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I went about the task of resolving the elemental conception of the Eastern Medicine Paradigm, with the elemental conception of Hermetic and Qabalistic thought in terms of “The Tree of Life”.  Once my understanding of the elements had been retooled, I then turned my attention to working out a satisfactory system of attributions, relating and assigning each of the 12 signs of the zodiac to the 12 meridians of the human body.  We’ll begin by retooling our understanding of the pentagram.

What I feel is important, as I keep mentioning, is that the Eastern Medicine paradigm understands the elements in terms of health and the human body.  If we can somehow align our conceptions of Hermetic and Qabalistic elemental theory, with the principles of energy circulation of the human body, we are working with a much deeper conception, and more true to life, of the elements.  The first thing we’ll do is go over a brief understanding of how the Eastern Medicine Paradigm, and the subsequent pentagram, represents a model of control (called the constraining cycle), as well as a perfect representation of Tetragrammaton (called the generative cycle).  We will need to understand Tetragrammaton as revolving, or self-generating, as Crowley conceived of it.

The Eastern Medicine Paradigm formulates 5 elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Wood, and Metal.  The following interaction of these elements describes the generative cycle.

1.      Fire Generates Earth By Burning Wood.  The ashes become part of the soil.

2.      Earth Generates Metal.  We find polished Metals deep beneath the surface of the Earth.

3.      Metal Generates Water.  The minerals inside of rocks “sweat” to create Water.  What is important here is the idea of a Rock, or stone, being the union of Earth and Metal.

4.      Water Generates Wood. And other things that burn, making possible Fire.

Using the following conversion table, we will gain a basic understanding of how the Generative Cycle of the Eastern Medicine Paradigm is exactly the same as Tetragrammaton.

It’s important to understand that the correspondences are not exact.  We are dealing with two totally different scales of measurement, as when we compare the temperature scales of Celsius and Fahrenheit.  But the following table can be used to give us the basic understanding that we need.

We’ll begin with Hermetic Earth, and the Qabalistic Daughter, The Heh Final of Tetragrammaton.  We can see by a glance at the table that we are starting with the Eastern Medicine Paradigm Metal.  If we refer to the Eastern Medicine generative cycle, we see that Metal and Earth need to unite to create Water.  In Qabalistic Terms we say, “The Heh final Daughter (Earth), must unite with Vau the Son (Air), so she can be “set upon” the throne of the Mother.  There is an interesting Alchemical similarity in the phrase “Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultum Lapidem”.  The “hidden” stone in the “interior parts of the earth” is the same “sweating” stone in our Eastern Medicine Paradigm.  After creating Water in the Eastern Medicine system, the Water generates Wood.  In Qabalistic language: the daughter, having been set upon the throne of the Mother, “Awakens the Eld” of the all father.  Hence “Wood”.  (Once again the humor from the gutter confirms Qabalistic “truth”)  Fire then burns wood as Passion burns up desire, giving birth to the Eastern Medicine Earth, Hermetic Air, and the Qabalistic Vau/Son of Tetragrammaton.  The Son in turn creates the Heh final Daughter, Hermetic Earth, and the Eastern Medicine Metal.  Thus, the Eastern Medicine generative cycle of the elements is Tetragrammaton.

Next, we’ll look at the Eastern Medicine Constraining Cycle.  We’ll give the common Eastern Medicine axioms, as well as provide generic axioms using our conversion table from above to gain once again a simple understanding of the correlation.  I will repeat that these correlations are being used as a basis of understanding only, the eastern and western conceptions express different aspects of a whole energy, just as Celsius and Fahrenheit are different ways of expressing the one concept of temperature.

Eastern Medicine - Wood Controls Earth - Trees sustain themselves by drawing nutrients from the soil.

Hermetic - Spirit Controls Air - As it is said “when the spirit moves you.

Eastern Medicine - Metal Controls Wood - As in taking an Axe, or chainsaw, to a tree.

Hermetic - Earth Controls Spirit - Through the use of Free Will, we cause spirit to indwell on (in) the earth.

Eastern Medicine/Hermetic - Water Controls Fire - The secret of firefighting for centuries.

Eastern Medicine - Fire Controls Metal - As in forging a sword.

Hermetic - Fire Controls Earth - The popular system of warfare.

Eastern Medicine - Earth Controls Water - Earth absorbs Water.

Hermetic - Air Controls Water - Use the air to fill your sails, use air pressure to pump water, use the air to fly over the oceans.

The hermetic pentagram formulated from the above principles looks like this:

Tetragrammaton flows in a clockwise direction around the outside, and the constraining/controlling cycle forms the pentagram in the middle of the circle.  In ritual work, “Banishing” an element; for example Fire; is really a matter of “invoking” Water to Control Fire.  So, to banish Fire, start and end the Pentagram with Water.  When you want to invoke Fire, start and end the pentagram with Fire, passing its controlling element just before you complete the invocation.  The emphasis is on invoking a controlled and balanced (integrated) manifestation of the element by using its controlling principle just before the element is invoked.

Later, because the two elemental systems have a very different emphasis, being two different systems of measurement, we will create a totally new scale of measure and rename the elements themselves.

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