with profound thanks to David Barg for his inspired writing collaboration!

The Earth’s Spring tilt brings buds, blossoms, and beings ever closer to the Sun so all may bloom in its pastel-hued warmth. New buds appear on branches, new rings form in the forest trees, and the divine energy of creation is heralded by each crocus, blue jay, and breeze.

We are guided by the elemental energy of rebirth and renewal, and our spirits rise into the balmy spring air, where hope flows freely.

Has Mother Earth ever spoken so powerfully and clearly? “Stir yourselves! Commit and manifest new and higher intentions!” Her own intentions are made manifest in every warming breeze and soil-scent inspire our own, and we understand the resurgence of life in spring may be why She made winter. Let’s run to embrace all that’s now flowing towards the sun, and energizing us with Earth’s elemental energy for the next episode in our growth.

The Vernal Equinox: Opening the Door to Spring

And now buds appear on trees and bushes, tips of crocuses peek out at us, and breaks in raw March temperatures tempt us to leave our coats at home. It’s time to celebrate the renewal of life or - as Robin Williams put it - “Spring is Nature’s way of saying, ‘Let’s party!’”

She formally arrives in the Northern Hemisphere on March 20 - the vernal equinox. As we know, equinoxes are when day and night in both hemispheres are equal - perfect momentary balances before moving into the new season. The vernal equinox, especially, invites us to find our balance, and to take a Nature-sized breath, before resuming our journey. So, too, do the seasons get brighter and darker, and warmer and cooler, by shades and almost imperceptibly. Can Nature’s message be to make haste slowly?

In modeling balance before movement, equinox dynamics remind us we don’t mirror Nature as much as we are Nature. Just look at a tree, or the delta of a river, then your trunk, arms and legs, fingers and toes - are we not one and the same, though our forms be different? The rain and shine, day and night, temperature and weather we see outside are also in ourselves. Further, the alternating seasons, with their times for birth and growth, and their times for repose and contemplation teach us to flow along with life’s rhythms.

Spring, Eostre/Ostara, Hares, and Eggs

Now, the natural world is coming alive. The sun feels warmer. Daylight arrives earlier and stays later. We feel energy building and expanding. It’s the first day of spring!

It’s also when the festival of the North European goddess of dawn, spring, and renewal - Eostre - took place. She represents the transitional time between childhood innocence and adult passion, and reminds us that life is full of untold possibilities and adventures.

Her name, “Eostre” began appearing as “Ostara” sometime in the 18th century. Ostara is, of course, the source of the words, “Easter,” and “estrogen. Her emblems are the egg (new life) and the hare (fertility). These symbols derive from celebrations of the spring equinox. Brightly painted eggs mimic the rainbow of spring flowers’ blooming, as well as chickens’ return to laying after a fallow winter. Hares (bunnies, by the 18th century) to symbolically represent the fertility of springtime

Ostara’s symbolic accoutrements also invite an investigation of life’s guiding principles. William Blake well understood this when, in his Auguries of Innocence,” he invited us “...to see a world in a grain of sand, and a heaven in a wild flower.” For sure, a pencil is a pencil. But isn’t it also an invitation: to write? To understand mistakes can be erased? To express ourselves? To hope and to dream?

Hares and Bunnies...

...are fertility symbols tied undeniably to the vernal equinox, as March is their rutting time. The behaviour of these normally shy, unaggressive animals becomes so animated as to source the phrase, “Crazy as a March Hare!”

Many stories have reached us that explain how hares (rabbits’ larger, long-eared cousins) were able to produce eggs. Here are two.

One is that Ostara found a frozen bird and saved it by transforming it into the hardier hare. The former bird’s gratitude was to lay brightly colored eggs. Another is that there was a bird which laid such beautiful eggs that Ostara’s jealousy was provoked and She turned it into a rabbit. But the rabbit’s despair was so great that She was moved to permit it to lay eggs once every year. Waves of German immigrants to the States in the 18th century imported this tradition and, with cuter bunnies replacing the wilder hares - and the addition of chocolates, candy, and baskets - bunnies and eggs became part of Easter celebrations.

Again, what can we learn from Ostara’s emblems? Rabbits’ examples could strengthen our ability to give birth to ideas and plans conceived during the winter. They’re also known for storing food in their burrows to make it through the winter, examples of resourceful planning.

Eggs

For millennia and across the world, the egg has been a powerful symbol, representing the earth, fertility and resurrection. Little surprise that eggs also figure widely in folkloric beliefs; such fragile packages of embryonic life and potential have a magical quality that appeals to us all. For millennia - eons, even - eggs have birthed a menagerie of life: from dinosaurs, snakes, and crocs, to frogs, sea turtles, chicks, and even spiders!

But here is their powerful teaching for those of us on the Path...a powerful lesson extending far beyond painted eggs in baskets of plastic grass: the struggle to break free and evolve.

At some point, like the embryonic chick, we use up the nourishment inside our own eggs. We realize life in the confines of our shell is no longer viable. We don’t know what’s outside, but, to continue living, we must break. And so, like chicks, turtles, and other egg-dwellers, we break out. For all of us, it’s an evolutionary process, for us, individually, as well as for all humanity.

It’s the great struggle, this breaking out, growing, evolving...but it is the necessary next step. It requires effort, persistence, and courage. Breaking through is the way of evolution, and individuals, groups, and societies that fail to break out of their shells will not survive or thrive.

And we may find that breaking out of one shell takes us to yet another, and another. They may become thinner, more translucent, less restrictive as we reach for higher levels and help other break out of their

Thus the egg not only symbolizes physical rebirth, but spiritual rebirth and growth, as well as the potential for evolution of ourselves, our species, and the earth.

Growth

This spring, when you see bunnies, painted eggs, daffodils and tulips, I invite you to take a moment to contemplate your own resurrection. You’ve successfully negotiated the dark night of the soul that Winter brings, and are born again. What transformed in those cold months of darkness? What now emerges better than ever?

Among the flowers that bloom in spring time are they perennials that come up every year hope reverse gross and we should consider the annual seeds we've been thinking about planting new goals and new pads to express all that has been growing inside across the dark cold months now ready to take wobbly baby steps forward into the light

Celebrating the Spring Equinox, Ostara, and Easter, fertility abounds and you are a powerful gardener. What innocent newness will you protect and promote until the Summer Sun arrives? The inspiring Spring Equinox energy is encouraging you to be reborn. Embrace this new beginning!

Spring brings clarity and powerful growth energy, a time to get really clear on what you want to plant and see grow in your life. If you’re really clear on where you want to see new growth, you have the power to transform your life. It's wonderful to think these thoughts but then we have to do the work!

Seeds

The Seed of life symbol is the blueprint of the universe, containing the wisdom of growth, development and creativity. It symbolizes creation, consciousness. It is the point of pure potential.

It represents both beginning and completion. A seed is the starting point for life, and yet holds all the information for life to blossom. So while it represents beginnings, it is also indicative of the growth, transformation and expansion that will take place, eventually reaching completion.

But the life the seed brings forth must be tended properly! Last fall, many seeds were planted in your garden of life. Some you planted with great intention, some fell accidentally onto your tilled ground. Psychologically, this is a time to watch with great curiosity while those seeds begin to peek through the earth. What are you hoping to see come spring, and what would it surprise you to see?

Which seeds are you going to plant in the ground to tend & harvest?

Begin by planting the seed packets we send with every order!