Five Elements

The theory of the five elements reads that the material universe can be classified in five categories represented by water, wood, fire, earth and metal. These elements in Feng Shui are not material bodies as such but a representative name of the nature of those energies, movements or their tendency. They have to do with the essences that are linked to colors, seasons, cardinal points, energies, forms, emotions, and the planets, creating a system of tension and balance, rather than with physical entities.

According to some ancient texts, this theory dates back to the 350 and 270 B.C., while others trace their concepts back to more remote times, where the five elements are present, though in a more elemental way, in Chinese fortune-telling systems.

The wise from that country, after learning by means of observation that everything that exists could be classified in five yin-yang relations from which five differentiated models of energy emerged –an abstraction meaning the existence of five different types of energy, movements or yin-yang relations–, they associated them, to make it easier to understand, to five types of materials that accurately exemplified the categories of those differentiated models. Those five relations of yin and yang were expressed in the law of the five elements, according to which, beyond yin and yang, the Universe is divided into five categories that stimulate and inhibit one another.

These five elements have an effect on each other, creating, modifying and destroying each other in a fixed sequence. Besides, the rest of the elements are expressed or exist within each of them in a smaller amount, therefore, a category is defined by the predominating character which doesn’t exclude the nature of the remaining elements. The relations of the five elements are expressed in cycles, of which the two main ones are the so-called constructive or generative cycle, and the destructive or control cycle, although out of the interrelation of the two, more than thirty others could be distinguished.

Understanding the two principal cycles is enough to appreciate the philosophy of the five elements and especially to introduce or put into practice the Feng Shui in our daily lives. There are also charts that combine the five elements based on their function and interaction, for instance: that generates or strengthens (mother); the generated or weakened (son); that controls or destroys (grandfather), and the controlled (grandson), seeing this names not in its straight meaning but in the figurative sense.

The five elements establish a beneficial balance and are present in Feng Shui to analyze and achieve a more harmonic environment and relation between the latter and each resident. They are also present in the maintenance of favorable environments following the cycle of the five elements, when one of them lacks energy, has enough or needs to be strengthened by introducing the missing one. The basic harmonization is carried out taking into account if the imbalance is caused by insufficient or excessive energy.

Likewise, the five elements in the environment are identified by classifying all the objects based on the five basic elements that are related to each other through a wide range of combined and interrelated factors, colors and forms. Every object in a room is made up of one or more of these elements. The right harmony is achieved when the five elements are present in some way in the spaces we inhabit or where we work, otherwise, the place will be uncomfortable, disturbing and unbalanced.