Resilient Spirit: Falling in love with Spring
The Resilient Spirit Project is a passion project. It is my offering in response to the crisis of Nature and culture of our time. I hope to help folks develop some of the tools you ‘ll need to thrive, to fully live into your authenticity, to carry out your soul’s mission amidst the chaos of the end of our era. Although we have forgotten that our souls are connected to the soul of the World, our soul level work ultimately supports the Earth while she (and humanity) undergo massive transformations over the coming decades. Rekindling our ancestral knowledge of including this Sacred connection in everyday life in the form of an intimate relationship with the Earth is part of the transformation of humanity necessary for a Thriving Life future.
As spiritual leaders and indigenous elders have been telling us for decades, the current crisis of Nature and culture are rooted in a spiritual crisis. A spiritual crisis of humanity’s separation from our source of Life. A spiritual sickness needs spiritual medicine; it won’t be cured by politics or technology.
The course of human history over the last 2000 years or so severed the relationship our indigenous European ancestors had with the Earth as a living, spiritual being, and it put a masculine god in heaven. We were separated from Mother Earth, the Goddess, and disconnected from the sacred, feminine messiness of everyday life here on Earth. It became dangerous to practice Earth-based spiritual traditions, and so these practices are long forgotten. This is the root of the unbalanced patriarchy we find ourselves longing to correct that is now playing out in our ecological, cultural, and political crisis.
We can use the 5 Phase Taoist framework like a bread crumb trail back through time to rekindle an intimate relationship with the Earth and all her beings like our indigenous ancestors had. She has always called us to be in relationship with her, but in our relatively modern, rational ways of thinking we have forgotten how to listen. I’m certain our ancient ancestors had similar systems to the 5 Phases like the Celtic wheel of the year, for example. We have seen in more recent times, when one group colonizes another (in this case, the Church over the indigenous European population), the language, written records, education, stories, songs, traditions, ways of gathering, and more are quite systematically destroyed as part of the colonization of the minds and hearts of the subjugated group. Just like an archaeologist finds pot shards, we can find fragments of these traditions and must intuit and feel into how to rebuild a functional pot, a container for this sacred relationship so essential to life on Earth. This is what the Resilient Spirit Project hopes to offer: to provide a way to reimagine our individual spiritual connection with the Earth as a living spiritual being, thereby nourishing our own spirits as well as Hers. This work is as vital to the rebirth of a new Thriving Life era as the daffodil bulbs’ winter work of gathering deep magic and potential without which there are no blooms come April.
The invitation of this work is to become our most True, authentic selves because we have all incarnated at this time and bring very particular gifts to share with the Earth and each other for a reason. It is only by manifesting our soul’s mission in the context of a sacred connection to the Earth that those gifts can be fully offered. She desperately needs us to do that, for her sake as well as our own.
The Earth speaks to us through our emotions, intuition, and signs. The Earth speaks to each of us individually, so the relationship is unique and intimate. By learning to work with the 5 Phases, we can find our way to our intimate relationship with the Earth that nourishes both our Hearts and Hers.
My hope is that you will find this series of blogs and the Resilient Spirit gatherings, four times a year in the Earth transition times, supportive in the cultivation of your resilient spirit in turbulent times. Look for the next gathering in early May.
Cultivating your Resilient Spirit in Turbulent times
Fall in Love with Spring!
A fundamental aspect of cultivating an intimate relationship with the Earth, connecting to the sacred everyday life, is to know where she is in her yearly energetic cycle that manifests as the seasons. This way, you know how to recognize her changing faces and when to look for them as they bring about shifts in your body/mind in response. It’s like the ability to recognize your lover no matter what they are wearing. They would be so disappointed if they showed up in a glimmering outfit and you didn’t recognize them. The Earth is doing that all the time and we are not noticing.
The first glimmer of Spring/Wood energy arrived on February 10th and will finish its work April 26th. (Each season lasts 36 ½ days on either side of the Solstice or Equinox.) The Spring/Wood phase is the time when the energy stored by the restful Winter/Water phase is released into the rapid up-and-out growth time in the seasonal life cycle. It has a lot of pent up energy, and we can feel it. Energy is like wind, you can’t see it, but you can see and feel what it does. In the last week or so, the chickadees have started singing, the squirrels are getting frisky, gardeners are planting the earliest seeds, days are noticeably longer, and maple sugar collectors are setting out their taps. All of these things are indications that the energy of the new growing cycle has been released from dormancy and is surging up and out. These are some of the ways we can know spring is here!
Just as squirrels, chickadees and maple trees respond to the energetic phases, so do we. When we recognize the ways in which our bodies and minds resonate to the Spring/Wood phase energy, it helps us to cultivate our Resilient Spirits because it connects us to the Heart of the Earth. This connection has always nourished creation, including humanity, and is a reciprocal connection. Understanding that much of how you are feeling physically and emotionally is the appropriate human response to day-to-day energetic changes as the Earth travels around the sun is a radical concept. It is radical because it connects the deep ancestral knowing that is stored in our blueprints to the Earth and her blueprint as a Spiritual being.
Here are a few ways in which we feel the energy of Spring/Wood moving in our bodies and emotions…
The Gallbladder and Liver are the organs that resonate to Spring/Wood energy. In our bodies, this rapid up-and-out expansion often feels like tightness, especially in the neck, shoulders, and hips. We are more likely to experience tension headaches at this time. This is because of where the energy meridians run on the body, and they are suddenly being filled with this surge of Spring/Wood energy after being dormant all winter. The body tissues that resonate with Spring/Wood are the ligaments and tendons, so they often feel tight particularly in these areas when Spring/Wood energy starts to flow.
The Gallbladder channel zigs and zags back and forth over the sides of the body and head. This is the only meridian that zig zags. This zig zag gives us the physical and emotional capacity to be flexible, adapt, and change course effortlessly. In Spring/Wood time, this capacity has been dry and dormant like the branches of a tree in winter. When the Spring/Wood energy surges through us we can feel ourselves getting a little frustrated, inflexible, and grumpy. When we feel frustrated by that slow, out of state driver, or by yet another snowy day, say “hello!” to the Spring/Wood energy moving in us. This is why exercise is so important to help us manage stress. Exercise clears out the emotional and physical stagnation that the Liver and Gallbladder are so sensitive to any time of year.
The Liver waking up is tired of heavy stews and is longing for more greens and lighter fare. It hates stagnation, especially in spring. Consider taking a break from alcohol for a bit. It is the emotional level of the Liver that has us restless, bored, and dissatisfied with the status quo and ready to get moving on to something new and refreshing. It is here to push us to get moving in new, fresh ways because it is the energy of birth and growth, which always require a push.
As that energy starts to move in us, we often call this feeling “cabin fever.” The reason it plagues us in February and early March is because this surge of energy is resonating in us but the weather outside is still keeping us couped up. It’s a good time to take on spring cleaning and moving unused, “stagnant” things along to someone who can use them. This activity is like a “liver cleanse” at the level of the mind/emotion. It is never more satisfying to clean out a closet or basement as it is between now and the Equinox in March.
We don’t like this itchy, restless feeling, but if we know it is the energy of Spring/Wood resonating within us, we can welcome it, and say, “Hello, my fresh, impatient friend. Thanks for pushing me to get going on things.” We are invited to make friends with it and know it is here to help us to get moving on new projects and start executing plans. We know we are right on track to be feeling this way. All of the rest of Nature is feeling it, so why wouldn’t we be experiencing it, too?
The Spring/Wood energies invite us to assert ourselves in order make it possible to live into our greatest authenticity and soul’s mission. To do this, Spring/Wood energies bring Hope that Life renews and that our lives will be renewed and refreshed as well. We get impatient with things in our lives that aren’t working for us. Spring/Wood energies grant us the vision to see what is possible, gather up our hope, and go for it! The “it” being the possibility for growth, for becoming more of ourselves.
Fortunately, Spring/Wood energies also bring us kindness and compassion, inviting us to become our Truest selves in ways that are kind and compassionate as a counterbalance to impatience. Kindness and compassion are the human emotional-level expression of the up-and-out energies of Spring/Wood. When we feel frustrated that our plans are not working out, we can know to move our bodies, be flexible, drop back into kindness and compassion for ourselves and others, do some floss breathing, and eat lightly with lots of greens to help the energy of spring give rise to the blooms of summer.
The intensity of the Spring/Wood energies will ramp up between now and the Equinox. Then they will smooth out as they carry us into Summer/Fire energies.
Seasonal Spring in our Cultural Winter
Since the inauguration, the world is a drastically different place. The old structures that have been in place for generations to protect, hold, and support us are being systematically and rapidly dismantled without regard to the ripple of human suffering it has wrought. This will continue for quite some time, likely decades. Working with the 5 Phase system is helpful because it locates us in time and space and we can set our expectations about what we can anticipate. I did a piece titled “The Winter Solstice of our Culture” on the topic that you can find here.
What this means is that while we are in the yearly season of Spring, it is against the backdrop of cultural winter. I am seeing this play out in the clinic as stress and anxiety about the security of the future, and, having the resources needed for future generations to live their lives is truely in question. This question,“do we have what we need to survive the winter”? belongs to the Winter/Water phase because it is fear and anxiety about survival in the death and rebirth phase that is winter. “Do I have what I need to rise (rebirth)? again in spring?” It is not the exuberant hope and relief of spring. This stress load is wreaking havoc with people’s physical and emotional health. It is toxic, too much to process, and our bodies, minds and emotions are buckling under the strain. This spring, the underlying Winter feeling of “how are we going to survive this”?, it will exaggerate the feelings of restlessness, irritability, outrage, stress and frustration that are the normal human response to spring. Hope will likely be harder to connect with.
You might consider a news “cleanse” just as you might undertake a liver cleanse this time of year. Spend time in Nature looking, listening and smelling for signs of spring instead. See how you feel after 30 days of connecting with Nature, someting that is pure and True, without taking in the mind level toxicity of the crurent crisis. Use floss breathing to help settle your mind when you find yourself worrying. I bet you’ll have more energy to put toward people and projects you love that make the world a kinder, more beautiful .
Take good care of yourself and your beloveds. Transformation is underway and it will take everything we have to make the journey with grace and kindness.
For more details on Spring/Wood…
For a quick video on Floss Breathing…