The Wood element is 1/5th of the Daoist system of the Pancha Tattwa Shuddi or 5 elemental purifications as taught to Kevin Wikse.
Wood is the expression of growth and expansion. The ability to progress and move through obstacles, be they material, societal, or born of the mind. The wood element is anything that grows, so all living and organic matter can rightly be assumed to fall under its purvey.
Your bones, muscles, tendons, ligaments, and soft tissues are wood. Your nails and hair express the most obvious and most easily observed continual growth, or wood energy, in your body. However, wood energy is anchored deepest in your liver. It is the only organ that can regrow or regenerate and is linked to the eyes/vision and blood flow.
However, growth and progress cannot be measured simply by material means. Thoughts, desires, and ambitions can also expand. Few things can stand against a sustained thought’s collectivizing, accumulating, and gathering force. Persistence wears down resistance; this is the basis of wood energy. It is valid and can be applied to all levels of consciousness.
Those with sufficient wood energy are like the blade of grass, which eventually splits and breaks through concrete for its time in the sun. Individuals lacking wood energy stay trapped beneath the hard sediment, never seeing the light of day.
The Wood element is at its peak during the Spring when nature is roaring back to life, waking up after going into a dormancy phase for winter. There is a seasonal practice that incorporates this energy. But, the following Wood energy activation exercise, or Qigong, can and should be done daily. This Qigong, the will force and power to succeed it gathers and distributes, will be of immense value to the aspiring astralnaut or vimana pilot.
The Pine Tree
Stand comfortably with your feet shoulder-width apart (more or less), your spine relaxed but erect, your shoulders allowed to soften, and your arms dangling at your sides. Your mouth is closed, your teeth together, and your tongue softly pressed against the roof of the mouth. Ever so slightly let yourself, simply by thinking about it, let your weight come forward to rest on the balls of your feet, but with your heels still touching the ground.
Now feel your Baihui point, the highest peak on the top of your skull. This is the most “yang” place of your body. Next, with your awareness, search out and feel your perineum. This is your Huiyin point or place of most “yin.”
On an inhale, feel like you are being lifted or pulled upwards at your Baihui point by an exceptionally thin and fine thread. This lifting force is almost imperceivable, no more than and just barely stronger than the power of your hair growing, but it is there. On the exhale, feel your body sink down in equally and almost imperceivable measure from your Huiyin point (your BaiHui remains fixed like you are dangling from that point from the string). This inhale and exhale is one repetition. Perform 21 repetitions. You are not to strain or force in any way.
Your breathing should be so soft, relaxed, and natural that you can’t hear your respirations.
This will activate the wood element our your physical and psychic bodies. Like a Pine tree, you will grow tall, straight, flexible, and stronger over the weeks, months, and years as you allow this exercise to incrementally lengthen, re-align, and open your vertebra. Ultimately this is a “long game” Qigong but with tremendously positive benefits showing up after only a couple of weeks.
-Kevin Wikse
