In this post, we go over the five elements of feng shui and take a closer look at the importance of the Earth element (especially in the context of relationships).
What is Feng Shui?
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese philosophy, meaning “wind and water,” with a history spanning over 4,000 years. It addresses six life aspects: health, wealth, love, family, career, and well-being, through self-awareness and environmental changes.
Feng Shui is not a strict set of rules but a personalized, long-term practice adaptable to one’s lifestyle and goals. It fosters a connection between our inner energies and surroundings.
People turn to Feng Shui when seeking positive life changes and invite good energy with intentions. This practice incorporates ancient Chinese wisdom like Yin and Yang and Chi energy, aiming to harmonize the energies in one’s space.
Don’t miss out on our guide: Everything About Feng Shui.
5 Elements of Feng Shui & Cycle of Elements
In Feng Shui, all chi energy comes in five elements: earth, water, fire, metal, and wood.
Depending on a person’s season of life, some of these elements will dominate more than others. However, it’s best that all of these elements can be well-balanced within each person.
The elements are known as transforming principles. When they interact, they manufacture and shape each other into scenes or objects via Creative Cycle. This building appears as the following:
Fire brings upon Earth brings upon Metal brings upon Water brings upon Wood brings upon Fire.
On the other hand, these elements can form a Destructive Cycle. This can appear as the following:
Water consumes Fire consumes Metal consumes Wood consumes Earth consumes Water.
By understanding both of these cycles, you can use them to balance the Earth energy in your own life.
| ELEMENT | COLOR | COMPASS DIRECTION | ACTIVITY |
|---|---|---|---|
| Water | Blue, Black | North | Reflection, Contemplation, Quiet, Depth, Sexuality |
| Wood | Green | East | Growth, Innovation, Planning |
| Fire | Red, Orange, etc | South | Action, Status, Esteem, Enlightenment |
| Earth | Earth colors, Yellow | Center | Nurturance, Centeredness, Resourcefulness, Relationships |
| Metal | White, Gold, Silver | West | Structure, Leisure, Creativity, Pleasure |
To balance your energies, make sure you look at how other energies are impacted by the ones you attend. This is a balancing act that you must pay close attention to.
FIRE ENERGY
- Fire energy is increased with excitement, fun, and good life experiences
- Wood energy is increased by planning an outing
- Imbalanced Earth energy can be due to unresolved past issues
- You can feed your Earth energy by increasing Fire & Wood activities
METAL ENERGY
- Decrease Earth energy excess with Metal energy
- Metal Energy is structured pleasure and leisure; non-hedonistic, thorough self-care
WATER ENERGY
- Water Energy is increased with meditation, self-reflection, and physical inactivity
- Water Energy is self-healing and helps balance Earth energy
Earth Element in Feng Shui, Elemental Seasons & How It Influences Relationships
Fire Summer is the beginning of relationships, full of passion, limerence, and sexuality.
Metal Autumn is when these passionate times start to quiet down. Since one or both partners were expecting the excitement to last, if they don’t have earned secure attachments they will attempt to reclaim the earlier phase of the relationship. This is where most relationships fall apart.
Water Winter is when there is less passion but a deeper love between the partners. They can love each other and appreciate life together while simultaneously focusing on their own tasks at hand.
Your Earth Energy, which you’ve developed from childhood, is what determines how well the partners will do in each stage of their relationship. Your Earth Energy is essentially a reflection of your secure or insecure relationship with people, and the World.
If you have balanced Earth Energy, you can tell when your relationship is transitioning from one season to the next.
If someone only has enough Earth energy for Fire Summer season, the relationship will be unsustainable. If someone doesn’t have enough to tread through Water Winter, the relationship gets bored and withers out.
The Earth is the center, and the seasons go as follows: Fire Summer, Metal Autumn, Water Winter, Wood Spring, and repeat.
You can observe an imbalance of chi in a relationship that is having issues. The imbalance is evidence that the elemental energies are favoring one partner at the expense of the other.
From the outside view of the house, you can get hints of imbalance within the home. You may notice that parts of the yard are neglected while others thrive, or the irregularities of the building’s architecture are made too obvious.
Within the home, you’ll find that shabby decor is often accompanied by energy imbalances in relationships. There may also be sharp contrasts within the home, where some areas have too much feminine, decorative, yin energy—meanwhile other areas have sharp, masculine, purpose-driven, yang energy. Broken objects, and especially cracked glass materials are indication of a lack of communication in the household.
You can see where the balance of power is based on the feng shui going on in the household. The dominating energy will reflect the personality where the power imbalance is favorable.
Here are some critical signs that there are relationship issues and a lack of earth energy:
There are no clear boundaries. Broken gates and fences, no distinct line where peace and activity start and end, items being placed in rooms that wouldn’t make sense—all of these are signs of not knowing one’s own worth, limitations, or self. By organizing everything into its proper place, you are establishing structure for the self.
The kitchen is awry. The kitchen area is very inconvenient and difficult to work through, maybe the kitchen is disorganized and sprawling with food materials, or simply empty and lacking of food entirely.
The flooring is deficient. You can’t expect to have good Earth energy if your floors have poor covering. A lack of sufficient flooring material is unsettling to the mind.
The decor color schema is non-sensical. You want your color schema to make sense and be pleasing to the eye. Odd color schemes are disorienting in a place you call home.
How To Remedy & Cultivate Earth Energy in Feng Shui
When you remedy and cultivate earth energy into your home, you will find your ability to maintain relationships to be easier. Here are some ways to do that:
Create boundaries in and around your home. When it comes to the outside of your home, make sure to have fences or gates that are not broken. If you’re unable to have physical boundaries for your home, then walk the perimeter regularly to establish to the Universe that this is your home base—the center of your world.
Build a garden. This is an on-the-nose instinct that human beings have. By nurturing a garden you are building a relationship with the Earth and inviting it’s energies into your home. It also provides a living responsibility and beautiful sight for the eyes.
Have proper flooring in your home. Since you draw up energy from the ground, it makes sense that you don’t leave your flooring damaged or non-intact. Making use of natural floor coverings also further encourages Earth energies.
Every item has its place. This helps create boundaries in the home. It signals to the psyche that you know your own worth, limitations, and sense of self. By having an appropriate space for all things, you are creating balance. For example, you instinctively feel an imbalance when you notice that there’s exercise equipment in a bedroom, or a computer PC in the kitchen.
Some more ways to remedy Earth energy are the following:
- Organize your living space to make your life convenient, easy to live in, and arranged in a way that you can flow in
- Purchase high quality foods to fill your kitchen
- Have your own comfortable place and seat to sit and lounge around in
- Put foods you use most frequently in the front cupboards for ease of access
- Don’t store what you won’t use
- Observe how your mood is affected by the seasons and take action to remedy any low moods
You can read more Feng Shui relationship articles here.
Recommended Resources
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Shadow Work for Relationship Series helps you heal your attachment style, navigate relationship issues, and build a healthy, mature relationship.
Advanced Shadow Work is an ongoing publication with continued in-depth insight and practical advice you won’t find anywhere else on the internet for practicing shadow work, self-awareness, inner healing, spiritual development, and more!
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