What's in a name?

I have often been asked why I call a person’s element their Guardian Element.  And my answer to this is always the same.  When I first learned about the elements and each person’s attachment to one element, we called that element the person’s CF, an abbreviation for the Causative Factor of Disease, coined by JR Worsley.  During my years of study under him it was clear that he regarded the CF not simply as the cause of disease, the place of weakness in the five element circle where illness might strike, but as the focal point for a person’s life, both as regards ill-health and health.  In other words, this element was just as much the causative factor of good health as of disease.

I like to move away from the emphasis on disease implied by the tern CF to a wider and more positive interpretation, and coined the phrase Guardian Element, because that is how I see the element we are endowed with in its widest sense.  When weak it may well cause illness, but when strong it defends us, sheltering us under its wings, like some guardian angel watching over us - hence the term.

But whether we call an element our CF, our Guardian Element or, another phrase often used, our Constitutional Element, matters not one jot, provided that we recognise that our individual character is shaped, body and soul, by that element’s features.  So you can take your pick!