FIRE

Warmth and light, dynamic and moving, vibrant and lively. It represents love. Emotional and physical coldness, sexual frigidity, poor circulation (cold extremities), hemorrhoids, varicose veins, painful joints (hot), hot flushes, heart burn, digestive problems, fevers and feeling parched are all indicators or an imbalance in the fire element.

Colour: Red. Grey is the flip side. A love or loathing of either colour shows an imbalance in the fire element. Red is the colour of joy.

Season: Summer

Organs: Heart, Small Intestine, Circulation Sex and The Triple Heater. The heart is the supreme controller, sickness in the heart creates inner panic. The small intestine is the great separator of pure from impure. This can be seen metaphorically in other things - emotional confusion or hearing difficulties for example, can be seen as an inability to separate pure from impure. Circulation Sex - not an organ as such, controls blood flow and sexual secretions, it guards the heart and controls vitality and nourishment via the blood vessels. It governs the pulse of life. The Triple Heater is the sister function of Circulation sex. Again not an organ but rather all organs are guarded by it. It is the central heating system of body.

Time: Heart: 11AM - 1PM, Small Intestine: 1PM - 3PM, Circulation Sex: 7PM - 9PM, Triple Heater: 9PM - 11PM. If you feel better or worse, or can’t sleep at these times, it may show an imbalance.

Taste: Bitter

Orifice: Ears - sorter of sounds

Sense organ: Tongue. Many speech patterns and impediments like stuttering, slurring are symptoms of a fire imbalance.

Emotion: Joy and happiness.

Sound: Laughter

Parts of Body Governed: The blood vessels. Varicose veins, cold extremities, hardening arteries = imbalance in fire.

External physical manifestation: Facial Complexion. Texture and quality of the skin.

Taken from Traditional Acupuncture, the law of the 5 elements by Dianne M. Connelly, PhD