The twelfth phase of the Chinese seasonal calendar Major Heat (Dashu) starts as the sun crosses 120° Longitude (0° Leo). Please join the thousands of practitioners worldwide who will usher in this event by practicing the Major Heat Empowerment. 

The time of the seasonal cycle that coincides with Major Heat represents the hottest time of the year. Over the next fifteen days streets will become ovens, and, if you live in New York City, subway stations will become saunas. Intense heat is the quality that characterizes this seasonal cycle and to grasp the meaning of Major Heat we turn our attention to the source of all this heat, the sun.

Every month we get a bill from the utility company for the energy that we use in our homes. But we don’t get a bill from the sun for the energy that the planet consumes, and so it is easy to forget the awesome power emitted by it. During Major Heat, the sun reminds us of its power.

At the level of nature, the sun’s heat represents the energy source that drives the engine of life. But in what form does solar power manifest at the human level? What is the ultimate source of human power? Is it strength? Creativity? Intelligence? No, for there is a deeper power that underlies all of those qualities. Love.

Love is the dominant force that directs our lives. When we are inspired by love, our strength peaks. It is when we love an activity, truly and deeply, that our creative energies crest. It is when we love a subject profoundly that our natural intelligence culminates. It is when we love another human being that we project our best qualities and virtues into the world. 

An obvious but often neglected aspect of love is that the more we do something that we love, the more we want to do it. When you love something, you can’t get enough of it. The secret of love’s power is that love feeds on itself. When we experience love, we tap into an inexhaustible supply of energy that arises from within and we become like the sun: tireless transmitters of warmth and light. 

There is a time every year when nature encourages us to rekindle our capacity for love, and we have reached that moment. What do you really love? Ask yourself the question sincerely. Now is the time to embrace the object of your love and to shine more love into the world.

Where in your body do you feel love? Think back to your first love, where did that person’s presence touch you? Here’s a hint: boom-boom, boom-boom. The organ that registers love is the heart. Every season is associated with an organ and an emotional quality. Summer is the season of the heart and the emotions linked to summer are love and joy. The logic of nature that links macrocosm and microcosm unto a seamless whole suggests that right now, the universe is ripe for the expression of your love.

Major Heat Empowerment will increase your energy level and enhance your capacity for love and joy. I encourage you to do it until Start of Autumn (the first stage of autumn) begins. Until then, embody summertime and shine the Love Qi stored in your heart into the world.