THE OFFICIAL

CASSANDRA EASON

WEBSITE

Alban Eiler - around March 21

The Light of the Earth or Vernal Equinox from sunset for three days around March 21 according to the astronomical calendar. The triumph of the light, planting the seeds of new ventures.

Animal: hare

Tree: Birch

Herbs and incenses: celandine, cinquefoil, crocus, daffodil, honeysuckle, primroses, sage, tansy, thyme and violets.

Candle colours: Yellow and bright green

Crystals: Sparkling yellow crystals, such as citrine, the strengthening stone, yellow beryl, the energizer or a yellow rutilated quartz with streaks of gold, the regenerator, for your Spring talisman.

Symbols: Use eggs, any spring flowers or leaves in bud, a sprouting pot of seeds, pottery or china rabbits, birds or feathers as a focus for your own spiralling energies.

Spring Equinox rituals will bring new hopes, new beginnings, new relationships, life changes; anything to do with fertility, pregnancy, babies, children and new flowering love.

Agricultural significance

Life returns, more young animals are born, crops are sown, flowers appear and the greenery returns to the trees; most significantly with twelve hours of daylight, hens began to lay again after the winter and heralded the return of fresh food.

Folk/magical significance

The Light twin defeats the Dark Twin and so impregnates the Goddess who will give birth to the new child of the Light nine months later at the Midwinter Solstice, thus ensuring the continuation of the life cycle. It is the Goddesses of Spring from the Northern  tradition who imagery has remained most with us: Ostara, Viking goddess of dawn and the Anglo Saxon Oestre, who gives her name to Easter and whose creature was the magical Easter hare. The first eggs were painted and left at her shrine; in Eastern Europe eggs are painted for the Virgin Mary to delight her young son. The healing Druids’ egg, made from the spittle of serpents, was said to be found on this day and protected by the hare.

Ritual Significance

The resurrection of light and, indeed, in some myths, the birth of the Sun King. It is said on the Spring Equinox morning the sun dances in the water at sunrise, an association transferred to angels, It is a time for spiritual as well as actual spring cleaning.

Deities: The Virgin Mary to whom Gabriel appeared telling her she would bear Christ, Ostara, Oestre

Personal Activities

• Paint eggs with vegetable dye, with flowers, Mother Goddess spirals, birds and bees and offer them on a basket of spring flowers and leaves to the Mother.

• For increasing fertility, prick an egg and take out all the white and yellow. Pass the shell through a beeswax candle flame or a small fire as the Equinox dawns. Then carefully cut it in half and leave the shell halves open for the sun or light to shine on them

• . On the first night of the new moon after the Spring Equinox, split the shell and place a tiny moonstone in one half, leaving it on the window ledge until the Full Moon. Place a silver pin in the other half and also leave open to the moonlight.

• On the night of the Full Moon, prick the moonstone very gently with a silver pin and leave pin and moonstone in one half of the egg so they touch, all night.. The next morning close the egg and wrap up egg, pin and moonstone until the moon leaves the sky. Then you should bury them and repeat the ritual. This can help not only for conceiving babies but also for re-establishing the natural rhythms of your life to bring any new venture to birth.

• Spring clean your psyche. Answer any correspondence that is piling up. Deal with unavoidable issues. Change your routine so that you rise an hour earlier and can enjoy the growing light, perhaps walking to work or sitting in the spring sunshine on your balcony or in your garden. Initiate those projects you always meant to by first clearing out the clutter of old commitments or activities that you no longer enjoy.

• Visit sacred waters or a clear river or pond on Equinox morn and witness the light dancing; cast a tiny crystal in the water and, as it splashes, you will be rewarded by a momentary image framed in light that will help you to plan your future path.

• Make Equinox water by leaving it in a clear dish from Dawn till Noon. Use this for revitalising office plants or trees in urban spaces, polluted water courses and for encouraging new growth in places that are no longer beautiful.

• Plant seeds, if necessary under glass, to symbolise hopes for the future, placing tiny equinox crystals or jade in the soil at each corner, moistening them with your Equinox water.

TOP