By Dolores Gozzi
The seasons come and go, and with them we transition and grow through our lives, some years with grace and ease, while others feel like a whirlwind.
At different times in our lives, one of the seasons may be stronger and more profound for us than the others. We may experience a very snowy winter, a very hot summer, or a monsoon-like rainy spring. There may be beautiful colors or bleak horizons, and what we connect with strongly on the physical plane often reflects our inner spiritual awareness. This is the spiritual seed level, and knowing how to work with the seasons and nature-based holidays can help us understand what spiritual seeds we need in our lives, how to plant them, and what seasons are best to plant those seeds in.
Isn’t it true that in some years we can achieve our goals and desires and things work out easily, while other years are a struggle? Just like in nature, our lives need to go through each season with accompanying change. We also must be able to adapt and prepare for the upcoming season. Otherwise, we will have a difficult transition ahead of us.
Unfortunately, we cannot always predict when a harsher season is about to descend upon us, but we can work to understand why some years are more difficult than others in our personal or business lives.
Stages of Seasonal Change
Winter is the time we go within to gain better insight and clarity on what transpired during the previous year. This is the time we start to decide what “Spiritual Seeds” we need to start planting for our next seasonal cycle. The winter solstice encourages us to “See the Light.”
Winter is associated with the “Crone,” the wise elder.
She knows how to listen and engage in each of the universal changes that transpire around her. Working with the winter season can help us to go within, rest and renew. This is a sorting out time. We can call on the “Crone” and the season of winter at anytime during the year when we need to gain more insight, rest our bodies and renew our thinking process to prepare for the next cycle of growth.
Spring is the time of year where we begin to see “growth” if we chose our seeds correctly. The earth begins to awaken, and so do our bodies. After the winter months, we instinctively know it’s time to pursue our dreams and goals. There is more action in our lives. We want to move and grow with our environment. The spring equinox helps us to “stand still in balance” for a brief time before our new growth begins, helping to ensure we do not get burned out.
The spring season is associated with the “Young Maiden,” the beautiful lady who energizes the potential growth we can achieve.
She is alive with movement and energy and can help us move forward in life. We use spring to create “new growth” within, which eventually will project into the outside world. Remember that all seeds are created deep inside the earth, and they are just waiting to emerge. We also can work with the “Young Maiden” to birth creative ideas, or to balance before forging ahead.
Summer is the time of year where we see the “full bloom” of what was planted in the spring. Life and energies are at their peak, and the world is active, expanding and producing. This is the time of year when decisions, creations, ideas and plans have either come to fruition or have stagnated. The summer solstice reflects what should be blooming in our lives. As a result, if something has not emerged it might not be the time for it to bloom. In this case, it may be advisable to work with it again at the next winter solstice.
Summer is associated with the “Mother” due to the ripeness and fertility of the season.
She can help us understand what needs to ripen and provides the fertilizer for the seeds. She helps us see the “brightness and warmth” that can surround our life, home and environment.
Working with the summer season can help us understand how to stay “alive,” whatever stage of life we are in. All life needs to be nurtured and tendered in order to have a peak. Work with the “Mother” figure anytime there is a need for more fertility, expansion, or to reach a peak in a transaction or project. She produces the people, places and things we need in life.
Autumn/Fall is the time of year where we begin to reap our harvest and start to reflect inward. At this point, we can visually see what we have produced and if our harvest can sustain us in the winter months ahead. Lammas/Lughhansh, which is a nature-based holiday related to the “harvest,” teaches us how to make grain into bread so our bodies can be sustained and be nourished.
Autumn is associated with the “Middle Aged Woman” who has been able to produce a harvest that can sustain in the months ahead.
She teaches us about “transformation” and how we can apply it in our own lives. Working with the Autumn/Fall season, we come to understand the importance of transformation in terms of our thoughts, ideas and selves with regard to each stage that lies ahead. Work with the “Middle Aged Woman” to reflect on current situations and transform them into something that can used to sustain and nourish the body, mind and soul.
Every season has a reason!
Learning to work with them and their associated nature-based holidays can help guide and transform us in life. We are ever-changing through the cycles of solitude, movement, growth, peak and transformation.
Dolores J. Gozzi “The Practical Priestess” is a nationally certified Licensed Massage Therapist and the founder of Healing Thru Bodywork & Nature’s Cycles (www.naturescycles.com). The company incorporates several modalities including aromatherapy, massage, bodywork, element bodywork, and meditation. Dolores also has a Feathered Spirit Tribe of Women Spirituality Group. Through her own life-changing experience with a shaman, Dolores had an awakening about Mother Earth and her deep powers to heal others through nature’s cycles, elements and seasons. The mission of Healing Thru Bodywork & Nature’s Cycles is for each individual to be able to reconnect with his or her inner strength and guidance and create a personal world that is harmonious with the elements and guided by nature.