The season of the Heart
Tending the Sacred Fire: The Taoist Wisdom of Summer/Fire, and Beltane Celebration
As Spring gives way to Summer, a new rhythm arises—vibrant, buzzing, pulsing, and alive. Beneath our feet and within our hearts, Life stirs with a deeper intensity.
The air thickens with sounds of laughter, scents of all things blooming, and songs of Nature. She comes into Her fullest manifestation and glory. Lucky for us, we are invited to the party. This is the season of Fire, and it brings with it an invitation: to remember who we are when we are most alive.
At our recent Resilient Spirit Retreat, we stepped into this rhythm consciously—through ritual, reflection, and connection—with the ancient festival of Beltane as our guide, and the Taoist Fire element as our teacher.
Fire in Taoist Wisdom: The Season of the Heart
Throughout the retreat, we honored Fire not just as an element, but as a portal—a threshold between past and future, human and divine, grief and transformation. In the Taoist Five Element tradition, Fire governs the season of Summer, and with it, the Heart. The Heart is not only a physical organ but a spiritual one—it houses Shen, the radiant consciousness that allows us to experience joy, intimacy, and spiritual clarity. When the Fire element is balanced, we feel connected, playful, expressive, open-hearted, and free to be our true selves. Summer/Fire energy invites lots of social gatherings, filling the Heart with the love and connection of friends.
This is also the energy that can ignite a Summer fling. It is, after all, the main business of bees and butterflies so critical to all life on earth. Bees and butterflies respond to Fire energy by flitting about and pollinating. Human beings respond with a different kind of pollination—new ideas, intimacy, connections, experiences… the human version of pollination.
This Joy is different from pleasure or excitement. This is the Joy of being alive. In Taoist philosophy, Joy is a soul-state—a resonance that arises when we are aligned with our deepest essence, our truest self. And how can we tell when we’ve touched it? Awe.
Awe is the unmistakable signpost that we’ve entered the territory of soul. We experience Awe for a moment when the Heart is expanded beyond everyday limits, and the mind gets shut down for a brief time. We know for a moment that we are part of something much greater than our small selves and we encounter the Infinite. It happens when we behold something vast, beautiful, or sacred. And it can happen in the arms of our lover, for what else is making love but unity with your partner. In the climax, our thinking minds are gone and we are briefly one with the Universe. Awe arises when we are overcome by the mystery of being alive. In that moment, the Heart opens and we are fully ourselves in connection with the cosmos. We are home.
This is the energy of Summer/Fire. It’s no wonder that ancient peoples everywhere celebrated Fertility as the life-giving force at this time of year.
Beltane: The Sacred Marriage of Heaven and Earth
At the heart of this seasonal turning lies Beltane, the ancient Celtic festival of fertility, passion, and renewal. (Cultures across ancient Europe had other names for this festival, but all responding to the energy of Summer/Fire were essentially the same.) Celebrated at the midpoint between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, Beltane honors the sacred union of the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine, of Earth and Sky. Their wild, passionate lovemaking gives rise to all of Life—crops, flowers, herds, humans… every conceivable aspect of Life on Earth depends on this consummation. This sounds way more fun than a fertility rite, which is how it is generally described.
The times between the seasons are when the veils between this plane of reality and others are especially thin. We think of this being true at Samhein (Halloween), but it is true at all four turnings. At this time, the thinning veils allow us to touch the living pulse of Creation itself. In ancient times, bonfires blazed in resonance to the season of Fire and were known to purify and bless people for prosperity and fertility. The ritual fires were an opportunity to burn away and transform all that no longer serves to make way for the burgeoning new Life.
When we honor and celebrate this sacred turning of the year, we enter a potent field to rekindle our own inner fire—the one that animates joy, intimacy, connection, truth-telling, and courageous creativity.
Weaving Spirit and Matter
We all have ancestors who lived in sacred connection with the Earth. For many historical reasons, our people were forced to forget and forsake this relationship. But in the same way you have inherited eye color, you have inherited the ancient knowing that the Earth is a Sacred living being to be honored and cared for. You have inherited an echo of the call to these sacred festivals. This knowing is powerful and it is remembered in ritual, in meditation, in song, in dance, in art, in poetry, in kindness and in the presence of Awe. And with it comes a deep love—a primal love that knows Spirit is not separate from the physical world, but is within it. All of Life is alive with Spirit.
When we light a Fire in the center of our lives,—not just a literal flame, but a fire of love, connection, presence, devotion, and hope—we become living vessels for the fullest manifestation of our soul’s mission. We become participants in the sacred marriage of Heaven and Earth. We join the great weaving of spirit and matter back into the Web of Life
In that weaving, true Joy arises. And when awe takes our breath away, like a quiet bell, it lets us know we have arrived.
