TendingShen Newsletter
Winter edition (January 2009)
An opening thought for Winter……
"Nature chose for a tool, not the earthquake or lightning to rend and split asunder, not the stormy torrent or eroding rain, but the tender snow-flowers noiselessly falling through unnumbered centuries." John Muir (1838-1914), naturalist, environmentalist, activist.
The Winter Season
Many cultures emphasize the concept of the four seasons, and use the solstices and equinoxes, determined by the movement of the sun, as definitive markers for their calendars and celebrations.
A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs
twice a year, when the tilt of the Earth's axis
is most oriented toward or away from the Sun, causing
the Sun to reach its northernmost or southernmost extreme. The
name is derived from the Latin sol (sun)
and sistere (to stand still), because at the solstices
the Sun stands still in declination,
that is, its apparent movement north or south comes to a standstill. Equinoxes occur
twice a year when the tilt of the Earth's axis is oriented neither
from nor to the Sun, causing the Sun to be located vertically above
a point on the equator. The name is derived from the Latin aequus
(equal) and nox (night), because at the equinox the night and day
are equally long. With thanks to Wikepedia
At Winter Solstice, the Sun
is farthest south and the length of time between sunrise and sunset
is the shortest of the year. At Summer Solstice, the Sun is farthest
north and the length of time between sunrise and sunset is the
longest of the year. In the northern hemisphere, these fall around
December 21st-22nd and June 20th-21st respectively. In the southern
hemisphere, the winter and summer solstices are exchanged. The
Spring and Autumn Equinoxes occur when the Sun is crossing the
equator and is an equal distance from the North Pole and the South
Pole, leading to night and day being about the same length. The
equinoxes fall between March 20th-21st and September 22nd- 23rd
each year.
In 2009, in the northern hemisphere, Spring Equinox happens at 11.44 on March 20th, Summer Solstice at 05.45 on June 21st, Autumn Equinox at 21.18 on September 22nd and Winter Solstice at 17.47 on December 21st (all times are given in Greenwich Mean Time).
In terms of the four seasons, some cultures consider that the
solstices and equinoxes start or separate the seasons, others
(such as ancient China) see them as the centre points of the seasons.
So, from an acupuncture perspective, Feb-April is Spring, May-July
is Summer, Aug-Oct is Fall and Nov-Jan is Winter (give or take
a few days). To introduce you to some classical Chinese ideas
of the Winter season, brought into the 21st century, TendingShen
is reproducing two articles published in December and January,
by kind permission of the author, Tara Welty, of Great Blue Heron
Healing Arts. www.buffalohealing.com
Winter- Lesser Snow and Greater Snow
Welcome to Winter! We are currently in the two week period known as Lesser Snow. As of the 6th December we will move into the period of Greater Snow which will take us up to the peak of Winter at the Winter Solstice.
All around us the world is becoming progressively more yin - darker, colder and more internal. From the perspective of Chinese medicine, it is important to be in harmony with the movements of Nature in order to enjoy maximum health and not accrue disease. Please take heart - this does not mean that you are meant to be gloomy and freezing cold! Nor are we bears meant to be hibernating in our dens. 'Internal' is a useful word - there is still a lot to be done at this time of year. But the work and activity goes more internal. There is less happening visibly on the surface, but inside there is still movement.
You might well ask - what does this look like? Just imagine you are a gardener. In the spring, you planted seeds and then presto! Green things started popping up all over the place. In the summer, you tended your garden as the flowers bloomed and the plants spread their leaves and luxuriated in the sun. Autumn came and you harvested everything you could, taking in the richness and leaving behind what would gently rot and become more garden next year. What is the work of winter? Some gardeners of my acquaintance love winter because the relentless pace of the growing season is over. The truly gifted gardeners I know love winter because this is when they reflect upon last year's growing season - what were the lessons, gifts, bumps and bruises and how will that inform the next year? They pore over the new seed catalogs and the lore of gardeners' past. From this deep heritage, learning and experience will come next year's garden. Dedicated gardeners know that when spring comes, the tools must be ready and the plans for the next season in place.
For it is in the winter that the seeds of spring are created - created by the deeper, ever more internal movement that increases in power as we walk towards solstice. You could liken it to the incredible forces that convert simple carbon into exquisite diamonds - this is the movement of winter, distillation to the core essentials that will create the seeds of spring.
A final bonus - it is written in the Su Wen that in the winter, it is important to go to bed early and rise later. Serious sleepers, take note!
Winter- Lesser Cold and Greater Cold
We are now in the third month of winter - for those of us who live in the north this is apparent!
The period of Lesser Cold lasts from January 5 to January 20 followed by Greater Cold which ends on the 3rd of February. In The Treatise of Seasonal Rules in the Huainanzi , we read that the hens have begun to lay eggs again (remember, the sun is returning) and the wild geese fly to the north. Traditionally, this is when the five types of grains would be removed from the storehouses and the farming implements would be sharpened in readiness for the coming of spring. This is a fine time to consider the delights of seed catalogs and dream of the coming garden. As an avid gardener, I find nothing more delightful than considering a stack of catalogs. Go to the end of this article to learn more about the Seed Savers Exchange and the wonderful varieties they offer.
In our modern Western society, we have just emerged from the whirlwind of the holiday season. We make New Year's resolutions and vow to eat better, exercise more and suchlike. However, the designation of January 1 as the beginning of the new year is the legacy of the Gregorian calendar. In other cultures (not Western), the celebration of the new year is linked to either solar or lunar cycles. Some cultures mark the spring equinox as the start while Chinese, Vietnamese and Tibetan societies mark the lunar cycles. In the Huainanzi, we find "In this month the sun completes its circuit through the twelve divisions of the celestial circle. The moon completes its cycle. The stars have made a complete revolution around the heavens. The year is about to begin again."
This year the Chinese New Year falls on January 26 at 2:55am. This is good news for those of us who made resolutions on the first of January and have fallen at the first hurdle. We are still in the time of reflection - there is still great possibility for grasping the essentials of the lessons of the previous cycle. The cosmic wheel continues to turn and on the 26th we may embark upon the next cycle with the tremendous forces of Nature supporting this movement.
Seed Savers Exchange
Since 1975, Seed Savers Exchange members have passed on approximately one million samples of rare garden seeds to other gardeners. They are a non-profit organization of gardeners dedicated to saving and sharing heirloom seeds. www.seedsavers.org
A closing thought………..
"Every gardener knows that under the cloak of winter lies a miracle ... a seed waiting to sprout, a bulb opening to the light, a bud straining to unfurl. And the anticipation nurtures our dream."
Barbara Winkler from Quotations for Gardeners, Walkers, and Lovers of the Green Way
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