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balance.

Trees..

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Now..

 

 

I recall stumbling upon a list that some bum here had compiled (or linked to) of the energetic personalities associated with different sorts of trees.... I've spent time digging through the archives (by way of advanced google search...) but as of yet, I've been unable to unearth this list.. It certainly possible that I've imagined the whole thing, but I remain hopeful that some part of this fantasy is grounded in (some) reality.

 

 

... Can anyone fill me in or point me in the direction proper?

 

 

 

many thanks.

 

 

balance.

Edited by balance.

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I know that in Opening the Dragon Gate, Wang Liping's masters had him practice a type of meditation exercise that involved an energetic orbit between he and the tree. Trees definitely have strong energy, and they are good teachers.

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From the 5E perspective (and using some examples) and my direct experience with the trees that follow:

 

1. Pine trees are mainly associated with the Wood

2. Birch trees with Metal

3. Tea trees with Fire

4. Beech trees with Earth

5. Willow trees with Water

 

However bear in mind that plants and trees, generally speaking are associated with the wood energy.

 

I hope this little info helps.

Well, you can use finer wuxing distinctions to discover the main and auxiliary types of qi of a tree which is, as you rightfully pointed out, primarily Wood in all cases. E.g., Pine is Wood with Fire, oak is Wood with Metal, willow is, indeed, Wood with Water, etc.. And then you can fine-tune that too -- kelp is Yin Wood with Yin Water, birch is Yin Wood with Yin Metal, oak is Yang Wood with Yin Metal, many fruit-bearing trees are Yang Wood... and so on. No tree has Yang Metal, which is why you can't cut a piece of steel tube with a wooden knife made of any wood. Some trees have Yang Fire -- the spontaneously combustible ones with volatile oils that sunlight is enough to ignite (Moses had his interactions with a father-in-heaven through one of these yang-fire bushes). And so on. My advice to anyone who wants to get intimate with these energies would be, don't memorize lists, memorize just one list -- Wuxing properties of qi -- and then look for their manifestations in nature... it is absolutely fascinating, I promise.

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Well, you can use finer wuxing distinctions to discover the main and auxiliary types of qi of a tree which is, as you rightfully pointed out, primarily Wood in all cases. E.g., Pine is Wood with Fire, oak is Wood with Metal, willow is, indeed, Wood with Water, etc.. And then you can fine-tune that too -- kelp is Yin Wood with Yin Water, birch is Yin Wood with Yin Metal, oak is Yang Wood with Yin Metal, many fruit-bearing trees are Yang Wood... and so on. No tree has Yang Metal, which is why you can't cut a piece of steel tube with a wooden knife made of any wood. Some trees have Yang Fire -- the spontaneously combustible ones with volatile oils that sunlight is enough to ignite (Moses had his interactions with a father-in-heaven through one of these yang-fire bushes). And so on. My advice to anyone who wants to get intimate with these energies would be, don't memorize lists, memorize just one list -- Wuxing properties of qi -- and then look for their manifestations in nature... it is absolutely fascinating, I promise.

 

 

Thanks

 

What are the best Wuxing sources? Books?

 

ralis

Edited by ralis

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Mm, tremendous...

 

 

 

Fizix:

 

While I've not read the book, this is not the first prod I've had to finally pick up "dragon gate".. perhaps the time is nigh.. and it was indeed out of admiration for our bough-laden brethren that I decided to fire up this post... Seems like there is some exciting territory to be explored out there.

 

Scotty:

 

Ha, that was actually the link I had in mind-- Much appreciated.

 

Durkhrod:

 

Great to have an experiential view on this.. I'll be pursuing this in greater depth myself.. Thank you.

 

 

Taomeow:

 

I'm actually pretty unfamiliar with the subtleties of wuxing... But I'm eager to expand upon that shaky foundation... Did a brief search in the 'ol google and came up with this..

 

http://www.shenzhaopai.com.au/yingyang_wuxing.html

 

At first glance, the page seems pretty cursory... So I, like Ralis, would be grateful to made aware of some Taomeow-approved resources... Much appreciated.

 

Hagar:

 

Thanks, Hagar.. A worthy revival.. A lot of good information/experiences rattling around in there... and some beautiful imagery as well.. Thank you.

 

Matt:

 

Curious-- I'll have to take a look into it. Many thanks.

 

 

 

balance.

Edited by balance.

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Thanks

 

What are the best Wuxing sources? Books?

 

ralis

 

Books... it's a tough one, I don't seem to remember any one comprehensive source, but a few good ones I recall that initially contributed to my understanding were The Web That Has No Weaver, by Ted Kaptchuk, OMD, also Taiji Songs, a lot of Xuan Kong feng shui sources (e.g. David Twicken, Joseph Yu, or even his talented student Elizabeth Moran), well I would read Ta Chuan religiously too, The Yellow Emperor's classic... but one place to go to I don't have a pointer to. Been thinking of creating it...:)

 

I would start with the simple "list" from Taiji Songs -- as short and to the point as few sources are, yet sweeping a huge segment of the "typical" behavior of all Five Phases under its wing:

 

Water descends

Wood expands

Fire ascends

Earth rotates

Metal contracts

 

Then we have the compass associations:

Water-- north, Wood -- east, Fire -- south, Earth -- either center or 15-degree slices between cardinal directions (*depending on the system you use, there's different ways to handle Earth), Metal -- west.

 

Then we have the mystical animal associations: Water -- Black Tortoise, Wood -- Green Dragon, Fire -- Red Phoenix, Earth -- Yellow Snake, Metal -- White Tiger.

 

And so on. This will be easily simple-to-complex-ified the taoist way if you phase in the Yin and Yang manifestations of each phase, and then start adding their Bagua interactions (the eight trigrams)... So I would say, any which taoist art-science-practice approached from the basics-classics-fundamentals IS the book you're looking for... :-)

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