Turning Inward: A Metal Element Ritual for Autumn

October 27, 2024

For the light-filled days behind us and the darkening days ahead, we give you thanks.

For the harvest, learnings and the beauty of life that still surrounds us in fading vibrance, we give you thanks.

For the turning of the wheel, the wisdom in decrease, the liberation of release, and the promise of winter's rest, we give thanks.

For this brief repose, a sacred pause in the turning of time, the balance between light and dark, we give you thanks.
- Jessica Cudney

Autumn is a time of hardening seeds, fallen leaves and sinking sap as well as the qualities of inspiration and endurance. Just as animals begin to store food away, we too become more internal and less carefree than summer. This is a time for gathering, storage, preparation and protecting. This is a time to focus on what is essential as we head into the quiet, meditative months of winter. By defying this natural process and clinging to attachments, we are likelier to experience melancholy, grief, and anxiety. These feelings that “weigh heavy on our chests,” can affect the lungs and large intestines, manifesting as breathing difficulties, flu, colds, respiratory issues, chest pain, skin problems, and low immunity. Thus, Autumn is an important time for extracting, digesting and refining lessons from the previous active seasons and letting go of excess. We move inward to cultivate and protect our interior lives, work on indoor projects, complete projects begun in the spring and let go of that which no longer serves us. The metal element of fall contains this energy of cutting away the superfluous things in our lives so that we might see what is essential.

A Metal Element Inspired Ritual

For this ritual, we recommend setting at least the morning aside for yourself to attend to your inner life and to perform this ritual practice. You might consider getting up early while still dark outside, as the stillness and quietude amplifies the practice.

We’re not going into exact details on the steps as this ritual is for YOU, so make it personal. Follow your own tempo and use these loose guidelines to structure the ritual.

Step One: Tea, Meditation, and Intention Setting

Choose a special tea that honors the occasion. Consider a more yin, calming tea as we are moving into the yin time of the year. Shou Puerh, aged sheng and heavily roasted oolong are good options.
Light a white candle and incense. Prepare the tea mindfully and slowly, enjoying three bowls in silence as you let the body and breath settle.
After three steepings, practice a 15-30 minute meditation that focuses initially on deeper belly breathing, and settling into the body. If the mind is busy, just note “thinking,” and return to the sensation of the breath at the nostrils. Continue that practice until you settle into the practice.
After meditation, take 15 minutes to set your intentions for the ritual. Write your intentions in your journal and take note of any strong emotions that arise.

Step Two: Gratitude and Abundance Prayer

Make a list of three or more things you are grateful for that happened during the summer, three things you are currently grateful for and three things that you look forward to, as we move into Autumn. Allow yourself to really feel the openness in your body that come with gratitude. So often we focus on what we don’t have, and thus feel a sense of scarcity. Abundance is firstly a state of mind, and this state of mind attracts greater abundance.
Consider writing your own abundance prayer and repeating it each morning starting with this ritual. Here’s a powerful prayer that comes from Tosha Silver’s Book, It’s Not Your Money: Divine Life, allow me to give with complete ease and abundance, knowing that you are the unlimited source of all. Let me be an easy, open conduit for your prosperity. Let me trust that all my own needs are always met in amazing ways and that it’s safe to give freely as my heart guides. And equally, let me feel wildly open to receiving. May I now my own value, beauty, and worthiness without question. Let me allow others the supreme pleasure of fiving to me. May I feel worthy to receive in every possible way. Change me into one who can fully love, forgive and accept myself. So I may carry your light without restriction. Let everything that needs to go, go. Let everything that needs to come, come. I am utterly your own. You are me, I am you, we are one. All is well.

Step Three: Movement and the Animal Body

In Taoism, the Po spirit of the lungs is associated with the metal element and Autumn. The Po is responsible for the five senses, the limbs and the somatic emotional responses. Three powerful ways to nourish the Po spirit are to: nourish and feed the senses, spend time observing and being with animals, moving the limbs and body.
Go for a walk. Consciously engage each of the five senses, one by one. Notice any animals and their behaviors. Are they foraging for fatty seeds and nuts? Notice how they observe and react to the world. Animals reflect a part of our own wild nature, our unconscious visceral responses to the world around us. When you tune into your own animal body, beneath the constant noise of our thinking mind, can we hear a different rhythm, different needs and a new perspective. Take a moment to appreciate the beauty all around you.
Take some time after the movement practice to journal on what you noticed and/ or what came up.

Step Four: Release Work and Reflection

The next part of the ritual is release work, which helps you separate what is essential from non-essential in your life. Identify five things that you are ready and willing to let go of. This list may include bad habits, addictions, procrastination, avoidance, unhealthy relationships, negative self-talk, complaining, behaviors identified with low self-worth, laziness, self-sabotage, or areas that you are overcomplicating your life.
Once you have completed your list, write about what benefit you might receive by letting go of the trait, behavior and thing that you are letting go of.
Transfer the benefits into positive affirmations and put them in a place that you can read them everyday. Some ideal locations might be: on an altar, on the mirror in your bathroom or next to wherever you meditate and drink tea each day. For the following month, read the affirmations and check in on your progress at least once per week with journal reflections. What positive changes are you noticing in your life since making the change and letting go of what no longer supports your vision for yourself.

Step Five: Concluding the Ritual

Complete the ritual by summarily reviewing each step of the ritual in your mind's eye.

How did you feel throughout it?
Did you feel an energetic shift at any specific stage of the ritual?

Take a moment to give thanks for this transition to the more inward time of the year, recognizing that meditation, introspection, wisdom, rest and peace are qualities that can be enhanced during this important time of the year, preparing us for the time of goal setting and outward movement with the spring.
Complete the ritual by placing the hands on the lungs and taking ten deep breaths, giving thanks for greater spaciousness in your life and the opportunity to connect with what is most important for you in your life at this time. Blow out the candle, and try to maintain this feeling of spacious calm throughout the day, noticing any signs or messages that want to come through.

As we close this ritual and turn inward with the season, we honor the profound wisdom of autumn. This time offers us a precious invitation to release what no longer serves us, to strip away the superfluous, and to nourish the essential. By embracing autumn’s spirit of letting go and reflection, we align with the natural rhythm of life, fostering resilience and creating space for new growth. May this season guide you to reconnect with your inner strength, deepen your gratitude, and cultivate the serenity to enter winter with peace and purpose.