The Five Chinese Elements - Overview
13 April 2007This article is intended to indoctrinate you or at least tempt you with the magical world of ancient Chinese Five Element philosophy. This material comes to you paraphrased from a couple of sources: 1) the sketchy “8th” chapter of the original medical text - the Nei Jing and 2) the wild and awesome books of a British guy who started with that material and took it a little too far.
J.R. Worsley, who wrote the second sources referenced above, reopened the use of Chinese medicine for spiritual and emotional components of physical disease, which allowed for a truly holistic approach to medicine. The elements themselves are almost like code words for a broad classification of body parts, thought patterns, symptoms, feelings, and cycles we go through. The Disclaimer: The concepts and stereotypes found within are not to be used to prejudge anyone or their propensity for particular disorders of the body, mind, or choice.
There are 5 elements in this system: all things fall into one of the elements. More important to this concept is the movement from one element into another, but rarely will you find someone who has a true ability to explain the nuance of how they flow into one another. I certainly don’t have it, and I’ve seen perhaps one mysterious practitioner who appeared to, but they sure as hell weren’t giving up any trade secrets to me.
The 5 elements are: Fire, Earth, Metal, Water, Wood. This order is called the creative or generating cycle, think of it in a ring. So here we go - the natural essence of fire is to create ash, which is earth, earth moves and compresses and within forms metal ores, metal, in their stereotypical coolness condense water, and water naturally nourishes living things i.e. wood. There is also a controlling cycle, or consumptive cycle, it goes: wood controls earth (by sucking out its basic elements) earth controls water (think of dikes or the ocean giving way to the rising continents), water controls fire (kind of duh), fire controls metal (how do you manipulate metal? heat it up and bang on it), and metal controls wood (by chopping it down - take that wood!).
Here’s a very quick description of the essence of each element:
FIRE - fire is the expansive element, it grows out. It corresponds to the color red and heat and motion, and intangibility. it represents the part of your life when you’re dynamic and expanding your possibilities rather than paring them down. It’s closely tied to sex, and all things related to sex, except having kids, which is for later elements, but the sex part is fire.
EARTH - earth is the wholesome, nurturing provider. It ripens… you ripen.. the color is yellow and the property is dampness (don’t be confused yet.. just wait).. and it’s quite tangible.. somewhat more yielding than metal, but still… here’s where the babies come in. This is the pregnancy and child-rearing years.. this is having your entire raison d’etre be giving your children a roof over their head and food in their gullet.
METAL - metal is unyielding like I said. It’s contracting. It’s become time to prioritize what is really important because your options are being pared down by time. It’s associated with the color white, and it’s property is dryness. This is when you’re sad your kids are leaving home. perhaps.
WATER - water is the end of life and the beginning. The survival mode, keep it simple. having enough to survive is kind of a theme here. It’s withdrawn into the very seed of existence… starting to feel the esoteric bent of this philosophy here.. The color is black (no, not blue. think depths of the ocean). The property is coldness (again.. ocean = cold; muddy soil = damp)…
WOOD - wood is growing up, moving forward, very purposeful and direct. Think of an impetuous know-it-all ass, especially a teen-aged one. Too young to have any idea there’s a great deal of things they don’t know. Very comfortable assessing right vs. wrong. Color is green (or blue - i know.. the character in Chinese means both). The property is not coming to me at this moment. probably dispersing. how about that… I’ll just go with that for now.
This article is a broad introduction to these elements and concepts. As you may be able to see it will take quite a bit more explanation to make much use of them. In the coming weeks I’ll go through each element one at a time to give you more of the flavor and experience of it.
Ok… That’s enough of my precious time for now. I have more important things to do tonight, like unravel the intricacies of what makes my cats really want to sleep on the ironing board, and how it is that they know only one can sleep on it at a time, lest it fall over… without ever having caused it to fall over.
If you have questions or accolades, don’t hesitate to share them. critiques or factual corrections will not be tolerated.
Brett
