Editorial Process

Every guide, blog article, Energy Chart interpretation, and wellness recommendation published by Elemental Astro is the product of a documented editorial workflow that prioritizes classical Chinese textual authority, contemporary scholarly review, and clear separation between cultural and educational content and any form of professional advice.

1. Editorial Mission

Elemental Astro is operated by Ignite Entertainment LLC (Albany, New York, United States) and serves a global English-speaking audience seeking authoritative, accessible, and culturally faithful guidance on Chinese metaphysics and Eastern mind-body wellness traditions. The Editorial Team is charged with three responsibilities: fidelity to the classical Chinese sources from which these traditions originate; clarity for readers who have no prior background in Chinese cosmology, traditional medicine, or related practices; and responsibility in framing every reading and recommendation as cultural, educational, and reflective content rather than medical, legal, financial, or psychological advice.

This editorial process exists to make those three commitments verifiable. Every public article on Elemental Astro is the result of the workflow described below.

2. Source Authority & Hierarchy

Content on Elemental Astro draws from four tiers of source authority, applied in descending order of weight when sources conflict:

Tier 1 — Classical Chinese primary texts

The platform's astrology, divination, and Five Element content is anchored in the surviving Chinese classical canon, including but not limited to the Yijing (《易经》, Book of Changes), the Daodejing (《道德经》), the Zhuangzi (《庄子》), the Ziping Zhenquan (《子平真诠》, the foundational BaZi treatise), the Yuanhai Ziping (《渊海子平》), and the Sanming Tonghui (《三命通会》). The platform's Traditional Chinese Medicine and wellness content is anchored in the Huangdi Neijing (《黄帝内经》, The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon), the Shanghan Lun (《伤寒论》), the Bencao Gangmu (《本草纲目》, Compendium of Materia Medica), and the Zhenjiu Dacheng (《针灸大成》, The Great Compendium of Acupuncture and Moxibustion). Where translations exist, the platform consults the published English editions in parallel with the original Chinese.

Tier 2 — Peer-reviewed academic literature

Modern scholarship in Chinese philosophy, the history of Chinese medicine, ethnobotany, and comparative religious studies is consulted to verify the lineage and contemporary interpretation of classical claims. Preferred sources include monographs and articles from university presses and journals indexed in JSTOR, PubMed (for TCM clinical literature), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences databases.

Tier 3 — Established institutional references

Where Tier 1 and Tier 2 sources are silent on a contemporary application of a classical concept, the Editorial Team may consult institutional references such as the World Health Organization's standard terminology for Traditional Chinese Medicine, the Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism's documentation of intangible cultural heritage, and recognized professional bodies (the National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, the British Acupuncture Council, etc.) for nomenclature and modality definitions.

Tier 4 — Contemporary practitioner consensus

For modern practice contexts where classical or academic sources do not address a question directly (for example, applying a Five Element framework to contemporary workplace stress), the Editorial Team documents the contemporary interpretation transparently and labels it as such, without representing it as classical doctrine.

Every long-form article on the platform includes a footer link to the platform's full source bibliography, where readers can verify the texts cited.

3. Content Review Workflow

Each article — whether a Learn pillar guide, a blog article, or an annual forecast — passes through five stages before publication:

1. Research brief. The Editorial Team prepares a research brief identifying the question to be answered, the primary classical source(s) that address it, the relevant academic and institutional sources, and any open interpretive questions.
2. Draft. A draft is produced that adheres to the platform's editorial standards, including the required Quick Answer summary at the top, structured headings, an FAQ section, and a Sources section.
3. Primary-source verification. Every claim attributed to a classical text is verified against the original Chinese (or a recognized critical edition where the original is fragmentary). Misattributions and apocryphal quotations are removed.
4. Wellness and safety review. Articles touching on Traditional Chinese Medicine, herbalism, acupuncture, dietary therapy, breathwork, or any embodied practice receive an additional safety review to ensure that no claim could be reasonably read as medical advice and that appropriate referrals to licensed practitioners are present where relevant. See Section 4.
5. Publication and indexing. The article is published with appropriate structured data (Schema.org Article, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, and where applicable Course or DefinedTerm), indexed in the platform's sitemap, and linked from at least one related Learn pillar.

4. Wellness & TCM Content Standards

Elemental Astro publishes content on Traditional Chinese Medicine, mind-body practices (meditation, yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, breathwork), and sound healing. All such content is governed by an additional standard above and beyond ordinary editorial review:

• No diagnostic, prescriptive, or curative claims. Articles describe traditional theory and document classical and contemporary practice. They do not diagnose conditions, prescribe treatments, or claim to cure disease. Phrases such as "treats," "cures," "heals" (in a medical sense), and "prevents" are not used to describe outcomes.
• Practitioner referral standard. Where an article discusses a modality that requires hands-on training (acupuncture, moxibustion, cupping, herbal prescription, advanced Qi Gong), the article includes a clear recommendation that readers consult a licensed or certified practitioner in their jurisdiction before practicing. Self-administered modalities (gentle meditation, basic breathwork, lifestyle adjustments aligned with the Chinese body clock) are framed as low-risk lifestyle exploration.
• Drug-herb and condition contraindications. Articles discussing Chinese herbal medicine include a standard contraindication note advising readers on pregnancy, lactation, prescription medication interactions, and pre-existing conditions that warrant a licensed herbalist's review.
• Element-matched practice recommendations. The platform's distinctive practice — recommending specific meditation, yoga, breathwork, or sound-healing modalities based on a user's Five Element constitutional profile — is framed as personalized lifestyle exploration informed by the Wu Xing framework, not as clinical prescription.

5. Author & Reviewer Attribution

Articles are published under the institutional byline The Elemental Astro Editorial Team. This reflects the platform's collaborative editorial model in which research briefs, drafts, primary-source verification, and safety reviews are conducted by different team members and contracted subject-matter consultants. Where a single contributor's expertise is foundational to an article, that contributor is acknowledged in the article's Sources footer.

Subject-matter consultants who contribute to wellness, TCM, or classical-text research are credentialed independently, and their qualifications are available on request. Consultants with any commercial interest in a third-party product, course, or studio referenced in an article are recused from that article's review cycle.

6. Update & Refresh Policy

The platform commits to a documented refresh cadence:

• Annual forecasts (such as the Year of the Fire Horse 2026 guide) are reviewed before each Lunar New Year and updated to reflect the incoming Heavenly Stem and Earthly Branch combinations.
• Pillar guides (the nine Learn pillar pages — Yin Yang, Five Elements, Energy Chart, TCM, Chinese Zodiac, Feng Shui, I Ching, Energy Practices, Annual Forecast) are reviewed every six months for accuracy, source updates, and clarity.
• Blog articles are reviewed at least annually and refreshed when classical-source scholarship, contemporary regulatory guidance (especially around TCM modalities), or platform feature changes warrant it.
• The Last Updated date on every article reflects the most recent substantive review, not minor copy edits.

7. Corrections, Disclosures & Reader Feedback

If a reader identifies a factual error, a misattributed source, or content that could be read as medical advice, the Editorial Team requests notification at editorial@elementalastro.io. Substantive corrections are made within ten business days of verification; where the correction materially changes the meaning of an article, a dated correction note is appended to the article footer.

Where the Editorial Team revises a published article based on new scholarship or updated regulatory guidance, the revision is logged in the article's footer with the date and a brief summary of what changed.

8. Independence & Conflicts of Interest

Elemental Astro is independently operated. The platform does not accept paid placements, sponsored articles, or affiliate revenue for Learn pillar content, blog articles, or annual forecasts. Where the platform forms partnerships with offline meditation studios, yoga schools, sound-healing practitioners, or licensed TCM clinics — a direction the platform is actively pursuing as part of its mind-body wellness expansion — those relationships are disclosed transparently on a dedicated partnerships page and are never embedded into educational editorial content.

The platform's premium subscription products and Energy Stones (in-app virtual items) are commercial offerings of the platform itself and are described as such on relevant pages. They are never represented as editorial recommendations.