20. Water – key resonances
Chapter contents
Water as a symbol152
The Water Element in nature152
The Water Element in relation to the other Elements153
The key Water resonances153
The supporting Water resonances158
Water as a symbol
The character for Water – shui
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The character shows a central current of water with side streams or whirls beside it. It suggests the flow of water in a river where the main current is bordered by small whirlpools. The whirlpools arise from the difference in flow between the central stream and the edges where the current may be slower or even running in the opposite direction (see Weiger, 1965, lesson 125). Acupuncture points are often thought to arise in a similar situation, where the flow of qi is bent or redirected and as a result a vortex develops.
The Water Element in nature
Water is the most yin of all the Elements. It is everywhere, but has no shape, taking only the form given by containers, river banks and the beds of the oceans. Although it is the softest of substances, it can wear away the hardest rock and move around any obstacle to penetrate beyond. It appears both as a solid and as a gas. Water filters through the earth, enters roots of trees and flows upwards. In response to warmth it turns into a gas and appears in the sky as clouds, ultimately to fall as rain moistening wherever it falls and reappearing in streams, rivers, lakes and oceans.
Floods and drought
Water has the capacity to cause havoc. People who have experienced flooding or powerful waves understand how water can penetrate and sweep away all that lies in its path. After the initial surge, flood water will often become stagnant. Disease and pollution follow, resulting in illness.
At the other extreme a drought can be just as devastating. Climatic changes can leave a degree of dryness that inhibits crops, resulting in famine. Adults and children shrivel up and die of thirst and starvation.
Water within a person
Water makes up 55–60% of an adult’s body weight (Thibodeau and Patton, 1992, pp. 474–476). Most of this water is enclosed in or surrounds individual cells and the remainder is plasma, that is part of our blood. These fluids have many functions, but most involve movement and flexibility.
A newborn baby, who has emerged from living within water, is roughly 80% water. This percentage declines rapidly in the first year of life and gradually as we age our water content diminishes.
The skin and hair of children and young adults is naturally moist and the joints and bones are resilient and pliant. Injuries heal rapidly. Young people’s minds are also flexible and have the capacity to take in enormous amounts of information. Languages can be learned very rapidly. They can flow and change in whichever way life takes them.
As people age their bodies become dryer, their hair more brittle, their skin withered and their movements less smooth. Their minds lose flexibility. They have difficulty with new information and accepting changes in the world around them. Ageing is partly a drying up process, a sign that the Water Element is weakening and that we are losing our water reserves. In spite of Water’s flexibility, when it is constrained and not moving, toxins develop and function is diminished. The newborn with the maximum amount of clean water has the maximum flexibility and softness; the octogenarian will be fluid deficient, harder and less flexible.
The Water Element in relation to the other Elements
The Water Element interacts with the other Elements through the sheng and ke cycles (see Chapter 2, this volume).
Metal is the mother of Water
On the sheng cycle Metal creates Water by containing it. Water has no shape unless contained by the impermeable rocks in the earth. This means that when treating patients who have obvious Water Element symptoms, such as urinary symptoms, these may have originated in the mother Element, Metal. A practitioner may treat the mother to assist the child.
Water is the mother of Wood
The close relationship between Water and Wood is often stressed in Chinese medicine. Hence practitioners will sometimes have difficulty in deciding whether to focus treatment on the Wood or the Water. Five Element practitioners mainly use colour, sound, odour and emotion to decide. The mother–child law, based on the sheng cycle, stresses that symptoms arising from the Wood Element often indicate a weakness of the mother and that treatment of Water is required.
Water controls Fire
On the ke cycle Water controls Fire. A fire hose illustrates how water can be used to control fire. In general, there are many body–mind functions which involve heat and which can be spoiled by too much fire. The control of inflammation, the drying out of joints and the dampening down of excess emotions are all examples. In these cases, Water will contain, control and regulate the excesses of Fire.
Water is controlled by Earth
In nature it is clear how water is controlled by earth. River banks and dams are obvious ways in which Earth contains or directs the flow of water. Earth controlling Water means that a balanced Earth helps Water to also be balanced. For example, if the Spleen is failing to move fluids these may accumulate and in so doing create a disturbance within the Water Element.
The key Water resonances (Table 20.1)
The colour for Water is blue/black
Colour in nature
Ask ordinary people, ‘What is the colour of water?’ and they would probably say ‘blue’. In a drinking glass water is transparent and colourless. At the lake or seaside, water can appear different colours because of its ability to reflect light from the sky. Divers describe the colour deep under water as black, more from the lack of light than any inherent colour of water itself.
| Colour | Blue/black |
| Sound | Groan |
| Emotion | Fear |
| Odour | Putrid |
The character for blue, blue-black or black
The character for blue or blue-black is kan (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 92A and 73B).
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Alternatively the character is black, hei (see Weiger 1965, lesson 40D).
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This character refers to the colour of soot. The character shows it deposited around a window through which smoke escaped in Chinese huts.
Su WenChapter 10 states that: ‘Black (or blue-black) corresponds to the Kidneys (or Water)’ (Anonymous, 1979a, p. 27).
Facial colour
When the Water Element is out of balance a black, dark blue or occasionally a lighter sky or powder blue will manifest on the face. This colour can appear at the side of the eyes, under the eyes or around the mouth. The lighter blue is more confined to under or beside the eyes.
Blue/black can appear for reasons other than Water being the CF. Kidney disease is one. Many of the patients in a kidney dialysis ward have a blackish facial colour, but not all will be Water CFs. Their illness, manifesting in poor kidney function, may well have originated in another Element. In a similar way, anyone who fails to sleep well, or who becomes very tired through excess activity, may appear dark under the eyes. The lack of sleep or overwork is depleting reserves that are normally said to be stored in the Kidneys. So it is important when observing a dark colour to enquire about a patient’s sleep patterns and lifestyle and whether there is any history of kidney disease.
The sound for Water is groaning
The character for groaning
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The character for groaning is shen yin (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 72A (kou), 50C (shen) and 14K (chin)).
The context
The voice tone resonating with Water is groaning. The context in which it would normally occur is when a threat has appeared and the person speaking is anxious or afraid. There are, of course, other appropriate tones when fear is present. For example, with a shock or a situation of intense fear the person may be screaming or crying out. In most situations of fear or anxiety, however, it would be said to be normal for a person’s voice to modify and begin to flatten into a groan. There is little movement or modulation in the quality of the sound.
People often have a groaning voice when they are afraid, but Water CFs groan at other times when the context is not threatening or dangerous. For example, if someone groans when discussing the pleasure of a recent party or the recent loss of a relative, this might be said to be expressing inappropriate groaning. A pattern of groaning in these contexts would indicate evidence of a Water CF.
The sound of groaning
The sound of groaning is one of flatness as if the more normal ups and downs of the voice have been squeezed or flattened out. In some people this is more marked at the end of sentences. It can sound a bit like an old reel-to-reel tape that has become stretched so that the speech or music plays slightly slowly. It sounds as though it is dragging and lacks animation.
Groaning can also be visualised. To visualise a groaning voice, imagine a line on a graph which moves up and down according to the changes of pitch in a person’s voice. Then imagine that a boundary line comes down from above and up from below cutting out the higher and lower reaches of the voice. This makes the voice flatter.
To experience the effects of fear that lead to a groaning voice, imagine being in a room with a group of people. The group leader tells you that a deadly snake has escaped and is somewhere on the floor. The snake will respond to any abrupt movement or loud noise. You need to ask the leader for the next best move in order to make your escape. You flatten your voice in order not to create more disturbance. You are groaning.
Groaning indicates an imbalanced Water Element but it can easily be confused with the flat voice that is known as ‘lack of laugh’ which indicates a Fire CF. Careful attention to the context in which it is used will help to differentiate.
The odour for Water is putrid
The character for putrid
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The character for putrid is fu (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 59I (yen), 45C (fu) and 65A (ju)). The first parts of this character represent a shed (yen) and building (fu). The second part means pieces of dry meat in a bundle (ju). The character gives the sense of the putrid odour arising from keeping dried meat in a building.
Putrid
The smell of processed or rotting meat is one of the descriptions for putrid in English. But putrid also describes the smell of water in a stagnant pond or the smell of stale urine. Bleach and ammonia smell putrid. It can be a sharp, aggressive odour. Some practitioners say it makes the inside of their noses clench or seize up.
The emotion for Water is fear
The character for fear
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The character for fear is kong (see Weiger, 1965, lesson 11F). The character shows a hand carrying a tool poised above the heart. There is stillness here as well as the potential for agitation. Below this is the Heart. The effect of fear when it feels as though something is repeatedly beating or knocking on one’s heart is conveyed. This is fear that could cause us to feel palpitations on the inside and be frozen and unable to move forward on the outside.
If a person becomes fearful or anxious it is natural for this to be accompanied by symptoms of qi ‘descending’ (Su Wen, Chapter 39; see Larre and Rochat de la Vallée, 1995). If instead the person attempts to suppress this movement of qi, then the qi may move upwards, causing symptoms in the upper part of the body, for example palpitations, indigestion or asthma.
The character for fright
The character for fright is jing.
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The Water Element is also especially affected by fright. Jing means shock or fright (Weiger, 1965, lessons W54G and W137A). Jing affects both the Kidneys and the Heart. It is made up of two characters, chi at the top and ma at the bottom (see Weiger, 1965, lessons 137A (ma) and 54G (chi)).
Chi means to restrain oneself or be self-possessed. It shows a ram’s horns, because a ram excels at standing motionless. On the upper right-hand side there is a hand holding a rod. This signifies authority. Both these images symbolise stillness. In contrast, ma represents the head, mane, legs and tail of a horse. The horse is a powerful symbol to the Chinese. It is very yang, moves fast and is also regarded as sensitive, nervy and jumpy. The whole character suggests a state similar to, but also subtly different from, fear (kong). The person is trying to be self-possessed, but is shaking and trembling on the inside.
With respect to the causes of disease the significance of the two terms is that fear is the emotion most often associated with Water and fright or shock is the emotion which might occur only once, but even so can cause lasting imbalance. For example, it is believed some forms of epilepsy are caused by the mother being shocked while the foetus is in the womb. For others, their life is characterised by shocks and traumas which ‘scatter’ their qi (Su Wen, Chapter 3; Larre and Rochat de la Vallée, 1995).
Fear as an appropriate emotion
When some people first encounter the emotions resonating with the Elements, they think that some emotions seem ‘negative’, while others seem ‘positive’. For example, fear is usually regarded as a negative experience, whereas joy seems positive. Fear, however, is one of our most primary and necessary emotions because it allows us to survive. Ju is often used by the Chinese along with kong to describe fear.
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This character shows the Heart radical on the left. On the right we can see two eyes and below them a small bird (see Weiger, 1965, lesson 158G). Small birds symbolise vigilance, which is the positive benefit arising from our fearful feelings.
The ability to survive is one of the strongest instincts we have. Without fear we would not be alive and human life as we know it would not have been able to continue. Fear alerts animals to protect themselves from predators and other dangers. Fear of illness is what leads to the discovery of new medicines and ways of staying healthy. Fear of being destitute leads people to find ways of earning a living. Fear of death is a human’s most basic fear as it threatens one of the key functions of the Water Element, the drive to survive. Caution and prevention are the positive aspect of this emotion.
There is also a very fine line between excitement and fear. Physiologists can detect no difference between the two adrenalised states. One is pleasurable, one is not, however. Without fear there would be no excitement or sense of adventure and humanity would be the poorer for it.
The mental aspect of fear
The natural process of fear runs through these stages:
1 awareness of a threat
2 feeling of fear
3 mind considers solution(s)
4 action
5 safety (or if not return to 3)
If someone is about to be run down by a car and jumps to avoid it, the process is short. If a person notices a tile about to fall from the roof, possibly onto where the children play, then they think about what to do and the overall process is extended. The feeling of fear is simply the initiator and it is helpful to think of the whole process.
Fear tends to involve the mind in two ways. People perceive something, for example, the roof tile, as a threat. So the mind is important in even noticing the roof tile and forming the judgement that it may be dangerous. What some people find threatening, others hardly notice. The mind is also involved in devising solutions. For example, ‘can I reach the tile from an upstairs window and temporarily make it safe?’ or ‘can I ring up my handyman and get him over before the children return from school?’ Chinese medicine states that the Kidneys create cleverness and wisdom (see Chapter 21, this volume). One interpretation is that a healthy Water Element leads to a balanced approach to the presence of danger that in turn requires the mind to work quickly and effectively.
Abnormal patterns of fear
There are two main ways that fear manifests and these can appear to varying degrees. The first way is for people to be intensely fearful, the second is for people to anticipate ‘danger’ so that they avoid experiencing fear. Some Water CFs tend to excessive fearfulness, others to an absence of fear.
Fear
When people feel intensely fearful profound changes take place in the body’s physiology. Adrenaline production increases, muscle tone tightens, heart rate and perspiration increase. The mind may be overwhelmed and the person struggles to function well. The extremes of this pattern are phobias and hysteria. We are using the word ‘hysteria’ in the dictionary sense of morbidly or uncontrollably emotional. A person with agoraphobia cannot leave the house and no amount of reasoning will make a difference. They cannot hear potential solutions even when they are generated by others. Someone behaving hysterically with fear does not appear to access their mind in order to consider solutions. Or if they do, the messages it gives are overwhelmed by the intensity of the feelings. Everybody knows that a small spider cannot harm anybody, but for someone who is terrified of spiders this knowledge makes little or no difference. The Water Element is out of balance and the intensity of the emotion overwhelms the mind.
Much of the time, people hide their fear from others. Being joyful, sad or even angry does not seem as shaming as letting others see the fear within them. Diagnosing Water CFs, therefore, can often be particularly difficult. Fear, however, produces increased physiological activity and this often shows in the patient as agitation. Some tend to be physically restless and find it hard to keep their bodies still. Others have found ways to quieten the agitation in their bodies to such an extent that the fear is only really visible in their eyes. They somewhat resemble a rabbit caught in the headlights as the intensity of their fear paralyses them.
Fear makes the qi descend. When fear is intense this often makes people need to go to the toilet in a hurry. In chronic cases it often leads to strong physical sensations in the torso as the movements of qi create agitation. Some feel this in the heart and chest primarily. Others feel it in the ‘pit’ of their stomach and others feel it more in the lower abdomen.
One Water CF, who inclined to this pattern, described the following: ‘I’m scared most of the time to some degree or another. At times I may feel a contraction in my lower belly. I think it’s to do with not knowing why I’m scared. If I know why I’m scared I’ll have other symptoms. I’ll feel a rush of adrenaline – my heartbeat increases, my mouth goes dry and I need to pee.’
The patient’s response to reassurance can sometimes be revealing. Some patients will attempt to allay their anxiety by looking for reassurance. Health issues are obviously a common theme where this manifests. In order to assess the person’s degree of fear it is often necessary to evoke a degree of anxiety and then gauge the patient’s response to the reassurance offered. Whereas most people would be relieved by reassurance, or at least take it in, it is usually impossible to reassure a Water CF. This is because their fear is deeply irrational and cannot really be touched by words or information. It is as if a block has occurred between their mind and feelings. Water CFs naturally often find it difficult to trust others. There is a wariness about them that is rarely relinquished.
Some Water CFs find that fear agitates their body, mind and spirit, so they attempt to reduce these feelings. To do this they may avoid situations that generate excitement, as the extra adrenaline produces feelings of discomfort. Fun fairs, scary movies and dangerous activities are also generally avoided. Acupuncture, regrettably, is also often avoided for the obvious reason concerning needles. Often it is only desperation or extreme health anxiety that drives them to come for treatment. Practitioners, therefore, see these kinds of Water CFs less often than some other CFs.
Lack of fear
Some people have learnt to repress their feelings of fear. They become hyper-aware and attempt to anticipate threats and deal with them before they appear. Why do people do this? Some have felt frightened in early childhood and hated the experience. Over time they evolve coping strategies that involve suppressing the intensity of the emotion, often to the extent that they have become unaware of the feeling. Whatever the origin of the pattern, we label these people ‘lack of fear’ as they rarely appear to be frightened and do not admit to situations causing them to be frightened. They may invest a lot of energy in anticipating what could go wrong and thinking through their responses before any threat appears. Such people are often very competent in their work. For example, the essence of entrepreneurship is to assess risks and increase the money-making aspect while avoiding failure. People with a lack of fear pattern often excel in such an activity. They draw on a skill that has been refined since childhood.
People with this pattern also frequently take what the rest of the world thinks of as unnecessary risks. They drive too fast, ride motor bikes, bungee jump, parachute or hang glide. Excitement is one thing, recklessness another. They usually do not describe what they do as frightening. It is fun, exciting, gives them a sense of feeling alive, but whatever it is it is not scary. A female Water CF of this type drove her powerful car at what most of us would consider excessively high speeds. When questioned, she said that it was exciting, but not dangerous. When challenged that the excess speed did increase the risk of a serious accident, she said that the increased speed made her more alert and therefore safer. She also said that the only time she felt scared was in a scary movie, when of course she could easily walk out (Table 20.2).
| Fear | Fright, terror, anxiety, dread, panic, trepidation, apprehension, horror, foreboding, cowardice, wariness |
| Fearlessness | Bravado, unafraid, adventurous, courageous, daring, risk taking, recklessness |
A friend describes an example of a calculated risk-taker: ‘She has the most scars of anyone I have ever met. She likes to go and walk along under the cliffs and get stuck in the tide and risk her neck. She really enjoys being on the edge. She denies that what she does is dangerous and says only that it is exciting.’
Lack of fear is a pattern that is often hard to diagnose as it is the absence of the emotion rather than its obvious expression. Questioning the patient about their leisure activities may give an indication, but it needs to be supported by colour, sound, odour and the practitioner’s direct experience of their emotion. Often these patients tend to be almost motionless in their bodies, but their eyes are alert for every possible danger. There is also a tendency for practitioners to feel anxious in their presence although they may struggle to understand why.
The supporting Water resonances
These resonances are less important than the ‘key’ resonances given above. They can often be used to indicate that a person’s Water Element is imbalanced but they do not necessarily point to it being the person’s CF (Table 20.3).
| Season | Winter |
| Power | Storage |
| Climate | Cold |
| Sense Organ/Orifice | Ear |
| Tissues and body parts | Bones |
| Generates | Teeth |
| Taste | Salty |
The season of Water is winter
The character for winter
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The Chinese character for winter is dong (Weiger, 1965, lessons 17A and 17F). The character represents a skein of thread that is fixed by a tie or a brooch to keep it closed. This gives us a sense of loose threads that are tied up or something that is tied up and finished. Winter is the time of year when everything in nature slows down. It is the end of the cycle of the seasons when the sun diminishes, hence the character representing the tied up threads symbolises completion. The lower part of the character represents water crystallising into ice. So we have the ideas of the last season in the cycle and the stillness of ice.
Winter
Life slows down in the winter. It is a time when nature rests. Water freezes over, the fields lie fallow, animals hibernate and the seeds of plants lie dormant ready to sprout forth in the next season. Su WenChapter 2 states:
In winter all is hidden, this is the season of retirement into the depth, because it is cold outside. It is necessary at this moment not to disturb or disperse the yang energy, thus complying with the energy of the Winter.
(Anonymous, 1979, p. 3)
Su Wen urges us to follow the cycle of the seasons in order to stay healthy. In the wintertime the days are short and darkness falls early. This means that in the winter we should go to bed early, slow our activity to a minimum and preserve and protect our reserves of qi. This conserves our qi and helps us to remain healthy when the time for movement arrives in the spring.
The power of Water is storage
The character for storage
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The character for storage is cang (Weiger, 1965, lessons 78B (tsao) and 82E (tsang)). This character is not illuminating, being made of two other characters, the upper one denoting herbaceous plants and the lower one the notion of compliance, which is said to be the virtue of ministers.
Storage
What was said about the season of winter reveals the nature of storage. In winter our qi will naturally flow deeper inside us. If we rest and take life slowly we will preserve it. By being too active we will waste it. Animals demonstrate storage by hibernating and by storing food for the winter. Humans also store food for winter. People store crops, fruits and vegetables through cooling, bottling and preserving in order to have reserves for winter.
Maintaining an appropriate balance between activity and rest is crucial to the health of the Water Element. This Element stores much of people’s reserves of energy. That is why over-work and lack of sleep easily depletes this Element and the Kidneys especially. Tiredness due to severe deficiency in the Water Element often has a particular characteristic. When people feel tired they often have a desire to stop completely. They have nothing in reserve; nothing to fall back upon. This is especially common in pregnant women, the elderly and when people are convalescing.
In nature the seeds are the archetype of storage. The potential of the plant is stored within the seed. During winter the seed lies dormant, waiting for the warmth of spring before sprouting. This is resonant with the concept of jing, the human seed, which is stored in the Kidneys. Human life begins when the jing of two people unite. The person is created from the stored up potential inherent in a microscopic seed.
The climate of Water is cold
The character for cold
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The character for cold is han (Weiger, 1965, lessons 78G and 47U). This character depicts a man who is trying to protect himself from the cold by remaining in his hut and burying himself in straw.
In cold conditions the mortality rate can increase drastically. In France the winter of 1963 was one of the coldest since the beginning of the century. In that year the mortality of people over 60 years increased by 15.7% compared to the previous winter. Another study of 1,600,000 cases of circulatory disorders in Germany and another in the Netherlands showed a similar trend. The colder the weather, the greater number of fatalities from angina pectoris, coronary thrombosis, cerebral haemorrhage and myocardial infarction. The warmer the winter the lower the mortality rate (Gauquelin, 1980).
Cold is yin and heat is yang
Cold induces a slowing down, where the movement of qi is diminished and even contracted. The cold of winter makes our qi run slowly and pull inwards. Unless we protect ourselves well this can become extreme and can result in pain from the contraction, greater susceptibility to colds and infections and a diminished flow of Kidney qi. Cold closes the pores of the skin, reduces sweating and increases urination. In the twenty-first century, we have much better protection against the cold than at any time in history. The man in the Chinese character who buried himself in straw reminds us how devastating cold can be, especially in the northern parts of China. In any society, those who are frail, especially the aged, dread the cold. Cold is a ruthless pathogenic factor and those who do not protect themselves damage the qi of the Kidneys and open themselves up to a wide range of illnesses.
People whose Water Element is deficient in yang qi often feel the cold intensely but it is far from a reliable diagnostic indicator of a Water CF. Diagnostically it is significant, but more for the need to use moxa to reinforce the treatment. It is useful to question how patients respond to cold, both in themselves and with respect to their symptoms. For example, when someone says ‘I hate the cold and all my problems are worse when it’s cold’, this suggests that it may be important for the practitioner to warm the patient. This may be carried out using moxibustion.
The sense organ/orifice for Water is the ear
The character for the ear
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The character for the ear is er (Weiger, 1965, lesson 146).
Hearing and the ear
The sense of the Water Element is hearing and the orifice is the ear. The connection between Water and the ears and hearing is not immediately obvious. It has been suggested that the shape of the ears is like the shape of the Kidneys. This may be true, but there is also a more significant connection through the emotion of fear.
Whenever a person is afraid, they will ordinarily look for some action that will avoid any violation and remove the threat. Seeking reassurance from others can be part of this process but when they ask for this, many people who are chronically afraid (and are probably Water CFs) have a hard time hearing and taking it in. Their difficulty is not to do with the physical hearing mechanism, but with the mind. It is as if when the mind is immersed in fear it cannot get free enough to take in useful information. The person who is afraid will show this through slightly turning away, closing the eyes or making other similar gestures.
Water CFs often report that they had ear infections as children more often than people with other CFs. It is of limited use, however, to ask if the patient has had childhood ear infections because they could still be another CF.
The tissues and body parts for Water are the bones
The character for bones
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The character for bones is gu (Weiger, 1965, lesson 118).
The bones
Bones are the ‘tissues and body parts’ for Water. The strength and function of the bones depends on the qi of the Water Element. Water CFs may not appear to have problems with their bones unless their Water Element is extremely deficient. Were we to routinely measure people’s bone density, however, then the connection between bones and being a Water CF might be more obvious.
Problems with bones early in life, for example, irregular or abnormal bone growth before 10 years old, do suggest a problem with the Water Element, however. To some degree these conditions do support a diagnosis of a Water CF – because they are conditions that arise early in life. Problems with bones that occur later in life, for example osteoporosis, can be linked to a weakness of the Kidneys, but do not necessarily support the patient being a Water CF. The decline of Kidney qi after menopause, for example, is a normal event and is often accompanied by a weakening of the bone structure.
Water generates the teeth
Teeth are generated from the bones. Effectively, what we have said about bones is also true of teeth. Tooth disease does not support a CF diagnosis, although very early deterioration of the teeth might be supportive evidence. The decline of teeth associated with ageing supports the general Chinese view that the strength of the Kidneys tends to decline in later life.
The taste for Water is salty
The character for salty
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The character for salty is xian (Weiger, 1965, lesson 41).
The taste connected to the Water Element is salty. It is easy to associate salt with Water as the largest bodies of water, the oceans, are salty. Western medicine also takes the view that excess salt, which inclines the body to retain water, is not good for a person with hypertension. This should be taken into consideration when giving dietary advice.
Water CFs sometimes have a passion for the salty taste. This can manifest in eating an excessive amount of seaweed, but more frequently it manifests as a strong desire for crisps, salted nuts, yeast extract, bacon or simply lots of salt distributed over whatever is on the person’s plate.
There are probably proportionally more Water CFs amongst those with a craving for the salty taste, but this inclination, because of its infrequency, is not useful in determining a CF. A passion for the salty taste will indicate that the Kidneys are out of balance and should be taken into consideration in the overall diagnosis.
Summary
1 Along the sheng cycle Water is the mother of Wood and Metal is the mother of Water. Across the ke cycle Water controls Fire and Earth controls Water.
2 A diagnosis of a Water CF is made primarily by observation of a blue-black or light blue colour on the face, a groaning voice, a putrid odour and an imbalance in the emotion of fear.
3 Water CFs tend to often feel fearful or anticipate danger in such a way as to reduce feeling fear.
4 Some Water CFs exhibit a lack of fear.
5 Other resonances include the season of winter, cold, the power of storage, bones, teeth, the ear and the salty taste.
