The history of five elements can be traced back to few thousand years ago in ancient China.
Five elements were first recorded in ‘Gui Cang Yi’ 《归藏易》 and ‘Liang San Yi’ 《连山易》. The old ancient people believe that everything in the universal is made up of five elements namely Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. The theory revolves around the changes of motions between the relationship of these five elements.
From the ‘Qian’ gua (乾卦) of ‘YiJing’《易经》，we already know changes of motions is energy. And this energy is represented by Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. But there are 2 types of energy, the enhancing energy and the reducing energy. There are four cycles in the concepts of the Five Elements and how it affects the energy :
1) The Productive cycle (enhancing energy)
2) The Weakening cycle (reducing energy)
3) The Controlling cycle (enhancing energy)
4) The Being Control cycle (reducing energy)
There are many different Chinese metaphysics systems (e.g. Feng Shui, Bazi, Qi Man Du Jia, Purple Stars, etc) that used Five Elements for their analysis and resolution. Numerology system has also employed Five Elements in its unique way. See diagram below:
Numbers 1 and 6 are associated with the Metal element. In terms of health issues, it represents lung and large intestine, cynicism, asthma, skin allergies or skin problem or hay fever.
Numbers 2 and 7 are associated with the Water element. In terms of health issue, it represents kidney and bladder problem, low back pain, sciatica, aversion to cold, impotence, frigidity, frequent urination, dark eye bags or nervous system disorder.
Number 3 and 8 are associated with the Fire element. In terms of health issues, it represents heart and small intestine problem, cardiovascular diseases, insomnia, forgetful, hypersensitive, speech disorders, chest pain or depression.
Number 4 and 9 are associated with the Wood element. In terms of health issues, it represents liver and gallbladder problem, eye problem, coordination problem, tendon problem, muscle spasms or irregular menstruation.
Number 5 is associated with the Earth element. In terms of health issues, it represents stomach, pancreas and spleen problem, immune system problem, digestive problem, lymphatic problem, anemia, overweight or under-weight.
If there is missing number or excessive numbers (usually more than 3 is considered too many) in your birth chart, it would mean you are likely to have associated or should pay more attention to that particular area in term of your health issues.
