Turning to the Dark Time of the Year.

This is the time of year when all growing things are dying back and the harvest is done.  The lush, productive seasons of Summer and Fall are the outbreath of the Earth, and now, the inbreath, the dying back, the restorative seasons of Winter and Spring begin.  The wheel of the year from the ancient Taoists tells us that our transition into the Winter/Water phase begins around October 28th. 

The Winter/Water phase of the life cycle is the death/rebirth phase.  This is the time of returning the lush productive growth of Summer and Autumn to the Earth so she can restore herself and begin anew when it is time.  The energy descends into the fertile dark of potential, for all life begins in the still darkness.  Winter/Water carries the virtue of wisdom, the association with our wise, well ancestors and our own deep inner knowing that aligns with destiny.  The Winter/Water phase holds the deep knowing that the ancestors are nearer and more accessible at this time.  We see this instinctual expression of Nature in human form reflected around the northern hemisphere in various traditions: Halloween, Samhain, All Saints Day, Dia de los Muertos, and Dziady or Vėlinės.

As the maple tree’s response to the Winte/Water phase is to drop its leaves, the resonance reflected in human emotion is healthy fear.  This healthy fear supports us being especially attentive to the conservation of resources, and the specific needs for food and heat in the Winter necessary for survival.  In modern times we experience this as an emotional and energetic down shift this time of year despite modern comforts of light, heat, and a grocery store. We are responding as Nature in human form, and this time of year, curling up with hot tea and a good book has a certain appeal in contrast to the outward business of Summer.  Our current way of life does not allow us to work less and stay home more to be in alignment with the Winter/Water phase in human form; rest, reflection, and restoring the deep reserves of energy needed to start the cycle again when it is time.  This disconnection is not supportive of our health on any level—spiritually, emotionally, or physically.

Winter/Water is the time of death and rebirth, which are happening simultaneously.  This is echoed in the idea that Winter/Water’s resonance with healthy fear is balanced by faith. Simultaneous fear and faith.  Faith in the spiral of Life and knowing that with death comes rebirth.  That the sun will return in its time, and Spring will rise anew. In this way, we hold death and rebirth at the same time.

Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, writer and mystic, reflected on overwork in the context of activism in 1966.  In our current culture, his message applies to our culture of overwork whether we think of ourselves as activists or not.

“There is a pervasive form of contemporary violence to which the idealist most easily succumbs: activism and overwork. The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of the activist neutralizes his work for peace.

Source: Thomas Merton, Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander (New York: Doubleday, 1966), page 73.

Merton’s words land with particular weight at the gateway to the Winte/Water phase. As the Earth herself inhales and draws back all her Summer/Fall output to be transformed and rebirthed over the Winter/Spring, we are pulled to do the same.  The Taoist teachings reminds us that rest is not laziness, it is the root of wisdom and necessary for the birth of anything new.  Our overwork and endless striving to “do” in the outer manmade world takes us out of the spiral of Life and right relationship with the Earth. Merton calls this frenzy a form of violence because it violates the sacred rhythms of ebb and flow that nourishes and sustains all of creation including humans.  The Earth invites you to consciously reclaim Winter/Water as a sacred time to rest, reflect, and restore is to rejoin the Tao, the Earth, and Life itself.

Here are some ideas you might like to incorporate into Winter/Water time:

Honor Rest and Stillness

·     Water aspects of your spirit/mind/body need regular periods of quiet to replenish.

·     Create rhythms that allow for deep rest, restoration and reflection

Cultivate Inner Wisdom and Intuition

·     Water connects us to the unconscious, dream time, and ancestral memory.

·     Listen deeply to dreams, inner knowing, signs and synchronicity pointing the way.

Create regular times for quiet reflection

·     Winter/Water houses our soul’s mission and the drive to live it.  We cannot connect to our mission with the quiet time and space to listen.

·     Winter is a good time to hang out with not knowing exactly what is next.  The death/compost/rebirth phase takes time.

Remember Fear and Faith are sisters

·     Fear is the emotion of water. Healthy fear points us toward what is essential.

·     Notice fear as a road sign pointing the way to faith

Get comfortable with the unknown

·     Water holds the portal to the Mystery, the not-yet-seen, and the potential of Life.

·     Allow time for gestation and non-linear processes.

·     Engage in activities that invite you into flow states.

Conserve and Flow

·     Like a river, Water teaches us to balance containment and movement.

·     Know when to pause and when to act.

·     Honor your need for rest and have faith in the process of wintering

 I have included a guided meditation journey to the ancestors that was enjoyed at the recent Resilient Spirit Retreat

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@resilience.and.joy