One of the trickier bits during a Feng Shui consultation is to find a perfect colour match for spaces that encompass the North / North-East and East sectors within one room.
See, pithing the 5 Element theory we have the Nourishing cycle:
WATER -> WOOD -> FIRE -> EARTH -> METAL.
The Controlling cycle:
WOOD -> WATER -> METAL -> EARTH -> FIRE
and the Destructive cycle:
WATER -> FIRE -> METAL -> WOOD -> EARTH
While the North sector stands for the WATER Element and the East sector for WOOD (which follows the WATER), we suddenly have the Yang EARTH Element of the North-East in-between.
And since EARTH is in conflict with both Elements WATER and WOOD, what do we do?
I have asked this question to my various Feng Shui teachers over the years and never really gotten a satisfying answer from any of my teachers. So this is what I came up with:
North-East sector / KEN / Yang EARTH, The Mountain
The North-East sector (KEN, the Youngest Son / Mountain) forms the lower end of the Tao line that connects the Yang and the Yin part. The upper part ends in the South-West sector of K’UN, The Mother and Yin EARTH sector.
KEN is also known as ‘The Mountain’ and represents the youngest son of the 8 Trigram family. He stands for Wisdom, Knowledge, Self-Development and Study. The time on the clock is 3am and his sector stands for early spring.
You could picture KEN sitting in deep meditation on the top of a mountain in a remote place of the Himalaya. On the far horizon, being so high up, you can start to get a glimpse of dusk. The night sky slowly merging with the very early morning light. Picture soft pastel colours such as a soft yellow, pink, slightly green and light blue. The space is very quiet, crisp and clean.
Recommended colours for the NE sector
These are the colours and the atmosphere that I often recommend for this sector. Through the softness the colours feel like they are merging the WATER, EARTH and WOOD Elements in one room very nicely. The colours also go well with the rather cool morning light that shines through the windows of a North-East sector.