Insights from traditional health pentagrams: 5-dimensional scales?

Symbolic Insignia Indicative of Global Health (Part #7)

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Of potential relevance with respect to any broader understanding of health are the two classical health patterns based on use of the pentagram in Western and Eastern cultures, as discussed separately (Memorable dynamics of living and dying: Hygeia and Wu Xing, 2014):

• Hygiea: The Pythagoreans developed an understanding of health which they associated with the form of the pentagram and the Greek goddess Hygiea (also Hygieia or Hygeia) -- the personification of health, cleanliness and sanitation, and the origin of the term "hygiene" (The Pythagorean Pentacle, 1996). The name of the goddess is alleged to have been used as their primary greeting (perhaps, speculatively, to be considered an origin for "hug"). The snake-encircled Bowl of Hygiea has long been used as one of the symbols of pharmacy. Hygiea Internationalis is now the official journal of the International Network for the History of Public Health.
  
  
• Wu Xing: This ancient Chinese mnemonic pattern in the form of a pentagram of five phases, or five elements, is widely known in East Asia. It is traditionally associated with Chinese medicine, acupuncture, feng shui, and Taoism. The pattern is recognized as highlighting a cyclic relationship between the five constituent elements: fire, earth, metal, water and wood. It is the vectors of the "overcoming" or "controlling" cycle which are typically represented as a pentagram. Generative and destructive cycles are shown as clockwise and counter-clockwise circular motion:
  

Comparison of traditional Eastern and Western integrative understandings of health
Hugieia Pentagram of Pythagoreans	Chinese 5-phase Wu Xing cycle
Reproduced from Hygiea entry in Wikipedia (G. J. Allman Greek Geometry From Thales to Euclid, 1889, p.26) with labels added	Adapted from Wu Xing entry in Wikipedia Interaction arrows: black=generating; white= overcoming

Both could be fruitfully recognized as "non-binary" scales of justice with respect to the broader understanding of health each implies. The conventional depiction of scales of justice -- and that of the Egyptian Book of the Dead -- could then be seen as a binary simplification of that implied by the traditional 5-fold patterns. The fundamental argument being the more complex understanding of balance implied in each case -- balancing 5 parameters rather than 2.

Mechanical adaptations of both schematic representations could then be understood as scale mechanisms of greater complexity -- recognizable to a striking degree in the designs of the more sophisticated weighing scales. These may be required for greater sensitivity than the conventional weighing scale, or for the challenges in practice of weighing items placed off-centre in the weighing pans, as with the Roberval balance designed with 6 pivot points.

Of particular interest is the relationship to conventional binary scales achieved by using any one of the points of the pentagram as a pivot point -- a fixed point around which the configuration as a whole rotates. This would then exemplify a form of bias characteristic of the imposition of a binary understanding of "justice" on a more subtle sense of justice -- one that is potentially more relevant to the complex dynamics of a global understanding of healthy sustainability. Any singular choice of pivot point by which justice is defined then gives rise to a biased sense of balance -- as otherwise implied by justice -- potentially suggested by the many potential sources of error in weighing. Does justice call for such sensitivity?

This interpretation is suggested by the simplistic animations below. That on the left uses "water" as the pivot point with respect to which balance is determined -- as might be the case with any preoccupation with water justice , especially given its vital role with respect to health. That on the right uses "wood" as the pivot point -- as might be the case with any preoccupation with (de)forestation, given its vital role with respect to the health of the global environment. Clearly the two schemes each invite four other such animations of imbalance.

Animations indicative of comparability of integrative patterns to 5-fold scales of justice
Hygeia	Scales of Justice	Wu Xing
Reproduced from Wikipedia

The 5-fold patterns call for metaphorical interpretation of the traditional labels in order to recognize the 5-dimensionality of health as traditionally understood. Despite the current importance of such 5-fold understanding to many in Eastern cultures, the articulation by Ayurveda is strongly dismissed as quackery and peudoscience according to the criteria of health defined by Western medicine. A striking illustration of that pattern is presented below.

Ayurveda 3 elemental bodily humors and 5 elements from which they are composed.
Static	Animation
Krishnavedala, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Given the problematic role of the pharmaceutic industry ("Big Pharma") in relation to the pandemic and health in general (Big Pharma conspiracy theory), the continuing controversy with regard to understanding of health itself offers useful strategic metaphors (Remedies to Global Crisis: "Allopathic" or "Homeopathic"? 2009).

Exacerbating this controversy is the role of the World Health Organization in supporting approaches otherwise strongly deprecated as pseudoscience by the pharmaceuitcal community (Traditional, Complementary and Integrative Medicine, WHO; WHO traditional medicine strategy: 2014-2023, WHO, 2013; WHO global report on traditional and complementary medicine 2019, 2019 ). 170 Member States of WHO have aclnowledged their use of traditional and complementary medicine since 2018.

As a complementary medicine, this apparent contradiction is especially evident in the case of homeopathy -- experienced as a commercial challenge by the pharmacuetical industry (B. Poitevin, Integrating homoeopathy in health systems, Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 77, 1999, 2; Oona Mashta, WHO warns against using homoeopathy to treat serious diseases, BMJ, 2009; 339)

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