10. The risks involved in trying to diagnose famous people

Since all five element acupuncturists know that diagnosing a patient’s element takes a great deal of time and patience, it is obvious that trying to do this by looking at the necessarily brief glimpses of politicians and other famous people on television or social media can at best be a rather hit and miss affair, and at worst may lead us to making completely erroneous conclusions.  I remember well that I was convinced that the film actress, Julia Roberts, was Fire, because this is how I interpreted her endless smiling.  I told all my students this until one day, a good few years later, when my understanding of the different qualities of the elements had obviously deepened, I noticed a different reaction in me to this smile.  It certainly did not warm me, but, instead, irritated me with what I now thought was its artificiality.  I realised suddenly that, rather than giving me something, as Fire always tries to do, it was demanding something of me.  Once I had noticed this, I changed my diagnosis from Fire to Earth, and have stuck with that ever since.  This was a good warning to me always to hedge my conclusions about elements around with a few question-marks.

I always emphasize how difficult it is to pinpoint a person’s element, particularly that of a famous person whom I only know from the TV.  Perhaps, indeed, it is a bit risky of me to make the selections that I do, because I can so obviously only too easily get things wrong.  But somebody has to have the courage to stick their neck out, otherwise novice practitioners would have few examples of the elements to base their understanding on.  I therefore do the best I can, however inadequately I may sometimes be doing this.  My justification here is that I now have many years’ experience to draw upon, whilst students have none at all, and as I always tell everybody, we owe those coming after us to hand on whatever knowledge we have acquired.

I hope that most of the examples I give, such as those of David Beckham and Elvis Presley in my Keepers of the Soul, are still valid, but if those reading what I write disagree with me, that is all to the good, because it forces them to study the elements deeply and develop their own understanding.  And in any case, until I treat a person, I am never sure that I have found the right element.  I think, therefore, that I need to continue giving my take on the elements of famous people, otherwise there would be so few examples to offer those who are unfamiliar with the elements.  It is also good that I offer myself as a living example of somebody who doesn’t mind getting things wrong and admitting to it.  As I have said on many occasions, we all need to be humble enough in whatever field we work to accept that we will get things wrong, and to have the courage to admit that we have. 

If we are treating a “wrong” element, we may assume that we are doing something wrong.  But that is not what I believe.  No treatment we give should be considered the wrong treatment provided that we follow some basic rules of five element practice.  And these consist in ensuring that we are not going against nature by taking more energy away from an already depleted element, or adding energy to an element which already has an excess of energy.  This is gauged from our pulse-taking.  If our fingers are sensitive enough to assess the relative levels of energy in the different pulses we are taking, any treatment we give on whatever element we choose can not only not harm, but must be beneficial, because it will bring greater balance to the different levels of energy in the five elements.  And anything which brings greater balance is to be recommended.

Of course, if we can add to our assessment of the energies in the different elements that additional component of concentrating our attention on helping the dominant, guardian element to greater health by trying to balance the level of its energy in relation to that of the other four elements, then any treatment we offer will be more successful because it will be focussing itself exactly where it is most needed.