When it comes to bringing balance and harmony into your life it’s important to know how to use each of Feng Shui’s Five Elements to affect the others.
In my post about the Creative Cycle, I reviewed how each element feeds into, or creates, the next element in the cycle. (We’ve also looked at Draining relationships between the elements.)
Here we look at how each element Controls another element.
(Download a pdf of this diagram here.)
- Wood controls Earth — by breaking it up as roots take hold and break through the surface.
- Earth controls Water — by damming it, keeping it between its banks, and muddying it.
- Water controls Fire — need I say more?
- Fire controls Metal — by melting it.
- Metal controls Wood — by cutting it with its sharp edges.
Perhaps you live or work in a space that’s “very Metal,” for instance: white walls, metal furnishings, spherical shapes.
This environment can be brought into balance by adding the warmth of Fire: reds and/or animal prints, warm lighting and pointed shapes.
Or maybe your environment is too Wood-y: shades of green, lots of plants, wooden furniture, vertical columns or artwork. Cut back the forest by bringing in the Metal element.
When you look around your space, does it seem as if the Five Elements are in balance? How do you think you might “control” them?
