The number FIVE, like the number FOUR is seen differently in different cultures. Universally FIVE sits in the middle of the numbers and therefore has a sense of balance like a fulcrum has on a lever. The fulcrum can adjust as outside pressures increase or decrease. FIVE is about adventure and opportunity. In Feng Shui FIVE is more a stable balance like a top that spins, it’s stable while in motion. It represents the five elements (wood, earth, fire, metal and water), the five seasons (the four plus long summer), the five directions (the four cardinal directions and the center), the five emotions (happiness, anger, sadness, bliss, and hatred), and so on. It is a Yang number and not associated with a single element because it represents all five. FIVE also has one shadow over it, in Cantonese it sounds like the word “nothing” so it is sometimes seen as not as lucky. But in general the FIVE in Feng Shui has more of a completeness energy than it does here in the West. Here FIVE represents talents, originality, being resilient, and being mentally alert.
There are several ways to draw the number FIVE. Look at how you have written yours. Is the top attached? Is the top written in a separate stroke from the rest of the number? Is the lower loop large or small? As I mentioned before the FIVE is like the TWO reversed in form so now the stability (the straight stroke) is in the mental and spiritual area where the curved bottom allows it to rock back and forth in the physical world which creates much change. Writing the FIVE in one motion can indicate that in moments of change the mental work comes first. This might sound good but we can’t always predict the extent of change so we may end up unprepared. When the stroke is written last the physical changes occur first and then the mental and spiritual interpretation follows. If the top stroke is not attached it can be that the mental process is not connected to the change happening in life. It’s like the mind is ‘flying away’ from the experience of the body. If there is too much FIVE energy then a person can be a gambler taking too many chances or it could be the opposite, too afraid of failure to move forward on anything.
