Apr. 20, 2025 - Grain Rain

This Sunday is the start of a new Seasonal Node. Each of the four seasons can be broken down into six smaller segments, called "Seasonal Nodes" (or "Solar Terms"), which come with specific instructions about what to do (and what not to do) to stay healthy, happy, and harmonized with the natural world.

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The next solar term, which starts this Sunday, is a transitional one.

In ancient Chinese philosophy, the yearly cycle is seen as a rhythmic expansion and contraction of life, from winter storage to the great expression of summer and back again. Spring is the gradual movement outward (germination) and autumn the gradual movement back inward (gathering).

All natural cycles follow this blueprint, including the diurnal cycle and the life cycle.

This universal process is represented in ancient Chinese philosophy by the system of the Five Phases.

The five phases* (or five movements) are Water, Wood, Fire, Metal, and Earth.

Water represents storage. Wood represents germination. Fire represents expression. And Metal represents gathering inward.

The fifth phase, Earth, represents the transitions between the others. It conveys the idea that there is a generative force behind natural events - that which keeps the wheel turning. On a macro level, that force is the Dao, Universal Qi, Heaven, the divine. On a slightly less macro level, it is the Earth herself and all her gifts. Within the microcosm of the human body, that force emanates from the digestive system, which supports physiological change everywhere.

Earth is made manifest during transitions.

The upcoming solar term is a grand transition. Spring becomes summer.

It is called "Grain Rain."

There's the obvious meaning of the name: late spring and early summer rains make the grasses grow. The grasses' seeds become grain.

But the word "grain" has a larger symbolic meaning: it represents Earth, governor of transitions.

During this dynamic time, it is important to protect and nurture Earth in all its forms - macro and micro - as Earth is both a catalyst for change and our vehicle for safe passage through it.

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*"Five phases" is often mistranslated as "five elements." The system represents movement and change not anything material. It is dynamic, not static.