5 Elementos Feng Shui

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FengShui philosophy states that chi (energy) lives in all things. It's the life force of nature. This energy is comprised of two opposite forces yin (female) and yang (male). The balance of these two energies is the ultimate perfection of bringing earth (yin) and heaven (yang) together in harmony.

Chi energy is pure when it first enters the earth but quickly goes through various transformations when it manifests into the physical. This manifestation creates five expressions of the chi energy that you know as feng shui elements. These five elements must interact in order to recreate the perfection of chi energy in the physical.

The fire element is considered the most powerful of all the elements and represents energy, passion, expansion, and transformation. When using the fire element in your home, it can be represented by a candle, or by color, such as a red lampshade.

The element of wood helps to develop creative energies such as inspiration, motivation, and passion. It represents personal growth and renewal and purifies and redirects chi. Wood can be represented by plants, trees, or by green objects, for example green pillows.

The water element of feng shui is directly related to the flow of money and career. Flowing water helps you release things you no longer need. Still water helps the surrounding energies to be calm and offers the feeling of a new beginning and renewed strength. The water element can be represented by a water feature, aquarium, or pond. Crystals, wavy statues, or artwork and paintings of water scenes are other ways the element of water may be represented.

The element of metal draws and unifies all elements. They act as transmitters, conducting the various energies to different areas. Metal stimulates mental strength and intellectual abilities, making it easier to focus and think clearly.

Representing permanence, stability and home, the earth element is solid, giving a sense of security and grounding support. It strengthens the feelings of safety and adds a sense of comfort from within. Rock features, thick carpet, antique pottery, and old books help to bring the earth element indoors.

In feng shui, the chi cycle is the perfect manifestation and movement of chi energy through the earth plane. Everything in life recreates this same cycle in order to maintain balance. Through the application of feng shui principles for chi energy, you can bring balance to your home and your life.

The creative cycle is the first energy cycle created by chi. When chi falls to the earth, it creates water that becomes the creator of all life. Without chi transforming into water, there would be no life. The creative cycle continues through the rest of the elements in order of creation.

You can use this cycle if you have an element that is too strong in a certain sector of your space so you need to control it. For example, if you have extreme fire energy in a sector, you can add water to weaken the fire.

The third cycle of chi is a weakening one. This occurs when the chi energy can no longer nourish the elements. A weak chi cannot support the natural cycle and therefore all of the elements also weaken. In this cycle, the energy cycle operates in reverse.

Now that you have a better understanding of the five elements and the roles each places in balancing the chi energy, you can begin working to balance the chi in your home. Remember that the key to successful feng shui is achieving yin and yang balance. Unless there is a natural element like an outside land formation or a missing corner in your home, you should be able to achieve balance by using the less is more theory.

Compass directions and elements have matched energies that will help you when you begin balancing the energies in your home. Although compass school of feng shui requires greater math calculations to determine the kind of energies residing in your home, you can use basic feng shui principles and applications to help lessen any negative effects.

You don't need to take a minimalist approach to your interior design, but when adding feng shui elements, it's always best to do so in moderation. Depending on the school of feng shui you practice, you can place elements into your rooms to strengthen a weakened energy. This will take some practice, and you may have a few false starts, but if you are persistent, you'll learn and soon find the correct remedies or cures found in element principles.

Wuxing (Chinese: 五行; pinyin: wǔxng),[a] usually translated as Five Phases or Five Agents,[2] is a fivefold conceptual scheme used in many traditional Chinese fields of study to explain a wide array of phenomena, including cosmic cycles, the interactions between internal organs, the succession of political regimes, and the properties of herbal medicines.

The agents are Fire, Water, Wood, Metal, and Earth.[b] The wuxing system has been in use since it was formulated in the second or first century BCE during the Han dynasty. It appears in many seemingly disparate fields of early Chinese thought, including music, feng shui, alchemy, astrology, martial arts, military strategy, I Ching divination, and traditional medicine, serving as a metaphysics based on cosmic analogy.

Wuxing originally referred to the five major planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Mercury, Mars, Venus), which were with the combination of the Sun and the Moon, conceived as creating five forces of earthly life. This is why the word is composed of Chinese characters meaning "five" (五; wǔ) and "moving" (行; xng). "Moving" is shorthand for "planets", since the word for planets in Chinese literally translates as "moving stars" (行星; xngxīng).[6] Some of the Mawangdui Silk Texts (before 168 BC) also connect the wuxing to the wude (五德; wǔd), the Five Virtues and Five Emotions.[7][8] Scholars believe that various predecessors to the concept of wuxing were merged into one system with many interpretations during the Han dynasty.[9]

Wuxing was first translated into English as "the Five Elements", drawing deliberate parallels with the Greek arrangement of the four elements.[10][8] This translation is still in common use among practitioners of Traditional Chinese medicine, such as in the name of Five Element acupuncture.[11] However, this analogy is misleading. The four elements are concerned with form, substance and quantity, whereas wuxing are "primarily concerned with process, change, and quality".[12] For example, the wuxing element "Wood" is more accurately thought of as the "vital essence" of trees rather than the physical substance wood.[13] This led sinologist Nathan Sivin to propose the alternative translation "five phases" in 1987.[14] But "phase" also fails to capture the full meaning of wuxing. In some contexts, the wuxing are indeed associated with physical substances.[15] Historian of Chinese medicine Manfred Porkert proposed the (somewhat unwieldy) term "Evolutive Phase".[15] Perhaps the most widely accepted translation among modern scholars is "the five agents", proposed by Marc Kalinowski.[16]

In traditional doctrine, the five phases are connected in two cycles of interactions: a generating or creation (生 shēng) cycle, also known as "mother-son"; and an overcoming or destructive (克 k) cycle, also known as "grandfather-grandson" (see diagram). Each of the two cycles can be analyzed going forward or reversed. There is also an "overacting" or excessive version of the destructive cycle.[citation needed]

The art of feng shui (Chinese geomancy) is based on wuxing, with the structure of the cosmos mirroring the five phases, as well as the eight trigrams. Each phase has a complex network of associations with different aspects of nature (see table): colors, seasons and shapes all interact according to the cycles.[17]

An interaction or energy flow can be expansive, destructive, or exhaustive, depending on the cycle to which it belongs. By understanding these energy flows, a feng shui practitioner attempts to rearrange energy to benefit the client.

In order to explain the integrity and complexity of the human body, Chinese medical scientists and physicians use the Five Elements theory to classify the human body's endogenous influences on organs, physiological activities, pathological reactions, and environmental or exogenous (external, environmental) influences. This diagnostic capacity is extensively used in traditional five phase acupuncture today, as opposed to the modern Confucian styled eight principles based Traditional Chinese medicine. Furthermore, in combination the two systems are a formative and functional study of postnatal and prenatal influencing on genetics, psychology, sociology and ecology.[21][22][23]

Tai chi uses the five elements to designate different directions, positions or footwork patterns: forward, backward, left, right and centre, or three steps forward (attack) and two steps back (retreat).[18]

Wuxing heqidao, Gogyo Aikido (五行合气道) is a life art with roots in Confucian, Taoists and Buddhist theory. It centers around applied peace and health studies rather than defence or physical action. It emphasizes the unification of mind, body and environment using the physiological theory of yin, yang and five-element Traditional Chinese medicine. Its movements, exercises, and teachings cultivate, direct, and harmonise the qi.[18]

The Japanese term is gogyo (Japanese:五行, romanized: gogyō). During the 5th and 6th centuries (Kofun period),[27] Japan adopted various philosophical disciplines such as Taoism, Chinese Buddhism and Confucianism through monks and physicians from China. As opposed to theory of Godai that is form based and was introduced to Japan through India and Tibetan Buddhism[28] evolving the Onmyōdō system. In particular, wuxing was adapted into gogyo. These theories have been extensively practiced in Japanese acupuncture and traditional Kampo medicine.[29][30]

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