September 7, 2016: comparing Earth meridians

September 7, 2016:

I will now be drawing Dreams of Gaia cards, mostly from the Minor Arcana.  Today I threw the Six of Earth, and the cool thing is that the image of the being on this card looks a lot like Haftorang!  Okay, I get it; one day off to enjoy my new Tarot deck is enough.  Back to work.

The keywords for the Six of Earth card from the lovely LWB are family, community, responsibility, duty, service, self-sacrifice, protection, dependability, and martyrdom.  This card reminds us of duty, duty to ourselves, duty to our families and loved ones, and duty to those who depend on us in some way for attention and care.  Part of that duty involves being a role model and a good example, and part of it involves being a teacher.  This card also reminds us that we have a more wide-reaching duty to nature, to our environment, and to Deity.  These efforts need to be done in a caring way, with the right reasons and with the expectation of a positive outcome that will benefit all, that will be for the highest good of everyone.  The Six of Earth also can act as a nudge, by reminding us that there is some task that might need attention right now, and delay is not an option. 

Let’s compare the two Earth meridians:

Both the stomach and the spleen are associated with the element of Earth, the season of Winter, stillness, damp, worry, overthinking, transition and balance, and the subconscious and conscious mind.  It makes sense that their correspondences are identical; it is the actions of each organ that are different.

The spleen is connected to digestion and fermentation, the reproductive system, and rhythms of all kinds.  The spleen clots blood and creates tissues of all kinds, and is said to turn food into energy.  The stomach is associated with the food digestion process, but it is actually one of the processes that prepares food to be digested.  Thus it lays the foundation for digestion, while the spleen takes a more active part in the process.  The stomach is also connected to the reproductive cycle, but we add in the lactation process.  , and it helps control the appetite.

The spleen meridian begins at the big toe and travels up the inside of the ankle, and continues up the inside of the calf, knee and thigh and into the body, passing through the stomach, heart and spleen, and ends up at the root of the tongue.  The stomach meridian begins just under the eyes, circles the nose and the mouth, goes through the lower jaw to the sternum, and continues down the front of the torso through the nipple and down to the hop, along the front of the leg and the top of the foot, ending at the tip of the second toe.

An imbalance or blockage in the spleen meridian can cause general stiffness, weakness or sluggishness, loss of appetite, or a distended abdomen.  Imbalances or blockages in the stomach meridian can cause us to brood or go over a particular issue in our mind again and again (kind of like the churning of food in the stomach).  Other symptoms of imbalance include stomach problem, edema, vomiting, a sore throat, toothaches, or facial paralysis. 

These two are closely connected!

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