The Spring Equinox has been celebrated for centuries as a spiritual time for change, renewal and a move into action. Here’s how you can engage.
Commemorated across cultures, traditions and religions, the Spring Equinox is full of colour, feasting and fire. This year, it falls on 21 March in the Northern Hemisphere. No clue what it entails? Well, it’s a changeover point between the dark and light halves of the year when the Earth rotates towards growth and renewal. While the shifts in the wilderness are subtler closer to the equator than further north, they’re definitely perceivable and hugely uplifting. In Singapore, the incessant rain has given way to blue skies and cool breezes. Divine!
So why do spiritual communities around the world engage with these shifts? Because we are nature – the same shifts we perceive around us are also happening within us. If we take this perspective, the Spring Equinox presents an opportunity to intentionally engage with the themes of the season and generate change from the inside out. Here are the commonalities within traditions that celebrate the equinox, and simple ways for you to engage.
1. Balance it out
At this time, the sun rises due east and sets due west, giving exactly twelve hours of sunlight on the day of the equinox. Then, it begins its increase, which dissipates the remnant winter and triggers new growth in the earth. You can use this aspect to intentionally find balance in your body and life.
Schedule time in your diary for movement, rest, creative expression and activities that delight your senses. Incorporate more balancing asana into your yoga routine. Commit to daily breathwork over the equinox season to balance your nervous system.
2. Release the small stuff
We can be attached to old patterns and perspectives of ourselves, our lives and our world. Many modalities offer ways to search, analyse, identify, name and blame the causes of the hurt, anger, blockage and illness we may experience. Past life, karmic, familial and ancestral work is interesting and illuminating, but the Spring Equinox reminds us that the final move is a choice to lay it all down and move into a new day.
This opportunity is open to us at every moment. But if we’ve built a whole identity, life and set of relationships on top of that psychic junk, it can prove sticky and hard to let go of. The energies of the equinox can be put to use here. At this time we can simply make the choice to lay it down – along with the weapons, sharp words and defence shields – to go raw, forgive, release and don’t react.
3. Clear your fields for growth
Fire purifies and forges, and this is the invitation of the equinox. It’s the time to dispense with the dross of low-grade content, thought patterns and relationships that hold us apart from our soul calling, and garner the courage to bring it into a lived reality.
Set gentle inner boundaries for those who zap your energy. Remove content from your social threads that don’t inspire and lift you up. Clear out and donate unused items in your home. Revisit your work activities and reprioritise your efforts on projects that excite your passions. Have the courage to say ‘no’ to anything that doesn’t offer value or celebrate your talent and knowledge.
4. Tap into the field of possibility
Common to many equinox traditions are the symbols of seeds and eggs – small parcels of life that contain potent potential. Why not paint some eggs with the family, or plant some seeds as beautiful symbols of your growth and potential?
5. Gather with loved ones
The equinox invites us to celebrate the union with our lovers, feast with our friends, and nurture gratitude for our blessings of friendship, abundance and love – things we reprioritise in our busy, modern lives. These activities correspond with the energies rising in the wild fields around us and generate inspiration, movement and productivity. This can be expressed with a simple meal with family and friends, or you can find a circle of like-spirited people who are feeling the stir of spring and the draw to connection.
Seasoned practitioners with welcoming communities you can join include Rise Up Ritual, Equinox Intention Ceremony (a day retreat on Lazarus Island), New Moon Lodge with me, and Yin Yoga & Yoga Nidra Equinox Circle on Zoom with Camilla Way.
May the growing light bring you freedom, celebration and a shift into your true purpose and joy. Happy Spring Equinox!
