There is a moment in early summer that is impossible to mistake.
The light shifts. The air carries warmth that doesn't apologize for itself. Trees are fully leafed out, flowers have stopped rehearsing and simply opened, and something inside the body, responds. Not with thought. With recognition.
Fire Season has arrived.
In Five Elements theory, Summer is the season of the Fire element. It is the great outward movement of life, the moment when everything that rooted itself quietly through Winter and pushed upward through Spring, to finally arrive at full expression.
Nature does not hesitate during Summer. It radiates.
Fire is the energy of maturity, warmth, and light. It governs our capacity to love and be loved, to feel genuinely alive inside our own experience, to laugh from somewhere real rather than somewhere performed. Its color is red, the flush of vitality, of circulation, of life moving freely through the body. Its sound is laughter. Its emotion is joy.
But here's what most people don't know about Fire.
It has four flames. Not just one.
Fire (huǒ 火)
The Flames (Officials) of Summer
When we talk about the Fire element in the body, we are talking about four distinct meridians and associated organs, working in harmony with one another: Heart, Small Intestine, Pericardium, and Triple Burner.
Most conversations about Fire stop at Heart. And Heart deserves reverence, it is, in Five Elements Theory, the Supreme Controller. The Empress of the kingdom of body, mind, and spirit. More than a physical pump, Heart is the seat of our deepest loves, most profound passions, capacity for genuine warmth and connection. When Heart is healthy, the kingdom flourishes. Every other Official receives guidance, warmth, and direction. Life has meaning, purpose, and joy.
This is why heart coherence, heart centeredness, opening the heart, and forgiveness have become dominating conversations within modern wellness. And these conversations are not wrong.
Yet, they are, incomplete. And here is what I find fascinating (and what our bodies may already be trying to tell us). The Heart cannot easily do its job without having its 3 trusted advisors online. Interestingly, those 3 Officials provide critical support that is almost entirely absent from modern wellness conversations.
The Small Intestine is the Heart's most trusted minister, known in ancient texts as the Alchemist, the Sorter, the one who separates the pure from the impure before anything reaches the Supreme Controller. Physically, Small Intestine extracts nourishment from everything we consume and sends the rest for elimination. But its medicine extends far beyond digestion. At the mental and energetic level, the Small Intestine governs discernment, the ability to sort what is truly ours from what is not, what nourishes from what depletes, what deserves a place in our fields from what needs to be released. A compromised Small Intestine doesn't just affect digestion. It affects perception. It leaves us absorbing indiscriminately, taking in what isn't ours, mistaking noise for signal, feeling chronically overwhelmed in a way that looks like sensitivity but is actually a sorting problem.
Of Note: The Large Intestine cannot let go of what the Small Intestine has not yet sorted. Read that again. Because if letting go practices have been a regular part of the healing journey and something is still hanging on…
Then there is the Pericardium, the Heart's protector. The membrane that determines who and what gets access to the most sacred space in the kingdom. Not a wall. A discerning boundary. The difference between a heart that is open and a heart that is safe enough to stay open.
And the Triple Burner, the sovereign of the body's thermal regulation, immunity, and relational safety. The official that asks, constantly: “is this environment safe enough for me to be fully present, fully alive?”
Together, these 4 Officials govern not just joy and warmth and connection, but discernment, protection, and sovereignty. The full architecture of a Fire element that can radiate without burning itself out.
This June carries something rare.
In Chinese cosmology, we have entered a year of double Fire, elemental Fire and Horse Fire, arriving together.
With Summer Solstice approaching, seasonal Fire is added, raising the intensity even further. This creates a level of heat many people will feel in their bodies, their emotions, and lives, even if they cannot identify its source.
“Fire this potent can burn you. Or it can transform you.
The difference is knowing how to sort, anchor, contain, and refine it.”
Summer is not asking us to perform joy. It is not asking us to force open a heart that doesn't feel safe. It is asking something more specific and more honest than that.
It is asking what we are giving our energy to. What truly lights us up versus what is simply loud. Where warmth ends and depletion begins. Which relationships nourish our spirits and which ones scatter it.
These are not philosophical questions. They are Fire questions. And they deserve more than a journaling prompt.
If something in this landed, in the sorting problem, in the letting go that hasn't fully worked, in the overstimulation that looks like sensitivity, I will be offering multiple opportunities and tools to go deeper this Summer. Most of which, I’ve never brought forward before.
Let’s begin with something simple. Something that can be done today, without any equipment or extensive training. Because the Fire element's medicine is already inside each of us, it simply needs a point of entry.
The Source Points of the Fire element, which live exactly where we would expect to find them. In the wrist and hand. The same part of the body that reaches toward what nourishes us, and pushes away what does not. The physical gesture of discernment itself.
Acupressure + Qi Practice
A Summer Self-Care Practice: The Fire Source Points
Every meridian has a Source Point, a concentrated holding tank of energy that flows directly to the organ system it governs. Working with these points speeds healing, revitalizes the organ, and stabilizes the physical body.
Source points are said to be 4x more electromagnetically active than other acupressure points. This is not subtle work. This is direct access.
The Fire element gives us 4 source points, one for each Official. And here is what makes this practice remarkable: all live in the wrist and hand. The same part of the body that reaches toward what nourishes us and pushes away what does not. The physical gesture of discernment itself.
Yin Fire Source Points
Located on the inner wrist at the crease.
Heart 7: Spirit Gate The Supreme Controller. The seat of our deepest love, capacity for genuine joy, and sense of meaning and purpose. When Heart 7 is supported, the entire kingdom settles. Work here if feeling disconnected from self, joy, or a sense of inner warmth.
Pericardium 7: Great Mound The Heart's Protector. The Official who determines who/ what receives access to our most sacred interior space. Not a wall, a discerning boundary. Work here if feeling overexposed, if connection has become costly, or when confusing boundaries with being loved/loving.
Small Intestine 4: Wrist Bone The Alchemist, the Official responsible for sorting the pure from the impure at every level of your being. Physical, mental, emotional. Work here when decisions feel impossible, when needing to locate a clear yes or no, when absorbing everything around and unable to find the signal beneath the noise.
Triple Burner 4: Yang Pool The Knight, governing the body's thermal regulation, immunity, and the fundamental question of safety. Asking, is this environment safe enough to be fully here? Work here when the nervous system is feeling chronically activated, when unable to settle into spaces or relationships that should feel safe, or when it takes more effort than it should to simply be present.
Yang Fire Source Points
Located on the outer and back wrist at the crease.
To work with any or all of these points:
Apply gentle steady pressure or slow circular massage on each point. Breathe slowly and deliberately. Spend 1-2 minutes per point, per hand. All points do not need to be worked in a single session. Feel invited to allow intuition to signal what is calling for attention.
Gently hold space to ask: What is actually mine?
The Fire element knows. It has always known. These points are simply the door.
