火 · huǒ
Fire
Summer · South · Red
Fire is the crest of the year, the noon of the wheel, full bloom and full burn. It is passion, charisma, warmth, and the bright clear seeing that comes when everything is lit at once. Fire gives light and joy and connection; banked well it keeps a whole house warm, let loose it consumes its own fuel and leaves ash.
莲花开 · in the Lotus deck
Fire's element card and the guardian of the south. Draw the Lotus Bloom spread and these come into the pool.
Where it comes from
The Hong Fan calls Fire the phase that flares upward, and its taste is bitter. The Neijing seats it in the heart, which it names the ruler of the organs and the seat of the spirit (shen 神), governs it by Mars, the sparkling deluder, and gives it the Vermilion Bird of the south and the red of high summer. Its emotion, joy, is meant to settle into propriety (li 禮), warmth that knows its own measure.
The wheel, from Fire's seat
Generating (生)
Wood feeds Fire.
Fire feeds Earth.
Controlling (克)
Fire checks Metal.
Water checks Fire.
Its correspondences
The Han cosmologists sorted the whole world into five. These are Fire's.
- Season
- Summer
- Direction
- South
- Colour
- Red
- Climate
- Heat
- Planet
- Mars (熒惑)
- Taste
- Bitter
- Note (五音)
- Zhi 徵
- Voice
- Laughing
- Sense
- Speech, the tongue
- Celestial beast
- Vermilion Bird (朱雀)
- Yin organ (臟)
- Heart
- Yang organ (腑)
- Small intestine
- Emotion
- Joy → peace
- Virtue
- Propriety (lǐ)
- Grain
- Beans
- Fruit
- Apricot
- Number
- Two and seven
- Time of day
- Noon
- Life stage
- Youth and flourishing
In a person
A person of strong Fire is magnetic, expressive, joyful, the one who lights a room and draws others in. Healthy Fire is warm and steady; ungoverned Fire is mania, scattered excitement, a heart that races and then burns out. Fire-natured people inspire, but they need Water nearby for depth and rest, or they flare bright and brief.
In the zodiac
Years ending in 6 or 7 are Fire years (the Fire Horse is the famous one). Fire lends its animals heat, charm, and a quick bright drive, more outward and more dramatic, more likely to lead with the heart.
Find your animal & element →Too much, too little
Too much Fire is restlessness, insomnia, a racing heart, talking faster than thinking. Too little is coldness, joylessness, poor circulation, a guttering spirit. Feed weak Fire with Wood (purpose, fuel, a reason to burn); cool excess Fire with Water (rest, stillness, the salt depth of winter), and let its child Earth ground some of the heat.
Tending Fire
Court Fire at noon and in summer: gather people, speak and laugh, make and share warmth, take a little bitter (good tea, dark greens) to settle the heart, and then, deliberately, let the fire bank low and rest.