The Spiralling Nature of Energy: Understanding Yin, Yang, and the Five Elements

In this post, I’d like to share some insights about quantum physics and energy healing that have recently come to me intuitively. While these ideas are theoretical, they’ve brought together many of my existing understandings and resonated deeply as something worth exploring when working with energy, especially the energy that forms our bodies, shapes our thoughts and emotions, and ultimately creates our reality. I’m not sure whether this information will resonate with readers who haven’t encountered similar realisations through their own journey with energy work, but I hope at the very least to plant a seed and offer a new perspective.

Understanding Energy Beyond the Abstract

We often speak of energy as if it’s an elusive, magical, or non-physical force, but what is it really at its deepest level?Energy is commonly represented as waves, oscillating patterns with peaks, troughs, wavelengths, and amplitudes. These models help us visualise energy on a two-dimensional level. However, in reality, energy moves not just in waves, but in spirals, continuous circular motions that also carry properties of wavelength and amplitude.

The energy that the body is composed of is organised through a system of chakras and meridian energy channels, similar to our circulatory system. In Sanskrit, the word chakra translates as 'spinning disk', demonstrating that these energy centres are spiral structures, and energy flows throughout the body in similar spiralling patterns. That’s why many yogic and tantric practices, including Kundalini yoga, use circular movements to harmonise with this natural flow.

The Elements Within Energy

So what are these waves, or spirals, actually made of? In deep meditative traditions, such as Vipassana, it’s taught that at the subatomic level, all matter and energy are composed of five fundamental elements: fire, earth, air, water, and ether. In the Pali language, these tiny elemental particles are called kalapas.

Each element carries distinct qualities:

• Fire governs heat and transformation.

• Air governs motion.

• Water governs fluidity and coherence.

• Earth governs density and stability.

• Ether (the fifth element) represents space and connection.

In Ayurveda, India's ancient health system, the five elements — earth, water, fire, air, and ether — are combined into three groups, known as doshas which demonstrate how the elements express themselves within each of us. They are like energetic blueprints that shape not only our bodies, but also our minds and emotions. Every person carries all three doshas in different proportions, which explains why we each have distinct physical traits, temperaments, and tendencies.

• Pitta — fire + water

• Vata — air + ether

• Kapha — earth + water

When these elemental forces are in balance, we experience vitality, clarity, and harmony, our digestion, mood, and energy flow smoothly. But when one or more doshas become imbalanced, due to stress, diet, lifestyle, or emotional strain, it can show up as physical symptoms, mental unrest, or shifts in our emotional state. Understanding your doshic makeup helps you recognise what balance feels like for you, and how to bring yourself back to that natural state through food, movement, rest, and energy work.

Spirals, Polarity, and Balance

Alongside the five elements are the dual polarities of feminine and masculine energy, often known as yin and yang. These are not about gender, but rather about two fundamental forces that exist within all things, opposing yet complementary aspects of creation. Yin, the feminine energy, is receptive, cooling, nurturing, and inwardly focused. It represents stillness, intuition, reflection, and the softer flow of energy that draws inward to restore and sustain. Yang, the masculine energy, is active, warming, expressive, and outwardly focused. It embodies movement, strength, clarity, and the dynamic expansion of energy into action and manifestation.

Both are essential and constantly in motion, a balance of giving and receiving, contraction and expansion, rest and action. In energetic terms, I believe yin and yang influence the direction and quality of energy’s movement. I believe they shape how the spiral of energy spins, yin guiding a more inward, counterclockwise flow of integration and healing, while yang drives a clockwise motion of outward expression and creation. When these polarities are balanced, energy flows in a harmonious double-helix pattern, like the intertwined strands of DNA, stable, vital, and full of life. But when one dominates the other, the energy can become distorted or blocked, leading to imbalance within the body, mind, and spirit.

Elemental Influence on Energy Waves

Now that we’ve looked at how energy flows in spirals, let’s explore how the five elements influence the qualities of these energy waves. Each element, fire, earth, air, water, and ether, contributes its own characteristics to the overall pattern and behaviour of energy. These theories may describe tangible energetic dynamics that can be felt in the body and perceived through intuitive awareness.

🔥 Fire – Heat, Intensity, and Frequency

Fire governs transformation and heat. On an energetic level, it determines the frequency or wavelength of an energy wave, the measure of how rapidly it oscillates.

When there’s a strong presence of fire particles (kalapas), energy vibrates faster, producing shorter wavelengths and higher intensity. This type of energy feels vibrant, alert, and powerful, it fuels action, willpower, and drive. It’s the spark behind creativity, digestion (both physical and emotional), and spiritual awakening.

However, excess fire can lead to instability or burnout. Energy becomes agitated, erratic, and difficult to ground, similar to an electrical circuit overloaded with current. In the human energy field, this can show up as irritability, inflammation, or a restless mind. Balancing fire with the cooling and grounding elements of water and earth restores equilibrium, allowing the energy to flow with strength but also steadiness.

🌬️ Air – Motion, Speed, and Expansion

Air governs movement, direction, and velocity. It’s the element that gives energy the ability to travel, to move thoughts, emotions, and life-force through different layers of our being.

When air predominates, energy moves quickly, lightly, and freely. This can feel like mental clarity, inspiration, or the sensation of energy rushing up and down the spine in practices like pranayama or kundalini awakening.

But when there’s too much air, energy becomes scattered, jumping between directions without coherence. Thoughts race, emotions fluctuate rapidly, and grounding is lost. In contrast, too little air slows energy movement, creating stagnation or heaviness.

The dance between air and earth defines the speed of energetic motion: air accelerates, earth decelerates. Together they determine how swiftly energy spirals and how effectively it can travel through our energetic pathways.

🌍 Earth – Stability, Density, and Structure

Earth is the element of form and solidity, bringing structure to energy. It acts as the container that holds and organises the other elements.

A strong earth presence creates slower-moving, denser energy that feels grounded, embodied, and tangible. It anchors the higher vibrations of fire and air, allowing them to manifest physically, whether as creative projects, emotional resilience, or healing in the body.

However, an excess of earth can lead to rigidity. Energy becomes slow, resistant, and heavy, manifesting as lethargy, attachment, or an overemphasis on the material. Balancing earth with air and fire brings vitality and flow back to this stable foundation.

💧 Water – Coherence, Rhythm, and Flow

Water governs fluidity and harmony in the movement of energy. It’s what allows energetic spirals to oscillate smoothly and consistently, maintaining rhythm and coherence.

When water energy is abundant, the waveforms are stable and predictable, with regular oscillations that carry information and emotion gracefully through the system. This is what we often perceive as flow, when energy moves harmoniously through the chakras and subtle channels.

If water is lacking, energy waves become erratic and disjointed, losing coherence. Patterns can appear “noisy” or fragmented, and emotions may feel jagged or inconsistent. Too much water, on the other hand, can lead to emotional flooding or a loss of definition, where the boundaries between energies blur.

Balancing water with the stabilising energy of earth and the clarity of fire helps maintain rhythmic, flowing energy without overwhelming the system.

🌌 Ether – Space, Expansion, and Integration

Ether, the fifth element, is the field that holds everything else. It’s the subtle, spacious energy that allows all motion, vibration, and form to exist within it. While fire determines frequency, air governs motion, earth provides structure, and water ensures coherence, ether defines the space in which all of that happens.

It controls the diameter of the spiral, the size and openness of the energetic wave. The more ether present, the wider and more expansive the spiral becomes, allowing it to carry greater amounts of energy and information. Ether gives energy its spaciousness, making room for transformation and integration.

When ether is limited, energy feels compressed or constrained, like trying to move a large current through a narrow channel. When ether expands, energy flows freely, harmonising the other elements.

The Role of Ether in Reiki

During a Reiki healing session, etheric energy is channelled through the practitioner into the client’s body and aura. Blocked or constricted areas of the energy system are infused with additional ether, expanding the diameter of the spiral, opening restricted energy channels, allowing energy to flow more freely.

In the system of Reiki, we work with symbols which represent different natures of life-force energy. There are Reiki symbols correspond to yin, yang, and balanced energies, and by intuitively channelling these symbols, the practitioner can help to realign the client’s energy system. This often raises the client’s vibration, bringing shifts in perception and awareness, since body, mind, and spirit are deeply interconnected.

Over time, repeated sessions can help to clear physical and emotional imbalances, support healing, and accelerate spiritual growth.

Conclusion

In this article, I’ve shared a new perspective on how the elements influence the movement of energy spirals. The idea that energy flows in spirals and that the elements shape our body and mind is not new, it’s wisdom that has been known for thousands of years through ancient healing traditions such as Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and various esoteric teachings. What feels new and unique to me, however, is the insight into how each element specifically affects the dynamics of these spirals, their direction, flow, coherence, and balance.

I’ve also explored how this understanding might relate to Reiki and energy healing practice, offering a fresh lens through which to sense and work with subtle energy. While these ideas are still theoretical and rooted in personal exploration, meditation, and intuitive insight, they have deeply resonated within my own practice. As my understanding continues to evolve through experience and energetic work, I feel called to share these discoveries, not as fixed truths, but as possibilities, in the hope that they inspire others to explore their own energetic nature and deepen their connection to the unseen forces that move through all of us.