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Acupuncture Edina and the Five Elements

The whole idea about acupuncture Edina  is quite easy to understand since there are not a lot of factors to be understood.  Acupuncture has essentially two basic factors that make it work:  the five elements and yin and yang.

The five elements are composed of metal, earth, fire, wood and water.  The five elements are utilized in classifying parts of our body, animals, the seasons and just about anything else.  They can likewise signify the parts or stages of transformation.  Metal signifies contraction, earth maturity or ripeness, fire signifies full development, wood means growth and water signifies stillness and adaptation.  These five elements can also act as some sort of a classification system. Traditional Chinese medicine categorizes different areas in accordance to these five elements.  Some examples of this include the lungs that are associated to the element of metal, the earth element to the stomach, the heart to fire, the wood element to the liver and the kidneys associated to the water element.   They also work cyclically.

The way the five elements are used in two ways, one used as a phase or stage and the other to categorize things.  They both are utilized alongside each other.  Chi or energy flows to all parts of the human body and since like blood chi travels throughout the body in a circulatory manner, the body follows a certain energy cycle as well.  The energy of kidney manifested for example as libido makes us grasp opportunity or initiative which is energy associated with wood.  This leads to activity associated with fire energy and can result in learning and reflection (earth energy).  The stage then ends with experience which is connected to metal energy. This is in essence shows the cycle of growth and nourishment.

One can also find another cycle where the same five elements are synchronistically set up.  This includes the cycle of control. The cycle of control are sorted in the following way:  water, fire, metal, wood and earth.  This cycle can show that water can control fire, fire on the other hand can saw off wood, wood contains earth and earth bears water.  Stillness which is water energy regulates our activity and prevents it from turning manic which is fire energy.  The activity itself is fire energy which prevents firmness from turning too hard (metal energy).  Our hardness which is metal energy prevents us from being overcome by too many initiatives (wood energy).  The initiating element on the other hand prevents us from stagnating in too much reflection which is earth energy.  However, reflection can properly guide and monitor our libido which again is water energy.

The above explanation is merely a small glimpse into the broad aspect of the philosophy of acupuncture. The elements contain a huge volume of material about the elements and their applications to virtually all spheres of life.