The Mediator: A Spleen Meridian Archetype

Meridian Archetypes Part 3: The Mediator

The Spleen meridian helps us find connection in what might otherwise feel separate. It is grounding energy, helping us process what we take in, make sense of our experiences, and understand how the different pieces fit together.

At Infinity, we represent the Spleen with the Mediator archetype. The Mediator has an ability to hold multiple perspectives at once. Rather than immediately choosing one side or the other, they look for the common thread and the place where seemingly opposing ideas can meet.

To find the Mediator within yourself, look at your relationship with connection, empathy, and understanding.

Can you see a situation from more than one perspective?

Do you naturally look for connections between ideas, people, or experiences?

When things feel chaotic or disconnected, can you find the common thread?

When Spleen energy is out of balance, that desire for connection can become over-involvement. We may take on other people’s problems, struggle to separate our needs from theirs, or become so concerned with keeping everything together that we lose our own center.

The physical cues of a spleen imbalance include rounded shoulders compensating for a locked pelvis, postural issues from tightness in the legs, and quad injuries. Quad injuries, specifically, show up as an overused muscle- sore, exhausted, overworked- because your medial hamstrings are “offline.”

By strengthening and stretching the spleen meridian, you gain access to the part of yourself that empathizes, communicates clearly, and grasps the whole picture. You also may learn a few tricks to free up a locked pelvis, create space in your hamstrings and quads, and correct rounded shoulder posture. To understand the spleen meridian’s place in our series, we will examine its western medicine functions, archetypes, common imbalances, and exercises to help restore the healthy flow of our meridian.

The Spleen In Western Medicine

The spleen and the pancreas are joined together in our system. In western medicine, their functions are individual and each serves a specific purpose in the body. However, both systems work in tandem with the lymphatic system, circulatory system, stomach, and small intestine. While physically they may seem small, together the spleen and pancreas traverse the whole body. 

The lymphatic system traverses the entire body parallel to the circulatory system. Lymph system fluid carries all sorts of substances and is one of the body’s disposal systems. The spleen works with the lymphatic system to dispose of used red blood cells and other foreign bodies from the bloodstream. The spleen stores blood and, in so doing, filters and removes bacteria and other foreign substances from it. It does this using certain white blood cells called lymphocytes and phagocytes.

The pancreas supports the digestion of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, and nucleic acid through the production of enzymes. It works in tandem with the stomach and small intestine by creating a fluid that transports partially digested food from the stomach easily through the small intestine. The pancreas also plays a crucial role in regulating blood sugar through the production of two hormones: glucagon and insulin.

Separate, the pancreas and spleen perform essential regulatory roles; but together, the spleen meridian holds great power, one that we all need to tap into at one point or another.

The Mediator Archetype: Find The Middle Ground

Associated Archetypes: Mediator, peacemaker, angel, martyr, magical child, ambassador, diplomat

The Mediator looks for the thread connecting one thing to another. This makes Spleen energy particularly useful when we encounter complexity. Instead of reducing something to one side or another, the Mediator can hold multiple pieces of information and look for the relationship between them.

This fits naturally with the Spleen’s role in Traditional Chinese Medicine. The Spleen belongs to the Earth element, which is associated with nourishment, stability, and our ability to transform what we take in into something we can use. Just as the body must process food, we also have to process information, experiences, and the world around us.

The Mediator represents this ability to take many different pieces and create something coherent from them. Sometimes that means finding common ground between people. Other times it means making connections between ideas, recognizing patterns, or simply finding your center when everything around you feels scattered.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the spleen meridian plays a crucial role in the digestive process. It transforms food into food energy or Gu Qi. This food energy is turned into usable energy and blood, which is then transported throughout the body. Because the spleen meridian controls our energy, it stands to reason that it also has control over the strength and function of our muscles, flesh, and limbs. The spleen “lifts and holds” internal organs, promoting connectedness in the body and keeping them from prolapsing.

The spleen is also home to the “Yi,” which in Traditional Chinese Medicine relates to thinking, studying, memorization, and concentration. A strong “Yi” supports mental focus, intention, determination, and drive. Ironically, sitting for a long period of time can shorten the hamstrings, leading to weakness in the spleen meridian muscles. For those of you who are in school or work long hours at a desk, the spleen meridian is a good place to look for weakness. Not only because sitting for long periods could affect your muscles, but because a weak spleen meridian could mean issues with focus and concentration.

We all rely on Spleen energy when we need to feel grounded, process what we are taking in, or make sense of something complicated. Infinity’s exercises offer one way to physically explore this meridian and reconnect with the Mediator archetype when you feel scattered, disconnected, overly involved in other people’s problems, or stuck in your own thoughts.

Exercises for the Spleen

Beginner

Happy Baby

Intermediate

Wide-Legged Forward Fold – Seated or Standing

Chair pose

Advanced

Forward Fold with bind through legs (sitting or standing)

Golf & The Saw: A Spleen Case Study

The Spleen Meridian is housed in your medial hamstrings. To find the medial hamstrings on your body, think about the muscles that would activate during a wide-legged seated forward fold. If you have a locked pelvis, the spleen will be of particular importance for you. A locked pelvis means that movement in the legs sorely affects the movement in the spine and is especially prominent in shoulders that compensate by rounding forward.

For our spleen meridian case study, we will examine a real-world scenario of how Infinity used the spleen meridian to improve a client’s golf swing.

Andrew owns his own business and, in his spare time, loves whipping golf balls across wide expanses of well-manicured grass. Unfortunately, due to routine imbalances of the muscles in his lower back, Andrew was not able to golf comfortably.

After seeking the help of a chiropractor, Andrew was referred to Janet Matthies of Infinity Flexibility. After several sessions, Janet observed recurring tightness in the muscles associated with the spleen meridian. She gave him a common Pilates exercise to try called the Saw. This exercise serves to unlock the pelvis from the lower back and opens up the medial hamstring muscles.

After seeing Janet and a golf swing physical therapist, Andrew felt good about his progress and returned to his old routine. A few months later, his back began to seize up again. He thought back to his recovery and, before his next gold game, he did the Saw exercise with almost immediate relief. That day he played the best golf game he had played in a long time. 

Self-recovery is something that everyone strives for but it can be challenging to achieve without a deeper connection to the meridians. Physical ailments are not always straightforward. Sometimes they are as simple as repetitive strain to a certain muscle group, like in Andrew’s case. But other times, our emotional and mental health needs deeper analysis and a more thorough understanding of how these issues translate to the physical. This is where the real value of understanding the meridians lies. Traditional Chinese Medicine and the art of combining our mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical bodies, allow us to heal a wider scope of illness and injuries.

Looking Forward…

Practice Infinity’s exercises to create balance in your earth elements and master the transitions in your life. The stomach is the second earth element and the spleen’s balancing meridian. Our next article will explore how to combat quad injuries, exhaustion, and addiction.