Spring's Renaissance & the Flowering of Life
The vernal equinox is upon us here in the Northern Hemisphere, and it couldn't have arrived a moment too soon. As the snow melts and the birds share their lovely songs, hearkening the arrival of Spring, there is a felt sense of rebirth and renewal in the air. Our spirits and hearts grow lighter, our minds a bit quicker, and our bodies more alive as we shake off the inevitable heaviness of Winter.
In Chinese Medicine, Spring is associated with the Wood phase of the cycle of life, as wood emerges from the depths of the earth, growing upward with a focused energy of clear purpose and direction. The Liver, considered the General within the organ system, dominates this time of year, and if it's grown bored with the slowed pace of Winter, it's more than happy to spring into action now, putting plans and goals into place that move us toward an apparent aim. The Liver's biao-li pair, or inner-outer pair, is the Gall Bladder, who helps carry out these intentions. When the movement of Qi in the Liver and Gall Bladder is smooth, we are able to move toward the aspirations that inspire us without hesitation, making decisions that allow us to carry out our objectives. If there is stagnation in either (or both) of these organs, our decision-making skills become hampered, and we can't seem to decide what needs to be done, or we may become frustrated with how life seems to be meeting us, or possibly not meeting us in the ways we'd hoped, leading to even more frustration. Acupuncture and herbal remedies that attune us with the movement into Spring can help the Liver's shu xie function, or its ability to smoothly move qi through the body, mind, and spirit. Taking a brisk walk, practicing yoga, tai qi, qi gong, or breath work, are all ways we can help the functions of the Liver-Gall Bladder organs and channels to keep our spirits bright and energies purposeful during this transitional time of year.
I love how the Liver and its need for moving somewhere purposefully has an affinity with Aries and its ruler Mars in Western Astrology. Mars is about the cultivation of willpower and having a sense of passionate engagement with life. Without this, the will becomes dulled, the inner fire dimmed, and our deeper sense of purpose wanes. Yet when we move ourselves toward what we're deeply called to, we become more enlivened and animated, and life surely has more meaning. Aries season inevitably brings with it a blossoming of life and a fiery opening to the warmer half of the year. It's a time of planting seeds that will grow into the fruits of our labor in a way that we cannot quite know yet, and of facing challenges that inspire us to develop the courage needed to face adversity without letting it overcome us. We're called to look in the face whichever encounters arise on the path, staring directly into the eyes of those situations or events that would keep us from embodying our potential. Backing down from these meetings isn't an option, and the only way for Aries to get what s/he/they truly came here to, is to be daring and bold in the confrontation of said challenges, developing the fierceness required to stand on one's own two feet no matter what comes along.
Yet with Jupiter and Neptune, Pisces' two ruling planets, sitting quite closely to one another, where they will be through the whole of Aries season this year, we're also reminded that some battles are not worth fighting anymore. Sometimes it IS appropriate to put our swords down and surrender, though this surrendering is not to a person, but to the Great Intelligence itself. We are simply not the beings we thought we were at the beginning of whichever journey we've been on, and truly, we're never really who our minds thought we were to begin with. For the mind cannot encompass the totality of you, or me, or Life itself. Jupiter asks us to expand beyond who or what we thought we were capable of, to "leap and the net will appear," so that we might embody our highest potential. Neptune asks us to merge with the inherently intelligent force that is imbued into every living thing, sensing into the numinous nature of reality and therefore the numinous nature of our very own selves. And this is what Pisces does; it feels and orients itself from the essential Unity at the core of life itself, as nothing exists that is separate from this Oneness. Period. Everything that lives IS an expression of this ground of Being, whether it knows it or not. While all of this might fly in the face of the Liver, Gall Bladder, Mars, or Aries, Pisces knows that ALL of this is exactly as it needs to be. We embark upon the cycles and journeys Life calls us to for as long as we need, wielding the tools necessary for us to learn what we came here to learn. We challenge and are challenged, developing meaning and purpose, strength and ferocity. And eventually, in just the right moment along the way, we let go. Completely. For all cycles must come to an end, and as they do, we return to the place from whence we came, though we are not the same beings we were when we set out. And yet, part of us always is.
During this Spring season, may your Liver and Gall Bladder's functioning be smooth, may you plant the seeds of inspiration and purpose to nurture your spirit, and may you release what is no longer yours to carry.
