The Spring equinox is historically a cause for celebration because it is a time when light “triumphs” over darkness as daylight lasts progressively longer. With the return of the light, the evocative symbolism given to us by ancient astrologers includes the celestial new year finally taking hold when the Sun moves into Aries. They describe Aries as the fiery home of the planet Mars. All these archetypes come into play upon entry into the light half of the year where solar power is taking over from lunar power (yang taking over from yin). When the seasons change, the focus of life follows.
The warmth of a strengthening Sun removes winter-chill from the bones of Earth and she comes more and more to life. More light increases heat, circulation and movement and the surge begins to burst through – seedlings break their protective jackets, chicks peck through shells and leaves push out of barren branches. The northern hemisphere is waking to new beginnings, initiations, new challenges under the celestial fires which confer hope, strength and courage.
As the invigorating surge of spring moves through the Earth’s biology and pours strength into the rhythms of our bodies, use it. Pick up spring-induced restlessness and weave it into time for self-cultivation, enhancing the beauty within you, which then flows out to the environment. Use the opportunity, if tempted toward feeling superior in this time of strength, as a chance to truly learn how to laugh and not take yourself quite so seriously.
Take any sense of competition and challenge yourself to clear out the darkness of your own limitations. Go out in nature to watch how new life springs forth and see how it begins anew. Grab those aggressive urges and turn them full force into a purge of unused clothing or household articles that someone else may need. Impulses that want to run destructive can be turned around into surprising random acts of kindness at home or within the community.
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart”. Rainer Maria Rilke