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The Spring Equinox, TCM Wood Energy & the Zodiac’s Aries — Time to Act.

How to apply astrology & the ancient world’s wisdom to modern self-development.

Joshua Burkhart
6 min readMar 21, 2021

What lights you up? What are you passionate about? And how do you cultivate this energy so you can live fully as your most dynamic self?

Today is the Spring Equinox, the point in which the nights and days are balanced.

From here until the Summer Solstice (in the northern hemisphere) time tips forward into the daylight realm, the realm of the external world, of action and activity, as the Sun shines longer and longer each day.

Working with Daoist Tree (or Wood) energy and spring.

This is the beginning of Spring, which in the Daoist tradition is ruled by Tree (Wood) energy.

The element or motion of “Tree Energy” rules over the part of every process that is first beginning. It’s slow, but its energy runs deep, sustained by the collected energy of Water, or in relation to the seasons, the energy gathered during Winter and its stillness.

The energy is dense like wood is dense and it’s strong just as a root of a tree can tear apart a ruin or bolder.

It is the first of the yang energies in the Daoist elemental cycle and leads to the feverishly fast energy of Fire in Summer.

We can see this energy come alive here on the first day of Aries as the trees start to bud and grow their green leaves. Life is waking up, the birds are starting to sing.

Through spring this process will slowly quicken until the buds blossom and are pollenized, then bring forth fruit and seed which ripens in the summer.

In a similar way, when we are looking at self-cultivation this is the time of the year to begin our projects and to really act.

If we think back to those New Years Resolutions made in January, this is the time of year that has enough energy to really get them started and going strong.

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Joshua Burkhart

Transformation coach specializing in mental health, spirituality & relationships — the way we connect to self, society & cosmos. link.snipfeed.co/joshuaburkhart