The theory of five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, water) extends across many cultures around the world from the Greeks to the Hindus, during different eras in time. In Chinese medicine, the five elements indicate and determine cycles of cause and effect within the body. All facets of Chinese medicine rest on an understanding that the body is a tiny world within the universe as a whole.
Everything from human moods to internal body conditions mirror outside factors, such as seasons and weather. The universe works actively on humans and humans work actively on the universe. The theory of five elements organizes these interrelationships by virtue of the evolution and changes visible in five aspects of nature. Wood, fire, earth, metal, and water categorize and define human health on every level.
What do the five elements symbolize?
Through centuries of studied observation, Chinese thinkers recognized permanent patterns and connections in nature. These connections extend to habits and motifs in the human body. Let’s examine how the five elements specifically correlate to human health.
Wood
Having the ability to take a bendable or a rigid form, wood relates to growth, outflow, shedding, and strengthening. For this reason, wood associates openly with spring. In weather wood reflects wind and easterly directions. Wood also symbolically links with sour flavors, the color green-blue, and the birth stage of human development. With reference to human health, wood pairs with the sinews, eyes, gallbladder, and liver. For the workings of the mind, wood connotes the emotion of anger.
Fire
As flames bend ever upward, so fire represents ascending motion in the theory of five elements. Unsurprisingly, the element of fire bears a connection to summer and heat. Anything relative to a southward direction, the color red, and bitter flavors belong to fire. In the human growth cycle, fire stands in for maturity. Fire holds office over the tongue, the blood vessels, the heart, and the small intestine in the human body. The emotion of joy exhibits fire’s elemental essence.
Earth
As the element most closely aligned with human effort, earth serves as a token of sowing and reaping. The planting and harvesting of crops, the expectation of new life, and all kinds of bringing forth reside in the element of earth. Earth typifies the long season of summer, dampness, and all things centered in direction. The color yellow, sweet tastes, and the necessary stage of withdrawal in human life all correspond to earth. The flesh, spleen, stomach, and mouth pertain to earth. Earth also applies to the processes of human thought and reflection.
Metal
Malleable metal pertains to change in human life. All aspects of purification, conversion, and expulsion connect to the element of metal. The season of autumn, famous for transformation, belongs to metal. Metal pairs with dryness, dormancy, and westerly directions. The color white, acrid flavors, and the emotion of sorrow blend with metal. In human health, metal unites with body hair, the lungs, the nose, and the large intestine.
Water
The theory of five elements recognizes water as the substance of descent. Like moisture from rain, water coordinates with downward movement. Coldness and the color black ally with water, as does any northern influence. The element of water concerns salty flavors, like the seawater from which most life on our planet springs. The ears, bladder, bones, and kidneys in the human body all have to do with water. The common human emotion of fear also interrelates with this element.
The theory of five elements affects health
Understanding how the theory of five elements impacts your physiology guides you toward healthy choices. Your acupuncturist or medical practitioner utilizes elemental theory in everything from diagnosis to pharmacology. All of the phenomena, organs, and systems listed above exist as a unified whole, but the roles they play remain ever-changing.
As with everything in life, nothing about this whole stays the same all the time. The theory of five elements tracks the interaction and dynamic qualities of the elements. When natural cycles become disrupted, or one element begins to dominate for any reason, health problems follow.
The best way to maintain bodily harmony
Keeping the elements in harmony within your body demands an ongoing system of vigilant checks and balances. Personally monitoring elemental interaction greatly impacts overall health. So, both inside and outside the clinical setting, you can take positive steps. The theory of five elements represents one tool acupuncturists and practitioners of Chinese medicine use to pinpoint symptoms of illness.
Once an imbalanced element is identified, acupuncture re-charts the course of that element in the body. Eating seasonally, staying mindful of exercise, and paying attention to temperature and mood changes also aid the process. A greater sense of mental and physical well being arises from seeing which element is deficient or overbearing. Ultimately, a simple awareness of how the five elements work on and in the body leads to powerful health improvements.
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Chinese Medicine and the Five Elements
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