So, in this essay, I’m going to take a swing at describing the five element energies, focusing on their motions, densities, functions, and temperatures.  I've found that their motions and densities are often neglected, and really offer keys to understanding the organs... on emotional, alchemical, as well as energetic-physiological levels.

I’ll be including quotes that come from Statements of Fact in Traditional Chinese Medicine, by Bob Flaws.  The core Chinese medical texts can not afford distorted descriptions of the bodily energetic functions, that so often occur when others poetically and haphazardly mis-apply the elemental symbols (metal, water, wood, fire, earth) to infer attributes that may not actually exist.  This slim book, translated by Bob Flaws, is an excellent resource.  It's classic and pithy sayings are routinely memorized by medical students in China.

The creation cycle is a relational sequence in which the each of the five elements nurtures, provides substance for, and/or supports the function of the next element in the sequence.  The relationships in this sequence are often referred to as "mother-child" relationships, as some of the interactions of assistance and disharmony lend itself quite well to that analogy.  The sequence is: metal, water, wood, fire, earth (and back to metal, continuing on).  It’s a connected cycle, with no real "starting point".  I’m just starting with metal because the lungs are so easy to feel, and because breathing kind of kick-starts the qi of the entire body.

The lungs are cool and descending.  Their energy is light (not dense), moves easily, and has much the qualities of a cool autumn wind that flows down through and activates the entire body.  You can feel that when you breathe deeply.  That’s the lungs.  Cool, descending, dispersing and purifying, activating on a wide scale.  "Metal qi depurates [purifies] and downbears."  "The lungs govern the qi of the entire body."  "The lungs govern diffusion and effusion."

At the depth of a breath in the lower abdomen, the "kidneys grasp the qi of the lungs".  There is this natural, and unforced, gathering in of energy that is a quality of the kidneys.  In fact, it’s said that the kidneys assist the lungs to inhale.  "Metal and water engender each other."  Also, the lungs nourish the kidneys.  "The lungs are the upper source of water."  The kidney energy gathers in, storing, storing, storing.  The stored energy gradually builds, and has this dense, viscous quality to it.  It provides the viscous dense physical richness and backing for the body.

The trigram for water is an interesting representation for the activity of the kidneys.  There’s a yin line on the top and bottom, receptive, and a yang line in the center, strong.  If you think of the yin lines as naturally open, receiving and absorbing energy, and the yang line as that stored energy...

The stored, condensed, energy of the kidneys (essence, jing) culminates in expansion: strength that expresses.  If the water element is left to its' own, "Water's nature is to flow downward."  However, the liver provides one of the ways in which kidney energy can be circulated, lifted, and integrated with the rest of the body.

The dense, rich life kidney-essence nourishes the liver and the liver provides guidance and flow to that energy.  "The liver rules spreading and flowing".  "Wood is the bending and straightening."  "The liver governs upbearing effusion."  "The liver holds the office of general and strategies emanate from here."  "The liver is delighted by orderly reaching."  The liver is a bridge between that dense stored life energy of the kidneys and activity.  "The liver’s body is yin and its function is yang."

If I might mix metaphors... The element for the kidneys is water, and the animal for the liver is a dragon.  You might think of the energy / function / activity of the liver as a wise, benevolent dragon swimming through the ocean.  When you meditate on the liver, you’ll often feel a coursing and flowing with that quality.

(By the way, this transition - from the culminated kidney yang into the spreading and flowing of the liver - is one of the key ways that stored sexual energy gets circulated, for integration into the rest of the body.)

The liver also has a lot to do with blood.  "The liver stores the blood."  "The liver governs the sea of blood."  So there is this dense moist kidney energy that nourishes the liver, and the liver has a lot to do with blood.  "Essence and blood are of the same source." "The liver and kidneys are mutually engendering."

The heart.  So.  We’ve come from the root (the kidneys) to the branches (the liver) to the flower (the heart).  The liver received the essence of the kidneys (including sexual energy) into the blood, and promoted spreading and flowing.  The heart receives that enriched blood, and pumps the blood.

The kidney yin also has a special relationship of stabilizing the heart (water anchoring and stabilizing fire) through the chong channel (one of the eight extra channels).

Some quotes re: the heart.  "The heart governs the blood and vessels."  "The heart holds the office of monarch from whence the spirit light emanates."  "The heart governs speech."  "The heart pulse is surging."

The element that represents the heart, "fire", can be marginally misleading.  While the heart is warm, active, and uplifting (as fire is), it also has a yin aspect: the richness of the blood, nurtured, soft, stabilized - which is very important.

The trigram for fire contains both the yang and yin aspects.  It has a yang line on the top and bottom, and a yin line in the center.  If you think of the yin line as open, receiving nurturance, soft, and the yang lines as firm, strong...  The trigram has this steady radiance to it, as the heart does.

The lifting of the heart supports the spleen.  The spleen has a lot to do with digestion... (hmm, how to say this..)  The elements aren't each just one organ, they are a pair of a yin and yang organ.  Usually you just start by learning about the yin organs (which are the ones that I've been mentioning so far).  The pair for earth is spleen and stomach.  The stomach receives food and it kind of "cooks" there, starts to warm up, break down, and be assimilated.  The spleen takes "the clear part" of food and raises it up so it can interact with the heart, lungs, blood, and air, and be distributed throughout the body.  The stomach's energy is descending, and it lets the "turbid part" of food go down.  (This process of separation of clear and turbid happens again later in the small and large intestines, as well as prior in your mouth.)

So, the spleen:

"Earth is called the sowing and hoarding."

"The spleen governs upbearing of the clear."

"The stomach governs downbearing of the turbid."

"The stomach rules the grasping (i.e., intake) of grains [i.e., food in general]."

and, to bridge to the lungs,

"The lungs depend on nourishment from the spleen."

[Note: I know that, in Chia's "Fusion of the Five Elements" practices, the spleen energy goes to the deep-center of the cauldron... and some may take that to mean that the spleen energy is neutral, and is akin to the One energy.  That whole spleen / cauldron topic is beyond the scope of this particular essay.  What I am addressing here is the spleen's energetic (one-layer-subtler-than, but-still-interfacing-with, physical) function, as commonly described in Traditional Chinese Medicine.  Within this context, the spleen is not neutral: it is warm, and has an ascending function, that is very involved in the digestive function of the middle burner.  In this context, all of the aspects of the earth element (spleen / stomach, and their associated aspects of the body) are polarized and dynamic to the same extent as their four sibling elements.]

There it is: we've covered the five elements in the creation cycle. 

In quick review:

The kidneys "grasp the qi" of the lungs.  The liver helps to circulate the dense kidney yang as it arises, and the kidney "essence" nourishes the liver and makes the blood very rich.  The "spreading and flowing" of the liver, plus the essence enriched blood, nourish the heart and assist it to move the blood.  The heart's steady radiance supports the upbearing of the spleen.  The spleen raises nourishment to the lungs, where that nourishment can be brought into the qi of the body.  The lungs bring qi from the air down into the body and the kidneys "grasp the qi"... (and around we go.)

Some good reading references are:

Statements of Fact in Traditional Chinese Medicine by Bob Flaws (This thin, inexpensive, paperback is excellent.)

The Yellow Emperor's Classic of Medicine by Maoshing Ni