Spring: The Wood Element Season

What element would you guess is associated with spring and the time when all vegetation begins to grow? We can imagine an oak tree and it's beginning as an acorn.

The Acorn begins to grow under the ground and pushes itself upwards and outwards. Already at the start, the acorn knows where it is going. It is destined to become an oak tree.

The blueprint or plan of an oak tree is already contained in the acorn. When growth begins, an impediment like a stone line on the earth above the old acorn, will be pushed out of the way as a tree first emerges. Pushing the stone out of the way is not an aggressive act. It is just that an acorn does what an acorn has to do. The Acorn emerges and over time, given suitable conditions, grows into a tall oak tree.

We can see several connections between how an acorn transforms into an oak tree and how the wood element enables us to develop into mature human beings.

In the Chinese classics, the wood element’s correspondence to the spring can be described as the birth of yang energy. Yang energy is forceful and vigorous, warming and expansive. It is an activating energy that overcomes inertia. It moves upward and outward in the spring and breaks through barriers while growing through the ground towards the Sun.

The new growth establishes territory for the plant and helps to ensure survival. The survival might mean competing with other plants for sunlight and water or activities that require flexibility and adaptability. The growth of the plant is purposeful, not random, manifesting the plan laid down in its DNA. The fulfillment of this inner Purpose allows it to compete and survive.

Spring is the season of the wood element. East is the direction and dawn is the time of day. Like the spring and the new dawn, the energy of the wood element brings a sense of hope, renewal, transformation, change, new beginnings, rebirth and reanimation.

Winter has been survived, the days lengthen and the temperature climbs in the spring seedlings replacing plants with that succumb to the harshness of winter. Flowers blossom and the cycle of creation begins anew.

From this new energy comes a wood elements ability to initiate action, to express emotions and to experience creative new ideas. When a wood element type is well adapted these qualities become a tremendous vitality and optimism.

The wood element metaphor is symbolized by green growing things. Wood is fed by springs and from the water element, which can be thought of in terms of water feeding the roots of a tree or even original birth of life.

The wood element provides fuel for the fire element nourishing its growth. The wood element controls the earth element by putting roots into the ground and holding it in place. The wood element is controlled by the metal element which chops it and can destroy or transform it. The color green associated with the wood element is a metaphor for green new buds on a plant, and with all new birth and growth.

It's a time for planting seeds and developing new ideas. What does spring symbolize to your life? What in your life needs to be revived, renewed or reborn? What seeds do you need to nurture now so that you will have a bountiful harvest in the summer and fall?

The emotion associated with the wood element is anger. Anger often masks our feelings such as grief or fear. We may move into anger to project old wounds or as a reaction to fear of some danger or perceived attack or indignity whether physical, emotional or otherwise.

If we find we habitually react in anger, it helps to recognize our grief and fears and evaluate the appropriate object of anger and the appropriate action to take. Anger can lead to joy when we can be conscious of its source and then feed the fire of our passions for appropriate action change or growth.

The personal superpower of the wood element is forgiveness, and rebirth. We can visualize a child being born into the world. Birth symbolizes the beginnings of life, ideas and projects. Forgiveness is also a return to the beginning or return to the way things were before. It can relate to the story of our own physical birth and the beginnings of life. If we feel out of touch with our own personal power it may be very important to reconsider our origins to forgive ourselves and to return to our original innocence.

We may be expending energy to achieve things that have little or nothing to do with our dreams or aspirations. Is there something that you need to let out to give birth to? To forgive, to let go, to express your personal power? Are you starting too many new things? Birthing more than you can support, nourish, and enjoy?

These are just a few of the lessons of spring. Now is the time to really connect to forgiveness and faith. What might you want to bring in to birth? What has been gestating over the winter season that you're ready to bring forth and grow in this season? Can you clarify your new vision for the future that will take root during this season and blossom in this summer and fall?