The Water element I am and I feel
In Feng Shui, Water stands for the north, winter and night, for turning inwards and information. Its colours are dark blue and black, its forms amorphous and flowing. Typical materials are glass and water itself.
- Compass directionNorthWinter, Night
- Strengthened byMetalweakened by Wood
- Water years2 or 3as the last digit
What does the Water element stand for?
- Compass direction
- North
- Season
- Winter
- Time of day
- Night
- Planet
- Mercury
- Yin organ
- Kidney
- Yang organ
- Bladder
- Body
- Bones, hair, bone marrow, ears, sense of hearing
My Feng Shui student Frauke made a video about Water. She supplied the voice, images and text.
When Metal melts, it becomes amorphous, taking a watery form. Water is the north, cold and inward reflection. Water seeks, and it is a carrier of information. From all the experiences of growth (Wood), selling and enthusiasm (Fire), enjoying and harvesting the fruits (Earth), judging what was good and what was bad (Metal), Water receives the essence: information. Experience becomes pure information and communication. Water wants to carry it onwards. Just as rivers carry ships laden with goods to new shores, Water stores the essence of the cycle lived through.
Water is amorphous, elusive, constantly moving. Water types turn inwards, are quiet and balanced. A Water type is in touch with their primal strength. Water people can often seem dangerous, emotionally cold, unpredictable and moody.
With the essence of the year, Water seeks to fertilise Wood during winter, the time of retreat and inward reflection, giving it a strong new root through an idea. Wood needs Water to grow in spring after this winter fertilisation. Water rises through Wood, becoming its sap, its new strength. The cycle closes and begins again.
If Wood is birth and growth, Water is conception and the embryo, filled with all the genetic information now setting out into life to grow and experience itself.
Water stands for communication, media and networking, but also transformation, dying and becoming.
Strengthening and moderating Water
Water is strengthened by Metal, weakened by Wood and contained by Earth. At best, Fire and Water produce active, positive steam, as long as the Fire does not go out.
Too little Water
Fear of the unknown, bored, unimaginative. Metal then supports Water.
Too much Water
Confused, diffuse, incomprehensible, without perspective, vague, lying, emotionally cold, lacking boundaries. Wood then moderates Water.
In their negative expression, Water people are excessively fearful, lack drive and lose their grounding. They drift through their world, directed by others.
Water in a room: colours, forms and materials
Colours
Dark blue and black. I describe how these interact with the other colours of the five elements in my colour guide.
Forms
Amorphous, changing, boundless, unstructured, no form and every form, bizarre and complex architecture, rounded rather than angular, floating, glassy, watery.
Materials
Glass, water columns, glass bowls of water, glass tables, glass shelves, windowpanes, drinking glasses, ornamental fountains, ponds, pictures of waterfalls, lakes and oceans, night photographs, especially of big cities, fish, sea creatures, flowing abstract pictures and sculptures, water jets.
Water can also be activated in a room through appearance and symbolism, as with these glass jellyfish on Mallorca.
In a garden, plants represent Water when their branches and grasses move in the wind. Not everyone has trees with wave-like moving branches, but grasses, bamboo and other plants catch every breeze and turn it into their own movement.
Water outside a house: fountains, ponds and sightlines
Water in front of a house and along its sightline gathers Qi. Lively, bubbling water continually attracts life energy. You can see this in old places. The village fountain in Sommerach stands in the centre, and in Sarajevo the river flows directly past the town hall, ideal from the Form School perspective.
The Elbphilharmonie is a counterexample. At the tip of the quay, Qi falls into the water and flows away.
I calculate exactly where a fountain belongs using the hexagram method. I discuss ponds and fountains in detail in the Feng Shui garden guide.
Water and Fire in the kitchen
The cooker and sink should not stand directly beside or opposite one another: the cooker is Fire, the sink Water.
Buildings and occupations associated with Water
Building uses
Communication, internet, networking offices and organisations, music, literature, glass buildings, spiritual centres, bathrooms, toilets, swimming pools, laundries, creative centres, language schools, media, advertising, word processing, journalism and publishing, computer technology, electrical installations, drinks production, distillation, the oil industry.
Occupations
Advertising, IT, media work, technology (applied and user-focused), the drinks industry, all water-related occupations such as diving, intuitive professions such as fortune-telling or coaching, electricians (current flows, water conducts), tinkerers, inventors, musicians, literary figures and writers.
Personality: the Yang and Yin sides of Water
Yang qualities
Travel, communication, research and teaching, fringe sciences, academic pursuits, sex and the red-light world, satire, irony, unemotional, emotionally cold, unpredictable, highly mobile, crossing boundaries or setting none, departing from the norm, less concerned with others’ feelings, strong-willed, building networks.
Yin qualities
Meditation, reading, painting, writing, creativity, swimming, taking breaks and holidays, withdrawing under pressure, philosophising, time alone, rising above things, spiritual companionship, seeking, between genius and madness, risk of addiction, walking a fine line, exceptional abilities between death and genius, dissolution, introversion, sinking.
Water in the Chinese horoscope
Rat (Yang Water) and Pig (Yin Water) are the two Water animals. Water years end in 2 or 3. I explain why a year can have a different element from its animal in the five elements overview. In the Chinese horoscope, Water is one of the ten Heavenly Stems, once as Yang and once as Yin. Only Bazi reveals how much or how little Water is present in your own birth date.
Water, but where?
I calculate where water belongs in your house and garden on site. Whether you live in Germany, Austria or Switzerland, I come to you with the Lo Pan. I explain the process under Feng Shui consultation.