Divine Feminine Transformation: How To Really Nourish Your Soul In A Challenging Time

Any challenging episode is like a spiritual, metaphorical Winter. Chaos disrupts, yet simultaneously, it invites us to re-adopt the beginner’s mindset with fresh eyes, and take a long journey to follow our roots. In the middle of the fertile void, perhaps a part in us can feel that the Dao is always present. And in this new edition of the Soul Medicine series, we’ll look into how to embrace our Dao and nourish our Soul during spiritual Winter.

There is a time for being ahead

a time for being behind

a time for being in motion

a time for being at rest

a time to build

a time to heal

Tao Te Ching / Dao De Jing

So, today, let’s surrender, dream and embrace our Dao/Tao.

1. Connect Deeper With Your Essence
2. Kintsugi: Love Your Golden Scars
3. Tend Your Own Spiritual Garden
4. Embrace Winter’s Wisdom: Dream & Glow
5. Surrender To The Light From Below

Flora back to soil, Fauna retreat to their dens. As we arrive in the depth of Winter, we dial up our receptive mode, feeling the pulses of the Earth beneath.

Under Winter’s Moon, all nature stores and preserves. Water freezes, ground cracks. The world is in a long exhale…Everything is telling us: follow the way of conservation.

After Winter Solstice, even though days are getting longer, sunlight is precious.

Many of my plant babies are now fast asleep, but grasses, like the hair of Mama Earth, are still widely awake. Reminding us that even in these colder days, Earth has so many generous ways to nurture us.

Earth gives us foundation, soil nurtures our roots. And it is our essence (the essential Self) that can really make us feel safe in who we are.

When we feel shattered, when there is so much to bear, when we are chronically isolated, we need to connect with the Earth and ourselves even more, and deeper than before.

Something I learnt from growing and harvesting Marigolds in the past months is that those flowers love a bit of gentle and consistent attention. Although Marigolds do not usually require pruning, the more you pick the flowers, the more they grow back profusely.

Any challenging episode is like a spiritual, metaphorical Winter.

In such a time, wouldn’t it be nice if we give the same gentle and consistent love to our essential Self?

Wouldn’t it be refreshing to respect and care for our inner world?

There are many natural ways to tonify our essence. Making your own warm, hearty root-based broth, slowly brewing your herbal tea, utilising flower essence or essential oils…

It can all help to replenish our essence, support our capacity to recover from burnout and shock, rejuvenate and restore our vibrancy.

The past years have left many of us with mental and emotional scars.

When I first discovered Kintsugi craft, I was instantly drawn by its unique healing power.

Rooted in Japan centuries ago, Kintsugi is an art and philosophy, which repairs a damaged object.

Embracing the wounded and broken, cracks are highlighted with golden seams and sparkles.

Despite fragility, golden scars can be symbols of healing and strength. Scars prove that you have survived. And sometimes they are the catalyst needed by your Soul.

Having said that, I don’t always manage to put each piece together perfectly, but that’s the whole point.

When we learn to accept the quirks and imperfection in our belongings, we are also more equipped to be kinder and more compassionate towards ourselves, as well as more tolerant to each other.

When fault lines become stunning glitter, perhaps once broken objects should not be hidden but celebrated; trauma is not to be ashamed of but inspired by. Scars do not have to be the end, but the beginning of something unique and even more beautiful.

In midwinter, when energy and power stay hidden, the slower pace outside allows us to enjoy more serenity in the garden, which is a wonderfully natural way to reduce seasonal blues.

Don’t be too afraid of the low temperature. This season has her own unique pleasures. Snuggle up with blankets, base layers, woolly jumpers, ski trousers and wellies – they are my very much treasured loyal friends.

When our body is more at ease with the outer environment, it is also more enticing for our soul to have an embodied experience.

Like anyone who loves this world deeply and painfully, in recent years, I struggled with my practice of writing and art. With a heavy heart, on many occasions I could barely string a few sentences together.

Chaos disrupts, yet simultaneously, it invites us to re-adopt the beginner’s mindset and fresh eyes, take a long journey to follow our roots, and deepen our craft, as a way to tend our spiritual garden.

Sometimes, suffering and limitation become the agents of transformation. In the middle of the fertile void, you can find yourself again.

Although it would be nice, having a physical garden is not a requirement to tend your spiritual garden.

You were born with your own gifts and intrinsic talents. They are the seeds of your Soul. There are many quiet and sustainable ways to use your skills and gifts to contribute to the wider community. Look after your seeds. Grow and cultivate them.

In Winter, what we can learn from the natural world is to immerse into the dark, like those seeds in the soil. In the darkness, we suspend our everyday mentality, we incubate. Our soul resets and reclaims our intrinsic rhythms, like going back to the womb. This is really a time to dream and glow.

Winter asks us to listen deeply to the authentic needs of our own being, at the same time, it challenges us to seek our truth, and see if our courage is truly in alignment with our personal Dao (Tao).

Different from Summer’s sunshine and brilliance, Winter’s wisdom is more of a glow of the essence, like a twilight gleam, guiding us through harsh conditions, enduring the sameness and boredom, and piloting through any panic, threat or confusion.

In Taoism, the Water Element is the guardian element of Winter.

With the wisdom of Water, we feel less fearful, more assured and attuned to our true Self.

Winter is the season of Yin, the foundation of life, yielding and gestating.

Here in the darkness, when the compression is so great and so intense, we wait with Yin, in silence and stillness, until she reaches her extremity then gives birth intrinsically to the opposite – Yang. This movement cannot be argued with.

Sometimes, we must surrender our limited willpower, reverse the impulse to react, to fight, to flee, to fix, to fixate, to progress as rapidly as possible, we must know the timing of transformation is not under our conscious control, no matter how much we try, it cannot be forced.

We must willingly allow ourselves to enter the unknown, reaching down to our inner core, relinquishing our resistance to our deepest reservoir.

There is tension, agitation or even despair, between the polarities, the paradox of the ending and the beginning, as we do not know if the light will be reborn.

But the light will always be reborn.

The Tao is called the Great Mother

empty yet inexhaustible,

it gives birth to infinite worlds.

This is a time of potential and faith.

Like a geyser shooting up from Earth’s crust, unexpectedly.

Like a spring, gushing out from a cliff, brimming with vibrancy and hope.

This is a different type of light from what you used to know.

Like a blue flame emerges from the darkness, after you have experienced breakdown of wholeness, after you’ve survived the chaos and crisis, after you’ve reintegrated yourself from the stone and cave, you are piecing yourself together with a golden shimmer, and returning to wholeness in a different way.

That’s the medicine of fierce returning.

Sometime in the future, in their own timing, seeds will open, dreams will turn into potent intentions, and the tale of becoming can then start again.

With love,

Yiye Zhang 章一叶

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I’m a writer, spiritual coach and Daoism Five Element artist. In the past decade, I’ve enjoyed helping people from all corners of the world to love, heal and express their Essential Self. 

Prior to this, I worked extensively in science and finance. I share what inspires me in the intersection of art, science and spirituality. I hope that the articles, videos and guided meditations will support your return to your wholeness.