The application of Five elements in Chinese astrology

candiceaqua

Well-known member
Firstly, the 5 Elements is represented by 5 stars, Venus for metal, Jupiter for wood, Mercury for water, Mars for fire, Saturn for mud.

-These five elements is devided into 10 elements according to their different nature in sex, like yang metal, yin metal.

Cycles







The doctrine of five phases describes two cycles, a generating or creation (生, shēng) cycle, also known as "mother-son", and an overcoming or destruction (克/剋, ) cycle, also known as "grandfather-nephew", of interactions between the phases.
Generating

The common memory jogs, which help to remind in what order the phases are, are:

  • Wood feeds Fire;
  • Fire creates Earth (ash);
  • Earth bears Metal;
  • Metal carries Water (as in a bucket or tap, or water condenses on metal);
  • Water nourishes Wood.
Other common words for this cycle include "begets", "engenders" and "mothers."
Overcoming


  • Wood parts Earth (such as roots) (or Trees can prevent soil erosion );
  • Earth absorbs (or muddies) Water (or Earth dam control the water);
  • Water quenches Fire;
  • Fire melts Metal;
  • Metal chops Wood.
Also:

  • Wood absorbs Water;
  • Water rusts Metal;
  • Metal breaks up Earth;
  • Earth smothers Fire;
  • Fire burns Wood.
This cycle might also be called "controls", "restrains" or "fathers".


FiveElementsCycleBalanceImbalance.jpg




Wood Fire Mud Metal Water
East South Middle West North
Green Red Yellow White Black
Grow Warm Hold Clean Cool
Liver heart Spleen Lung Kidney

Bring Energy Relationship:
Wood can bring energy to fire, fire could bring it to mud, mud could bring it to metal, metal could bring energy to water, and water could bring energy to wood.

Extreme bringing Relationship:
Water could bring luck to wood, but if there is too much water, then the wood could be drowned to death. Also, wood could make the fire stronger, whereas too much of the wood, wood could disappear in the fire without a trace. Therefore, a good relationship is well controlled in a s certain amount just as the relationship with the nature.


Because Fire is hot ,so it could burn the wood into ashes, then the ashes is just the Mud. So fire could bring energy to mud, but if one has too much mud already, then we will need wood to diminish the mud to keep the element in balance.

In Chinese astrology, they have 8 pillars of different elements, which is made up of your Four pillars : year-month-date-hour (each pillar have two elements).

The characteristics of the five elements , metal, wood, fire, water and Earth, impact the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac by assigning different characteristics to the animals . Since the twelve animals of the Chinese Zodiac actually represent a period of time, in this case a year (the 12 branches), assigning one of the five elements to each of the twelve years (12 branches) actually creates 60 different combinations. Rather than operating in 12-year cycles, the Chinese Zodiac is actually based on a system of 60-year cycles.


Each of the 12 animals are governed by an element plus a Yin Yang Direction.

  1. Rat (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Water).
  2. Ox (Yin, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Water).
  3. Tiger (Yang, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Wood).
  4. Rabbit (Yin, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Wood).
  5. Dragon (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Wood).
  6. Snake (Yin, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Fire).
  7. Horse (Yang, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Fire).
  8. Goat (Yin, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Fire).
  9. Monkey (Yang, 1st Trine, Fixed Element Metal).
  10. Chicken (Yin, 2nd Trine, Fixed Element Metal).
  11. Dog (Yang, 3rd Trine, Fixed Element Metal).
  12. Pig (Yin, 4th Trine, Fixed Element Water).
Zodiac Animal ---Western Zodiac

rat /[FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]子 --------------- [/FONT]Aquarius
ox / bull [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]丑[/FONT]
------ Capricorn
tiger/ 寅 ----------- Sagi
hare / rabbit [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]卯[/FONT]
--- Scorpio
dragon [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]辰 [/FONT] --------- Libra
snake [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]巳 [/FONT] ---------- Virgo
horse [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]午[/FONT]
------------ Leo
ram / sheep [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]未[/FONT]
--- Cancer
monkey [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]申[/FONT] ------- Gemini
rooster [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]酉[/FONT]
-------- Taurus
dog [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]戌[/FONT]
------------- Aries
boar / pig [FONT=‚l‚r ‚oƒSƒVƒbƒN]亥 ------------ [/FONT]
Pisces


The four pillars is an English translation of the Chinese dynastic phrase "Shi Chen Ba Zi". The Chinese term (時辰八字 , Shi Chen Ba Zi) literally translates to "Hour of the Eight Characters". It is also under the Chinese term (四柱命理學, sei cyu ming lei hok) which literally translates to "The Four Pillars Life-ology".
Commonly referred to by the shortened names of "Four Pillars" or "Ba Zi", one of the most frequently used alternate phrase is "Four Pillars of your birthday".
Year

The years are calculated by the 12 zodiac animals with the sexagenary cycle of 60 years.
Months

The months are presented by the inner animals.
Days

The days are represented by the animals in a 60 day span.
Hours

The hours are represented by the animals within a 24 hour time span.



The application of five elements in I Ching Ba gua:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ba_guaThe movements have also been correlated to the eight trigrams of the I Ching:
Movement Metal Earth Wood Wood Water Fire Earth Metal I Ching Heaven Earth Thunder Wind Water Fire Mountain Lake Trigrams ☰ 乾 qián ☷ 坤 kūn ☳ 震 zhèn ☴ 巽 xùn ☵ 坎 kǎn ☲ 離 lí ☶ 艮 gèn ☱ 兌 duì


This page explained each element that make up your four pillar destiny chart:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexagenary_cycle

If you need to know more of these applications of the , please read:
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/12-zodiac.shtml#five

Below is some pdf for your to download:
http://www.heluo.nl/articles/AdditionalChartingInFourPillars.pdf

How to determine your luck elements--useful god for you:
http://www.heluo.nl/articles/FourPillarsUsefulGod.pdf

Easy way to build four pillar chart yourself:
http://www.heluo.nl/articles/FourPillarsEasyFormulas.pdf
 
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dr. farr

Well-known member
Excellent post: highly accurate, and of valuable practical application; very fine elaboration of the 5 element model!

I have only one substantial difference, and that is the listed equivalents of the Chinese Animal zodiac with our Western circle. I have used the traditional Chinese allocations of their Animal signs of the zodiac, with the equinoxes and solstices, which is very clear and which has been persistently used in Chinese astrology ever since the introduction of the Animal Zodiac into Chinese astrology (back around 100-200 BC)
The following are the Chinese/Western zodiacal equivalents based upon the historical Chinese equinox/solstice zodiacal sign allocations: I consider the following to be the accurate equivalents:*
Rabbit = Aries
Dragon = Taurus
Snake = Gemini
Horse = Cancer
Sheep = Leo
Monkey = Virgo
Rooster = Libra
Dog = Scorpio
Boar = Sagittarius
Rat = Capricorn
Ox = Aquarius
Tiger = Pisces

*Note: my observation should not be construed as critical of the valuable information found in the above posting: virtually none of the available English-language literature recognizes these equivalent-allocations which I have just listed; there are several Chinese Zodiac/Western Zodiac equivalent models which have been advocated and published in the available English language literature: none give the correct equivalents. Yet the Chinese historical astrological literature is very clear about the connection of their Animal Zodiac to the equinoxes and solstices:

Rabbit to the Vernal equinox
Horse to the Summer solstice
Rooster to the Autumnal equinox
Rat to the Winter solstice

...with their other signs interspersed between; each of their signs is also 30 degrees, just like our Western zodiac, and they are divisions of space, not starry constellations: no matter what you call it, any sign which begins at the Vernal equinox and extends 30 degrees is the (macrocosmic energetic qualitative) equivalent of the sign (not starry constellation, SIGN) WE call "Aries"; and so on for all the rest.
 
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ambertrevena

New member
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful information regarding Chinese astrology.. I have never tried it before but really want to know how will it predict when will I get married..And also want to know is there any difference between the prediction with other methods? I mean in this procedure charts are used or not?
 

dr. farr

Well-known member
There are several methods of prediction in Chinese astrology: actually Chinese astrology is much more prediction (and election/action) oriented than analytically oriented (its not so big on character and personality analysis as modern Western astrology is) If you want some reliable and clear-cut information of a practical (rather than academic or historical) nature, I would recommend study of the following books (all easily available @ Amazon)

-"5 Element Chinese Astrology Made Easy"...David Twicken
-"Chinese Astrology Workbook"...Derek Walters
-"Chinese Astrology Bible"...Derek Walters


The website dragon-gate.com has daily updated indications regarding current influences according to the Chinese astrological almanac...
 
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HailStorm

Member
Excellent post: highly accurate, and of valuable practical application; very fine elaboration of the 5 element model!

I have only one substantial difference, and that is the listed equivalents of the Chinese Animal zodiac with our Western circle. I have used the traditional Chinese allocations of their Animal signs of the zodiac, with the equinoxes and solstices, which is very clear and which has been persistently used in Chinese astrology ever since the introduction of the Animal Zodiac into Chinese astrology (back around 100-200 BC)
The following are the Chinese/Western zodiacal equivalents based upon the historical Chinese equinox/solstice zodiacal sign allocations: I consider the following to be the accurate equivalents:*
Rabbit = Aries
Dragon = Taurus
Snake = Gemini
Horse = Cancer
Sheep = Leo
Monkey = Virgo
Rooster = Libra
Dog = Scorpio
Boar = Sagittarius
Rat = Capricorn
Ox = Aquarius
Tiger = Pisces

*Note: my observation should not be construed as critical of the valuable information found in the above posting: virtually none of the available English-language literature recognizes these equivalent-allocations which I have just listed; there are several Chinese Zodiac/Western Zodiac equivalent models which have been advocated and published in the available English language literature: none give the correct equivalents. Yet the Chinese historical astrological literature is very clear about the connection of their Animal Zodiac to the equinoxes and solstices:

Rabbit to the Vernal equinox
Horse to the Summer solstice
Rooster to the Autumnal equinox
Rat to the Winter solstice

...with their other signs interspersed between; each of their signs is also 30 degrees, just like our Western zodiac, and they are divisions of space, not starry constellations: no matter what you call it, any sign which begins at the Vernal equinox and extends 30 degrees is the (macrocosmic energetic qualitative) equivalent of the sign (not starry constellation, SIGN) WE call "Aries"; and so on for all the rest.

I'm not sure how but wouldn't the chinese astrologers fit the animals to the descriptions they think would fit the concept they have in mind during that time? I dont know where I read it now but I happened to read that the origin of the animals came from numbers and that the animals were just signs to mark the numbers so they could remember well based on how many feet the animals had. And so, wouldn't they assign animals that would fit the energy/concept of what they had in mind for that particular number? Like for example, I guess Snake fits the Zero number because it doesn't have any feet.

if we think about it this way, it would make sense why Dragon would fit Aries. You know, the traditional way of how we see the chinese signs and the western signs are correlated:

Rat=Sagittarius
Ox=Capricorn
Tiger=Aquarius
Rabbit=Pisces
Dragon=Aries
Snake=Taurus
Horse=Gemini
Goat=Cancer
Monkey=Leo
Rooster=Virgo
Dog=Libra
Wild Boar=Scorpio

maybe you misread the equinoxes and solstices or there may be something to them more than what we know? cause it's really weird that the concept of their Rabbit would be Aries, dont you think so? Hmmm....

can you please relate the other versions of equivalents and what were their basis, you already put forth your mine and I understand why it could be the accurate one. but the other one above us that has the version of the Rat pertaining to Aquarius, I'm not sure what the basis is...

and also, what is the basis of my version which was the most popular one?

also, I actually really believe that the chinese zodiac pig is not really pig but a dangerous WILD BOAR, that's the only way it could correlate to Scorpio (as the most popular version of equivalents). I made a thread about this, you can see my thoughts for this one here: http://www.astrologyweekly.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39044

wild boar is highly portrayed dangerous back then: http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/tattoos_designs_symbols_boar_pig.htm

"The Chinese Zodiac makes no distinction between the pig and the boar - the former having been domesticated from the wild boar some ten thousand years ago ... In China, the pig/boar was a sign of both fertility and virility, with the sow and her litter making an obvious statement about the perfect little, or large for that matter, family. At the same time, the boar symbolized battle and war."
 
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annasui

New member
Hi All,
I am very interested in Chinese Zodiac, I have learned a lot from this Chinese book: http://www.chinazest.net/belechzo.html. And I found that I was born in the year of Ox, which is regarded as that Ox has some incredibly valuable traits that mark its members out as loyal, tolerant, hard-working, and strong. It makes me happy anyway.
 
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