This awareness can help you create and follow a personal health plan. Also, actively pursuing knowledge of your constitutional makeup opens health education opportunities as you investigate dietary suggestions and potential allergens, try out different exercise options, and find your best stress relief modality.
The bottom line: Understanding your constitutional makeup helps you make the most of what you’ve got.
Southern Folk Constitutions and Elements
As a folk medicine based on oral tradition, the language and vocabulary of Southern Folk Medicine are metaphorical ones, based on the common language of the people. As discussed earlier in the text, blood is considered the most important fluid in the body. The characteristics observed in the blood describe the state of physical health. The state of mucus is also important, as is that of the nerves, but neither is as easily observable as blood. We get cut and we bleed. This is immediately observable. Is it thick or thin? Dry or wet? Red or purple? Mucus is less easy to observe unless we think of mucus production during a cold or excreting mucus through our colon due to an irritation. But what about all the internal mucus, fluids, and extracellular matrix that we can’t see? And the state of the nerves is only observable through our actions, movements, personality, and thoughts.
In Southern Folk Medicine, there are four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. These are basic environmental factors. Ask any forest ranger. Life on this planet will quickly die without air or water. There is no life without the home the Earth provides. And fire in the forest, even through natural means such as lightning strikes, well, that’s a different story, but a necessary one.
Fire converts one form of energy in the forest into another, as so within our bodies. When a tree burns, the organic and inorganic compounds within it are transformed and percolate into the soil to be used by other trees or plants. Fire in the forest is an ancient factor bound up in the evolution of plants. Some trees, such as those with serotinous cones like the lodgepole pine or sequoia, germinate only after fire has cracked open the seed cone.
A healthy forest is a balanced combination of these four elements, as is the human body. When these four elements are harmonious, there is abundant life. When they are balanced in the body, there is good health. In Southern Folk Medicine, the four elements are written as pairs of opposites: fire/water and air/earth. There are four tastes, bitter, salty, sour, and sweet, also written in pairs of opposites: bitter/salty and sour/sweet.
The four elements and four tastes are used, metaphorically, to describe the four main constitutions in Southern Folk Medicine—Bitter Blood, Salty Blood, Sour Blood, and Sweet Blood. These are also written in pairs of opposites: Bitter/Salty Blood and Sour/Sweet Blood.
Each element—fire, earth, air, and water—corresponds to a Southern Blood Type and helps describe its physical and psychological traits. Bitter Blood is fire. Salty Blood is water. Sour Blood is air. And Sweet Blood is earth. Please understand that the term element is not used in this context in relation to chemistry. Here, it is used to describe components of composition or influencing factors. It just happens that these components are based on an ancient system that existed before the periodic table.
All four elements operate with us every day. Metaphorically speaking, fire creates energy from the digestion of nutrients; we are about 70 percent water; we breathe air; and our bones are made of minerals from the Earth.
We are all born with all elements within us. We are a composite in every sense of the word. Sometimes, an element may dominate in the personality over the others, and this will be readily apparent in our thoughts, actions, habits, and possibly our build. A person might be a Bitter Blood type, which means the element of fire dominates. But that person might also have air, water, and earth, in descending order. Therefore, we must look at the combination of elements in order to understand the whole person; not a single element.
Some folks might have two Southern Blood Types that share equal influence in the personality. For example, a person might have Salty Blood (water) and Sour Blood (air) in equal influence, and then Bitter and Sweet Blood. When two elements dominate in equal amounts, it will manifest in the personality equally also.
Sometimes, a person might have three Southern Blood Types in their constitutional makeup but be missing a fourth. That doesn’t mean that the element has no influence in your life; every one of us has all four elements within us. It does mean that the missing element is not apparent in the personality. There are many permutations or combinations that can occur. Again, keep in mind that it is the makeup, the combination, that is important, not just the dominance of one over the other.
No element exists alone. In some way, each one depends upon the other for existence. Fire requires air and earth (fuel) to exist. Water needs earth as a vessel, and air can move water (think rain or storms). Air needs water and earth for existence. And earth, well, houses it all and doesn’t need anything to exist. We’ll discuss this in more detail in the chapters on each individual element and blood type.
Regardless of whether you have a dominant element or not, you are composed of all four elements and each influences you in some way. Fire governs various processes, especially those related to energy production, hormones, and creativity and passion. Water is concerned with composition of fluids and the removal of wastes; on the emotional level, water is concerned with relationships and feelings. Air is concerned with the brain, the nervous system, and our intellect and ideas. Earth is concerned with the structure of our bones, organ systems, and how we view security and safety.
Going to the Opposite
The descriptions of the blood are based on a system of opposites. For example, blood may be high/low, good/bad, clean/dirty, slow/fast, thick/thin, sweet/sour, or bitter/salty. Keep in mind that these pairs of opposites are just that, opposite ends of a spectrum. If we imagine a line graph with 0 on one end and 10 on the other, the needle, at any given moment, could be anywhere between those numbers depending upon our health and what is happening in our lives. Somewhere, right about center or 5 on our imaginary graph, is the balance, or being just right.
When the elements are in balance, a person exhibits good health. Problems arise when an element becomes out of balance, in either deficiency or excess. When a dominant element or blood type is out of balance in deficiency, the person may exhibit traits of the opposite element. This is an important concept in Southern Folk Medicine—when under stress, we go to our opposite. For example, deficient water may look like fire to some degree. If you don’t have enough water, everything is hotter and drier. This is true whether we are talking about the land or the body. When water is deficient, tissues lose their fluidity, and so does the personality. From this point of view, the signs of deficient water element can also be viewed to some extent as characteristics of fire, and vice versa. This will also be true of the pair air/earth.
Stress, illness, or trauma can stretch and strain a person and send them to their opposite element or blood type. Let’s look at a person who is predominately Bitter Blood or fire, who is faced with a tight deadline on a project at work. The person begins working long hours, often not taking the time to eat, sitting for long periods, and becoming very critical of those around them. Anger and irritability seem to be the continual presentation in the personality. Automatically, increased fire characteristics will aid the effort to finish the project by the deadline. The person exhibits increased energy at work as the fire rises, but at home, this shift takes a toll with poor-quality sleep and changes in appetite, often with weight gain. The increased energy comes with a price: depletion of nutrients, inability to calm and sleep, and a controlling manner.
As the deadline approaches and success doesn’t seem certain, exhaustion and pressure take their toll, and the fire person will begin to express characteristics of its opposite—water. Emotional attachment to the project, tears, and the feeling of being the victim arise. When this happens, the fire or Bitter Blood type is now exhausted, totally stressed, and d
eficient in vital nutrients. In this example, going to the opposite element of water is viewed as a deficiency state of the fire persona.
A person can stay in a deficiency state for long periods of time. The energy required to hold that position, to hold the opposite element or nature, creates even more deficiency. A person can wallow in their opposite for years, and this can become quite a rut, creating physical, mental, and emotional damage. Being in your opposite will take a huge toll, physically and emotionally, as the body and mind struggle to maintain some sort of equilibrium. We’ll discuss herbs and foods to help bring balance in the individual chapters on Southern Blood Types and elements.
When a person goes to their opposite, such as fire to water, it’s not a full-blown manifestation of the other element. The fire person will never be as watery as a water person. An air person going to their opposite of earth will never be as grounded and earthy as an earth person. It’s all a matter of degree, but it is definitely a noticeable shift.
As you can see, it’s always handy to review the opposite element when investigating ongoing patterns of dysfunction or personality changes. Just as we each carry both light and dark within, so do we carry our opposite element.
Comparison to Astrology
I’m often asked if the constitution is the same as the astrological sun sign. The answer is sometimes yes and sometimes no. However, if folks will look deeper into their astrological charts and take into account not only their sun sign, but also moon and ascendant, then I’ve seen a greater correlation. Back to those signs in the heavens.
Chapter Nine
Fire: Bitter Blood
The spread of civilisation may be likened to a fire; first, a feeble spark, next a flickering flame, then a mighty blaze, ever increasing in speed and power.
—Nikola Tesla
A memory that stands out from my early childhood days is the day Daddy got fired from his job. We rented a rundown house from Mr. Scofield that was set back in the woods. It was down a dirt road, not even a graveled one. Not only was the road total dirt, so was the front yard—the sandy soil with little pebbles that is common in parts of north Alabama. Mama was outside sweeping the yard when Daddy came home from work. This was a daily task and I had my own little broom to help.
In those days, it was common practice to keep the front yard totally devoid of grass, only bare dirt. Each day Mama swept that dirt yard as clean as if it were the living room. The marks left by the broom in the sandy soil had a mesmerizing pattern that I found comforting. I could sit and watch her sweep and never move a muscle; it was almost hypnotic. I’ve since discovered that many cultures share the tradition of sweeping the yard, such as those from Japan, Africa, Thailand, Mexico, and Italy. Most likely, this Southern tradition came from Africa.
The stroke used for sweeping the yard is totally different from the stroke used to sweep floors. In the yard, a long, regular stroke was preferred as the goal of sweeping was to remove small debris and leaf bits and leave a fine and smooth broom pattern in its place. Some people used dogwood, some broom sedge, and others used pine. We most often used pine or broom sedge, and sometimes Mama would start with pine and end with sedge, which left a really fine pattern.
Sweeping the yard is not hard work, and doesn’t require a lot of muscle. It does require patience and an attentive, meditative state of mind. Your eye must be constantly on the pattern with total absorption and inner concentration for the result of the sweep to be useful. As a child, sweeping the yard taught me a patience that wasn’t inherent in my nature or constitution. I had to slow down and just be with the sweeping, and that bit of training has helped me over the years. When I finished helping Mama sweep, there was neatness and order left behind and the world felt right.
Although the yard was dirt all the way around the house, the front yard contained the largest portion of ungrassed yard. Regardless, it all had to be swept. And then there were the flowers. Mama loved her flower beds and each one was neat and weed-free and full of plants, most of which had been given to her by another woman in the community or saved from seed the year before. She was always giving away flower plants and having plants given to her. Her flower beds might contain twenty or thirty different kinds of flowering plants unlike today’s mono-plant landscaping style. And then there were all the potted plants that were here and there on both porches. A pot for a plant was anything that might hold dirt and water, from a store-bought pot to an old, painted oil can.
Sweeping the yard allowed you to see the tracks of any person or animal that treaded upon your land. Mama liked sweeping the front yard before sundown so that, first thing in the morning, we could see what traveled across our yard during the night. We were especially looking for snake tracks. Snakes have a habit of following mice into the house and one time, Mama found a snake (non-poisonous) under her dresser all coiled and stinky. For those that don’t know, when snakes are scared, they emit strong odors. The odors can range from musky and strong, which is the odor I most identify with snakes, to sweet or rotting. A few times, I’ve actually smelled the snake before I saw it.
I would like to say that snakes coming in the house aren’t as much of an issue since building styles have changed to closed foundations. But that wouldn’t be true. At least with an open foundation, snakes had nowhere hidden to lair or cool off during the summer, and now they do. Just last week one of my daughter’s friends opened their oven door to find a snake. A construction friend of mine was remodeling a house last winter and found a rattlesnake hibernating in the wall below the electric box.
Snakes tend to follow the food supply, and if you have mice in the house, then there’s a good chance a snake will follow, or at least try, if not into the house, at least to lie in wait somewhere close outside the house. They will also follow chipmunks as a food source. When I was about five, I had two little baby chickens that I kept in a chicken wire cage on the back porch on top an old table. One morning I went out to feed the chicks and a snake had crawled into the cage during the night and eaten them, but was stuck in the wire and couldn’t get back out. Daddy made short work of the snake, but my little peeps were gone. I cried and cried, but that is the reality of living close to nature. Everything eats something.
Chickens are good snake control, and when a chicken finds a snake, the alarm is given and the whole flock responds. Guinea hens and turkeys are especially aggressive against snakes, and both will eat small snakes with a gobble. When a chicken finds a snake, it’s a tag-team event; usually one chicken, often the rooster, will keep the snake’s attention at the front while the flock is pecking away at the back. It’s a little scary to see the frenzy of a flock of hens on a snake. Makes me glad they are so small.
Guinea hens going after a snake is a wild, noisy, steroid-driven event. Just stay out of their way. If the chickens can’t kill a snake, they will chase it away. Add the barking dogs into the process and it makes for quite a show. When the foundations of houses were on rocks and not enclosed, both the dogs and the chickens wouldn’t hesitate to follow the snakes under the house and take care of business.
After the front yard was swept, only the back door was used if we needed to go outside for any reason. The driveway came to the back door, not the front, so any visitors entered the house through the kitchen. Often as not, the visitor just stopped at the kitchen table for a cup of coffee and a visit.
Whatever animal that moved across the dirt yard left a print that was very plain to see. My grandfather once showed me the tracks of a snake which had slithered across the yard sometime between one sweeping and the next. Snake tracks were the most important to look for, the most urgent to find. Nobody wanted snakes in their house. Daddy and Uncle Hastel showed me raccoon tracks, coyote tracks, skunk tracks, and deer tracks. Hastel was a good tracker and knew the tracks very well. The dirt yard was not a place that animals dwelled or hung about for any reason, so it was more like a dirt road for wildlife. Since there wasn’t any grass for forage or hiding, there was no reason to linger
.
One morning there were human footprints across the yard, which caused my mother a bit of anxiety. It was so hot and no one had air conditioning in those days except the very rich. We slept with our doors and windows wide open to catch any available breeze. Only my parents had a small fan on their dresser to move the air. Us kids just sweated the night away. The screen door was latched, but that wasn’t a determent for anyone. Odd that no one was afraid; times have really changed. We didn’t have anything to steal except food, but it did happen a couple of times that someone entered the house while we were gone and cooked themselves a cake of cornbread and some eggs and left the dirty dishes. Mama was not pleased.
Because insects need the grass and tall weeds to thrive and the bit of moisture they hold, the open dirt yard created somewhat of an insect barrier leading up to the front porch. Well, except for gnat season, because gnats like to reproduce in sandy soil. The sandy soil covered red clay, and when it rained, the front yard became a muddy mess that was totally avoided by anyone with any common sense. There were a few stepping stones placed in a haphazard fashion from the front porch to the mail box, but it didn’t take long for them to be covered in mud too.
Standing out in the freshly swept front yard, it seemed like the whole world changed with the words that Daddy said: “I’ve been fired.” To my young mind, this sounded horrendous. Did someone hold Daddy down and blast a blowtorch in his face? Did his boss set the seat of Daddy’s overalls on fire? These were the images that moved through my mind. Being fired seemed like a frightening and violent thing to happen. I was to come to know that this wouldn’t be the last time we heard those words from Daddy, “I’ve been fired,” or the other, which was almost as bad, “I’ve been laid off.”
Southern Folk Medicine Page 21
