What Are The Five Elements?

The Five Elements are an integral part of Chinese culture and medicine.

The Five Elements are an ancient system of classification of the natural world that organizes all the planet's natural phenomena into five simple groups:

Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Wood.

Each group contains specific associated traits such as a season, a climate, a body tissue, a stage of growth and development, a taste, an emotion, a sound and an odor. (Yes I wrote odor. Every human has a subtle odor that pertains to the element that is out of balance.)

The Five Elements reflect a deep understanding of natural law which encompasses all living organisms and demonstrate how nature interacts with living organisms, how the organisms interact with nature and how the different internal systems of living organisms interoperate.

When applied to acupuncture diagnosis and treatment, the Five Element system allow us to determine where imbalances lie in the body, mind and/ or spirit and provides the framework to treat the imbalances.

Below are the Five Elements and their associated traits: