The word Solstice means "Sun stand still." On the Winter Solstice, the spinning top of the Earth has come to the farthest stretch of its tilt away from the sun, and the farther north you go, the more it can feel like the world is holding its breath in anticipation of descent into a deep, long, darkness and the next pivot step into the gradually growing light.
Chinese medicine sees Winter as the season of Water. Some correlations include these:
Water is Black and deep Blue. The Water organs and tissues are Kidney, Bladder, bones, ears. The energy of Water and Winter encompasses death and the end of the cycle; reflection, stillness, depth, silence. Fear and terror. Wisdom and the will to live.
Water is the reservoir of our lineage (genetic and spiritual), our generative potency, our seeds. In the dark and cold and silence of Winter are seeds and buds full of the intensely concentrated essence of future. One of the archetypes of Winter is the Sage.
Water is adaptable, enduring, and patient, flows according to where the way is open, goes around obstacles, stores power. The source of our capacity for awe.
In his teachings on the Elements, our friend Paul Karsten of the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine adds this: Water is community. Gathering. Things coming together. Sense of holding on, with feeling. Water practices: holding every moment as precious; deep listening.
Just like the water in the world, the water moving in us can be frozen stiff, can rush and flood, can drip and penetrate, can soak and nourish...how does the water within you flow these days?
Winter: ice and fear and stillness, suspended over the brink. Photo credit of a charter bus that narrowly avoided complete disaster yesterday, Ken Lambert of the Seattle Times
Chinese medicine sees Winter as the season of Water. Some correlations include these:
Water is Black and deep Blue. The Water organs and tissues are Kidney, Bladder, bones, ears. The energy of Water and Winter encompasses death and the end of the cycle; reflection, stillness, depth, silence. Fear and terror. Wisdom and the will to live.
Water is the reservoir of our lineage (genetic and spiritual), our generative potency, our seeds. In the dark and cold and silence of Winter are seeds and buds full of the intensely concentrated essence of future. One of the archetypes of Winter is the Sage.
Water is adaptable, enduring, and patient, flows according to where the way is open, goes around obstacles, stores power. The source of our capacity for awe.
In his teachings on the Elements, our friend Paul Karsten of the Seattle Institute of Oriental Medicine adds this: Water is community. Gathering. Things coming together. Sense of holding on, with feeling. Water practices: holding every moment as precious; deep listening.
Just like the water in the world, the water moving in us can be frozen stiff, can rush and flood, can drip and penetrate, can soak and nourish...how does the water within you flow these days?
Winter: ice and fear and stillness, suspended over the brink. Photo credit of a charter bus that narrowly avoided complete disaster yesterday, Ken Lambert of the Seattle Times
2 comments:
Thanks for the post, Christy! It feels counter-intuitive for me to feel Winter as the season of Water. But then again, as you say, it's full of Intensely Concentrated Essence. Okay, ICE works. :o)
Here's a solstice video I made with little-b and some water mandalas: http://vimeo.com/2598020
Enjoy!
Hi Thomas! Thank you for linking to your sweet video, and those mandalas of yours are so hypnotic. The trance state also seems like a Water thing to me.
love, Christy
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