8 Branches Chinese Medicine

12/21/2025

Winter Solstice | D**gzhi 冬至
Eleventh Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Fu | Return

The greatest yin and the longest night of the year. Yang returns, moving yin to spread its cold and fully manifest. The return of light welcomes conservation.

Sleep more. Talk less. Create comfort. Practice restraint to protect yang.

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Southern Hemisphere:

Summer Solstice | Xiazhi 夏至
Fifth Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Gou | Meeting

The greatest yang and the longest day of the year. Yin returns, pushing yang outward. Peak activity easily creates excess and exhaustion.

Express feelings. Meditate. Maintain boundaries. Sleep during the dark hours.

12/21/2025

The season of winter, in its darkest time, is a fecund space when all returns to a womb-like state. The moments surrounding solstice call us toward stillness and introspection, anchoring us within the unknown. All potential and possibility rest in our willingness to receive and embrace the unknown.

This openness echoes the Kun hexagram of Earth: receptivity, infinite space, centering. Abundance surrounds us, yet we often refuse what is offered—a compliment, help, a gift that doesn’t quite fit our expectations. Now is the time to receive fully and realize all that has already been given.

Winter solstice is the utmost yin—extreme darkness welcoming the rebirth of light. By following the rhythms of sun, moon, and the seasons, we remember our place within the whole. Earth and Heaven move as one, form and formlessness in constant exchange.

In the dark, our ancestors call. Listen closely. Carry forward what remains true. Honor the light within—its love, lineage, and quiet endurance. Allow what no longer belongs to fall away.

Choice is yours.
Belief is yours.
Your story is yours.

12/15/2025

12/08/2025

Greater Snow | Da Xue 大雪
Eleventh Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Fu | Return

Snow covering is vast. Darkness peaks. Yin influences dreams. Things in the dark are not always as they appear.

Eat warming foods. Rest. Move gently. Go to bed early.

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Southern Hemisphere:

Grain Ripens | Mang Zhong 芒种
Fifth Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Gou | Meeting

Yang encounters yin, and seeds are promised for next year. Confidence spreads. The heart is open and vulnerable; defensiveness may rise.

Care for appetite. Chew well. Be active, but relaxed.

12/08/2025

i am…
my peaceful day
loved, joyous and silly
rooted in trust and faith
embodied brilliance, embraced shadow
spirit in form as whole
center, calm and still
clean and clear
…am i

12/08/2025

The past is always a part of the whole. In celebrating this wheel of timelessness and our simultaneous experience of everything all at once—past, present, future, I’m including the previous node as I prepare the post of our current.

Slowing down as been a guide for me to remain present during busy times. This node of lesser snow began on my birthday. It was a beautiful period of return with the simultaneous new moon. In darkness I’ve found comfort, embracing the shadow to embody the brilliance.

Lesser Snow | Xiao Xue 小雪
Tenth Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Kun | Receptive

Yin is at its most extreme, and snow is welcomed like a beautiful friend. All is at rest as the cold and darkness grow.

Get fresh air; mind the cold. Travel south if warmth is needed during winter months.

___

Southern Hemisphere:

Grain Sprouts | Xiao Man 小满
Fourth Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Qian | Creative

Yang matures and expands to its fullest power. Sprouts show. Grains, trees and shrubs flourish.

Harvest herbs and early fruits. Take small naps. Enjoy fresh foods.

12/08/2025

Of the many translations, it’s interesting to find a myriad of interpretations.

I’ve chosen to highlight this last part of what is a moving chapter (DDJ52). It is a reminder of our relationship to the mysterious female, a need to return and honor interconnectedness, a guide to surrender and trust… there is so much her to contemplate, respect and honor.

I paused whether to hold the softness, or keep flexible? What calls you?

“Seeing the small is called Clarity. Holding to the soft is called Strength. Use your light to return to inner brightness, leaving no misery for the self. This is called practicing the Eternal.”

天下有始，以為天下母。
既得其母，以知其子；
既知其子，復守其母，沒身不殆。
塞其兌，閉其門，終身不勤。
開其兌，濟其事，終身不救。
見小曰明，守柔曰強。
用其光，復歸其明，無遺身殃；
是謂習常

In the beginning was the Tao. All things issue from it; all things return to it.
To find the origin, trace back the manifestations. When you recognize the children and find the mother, you will be free of sorrow. If you close your mind in judgements and traffic with desires, your heart will be troubled. If you keep your mind from judging and aren’t led by the senses, your heart will find peace.
Seeing into darkness is clarity. Knowing how to yield is strength. Use your own light and return to the source of light. This is called practicing eternity.

translation by Stephen Mitchell, 1995)

11/10/2025

Winter Begins | Li D**g 立冬
Tenth Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Kun | Receptive

The ground hardens as the nights grow long. Yin begins its peak. Yang stores to create strength for its revival.

Cultivate inner stillness. Retreat energy inward. Dress appropriately.

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Southern Hemisphere:

Summer Begins | Li Xia 立夏
Fourth Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Qian | Creative

Yang that resides deep within during winter is reaching its full potential. The sun shines brightly, filling the sky.

Visit flower gardens, and connect with spirit. Careful, yang is still maturing.

11/10/2025

The other night, I was called to view the full moon and II woke to a spotlight shining upon my back door. It was so magnificent, high in the sky, shining down upon me as I stepped outside to gaze. I did a short moon ingestion practice, drinking in her light. The aura that surrounded her was phenomenal—colors like a rainbow. It was unlike any usual gazing;

I was struck by both her beauty and intensity—so appropriate for these current moments in time.

I met this glorious full moon at a halfway point in the lunar unfolding, as we shift from the hexagram of Splitting Apart into the Receptivity of Earth. It also coincided with the transition into a new solar mode, and I continue to feel the story of the year unfolding in ways I had never expected.

There’s something about the way the lunar and solar cycles synchronize that can feel either deeply settling or slightly disjointed; and this year feels more like a time loop as the full moons align with the beginnings of each month. It’s as though this illumination is revealing both the new beginnings and the powerful significance of endings simultaneously.

Each new moon invites the unknown to envision what we have not yet seen. Over the next weeks, as the full moon wanes, I feel called to honor that space: to gently disentangle from past patterns and behaviors that no longer serve me.

I invite you to explore this rhythm too, as we move deeper into Earth’s receptivity from November into December, as we create space to receive fully from the womb, the mysterious and the unknown. May we hold ourselves in trust and remain open to the clarity it brings.

10/22/2025

Hexagram 2 – Kun: Receptive Power

After Bo (Stripping Away), when old forms collapse and what once supported us begins to dissolve, the path leads naturally into Kun (Receptive Power). Bo clears the field and asks us to release control, to let go of what no longer nourishes life. The disintegration may feel like loss, but it is simply the soil turning, preparing itself for renewal. What follows is not emptiness, but space and fertile stillness that allows something new to take root.

In the transition from Bo to Kun, we move from death and decay into the fecundity of the earth. The stripping away gives way to receiving; action yields to stillness. Now, rather than pushing ahead, we allow ourselves to be shaped by what is coming. The wisdom of this turning lies in trust — trusting that what has fallen away will become nourishment for the next beginning.

Kun is the power of the great feminine, the yielding strength of the Earth itself. It teaches patience, grace, and the quiet confidence that comes through faith in natural timing. Like rich soil receiving the rain, Kun holds, nurtures, and brings forth new life without struggle. Success comes not through control, but through alignment and the willingness to listen, to wait, and to move only when the way opens.

Receptivity is not passive; it is profoundly creative. It gathers the scattered fragments of Bo and transforms them into form and meaning. This is the time to slow down, to receive what life is offering, and to cultivate what is emerging with care. When we surrender to the flow, our actions grow out of presence rather than pressure.

From Bo’s clearing to Kun’s cultivation, we learn the rhythm of transformation — that what is stripped away today becomes the ground of tomorrow’s growth.

10/22/2025

Frost Descends | Shuang Jiang 霜降
Ninth Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Bo | Splitting Apart

Autumn collapses into winter. Yang diminishes as days grow short, and it's known that winter is coming.

Keep feet warm. Reflect. Let go of what is not needed.

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Southern Hemisphere:

Grain Rain | Gu Yu 谷雨
Third Lunar Month
Yi Jing Hexagram: Kuai | Resolution

Spring expands into summer as yang nears its peak. Yin water is pushed to overflow. Growth expands.

Keep dry. Avoid damp spaces. Notice blooms and buds.