Tu B'Shevat Embodiment: Celebrating the Seasonal Shifts
In nature, there are four major seasons. In breath, there are four parts. And in Jewish tradition, there are four New Years—four moments for renewal with the Source of All Abundance. One of these is Tu Bishvat, the New Year for the budding trees (Mishna).
This full moon holiday celebrates the connection we have with the trees, because “Human is a tree of the field” (Deuteronomy). Just like a tree has roots, a trunk, branches, and fruit; the human expands into wholeness through an integration of these four parts. We share so much in common with the trees:
Our breathing intertwines with the breath of trees, exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide in a sacred cycle. Remarkably, our respiratory system mirrors the shape of a tree, with its branching structures.
Like trees, we hold an upright posture and share about 50% of our DNA.
The rings inside a tree even resemble human fingerprints.
On Tu Bishvat, we celebrate the Cosmic Tree of Life, the flow of divine energy that expresses through us.
This Tu Bishvat practice is designed to embody our inner seasons and tune into the continuous, cyclical nature of the world. Grounding us in spiritual time, we cultivate present-moment awareness, in the words of Sarah Yehudit Shneider, “To eat from the Tree of Life is to stay present with the Presence”.
Each season reflects a part of the human spirit:
Spring invites in new life
Summer celebrates our full expression and light
Fall honors the act of letting go and releasing
Winter savors the inward journey of rest and hibernation.
Our yoga practice will begin with this 4-part breath, to honor our inner movement of seasons:
Spring: an exhilarating inhale, full of potential and fresh beginnings.
Summer: the peak of the inhale, a moment of full expression and radiance.
Fall: the release, like leaves gently falling down your spine as you exhale.
Winter: the bottom of the exhale, a pause for rest and quiet hibernation.
The breath teaches us to embrace all these phases, just as the seasons guide us through cycles of growth and renewal. Tu Bishvat marks a liminal moment, where the bottom of the exhale subtly transitions into the inhale. It’s the time when the earth begins to stir, and the first hints of wakefulness emerge. Can you sense that delicate shift—the delicate movement in breath and consciousness?
Explore the 4-seasons in the body with this mandala-flow around the mat:
Opening Prayer for Tu B’Shevat: (From P’ri Etz Hadar “The Fruit of the Majestic Tree”, the first published Tu B’Shevat seder, 1653, Salonica, Greece Attibuted to Haim Vital, student and disciple of the Ari (Rabbi Isaac Luria), Kabbalist of Safed.)
“Please G-d, who makes, and forms, and creates, and emanates the higher worlds, and in whose form and pattern you created their model on the earth below—You made all of the worlds with wisdom, higher above and lower below, to join together the tent to become one,
And You made trees and grasses bloom from the ground in the shape and pattern of what is above, to make known to the children of Adam the wisdom and discernment in them, to reach what is hidden; And You drop upon the trees and the grasses the flow and power of Your highest qualities so we will discern the spiritual strength which is within them;
And from Your fruit will come the fruit to bring life and nourish the body,
May it be willed from You, our God and God of our ancestors, that by the power of the merit of eating the fruit which we now eat and bless, and our meditating upon the secret of their roots above upon which they depend, that You will make the flow of desire and blessing and free energy, shefa, flow over them, to return again to make them grow and bloom, from the beginning of the year until the end of the year, for good and for blessing, for good life and for peace. Look out from Your holy abode, and bless for us this year for good and for blessing, bring upon us a blessing of goodness;
May the might and majesty of the blessings for eating the fruits become lights in the wellspring of blessings, the Cosmic Tree, life of the worlds, and may the whole Tree return now to his original strength, and may the strength of his rainbow return, and may we see the bow, joyful and beautified with its colors; and from there may the flow of desire and compassion flow over us, for blessing, for life, for forgiveness.
And may all the sparks scattered by our hands, or by the hands of our ancestors, be returned to be included in the majestic glory of the Tree of Life.
May it be your will that you will make the flow of desire and blessing and free, overflowing energy flow over the fruits of the trees… “Then the trees of the forest will sing out” And the whole will return to its original strength, and all will join together as one.”
