We’ve just begun the moon cycle of Chinese new year, the beginning of Spring! In many traditions, the equinox is the mid-point of spring, and the beginning is marked by this time between the winter solstice and spring equinox; a time when the trees begin to blossom and the sap begins to run. Life on earth stirs from winter sleep, much like life quickening in the womb.

Yes! The blossoms are abundantly flourishing, the wind is blowing, the trees are getting new green leaves-- it is Spring! At least, on the Chinese calendar (equinox will be the midpoint), and it does seem appropriate for our climate as well. We've passed a cross-quarters point, halfway between winter solstice and spring equinox, and it’s a powerful time for beginnings, a quickening that heralds movement, vision beginning to manifest.

As we talked about in the last blog, the organ connected with Spring is the Liver in Chinese Medicine (see Early Spring Blog for more info). As we journeyed through the spring festivals of Passover and Easter this year, I thought about the connection between the themes of these festivals and the Liver. Both festivals celebrate transformation, liberation, a radical departure from what has been (oppression, entrapment) into what ismiraculously becoming (freedom, renewal, resurrection). 

Spring is here! Blossoms, bulbs and buds. This time of year is thought of in many traditions as a time of earth's "quickening" -- that time in pregnancy when one first begins to feel the life within moving. This is the time when the sap is beginning to run in the trees, when things that were dormant begin to show new green leaves, buds, flowers. In the Chinese calendar (which is lunisolar), Spring usually begins in the early part of February, with Spring Equinox representing the mid-season rather than the beginning.