Alchemy with Bronwyn

Summer Begins: Beltane and How to Work With Summer Fire

• Bronwyn Ayla

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In Taoist seasonal timing, early May marks the true beginning of summer, while the summer solstice is the peak of yang and the moment yin begins to rise again.

In this episode, I share a Chinese medicine lens on qi as time, not just “energy,” and what summer conduct actually asks of us so we can thrive rather than run hot. We explore the gifts of summer fire (momentum, expression, fruition) and the shadow side (overdrive, irritability, aggression, and “trapped heat” that shows up later).

In this episode, we cover:

  •  Why early May is considered the start of summer (Tong Shu timing) 
  •  Summer fire and the heart-mind, and how to avoid burnout patterns 
  •  Sleep/wake rhythm, hydration, and morning water 
  •  Summer exercise, sweating, and recovery 
  •  Food cues for the season (greens to protect fluids) 
  •  Kids and why forcing maturity too early creates imbalance 
  •  Summer as joy, passion, and community that unites rather than dominates 

Follow/subscribe for more seasonal guidance, and share this with someone who’s been running hot.

Why Summer Starts Before Solstice

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It is May Day or Beltain, as many pagan traditions call this time. According to the Tong Shu, which is an ancient Chinese almanac, May 6th is the first day of summer. So just to clarify, in the West, summer solstice is often heralded as the first day of summer, but this is actually when the days start to get shorter because yin is growing. So summer solstice marks the height of yang as the longest day of the year. This is the zenith of yang energy. So now as we are right between spring equinox and summer solstice, it's the beginning of summer. As we have about six weeks left until summer solstice when the days actually get shorter. So this is the time for us to really launch into summertime activities and doing and productivity. It's the time to really conduct ourselves in a way as nature does. So sometimes I think in the West, there's a prevalent tendency to believe we are magically outside of this cycle of nature, that somehow, you know, these agricultural societies perhaps heralded different kinds of shifts in seasonal conduct. But now we're advanced and beyond this idea of conducting ourselves in accordance with seasonal qi. But

Qi As Time And Seasonal Law

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this kind of arrogance is expensive not only to our personal health, but to our planetary health. We are part of nature, and when we conduct ourselves in this way, it brings longevity and a deep embodiment of what it means to actually be a human being. There is a timing to everything. And when we conduct ourselves with this fundamental idea of doing things at the right time, it brings about the nourishment of our destiny. So frequently in the West, Qi is defined as energy. But really, qi is about time. It holds the changing of the seasons and moon and other cycles as governing our conduct. And when we're in accordance with the seasonal Qi, we prosper. And when we disobey these Qi cycles, it brings decline and premature aging. So Lu Ming would say there's two major causes of death. The first is birth, and the second is failure to live in accordance with the seasonal Qi. So we're going to talk a little bit in this podcast about spring and summer and the difference between those, where the young qi was immature in early spring. Now it's reaching its maturation and there is completion all around us. So summer's conduct can actually be more forceful than in spring, and certainly than in early spring when there was very little qi available for us. And when we talk about conduct here, we're not talking about a moral conduct like Protestant or Judeo-Christian idea of right and wrong. This is simply resultant. When we conduct ourselves in accordance with the qi around us, it brings health and longevity. And when we don't, it brings the other thing. So the heraldic animal of summer is the red phoenix, this enormous magical bird whose radiance is the sun. It's the ascendance of young rising out of the cold, dark devastation of winter. And this red phoenix pulls all dormancy into action. We have about six weeks before yang begins to decline and yin begins its growth towards winter solstice. So this is a time to fully dive into whatever it is that you are devoting this year to and be fully active and participating in your growth.

The Red Phoenix And Full Action

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It is in accordance with nature to plow full steam ahead with projects, ideas, resolutions, and plans. The Naijing says the three months of summer are a time of splendor and growth when all things fruit. Anything is possible, we align ourselves with the qi available for us now. There is the possibility of the nourishment of our destiny, of what it is we want in the world. In the botanical environment, we can observe plants becoming themselves. That which was dormant and not visible in the winter is now in its state of splendor. So everything can flourish in the summertime. There is enough sunshine that communication between the sky and the earth is fully activated. So moisture is being drawn up from deep within the earth by that heavenly young qi. The plants that are reaching up for the sun are using that fire of heaven to suck up the yin, this moisture in the ground. This is happening all around us, and we also have this possibility available for us. So this hot qi of summer is what can bring about the completion of the plans and ideas that we had in the spring. On the other side, if we don't act ourselves in accordance with the summer qi that's available for us, we stumble. The Najing says, disobey the mandates of summer, and it will bring harm to the heart and produce fever or trapped heat in the autumn. Inappropriate behavior in the summer will create deficiency at autumn harvest. We are part of the seasonal change, and when we follow this dance of life, we preserve our vitality. Even though there is so much abundance available to us right now, it is possible to squander this abundance with excessive ambition, rigidity, power seeking, and aggression. All of these kinds of emotions damage the heart mind or the shen, we say in Chinese medicine. And this in turn leads to premature aging. I think we we often see this in kind of like the stereotype of sort of a man in his 50s or 60s that's having heart attacks and you know it's just like going, going, going, working, working, working, hasn't really had that time to rest in the winter months. So spring is the time when the new ideas are generated, and summer is the time that they really get legs and manifest. As we age, the differentiation between spring and summer becomes even more vital. So having the freshness of sprouting new ideas in the spring is actually what keeps us young. So if we don't practice the spring newness, we get older faster. And we need to let go in the springtime and allow innovation in. And as we age, this doesn't necessarily need to be productive. It could be restorative, new, fresh ideas, but it does need to contain that new young. When the

Heart Heat And Burnout Warnings

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fresh young comes in, it starts to solidify and press new ideas to replace the old ones. And if this process fails to take place, summer manifests as heat damage. And we can even see this in the autumn, carrying through all the way to the autumn. So clinically, we can see this heat damage as premature aging. If we are conducting ourselves the same throughout the year, perhaps a 40-hour a week job, 12 months a year, what is generated as successful in the summer, in the winter time, actually is an emptiness and a deficiency. We say that a small fire warms the hearth and a large fire burns the house down. Fire is often a strong, very strong in youth, but we must be cautious about it as we mature so that we do not let it blaze and deplete our kidney chi. If we cultivated young properly in the spring with education, such as visiting shamans, consulting the oracle, visiting wise people, reading books. This is the way we can cultivate young in the spring, then summer's pattern of young can be that of acquiring and growing. So it will then be more productive rather than being a fire that's out of control and blazing. A healthy young in the summertime, it's a kind of a dominance that can afford a mildness and a generosity. Now I'm gonna read a quote from the Naijing. The three months of summer are called the time of splendor and growth. At summer solstice, yang qi reaches an apex and yin qi emerges. Yin and yang commingle and all living things and beings prosper. Yang qi energizes all phenomena and yin gives them shape. Because of this yin-yang commingling, all things flower and fruit. People, like all phenomena, are included. They should follow the seasonal qi to preserve vitality. I'm gonna talk a little bit about exercise. It's just like in the spring, it's important to go to sleep when it's dark and rise at at dawn. It's counseled to wear loose clothing and untied hair and do your practice at sunrise to grasp this fresh young qi available to us. This is the time to go a little bit further in your exercise and train a little harder

Spring Newness Keeps You Young

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and maybe push a little bit more out of any time in the year. Sweating will help move any internal stagnation out of us. And the counsel is to then rub the sweat into the body briskly, which helps polish the protective qi or the wei chi. Strongly emphasized to drink water in the morning and to not rise late. On an emotional conduct level, this is an important time to avoid anger and stay calm. Looming would say pushing the body a little bit and exercise is okay, but not the emotions. If we are quick to anger, we inflame the pernicious side of young, which manifests as aggressiveness and violence. As far as what to eat, we can see all around us these flowers that are blooming and they die quite quickly, especially with the heat. Their blooming is a kind of celebration of this communication between heaven and earth. But these small flowers do not have enough qi to last all the way to the autumn, right? They take the things that take the whole summer to grow are more complex and nourishing and thus stable. So going into the autumn time, we have pumpkins and squash, which have so much qi they can be stalled, stored all winter. The flowers we see are harder to store, at least fresh without drying them. And it's important to eat a lot of greens this time of year to replenish the fluids and to drink water regularly to avoid any kind of drying action from the summer heat. With children, it's important to not force maturity too quickly on them. This is important all through the year, but especially in the summertime where immature young is celebrated. So

Summer Practices For Sleep And Exercise

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too much exposure to media, movies, news, and magazines, which have weird content in them, will cause our children to grow up too quickly. Children should be irresponsible. This experience of innocence and incompleteness of children is what generates new ideas and helps us have change in our world. If we push kids to grow up too fast, we get a dominant young as they become adults. That becomes the energy running our society. It's malignant. And this happens by one of the ways this can be encouraged is by pushing responsibility on children too early. Summer is the time of passion. Hot fire summer chi is associated not only with the ordinary sense of personal joy, but also the pleasure that comes in our contact with others. So passion is welcomed in the summer. In pagan traditions, Beltain or May Day was the time when people lit fires and stayed up all night making love next to the fire as a blessing to the autumn harvest and the spring crops or the summer crops. One can also see this as a celebration and a calibration with the hot qi of summer, which can manifest as this passion. The counsel of the Zhang Ji-Shan, Yin Shu, is to enter the palace from evening to midnight, otherwise, it injures the Qi. So entering the palace refers to sexual intercourse, which is most beneficial during the growing yin time of day in the evening between sunset and midnight. Excess modesty during summer is the manifestation of a malevolent yin left over from winter. So there's no need to be overly modest in the summertime. Save that modesty for the wintertime when we're wanting to conserve our tea. This is the time to let your hair down to have more wildness in your conduct. On that token gatherings during the summer, this can be a collective demonstration of this joy of nature. And this natural fire brings a kind of unity through this collective demonstration of joy. We can unite differences through this warmth, this heat, such as living and dead, ancestors and children, young and old, woman and man, through this loving, warm, and happy conduct. It is the season to be more free in expressing your feelings, thoughts, and preferences with clarity. And just to be really clear,

Food Water And Raising Children

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this is not an aggression, which is a kind of malevolent young. This is a time for generosity, abundance, and strengthening bonds with our community. The Zhang Jishan Yin Shu counsels us to wash the hair frequently during the summer, but to not bathe often, bathing meaning languishing in a tub of warm water, because this is not in accordance with the faster pace of summer tea. So short showers, probably ending with cold water at the end, letting the head be fresh with that cold water or warm water, but not sitting around for long hours in a tub or sauna or sweat. Thank you so much for listening and enjoy your summertime and go to lots of gatherings, dance frequently, have a lot of fun, express your joy, be passionate, and spend some time in the garden to help calibrate, go for long walks. More of this can be found on my blog at BronwynILA.com, or you can look below and you will see a link to my site. I also offer Reiki trainings and other kinds of sessions, such as in my clinical practice, I do offer acupuncture, herbal tonics, massage, rose and method, Reiki, and other kinds of chi harmonizing beneficial practices. And you can check me out on my website. I publish these every six weeks, these different podcasts on how to conduct ourselves with the qi. And you can also find many blogs about this on my Instagram account, Brahman Isla, and my Facebook, Ayla Arts.

Passion Community And Summer Hygiene

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Looking forward to being in connection with you.