Earth

Earth Core Characteristics:
Support, biochemistry, acceptance, nurturing, stability, integrity, inclusiveness.

Natural Symbols:
Earth, soil, mountains, plains. All things grow from the earth and eventually return to it.

Direction:
Center.

Season:
Late summer (the transition period between late summer and early autumn, when all things mature and transform).

Colors:
Yellow, brown.

Human Body:
Spleen, stomach (responsible for transforming and transporting food and nourishing the entire body), muscles, lips.

Emotions:
Contemplation (excessive contemplation harms the spleen).

Taste:
Sweet.

Virtues:
Integrity, kindness, inclusiveness, reliability.

Symbolic meaning:
Represents the maternal force of inclusiveness, bearing, and nurturing all things; symbolizes stability, reliability, foundation, and the middle way; represents harvest, nurturing, and transformation (converting other elements into nourishment); also symbolizes excessive contemplation or stubbornness.