Five phases

The Chinese ordering of wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

The five phases, wuxing, are in Chinese thought five ways in which energy, qi, moves and changes: wood, fire, earth, metal and water. In the West they are often called the five elements, but phases is more accurate. It is not about fixed substances, but about stages in a continuous cycle, like the seasons.

Each phase has its own connections. Wood belongs to spring, growth, the east, the liver and anger. Fire to summer, the heart, joy and light. Earth to the centre, the stomach and spleen, worry and nourishment. Metal to autumn, the lungs, grief and clarity. Water to winter, the kidneys, fear and depth.

The phases influence each other in two cycles. In the generating cycle wood feeds fire, fire makes ash into earth, earth brings forth metal, metal carries water, and water feeds wood again. In the controlling cycle wood restrains earth, earth water, water fire, fire metal and metal wood. Health and harmony mean that those cycles are in balance.

The five phases play a role in traditional Chinese medicine, feng shui, astrology, cooking and also in dream interpretation. A dream full of fire and heat can be read as an excess of fire, a dream full of water and cold as an excess of water. Old medical texts, such as the Huangdi Neijing, connect certain dream images with organs out of balance. That is an image from the tradition, not a diagnosis.

On Dreamkin the readings according to Zhou Gong use the five phases as one of the ways to look at a dream.