Woodlands and Orchards

Chinese traditional teachings acknowledge five elements – wood, fire, earth, metal and water.

Wood expressed in Springtime is the fuel for...

Fire and Summer heat, which burns to ash and...

Earth whose presence is experienced late Summer and harvest time. And Earth ores are...

Metal, the Autumnal element. After Metal the cycle of the year brings...

Water condensation, Winter snow and ice which will nourish the Wood of Spring again.

Three treasures of Chinese traditional medicine, are stomach and spleen qi which relates to each person, kidney's jing linking to earth and heart shen which corresponds to heaven and fire.

The Taoist Guanzi writings suggest that the heart is emperor within a human body. Our heart is regulating and controlling not only the physical blood flows but spiritual shen, which needs to be strong to assist the mental and physical aspects of our bodies in dealing with intuition and information from our five senses. Internal organs support heart shen to achieve harmony, self control, balance, clarity, and flexibility. Shen inspires our creativity and imagination and confirms our essence, our soul. Shen movement is expressed within the mental realms as awareness and manifests as seven emotions - joy, anger, sadness, grief, fright, apprehension, worry. These are verbalised but not extreme.

Guanzi advises that you do not race your heart like a horse, or you will exhaust its energy. Do not fly your heart like a bird, or you will injure its wings. Never frantically move things around just for the sake of seeing what will happen.

If you move things around you dislocate them from their proper place. If you will be calm and patient, everything will come to you by itself.

Shen relates to Summer and invigorating red. In the turning from Spring to Summer, from green to red, when energies are vibrant, it is good to cultivate quiet and harmony by gardening and relaxing in nature.

And what better place than in fresh woodland groves and blossoming orchards. If you cannot go into the natural world, or if you want a gentle boost of green wood energy, the following meditation might assist.

Lady of Spring meditation

As usual prepare yourself, and where you are, for a time of peaceful meditation. Breathe in and out at a comfortable pace. Pay attention to the flow of your breath, to the air passing through your nose and mouth, but do not assess or analyse in any way. You might enjoy some gentle music, light candles or incense. Create an atmosphere for relaxation. Visualisation is fun, supportive and pleasurable. There is no right or wrong way, there is only your way, and this will lead to a joyous enhancement of your everyday life, of soul, body and mind converging towards the light. You are opening to intuition and enhanced awareness.

In your imagination, or in reality, sit in a lovely Spring landscape, where green tussocks of grass take form in rich abundant pasture land. Like a lazy sea the ground stretches to boundary hedges of white flowers. Small clumps of trees shelter young lambs playing and calves, with their mothers, graze. A bluish haze stretches over the land. It is near dusk and there is a soft breeze gently swaying tree branches. You attune to the warm hearted energies of the season. Bring your awareness to your body, relax and be tranquil.

Within the open green grazing land is a small raised mound and as you look towards this you see, rising out of the top of the mound, the tender shape of a maiden, cloaked in a mist of white tinted with emerald and gold. She has a magical beauty. The Lady of Spring embodies the time of year, an initiatory goddess, young and splendid, regenerating the fertility of earth, enlivening the emergence of plants and all beings. The white light of her presence increases and radiates over the land. Her soft light pours over you and into you, as you would fill a glass with water. Your heart is touched with contentment.

You see a hare hopping through the shadows, stopping beside yellow dandelions, bobbing up to check for safety while it eats. Also aroused by the white light, hare transforms into a graceful divinity, revealing a spiritual essence. Approaching, perfectly content in your presence, it sits beside you. Bending down you tenderly stroke soft fur. Peace and happiness fill the atmosphere. The Lady of Spring, sublime white maiden, watches and shares this moment.

Hare never sits still for long and is soon eager to move. You can feel the energy flowing as hare gets up and starts hopping towards the mound. You know to follow. Yet, as you approach, the maiden in the white mist fades. Then you realise that hare is leading you not to the mound but on a pathway of flattened grass to the edge of the field, to a gap in the white blossoming hedge. You notice bees collecting nectar from flowers and butterflies dance amongst the leaves of wild plants. Each step you take brings a blessing of new opportunity and refreshment.

Hare has become less misty and the white light dissipated. You can see the greyness of its fur and there is a sense that this is a real hare. It ducks under a low branch in the hedge and you step through the gap into a sweet new found landscape.

Behind the hedge is a small orchard on a sloping hillside. Here are old apple trees in generous pinkish white bloom. The buds, so full of potential, have burst forth in the heat of the day. You recall that the apple originates in Asia and you spend a moment to bless the ancestors that nurtured and cared for the first apples. Quietly you enter and explore the orchard.

Areas within mature woodlands of hazel coppice and white thorn have been cleared, while the larger oak, beech and ash trees stand tall in the distance. In the space created apple and pear trees thrive and a garden evolves.

There is a woodsman's shelter amongst the trees, a bush of bright golden gorse beside the door. The coconut scent from the flowers spreads on the calm evening breeze. The rural scene is complete with a gardener occupied preparing and digging a raised bed for root and leafy vegetables, turnips and cabbage.