Metal is the season of Autumn.

After harvest, we reflect on our results, we look ahead at improving next season, and we let go of anything not serving that inspired vision.  Including discouragement and self doubt.  Is that self discouragement?

The Metal energy in us is developed through validation and the father relationship.  “You are perfect just the way you are, and daddy will protect you from anyone hurting you.”  And then when you are 7 and flood the bathtub so it pours down on our kitchen table, daddy hurts you.  A smack on the butt.  You were laughing at how funny all the water all over the floor was, while I was scolding you, but alas, I never did it again.  I could feel the violation of Natural Law.

Now I might say, “Ha ha, I made bigger messes than this when I was a kid.  The not so funny part is the clean up.”  And help them take responsibility for the mess.

My kids were pretty validated!  (I’m not sure about their grammar though.)

When Gates punched a pushy little girl, I understood.  I punched people until I was 25.  Mostly just bullies, but I decided it wasn’t a great resource, so I taught him what I had learned.

When my girls named our former president, Barack O’Brownskin, I laughed with them, their innocent, literal minds observed brown skin and had no idea why anyone would judge someone by color of skin, and I taught them what I had learned.  “We have to avoid any mention of it, because it is still happening, and this is how bad it was…”

I even validated how awkward that feels, to not be able to describe certain things in certain ways and that the rules change all the time.

In my school, it was pretty normal to say the N-word, and I had no idea it was something bad.  So I said it to my science teacher.  Not at him, but to him.  He was fairly kind, but pretty intense!  Picture a furrowed brow and pursed lips, and a sensitive little boy who feels intentions!  Well, not so little, that was grade 10, so I “should have known better!”

Now I say, “If I should have known better, shouldn’t you be talking to my teachers?”  I didn’t think of that until I was told “I should have…” right around 1000 times.  Not very validating.

The Metal energy develops the Creator and the Sage.

Sorry boys, the Sage is the feminine energy, so you might want to listen to their wisdom.  But never fear, we all have equal amounts of Yin and Yang energy in our bodies, so you can access your feminine wisdom if you desire!

The Creator is the maker of things.  The provider, creating an income and resources for his family.  The builder of schools, homes, and even the structure of a culture.  Looking to the feminine, Sage, for direction.  The Sage can see far off in the future, and predict where each direction will lead.  The Sage may see you are headed smack into a wall, and the Sage may decide that the pain will be a better teacher than her wisdom.  But she would not allow our demise, so she chooses the best direction for all, and all their expansion.  Healthy expansion.

To include and help more people, not to hoard resources.

If the Creator lacks validation or a protector, he will not trust himself.  He may shift out of balance toward Yin, the feminine.

The Perfectionist: She sets her standards so that neither she, nor anyone else, can be quite enough.  She may even look good on the outside, perfectly packaged, so you marry her.  Lord help you.

The Fixer:  She spends all her energy focused on fixing other people’s problems to validate her existence and worth.  It won’t take long for her to fall apart from the lack of her own care.

He may shift out of balance toward Yang, the masculine.

The Workaholic:  He defines himself by career goals, actions and achievements, and has a LOT to brag about.  He played the game and won, but inside he regrets what he has had to do to win big.

The Laborer: He defines himself by how “hard” he works, but doesn’t have much to show for it, because in reality, he traded his time and body (and often health) for security.  But he resents the trade, so he criticizes people who don’t work hard or do what it takes to survive in this hard world.

If the Sage lacks validation or a protector, she will not trust herself.  She may shift out of balance toward Yin, the feminine.

The Loner: She feels like nobody can really understand things the way she does, so she pretty much keeps to herself.

The Over-Analyzer:  She considers, and contemplates, sleeps on it, and thinks some more.  Stuck.  Paralysis by analysis.  Lacking forward movement.  Failure to Launch.

The Guru, Know it All man, Loner, Over-analyzer, and Know it All woman.

She may shift out of balance toward Yang, the masculine.

The Guru: He defines himself by his superiority over others, so he pretty much keeps to himself.

The Know it All: He defines himself by his knowledge, which was just some other idiots opinion, but that is what he learned, and that is the way it is.  His certainty prevents curiosity, the observation of results, and the ability to shift to a different approach.  Stuck.  Making the same mistakes over and over.  On the hamster wheel.

And every one of them, just…need…validation and protection.