The Five Elements, or rather the Five Phases, are simply a way of describing the cycle of movement in all things.  We can relate it to the cycle of life, the cycle of the seasons, and the cycle of a single technique in Aikido, or anything else where movement is involved.  The movements include Water, Wood, Fire, Earth and Metal and each have correspondences relating to them.  Since my injury I have found that using the Five Elements as a teaching tool has been invaluable to me as a means to make my point in certain areas of Aikido.  Below are examples of each Element and a few examples of their correspondences.

• Water:  Pre birth, Winter, Cold, Stillness, Wisdom, Potency, Unknowing, Fear, The buried seed
• Wood: Birth to late teens, Spring, Wind, Rising up, Assertive, Making and Carrying out a Plan, Anger, Entering in, The rising of the vine
• Fire:  Late teens to Middle age, Summer, Heat, Partnership, Joy, the Height of movement, setting up the technique, Blending, Blossoming of the fruit
• Earth: Middle age to senior, Late Summer, Damp, Descending, Thoughtfulness, The application of technique, Ripening of the fruit
• Metal:  Senior to death, Autumn, Dry, Acknowledgement and letting go, The finish, The Harvest.

Each movement flows into the next and is barely discernable, yet it does happen and this is where the power comes from.  The video accompanying this description shows my growth in Aikido from the Wood stage of my training, to the Fire stage, to the Earth stage as I see it.  Notice the change in my movements as well as the full cycle of each technique.  The video ends with five still pictures depicting the action as the technique Shoman Uchi koete gaeshi flows from one movement to the next.