The Five Elements
The Five Elements shown
to the left amalgamated from Derek Walter's Feng Shui Handbook(47)
in a star shape surrounded by a circle. The two patterns are the Destructive
Order (star) and the Generative Order (circle). The ancient Chinese believed
all things were constructed of these five elements. A proper balance must
be achieved to be in harmony with nature. An imbalance too far in one or
the other may destroy your health or fortunes. Every person's needs are
different depending on what their birth year, month, day and time of day
are. Unlike Western astrology, the Chinese astrological signs are taken
down to the utmost and minute detail. Every two hour period in a day has
an animal sign assigned to it as well. If you are guessing it gets even
more precise, you'd be right, we can get to the minute and second. Each
of which has a lesser and lesser degree of influence on the needs of the
individual, but they still do have some bearing.
The five Chinese elements are central to Feng Shuiadjustments.
The occurrence of the five elements determine the balance of yin and yang
and control the flow of Ch'i. This is the point where Feng Shui
takes off into the realm of the amazingly complex. You see there must be
careful examinations of all the surrounding terrain, the buildings in view
of the site, their position relative to the site in question, the colors
and materials used in construction and of the furnishings contained within.
All of this must be carefully weighed and balanced according to the aggregate
elemental composition.
There are two orders by which the five elements must be
known if they are to be of any use to a fledgling practitioner. The first
is the "generative" order. There is a simple way to remember the
order that I have found in Derek Walter's Feng Shui
Handbook :
| Wood |
burns, creating |
| Fire |
which leaves ash, or |
| Earth |
from which is obtained |
| Metal |
which can be melted to flow like |
| Water |
which is needed to sustain growing |
| Wood |
burns, so on... |
(45)
Knowing this, we can trace the order of elements that help
each other: Wood helps Fire, Fire helps Earth, Earth
helps Metal, Metal helps Water, and Water helps Wood. Elements that complement
each other in helping ways reinforce that element's power in the site being
considered. If there is an over abundance of Wood, say a grove, next to
a stream (representing Water) then it can be said that the site has an over
abundance of Wood. This would call for a balancing
element from the second order.
Here is the Destructive Order:
The second order from Walters is the "destructive"
order:
| Wood |
draws the goodness from |
| Earth |
pollutes |
| Water |
quenches |
| Fire |
melts |
| Metal |
chops down |
| Wood |
and so on... |
(47)
So in the example above, the Wood saturated area would
need to find, or have built, something that represented Wood's destructor.
In this case, Metal chops down Wood. We need to find the element of Metal
in the existing milieu. If none exists we need to create
some.
Next
Wood Fire Earth
Metal Water
Walters, Derek. Feng Shui Handbook.
© 1998 Andrew William Broer ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
