What is a Clash?

A Clash in Feng Shui  refers  to the collision of energies.

The Five Elements Cycle">of wood - fire - earth - metal - water are connected in a cycle which may be feeding or exhausting depending on the direction of the energy. For each element there also exists a pair of clasing elements, one that it clashes and another one that it is clashed by.

An example: fire clashes metal and is controlled by water. The clash therefore always has a direction. The violence of the collision is also dependent on whether the elements meet in the same polarity, for example, yang fire on yang metal, or if yin and yang come together. If the polarities are different, the force is less strong. Clashes occur whenever the interjacent element between two elements in the cycle is missing. Supplementing this revokes the clash and the energy can flow again.