Farewelling Winter
As we enter the final weeks of August and the end of the Yin cycle, we acknowledge the end of a period of intense inner work and change, reflecting on where we have thawed the Heart and opened the mind to the ‘More’ that is potential within us come the Spring.
The Water Element
Water remains the centre of the world, as much for our ancestors as for ourselves, the medium through which all energy is exchanged be it sunlight and the process of photosynthesis in plants, the sacred fluids in which we are conceived, grown and birthed, or the state to which death will take us, back into the ocean of the divine. It will carve a valley from a mountain as easily as it creates a mountain from a valley, levelling as it goes, and returning all to harmony. No matter where you look in nature, you will find Water balancing out the extremes to ensure the well-being of the entire tapestry.
Finding True Stillness
Within the Yin signature of Winter comes access to the most profound openness and the pure creation of the void. Acquiesce to life as it breaks down the walls to unleash the best of what we can be, and if we can show up with honesty and trust the way will always be easy.
Overcoming obstacles
When hardship, obstacle or defeat make us small it can feel like the very winter of things. This is a Water Element message of optimism without judgment, and the silver lining we have yet to see. On the pathway of the seasons and the Taoist way we discover; it is all good.
Introducing the Water Element
Of all the Five Elements water is the hardest to truly know. Ruling the channels of the Kidney and Bladder housed in the back of the body, Water has a depth and an intangibility to it. Something that cannot ever be fully known or explored, held in your hands, or still long enough to understand.
Death, divorce and Autumn.
Crone meets Maiden
As Winter and Spring approach their own seasonal frontiers we meet the merger of Springs youth and Winters experience. A warm greeting between maiden and crone and the cusp of great and unmanifest potential where suddenly both parties realize it is time….
From Water to Wood
At this critical seasonal crossover we meet Winds gentle persistence and unreleting influence that, over time, erodes mountains and sculpts rocks. What it brings to the psyche of the seasonal traveller is a lengthening of the rope on the bucket of the well that enables the villagers to replenish from the Waters that are deep, clear and plentiful within. Its about allowing yourself to be moved.
Late Winter Light
“Do not make plans. Do not be absorbed by activities. Do not think that you know. Be aware of all that is, and dwell in the infinite. Wander where there is no path. Be empty, that is all.”
- I Ching