Our Earth turns, turns … On itself and around the sun.
Every year, the equinoxes and solstices mark the beginning of the seasons.
Galileo, the day after his trial, exclaimed: ‘E pure if muove‘means’ and yet it turns !‘
Spring is announced by the equinox of March 20th or 21st (in our Northern Hemisphere). Equinox, from Latin ‘ aequinoctium‘, means equal ‘aequi’ and night ‘nox’. It corresponds to the two hemispheres of the Earth being illuminated in the same way by the Sun. In all places of the Earth, the duration of the day is equal to the duration of the night.
Spring Festival
Spring 2020 is coming soon: March 20, 2020, the spring 2020 equinox will bring us good weather.
The Celts celebrated all the beginnings of the seasons: they were for them moments of passage and transformation from one time to another, from one state to another. A state, both physical and natural. See for example my article on the origins of Christmas, in which we see the importance of the winter solstice.
The Celts thus celebrated the balance, the time of the in-between, the middle of the seasons: this magic moment where the nature awakens slowly, piercing the icy cold and deploying its fragile beauty under the first rays of the sun. It’s the beginning of one cycle and the end of another. At the beginning of the spring, we find ourselves between death and life, witnesses of the regeneration of time and aware of the eternal cycle of Mother Nature.
The Greeks were celebrating the return to the Earth’s surface of Persephone, which, like the myth informs us, will remain six months. The departure of Persephone was celebrated at the beginning of autumn.
The Sun
The Sun begins his journey to the sky on March 20th. It will culminate in the summer solstice. It is, in the spring, the symbol of rebirth, joy, gentleness, vitality, happiness and love. It allows us to get out of our winter sleep and hunt, with its light rays, the demons of the night against which we struggled for months. We are able, with the help of the radiant Sun, to cross a new threshold and to welcome a new energy that presents itself to us.
Symbols of Spring
As we have seen before, winter is a fight against our ‘demons’, our fears, our fears. The winter covers us with its black and icy veil and our goal is to find how to celebrate our Light in the cold while waiting for sunny days. We are, like the caterpillar in its chrysalis, preparing to become a beautiful butterfly.
When spring came back, our inner self grew, matured, and metamorphosed. We must be autonomous, happy, we are going out of grandis winter so long and so cold. It is time for us to sow our ideas, to move on our way with absolute confidence in ourselves. We had time this winter to meditate.
Spring is associated with the Air element. Why ? Because he is the symbol of inspiration, communication, intellect. It gives way to intuition, fluidity, simplicity, Nouvel Air that we breathe.
We can not talk about spring without mentioning birds, who come to announce it to us happily. They are considered the messengers of the Gods, bringing to humans inspiration and renewal. They are associated with the Air and the East, which corresponds to the pole where the Sun rises.
What is spring for?
Spring accompanies us, from the beginning of our winter alarm clock to our full blooming, which will coincide with the summer solstice. It’s time for all of us to make new plans, to renew what needs to be renewed: we are inspired and receptive. The Sun and the awakening nature will guide us and will be present for every new project we undertake. For people engaging in a spiritual process, know that symbolically, Light comes from the East.
Spring is associated…
At adolescence.
At receptivity.
At bloom.
the new life.
At East (because the Sun rises in the East on the rising day).
the rebirth of life.
At the Air element.
The Church and Spring.
The Roman Catholic Church associated, at the Spring Equinox, these two following feasts:
* The feast of March 25, which corresponds to the Archangel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mary that she is waiting for a child.
* Easter, celebrating Jesus’ victory over death. Easter always takes place on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the Spring Equinox.
What symbols can we see in these holidays?
* The feast of March 25 may symbolize the coming of the new Light, the new fire growing in each of us. The child of the Virgin Mary can be Mother Nature’s gift: the leaves grow, the gardens become more and more green and sunny, the buds and the flowers multiply… The expected child can also allude our new projects, which we have been waiting for so long in the winter and can finally see the day under the Sun.
* The festival of Pacques can represent our victory to all to have faced the darkness of the winter. We are now helped by God Light, or our own Inner Light.
Spring is synonymous with fragility. He reassures us then: we are fragile, just like him, at the end of the winter. But let’s see how spring triumphs to give way to the sumptuous and hot summer. Let’s do the same: we have defeated our inner enemy during the winter, it is now time to bloom and flourish. Let’s do something great, our project, our rebirth. We are fragile like spring but we will flourish, like him, as majestically this summer.
See also: Dream of spring, Dream of Mother Earth.
Mary
