The problem centers on the Four Elemental Worlds as defined by all 3 branches of Qabbalah vs what the Chinese Sages called the Four Phenomena and how these things may be interpreted in lieu of the Tree of Life.
western thought
Between the 22nd and 12th centuries BC, Chinese thought was integrated into a robust system of cosmological and political significance. Incorporated within this were the six classes of occult arts, more specifically (1) astrology, (2) almanacs, (3) the five elements, (4) divination by stalks, (5) other methods of divination and (6) the system of forms (which includes physiognomy and fengshui or geomancy).
in the east they acknowledge and utilise the six sided hexagram (vortical) within 6 disciplines
The basic building blocks for this elaborate system were the Five Elements, which were thought to make up the universe, namely Water, Fire, Wood, Metal and Earth. Each of these five base elements was grouped with physical phenomena, which they were thought to influence, thus creating five different sets of forces or powers, termed the Five Powers.
forming 5 elements not 4 as apparently shown within the qabbalah
Since the Ancients assumed that nature responded to the actions of humans, the interaction of the Five Powers was explained in such a way as to relate changes in time and space to human conduct. Thus a relationship was established between the conduct of nature and that of humankind.
[link to www.imperialtours.net]
in 21st century translation we call plasma the 5th element
Quoting: aetherit appears in the west, vortical physics and the fifth element have been observed in nature and maintained within our societies awareness but have never been incorporated within a structure to allow their function
There is no Classical Chinese word equivalent in meaning to the English word time. The original meaning of shi is “
timeliness” or “
seasonality,” in which both time and space are affected. In other words, the Chinese idea of time is understood within the specific space.
According to Yuelin , or the Monthly Order, written no later than third century B.C., spring affects cardinal point east, and is dominated by the agent of wood; summer affects south, and is dominated by fire agent; autumn affects west, and is dominated by metal agent; winter affects north, and is dominated by water agent.
The earth agent affects the central location of the intersections of the four cardinal directions, and dominates the four seasons. (Yuelin, SZ, 1352-87) By extension, shi, seasonality or timeliness refers to doing something at the appropriate time (
which is determined by harmonious associations with the theory of the Five Agent), and at which time an action can succeed.
In the early Chinese texts, there is no story that describes the creation of the world out of nothingness and marks the beginning of time. In Chinese chronologies, time is not counted from a single date, such as the birth of Christ, but from repeated historical beginnings, or the foundation of a dynasty, or a royal family. On the personal level, individual lives, certainly bounded by birth and death, but
each person's life is regarded as a link within the continuum of the ancestral lineage, which includes both of the living and the dead. However, the ancestral spirits related directly to the living through rituals, such as food offering etc. These spirits were not gods like those of ancient Greece, nor were they souls who stood before an almighty God to be judged.
The approach of describing Chinese idea of time as cyclical, or sometimes,
of spiral by sinologists derives from a play on the Western geometrical metaphor for time, is the alternative of a straight line.
It is helpful as a means of differentiating the Chinese concept from the Western metaphor of a straight line, but not a Chinese metaphor of time.
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link to www.literati-tradition.com]
