Spring, the wood phase bursting into life

In this series of essays on the greater energetic movements that give rise to all Creation and in turn, give rise to the seasons, I hope to offer a perspective and tools to help you find more resilience and joy amidst this turbulent time in history. By observing and understanding how Nature responds to the cycle of ever-changing energies over the course of a year, we gain insight into how these great forces are influencing our bodies, minds, and spirits. This knowing helps us work with these Great Movements in ways that supports us and helps us live more fully into our gifts and potential amidst the unraveling of human culture and ecosystems all around us. This is the third in a series of five essays on this theme. The first, “Shoulder Seasons, The Earth Phase,” explores the energies of transition; the second, “Winter and the Deep Dive Into the Water Phase” explores the energies of storing and gathering potential required for new life. Those can be found

Here

Introduction:

(If you have been following along in this series, you can skip to “Spring, The Wood Phase” below.)

The Four Seasons diagram above is deceptively simple yet infinitely complex. It is truly describing the movement of energy behind all of Creation, the movement of energy before there is form. We can relate to this concept as an essential step in any creative process. Whether it is the creation of a new business, a piece of art, or what to have for dinner, it starts with inspiration. A spark of an idea mysteriously arising in the mind. We start to work on the idea, imagining the different ways it can take shape. We have to imagine it, picture it, feel the different possibilities. It is a sense of excitement, anticipation, and possibility that leads us to take the first steps to bring inspiration to physical form. The business, art piece, or dinner exists energetically, in the imagination, long before it has physical form. It is this constellation of energies that will eventually give rise to the physical form. This is what the Four Season Diagram is all about. It depicts the Taoist Five Phases of energy that give rise to the myriad forms of life in Creation.

Why is this useful? Because it gives us a lens with which to witness and experience the social, political, and climatic unraveling that we are living in. Five Phase Theory gives us some basic Truths about how Creation works and has been working since the beginning of time. It’s comforting to see that the normal cycle of life includes a falling apart, unraveling, and dying that takes place in the dark of the Winter/Water phase, that then gives rise to new life in the Spring/Wood phase, matures and flourishes in the Summer/Fire phase and declines in the Fall/Metal phase. The process is the same whether it is a tree losing all its leaves to become compost for next year’s growth or the working institutions of an entire civilization that have exceeded their useful lives and need to be re-envisioned. It helps us get a bird’s eye view of all the changes taking place and make some sense of what is happening. It helps us feel a little less anxious.

This is not to ignore the deep human suffering unfolding daily at the individual and collective levels. Nor is it to ignore the deep suffering of the Earth and all the other-than-human beings. Rather, it is intended to bring a little light into our Hearts that we might be able to grow and flower as individual humans, bringing beauty and joy to ourselves, our families and our communities despite the cold, darkness of the times we are living in. We have the capacity to hold a spark of light and warmth in the cold darkness of Winter that gives rise to a new cultural, social, ecological, and spiritual Spring for humanity and for the Earth. Indeed, the Earth herself desperately needs us to take on this inner transformative work as we individually are a microcosm to her macrocosm. Our hearts can be cultivated like a beautiful garden, where life is flourishing all around. (For more on self-cultivation to be part of the Earth’s transformation to a Thriving Life ecosystem, see “Earth Transitions Point to Personal Transformation.”)

The Five Phases of Energy that give rise to Creation

Here in Maine, we have four distinct seasons. The seasons here give us a very direct experience of the Five Phase energies that give rise to Creation. We are all marinating in the energetic that creates the current season, so they are an easy way to get a sense of the phases. The seasons are but one expression of these energies that are something we are all experiencing together. When working with Five Phase energetics, Spring is the seasonal expression of the Wood Phase in the cycle of Life. From a western scientific point of view, it is the movement of the earth around the sun over the course of the year gives rise to the seasons. It is our position relative to the sun, and whether we are moving closer or further away that determines the quantity and quality of energy from the sun arriving each day and thus, the season. In Spring, the days are getting longer and we, in the northern hemisphere, are getting closer to the sun. According to Taoist teachings, the energies that give rise to the seasons, are the same energies that give rise to all of creation. From this lens, each season is 36½ days on either side of the Solstice or Equinox (Position 1). The Solstices are the mid points of Winter and Summer, not the beginning. The Equinoxes are mid points of Spring and Fall. Each of the four seasons is 73 days, which totals 292 days. The remaining 73 days of the year are divided into four transitional Earth Phases. (See blog post “Shoulder Seasons” for more on that.) Each year, you would need to count out the 36½ days on either side of the Equinox or Solstice to get the exact dates and times of each seasonal phase because they shift a little each year. Here are the approximate dates of the Energetic Phases that give rise to the seasons:

1. Summer Solstice, 2. Autumnal Equinox, 3. Winter Solstice, 4. Vernal Equinox

The Energetic Phases Give Rise to the Seasons

Wood phase gives rise to Spring: February 11th to April 26th

Fire phase gives rise to Summer: May 14th to July 28th

Metal phase gives rise to Autumn: August 17th to October 28th

Water phase gives rise to Winter: November 15th to January 27th

Earth Phase gives rise to the transitions between the seasons

These are not necessarily the dates we think of coinciding with the seasons because generally we are thinking about the weather. Here, we are working with the cyclical movement of the earth around the sun and the waxing and waning of the sun’s energy that gives rise to all of Creation.

Why is it useful to understand a bit about the greater energetic movements behind the creation of Life? Because these are the same energies that create our lives. And because we are part of Life, part of Nature and those energies affect us as much as the plants and animals that live outdoors. It’s like getting caught out in a rain shower without a raincoat and having no clue why we are so uncomfortably wet or what to do about it. It is helpful to understand how these greater energies affect and influence our bodies, minds and spirits so we can respond and work with them rather than struggling against them. It is also helpful and comforting to be able to feel how we, as humans, are part of the whole.

You can find your copy of the Four Seasons Diagram at the bottom of the list when you click below.

4 Seasons Diagram

It is not uncommon to see a chart like the one below when reading about Five Phase Theory. The chart is an attempt to help us understand how these energies behind Creation manifest once they constellate into a form we can experience directly. At first glance, it can look like a list of seemingly unrelated things. But, actually, they are related, as they offer us different ways we can learn to recognize the nature of the energy that gave rise to Creation. Once we learn to recognize these energetics in what is happening all around us, we can be a little more comfortable in the chaos that is this time in history. The chart is giving us multiple angles with which to experience the same energetic. In the case of the Wood Phase, the correspondences listed are various ways that the up and out nature of wood energy manifests once it takes a form we can experience. There is a lot of information here, but for our purposes, let’s focus on the areas highlighted in Green.

Season: Spring

Looking at the chart, you will find that the season of Spring corresponds to the Wood Phase. The up and out movement of the Wood energy, when it is reflected in the seasons, we call Spring. Wood phase, early Spring energy starts around February 11th or so. In Maine, that is when we really notice the days being longer, the sun starts to feel warm again and the chickadees start to sing. Here, February is one of the snowiest months and the daffodils and tulips seem very far away. And yet, around that time, maple sap collection starts because this is when the sap is rising in the trees during the day and falling back down at night. It is because of this movement that the sap can be collected and boiled down into maple syrup. Once we have up and out movement like this, we have passed the dormant stillness of the Winter/Water phase. We can imagine that the maple trees aren’t the only ones pushing upwards. The energy of all living things moves from a down-and-in storage and gathering of the Winter/Water phase to the up-and-out movement and growth of the Spring/ Wood phase. We are no different and we often describe this movement in ourselves as “cabin fever.” It’s a feeling of restlessness, of wanting to get out and get going on something but being held back. There can be a feeling of stress, irritability or frustration. I always recognize it in myself because I have an urge to start cleaning out and moving along stuff that we are no longer using. No closet or bookshelf is off limits. There is a particular kind of ruthless intensity to the cleaning and organizing that is fueled by the Wood phase. There is a quality of clearing the way and making space for something new to happen. An intolerance for clutter. Like the way the March winds scour the landscape of last year’s plants after Winter. Traditionally, we have the idea of a “spring cleaning,” the time of year when a deeper level of cleaning takes place, because soon the planting cycle begins. On a practical level, once the planting starts there isn’t time to worry about the dusty backs of closets in the urgent rush to get the coming year’s crops planted. But energetically, the fresh energy to tackle spring cleaning is one of the ways humans respond to the up-and-out Wood energy that is behind the rebirth of Spring.

In Spring we tire of the weight of heavy soups and stews and start longing for green, both in the landscape and on our plates. There is a south-facing stone wall on my regular walk that has been naturalized with snow drops. I eagerly watch for those starting in March. Eating more fresh greens helps us align with the Wood phase as they are liver tonics that help move the stuck qi that is producing that restless, cabin fever feeling. I have the urge to start growing sprouts of all kinds on my counter to add greenness to meals. Traditionally, by April, there are dandelion greens to be foraged which have long been known as a Spring liver tonic (the organ associated with the Wood phase).

Energy Direction: Up and Out!

People have always resonated and responded to the energies of the seasons, just as all of Creation does. Traditionally, human life and culture were more obviously tied to the rhythm of the seasons with planting and harvesting cycles as well as rituals and festivals. Our ancestors had a much more intimate relationship with the Natural world. In modern times, with central heat, electric lights, a focus on science and technology, and asparagus available any time of year (because it is Spring somewhere), we have forgotten these ties. Still, we carry those memories in our bones along with the DNA of our ancestors. We often don’t recognize that we are responding to the energies that give rise to Creation, just as all of Life on this planet does. We have the hubris to think that an urge or idea originated in us alone, when in fact, if you look around, the whole northern hemisphere is working with the up-and-out energy of Spring in infinite forms. We start craving greens (the color of Wood), we feel restless and start clearing out clutter (in my case), because that is the human response to the up-and-out Wood phase energy. The maple trees’ response to up-and-out Wood phase energy is to start moving sap upward; snow drops’ response is to push the first green shoots through the frozen ground; ewes’ response is to give birth; chickadees’ response is to start singing again. All of Creation is responding, singing their individual melodies of the same tune. It is happening all around us, inviting us to remember that we are part of Nature and join in the creative fun of being part of generative Life!

Challenge/Opportunity: Birth, Rapid Growth, and Renewal

The essential work of the Wood Phase is birth and rapid growth and renewal. It is the phase when all the potential that was stored in the Winter/Water phase comes rapidly into form, following the blueprint. This is important because the rapid growth is following a plan to quickly get the new life up-and-out, mature enough to sustain itself. In nature, we witness the biggest surge of this energy in Spring when birth and rapid growth are happening all around us. But it happens all the time in smaller ways. This energy brings the miracle of birth, when there is a whole new living being in the world that wasn’t there before. We can see this movement in any creative endeavor that goes from an inspired idea (formless potential) to something that others can experience (form). This can be the literal birth of a child who goes from “a twinkle in their mother’s eye” to the baby in her arms, to a young adult. It is also, the movement of a seed to seedling, to flowering plant. It is the movement of an inspiration in an artists heart/mind to an art form others can experience and enjoy. It is the movement of an idea and a bunch of ingredients to a tasty meal. It is the movement of starting a new business and growing it to become profitable.

The Wood phase is the part of the life cycle that is birth to young adulthood. It is the stage of life where, if the conditions are right, we are loved and nurtured and allowed to blossom into ourselves. We get to learn who we are and get headed in the general direction to be able to bring our blueprint and soul mission into being. In the way that a whole oak tree is contained within the acorn, we can say that human beings come in with the whole blueprint of themselves and their highest potential stored in their DNA. (In Taoist philosophy, we would say it is stored in the Water Phase. See “Winter and the Deep Dive into the Water Phase” for more on that.)

The Wood phase begins for the oak when the acorn cracks, and all the stored oaky potential starts unfurling. We can see this unfurling in children’s innate interests and gifts. As parents, our job is to nurture those interests and gifts so they can come into full flower.

Youth is the Wood Phase of a human life, but Life is constantly renewing itself. We learn and grow throughout our lives. As adults, we have mini Wood phases when we learn something new, or engage in self-development in some way that brings forth aspects of ourselves hidden in the depths. Wood energy is always pushing us to live with as much authenticity as possible.

In human lives, we need to feel a sense of things sprouting in our lives. We feel fresh and revitalized by new ideas, projects and creative expressions. We need to feel like we are growing and living into our potential. If life circumstances, such as a dull, grinding job, for instance, inhibits our natural need for renewal, we feel trapped and depressed. It is as if a little seed sprout has outgrown its container and feels constrained and held back from becoming its full self.

Central Issue: Self-Assertion

The central issue of the Wood Phase is self-assertion. In humans, it is our capacity to consistently be true to our soul’s mission in life. It is having the determination and vision to grow into the truest, most authentic version of ourselves possible given the circumstances of our lives. It is the kind of assertion and focus that it takes to learn to play a new instrument or learn a new language. There is daily focus on practicing that results in steady progress toward mastery. There are choices made prioritizing the time to practice that mean saying “no” to lots of other things. Self-assertion is how we choose situations and opportunities that “resonate” with us because they are giving us ways to grow into our blueprints.

As parents, we try to encourage the life skill of following our passions to discover authenticity by offering different types of experiences and observing what the child is really jazzed by. Then we try to provide more of that thing and get out of the way. As the mother of same sex twins, the reality that these two boys came in with very different soul’s mission was obvious very early. It was a mini experiment in nature versus nurture where we could really see their true natures because the variables present with sequential kids weren’t there.

Self-Assertion is the capacity to say “yes” to what excites us, what we are passionate about, and what resonates for us, and say “no” to others’ (especially our parents’) ideas about what is right for us.

Everyday, we are presented with choices that can take us closer to or further from mastering our own life’s potential and possibilities. Wood phase assertion is the ability to consistently, over our lifetime, choose the “practice” of becoming ourselves.

virtue: benevolence

The Wood Phase give us the virtue of benevolence. This is not an everyday word for us, but it is how it is described in the classic texts. Some synonyms for benevolence are kindness, kind-heartedness, big-heartedness, compassionate, and goodwilled. It is fun to think about what the green, assertion of a seed sprouting teaches us about benevolence. I imagine that a farmer is grateful for the kindness of seeds to sprout reliably. The fact that plants continue to sprout and grow, supplying the most obvious essentials of food and oxygen, among other things, despite humans’ lack of respect for them and their homes, is an extreme act of benevolence and focus on their essential roles in generative Life on this planet.

Using our assertion to make choices that are in line with our individual growing and flowering according to our soul’s blueprint, is also an act of benevolence, generosity and kindness. You came into this life with certain gifts that the world needs. The fact that each of us is here in these crazy times is not an accident. Doing our best to more fully live into our soul’s mission to share our particular gifts and genius with our families, friends and communities is some of the most important work of our time. The Earth needs us to do this work as part of the transformation she is undergoing.

Emotions: Kindness, forgiveness vs. anger, frustration, irritation

The balanced and unbalanced emotions of the phases are often more easily understood in contrast to one another. If you poke around the Five Elements a bit, you will come across “anger” as the emotion of Wood. We have to be careful with this because it doesn’t mean what we think it means in our everyday use of the word. Remember, the energetic movement of Wood is up-and-out. Anything that has an up-and-out movement belongs to the Wood phase. Both kindness and anger are emotions that move up-and-out.

When we are doing well, we can be moved to kindness. A benevolent energy rises up in us, and we can take the movement outside ourselves to perform acts of kindness. It is an up-and-out movement of energy. When we are overwhelmed, feeling stressed and constrained, we experience the up-and-out movement of emotion as frustration that feels tight and constricted. It may sometimes overflow into angry words or actions but more often we have a tight neck and shoulders, we are stressed out, and it feels really hard to be kind and generous.

I often use the image of an old-fashioned sausage maker to illustrate our capacity to process life on any given day.

Every day, we have to transform life into ourselves, ie make sausage. This is the food you eat, the air you breathe, the books you read, the news you hear, abundance and lack, success and failure, love and loss, sickness and health….all of it comes in to the hopper at the top and you have to crank the handle to process it, making it into your individual life. You can see from the image that the hopper is of a finite and relatively small volume and the handle offers you a finite amount of leverage to crank it. This represents your human capacity on a given day. On a good day, when the “meat” of life that you have to process is relatively tender, and there isn’t too much of it, you have the energy to crank the handle and process it all. On those days, it is easy to be kind. You might have the energy to help someone turn their crank in addition to your own. Then there are the days when what is going into your hopper is not tender but more gristle and bone. Then the crank becomes harder to turn, you don’t have the energy to keep up and the hopper overflows. When the combination of hopper capacity and energy to crank have been exceeded, then we experience stress, irritability, overwhelm, frustration, or anger.

In health, Wood energy gives us the energy, vision, and creativity to bring our ideas, dreams, inspiration and ultimately, our blueprints, into the world, making it a kinder more benevolent place where the beauty of life can flower.

Aligning ourselves with the Wood/Spring phase:

· Develop tools to manage stress: We experience stress and feel stuck when we don’t have the capacity to process Life as it is impacting our individual lives. This is the when the hopper on the sausage maker is overflowing. We can increase our capacity by engaging in activities such as journaling, making art, meditating, mindful breathing, and daily vigorous exercise - especially outdoors, talking with a trusted friend or counselor.

· Exercise: Exercise needs its own heading under ways to support your wood because it is so effective at moving the stuck energy that wood is prone to. It is when the sausage maker gets overwhelmed that we feel stressed, exercise helps us crank through whatever life has given us on a given day. When you feel you shoulders creeping toward your ears, 30 minutes a day will go a long way toward helping you feel more relaxed.

· Nurture your dreams and inspirations. We can easily talk ourselves out of following our passions. We tell ourselves all the reasons it won’t work and we see only the obstacles. But birth is a miracle, and when we work with Wood energy, we are aligning ourselves with the miraculous, creative force of life. The forces of Nature do not work with the linear, rational mind. They work with the emotion of the heart and are expressed in the symbolic. Spend time with your idea or inspiration by building a model, or making an artistic expression, or adding a representation to an altar. This can be as simple as a pebble on your windowsill. It is the movement of bringing something from your heart into the physical world. Tend it like a tiny sprout, for this is the period of gestation. Most importantly, don’t allow your mind’s negative thinking to run through the list of all the reasons it won’t work over and over. I suggest shifting into mindful breathing for a few breaths because it can be done anytime, anywhere. Don’t allow your mind to squash your hope and your heart’s desire for something new to come into your life. Only that which we focus our love and attention on can flourish and flower. Focus on what helps you feel more alive.

· Cultivate compassion for yourself and others. We are all human, we make mistakes. We are not always skillful in our interactions with others. We can learn from our mistakes and endeavor to do better going forward. This allows us to cultivate kindness both for others and, just as importantly, for ourselves. We can easily get down on ourselves for poor choices. Often, our self-talk is very harsh. We speak to ourselves in ways that we never would to someone else. Cultivating compassion for yourself and others allows space for a new perspective, like grass sprouting up through a crack in the sidewalk.

· Practice asserting yourself with benevolence. Notice when you say “yes” to something that you didn’t really want to do it or it feels like too much. Be curious about what it would be like to gently decline spending time and energy on things that you don’t find fulfilling. Of course, some of the things that are necessary to maintain our lives, we’d probably rather not do. But, when possible, prioritize the things that light you up and make you feel most alive and renewed.

· Try something new. If there is something you have been wanting to explore, make a plan to take a small step toward bringing your vision to life. Things like learning a new art or craft form, learning a new language or a new musical instrument, taking on a new project or job. These are all examples of up-and-out Wood phase energy bringing potential to life.

· Add more fresh fruits and vegetables to your diet: Especially green veggies and sprouts. Shorter cooking time to preserve the bright colors. The sour flavors of lemon and lime also benefit wood. You might start your day with a glass of lemon or lime water.

· Low, balanced blood sugar. Reducing the sugar and alcohol in your daily life will go a long way toward balancing wood energy. This is especially important when we are stressed, which is usually the time we reach for sweets or a cocktail. This is because these foods are stressful for the liver, the organ of wood. When the your wood element (liver) are in overwhelm, you will feel stressed, irritable, frustrated and stuck. If life is giving you too much to easily make your “sausage”, it is best to avoid overwhelming yourself with sugar and alcohol.

Resources:

I love Rhythms of Change by Mary Saunders for a handy, practical guide for working with the Five Phases.

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