One of the topics that has been central in diving deeper into the Art of War and the Tao Te Ching has been about following flow, and also being aware of patterns. In awareness of many different details, the landscape, one can get clarity on direction and "wholeness". Areas of focus and practice have been on things like water patterns, such a rivers. This has also included weather patterns. Patterns of the landscape itself. This also includes seasonal patterns - heat, cold, daylength. These are all things that are purposely ignored in the current structures of domination. Example: casinos with no windows and a bright daylight like light and loud sound - so one is pulled from the Earth-time-continuum and connection. Many workspaces have this quality as well, so workers aren't connected to their deeper environment and instead a part of the human factory that contributes to the larger factory. I think of this also with food types available all year round that are inherently seasonal (there are so many examples but if you don't know what I mean, think about Asparagus and strawberries).
In thinking more about water, it's not just weather. It is about all the types of water and what they represent spiritually. Where is the water coming from? Rain that connects to long distances clouds travel and to the sky. Water from a deep well that is a part of the Earth. Water that emerges from a spring. Water that travels via a river. Energetically and spiritually there are important nuances there when doing spiritual practice. This moves away from the way I am very separated from understanding the story of the water that arrives from the tap where I live. I've followed more of where that water is coming from. But the way I am separated from that understanding is another way of separating myself from understanding the full cycle that I am within, the full Earth connection I exist within, as water is life. And all the different types of water matter spiritually and to the Earth's cycles.
One thing I also had not considered at much length though was the moon. And how then that relates to tides and energetic push and pull on the Earth. In some Earth-based traditions there is awareness of moon-cycle. Not just full moon and new moon. For plants where you focus on using leaves, flowers, or fruit, or seeds, engaging with those plants when the moon is waxing is beneficial. Because it is growth upwards, as the moon "grows" the energetic tug in the plants is upward, and the medicine is being pulled upward. For plants where you focus on the roots, it is beneficial to focus when the moon is waning, as that energy is downward into the Earth, the medicine is being pulled downward. There are also beliefs of the power moon has on water, so practices of collecting specific types of water, like rainwater with the quality it has, then exposing it to moonlight, before use in spiritual practice. In terms of tides, some spiritual practices focus on the tide coming in, and the power that is being brought in, and then some other spiritual practices focus on the tide going out and what is being removed or taken away. This can even include collecting some water at that time for spiritual practice relating to those energies, and then bringing the water back to the source when completed. There are also traditions around hunting and gathering of food related to relationships to the tides.
This adds another layer of nuance to my relationship to plants, Earth, water, weather, when including these cycles of moon, tide, and types of water. And another layer when understanding flow, and what the current "landscape" is like.
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