Thermal Energy of Tea: Astrology, Seasons, and Timing

Darkness and the moon are yin. Light and the sun are yang. Earth's tilt and orbit and the moons cycles encompass both yin and yang. Yang is activity and growth. So the yang seasons are spring and summer. Yin is inactivity and stagnation. So the yin seasons are fall and winter.

The theory of thermal energy is not the best theory to apply when attempting to explain the harmony of tea and astrology, but at its simplest retains some value. If you merely look at the thermal energy of teas and the yin and yang of seasonal change, it makes sense that you should drink tea with cool thermal nature in the yang seasons of Spring and Summer and tea with warm thermal nature in the yin seasons of Fall and Winter.

But Astrology encompasses much more than just seasonal change. In the broadest sense, astrology is the science of timing. How you use the art of timing when choosing to drink teas of different thermal energy can either positively and negatively impact your health.

For instance, choosing a tea with warm properties on a cold day and a tea with cool properties on a warm day is an example of how we, usually unconsciously, use timing and thermal nature to promote a healthy state. Another example is when you prepare a tea with warm thermal properties after coming in from the cold weather because you feel cold (or even better before you go out into the cold) and a tea with cool thermal properties after coming in from the hot weather because you feel hot (again drinking a tea with cool thermal properties before or during the exposure to heat is better). Or if you live in a region where the night is very cold and the daytime temperature is quite warm, you are best off choosing a tea with warm thermal properties in the morning and cool properties in the afternoon.

Timing also applies to choosing a tea that helps the process of digestion. It is not good for your health to drink tea with cool properties on an empty stomach first thing in the morning. Conversely, it is helpful for our middle jiao (the system responsible for digestion) to receive tea with warmer properties just after a meal. So consideration of timing and thermal energy is especially important for the health of those energy systems that directly receive the tea after consumption.

But again, astrology is much deeper than this and when you start examining deeper levels of astrology things become tremendously complicated because of the interplay of many complex factors. Planets are more yin or yang and when their orbit is closer to earth their energy affects earth. The same can be said of the constellations. These factors are much less important when compared to the effect of earth's orbit and tilt (season) and moon phase but are still factors that must be considered. And when we account for the added dimension of a person's birth chart, things become even more perplexing. To further complicate matters, there are many different astrological models such as the Western model, the Hindu model, and the Chinese model that can be used.

Simply put- tea and astrology is not so simple.

Peace