In the West, we consider the Elements to be related to the cardinal points: North, South, East and West. The Chinese 5 Elements, however, take all directions into account as well as the heavens, the earth and the centre.
In the West, the Elements are Earth, Fire, Wood and Water, associated with the four directions and the substances that a nature based people saw all around them - trees and plants, dirt and soil, fire and warmth, together with the water that gives life. The spiritual structure built around this system is complex in, for example, the Native American tradition. It flows from a fundamental recognition that nature and the environment are powerful, complex and, for a people to survive, they need to be living in harmony with these elements, rather than attempting to force their will upon them.
By contrast, the Chinese 5 Element system recognises that natural and environmental flow can be manipulated. The practices that grew out of the Chinese 5 Elements healing therapies, such as Acupuncture, Shiatsu, Traditional Chinese Medicine; the defensive and offensive martial arts; environmental Feng Shui in all its forms; Tai Chi and all forms of healing, harmonisation and balance - require an understanding of the cycles of flow, change and growth through the 5 Elements.
The Chinese Five Elements have been used for millennia to keep people healthy, living in harmony with the environment, supporting relationships, wealth creation and to help people find positive ways to live, prosper, enjoy life and generally be happy and healthy. And this system has had great influence across the world.
For example, did you know that massage, homeopathy and acupuncture grew from the same roots, spreading all along the Silk Roads – those trade routes used by the Chinese to trade across Asia and Europe?
Did you know that in China, Chinese Medicine is used right alongside Western Medicine for treating patients in mainstream medicine there?Thus, while the Western elements remain more of an alternative lifestyle practice, the Chinese 5 Element system can be seen to have relevance in the mainstream, both in the East and in the West..