How Humourism (and Chinese Traditional Medicine?) Can Help You Overcome Spiritual Darkness and Sinfulness
It is no question that the material world and the spiritual world work together to create and continue the universe. This is no less true when it comes to the human person. The things we do help or hurt our physical bodies as well as our souls.
I have a theory that understanding your Humours (and potentially Chinese medicine) is a great insight into why you struggle with the sins you do and how to lessen their pull upon you.
These are the Four Humours:
🍃 Blood 🩸Blood gives life to the body. It is associated with the Sanguine Type, which is enthusiastic, active, and social. Blood is made in the bones and cleaned in the liver. They have a warm and damp disposition. Its element is Air.
🔥 Yellow bile 🫖 Yellow Bile is produced in the gallbladder and found in or adjacent to solid bodily excretions. It is associated with the Choleric type, which is ambitious, decisive, aggressive, and short-tempered. Their disposition is hot and dry. Its element is Fire.
🗻 Black bile ⚫ Black Bile is associated is made in the liver and spleen as the result of blood cleaning. Its associated type is the melancholic, who are sorrowful, doubtful, thoughtful, steady, and creative. Their disposition is cold and dry. Its element is Earth.
💧 Phlegm 👃 Phlegm is considered any white or colorless fluid produced by the body, such as pus, mucus, saliva, sweat, or semen. It is produced by mucus membranes. Phlegmatic types are reserved, conscientious, and nervous. Their dispositions are cold and damp. Its element is Water.
Men and women are predisposed to different Humoruous conditions and dispositions. Women are more likely to have the cold dispositions and men are more likely to have the hot dispositions. The four humours are predisposed to struggle with certain sins. Men tend to struggle with anger and arrogance, while women tend to deal with despair and sloth, for example. This is not to say there are no women who deal with anger or no men who deal with sloth, but there are humps on the bell curve. It is not helpful to exclude a disposition because you think, "I'm a woman, I cannot be Choleric," or "I don't struggle with sloth, therefore I cannot be Phlegmatic."
This is a system that varies between people, time, and current situation. Your disposition can change though your life, especially at puberty, menopause, and major life changes or trauma (the death of a spouse, the birth of a child, or a far move).
Sanguine Type: The Sanguine virtues are joy and love, bringing people into the life of the Church, and being a life-giving force to those they encounter. They can be great speakers and charismatic preachers. This is generally considered the best disposition to have! But the sins the Sanguine types can fall into are a result of their sociability. They can be flitty, flaky, manipulative, and gossipy. They can calm the heat within them by eating cooling foods-- See Chinese medicine, and surrounding themselves with cool-headed and stable influences, such as Phlegmatic Types. Choleric Types can bring out the best and worst in them.
Choleric Type: The Choleric Type virtues are ambition, decisiveness, quick thinking, wittiness, and confidence. These types make good preachers and theologians. The sins these types can fall into are obvious-- anger, aggression, and pride out the wazoo. These types also benefit from eating cooling foods, drinking lots of water, and taking cold showers or baths. They should be around cooling, stable influences, such as Melancholic types. Choleric types should be careful around Phlegmatics, as they are prone to be pushy, and can pressure a Phlegmatic into sin, or for their own purposes.
Melancholic Type: The Melancholic virtues are stability, steadiness, and thoughtfulness. They make great contemplative theologians and should even be considered highly for the Monastic life. However, they can fall into depression, despair, doubt, faithlessness, and laziness. Melancholic people should eat hydrating, hot foods, should take regular cardiovascular exercise, and hot showers or baths. They should hang around lively, hot-natured people, such as Sanguines or Cholerics.
Phlegmatic Type: The Phlegmatic type virtues are conscientiousness, kindness, and simplicity. They are good people. Their sins tend to be anxiety, people-pleasing, insecurity, and they can fall into habits of trying to please the world. They should take hot and dry foods, heat therapies, caffeine, and avoid baths. Try dry-brushing and avoid thick lotion or heavy oils. Phlegmatic types may want to avoid dairy or gluten. These types want to keep the company of confident people who lift them up, and steady individuals who will stand up for them. They get along well with Cholerics, but they must be careful that they don't let this type walk all over them or push them into something they're not comfortable with.
Things like Humourism and Chinese medicine are often looked upon with suspicion in many Christian circles. People think it's pagan, sorcery, augury, or some other such pharmakeia, but Humourism is no more pagan than mathematics. The Church Fathers supported its use, as did those Orthodox who came after them. Chinese medicine does, unfortunately, have some of the baggage of spiritualism (especially Gnosticism), but there are ways that some practitioners understand it where it is compatible with Orthodoxy. Just as some Hunourists thought your liver was hunted if you were Melancholic, there are some CTM practitioners who think something similar.
If you correct imbalanced Humours, you can correct the sinfulness that comes from them, and prayer, fasting, and almsgiving will become easier.
I find CTM useful because it offers simple solutions to change our underlying habits with dietary changes mostly. I should make more of a post about this later.
