by Nora Franglen
You can see from the title of my six books published by Singing Dragon that I practise and write about a branch of acupuncture called five element acupuncture. All acupuncture is based upon an understanding of an ancient Chinese philosophical concept which describes the universe and all who live in it as created by the Dao, the All, the infinite, what we can think of as the universe before the Big Bang.
The Dao itself is divided into two forces called yin and yang, positive and negative forces created at the time of the Big Bang, which always counterbalance each other and make time and motion possible. Finally, yin and yang split into what the Chinese call the five elements, each with simple, everyday names of Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. In geographical terms we can see the elements as being like the four directions of north, south, east and west, with the fifth its centre.