A Second Approach to Conjuring the Desired Balance State

This diagram contains a lot of information concerning the Five Elements and the relationships among them. The inner organs and their associated meridians are considered yin energies; their elemental yang partners appear within the same circle and outside of the oval. The oval represents the flow cycle, the path of energy through not just the organs, but also the seasons and the emotions and virtues. The inner star indicates the connections in the control cycle.

The diagram is a schematic representation showing  the elements and energy flows in balance. One of the things I find appealing about working with the five elements is the idea that, if we find the energies that have gone out of balance, leading to specific symptoms, we can correct the balance through a number of interventions. These include specific exercises, s a variety of hands-on adjustments, meditative practices, and simply intention. The latter is most effective if the body is already familiar with the results we are looking for. But basically I find it helpful to keep in mind that the balanced energies are the body's normal state, and anything that is out of balance can be attributed to stressors, thought patterns, emotions, and so on. In other words, our work is to assist the body to return to its natural state, rather than to impose something foreign and unusual upon that body. The body/mind does the healing. The practitioner simply facilitates the return to balance.

I took a Level 3 class with Richard Bartlett, founder of Matrix Energetics, in which he used the Tree of Life as a teaching tool. This is another schematic indicating an understanding of natural relationships. Richard said something that caught my attention: "Don't wait to use this until you understand it." As I took this suggestion in it occured to me that the Tree of Life has been used for many centuries, just as Five Element Theory. And Richard was suggesting that we didn't have to spend years studying and understanding it to make use of it. That led me to conduct the following experiment:

I brought an unlabelled version of the five element diagnostic diagram pictured above to a class I was teaching. Without explaining what it meant, I used kinesiology to test the students. I had them hold the diagram by their solar plexus (at the waist). Most were initially weak.

I then tested a different thing for each student, chosing from patterns .that often go out of balance in stress. For example, I tested one for scrambled energy, another for grounding, a third for energy reversal, a fourth for whether gall bladder meridian was in balance, and so forth. Each thing I tested indicated some stress in the system.

Going back to the five element diagram, without explaining its meaning,  I just told them I would attune them to the en ergy and relationships that the diagram represents. Using an unlabeled diagram was an attempt to engage the right brain, and avoid getting the analystical left brain involved in thinking about the theory.

Following this "attunement", everyone tested strong to the diagram. Not only that, but each individual also tested that each of the other things I had thought to check had been corrected once their energies were attuned to this Five Element Pattern. This included scrambled energy, lack of grounding, and any meridians out of balance.

Once I had demonstrated the usefulness of attuning to the schematic representation of the Five Element Theory, I was willing to engage the students' understanding by explaining the features of the theory that are represented in this schematic. My sense is there is far more information there than can be described in a linear fashion; information with which the body/mind is infinitely familair.