Wood

Growth that pushes outward, and the patience it needs. Wood is the first element in the generating cycle and belongs to spring and the east. It is the only one of the five that is alive — which is why it is described by what it does rather than by what it is.

Through the generating and overcoming cycles. Growth that pushes outward, and the patience it needs. Wood generates what feeds it and overcomes what it acts on — the relationship matters more than the element in isolation. Wood is the element most often out of balance in people whose work is entirely planning: the growth is real but has nothing to grow into.

Traditional readings associate Wood with beginnings, flexibility, and a plan that has not hardened yet. Its virtue is benevolence; its failure mode is rigidity — a tree that bends survives, one that insists does not. It is grouped under Wood (木) in the five-element system.