What is the Spring Equinox?
The Spring Equinox, or Ostara, is where day and light are of equal length. The days have been getting longer since the Winter Solstice (longest night of the year), and this is an opportunity to pause and appreciate the growth and fertility that has been happening all around is. These Spring Equinox rituals are perfect for creating that fresh energy motivated feeling and supercharging your manifestation.
Falling around September 23 in the Southern Hemisphere, and March 23 in the Northern Hemisphere, this festival is one of the Pagan Sabbats in the Wheel of the Year.
The Spring Equinox is alive with the feeling of new beginnings and possibilities.
This festival is named after the Anglo-Saxon Goddess Eostre or Eastre – sound familiar to you? What if I told you that the traditional symbols of this celebration were bunnies and eggs… Yep, the Pagan traditions of the Spring Equinox were Christianised into Easter celebrations! We celebrate Easter in the Southern Hemisphere at the same time as the Northern Hemisphere, because it’s just a generational habit at this point.
What does the Spring Equinox represent?
The Spring Equinox is a time of new life, balance and harmony. It lines up astrologically with the beginning of a new zodiac season: when the Sun moves into Libra in the Southern Hemisphere (around 20-21 September) which is a season of balance and harmony, and into Aries in the Northern Hemisphere (around 20-21 March) which is a season of new beginnings.
With equal day and night, the Equinox is the perfect time to balance your emotional world, chakras and masculine and feminine energies.
This energy of growth and creativity is all around us too. Whilst the beginning of Spring was about seeing the first hints of our intentions and dreams come to life (with our Imbolc Rituals) by the Equinox, Spring is well and truly under way. Flowers are in full bloom, blossoms are on trees and lambs are being born.
We have a beautiful opportunity to align with this energy and use it to fuel whatever new beginnings we are creating in our lives. So much will grow from now, headed toward full bloom at the Summer Solstice in three moons’ time.
Spring Equinox Rituals
1. Create an Ostara altar
Designing a seasonal altar for the Spring Equinox is a way for you to harness its energy and infuse it into your intentions and goals at this time.
Enjoy foraging for your altar decorations! Create a space on a shelf, table or cabinet.
Decorate with:
- Herbs and plants (lemongrass, spearmint, fresh flowers)
- Eggs (especially painted ones)
- Crystals (amber, amethyst, tigers eye, carnelian, jasper)
- Talismans or objects of rabbits and lambs
2. Spring Cleaning Ritual
Cleanse your home and especially your sacred spaces (like your altar or yoga den) with sage or incense to make room for new energy. Open the windows to let in that Spring air! Start a donation box to weed out (notice all the gardening metaphors?) old memories or clutter. Making space in your body and home will allow you to embrace the burst of new energy coming your way.
3. Spring Equinox Ritual
This is a potent time to give gratitude for what’s blooming in our life (which will help it grow more) and letting go of what is standing in the way of our growth and manifestations.
- Come to your Equinox Altar or a space outside in nature, with your journal. Cleanse the space with incense or sage.
- Close your eyes and take some slow, grounding breaths. Feel yourself in connection with the earth, focusing on where you are making contact with the ground beneath you. As you inhale, feel the earth’s energy rising up through your body, cleansing your energy. And then as you exhale, visualise letting go of all stuck energy from your body.
- When you feel at peace and complete, open your journal and title a new page as your Spring Equinox entry, so you can refer back to it later.
- Contemplate the growth that is happening around you and answer these prompts: What is blooming, is it what you want? Is it what you intentionally planted or asked for, or something different? Do you need to bring out the ‘fertiliser’ to help what’s growing be stronger? Where do you need to do some ‘weeding’ so your plants continue growing?
- Close the ritual by grounding your hands on your body, thanking your intuition and giving gratitude to the season around you.
Our delicious black & gold journals are the perfect place to hold your Spring Equinox musings.
Absorb the abundance of Spring! Sending new exciting energy your way.
Love,
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