Spring Equinox Newsletter
March 21, 2007

Happy Spring! Although technically Spring began February 5 in the Chinese tradition, here in the north it feels like spring is only now arriving. If you have felt like a balloon in the process of being blown up, read on!

As you may recall from the last newsletter, February 5 is when we begin the season of Wood. Wood is about focus, commitment and action. Now, I don’t know about you, but I was looking forward to the season of action in a big way. As interesting as the Water months are, I admit the lack of focus that accompanies winter can be a strain for me. I long for the ability to jump into the next project and FEEL the energy pour through me, helping me achieve my goal. Yet this year, it felt like that watery lack of focus just kept going and going. I finally dug out my journals and started mapping the past 30 years to see what the energy was doing. Lo and behold, I realized I forgotten to take into account the six-month shift between the masculine and feminine energies.

Masculine energy is the side of us that focuses and moves towards something. It is precise, and loves speed, and action. It’s like the arrow leaving the bow – it wants to go straight to the target with no interruptions. Here in the west, we idolize masculine energy. We love the feeling of “getting things done”. It makes us feel like we’re accomplishing something, like we have value. The Feminine side of us is the attraction energy. It moves inward, drawing to us the results of our beliefs and feelings. We are less comfortable with that energy because we do not understand it as well, and its results are more subtle. Yet it has a six-month cycle that overlaps the beginning of the Wood element. The feminine cycle goes from fall equinox to spring equinox. The masculine cycle goes from spring equinox to fall equinox. Think of the vortex of a bathtub draining – six months it drains clockwise, six months counter clockwise

Mapping my journals, I saw that the six-week period between the beginning of the Wood cycle (Feb 5) and Spring Equinox (March 21), was the final six weeks of the feminine cycle. Before we move into action, we need to draw in certain kinds of energy to support our forward launch. During these six weeks, we build up pressure. The pressure tests our physical structure. Can we support the actions we are about to take? Is the structure you’re currently living within providing the physical strength necessary for your success? Like a tube filling with water, the more integrity you have in your structure, the more pressure you can build up.

So, rather than taking action, we’re more or less is a holding pattern, filling our structure fuller and fuller, watching to see if our framework springs a leak. Have you caught yourself making promises you know you won’t keep? Spinning little white lies? Speaking what you think will make you look good, then not following up with the action? Being sick a lot, or injured? These are all signs of flaws in our structural integrity. Waste no time feeling guilty about them – instead, understand that these are messages from your emotional self to show you that you DO NOT HAVE THE NECESSARY FRAMEWORK FOR THE ACTION YOU ARE ABOUT TO TAKE. In other words, no matter how great your business plan is, or how succinct your tasks and goals are broken down, the framework is incapable of getting you to your finish line because your physical body is not strong enough to hold your goal into manifestation.

On the bright side, I bet you’re all in a lot more integrity than you were a year ago. Each time through the cycle, we are becoming more coherent. I am frankly in awe at what I see happening in the world I occupy. People are coming together, sharing their wisdom and creating awe-inspiring new stories. The pressure of repression, of hatred as the symbol of strength, and all the other parts of our collective story that have been hurtful are being rewritten in the most astonishing ways. To me, it feels like many of the world’s governments and religions are making one last giant effort to convince us that hatred is stronger than love, that hatred is the only way we can survive, and that only hatred can bring us our desires. Everywhere I look, I see plenty of frustration and anger, but it is different. It is not hatred. I know there’s still plenty of it out there – I spend no time looking for it. Instead, I read Ode magazine. I read YES magazine. I practice changing my beliefs so that my definition of love expands and becomes more accepting of others. I do my rage work in private, and give hatred a sacred space of expression so that it can get on with its evolution. Some days I find little to be grateful for, as the currents of hatred sweep through me. It’s okay, I’ve gotten comfortable with it. I know if I am willing to give hate expression without judgment, and without involving anyone else, it will transform, and there will be less hatred in the world.

So, hang on, the pressure is nearly over. As we shift into the six months of our active, doing side, take the time to thank yourself for being so strong. The world is delighted that you are here today, shining your glorious light with the millions of others who are building a new world. You do enough. You are enough. Thank you for being here.

Happy Equinox!
Cat

At the equinox, the sun rises directly in the east and sets directly in the west. In the northern hemisphere, before the vernal equinox, the sun rises and sets more and more to the south, and afterwards, it rises and sets more and more to the north.

Also, Vernal Equinox Day is an official national holiday in Japan, and is spent visiting family graves, and holding family reunion.

This is the time when light and dark are perfectly balanced. Masculine and Feminine are perfectly balanced.