The 5 Elements
What does Acupuncture have to do with the elements?
As in nature, we embody the energetics and characteristics that we experience all around us in the world. The 5 elements are water, wood, fire, earth and metal. We experience these elements in many different ways and forms. Each element has many different personalities. We can appreciate water in a placid, clear reflective pond as well as a turbulent, violent and stormy sea, a tree as a stoic, unmoving oak as well as a strong yet flexible bamboo, fire as a gently warming, flickering candle as well as a raging fire burning out of control, earth as fertile soil as well as a barren desert, and metal as a beautiful gemstone to the minerals that feed the soil. We can appreciate these qualities also, in the energetics of those around us.
The Chinese recognized these characteristics among the people and began to see the patterns manifesting within as strengths and weakness. They discovered that although, we have expressions of all 5 elements within us, each person tends toward one elemental personality or another and within that personality towards a more yin or a more yang expression of that. They used this information as a map to determine the root of each person’s imbalance and virtue. They began to realize that the root of each imbalance led a person to their particular health problems and began to treat disease from that perspective. In the 5 element tradition, each of us tends toward one element and each element is associated with a virtue. We begin to see these trends and treat accordingly.
Diagnosis from a 5 element perspective is based on a person’s color, sound, odor and emotion. A trained Practitioner is able to determine the subtleties and begin a treatment plan from that place. It is believed that treating the root of the imbalance will alleviate current symptoms as well as the prevention of new symptoms or disease.