Traditional Chinese Medicine & the 5 Elements
Chinese Metaphysics – Feng Shui is based on the Solar calendar and the 5 elements of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Each year and month beings about certain elements that are made up of an interaction of Yin or Yang of 1 or 2 of the 5 elements.
In Chinese metaphysics everything is related to the 5 elements, from seasons, months, years, shapes, environment, personalities, colours, objects, body organs, body parts, emotions, food, and health.
Every year brings about a combination of either 1 or 2 elements, for example, 2015 Yin Wood Earth Goat year, 2016 Yang Fire Meatal Monkey year, 2017 Yin Fire Metal Rooster and 2018 Yang Earth Earth Dog year.
Every month also brings about an interaction of 1 or 2 of the 5 elements as well. These years and months also bring on certain health aspects. Depending on our elemental constitution in our Chinese Astrology chart also known as Bazi or Four Pillars of Destiny, which is derived from our birth date (year, month, day and hour) and is made up 8 characters which are divided into 4 pillars with each pillar consisting of 2 elemental characters (Heavenly Stems & Earthly Branches), we can determine if we have too much of a certain element, or not enough of another or a balanced of all.
Traditional Chinese Medicine and acupuncture is also based on the 5 elements. A qualified practitioner in this field will also be able to determine your constitution once a consultation has been conducted.
As health has a huge impact in our daily lives, I am getting together with my TCM and Acupuncturist Carrie Li from Healing Pond Acupuncture & Chinese Medicine Centre to bring about information on the health aspect of each month in the year. This will be posted in my monthly elemental forecasts at the beginning of each solar month.
A little about Carrie Li;
Carrie comes from a family practicing traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) for over a century. Her great grandfather and grandfather were well respected doctors in Guangdong province, China since late 19th century. Her father is also a professor of paediatrics in Chinese medicine in Guangzhou University of TCM.
Carrie is specialized in paediatric, gynaecological, digestive, and respiratory diseases. She has been practicing Chinese Medicine since 1998 and was award a Bachelor’s Degree (1998), Master Degree (2004) and PhD (2009) for her excellent research in asthma management in Children. In 2007, Carrie migrated to Melbourne to start her practice together with lecturing in Southern School of Natural Therapy and Endeavor College of Natural Therapy in Melbourne, Australia.
Carrie is very passionate about her work with patients. She always tries to understand and manage a variety of health problems with a holistic approach. The responses of patents to her treatments are surprisingly positive.
Chinese medicine came from ancient philosophy. The fundamental belief of TCM is that everything in the world could be categorized into 5 elements: metal, wood, water, earth, fire: therefore the 5 elements interact with each other.
As part of nature, the human body can interact in the same way. The body can change according to the environment (season, weather, location etc.); the different organs which are categorized into 5 elements, interact with each other, and keep the yin & yang balance. If this balance is broken, diseases would occur. Based on the patient’s unique constitution, considering his/her surrounding environment, a tailored treatment plan based on the 5 elements of TCM can be recommended to bring the body into a harmonious state.
Now a little about the cycles of the elements. There are 3 cycles;
- Producing Cycle– where one element produces another e.g.; wood produces fire, fire produces earth, earth produces metal & metal produces water etc.
- Weakening Cycle – fire weakens wood, wood weakens water, water weakens metal, metal weakens earth, & earth weakens fire, etc
- Controlling/ Destructive Cycle– Fire controls metal, Earth controls water, Water controls fire, Metal controls wood, & wood controls earth.
Each of the 5 elements are related to a Yin and Yang body part & organ. Below is a simple example of the 3 cycles, the seasons of the elements, body parts & organs.
As we are at the beginning of May 2018 which is a strong fire month in the solar calendar ( see post www.design2fengshui.com.au/may) and approaching mid -autumn, in the Southern Hemisphere, the organs that can be affected are the lungs and kidney. This is because in the cycle of the elements fire controls the metal (lungs) and weakens the kidney (water) as the fire in the month strengthens the earth element of the year (Producing Cycle), which in turn controls the water element (kidneys). The energy becomes dry; therefore, you will notice a lot of people suffering flu/cold and coughing (lungs) in this season, it is better to eat more nourishing food, like steam pears and soup to build up fluids in the body.
It is also important to look after the earth element which is your digestive system by weakening it as there is too much fire in the month. The fire can damage the large intestine yin which could cause constipation. Or the fire could combine with the dampness pathogen and cause diarrhea. If that’s the cases, we should either nourish the large intestine fluid to control the fire or clear the damp-heat from the earth.
Also the kidney which relates to the water element in our body can be weakened by the strong fire this month. The Kidneys is in charge of the ‘water’ issues together with the reproductive system. Also it looks after the lower back. If kidney energy is weakened, people can develop water retention, urination & reproductive system problems, together with lower back pain.
This is just a health guide based on the effects of the month of May 2018 -Yin Fire Snake.
For more information related to your own health constitution, please contact Carrie Li directly through her website www.healingpond.com.au
