What kind of RAT are you?
The Five Chinese Elements are WOOD, FIRE, EARTH, METAL & WATER. If you are a Water Rat, you are not the same sort of Rat as your friend who is a Wood Rat. Ditto Fire Horses. Fire Horses are feistier and more obstreperous than calmer, more serious Earth Horses. Here's how it works:
To allow for movement to occur and bring about change, Chinese philosophy calls upon the five elements as agents of change and reaction. Change, the Chinese think, derives from the influence of the five main elements—Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water—on the basic Yin or Yang energies. Like in the old rock, paper, scissors game that we played as kids, each of these five Chinese elements has the ability to control and/or destroy the previous element, and is capable of producing the element that directly follows it. In the regenerative cycle of the elements, Water engenders Wood. Wood begets Fire. Fire burns to Earth. Earth creates Metal and Metal gives way to Water.
Wood is characterized by the color green. Wood heralds the beginning of life, springtime and buds, sensuality and fecundity. Wood’s influence affects the liver, the gallbladder and, by extension, the digestion. Wood needs moisture to thrive. Its two opposite yet equally emotional forces are rage and altruism. The Wood person will be expansive, outgoing and socially conscious.
Wood, in its turn, can create and nourish Fire. Fire’s signatory color is red. Fire is hot weather, satisfaction of nature, aridity and dust. The tongue and the small intestine are the centers of attention in the Fire person’s body. Fire makes heat, which either warms or burns. The Fire person must constantly seek to balance a tendency to explode and possibly destroy, against a desire to create coziness and warmth. Passionate by nature, this impatient, ebullient person must strive to keep his flame under control.
Earth is created from the ashes of the Fire. Now we are in the soothingly satisfying late summer cycle. Earth’s favorite color is yellow, which represents the equanimity between beginnings and. endings. The weather of Earth is mild or temperate. In the human body, Earth influences spleen, pancreas and mouth. Earth's two opposite but equal forces which need to be kept in constant balance are enhancing and smothering. On the one hand Earth gives care and allows for growth and improvement. On the other, Earth buries roots and snuffs out breath. Earth people are gifted for fairness and have the ability to commit themselves to protracted projects and complete Herculean tasks with ease. They must struggle against a penchant for worry.
The Earth grows Metal in her veins. Metal says white and autumn. Metal is cool, crisp weather. Metal’s effect on the body centers in the lungs and respiratory system. It only secondarily rules the large intestine and the nose. Metal people like to communicate. They need to keep discord and harmony in constant balance. Metal signifies the onset of winter. Its influence can sometimes add sadness or gloom to an astrological chart. Two of Metal’s emotional forces are melancholy and romance. I see Metal as Wagnerian. Metal people must guard against a tendency to wallow in nostalgia.
Lastly, Metal begets Water—groundwater trickling its way through layers of the Earth’s ore. Water’s color is blue. Its season is full-blown winter. Water is always moving, fluid, and mutational. In our bodies, water’s influence affects our plumbing systems, the kidneys and the bladder. The ear, too, comes under the spell of Water. Hence people born in Water-ruled years are frequently musical. They pick up on everything. Be it good or bad, they never miss a vibe. Water-ruled creatures are always very sensitive and sometimes even mentally fragile. The downside of Water’s influence, then, is a stressful nervousness. To balance that fidgety, squeamish, overly sensitive side, Water endows its subjects with the noblest quality of all, kindness and sympathy. Sometimes too permeable, the Water-ruled must take precautions against drowning in the chagrin of those they see as less fortunate than themselves.
So, the five elements cause a lot of the commotion and are responsible for creating and maintaining both balance and imbalance—for moving things around and making life interesting. These purveyors of change can be controlled or not, depending on how one manages them.
Each animal year of the Chinese zodiac has been assigned one of the five elements. That element turns up twice in the cycle going away for another ten years. The five elements are always presented in the above order. Once we know this, we can understand how the elements directly affect us and pertain to individual characters.
For more information on which of the five Elements enhances your Chinese animal sign, Google Suzanne White.
Don't you deserve to know who you really are? Are you a Rat, Ox, Tiger, Cat/Rabbit, Dragon, Snake, Horse, Goat, Monkey, Rooster, Dog or Pig? Are you a shrinking violet Earth Pig? Or perhaps you will find out that you are a bossy Metal Rooster or a picky Fire Dog. Whatever your Chinese animal sign, it is governed by one element and that element modifies your basic character - big time!
Find out all about who you are, what the future holds and what other animal signs you are compatible with. Which animal sign years should you have your kids in? What is it about you has been causing you so much stress? Which of your characteristics makes certain people recoil from you? What signs are fatally attracted to yours? There's a world of information to for you on Ms. White's web site. Google Suzanne White and see for yourself. Suzanne White's books and consultations will open all the doors of perception that you will ever need to walk through to find peace of mind and true felicity.
