From: wrat@unisql.UUCP (wharfie)
Newsgroups: rec.music.gdead
Subject: 5 phase theory
Date: 6 Oct 92 22:29:05 GMT
Reply-To: wrat@unisql.UUCP (wharfie)
Organization: UniSQL, Inc., Austin, Texas, USA


	< In this article I will often be paraphrasing Harriet
Beinfield and Efrem Korngold as published in "Between Heaven and
Earth", so these aren't completely my words.  I'll use "" where I
remember...>

	A Chinese theory of medicine postulates that everything can
be described using 5 basic ideas, Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, and
Water.  These 5 phases form a cycle, one leading to another and then
back around again.

	Wood is the phase of expansion, and leads to the phase of
Fire, which spreads energy across and away.  Fire leads to Earth,
which is the center: unification and connectedness.  Earth is
followed by Metal, which is the phase of contraction, and Metal is
followed by Water, which consolidates energy at the core.  Wood is
expansion and metamorphosis.  Fire is fusion and realization.  Earth
is moderation and unification.  Metal is contraction and
transmutation.  Water is consolidation and revelation.


	I've been thinking how well this applies to the phenomenon
that is the Grateful Dead.  The earliest years were the phase of
Wood, "driven by the adventure of penetrating the unknown".  The
archetype of this phase is the pioneer, "eager to innovate, reform,
and revolutionize".  These were the years of the acid tests, those
early albums and festivals.

	The next phase is Fire, "dazzling, evanescent, exciting".
Summer is the fire phase of the year, when plants and creatures
develop to their full potential.  Fire "imbues the mundane with the
extraordinary, merging human aspiration with divine purpose".  The
archetype of Fire is the wizard, "bringing the transforming power of
light and awareness".  The wizard "can assemble a group of
individuals into a body, into a shared expanse of vision and
feeling".  These were the years of the early '70's, when new worlds
opened up to them and us.

	Then the Brent years would be an Earth phase, corresponding
to the late summer of the year, when "time seems to stop and the
glory of summer hangs suspended".  This is the time when what has
grown and matured through the spring and summer is ripe and ready for
harvest.  Temporarily free of the cycle of death and rebirth, this is
"a secure time of peace and plenty".  Unification is the principle of
the Earth phase, and it nutures and promotes our connectedness.  I
know I never really thought of myself as a "deadhead", as part of a
tribe, until these years.  Wasn't it at this time that the scene
reached its height, just before collapsing under its own weight?
When we all enjoyed music and touring and parking-lot circuses in a
space where time seemed to stop?

	Now we/they are in the phase of Metal.  The phase of Metal
corresponds to fall.  It is "a time for evolution through reduction".
This phase represents the "transformation of the gross materials of
nature into pure essence".  Metal people are precise and organized,
and I think that a lot of the new material is just that: Corrina, for
instance, and the way Picasso Moon has evolved.  Certainly "precise
and organized" is what the Grateful Dead organization has developed
into.

	Metal and Fire are polarities.  "As Fire reveres passion and
empathy, Metal esteems mindfulness and right action.  When these are
joined together, a kind mind prevails, wedding virtue and love."  The
power of Metal comes from the ability to shape and refine.  It should
be interesting to see if we/they can transform the raw material
they've accumulated over the years into a pure Essence of the
Grateful Dead...  "a kind mind prevails", indeed...

						"China cat sittin'
					         on a lace bandanna..."