By now, we’re all familiar with the circle of life and what it entails, but are you aware that within life there are repeating cycles as well? We see these cycles all around us. If we learn to work with the cycles, we can start gaining the most return for our energy and see greater productivity and success. You know when you’re going through life and it feels like you’ve got these cyclical ups and downs? That’s the kind of cycle we’re going to be talking about. First, though, you have to know what cycle you’re in!
The cycles of life are seeding, growing, harvesting, and lying fallow. These are the terms used as in the case of the farm cycle, but we’ll find that many other processes go though the same cycle as well. These correspond to the moon cycles as well – waxing, full, waning, and dark – and the cycle of life as well – child, adult, elder and death.
Seeding
The seeding cycle is where we lay the foundation. For projects, this is the planning and research stage, for our lifetimes it’s the formative stage, or childhood, but we also go through this several times during our life. This cycle typically starts with a new idea or concept, new way of looking at things, or the beginning of a new stage in your life. Things are bright and shiny and full of potential in this stage, and our vision is most often clearest. We can see where we want this new venture to go, everything is either black or white, and things are clear as a bell. We’re starting out with a lift in our step and a whistle on our lips, so to speak. As with any foundation, though, we want to make sure we do a thorough and calculated job, for what we reap, we’ll also be sowing. This cycle corresponds to the waxing (growing) time of the moon.
Growing
This cycle is pretty self-explanatory. This is the part where things are sprouting and developing. A lot of care and tending is needed during this cycle to make sure things progress the way that we wanted them to. Ideas, projects, plans, and our selves need proper nurturing to continue progressing. This is also where things start getting sticky – shades of grey and introduced and decisions may need to be made. Pruning needs to happen so help keep things under control. In our lifespan, this would be our early-to-mid-adult years where work is the primary focus. Balance here is especially important. This is also when we’re learning to apply new concepts and ideas and see what happens in practice. We adjust our tactics and procedures until we start getting the results that we want. This corresponds to the full moon.
Harvest
This cycle echoes a lot of what occurred in our seeding cycle. Things are clearer here and the end is again perfectly visible from where we are. This is the completion part of the cycle where you get to enjoy the fruits of your labors. For a project, this is where you get to see the success of your efforts and begin wrapping things up. This is also when we’re seeing the concepts that we’re learning in action and have a good knowledge of how to use them. Even though we’ve experienced the grey areas, there’s still more black and white at this stage of things – we can see clearly what worked and what didn’t, what helped our growth and what hindered it, and what the final product was. In our lifespan, this is the senior years, after the children have grown and started their own life and perhaps given us grandbabies. It’s a time of retirement and relaxation. This corresponds to the waning (shrinking) time of the moon.
Fallow
Lying fallow is what farmers do with a field after a certain number of crop rotations. This allows the soil to rest and rejuvenate and regain it’s fertility. As such, this is our time-between-times used to relax and recover from whatever it is we just harvested. This would be that space of time right in between projects or events where you can put up your feet and concentrate on regaining your energy. In our lifespan, this is death – the time in between lifetimes. During our lifespan, it’s the time between lessons or concepts where we can rejuvenate before we begin seeding again. Nothing is happening during this cycle – it’s pure rest and rejuvenation. This corresponds to the dark time of the moon.
These cycle repeat over and over again in our lives, throughout our lives, and all around us all the time. By being able to recognize what cycle we’re in, we can better direct our energy and take even more control over our own lives and enjoy a greater closeness with Spirit and the Earth.
