Wood element in Feng Shui relates to a LIVE plant, whether a houseplant or a tree. It is not just wooden floorboards or wooden furniture as so many feng shui consultants get wrong if they don't understand energy dynamics. Ferns and grasses are a yin type of wood energy, whereas great oak trees and evergreens tend to be more yang wood. 

Wood is also associated with the gallbladder (yang) and liver (yin) and the emotions of happiness or anger. Quite often if someone has blocked wood energy they have a tendency to be angry and quite easily frustrated. Even in our everyday language we used to refer to (and some people still do) others as 'liverish' in their temperament if they are a bit angry. The opposite of angry and frustrated is happy and easy going, with a smooth flow of energy in your life. 

Wood is expressed by the colours of green - from lime green and fern green to racing green and bottle green.  Mint green isn't really strong enough especially if it is quite blue in its tone. Jade green beautifully expresses wood element, as does the stone green jade. Olive and khaki greens are a little too brown (earthy) to best express the rising chi of stronger purer green shades.  

Just as a stone cast into a pool causes undulating ripples or a duck swimming along or a speedboat will cause a wake behind them, water patterns are ones which have a lot of movement and also can by asymmetric and a little indistinct too. Softly wavy and swirling patterns are also be water element.

The compass direction related to water is the East and Southeast. This can be the Easterly and Southeasterly parts of your house and the East or Southeast of a city, or of a country, but the more Easterly and forested a region is then the more it is associated with Wood element. 

Let's imagine you wear green all the time and live in a home that is predominantly green and is East facing and you sleep in an East facing bedroom and you spend most of your day in the East facing study which is painted green and has lots of plants in it,  you are likely going to start feeling pretty unbalanced and possibly even a little irritable and angry. I paint an extreme picture of course, but I actually know people who need wood energy and can't be around enough houseplants, but their partners don't need wood chi and feel annoyed in the same space! Balance is key when two people living in the same home need different elements. 

Of course, not everyone is going to be this extreme but it does happen, and it can easily happen when there has been no consideration of the feng shui readings at a property. Many people move into a new home without considering the feng shui energy, and paint throughout in the wrong colours just because it is a latest fad (like soft grey) or they just like the style of it (fair enough). While I LOVE supporting you to express your unique sense of style, I also believe it is best to work within the feng shui framework and guidance. 

It is a myth to that you need all five elements in every room. This is not how feng shui works. That being said, all the different elements interact with each other and if you also have too much metal, then you are strengthening the water influence as metal supports water. 

There are special form horoscope charts, such as Eastern Wood chart or Follow Wood chart, which have really strong wood influence, meaning that you are a Wood Day Master or Wood Self Element born in a Wood month and a Wood year, for example, so you already have a lot of Wood energy in your blueprint. These types of charts can be a blessing or a bit of a disadvantage if you don't learn how to make the most of its unique power.  

Are you getting a fuller picture of how intricate and multi-layered this whole wisdom system is? Hard to do self-help feng shui without getting confused, right?! ;) 

I hope you have found this informative. In my next blog, in a week or so, I look at the Fire Element in Feng Shui and Chinese Medicine. 

In the meantime, do not hesitate to reach out if you have a feng shui consultation project to discuss. 

Kindest, Sarah x