The Metal Element, Grief, & Letting Go

In the raw hollow of yesterday, two lights dimmed in my world. A teacher, whose wisdom touched countless souls, departed, leaving behind a void that hangs heavy like autumn mist. And my grandmother – she who once opened her heart to me without question, embracing a stranger as her own – spread her wings into the infinite. Yet in this darkness, there lies a profound teaching.

The Metal element whispers to us that now, in this season of letting go, it speaks of autumn’s ancient wisdom, when golden days surrender to lengthening nights, when life draws inward like a tide retreating to its source. We witness the dance of release as leaves spiral earthward, as seeds harden their shells against coming frost. This is not death but transformation—nature’s masterclass in the art of essential preservation.

Yet, in the most impenetrable recesses of this surrender of outward growth, at the base of the sacrifice, the descent, the drying. hardening, and decomposing, is the secret dream of Metal’s child. In these moments of loss, Metal offers us its deepest truth: that we must not turn away from our grief. To avert our gaze from sorrow is to lose ourselves entirely. Instead, we are invited to breathe into the emptiness, to allow the darkness to become our teacher.
As Autumn turns toward the long, dark nights of Winter, the faith of Water is buried in every seed, a faith so impossible that it is barely whispered: life will return, and “I surrender to transformation” will again become “I am!”

Metals affirm our understanding of its energetic nature, its tendency to slow and eventually arrest the movement of growth, to draw the life force down toward what is yin, dark, cold, inward, and still. At this point, growth is restricted, pressure is applied into the depths, and a long exhalation occurs.
Along with this exhale, this release, and letting go, there is an inhalation, an impulse to gather and preserve, condense, concentrate, and sequester what is most precious and essential to life.

This aspect of Metal is associated with the shape of a canopy, a covering that functions to protect as well as store. The canopy is mirrored in the physical shape of the lungs, the organ associated with the Metal Element, which hang down like a roof over the heart as well as the other organs in the lower torso.
Grief out of balance shows up as negativity, despair, depression, and an intractable holding on to the past. However, when the influence of Metal is honored, the emotion of Grief is a release of holding, an awesome surrender in the face of the infinite.
Standing steady in the face of our limits, the lungs expand, and we can receive the inspiration of the Heavens.

Often, the sadness feels like too much. Words scatter in the winds, meaning are swallowed by the void that breathes patiently on the other side of our daily life, and all we want to do is close our eyes and sleep. But by taking our time, breathing into grief, and saying yes instead of no to the restriction and the loss, something opens our being.
In this way, we can stay present in our circumstances. In this way, we can dare to leap into a night without dreams, without bottom, and end.

We can wait. We can listen. And we can surrender into a trust that we’ll begin to see in the darkness.

In a state of imbalance, the Emotion of Metal shows up as rigidity, a clinging to the past, stubborn depression, and unrelenting mourning that completely engulfs your life. It does not shift with the passage of time. In health, Grief expresses as a willingness to accept the inevitability of loss and to embrace the preciousness of each passing moment.

At its best, The Grief of Metal shows as a spiritual acceptance and spaciousness that brings peace and mindful presence to everyone it touches.

Imbalanced you feel when:

•⁠ ⁠You are isolated and imprisoned by rigidity and resistance to change.

•⁠ ⁠Your inability to recognize what is essential and precious leads to hoarding and over-accumulation of stuff, ideas, and emotions.

•⁠ ⁠Your inability to come to terms with the finite nature of material existence and the great teaching of death leads to a failure of spiritual maturity.

In harmony when:

•⁠ ⁠You transform your desperate fear of emptiness into the spacious serenity of not knowing.

•⁠ ⁠You receive inspiration from Heaven, spirit, and the shining illumination of the divine.

•⁠ ⁠You are in touch with the preciousness of life and each passing moment.

Psychologically, Metal teaches us about the inevitability of change and loss. Along with its lessons of restraint, restriction, and ending.

Metal offers liberation.

Metal element ultimately teaches us that true living requires dying to what was. Like the master craftsperson’s steady hand transforming raw ore into precious metal, we too are shaped by loss into something more refined, more essential. As we relinquish our grip on perfection and certainty, we join the dance of the sage and the crone at the edges of time, learning at last that our greatest freedom lies in surrender.

Metal teaches us, at last, how to truly live.