Sacred Springtime - an Equinox Balance

"March Winds and April Showers

Make way for sweet May Flowers"

(Ruth Etting)

As winter makes it way into Spring, the land becomes more workeable and ready for later planting. The country dweller sees the changes of the seasons first hand. Watching trees develop catkins and buds, the woodlands showing the stems and leaves of wild garlic and nettles sprouting their leaves. Snowdrops have blossomed and early daffodils have sprung, waving their cheery flower cups in the wild winds and storms of March.

The Urban setting may not be quite so obvious with the movement of the seasons, but there are still signs that can be seen. Urban gardens also show the beauty developing, roads lined with trees have the self same catkins and buds on show. Some of the local cherry trees have the glimpse of pink petals peeping from their buds.

Tubs of daffodil bulbs in the drive are full of the green shoots and the flowers are just coming out. My Rosemary bush in its tub by the front door has some flowers already showing. My garden has grass beginning to grow and looks a little tatty, and the shrubs at the edges have started to grow in disaray. 

I havnt tidied it up - its important to leave it for a while to allow the insects to increase, and to make sure I dont disturb the wildlife that needs this early time.

What I have done is build the no dig raised beds ready for planting my planned veg garden. Lined with cardboard, covered with compost and a fleece to stop my feline friends from using it as a dirt box, they are ready and waiting for the late spring. Meantime I have seedlings on the go, under plastic covers to protect them from further frosts. And then, stored out of the elements under a gazebo, as the winds whip up and thrash the skies as we weather the spring storms.

After a few months of hibernating along with the lockdown, I feel the surge of energy urging me to connect once more with the growing of the season. Im keen to create art, to grow my garden and my spiritual practice once more.

 

I feel the change of energy as the sap rises, both in the plant kingdom, as well as myself. Imbolc was quiet this year, with a simple celebration for just myself and family - one of my children is an Imbolc child so her birthday was the focus of celebrations. But the Equinox is near and Im busy creating decorations and planning my celebrations. Later yearly plans are also on the go, and with the rising of the sap, my spring cleaning has already taken a huge amount of time this week. I think the rising of the energy is what impels me to think of what I wish to achieve this year - far more than any new year resolutions have aver done.

Firstly this weekend brings Mothering Sunday. My own mother and I had a strange relationship while she was alive. Now, I feel more at peace with our challenges and I will remember her with a lit candle and a few words of love. Its not a day Ive made much of with my own family.

Im sure I will be rememberd but a card and possibly some flowers is more than enough.

And then next weekend is the Spring Equinox. A time of balance. We will already have put the clocks forward this weekend. Spring forward as we look forward. Easter comes later this year and celebrates with the seasons of spring. The symbols of the time mostly represented by eggs and rabbits (originally by the March Hare). 

Representing fertility and new life. In early times it was forbidden to kill the Hare and the 'mad march hare' was seen as sacred - touched in the mind by the madness of the gods.

Snakes were also  associated with this time. The shedding of the skins is symbolic of Earth energy (serpent lines) and of death and rebirth.

In previous years I would prepare for the festival by taking friends and family to the sea. Scavenging the beaches for driftwood and holey stones. I might collect small pebbles to make little sets of runes or witches stones as gifts. The beach scavenging will become decorative mobiles to hang in the garden and I would collect seaweed to put in the compost bin.

I will make cakes and bread and maybe my own chocolate eggs. Blow a few chicken eggs, dry and then decorate to hang in the house or leave on the seasonal altar. You can write a wish or spell on a small slip of paper to put into the egg which can be smashed to release the spell after the festival has finished.

I may not be able to celebrate the Equinox with my Witches Circle this year as lockdown is still in the process of being dismantled, so I will just do so with my family. We can still go out and collect the natural items from the garden and country areas near our home.

Equinox Blessings to you all.