The feng shui elements are one of the main foundations that feng shui is built upon. The five elements dictate how objects and furniture should be distributed and placed precisely around our home to attract the right type of energy we desire. Luck in wealth, love, family, careers, health, fame, children and education can all be achieved through correct use of the feng shui elements in your home, it’s a core concept and should be fully understood to benefit from it’s efforts. Each element has specific colors and location in your home associated with them and we’ll get to those a little later but first, let’s break down rights and wrongs of using the elements in your home.

The Productive and Destructive Cycle of Elements

Productive Cycle

The feng shui elements – water, wood, fire, earth and metal – can be arranged in a cycle where each element is used to create the next in the cycle. By using the correct locations, objects and directions, feng shui takes account of the elemental relationships and can use one element to assist or boost the another, bring greater energy for the life area they’re placed in.

The productive cycle is as follows:

Water > produces > wood > makes > fire > produces > earth > creates > metal > makes > water and so on

Example:

Out of all the feng shui elements, water is the strongest representative of your wealth energy, which is located in the southeast area of your home or space. Water related items should feature in your wealth area to energize it and attract more of it. In the productive cycle, metal is the elements that makes water and so metal objects can also be placed in the area to boost the wealth area. Water is the main element and so be sure it isn’t overpowered too much by the metal.

Destructive Cycle

In the same way, if a destructive relationship of feng shui elements exists in the same location, this can bring about negative results which will harm your good intentions for the area. Most of the time, people unknowingly already have conflicting elements in the wrong locations which is why their wealth, career or any other area of life is suffering.

The destructive cycle is as follows:

Wood > devours > earth > destroys > water > extinguishes > fire > consumes > metal > demolishes > wood and so on

Example:

As mentioned above your wealth corners main element is water. Earth destroys water in the destructive cycle shown above and so having any objects related to earth would devastate the positive effects of your water element, therefore your wealth. Things like ceramic pots, pictures of land or globes etc and will need to be removed before good wealth energy can flow freely into your life, unrestricted by the earth element.

Elemental Properties

For your reference, note the following relationships each element has with colors, locations (according to the bagua map) and objects in your home:

Wood – Green shades – East – Paper, Plants, Furniture, Pictures of Wood etc.

Water – Blue or Black shades – North – Fountains, Aquariums, Pictures of Water etc.

Fire – Red shades – South – Bright lights, Fireplaces, Candles, Pictures of Fire

Metal – Metallic colors, Gold, Silver, White – West – Coins, Jewelry, Wind chimes, Pictures of Metal etc.

Earth – Brown shades – Center – Pots, Flowers, Ceramics, Globes, Pictures of Earth etc.

Knowledge of the feng shui elements and their cycles help you too utilize the energy you need, and can balance out the destructive energy you don’t. Balance is the always the key when using the elements, they can even be used to correct any existing elemental and location problem you have in your home.

Sometimes, structural things like fireplaces can’t simply be moved. They’d naturally represent fire and if they’re in the wrong location for that particular element, you can use water based objects to destroy the fires negative effects and again, balance out the energy. A firm understanding of the feng shui elements and how they work will be key to help you benefit from all the great things that feng shui can bring you and your family. Wealth, health and happiness can soon be all yours when you combine all of your feng shui knowledge to build a life-time of well being and good fortune!