The Hands, the 5 Elements, and the World Religions

The elements and the world’s faiths – what’s the connection between this topic and hand reading with 5 Element chirology you might ask.

Firstly, spirituality and religion are integral components of our 5 Realm counseling and coaching model. In every hand reading, we pay at least some attention to our client’s spiritual and religious background, their current time orientation, to any wounding and disillusion they may be experiencing and to their aether governed curiosities and longings.

The second reason for presenting this topic is to further illustrate that everything in the world has its own, mostly readily identifiable element rulership. Every religious and spiritual persuasion has a correspondent resonance with earth, water, fire, air and aether. This fascinating truth serves to further validate the efficacy of the 5 Element system of how to interpret hands.

Aether

The all-encompassing and unifying 5^th element aether represents the universal God principle. All styles of belief in the sacred, all perspectives on the transcendent, all devotional practices, ways of worshipping and all religious ideologies are aether-governed.

Pantheism is the belief in all-inclusive divine Unity; that God is all and all is God. Pantheism rejects the idea that God is a separate entity. God and the existing universe, with all material, animal and human manifestations of substance, force and law, are one and the same. There is no personal God; the infinite cosmos itself is an expanding creator deity which has existed since the beginning of all creation. In contrast, monotheistic Christian, Judaic and Islamic beliefs worship a singularly powerful creator God.

Pantheistic concepts date back thousands of years. We find elements of pantheism in several religious traditions.

Air

Buddhism, Confucianism and Taoism are the predominant air religions of the world in that their belief systems are essentially more philosophical than they are religious. Air level spiritual practice reflects in oral tradition, study of sacred scriptures, contemplation, meditation, mantra, and the search for higher truth and conscious understanding.

Buddhism, which excludes belief in a monotheistic creator deity and which emphasizes wisdom, realization and transcendence of the individual self, is the major air-governed religion of the world. Confucianism is based on right conduct and is a philosophical system which advocates social harmony. Taoism is a philosophy and religion that teaches compassion, humility, naturalness and simplicity. All have unifying pantheistic influences. Air-governed spirituality holds openness to non-theism. No matter our religion, we can simultaneously take refuge in Buddhism.

People with air-shaped squarish palms, long fingers and many whorls are often oriented to religious and spiritual philosophies and are likely to steer clear of any prescribed belief systems.

Fire

Fire plays out in conservative branches of Judaic, Christian and Islamic orthodoxy. Fundamentalists have deep-held, unwavering belief in the authority of a supreme, omnipotent, wrathful and vengeful God. Literal interpretations of religious scriptures dictate obedience and conformity to rules of conduct; these rules of behavior are often dogmatic and discriminatory.

In religious practices where emphasis is on doing of deeds in the name of a strictly monotheistic belief and which are evangelistic, organized, frenzied and warlike, fire has gone rampant. Any vigorous attempt by fervent zealots who believe it is their duty to convince and convert others to believing that their doctrines are wrong and that theirs are right, are exhibiting excessive fire.

Belief that unless we do not follow rule-based conduct there will be no salvation, but instead the judgement of God’s wrath, along with eternal punishment and hell as a consequence, fall in the fire-governed category, as do concepts of original sin and martyrdom.

We might expect stiff-handed people with oblong palms and short fingers, with loops and tented arch dermatoglyphics, to be more likely to go along with fire-governed belief systems that are interpreted as being the infallible and ultimate truth.

Water

Spiritual traditions or orientations in which devotees have the flexibility to believe in many gods are water-governed. Hinduism, where rituals and worship of many deities provide connection to the pantheistic force of Brahman, is the main water religion of the world. While Brahman is Hinduism’s supreme cosmic spirit which connotes the highest universal principle, Hinduism’s many male, female and animal forms are worshipped as gods and goddesses in their own right. Theirs is a pluriform monotheism; all deities are revered as being component representatives of Brahman.

Moon worshipping rituals are also water-governed, as is the initiatory practice of baptism that sprinkles or dips in water as a symbol of submergence in spirit that purifies and cleanses. Charismatic Christian worship and faith healing are other examples of how, like water in nature, people follow their urge to merge, and to sing God’s praises.

Water-governed spirituality expresses herself in styles of spiritual practice that are non-violent, loving, forgiving, faithful, compassionate, service oriented, selfless and generously devoted to others’ welfare.

People with slender, elegant log-palmed and long-fingered water shaped hands are unlikely to relate to prescribed religious doctrines and more likely to consider themselves as being spiritual rather than religious.

Earth

The earth-governed religions of the world are the orthodoxies, the old, organized, patriarchal Judeo-Christian belief systems that teach a good vs evil doctrine.

Additionally, there are many other Gaia-centered, nature worship religions and spiritual traditions. Ancient nature and tribal religions, such as paganism, wicca, shamanism, tribal religions, druidism, ancestor worship and Zoroastrianism are governed by earth. Shinto, one of Japan’s main religions, is also earth-governed.

Earthy devotion is obedient, belief bound, duty oriented and is practiced with persistence and regularity. When earth archetype people follow religious beliefs, they gravitate towards upholding continuity; service and worship of God will be rooted in and consistent with the traditions of their lineage and the customs and belief systems followed by their father and his father before.

Earthy people with square palms and short fingers are by nature conservative, cautious, change resistant and risk averse. Convictions are strong; the unfamiliar and the unknown are met with skepticism.

Some lesser known religions are the ancient faith of Jainism, and Sikhism, which is monotheistic with pantheistic elements. Zoroastrianism, another of the world’s oldest faiths, and Baha’i, which is the youngest major world religion, are monotheistic.