An Equinox Meditation
The Wheel of the Celtic Year turns on... the waking Earth turns its greening face to the Sun, and it pauses.
We feel the Poise before the Sun begins to soar to Solstice. All is still, soft, delicate; Light and Dark held in exquisite Balance. This is the Time of Balance.
We wait, breathing out gently, a sigh of relief for the end of the dark. Breathing out and letting go of all that has gone before. Coming into this Moment with full vibrating consciousness of its purity. We are still, in the space between, in the gap. The Place of Power and of Potential.
We reflect on what may or may not be in balance in our lives and on how we can make adjustments to come to equilibrium and stability, before we start on the time of expansion.
We wait and in the space the Light floods in and nature dances in celebration of all that is to come: the flower-decked Beltane frolics of Mayday when creativity pours forth, the sumptuous Solstice at the peak of the Sun's climb, and the first fruits of harvest at Lammas....round and round the wheel turns.
But Now, Now it is the beginning of the Light- filled time, and juices are running faster, and the pace of Life quickens and leaps and all is growth and expansion.
Breathe out the dark, breathe in the Light and the Love, and feel the Power in the pause, in the stillness, at the end of each long, long out-breath... feel the Spring Equinox in your body, and sing aloud to its glory.
We are celebrating the ancient Celtic Mythology of this Sacred Land of Britain: the wheel of the Year with its 8 natural festivals corresponding to the 8 points of the compass. Spring Equinox- the Christian Easter- is in the east, following the first stirrings of the earth at Imbolc in early February.
The guardian Celtic goddess of springtime is Oestre or Eostar, she walks the softening land with her leaping hares (mad March hares), and her element in the Celtic Wheel, is Air. All is lightness and springiness. In the Wheel of Brigantia developed by Kathy Jones of the Goddess Temple in Glastonbury The Equinox Goddess is also the Goddess Artha, who celebrates the Fire of the rising Sun.
The exchange of Easter eggs is still a focus of tradition at this time, as a symbol of new life and new beginnings. In ceremony we also give thanks for the insights of the introspection of the winter, and let go of the dark. We come to stillness as the Sun pauses at the Equator before it appears to climb the sky until it is overhead at the Tropic of Cancer at Solstice and at its nearest to us in the Northern hemisphere.
We breathe out the dark and breathe in the light, we lie on the earth to feel Her stirring with all the new life which has been dormant through the winter. We reflect on what may or may not be in balance in our lives and on how we can make adjustments to come to equilibrium and stability, before we start on the time of expansion.
This is thus a foundation time of the year, and this work is all important in determining the harvest we reap as the year begins to wane. But always, always, these festivals are primarily about CELEBRATION and GRATITUDE.
by Freya Hartley, a passionate ceremonialist who trained with Kathy Jones in Glastonbury as a Priestess of Avalon, and prior to that studied Zen Buddhism for many years. She loves to garden, to write and to make her dreams come true.
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