(6) Five Elements of Nature (2)

By Janet Shin

As we learned before, in Saju wood represents spring, fire represents summer, metal stands for autumn and water for winter, while earth represents the balancing season or the transitional time. If the season starts from spring to summer, summer to autumn and autumn to winter, then wood changes to fire, fire to earth, earth to metal and metal to water.

Looking at the movements of the five elements, there are mutual generations (nourishment) and restrictions.

Mutual generation (nourishment) means that one element nourishes the other element. Mutual restriction (restraint) means one element restricts the other.

Here, I further explain how the five elements react to and influence each other.

Mutual nourishment (generation or inter-promotion):

Wood->Fire->Earth->Metal->Water

Wood makes fire by burning (wood generates fire)

Fire makes the ashes from the wood nourish the earth (fire nourishes earth)

Earth contains metal and makes metal hard (earth generates metal)

Metal purifies the water (metal generates water; water comes from rocks)

Water allows the wood to grow (water nourishes wood)

Mutual restraint (restriction):

Wood->Earth->Water->Fire->Metal->Wood

Wood absorbs the earth's energy (wood restrains earth)

Earth blocks the water (earth restrains water)

Water extinguishes the fire (water restrains fire)

Fire melts the metal (fire restrains metal)

Metal axe chops the wood (metal restrains wood)

Both the generation and restriction processes are natural relationships. It is a natural phenomenon that the wood is nourished by the water for the flowers to bloom. It is also natural that metal is refined by fire and transformed into jewelry.

So in our lives and nature's lives, we need both generation and restriction to balance and change what we have learned from the yin and yang forces.

However there are other relationships among the five elements that we should know about to understand the further mechanisms, which are abnormal and cause important incidents in people's fate.

These are over generations, reverse restrictions and subjugations.

Based on this knowledge, let's review the saju of a woman who was born on Jan. 1, 1960 at 11pm.

She was born with yang earth energy. However, looking at the terrestrial branch pillars, all of them are water energy. Although earth can form a bank to block the water flow, there is still too much water that may cause the soil to drift away.

Her life has been like drifting soil. She was never able to settle down. She tried to make money, but in vain. She might have studied when she was young with the help of fire (byeong), but her attempts to achieve her dream were futile.

By now, if you have read my articles so far, you will be curious what stems indicate the five elements and which indicate yin yang respectively. You will learn these from next week's article. Stay tuned.

The writer is the president of the Heavenly Garden, a saju research center in Korea. She is the author of the book titled ``Learning Four Pillars." She is an acupuncture and moxibustion therapist. For more information, visit her Web site (https://blog.naver.com/janet_shin) or email to janetshin@hotmail.com.