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Bai Lu – White Dew

By 18 July 2022No Comments

Bai Lu - White Dew

As you read this, the autumn equinox is a fact. I am writing this in the period of the “White Dew”, in the week of 7 September.

The Chinese calendar has 24 solar periods, so-called solar terms, which divide the year into equal parts. They are named after the natural phenomena that are characteristic of the respective weeks. For example, the period at the end of summer, just before the astronomical autumn begins, is called “Bai Lu”. Freely translated, “Bai Lu” means “White Dew”. And that is exactly what we observe when we walk through nature in the early morning. Everywhere between and over the grass stalks hang cobwebs, glistening with dew drops. Water drops that sparkle like pearls hang from the leaves, the twigs and the grass. A morning mist hangs over the field, filtering and diffusing the light of the rising sun. The name “White Dew – Bai Lu” fits perfectly.

Looking at the blooming flowers that are now in the field and garden and growing along the road during our morning walk further confirms the early September period. The jack-of-all-trades (Tanacetum vulgare), the brunette (Prunella vulgaris), the lantern plant (Physalis alkekengi), the autumn thistle (Colchicum autumnale) and the crown-of-trees (Euphorbia helioscopia).

The web of connections shows the rhythm of the laws of Qi, as Fu Xi, the first of the Three Exalted, taught his people.

Each of these plants, the dewdrops, the mist are features that are related to each other and can always be observed together in the first weeks of September. Just like in the diagnostics of Chinese medicine, where one symptom or complaint does not give information about the dynamic balance of an organism, but where the cluster of symptoms gives a clear picture of where the organisation of the system is and therefore how we can treat it. It is the same with living nature.

When it is evening. Around ten o’clock. And we look up at the clear starry sky. Then in the southwest we see the bright Evening Star, the planet Jupiter. In the northeastern sky, the “W” shape of the Cassiopeia constellation shines out, and below it, the Perseus constellation appears.

Now you know for sure. It can only be the first weeks of September. No doubt about it. You know that the Qi has started its movement inwards and downwards, its speed is decreasing. Everything is beginning its journey inwards….