Knowing your personal feng shui birth element helps create a home that nourishes your energy.
Is red colour good for your energy? Should you use blue in your home office? How about the colors in your clothing, are they supporting your personal energy? One way to find the best colors for you, in both home decor, as well as personal clothing and accessories, is to know your personal feng shui element and understand how to nourish and strengthen it. While the main criteria for the best feng shui use of color is based on the bagua of your house, the very next consideration is your personal birth element. There are five elements in feng shui — Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water — and each one of us has a predominant energetic quality that needs to be supported in our homes. There is also a specific feng shui element, called the personal birth element, that is determined by the element of your birth year. Even though the five elements feng shui theory is ancient and complex, you can start understanding its basic dynamic by observing how these elements are represented in nature, and how they interact on a physical level.
For example, we burn wood to create fire (so Fire feng shui element is nourished by the Wood element, but Wood is destroyed by Fire); we use a knife to cut the wood (so Metal feng shui element destroys the Wood element). We use water to help the tree grow (so Water feng shui element nourishes the Wood element) and the better the soil, the stronger the tree (Earth feng shui element is nourishing and supporting for the Wood element). So, if your personal birth element is Wood, you would be wise to avoid strong Fire and Metal feng shui element colors and decor items in your home. Why? Because in the destructive cycle of the five feng shui elements both Fire and Metal elements damage the Wood element.
However, it is important to understand that we need all five elements in our environment, just in different proportions. We have all five feng shui elements in our energetic makeup; no one is only Water or only Wood, so be wise and approach this info in an intelligent way. If you look at different disciplines (or even at another branch of feng shui called 9 Star Ki Astrology), you might discover that you have different elements at different levels. For example, you can have a predominant Metal element energy in your character, while your personal birth element/your energetic needs for your immediate space are expressed as Fire element.
Here’s my example: my personal birth element is Earth, I feel very nourished and supported in any space with a strong Earth and Fire feng shui elements decor. Earth is also my element in 9 Star Ki feng shui astrology, which mostly defines one’s character, or energetic makeup. However, in Western astrology, my main element is Fire, and I certainly relate to the creativity and passion of this element. Looking further, I am Water in Vedic Astrology, and again, I can absolutely relate to this element as I tend to feel things very deeply and have a strong intuition. So, am I Earth, Fire or Water? Is this confusing to me? No, it is not. I am a combination of all elements, just like you are, but I also know that for pure feng shui purposes, meaning for creating a space that truly nourishes my personal energy, the birth element is the one that I take into consideration.
The chart below gives you just one facet — but a very important one — that can help you create a nourishing home for yourself and for your loved ones; use it wisely. Because your personal feng shui birth element is based on your year of birth as per Lunar New Year (which never starts on January 1st), be sure you know your correct year of birth, for this specific purpose. The chart below shows the beginning of each year as per the Lunar New Year, not the New Year based on Western calendar.
How To Use this Chart: Find your year of birth in one of the 5 columns representing a specific feng shui element; be sure to check the day, too. Your date and month of birth have to be after, not before the day the Lunar New Year started that year. Note that the format used in the chart is day/month/year. For example, if you were born on February 5, 1950 (05.02.1950), your year of birth, in feng shui, is considered 1949, not 1950 because according to the Chinese calendar, the year 1950 started on February 17, 1950 (17.02.1950). So, your personal feng shui birth element is Earth (for 1949) not Metal (for 1950), as you can see below.
Your Personal Feng Shui Birth Element Chart
Once you know your personal feng shui birth element, you can learn how to use it to create a home that best supports your energy, as well the energy of your family members that have different birth elements. You can do this in many ways — with good feng shui home decor, with subtle office space adjustments or with your choice of clothing colors and accessories to support, nourish and strengthen your energy.
