Seasonal Nodes : Spring  

During my study of Traditional Chinese Medicine - one learns that each Season has Seasonal Nodes. A Seasonal Node is like a mini-season of roughly 15 days long, and those nodes can be broken down still into 5 day segments.

Overall you learn about Seasonal Cultivation and how to care for your Body during the Seasons. The traditional designations in both Asia and Europe for the start of each season are different from the modern Western model.  While the equinoxes and solstices are the beginnings of the season in the modern calendar, traditionally these were the Midpoints of the Seasons. 

Therefore, if the Vernal (Spring) Equinox is the midpoint of the season, February is the start of Spring.

What I most wanted to share with you are the rather poetic names that describe these Nodes - they are known as the 72 Material Manifestations and describe what is happening in the Natural World at that time.

Begining of Spring,   February 4

  • East Wind Liberates From Icy Shackles

  • Hibernating Insects Begin to Stir

  • Fish Rise Up to the Ice

Rain Water,  Febraury 19th          

  • Otters Sacrifice Fish

  • Swan Geese Appear

  • Vegetation Sprouts

 Awakening of Insects, March 5  

  • Peach Trees Begin to Blossom

  • Orioles Sing

  • Hawks Transform into Cuckcoos

Vernal Equinox  March 21          

  • Swallows Arrive

  • Thunder Starts Resounding

  • Beginning of Lightning

Clear and Bright, April 5        

  • Tung Trees Begin to Blossom

  • Field Voles Transform into Quails

  • Rainbows Begin to Appear

Grain Rain, April 20

  • Duckweed Begins to Grow

  • Cuckoos Flutter their Wings

  • Hooppoes Land on Mulberry Trees

This is why I celebrate Spring on February 4.   The animals were the first to clue me in as I watched them begin to prepare dens, nests and hunt to feed their soon to be offspring, and our chickens started to lay eggs again.

Yes, eggs have a season!  Most chickens naturally lay eggs only when day length is about 10 hours or more, commercially grown eggs are available because farmers expose chickens to extra strong artifical light year round. It is natural to begin eating eggs in Spring as they are indeed a tonic food especially excellent with lightly steamed asparagus.

Spring is the time associated with the Wood phase and the Liver, which is related to your tendons, ligaments and eyes, and the emotion of Anger.  Perhaps a good time to give our eyes a break from screens, phones, etc and allow them to rest on the beauty and fresh energy of Spring.

After all, Spring the Time of New Beginnings!

Ancient MedicineDiane Mayer