Does the internet have a clear 5E qi-phase?

[Birch]

As the title suggests. What qi-phase would you consider 'the internet' to be?

[Harmonious Emptiness]

I'd say Wood. It spreads like roots. Currently it's healthy and growing, but if it gets old and dry these roots will seize everything around them. Being overly systematic is one influence of computers/technology and wood.

 

I recommend Joel Seigneurs talks on 5 elements to get a good grasp on the nature of elements in this way.

[Birch]

I've listened to Joel Seigneur on 5E and he's really good. H_E are you saying it's a single phase? I reckon Wood is a great 'main phase' and I'm thinking/feeling that it has 'other phases' going on all at the same time. One of them is metal but I can't get (right now) to why I see it that way. Another is fire.

[Walker]

I'd say Wood. It spreads like roots. Currently it's healthy and growing, but if it gets old and dry these roots will seize everything around them. Being overly systematic is one influence of computers/technology and wood.

 

I recommend Joel Seigneurs talks on 5 elements to get a good grasp on the nature of elements in this way.

 

Spreading, healthy, and growing is the qi of the wood phase--曲直.

 

If it "gets old and dry," that will mean that it has not just left the wood phase, but also moved past the fire phase of flourishing and the earth phase of stability, and entered the dying metal phase--肃杀、燥金. Finally, the seizing you have mentioned is analogous to the 收藏 function of the water phase.

 

In other words, if you are correctly using five element terminology, then when the internet leaves its current phase, it will no longer be comprable to wood. Caveat: yes, you could still compare its life cycle to the life cycle of a tree. But you must realize that even a tree-which ironically is actually made of wood--is only in the wood phase during its growth period. (All five phases are passed through during the lifespan; during each year; during each day; even during each breath)

 

A great confusion about what the five phases refers to comes from thinking that the word 木, in this context, was intended to mean, "things that resemble things that are made out of wood." The wood phase refers to a particular phase--growth (生) and rising (升/昇)--in the existential cycle of all things that manifest.

Edited April 28, 2013 by Walker

[Taomeow]

Everything electrical is primarily Fire. The internet is Fire with Wood -- i.e. fire that gets a lot of nourishment (Wood is the Mother phase of Fire) and therefore keeps growing and spreading like wildfire. (A wildfire is a classic natural example of Fire with Wood). Of course Fire kills Wood as it feeds off it. Which is why a lot of the internet is Dead Wood. If you have a Wood deficiency, the internet is not going to fix that.

 

I have a surplus of Fire, and try to use the internet sparingly, because it most definitely burns Wood, have you noticed the eyestrain, e.g.? -- that's an assault on the Liver (which is of the Wood phase and whose meridians open into the eyes).

[Harmonious Emptiness]

True, the question is really asking about the stage in the cycle.

 

I think, though, as Walker pointed out, that the phase can be different for each individual and situation. In society as a whole, I guess it's in a fire phase, since it has gone through the majority of the growing pains and discoveries and is now seriously mainstream and vibrant.

 

On the whole, in relation to humanity, I think it is primarily wood element in terms of how it functions as an organ of society, even though it's physical components might correspond to different elements.

[Birch]

Hmm, the metal idea came from what I see it as doing to life (wood). So perhaps fire is sufficient in its diminishing? The metal idea was also about control and concentration of information.