not a problem and these plants can be eaten occasionally (twothree times a week), which is fortunate for us, as they are delicious. Of the foods in this menu, the squashes and the millet are all Soil foods, onions are both a Soil and Metal food, carrots are a Fire food, and swiss chard is a Wood food. Thus this meal will predominantly help to strengthen and harmonize the spleenpancreas/stomach, and related senses and tissues, as well as lungs/large intestine, heart/small intestine, and liver/gall bladder. Enjoy! Top of Page

HEALING WITH THE SEASONS. METAL.

We continue our study with the METAL season as this begins around the Autumn Equinox. The essence of macrobiotic practice is to harmonise ourselves consciously with the rhythms of the earth, simply because this is what the state of health for the human being- physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually - is understood to be founded upon. Thus, we need to understand the relationships that pertain the human being and the earth during the course of the year so we can center our eating habits in the course of the seasonal rhythms in harmony with the seasonal changes.

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According to the Five Transformation Theory, The Spirit of Fall creates the state of transformation called Metal and it says: "The WEST creates scorched DRYNESS; DRYNESS creates METAL, The Forces of AUTUMN create DRYNESS in Heaven and METAL on Earth. They create the LUNG organ and The SKIN upon the body... And the NOSE, and the WHITE color, and the PUNGENT flavor... The emotion GRIEF and the ability to make a WEEPING sound." This is from the Nei Ching (Yellow Emperor's Classic of Internal Medicine) as reported in Naboru Muramoto's classic, "Healing Ourselves". It goes on to say about the LUNG; "The lungs strengthen the skin and the (body) hair, and the skin and the (body) hair protect the kidneys; the lungs rule over the nose." "Extreme grief is injurious to the lungs, but joy counteracts grief." "Too much bitter food endangers the lungs, and 'the skin becomes withered and the body hair falls out'"

Classification by The Five Transformation Theory: METAL:

Yang Organ Yin Organ Tissue Indicator Sense Organ Lungs Large Intestine Skin Hair Nose

30 Sense Body Fluid Direction Adverse Climate Season Time of Day Planet Number Emotion Expression Manner in Time of Excitement & Change Faculty Taste Grain Fruit Vegetable Domestic Animal Smell mucus West Dryness Autumn Evening Venus 9 Grief Weep Coughing Vital Pungent Brown Rice Peach Onions Horse

As stated, the Metal Season begins traditionally at the Autumn Equinox although I believe this is not the case everywhere in the Northern Hemisphere; the local geography and topology of the place where we live will mean the date when the change takes place will be different for different localities. Thus we each need to be attentive to the changes occurring in nature to find out when the change takes place where we live. What we are attempting to do is harmonise our blood quality with that of the seasonal changes and since the cycle of the red blood cells circulating in the bloodstream is four months (120 days), we need to begin introducing those foods which are strengthening to the lungs(and large intestine, since the large intestine is the complementary paired organ of the lungs) approximately four months ahead of the date the season changes from the Soil Season(Late Summer; Spleen/Pancreas and Stomach) to Metal.

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The important point to grasp is during the Metal Season(Fall) the atmospheric chi/etheric dynamics are focused (obviously ALL the states of Transformation of chi/etheric forces are active all year round) on the lungs and large intestine and those tissues and senses related to them in such a way that they are being strengthened, cleansed and harmonised in their structure and activities. This means if those organs are toxic and stagnated (which is necessarily the case if we are eating the modern "meat and chemicals" diet) then the strengthening and cleansing of them by the Metal state of Transformation will be manifested as symptoms indicating those organs are being detoxified - sore throats, flu-like symptoms, tiredness(especially between the hours of 4-8AM; in other words, we have a great deal of trouble getting up in the morning), sadness and grief, headaches(especially at the front of the head), excessive coughing and nasal mucus discharges, as well as feeling upset in the lower digestive tract, diarrhea, being the main general symptoms of these organs healing themselves. Of course if we get these symptoms often and throughout the course of the year, this means the lungs and large intestine and related tissues and senses are chronically toxic, which is hardly surprising since most people eat the modern "meat and chemicals" diet all the year round and year in and year out and have done so since they were born. This of course means there are further symptoms indicating a more chronic condition of Metal Disease. Actually, the single most diseased and sick organ in modern culture worldwide is the Large Intestine, and the deep sickness in this organ is the root of all diseases hitherto known and those yet to come( for those people who do not have the good fortune to discover macrobiotics and the Ginger Compress). My book, The End Of Medicine, is written to describe in detail how and why the Large Intestine is the "root organ" of all disease, and all the many, many symptoms of Metal Disease (LargeIntestine/Lungs) are chronicled in the chapter on Diagnosis in The End of Medicine. In order to be fair to all concerned - purchasers of the book who do not have web access, and visitors to The Alchemycal Pages, I am not putting all the details in the book on the website . (If you think I am being unfair in not putting all the details here, consider that I am providing the information on The Alchemycal Pages for free (since June 1996), which costs me 480 dollars a year plus the many, many hours of time put into adding to and maintaining the website, plus answering and giving advice to people who e-mail me, also free). In the book, Chapters 2, 6, 8-11 are taken from pages on the site and have been modified and some minor changes made. Chapters 1, 3-5, 7 and 12 and the Bibliography are not on the website). So, if you are a frequent visitor to The Alchemycal Pages, I urge you to consider buying the book in order to get a fuller picture. Go to Menu for Metal. MENU FOR "METAL" Daikon Soup w/ Wakame and Barley Miso. Organic Short Grain Brown Rice w/Umeboshi Plums. Onions, Burdock and Buttercup Squash. Collard Greens.

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Recipes (for 4 Servings). Soup: 1-2 medium sized Daikon Radish Root. 4 x 3 inch strips of dried wakame. 1 teaspoon Barley Miso (aged at least 2 years) per cup of water. Wash and cut the daikon into bite size peieces on the diagonal. Place in soup pot and add 5 cups of soup stock (see Water Menu for comments on making soup stock). Cut the wakame into small pieces with a pair of scissors. Add to pot. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Take a cup of the soup dtock and dissolve 4 teaspoonfuls Barley Miso in the stock. Serve garnished with chopped raw scallions or parsley. Grain. 2 cups of short grain organic brown rice. 2 umeboshi plums. Use the same method for pressure cooking the brown rice as in the Water Menu, except instead of using 1/8th teaspoonful of seasalt per cup of rice, use one umeboshi plum per cup of rice and pressure cook for 45 minutes. We pressure cook longer in the Fall and Winter since these are more yin times of year (wetter, colder and darker are all more yin qualities), and time is a yangising factor. So the longer we cook the rice the more yang it is. Vegetables. 2 Onions, medium diced. 1 Burdock Root, cut into bite size chunks on the diagonal. I Buttercup Squash, cut into bite size chunks, do not peel. Burdock is very yang compared with any other vegetable, so it is easier to pressure cook it for ten minutes by itself. Simply place in a pressure cooker, add water to cover, bring to pressure and pressure cook ten minutes. Then, in a cast iron or stainless steel pot, place 1 teaspoonful of olive or sesame oil, over medium heat. When the oil is hot add the onions and saute for five minutes. Then add the burdock along with its water and the squash. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes. Add 1 teaspoonful soy sauce for seasoning toward the end of cooking. Another "Metal" Vegetable Dish: 1 cup dried daikon (available through Gold Mine Natural Foods if not obtainable locally). 1 cup diced onions. 1/4 cup hijiki seaweed. 1 cup diced carrots Soak the dried daikon for 30 minutes in 2 cups water. Soak the hijiki (hiziki) for 20 minutes in 1 cup water, and then remove the hijiki carefully from the soaking water and save the soaking water while pouring it off slowly into a new container so that the grit and silt

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remains in the soaking container - this can be discarded. Drain the dried daikon saving the soaking water. Take a saucepan and add 1/2 teaspoonful sesame oil, and heat. Then add the onions and saute for five minutes, add the hijiki, carrots, and dried daikon, saute togther for five minutes. Then add enough of the soaking water (both daikon and hijiki) to a depth of approximately 1 1/2 inches in the saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn to simmer and simmer for 15- 20 minutes, or until the carrots are tender. Add 1/4 teaspoonful tamari at the end of cooking. Greens. 1-2 bunches of collard greens, cut diagonally into strips. Place water in a pot to a depth of 2 inches, add the collard greens, bring a boil and simmer five to ten minutes. The ingredients in this menu with regard to the Five Transformation Theory are as follows: Daikon, Burdock, Rice, and Onions are all "Metal" Foods, therefore strengthening the large intestine and lungs. Buttercup squash is a "Soil" Food, therefore strengthening the SpleenPancreas and Stomach. The greens are beneficial for the heart/lung - circulation of the blood, and the liver. Top of Page

GOMASHIO Gomashio or Sesame Salt is a very significant condiment eaten at lunch and dinner every day. We eat 1-4 teaspoonfuls per day sprinkled on our grains and/or vegetables. It has the qaulities of alkalizing the blood, strenghening the digestion and helping the blood detoxify. The actual ratio of seasalt to sesame seeds will vary according to the condition of the individual. For general purposes I recommend a ratio of 1 part seasalt to 24 parts sesame seeds: 1/2 teaspoonful seasalt. 4 tablespoonfuls sesame seeds.

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Heat up a cast iron skillet over medium heat and add the seasalt. Dry roast by stirring the seasalt in the hot skillet for 2-3 minutes. Place in a mortar or suribachi and grind into a powder. Pour the sesame seeds into the skillet and dry roast by stirring constantly for 5-10 minutes. You will know the sesame seeds are ready by rubbing them between the thumb and index finger of your 'weak' hand and they crumble easily. Place on top of the ground up seasalt and grind into the seasalt, using only the weight of your arm (i.e., do not press down while grinding the sesame seeds) until 80% of the sesame seeds are ground up. Store in a glass jar. Top of Page

e-mail : Kaare Bursell Postal Address: 1041 Kains Avenue Albany, CA 94706.

The Alchemycal Pages Copyright Kaare Bursell, 1996-2001.

The Ginger Compress. Items required: 1. One gallon of water in a container with a lid (tap water is fine). 2. 1/4 cup finely grated-by hand- fresh unpeeled Ginger Root (non-organic is fine) wrapped in a cheesecloth, or other natural fibre cloth, to make a bag of grated ginger. 3. 2 three feet long by 1 foot wide cotton terry cloth towels. 4. I cotton bath towel. 5. I pair of thick rubber gloves. Preliminaries. Before proceeding, take the two terry cloth towels and, singly, fold each one in three-folds such that they cover the area on your abdomen which goes from the sternum of the rib cage to

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the pelvic bone, and from one hip bone to the other. Once you have done this, sew each one along the loose edges so they are prevented from falling open once you start doing the treatment. Also, the treatment has to be done on an empty stomach, either an hour before you eat or two hours after you eat. It can be done at any time of day. However, a practical tip is to do the first treatment just before you go to bed, and once you have done it, leave all the materials where they are. First thing in the morning, reheat the ginger water pot, making sure you do not actually boil the water, and you can do the treatment again. Thus, if you do it this way, you can do two treatments using the same ginger water . Another point is that if you use a gallon container, once you have followed the instructions, the ginger water should retain its heat long enough to do do at least two treatments. If you want to ensure the ginger water remains hot, obtain a hot plate you can plug into an electrical outlet near the place you choose to do the treatment, and place the pot of ginger water on it after you have made it. Instructions. Place the container of water on the stove and bring the water to a boil. Meanwhile, grate the unpeeled ginger root using a fine tooth grater until you have approximately a 1/4 cup; the easiest way to ensure you do not lose any ginger juice is to drape the piece of cloth you are using to wrap the ginger over a bowl and grate the ginger onto the cloth in the bowl. When you have grated enough ginger, bring the four corners of the cloth together to enclose the grated ginger, twirl it to make a neck and wrap a rubber band around the neck to hold it together. Any overflow of ginger juice will then gather in the bottom of the bowl. By now the water in the pot will be near to boiling; let it boil. Then, and this the most important point, once the water has boiled, switch your heat source off and let the water settle before you take the bag of grated ginger, squeeze the excess juice into the hot water, throw the bag in the pot, and if there is any ginger juice in the bowl, pour that in too.Then place the two folded and sewn-up terry cloth towels in the pot of hot ginger water and let them soak for a minute or two, with the lid on the container. You are now ready to do the compress. Place an old blanket or sheet on your couch, floor or bed, wherever you choose to do the compress and set up the pot of ginger water with the two terry cloth towels(I will refer to these two towels as the ginger towels from now on in the description) in it on some newspapers within easy reach of where you lie down. Lie on your back (do not use plastic in any shape or form) on the sheet on the couch, bed or floor, expose the skin of your abdomen, with the bath towel, also folded so it can cover your abdomen, placed on your lap. Then, with the rubber gloves on, remove the lid of the pot, place it on the floor, and pick up one of the ginger towels in the pot (if you are lying on the floor you will need to sit up to do this), wring out the the excess liquid back into the ginger water in the pot, then replace the lid to keep the heat in. Taking the wrung out ginger towel, open it up so it is flat (it will remain folded if you have sewn the loose edges together), lie down if you have had to sit up to do the preceding, and raise

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and lower the ginger towel over the skin of the abdomen, close to but not actually touching the skin to begin with , until you can take it as hot as you can stand it leaving it directly on the skin. After you have placed the hot ginger towel on the skin, cover it with the bath towel that has been lying on your lap, to keep the heat in. After two to four minutes the hot ginger towel will start to cool down. Then, lift the dry bath towel covering the ginger towel, remove the ginger towel, leaving the dry bath towel covering the abdomen to keep it warm. Remove the lid from the ginger water container, replace the wet, cool ginger towel and remove the second ginger towel which has been in the container while you used the first ginger towel, thoroughly wring the excess ginger water out of it back into the container, replace the lid and repeat the procedure as for the first ginger towel. Alternate the two towels for half-an-hour. This constitutes one treatment. I recommend the compress is done 64 times, two to four times a week; this is one round of compresses, and this may not, and is generally not, enough to complete the job. If you determine your intestines need more work, I suggest you wait four to six weeks and then do another round of 64 compresses. And you may need to do two or three more rounds after that! The reason it takes so many compresses is due to the fact the chronic intestinal stagnation has developed over many, many years, even decades. The older we are when we find out we need we have chronic intestinal stagnation, the longer it has been going on. And the longer it has been going on, the more tenaciously hardened and impacted it is in our intestinal walls, therefore the more ginger compresses we will have to do, more consistently and perseveringly, in order for the compresses to have their desired effect. I also recommend that once we are satisfied our intestines are back in shape again, it is a good idea to do one half-round of compresses regularly every year. With regard to children, it is perhaps better to wait until they are seven years old before doing the ginger compresses. Here is another method for doing the ginger compress, which I learnt from David Jackson, a macrobiotic teacher and counsellor living in Arizona, who learnt it from his teacher, Roy Steevensz. Instructions. I gallon container(thick sides) of boiled water. 1/4 cup freshly grated unpeeled ginger root(does not have to be organic) in a cloth bag. 2 cotton towels, folded to cover the abdomen from the sternum to the pelvic bone and from one hip to the other. 1 dry towel. 2 wooden bowls about 10 inches diameter. The bag of ginger is squeezed to get the ginger juice into the pot of boiled water(do not boil the ginger), right after you have boiled the water, and then the bag of ginger is placed in the hot water. David's method is different from those in the books where he has two of the wooden bowls you

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can buy at oriental stores, the bowls being the ones made of interwoven strips of wood. These are about 8-10 inches in diameter. What you do is place one of the folded towels between these bowls and immerse it in the ginger water so that the towel gets heated and because you are holding the towel between the bowls you do not have to put your hands in the water. Then you put the other dry towel try against the skin of the abdomen, and, after immersing the two bowls with the other towel place between them in the hot ginger water, you lift the bowls out of the water, and squeeze them firmly together to squeeze the excess ginger water from out of the towel. Then you take one bowl off the top of the ginger towel and place it underneath the other bowel, and place the hot ginger towel on top of the dry towel on the skin of the abdomen(you are doing the compress lying back against some pillows against a couch or wall).Then you cover that towel with another dry bath towel, also folded. The heat and ginger chi penetrates through the dry towel into the abdomen, and you can feel your skin heating up. After a few minutes, as you feel the heat cooling down, you take off the top covering towel, and flip over the two towels on the abdomen so that the towel that has been recently soaked in the ginger water is now directly on the skin. You then place the one that was originally on the skin between the two bowls, while covering the one on your abdomen with the dry towel. You then immerse the two bowls with the towel inserted between them in the hot ginger water, take them out, squeeze the excess liquid out, and lifting off the covering towel, place the hot ginger towel on top of the one still on the skin, and cover them both with the covering towel. Then, once you feel the towel against the skin cooling off, you flip the towels over so that the recently heated towel is directly on the skin and proceed to take the top towel and place it between the two bowls, having placed the covering towel on top of the ginger towel on the abdomen, and immerse the bowls in the hot ginger water, etc. You go through this procedure for half an hour. If you have a gallon pot with thick sides, then the ginger water should easily retain enough heat for half an hour. This method ensures that you have constant heat on the skin throughout the course of the half hour treatment. Activity of the Ginger Compress. The ginger compress works because of the etheric or 'chi' activities of the heat and the ginger root. From the perspective of yin-yang theory, the ginger root has strong yang activity by virtue of its "rootness". This more yang activity means the etheric activity of the ginger has a strong, downward penetrating movement. When you grate the ginger you will notice how the aroma of ginger powerfully fills the room, attesting to a strong dispersing, expansive movement of chi. The reason for this is the ginger root grows sideways, meaning it is more influenced by yin activity than, say a burdock or carrot root, and this yin dispersing activity is further enhanced by finely grating the ginger. My feeling is that by making the compress in this way, laying the towel soaked in this etheric activity, thereby harnessing it, on the abdomen while lying on our back, the towel focuses these etheric forces on the abdominal cavity in which the intestines lie, and they penetrate into the tissues by means of the root activity and break up the mucus stagnations encountered in the tissues by means of the strong dispersive

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activity. Furthermore, the etheric forces of the ginger stimulate the etheric, formative forces of the intestines, thus stimulating their proper activity. The heat activity of the compress stimulates the blood and tissue circulation in the area being treated which then facilitates the bearing of the dispersed toxins away to be excreted. The combination of these three etheric or 'chi' activities means the tissues of the walls of the intestine begin to receive clean, revitalized blood (if we have also changed our way of eating, and it has to emphasised the ginger compress is a waste of time if we do not) for the first time in years and decades, and they become revitalized, leading to regeneration of the tissues and restoration of their proper, harmonious function. During Treatment. As a result of doing the treatment mucus deposits are gradually dissolved and toxins flushed into the bloodstream and what happens overtly then will depend on many factors. All I will say here, and more is be said on this subject in the chapter "Macrobiotic Healing" in my book "The End of Medicine" , is the body may show signs of detoxification or may show no overt signs of cleansing other than passive weight loss, increased urination and bowel movement and some fatigue. More active signs of cleansing include nasal mucus discharge, sore throat, coughing and sneezing, fever and flu-like symptoms, temporary constipation and /or diarrhoea, various aches and pains, skin eruptions on various parts of the body, and headaches. If they are accompanied with healthy appetite, normal sleep patterns, generally okay vitality and no nausea, these signs indicate the healing process is going well. If you find these symptoms to be of some concern, then it is important to ask me via e-mail about what these symptoms mean and what you need to do for them, if anything. Contra-indications. The ginger compress on the abdomen should not be done in the following instances: Pregnancy and Breast Feeding. Abdominal inflammation, appendicitis and pneumonia. On the brain, on infant babies, and in cases when a high fever is running. Overt cancers of the abdominal region, although they may safely be done on cancers in other parts of the body. In macrobiotic books which discuss the ginger compress, it is always written "Special considerations for cancer patients..." and it goes on to talk about the Taro Potato Plaster. The reason it is mentioned cancer patients should not do a ginger compress for more than five minutes on a cancer is because it is thought the stimulation of the blood supply caused by the compress means that if there is a tumor in the region being treated then the increased blood circulation will cause the cancer to grow. However, this is only true if the blood is still toxic. When a person starts the macrobiotic diet, then in ten days the blood plasma (the fluid in which the blood circulates) is renewed, in 30-60 days all the white blood cells will be newly created, and in 120 days all the red blood cells will

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be newly created. Thus, theoretically, if one does the ginger compresses beginning four months after starting the dietary practice, then the increasing blood flow means clean, fresh blood will be circulating more vigorously. The tumour will then be receiving this fresh, clean blood which in turn means the cancer will dissolve faster. However, to act on the side of caution, if a person has cancer of the colon or some other cancer of the abdominal region, it is perhaps wiser to wait until the dietary practice has been done for one year before embarking on the regimen of ginger compresses. I have also heard it said this regimen of two-four compresses a week brings too much heat to the organism. However, doing it four times a week means we are applying heat to the abdomen a total of two hours out of the 168 hours of the week, which comes to 1.19% of the week. Furthermore, if one is to classify all diseases of humanity into two groups: whether they are diseases of two much heat, or diseases of too much cold, in the body, then it turns out that all degenerative illnesses are diseases of too much cold. Two problems may become evident during the course of doing the treatments. One is the skin of the abdomen takes on a darkened, brown-red/yellow hue, and this will clear up after the regimen has been completed. The other is the possibility of detoxifying too rapidly, meaning the symptoms of discharge may become overwhelming. In this case simply adjust the pattern of treatment by stopping them temporarily for a few days or a week or two. The key point about the regimen of 64 compresses is to do them; whether this takes 16 weeks, 20 weeks or 24 weeks is immaterial; what is required is to get the regimen done perseveringly on a relatively consistent basis. Possible hindrances to doing the Ginger Compress. I have noticed over the course of 14 years of counselling thousands of individuals there is a great deal of resistance to actually doing them. I estimate perhaps 30% of the people I counsel actually do the two or three rounds of compresses necessary to completely dissolve and break up the chronic intestinal stagnation. Of course, people say things like they do not have the time, or it's too complicated, or whatever. However, the reasons are, I feel, a lot deeper. First, the intestines are those organs of the body that have to with the expression of the activities of the will forces of the soul; will forces have to do with carrying out actions; if the intestines are weak and stagnated, then if we are asked to do something which requires a significant and radical change in any one of our habitual ways of doing any activity, we find it incredibly difficult to do so. The ginger compress regimen requires we take into account our necessity for doing them and scheduling the time to do them during the course of the week. If we do not do this, then we will have difficulty in getting them done.

Secondly, the large intestines and lungs correspond to our forebrain; our forebrain is the senseorgan instrument for the thinking activity of the soul; thus, if we have chronic intestinal

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stagnation, we also have toxic mucus build-up in our lungs and our forebrain. In regard of thinking, this means our thinking is stuck, moulded in the the tried and true, habitual, received learning we have picked up at school, college, in church, from our family and through the newspapers and other mass media and if we are to break through the stagnant, arid, destructive, techno-material thinking of modern culture, we have to break up this stagnation in the forebrain while at the same time undertaking the strenuous re-education and quest for self knowledge necessary for true healing to occur. The ginger compress regimen on the intestines is necessary to do if we are to achieve this, and this is an uncomfortable prospect, at least subconsciously.

Thirdly, and probably the most difficult of the three impediments to overcome has to to with our emotional life. In the course of counseling I have come across a remarkable phenomenon of human life, which is that when we experience a deeply wounding event during the course of childhood and early adulthood, like being sexually abused, or physically or emotionally beaten down, the actual events which occasion these traumas and abuses are literally 'recorded' in the mucus stagnation, in any organ or tissue of the body where they happen to have built up. This is to say, the mucus stagnation appears to act as a 'medium' on or in which the event/s in question are 'holographically' imprinted. This means that no matter how well we succeed in suppressing our memory of these events, they are literally playing out continuously, like an endless tape-reel, for as long as the mucus stagnation remains in the body. Thus, there is not only the physical consequence of increasing toxicity of the body resulting from the build of chronic mucus stagnation, which, as I have shown, starts with the large and small intestine, and because of these organs relationships as paired complementary organs with the lungs and heart, in those organs too. And later, as a consequence of the Five Transformation Theory, with the kidneys/bladder, and liver/gall bladder. And because the kidneys/bladder rules the sexual organs, mucus stagnation also builds up there. There is also the coincidental process, because of the relationship of these organs to the emotions, as stated in the Five Transformation Theory, of the increasing physical toxicity of the body being accompanied with increasing emotional toxicity, the nature of the emotion hinging on which organ or organs the mucus stagnation is on which the events occasioning these traumas have been 'recorded'. The relationships of the more destructive emotions with the organs as stated in the Five Transformation Theory are as follows: Liver/Gall Bladder - frustration, irritability, impatience and anger. Kidney/Bladder - fear, anxiety, loss of confidence and self-esteem. Lungs - melancholy and sadness, sense of loss. Large Intestine - depression, loss of enthusiasm, ennui. Heart/Small Intestine - overly excitable, nervousness, hysteria. Stomach/ Spleen-Pancreas- doubt, worry, skepticism, cynicism.

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These emotional moods are, in the person so afflicted, permanent and cannot be explained by any current event going on in their lives. They are, so to speak, their mood of soul, and colors every motivation, attitude, expression and way of relating to themselves and the people in their lives and the world in which they live. They are permanent, that is, for as long as the mucus stagnation is present in which these emotional traumas are imprinted. I must also point out these 'permanent moods of soul' are present even if their have not been any emotional traumas; however, it is probable that if there have been emotional traumas, and it is fairly evident that emotional, physical and sexual abuse is endemic in modern culture, the imprinting of the events occasioning these traumas has the effect of accentuating these moods of soul to a deeper extent than in those individuals who have been fortunate enough not to have been emotionally, physically or sexually abused in their childhood and early adulthood. When we do the ginger compresses on our abdomen, then the dissolution of the mucus stagnations will cause the 'holographically imprinted event' to be released from its entrapment in the mucus stagnations, as they are dissolving, and these events will surface into our consciousness and we will have to deal with them phsycologically. It is probable, as it has been in several instances in people with whom I have been working, that when these events surface into day consciousness, it is the first time they become aware that these events have indeed occurred, because they did such a effective job of suppressing their memory of these events when they first occurred. This is, in many instances, a traumatic experience, occasioning much pain and suffering. Now, I feel when a person is asked to do the ginger compresses, they know, sub-consciously, the dissolving of the mucus stagnations brought about by doing the ginger compresses is going to occasion the release of the suppression of the events, and since the pain and trauma associated with them is so profound, they would rather not have to deal with it. This is understandable. However, any healing that is worthy of the name is necessarily accompanied with pain and suffering. If we go through a healing which leads to a resolution of our symptoms which is not accompanied with pain and suffering, both physical and psychological, then we can be assured the healing is superficial and will not bring about the profound transformation of our being, in body, soul and spirit, which is the healing I am discussing in this book. Therefore, the regimen of ginger compresses is necessary for us to carry out, anyway, if we wish to bring about a true and deep healing of ourselves and the world. As to what I feel we need to do if we 'find out' we have been physically, emotionally or sexually abused in childhood and early adulthood, I offer the following suggestions: 1. No blame. I do not feel that any one is helped if we go about blaming the perpetrators of these traumas, no matter how justified we may feel in blaming them. Furthermore, any idea of vengeance and redress simply does not answer the questions posed by these events and it leaves out of account the most important fact of human spiritual life. This is karma. Karma is a

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profound spiritual reality which is not taken into account at all in their daily lives by people living today. Now, karma is a vast subject and all I will say here is karma means that inexorably, ineluctably we will find we have to make up to others, either in this life time, or the subsequent life on earth, in one way or another what we have done to them. This is to say, it is not up to us to judge other people, for our, or other peoples', misdeeds, will be atoned for through karma. 2. Forgiveness. We must dig deep in our souls and find it possible to forgive the individual/s involved for what they have done, not as a cursory nod to the idea of forgiveness, but as a profound reality in our souls. 3. Find something about the event or the individuals involved which is beautiful and good, for it is rare for any one individual or event to be unredeemably evil. 4. This is probably the most difficult suggestion to carry through, but is probably the most important: ask ourselves what is about us that occasioned these events to take place. What is it that we need to work on psychologically -mentally, emotionally, spiritually - so we can truly digest the lessons to be learnt from these events for ourselves. 5. Once we have digested all that needs to be learnt, understood and changed, forget about the events, for time itself is a great healer. There are additional aids to help breaking up the chronic mucus stagnation. The first is to make sure we go for walks every day for at least half to one hour. The act of walking serves to do to an 'internal massage' on the intestines; it is helpful to use the stairs instead of the elevator or escalator, to walk to the store rather than drive etc. And the walking is most helpful if it is a relaxed stroll around your neighborhood or in the park, where the simple enjoyment of the sights and sounds we encounter is our aim rather than trying to do any exercise. Massaging the intestines while doing the compresses. While you are lying down with the ginger towel on your abdomen, using the extended index and forefinger of both hands together, press on the intestines beginning at the ileo-cecal valve approximately two inches to the left of the right hip bone, and using a push and release motion work your fingers up the right side of your abdomen, across the abdomen to the left, just above the navel, and then down the left side to just above the pelvic bone, moving in a spiral motion further in from the path you worked so that the massaging gradually works toward the center of the abdomen. When you have completed one massage in this way, start again from the beginning and work you way to the center of the abdomen. Do this two or three times or so during the time you are doing the compress. When you press down with your fingers go as deep as you can, while trying to keep the abdominal muscles totally relaxed. Another aid is the following exercise. Stand straight, eyes looking straight ahead, with your hands by your sides in the middle of a room so you have plenty of space. Then move your hands, fingers extended, upward and outward while raising yourself up on your toes and taking a deep breath through your nose so that the inbreathe goes to your lower abdomen. Hold the position momentarily, then slowly, simultaneously bring your hands down past the hips and then forward toward your front while bending down into a 'skiing' position, tightening your

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abdominal and buttock muscles and as you bend while exhaling slowly through your mouth, in order to complete the exhalation by the time you end up in the 'skiing' position. What I mean by the 'skiing' position is you end up on your toes, bent at the waist with your buttocks close your ankles, your arms extended in front of you with fingers extended forward, as if you were just about to push off down a slope if you were wearing skis. What you should feel as you go through this motion is a gathering and concentration of 'chi' or etheric forces in the pit of your abdomen. Do this exercise, on an empty stomach, three to five times, two to three times a week while you are doing the ginger compress regimen. Tai Chi and Yoga are also beneficial. Any form of strenuous exercise is not recommended during the first year of changing over to a macrobiotic dietary program or while doing the ginger compress regimen. The reason is during the early stages of being on the macrobiotic dietary program the body is detoxifying itself and the organs of detoxification and elimination are active in carrying out the dissolving and removal of toxins. Now, when we do any form of strenuous exercise, such as jogging, high impact aerobics, weight-lifting etc., then the metabolic rate increases, meaning more waste metabolites of cellular activity are being generated than when our metabolism is functioning normally. Therefore, the organs of detoxification and elimination of wastes are asked to deal with the process of detoxification and elimination which ensues when we begin a macrobiotic dietary practice as well as with the toxins generated by intense exercise regimens. This puts a heavy strain on these organs, which are at best in a weakened and fragile state when we start the diet and the added load caused by the heavy exercise is going to make it a lot more difficult for these organs to both do their job of detoxification and elimination while at the same time regenerating and revitalizing themselves.

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HEALING WITH THE DAY.

One of the more useful diagnostic tools derived from the Five Transformation Theory is the cycle of chi/etheric flow in the organ meridians. This is a 24 hour cycle as follows:
TIME OF DAY 12 Noon - 2.00 PM 2.00 PM - 4.00 PM 4.00 PM - 6.00 PM 6.00 PM - 8.00 PM 8.00 PM - 10.00 PM 10.00 PM -12.00 PM 12.00- 2.00 AM 2.00 AM - 4.00 AM 4.00 AM - 6.00 AM 6.00 AM - 8.00 AM 8.00 AM - 10.00 AM 10 AM - 12.00 Noon LARGE INTESTINE STOMACH SPLEEN/PANCREAS SOIL TRIPLE HEATER GALL BLADDER LIVER LUNGS METAL WOOD SMALL INTESTINE BLADDER KIDNEYS HEART GOVERNOR FIRE WATER YIN ORGAN YANG ORGAN HEART TRANSFORMATION FIRE

This is the cycle of the "flow of chi/etheric forces" through the meridians on the diurnal cycle. It can be seen from this chart that the "leading edge" of the rhythm passes through each of the meridians at specific times of the day (this is for the Northern Hemisphere). What this signifies is at those periods of the day, the "chi/etheric" is 'focused' on those meridians/organs corresponding to each two-hour period. This means the etheric forces are focusing their harmonizing and 'fine-tuning' activity on those organs and their functions at those times of the day. Now, if, as will generally be the case, those organs are 'stagnated', toxic, 'imbalanced', then the activity of the etheric 'focusing' on the chronically stagnant organs will be evidenced by the manifestation of 'discharges' (See the Introduction) such as fevers, headaches, sore throats, coughing and sneezing, watery eyes, nasal discharge, flu-like symptoms, diarrhea, skin breakouts, headaches, shivering, fatigue, and chills. If these types of discharge symptoms occur regularly within the same time-frame of the day, then we know from the chart which organ or organs are under duress. Then we go to the links to see what we can do to strengthen those organs.

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Now, we bear in mind that these are "paired, complementary organs", so that whatever is manifesting in the way of discharges by one of the paired organs means, de facto, the other of the pair is also stagnated. Thus, as is very common, we "hit the wall" at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, then we know from the chart that this signifies bladder/kidney weakness. Or, if, as is also very common, we cannot sleep between 12 midnight and 4.00 AM, we know we have a liver/gall bladder problem. It will be noted that for Fire there are two sets of paired organs. In actuality, the Heart Governor and Triple Heater are not organs, but functions. The Heart Governor is responsible for the overall condition of metabolism of the body, and the Triple Heater is responsible for maintaining the proper internal body temperature with respect to the external ambient temperature.

FACIAL DIAGNOSIS
The art of facial diagnosis is one of the most highly prized qualities a person may develop for themselves. I will be spending some time going into giving you the fundamentals and practice of facial diagnosis over the next few years. The main reason for learning the art of facial diagnosis is self-knowledge, for as you learn to know how to read your face you will become more and more confident about knowing what is going on inside your body. Furthermore, the knowledge you gain will teach you how to see problems arising well before there is any possibility of your body coming into crisis It cannot be overemphasized enough that modern scientific medicine is the medicine of crisis, at the center of a culture in crisis. When you go see the doctor you are usually in some kind of medical crisis. The reason being you do not know how to read what your body has been telling you for months and even years in advance of the crisis actually occurring. So, by the time you get to see the doctor, all that can be done is to give you massively powerful drugs or surgery which are designed to deal with the symptoms and hope that your body gets through the crisis so that it can "heal itself".

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The approach of modern scientific medicine, in essence, is to pour gasoline on the flames of your illness in the hopes of dousing the flames. It would therefore be a matter of pure chance whether or not your body survives the assault of these powerful drugs and other invasive techniques if were not for the incredible healing resources that are "designed" into the dynamics of the internal organs and tissues. Whereas the macrobiotic art of facial diagnosis is the subtle science and accurate art of learning how to read your face so that you can tell, early on, when any organ is becoming "out-of-balance" or "stagnated", and take the necessary steps to alleviate the burdened or "stagnated" organ and its related tissue. The basis of facial diagnosis is the human organism, divided into the head and the body, is seen as the head being a compacted, condensed, more yang expression of the body, and the body is seen as an expanded, soft, more yin expression of the head. The head, in this scenario, is seen as being constructed of the lower limbs forming the lower jaw, the upper limbs the upper jaw and the rib cage forms the skull, with all the internal organs expressed as nervous tissue inside the skull, as brain tissue. And the condition of the internal organs is seen as expressed in the face as a inverse mirror image of their location in the body. The following diagram illustrates the principle:

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Taking this principle and applying it in more detail to the face is shown in the following diagram:

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Thus we have a 'topography' of the internal organs of the body mapped on the face. There are a couple of areas on the face that need to be mapped out which are not shown in the above diagram. First, you will notice on the skin of the forehead of every human being some horizontal lines, usually between three and seven. These are normal. However, if they stand out prominently so as to be noticeable, this is an indication that the organs associated with this area are too expanded, that is, too yin. The organs "mapped" on the the forehead are illustrated in the following diagram:

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Another area we need to look at is around the mouth, as in this illustration: On the face of women, the purple crosses mark a spot on either side of the mouth where an imaginary line drawn out from the corners of the mouth to where the line etched on every human face which goes from the sides of the nose around and down in a semicircle to end approximately level with lips (the black lines in the diagram). This spot shows the condition of the ovaries, the right side of the face the right ovary and the left side, the left ovary. The area inside the red line shows various aspects of the uro-genital system, with the word Prostate showing where you look for signs of prostate dysfunction. This is a good place to pause until the next update (if you are a regular visitor to "The Alchemycal Pages" you will know updates occur approximately every 3 months). These next three months what you do is observe people's faces very closely but you only concentrate on ONE feature at a time. From now until September, choose one feature of the human face - say the nose this next 2 weeks, and just do nothing but look at noses. Observe the nose of many different people over the course of the 2 weeks, taking notes on the size and shape and whether it is bent up or curved down, is it long or short, flat on the face or prominent, is it clearly featured on the face or does it seem to blend in to the face, does it have any blemishes, spots, discolorations, what colors if discolored, are there any swellings, does it appear swollen generally, and if not, where is the swelling? Carry a notebook with you devoted to the study of the human face, for you can do your observations anywhere - on the bus, train and subway, in the cafe, sitting in the park, taking up a suitable vantage on a street corner or market square or while strolling down the street. Jot down all your observations, make sketches and notes, noting every detail, the date and time of day and weather patterns the

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day you make the observations, and whether they are of a man or woman, and whether of a child, teenager, adult, middle-aged or elderly person. Do similar detailed obervations on the cheeks, upper lips, lower lips, beneath the eyes, the eyes, the eyelids, between the eyes, the forehead and the temples. Also do a study of ears.. If you spend two weeks on each that will be in time for the next update. At this point do NOT try and figure out what it all means, simply observe and let the facts you observe speak to you, and we will continue our studies next time. Before going into more detail on facial diagnosis a problem arises when we are determining how we should eat in terms of yin and yang. The problem is that we may have a yin constitution or body-type and a yang condition and vice-versa. For if we have a yin condition then we need to eat more yang to balance the condition, but if we also have a yang constitution then we need to eat more yin to balance the constitution. How do we solve this dilemma? This will be addressed next in the discussion on how to diagnose our constitution or body-type. It is now January 2001, and we have had plenty of time to observe the features on the faces of many people where we live, and if you have been making these observations, of people's noses, mouths and lips, eyes, cheeks etc., you will no doubt have found it to be a fascinating study. Here is the illustration of the face of again:

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So, with this 'topography of the internal organs' on the face in mind when we observe ourselves and other people, what do we look for? The main feature we look for in any area of the face is swelling and/or tightness. I need to emphasize that the ability to do facial diagnosis is an art we need to practise daily in order to get good at. The main requirement for getting to be good at any art is practise, daily practise. Facial diagnosis as an art is relatively easy compared to other artistic pursuits, as the instrument required to perform this art is one of the most amazing artistic creations ever, your eyes. In order to develop facility in facial diagnosis we need to pay keen attention to the details revealed when we observe our or another person's face. As we do this on a daily basis we begin to develop a "feel" for what is the "normal" so that we can gradually discern when a particular area of the face is puffy and swollen, or tight and drawn. Using the map of the face, wherever we see an area that is puffy and swollen, this signifies the organ corresponding to the area is swollen and enlarged. For example, if we notice that

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the tip of the nose, which corresponds to the heart, is swollen and expanded, then this means the heart is swollen and expanded. In terms of yin and yang, puffy and swollen is the result of too much yin, and tightness and drawn in is from too much yang. Too much yin and yang what, you may ask? The foods and liquids ingested on a daily basis and to learn what foods are more yin and what foods are more yang, go to the Introduction and look at the "Spectrum of Human Foods" there. One area of the face that is important to note is that under the eyes. Looking closely at every human being under the eyes, you will notice a thin line etched in the skin drawn from the corner of the eye down and outward toward the periphery of the eye. The area above this line, between it and the eye itself, corresponds to the kidney - left eye, left kidney, right eye, right kidney. Below this line is the area which corresponds to what I call "general intestinal condition", underneath both eyes, below the line etched in the skin. This actually all we need to learn, for all practical purposes: whether a person's facial features are more puffy and swollen, or tight and contracted, as this means their overall condition is either too yin or too yang. Once we know this then we simply start eating a daily dietary intake which eliminates the excesses and extremes, and start eating cooked whole grains and vegetables, seaweeds, and miso soup and there are many pages in The Alchemycal Pages where you can get this information. One extremely important point about the macrobiotic approach to healing is that it is NOT a medicine, and has absolutely nothing to do with any medicine of any description, whether ancient or modern, east or west, north or south. Really. Macrobiotics is so far superior to any possible medicine that it would be possible for the human intellect to devise that it is unseemly to even mention the word medicine in the same breath as macrobiotics. Please understand this - macrobiotics is so superior to any possible medicine already or yet to be devised by the human intellect that it is a gross misunderstanding and misrepresentation of macrobiotics to even use the word medicine in the context of healing. This is, "in truth, certainly, and without a doubt" (Hermes Trismesgistus - The Emerald Tablet), due to the undeniable fact, to anyone who actually paying attention, that the human organism is a work of artistic spiritual creation into which the capacities for it's self-healing are worked into the basic texture of the organism. This is so because the "wisdom in your body is deeper than your deepest philosophy"(Nietszche) and it is utter folly to imagine that the human intellect divorced and sundered as it is today from the wisdom of the heart is anything but a clever trickster with an infinite capacity to deceive itself into thinking it actually knows anything. And we are living in time today in which we demonstrate every day on all corners of the globe that we are undoubtedly the most pig ignorant humanity that has ever existed - and this is actually an insult to pigs, who undoubtedly know a great deal more than the we do! So, my apologies to the porcine soul if I have offended you. And what of the human intellect married to the wisdom of the heart? If, in this happy state, one observes the human organism, one can only get down one's knees and offer up one's reverence and devotion to the Spiritual Beings - the Spirits of Wisdom, The Spirits of

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Form, The Spirits of Fire, The Spirits of Movement, to name a few - who are the one's responsible for fashioning the human organism. And they are doing this every second of every day. Thus we do NOT mess with it, knowing our ignorance is profound in the face of this deep wisdom, which has brought the human organism in respect of physicality, to the peak of its possible perfection. The human physical sheath or body is today a stunning artistic, spiritual creation, completely awesome in its workings down to the very last detail. Anyone who imagines that the human physical organism is made up of atoms and cells which function according to the laws of physics and chemistry is seriously mad, mentally ill. Since the WHOLE WORLD suffers under this cretinous delusion we can only but admit that there is a currently ongoing and has been for several decades a mass epidemic of profound human insanity - and this will only increase as time goes on. In short, the human species is currently digging its own grave, and the very efficient tool, the broad and powerful shovel which is being used to dig our grave daily is.... modern scientific thinking. In so many words, modern scientific thinking is a mental illness! It is hard to tell whether looking at life through test-tube eyes and microscope fingers is the result or cause of this mental debility. So, enough of that, let me get back to the subject I am discussing, facial diagnosis. Thus, we are NOT doing diagnosis in order to devise a TREATMENT for a particular organ or condition. What we are doing is determining whether our condition is more yin or more yang, and whether our constitution is more yin or yang. We then use the general recommendations I have on the Constitutional Diagnosis page (link at the top of the page) to arrange our dietary intake and we start on our macrobiotic journey of self-healing. If we want to fine tune our diet - and really, this is not necessary for at least two or three years, then we can use the particular areas of the face where we specifically see swelling and or contraction to identify which organs need more help. Having identified these, we then go to the Healing With The Seasons pages where I have details on the different paired organs and which foods, grains and vegetables, support these organs, along with menus for each of the five paired organs. Then we can look for spots and blemishes on the skin of the face. These mean that wherever they are located on the face, the particular organ that corresponds to that area is undergoing a detoxification or discharge, or, if the blemish is chronic or longstanding, like a mole, it means that there is a stagnated area on that organ that has been there for a long time, since the blemish first appeared. In the case of moles, these signify gatherings of stagnated animal protein in the organ in question. For example, if the mole is found between the eyes, this means the gathering of stagnated and toxic animal protein is in the liver. One common place where you often see this mole, and it is ironically referred to as a "beauty mark", is on women on the area corresponding to the ovaries. So, this means the ovary is seriously stagnated and that women have female organ problems who have this particular "beauty mark".

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Generally, we have white, black, brown, yellow and red spots emerging on the skin. White spots mean excess dairy - milk and cream, ice cream, butter, whereas yellow means cheese. Black means toxic heavy metals, brown/dark brown means animal protein, and red means any kind of refined sugar - glucose, fructose, lactose, etc. Now, when we are talking about discolorations of the skin in distinction to the spots, they have a different signification. These discolorations are red, blue/black, white or pale, yellow and yellow-red. They signify - irrespective of where they show up on the face - that the organs corresponding to these colors are under duress. Red signifies heart/small intestine; blue/black signifies kidney/bladder; white/pale signifies lungs/large intestine; yellow signifies liver/gall bladder; and reddish-yellow signifies spleen-pancreas/stomach. Thus, wherever these show up on the face it signifies those organs are under stress. For example, of we have blue discoloration of the skin in the area corresponding to the stomach, this means both the stomach AND the kidneys are in a toxic condition. A very common example is the blue/dark circles people have around their eyes. These mean the kidneys are under considerable stress. The green color is a special case. Now, when you see this green color, for it to carry the meaning it signifies, the discloration must be clearly green and stand out well demarcated on the skin. If this is the case, this clearly demarcated green discoloration signifies that the organ corresponding to the area where it shows up is cancerous.

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MERIDIAN DIAGNOSIS
Many of you may be familiar with the organization of "chi channels" or meridians from acupuncture developed by ancient Far Eastern Medicine.The knowledge and understanding of these meridians is used in acupuncture treatment and shiatsu massage. Knowledge of these meridians and where they are can be very helpful in self-diagnosis. The first aspect of meridian diagnosis I want to touch on here is knowing which meridians are present in the hands and feet. On each hand, the lung meridian runs down the thumb, the large intestine meridian on the forefinger, the Heart Governor meridian on the middle finger,the Triple Heater meridian on the ring finger and BOTH the heart and small intestine meridians are on the little finger, with the small intestine meridian running down its middle upper side and the heart meridian down the middle outside of the finger. I do not believe I have mentioned the Heart Governor and Triple Heater before. They are FUNCTIONS correlated with the FIRE state of transformation. The Heart Governor is responsible for regulating the overall metabolism of the organism(anabolism and catabolism) and the Triple Heater is responsible for maintaining the internal body temperature with respect to the temperature of the environment in which we find ourselves so that we are always in harmony with it. Thus if we have too much internal body heat or too much internal body cold, these are symptoms indicating the Triple Heater is not functioning properly. Since the Heart Governor and Triple Heater are correlated with the heart and small intestine, then irregularities of internal body temperature are traced to problems in these two organs, and we need to strengthen, detoxify and harmonize their condition in order to clear up the symptoms of internal body temperature irregularities. See Healing with The Seasons under FIRE to get more information. With respect to the feet, on each foot, the spleen meridian runs down the side of the big toe, and the liver meridian down its middle. The stomach meridian runs down both the two toes next to the big toe; on the next one is the gall bladder meridian and on the little toe is the bladder meridian. The kidney meridian ends up right in the center of the ball of the foot. One more piece of information we need is that when we look at the limbs we will see that they are "segmented" in 7 stages. For example, with the arm starting at the neck, we have phase 1 to the shoulder, phase 2 from the shoulder to the elbow, phase 3 from the elbow to the wrist, phase 4 from the wrist to the knuckles, and we have three phases between the knuckles and the tips of the finger. This is a spiralic motion when we curl our fingers in and tuck the hand under the shoulder, representing the seven-fold organization of each internal organ, with the tips of the fingers/toes representing the deepest, innermost regions of the organ.

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So, how does this information help us with self-diagnosis? Well, many times we develop pain, swelling, and skin break-outs on the fingers and toes. These all indicate there are stagnations in the organs correlated with the organ meridians on the respective fingers and toes and that these stagnations are in the deepest areas of the organ in question. For example, pain and swelling may develop in the first joint of the thumb. Then you know that there are problems going on in the lung, if it on the left thumb, then the problem is in the left lung. Or, perhaps there is a bunion on the inner upper part of the big toe- then we know we have problems in the spleen, usually related to eating too much animal protein. The approach here is thus not to treat the pain or swelling, unless it happens to be very painful, in which case we can do a ginger compress or taro potato plaster on it, but to address the problem in the organ by changing our dietary habits to macrobiotically oriented daily eating and doing the ginger compress regimen on the abdomen. Taro Potato Plaster. Generally, for bruises, moles, swellings, warts, bunions etc., which are of longstanding duration, the best method is to do the ginger compress for five minutes on the swelling or blemish, and then apply a taro potato plaster. The taro potato plaster is made by purchasing some taro potatoes from an oriental grocery store or market - they are brown potatoes with a hairy skin. Pick out the smaller ones when you buy them. Then take a piece of cheesecloth or cotton cloth cut in a size and shape to cover the wart, swelling or bruise you want to treat. Cut open a taro potato and scoop out the flesh - the texture of the taro potato is much different from that of a regular potato, it is gooey - and using a knife spread it approximately 1/4 inch thick on the cheese or cotton cloth you have prepared. After treating the area to be treated with a ginger compress for 5 minutes, take the taro potato plaster and place it with the flesh of the taro potato plaster directly on the skin. Then bandage it in place and leave on for four hours or overnight. This is done daily until the wart, bunion, swelling, etc. has disappeared. This may take a week to 4 months depending on how long the blemish, bruise, swelling has been present. The taro potato works by drawing out toxins through the skin, and it may cause some itching. In some instances the itching may be severe, so I recommend in such cases to spread a thin film of sesame oil on the skin before applying the plaster. The itching does signify the taro plaster is working! Another very helpful self-diagnostic tool is the Daily Meridian Cycle.

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DAILY MERIDIAN CYCLE

The following chart depicts the flow of "chi" or "etheric forces" through the meridians during the course of the 24 hour cycle.

The way to understand the 24 hour cycle of "chi"flow through the meridians is that there is what I will call a "leading wave" or "front" of the flow which is focused in the relevant meridian at any particular 2 hour period throughout the the course of the day (obviously chi is flowing through the all the meridians at all times). This is very helpful information in diagnosis. For what is happening as the chi is "focused" in a particular meridian, is that it is strengthening and vitalising the organ associated with meridian. It is the case with most people today that one or more of the paired organs are in a toxic state, so that when the chi is focused on a particular organ, then the toxic organ or organs begin to get cleansed. This cleaning is marked as the body manifesting "discharges". The discharge symptoms vary including one or more of the following: nausea, coughing, fever, aches and pains, chills, sore throat and fatigue. The significance of knowing the daily meridian cycle is that if we experience one or more of these symptoms during the same time frame every day, then, depending on what time of day they occur, we can identify the paired organs using the chart.

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Once we have identified the organs then we can use the knowledge provided in the Healing with The Seasons pages to find which foods we can use to help strengthen those organs and the tissues associated with them. For example, one common experience is that people with kidney/bladder toxicity and weakness often find that they feel fine most of the day but come 4 o'clock in the afternoon, they suddenly feel very tired and, so to speak, "hit the wall". Then the need some kind of quick "fix-me-up" in the form of coffee and doughnuts. I understand that this is a very common experience in the business world and is called "The Office Blues" or "The Four o'Clock Blues". Another common experience is for people to go to bed around 10-11 o'clock and every night to wake up feeling somewhat queasy, often accompanied with coughing, around 1-2 AM, and cannot get back to sleep for an hour or more, often not until 4 AM. This signifies the liver/gall bladder is toxic and needs help. Constitutional Diagnosis

CONSTITUTIONAL DIAGNOSIS.
The meaning of the term constitution in macrobiotic terms is the body type we develop as a result of time spent in our mother's womb and the first seven years of childhood. Our constitution, unlike our condition, is relatively fixed and cannot be altered, thus if we are born with a congenital condition, we cannot heal it through dietary changes. The question I am going to deal with here is how to know what type of constitution we have, more yin or more yang, as this is significant in terms of setting up a macrobiotic dietary practice which will be balanced for us. The major constitutional feature of the human being is our sex, male or female. In terms of yin and yang the male is outwardly more yang than the female, whereas the female is more yang inwardly than the male. When we approach the problem of determining our constitution we look at several facial and body features in terms of yin and yang which we use as a checklist as in the following table:

59 # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mouth Nose FEATURE Height Face Shape Eyebrows Eyes YIN Taller YANG Shorter

Rounder, elongated More square, narrow Slanted down and outward from the Slanted down and inward toward the nose center of face Wide apart More surface set Long Downturned Prominent Wide Large and more spaced More slanted outwardly Narrow and pointed No cleft Shorter palm, longer fingers Close set Deep set Short Upturned Flat Narrow Narrow and closer together More slanted inwardly More square Presence of cleft Longer palm, shorter fingers

10 Teeth 11 12 Chin 13 14 Palm/Hand Proportion 15 Thumb position palm of hand fully extended

Thumb points away Thumb curls back toward face from face Long, elegant, narrow Long and narrow Shorter, squarer Short and square

16 Fingers 17 Nails 18 Torso/Limbs Proportion 19 Feet

Shorter Longer torso/shorter limbs torso/longer limbs Long, broad Shorter and more narrow

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To determine whether we have a more yin or more yang constitution we simply check all our features on this list and total up the yin column against the yang column. There will always be in every individual an excess of either yin or yang features according to this list. So, having determined for ourselves whether our constitution is more yin or more yang, how does this effect our way of eating? We know we have to eat in a balanced way. If we have a more yin constitution, then we eat more toward yang, and if we have a more yang constitution we eat more yin. However, when we factor in our condition we can therefore have four possible scenarios:
Constitution Condition 1 Yin 2 Yin 3 Yang 4 Yang Yin Yang Yang Yin

The problem, as you can readily acknowledge, is that if we have a more yang constitution we need to eat toward a more yin dietary intake but if we have a more yin condition we need to eat the opposite, a more yang dietary intake. So, how do we go about solving the need to eat in a more yin and a more yang way at the same time? The way we do this is to look at the make-up of a macrobiotic dietary program in terms of yin and yang. As I have pointed out in the General Dietary Recommendations the macrobiotic way of eating consists of Whole Grains as Primary Food and Vegetables as Secondary Food. Now, whole grains are more yang than vegetables. Since whole grains are the foundation of the way of eating, we eat more grains relative to vegetables if we have a more yin constitution and if we have a more yang constitution we eat less grains and more vegetables. When we want to determine how to eat for our condition we use the vegetables by noting that in the categorization I use in the General Dietary Recommendations that Roots and Ground Vegetables category is more yang than the Leafy Greens category. Thus if we have a more yin condition we eat more vegetables from the roots and ground vegetables category and less from the leafy greens. Whereas if we have a more yang condition we eat more leafy greens and less root and ground vegetables.

After you have used the Facial Diagnosis page to determine your condition and the Constitutional checklist above to determine your constitution, you can use the following table as a guideline for setting up your daily eating habits:

61 WHOLE GRAINS YANG Constitution YIN Condition VEGETABLES

35-40%

50-55%

ROOTS/GROUND 1/2 YIN Constitution YANG Condition

LEAFY GREENS 1/2

45-55%

35-40%

ROOTS/GROUND 1/2 YANG Constitution YANG Condition

LEAFY GREENS 1/2

35-40%

50-55%

ROOTS/GROUND 1/3 YIN Constitution YINCondition

LEAFY GREENS 2/3

45-55%

35-40%

ROOTS/GROUND 2/3

LEAFY GREENS 1/3

These numbers are only to be used as guidelines, keeping in mind that you will be eating one bowl of miso soup daily and the vegetables you use in the soup do NOT figure into the above and you will be eating beans occasionally AND that you will be making adjustments according to the weather and climatic changes that occur in your locality of habitation.

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FIVE TRANSFORMATIONS BIRTH CHART

The chart is based on the fact that one passage of the earth around the sun takes 12 months and completes one cycle. The incarnation of a soul from the time of conception until birth takes 9 months. It is also considered here that under normal circumstances the womb of our mother is the perfect environment for the growth and development of the foetus. Thus it is inevitable that we spend the last three months outside our mother's womb, a less than perfect environment compared to the womb, which the cycle needs to come to completion. The practical consequence of this fact is that those paired organ/s which are still undergoing the completion of their development during the three months remaining from the time we are born to the completion of the cycle are our weakest organs. Thus we are all born with these weaker organs. The way to determine which are our weakest organs is to take our date of birth from the above chart and those organs corresponding to the dates which run three months from this date are our weaker organs. (In the southern hemisphere, the organs corersponding to these dates will be opposite to that depicted here) For example, my date of birth is November 2nd. and I was born in a place, Kitale, Kenya, which is 1 degree North of the Equator. This day lies right in the middle of the Fall Season. The organs corresponding to the Fall are the lungs/large intestines. In my case, the three month period also runs a month and a half into Winter, the season of the kidneys/bladder. Thus, since the period my kidneys/bladder were still undergoing the completion of their

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development is the farthest from my birth date, these are weaker than my lungs/large intestine, which are also weak to a degree. Needless to say, this has been the case in my experience, pre-macrobiotic living and after, if I do have any symptoms of detoxification. The importance of this data for everyone is that if we are going to live a life which includes being unaware of macrobiotic principles and their practical application (for everyone DOES live macrobiotically, whether they are aware of it or not, this is simply a fact of existence), then this lack of awareness generally means a pattern of the haphazard eating of foods and non-foods which are extreme relative to the dynamics of the human organism in terms of yin and yang. The result of this unconscious manner of eating, which is generally widespread throughout the world, is that the extremes will show up first in our weaker organs. To put it another way, we can be sure that whatever our medical history is, our weaker organs lie at the base of all our history of symptoms. In my experience of counseling these past 20 years, which starts with me obtaining the date of birth as the first piece of information I ask for, this pretty well tells me all I need to know 99% of the time. Of course, although the knowledge of the birth chart cycle is extremely valuable and important I do not mean to suggest that it is all we need to know our condition, which is why I have left it out of my discourse on self-diagnosis until now.