A Seed for Spring Equinox
©Annie Finch
Thrusting through the season where I’d waited for spring,
tucking up my head, I felt the slanted weight of clouds
pressing through the sky above me down towards this grave,
till I feel the earth around the place my head has lain
under winter’s touch, and it crumbles. Now I’m going through,
reaching with my head and shoulders past the open crust
dried by spring wind. Sun invites me through the ground
that has grown its cold inside me, made its waiting into food.
Now I watch the watching dark my light’s long-growing dark
makes known.
Welcome Spring!
Today is the Vernal Equinox in the northern hemisphere, and Autumn Equinox in lands below the equator. Wherever you are, we are all experiencing the same phenomenon: the daylight and night time hours are equal. Light and the dark are in balance. The forces of masculine and feminine energy, yin and yang, are also in balance at this time.
As Winter departs, and Spring arrives for us in the north, the world begins anew. This time has been a universal celebration of the miraculous resurrection of life triumphing over death for many thousands of years, long before the Christ God came on the scene.
This is the first day of the astrological year, hence it is International Astrology Day. Today the Sun enters Aries, the first sign of the zodiac and the sign of new beginnings.
In the northern hemisphere, this day is also known as Lady Day or Alban Eilir (in the Druid traditions). After this day, the light of the year will outweigh the dark until Autumn.
Ostara is a time of great fertility, new growth, and newborn animals. Eostre, the Saxon Goddess of fertility (and source of the word “easter” as well as “estrogen”), and Ostara, Her German counterpart, are the Goddesses usually invoked at this Sabbat.
Despite all the hardships and loss our ancestors (and we) may have endured in the Winter, this has always been a time of rejoicing. It is when we call for merriment and healing.
This is the celebration day, when Persephone returns from the Underworld, ending the grief of Her Mother, Demeter. And Amaterasu is coaxed from Her cave of mourning by the laughter of the kami, thanks to the Goddess of the Night and Stars, Amanouzume.
Today we honor the Green Goddess and the Lord of the Greenwood. She blankets the Earth with Her magnificent fertility, bursting forth from Her sleep. And the dazzling young God awakens and grows to maturity.
Pagan customs such as the lighting of new fires at dawn for healing, renewed life, and protection of the crops still survive in parts of America as well as in Europe. Witches celebrate Ostara in many ways on this day, with dawn fires, ringing bells, and decorating hard-boiled eggs, an ancient practice associated with the Goddess of Fertility long before Easter bunnies replaced Ostara’s sacred hares.
The Spring Equinox is the time for fresh new beginnings, taking action, planting seeds for future harvests, and of tending gardens. Spring is a time of the Earth’s renewal, a rousing of nature after the cold sleep of winter.
This makes it an important time to clean your home to welcome the new season. Spring cleaning is much more than a yearly chore. It is a sacred rite that rids our homes of any negativity or stuffiness left over from Winter. An energetic and physical clearing for your sacred hearth are ideal at this time.
Other things to focus on at this time include working with the energy of openings and new beginnings. Spring is associated with the element of Air, so now is a time to work with communication, ideas, stories and songs, and developing new skills.
It is also great for spellwork around fertility and abundance. And now is the time to start putting those promises you made at Imbolc into action and begin physically manifesting your resolutions.
Today, the Wheel has turned and for the next six months, Light overpowers the dark. What will you give birth to? What will you grow in your heart’s garden? How will you celebrate this miraculous gift of dazzling new life?
May the Lady and the Lord awaken and bless the seeds of your desires. May you receive the rebirth and renewal you long for most!
Blessed be!
Oh! Recognize this card! Very important for me, as it has surfaced several times earlier this year, from Steven Farmer’s Earth Magic Oracle deck. Blessed Be!
Blessed Ostara!!
My hope is that the next 6 months will find me and my husband getting a few steps closer to the life we dream of. May your dreams come true!!
Holding that intention with you! So mote it be!