48. An element's yin and yang officials

It is good to remember the fundamental qualities which distinguish the yin officials from their yang counterparts.  We can think of all that is yin as being inward-facing, internal, and all that is yang as being outward-facing, external.  If an element’s two officials are regarded as acting as a unit, as they should be, then the yin official remains hidden within us, whilst  the yang official is turned towards the outside, protecting it.  It acts as a connection, a link, between ourselves and what lies beyond us in the world outside.  Each yang official therefore creates an opening for cosmic energy to enter and leave the element with which it is associated, whilst each yin official concentrates its work deep within us.

Although each of us is handed over to the protection of one element as our guardian element at birth (or perhaps at conception, who knows?), one of its two officials has a greater influence upon us than the other.  On the analogy of the term I coined for our element being our guardian element, I like to think of this as our guardian official.  I always say that it is difficult enough to pinpoint a person’s element, let alone decide which of its two officials is dominant.  This seems to be most easily done in the case of Inner Fire, where the overwhelming number of people, if not all perhaps, form part of the extensive group within it of those with the Small Intestine as their guardian official.  This particular official is the odd one out, acting almost as if it is a guardian element all on its own.  I have come to this conclusion because in all the years that I observed JR Worsley diagnosing one patient after another I never heard him say that person’ guardian official was the Heart, although he very frequently diagnosed people, like me, as Small Intestine, what we five element acupuncturists call a II CF.  I was told that one practitioner had been diagnosed as having the Heart as her guardian official, but since this was told me by the person herself and I did not directly have confirmation from JR himself, I was always rather suspicious that there was a slight element of self-diagnosis in this.  After all, who would not like to feel that they were under the supreme Controller’s special protection?  But there may well be people out there with the Heart as their guardian official that I have not come across.