The Spring Equinox Is Time To Embrace Renewal And Rebirth

For those who reside in the Northern Hemisphere, the 2023 spring equinox takes place On Monday, March 20 at 5:24 p.m. EST. This moment marks the earth's halfway point between winter days that consist of more darkness than light and summer days that feature more sunlit hours than dark ones. It is the official beginning of spring. For Mother Nature, this means warmer weather and the rebirth of perennial plants that have been dormant all winter. It also signifies the best time to start new plants that bring beautiful flowers or a bountiful harvest of fresh food when summer moves in.

While the spring equinox is a deeply meaningful time for the Earth and its botanical beauty, it also holds tremendous meaning from a spiritual and astrological standpoint. Ancient civilizations, including Mayans, Egyptians, and Romans, celebrated the occasion, viewing it as the time to appreciate rebirth and replace old energy with new. As far as the stars go, this equinox starts a brand-new astrological year, ushering the sun back into Aries to begin another rotation through each sign. Here's everything you need to know to start honoring and harnessing the energy of the spring equinox. 

The dark, cold days and long nights of late autumn and winter are made for turning inward. This means spending time in quiet solitude, assessing where you are in life, healing what needs to be healed, and carefully crafting a plan for moving your reality in the direction of your choice. As the trees and greenery take a long pause to focus on their inner journey, so should you.

Once the spring equinox arrives, you know it's time to shift from nurturing and planning to the action phase. The season has come to take your well-thought-out plans and turn them into realities. If you've spent all winter daydreaming about taking up running, now's the time to get outside and actually go for your first jog. Take the steps to move into the next phase of life, and watch your dreams fall into place. Keep this energy going until you arrive at the next winter solstice, which will signify another period for reflection. 

The most effective way to shift your brain and body out of hibernation mode and back into action after a long, dark winter is to get out into nature. Humans are instinctual mammals. Get outside and let the newly abundant sunshine touch your skin. Expose your eyes to unfiltered natural light. Touch the grass, listen to the birds, and let biology take over to access a renewed level of energy.

Consider planting new life in spring's fertile soil. This might mean cultivating an entire vegetable garden in the backyard, planting a few containers of mixed herbs on your balcony, or giving a single houseplant a new home on your windowsill. Plants allow you to not only observe the natural life cycle of the season but to play an active part in it along the way. There is no better way to connect to what is going around you than to physically reach out and touch it as often as possible. 

When spring arrives, it brings with it an energetic breath of fresh air. Before you can fully accept this gift from Mother Nature, you have to make room for it. Start with your physical environment. There is no better time of year to deep clean and declutter your living space. Hence, the term "spring cleaning." Once you have removed all the items that no longer serve you and rid your home of excess dust, cobwebs, and pet hair, consider performing an energetic cleansing.

There are many ways to cleanse the energy in your space. You can use smoke, sound, crystals, or salt. If you prefer smoke cleansing, choose your favorite dried herbs or purchase a smudge stick from a metaphysical store. Crack your windows and light one end of the stick and carry it through each room while visualizing old, gray energy exiting through the windows. You can follow the same room-to-room technique with a drum or sound bowl and simply use sound in place of smoke. If you prefer salt or crystal cleansing, you may spritz sea salt dissolved in water around the perimeter of each room and/or place a protective crystal, like black tourmaline, near each entrance to your home. 

Once you've cleansed your living space of old, stagnant, outgrown energy, don't forget to invite new energy in. After you visualize the dingy, pent-up energy of winter exiting your home, visualize new, vibrant, sparkling white light taking its place. You can picture this energy flowing in from the sun or the trees or visualize it emanating from your very being and filling each room with bright new hope for the upcoming spring and summer.

Consider repeating the cleansing of your energetic space on a regular schedule, perhaps as often as monthly or weekly. If this seems like too much to commit to, aim for cleansing with each season and anytime someone in your home has been physically ill, severely stressed, or mentally unwell. Each time you renew the energy inside your home, it triggers a mental reset and a clean slate for yourself and your goals. 

Sometimes, for the new to emerge, the old must die. While this is a truth that can feel unjustly harsh at times, it is also permission to let the outgrown parts of yourself fall away. As the rebirth of spring takes place outside your door, let go of the former versions of yourself you no longer feel connected to. Do you now feel bound by that hobby, goal, relationship, or life plan you've committed so much time to? It's time to let it die.

As the sun shifts into the fiery sign of Aries, let your passions take center stage. Focus on what lights you up from within and motivates you to stand up and take real action. Let old interests fade away and make space for new ones as you navigate the rebirth of the essence of yourself. Wherever this new path leads, follow it until the time for reflection returns along with winter's cold darkness. 

The Christian holiday known as Easter is based upon pre-Christian pagan celebrations of the spring equinox. These ancient celebrations were centered around the Germanic goddess of the dawn, Eostre. To ancient and modern-day Pagans alike, Eostre represents light, love, and fertility. She is often depicted wearing a white gown and a crown of flowers, holding fresh bouquets of additional blooms in both hands, and is celebrated through the decorating of eggs and the appreciation of the ever-fertile hare.

As you observe the spring equinox this year, take a moment to channel your inner goddess of the dawn. It's important to note that fertility isn't limited to actual physical reproduction and birth. It can represent the birth of a new idea, a new creation, a new chapter, or a whole new identity. If you'd like to give an outward nod to the goddess Eostre, a subtle white dress and floral accessories will do the job perfectly.