Ni Zan (1301–1374), Enjoying the Wilderness in an Autumn Grove, 1339. Yuan dynasty, ink on paper. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.
It is true seasonal autumn now, which is probably easier to believe this week than it was when the season began in early August.
Most of the kids are back in school, the light has shifted dramatically, and even though we may still have plenty of warm weather ahead, the season has definitely turned.
I had a funny reminder of just how quickly it happens. I took a little over a week off to bring my littlest one home to visit his grandparents. Before we left, the sun was still passing high enough over our south-facing windows that I didn't have to worry about direct light hitting the rugs and bleaching out the natural dyes. When I came home ten days later, the afternoon sun was suddenly solidly on the rugs, reaching a few feet into the room by the end of the day. Ten days!
In the traditional solar calendar of qi nodes (the 24 solar terms, or 二十四節氣) we use for yangsheng, autumn begins with Lìqiū 立秋, Beginning of Autumn, in early August. This Sunday, August 23, brings us to the next node, Chǔshǔ 處暑, the Limit or End of Heat, followed by Báilù 白露, White Dew, in early September. The autumn equinox falls in the middle of the season.
We take these seasonal changes into account in the needle choices Adam and I make for your acupuncture point prescriptions in clinic, and they can help you with basic diet and lifestyle choices, too.
I love things like the changing angle of the sun because they make that reckoning feel much less theoretical. You can actually see how much has already changed, even while the weather is still giving us plenty of reasons to feel like it is summer.
Our bodies are making this adjustment too. This is a particularly useful time to pay attention and help them along. The more we can begin adjusting to the seasonal movement now, the more physiologically flexible we are when the bigger changes in temperature, light, moisture and daily rhythm arrive.
Join us for Yangsheng this Sunday, August 23
Conveniently, this is exactly what we are talking about in Yangsheng Assembly this Sunday: the movement into autumn, the qi nodes that carry us through it, seasonal diet and lifestyle, and some of the particular health issues that tend to arise at this time of year. We’ll talk about Autumn, the spirit of the lungs called the po, the lungs, broths, and Ghost Month and the Ghost festival.
Remember that this is supposed to help us feel more free and easy! There is something enormously relieving about learning to recognize what time it is and letting our habits change accordingly. This is a particularly good class for those of you who are always asking what else you can do to support your care.
Yangsheng: The Art of Living in Season
with Dr. Anne Shelton Crute & Tara Bianca Rado, LAc
Sunday, August 23, 2026
10am–12pm Pacific / 1–3pm Eastern
Live online
Can't make it live? Sign up anyway—just email us—and we'll send you the recording.
Cost: $360 for a 6-month membership (if it is your first time, you can do $65 for your first class)
To join us, send payment by Venmo to @Tara-Rado. Then, email me anne@ritualhealth.com so we can get you set up for classes. The Zoom link will be sent before class. If you can’t make it, we'll send the recording 1–3 days after class.
Upcoming Yangsheng dates
August 23, 2026
September 13, 2026
October 4, 2026
November 8, 2026
Join us as we make our way around the year. Enter the circle at any time.
bonus for those interested in Time: Chinese Polestar Astrology
If all this talk about living in relationship with time is interesting to you, my Chinese Polestar Astrology appointment calendar is open again for self-scheduling.
Chinese Polestar Astrology, or Zi Wei Dou Shu, is another way we work with time at Ritual Health. Yangsheng helps us understand the seasonal and environmental time we all share. Polestar Astrology looks at your individual placement within time: your natal structure, the cycles you are moving through, and questions of timing, fate, character and choice.
My reading schedule had gotten booked so many months ahead that I took online scheduling down for a while. I have opened some hours again, so you can now book directly through the website.
BOOK A CHINESE POLESTAR ASTROLOGY READING
For now, pay attention to the light. It is remarkable how quickly it is changing.
About Dr. Anne Shelton Crute
Anne Shelton Crute, LAc, DAOM is the founder of Ritual Health Acupuncture & Herbalism in Berkeley, California. She is a Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine, licensed acupuncturist, Chinese Polestar astrologer, writer, and educator.
Anne has been in clinical practice for more than twenty years. Her work brings together classical Chinese medicine, acupuncture, Chinese Polestar Astrology, Ayurveda, and Tibetan herbal medicine, with a particular interest in the relationship between health, seasonal change, and calendrical time.
She teaches classical Chinese medicine in doctoral programs around the country and privately to students and practitioners internationally. She is a contributing author to A Ring Without End: Reflections on Classical Chinese Medicine. Through Ritual Health, she teaches Yangsheng and Chinese Polestar Astrology alongside her clinical practice in the San Francisco Bay Area.