We have begun the season of Water. This is the season of letting go of what is no longer needed, and returning to our roots. Letting ourselves deepen deepen deepen, go inward, re-sourcingas our roots sink in and embrace the dark nourishing earth, and the life-giving core ofwater and fire within it. This is the season of wisdom, the season of ancestors and dreams, the season of rest and replenishing. This is the season of the Kidneys in Chinese Medicine (and their partner the Urinary Bladder). Season of the spine, the bones, listening to inner innate instinctual intuitive introspection... Time to eat warm foods, root veggies, medicinal mushrooms like shitaake and maitake and reishi, bone broths. Time to sleep, to meditate, to lay down and feel the earth beneath us, the rain nourishing us, the water within us.
The soul of the Water Element is the Zhi, often translated as Will. As Lorie Eve Dechar writes (in Kigo), "The zhi... [fuels] our instincts as well as our capacity to accumulate wisdom over time. It is like the pilot light, the spark that ignites our will to become and to manifest our authentic nature. The zhi is related to... the collective unconscious. It regulates our sexuality, our survival drives, our long-term ancestral memories and our inherited wisdom. It is responsible for the balancing of fear and courage... [and through the zhi ] we gain wisdom and an embodied connection to the Divine... Water calls us to accept the reality of danger, the difficulty of survival... Yet it also offers us the possibility of restoration and depth and the gifts of courage, resilience and wisdom... Water invites us to accept the ever-changing forms of life... to trust that with every descent, there will be a rising; with every death, there will be a resurrection."
There is a distinct energetic pull downward and inward at this time of year, in a way that gives us both fortitude and flexibility. If I notice feeling out of sorts, I remind myself that may mean it's time to go in. If my head gets too far in the clouds with wondering where to go next, I remind myself to send that energy down, to be here, to root here. Then it is as if the tension and anxiety relaxes and releases, and I can embrace and explore the ground I'm on, feeling where the roots go, finding the joy and wonder and beauty and ease and nourishment and strength there. Fear is soothed by this grounding in love, reminded of warmth, safety, comfort, being held. Letting the waters from below and above nurture and cherish the sea of Life within me.
This is a time for tending and caring for our hearth and heart, for the bones and essence- what is essential- of our bodies and of our lives. For nourishing strength and resilience to carry us through the Winter. For attuning to allies and support systems- friends, family, animals, plants, rocks and minerals, waters and winds, spirits within and all around, music and books and beauty- with whom we are interwoven like roots entwined beneath the soil, swimming together in Life's ocean. For attuning to our own inner spark, inner sea, inner roots, inner earth, which is also an essential part of the whole.