The Five Elements

Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. Five kinds of movement that describe everything in the world, and the basic language for reading a Saju chart.

The five energies

Wood (木) is the force that grows upward: spring, the east, blue-green. Fire (火) spreads and brightens: summer, the south, red.

Earth (土) receives and holds: the turn of the seasons, the center, yellow. Metal (金) gathers and ripens: autumn, the west, white. Water (水) soaks in and stores: winter, the north, black.

Elements that feed each other

Wood feeds Fire, Fire leaves ash that becomes Earth, Earth holds Metal, Metal gathers Water, and Water feeds Wood again. This is the generating cycle.

It is the flow of support. When you see which element feeds the energy your chart needs, you can see the people and places that help you.

Elements that keep each other in check

Wood breaks through Earth, Earth dams Water, Water puts out Fire, Fire melts Metal, and Metal cuts Wood. This is the controlling cycle.

Control is not only harm. It is also what holds an overflowing energy in balance. A fire that burns too hot is grateful for water.

The elements in your chart

The eight characters never hold the five elements evenly. Some overflow and some are missing, and that tilt colors your personality and sets your life's tasks.

Simply counting characters is misleading, though. The season you were born in and the roots a character has can make one character far stronger than another. Saju weighs strength, not numbers.