The Yin and Yang of the Dove Style

The Five Elements, or Wu Xing, describe interactions and relationships between phenomena. The Five Elements model came to its maturity during the Han dynasty (second or first century BCE). It was used in many fields of early Chinese thought, including feng shui, astrology, medicine, military strategy, martial arts and of course, behavior and personality.

What I refer to as the Eagle style, the Chinese called the Wood element. Picture a mighty oak towering over the forest. The Parrot is Fire with its frenetic energy. The Owl is Metal, as it is sharp and accurate. But that leaves Earth and Water with just the Dove style remaining. That is because these two elements combine to form the Dove style.

Allow me to diverge from the styles for a moment to talk a little bit about Yin and Yang. We've all seen the Yin-Yang symbol, referred to as the Tai Chi. This symbol represents the dynamic balance between all universal polarities. Anything that has an opposite is represented by Yin and Yang. For example: female and male; night and day; hot and cold; earth and sky, left and right; the unknown and the known; receiving and giving; soft and hard; dark and light; moon and sun; intuition and intellect... I could do this all day.

Let's head back to the elements and the styles. Earth represents the Dove's receptive Yin aspect. Water represents the Dove's active Yang aspect. The Earth element embodies the Dove’s calm, patience and grounded nature. The water element captures the Dove’s flexible, go-with-the-flow mentality.

Even though there are Five Elements, they map quite nicely to the four bird styles. So, in addition to asking the question, Which Bird am I?, if you happen to be the Dove style, you can also ask, Am I more of Yin Dove or a Yang Dove?

By Merrick Rosenberg

CEO, Take Flight Learning

Author of The Chameleon, Taking Flight! and Personality Wins

www.TakeFlightLearning.com www.MerrickRosenberg.com