Introduction: Approaching the Spring Equinox
Welcome to this month’s episode and as we are approaching spring equinox on the 20th of March tomorrow and I wanted to share around some of the things as we walk this point of
the Celtic wheel as we cross this point and sometimes the importance is to stand and stay
still at this point before leaping forward and the spring equinox will run from an essence
today, the 20th, often celebrating the 21st traditionally, but it will run until Bealtaine which is May the 5th this year.
So we have this whole period where the themes, the energy of spring equinox are available to us but in reality they are available to us at any stage of life and at any time of the year because we can draw from them at any time we need them because there is always medicine in this point of the wheel.
Themes of the Spring Equinox & Observations of Nature
Rebirth, Emergence, and Renewal
So the main themes of spring equinox are rebirth, emergence, renewal and are still tied into that spring energy of new beginnings. As I look outside here, it depends on your garden and the area you live. As I look out on our front yard, there is still just brown leaves all sort of in the corner still decomposing and then hiding behind some of that just this week have begun to sprout and actually show their little faces have been the yellow daffodils.
Out on the main road near me then there is the tulips that are growing which are lovely to see the shades of the pastels come out but really that’s it. My trees are sort of beginning to bud but I think they’re still sleeping to be honest but when I go out and walk my local area it’s like sometimes I’m stepping into a different part of the energy of spring.
There’s some more budding a lot more little flowers coming out on certain people’s gardens and in the certain trees as well and bushes. There’s a lot more color coming about but still those lighter colors not the vibrant kind of colors we get later in the year. So it’s really interesting just to watch what’s right in front of me in my nose if you think and then to watch what is beyond the border of my own home and each part speaks to me differently. So I can look to nature and see how they’re speaking to me at this moment what’s it reflecting back to me.
Like probably for the last three weeks I’ve been chatting to the daffodils trying to entice them to come out which speaks a lot to my life at the moment as well where there’s seedlings that are happening and I’m like oh god please come on out and show your face. Please come and show me in your fullness. Show me exactly what you are and the answer is not yet.
Reflections on Life’s Cycles
So it can be interesting just to take these moments on the Celtic wheel and pause. It can be easy to reduce the Celtic Wheel to this kind of a manifestation tool, like if I follow these cycles then I will get definite the results. Really what the cycles are teaching us is that that’s not how it works unfortunately. There’s no guarantees in life. You know I could put my energy and time into certain things and maybe it’s not needed for it to come to full completion because maybe the growth has been in the doing of it rather than the birthing of it and maybe I am the doing of it in the essence the bringing it forth and somebody else is the birthing of it.
So it’s interesting to watch how we engage with these cycles, the expectations we place on ourselves by living a cyclical life. I call them the blinders we might put on ourselves – we think this is another linear process and if I follow these cycles then like you know I should get A, B, C, D. If I plant my seed it should grow, it should blossom, it should give back to me and that’s where a lot of the ‘shoulds’ come in and that’s where we can end up then blaming or shaming ourselves when that life cycle is completely different to what we expected.
Where else to me the wheel is teaching us to engage with all aspects of the cycle to surrender to the phases that we are in and to learn to navigate life with it, walking beside us – if you think us walking on it even. And so I could be or you could be in a phase of your life at the moment where you’re still shedding and digging out and releasing stuff and then when you hear like sort of people chatting about the spring energy it feels so far removed from where you’re at but you can still use it – you can still access and let that the energy of spring equinox feed you no matter where you are in the wheel of life.
Whether you’re in a death phase, a void, the rest or whether you’re just planting little seeds whether you’re actually getting some of that it’s in full bloom and it’s all out there and being visible and using up more energy or well or it’s like tidying up loose ends begin to wind things down whatever stage it is there’s always something to be received when we pause and tune into what’s available in this moment.
Letting Go & Embracing Renewal
Like so if I’m releasing things, if I’m letting go of things, if things are ending and dying and there’s all that beautiful compost. The energy of spring equinox, when I’m in those spaces can sometimes feel like ‘okay okay okay, this this will come again’ like I might not feel the full force. But now, even if I go outside and turn my face towards that beautiful bright spring light – how can that feed me and nourish me and guide my way forward? Especially if I’m getting lost in the dark, in the letting go.
You know it can be okay ‘I remember that even in all this letting go, there is something that will be reborn. I haven’t a clue what. I have no sense of it but I know it will be there’. If we look to the opposite side of the wheel at the spring equinox – there’s autumn equinox.
That’s the pause before the descent so this in essence is that sweet pause before we begin that ascent. Some people will say it’s the beginning of spring. We’re getting those first tastes and it all just depends on how we navigate the cycles and sometimes it depends on how our outer world is speaking to us as well how nature is reflecting it to us. If I’m standing here at spring equinox, the autumn we know like we chat about spring clean – so the autumn equinox is that letting go as well like so it’s reflecting back to us a different aspect of it in the autumn equinox.
I’m letting go of the dross, the heaviness you know what is in excess, what I don’t need so I can go into the darkness like with a lighter load. Rather than trying to bring everything in with me. It’s being really sort of methodical – if you’re packing away for the winter season really what do I need. I don’t need to keep all the summer clothes out. Oh I definitely don’t need the sandals or in the sunglasses. They can go away.
Think of that in terms of physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects. Whereas in the spring now we might be going ‘oh actually I need to open the wardrobes and bring some of that stuff back out but now I don’t need all these winter clothes’ or if you’re in Ireland you might hang on to them for another couple of months just in case. So we’re releasing in a different way.
It’s like what’s sort of maybe dormant in me that wants to be emerging, that wants to push out forth through the earth so it can really begin that growth cycle in whatever way it needs. We have these opposing forces in essence if you think and that’s a part of spring equinoxes about the balance. Where we’re at that point of equal daylight and equal darkness – this beautiful little point of balance.
The Act of Balance at Spring Equinox
You could think of that as you know of walking a path or walking a tightrope you know if you ever seen anybody walk a tightrope, no matter how skilled they are there’s never not a wobble. There’s never not a little movement to the left, a little movement to the right, a little fixing of the foot, a little tilting of the head in a different way, the shoulders moving, the hips etc.
So balance is not this you know – we often think balance is like well it’s 50 50 that’s a balance and it’s going to stay that way forever. Depending on where we find ourselves in the cycle of life, what’s going on in our own personal lives that balance will shift and change.
My sense of balance during summer is very different than the balance during winter. You know, I might even lean a little bit maybe too heavy to the inner during winter. The balance is noticing like is there’s this nice dynamic centeredness like and if I move off balance, my body maybe gives me the signals that I know so well and that’s up to me to know those signals and listen to those signals.
So my system will give very clear information when I’m in far too much doing, far too much ‘oh my god there’s nothing on the list get it done, and after this one there’s another thing on the list get that done’. Like you know keep moving forward – my body gives me direct signals ‘put on the brakes’ and start feeding the other side of the rest, the renewal, the taking a pause, the down the tools, the doing nothing, the act of nothingness as I call it. To start coming into that harmony again like and we’re never saying one is good or one is bad.
You have to be all doing or you have to be all being. Which is what our minds often do they go to the extremes. Well if I’m going to do something, I might as well like you just keep doing it all the time. Rather than ‘oh okay I can do this button’ when I know that’s enough and isn’t that the biggest lesson – to know when something is enough. You know like then I get to do the other thing as well.
But the trick is to watch where the mind goes ‘well like you know I need to do the doing first before I can rest’, ‘I need to be productive before I can just you know take a break and chill out’ or ‘whatever might be I read this book or paint that picture, pick up pick up my knitting’. Where we move first towards in essence the masculine qualities, the masculine energies rather than sort of the softer feminine aspects.
We really get to know ourselves when we’re in this dance with the duality, with the opposites. And the way I describe it is to notice: where do you normally swing the pendulum too far. Do you know what happens people when we’re in healing work and or when they’re coming for healing it’s like ‘oh well, like you know I’ll meditate. I’m going to meditate for like oh an hour every day’. That’s the pendulum swinging very far, especially if they’ve never meditated on their life and it’s like ‘okay actually well what about the other aspects of your life? Does that fit in and harmonize with them?’ Well no because I’m maybe looking after my parents and I’m working a full-time job and then you know gotta pick the kids up from school and then you know making the dinners.
It’s not about you know oh you need to prioritize better. It’s like okay so what actually works in that space? What would be easy to allow that to come in, to bring harmony? And actually does that bring in harmony or is something else needed instead? But we’ll usually go to extremes and that’s just part I believe of living.
Sometimes I’ve got to taste the extreme of something to know ‘yeah this isn’t good for me. This isn’t actually the way I want to do this’. And then sometimes it might go the other direction too that’s extreme and go ‘yeah that doesn’t work either’. And then I’ll find my middle grounds. Then sometimes I will go back to the extreme just to go ‘oh yeah actually that really doesn’t work for me’ so we’re never going to find this right balance like you know or the perfect balance because we’re continually changing our circumstances and life are continually changing.
Shifting Perspectives on Balance
Balance for me when I was in my 20s is completely different to when I’m in 30s. It’s completely different to me in my 40s. Balance depends on different factors – if I have children, if I’m looking after parents, if working more than one job, all the responsibilities.
So when we’re looking at balance, we’re thinking about ‘okay if I place myself in the center of my life’ and not in a selfish way because in the circle will be all the other things that are really important to you. But if I place myself in the center of this life and go ‘what needs to be harmonized within me and maybe my outer life that allows me to feel more balance’ and really ‘what does balance give me?’. What does that mean to me?
My idea of balance will be different each year. So within that circle then can still be you know like my kids, my partner, my hobbies, my finances, my work, my enjoyments, my
travel – whatever the important things in your life are – my relationships, my friendships,
my health and all those different areas. Then you’re sort of just thinking like you know ‘where
am I within all of those’. You know which ones feel if I was to feel into them which ones feel
like ‘yeah they’re really good’ or if I was to think god actually you know I spend most of my time just in work and there’s not much left for anything else.
So then we know oh that’s that’s the big piece of the pie. Maybe it needs some kind of a shifting and with what’s manageable at this moment in time – starting small . If you think of it internally, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually – if you’re into this work, more than likely you might consider or think that you’re spiritual. You spend a lot of time in the spiritual feeding the spiritual body and my question would be ‘how’s the physical, how’s the mental body, how’s the emotional body’.
If I spend all my time in the spiritual, some other parts of me will suffer too. So then it’s like how can I bring some harmony into that. It’s kind of like people when they come so maybe for healing and I’m chatting to them and listening to them like ‘mmm it’s not spiritual work you need, it’s really the emotional work you need’. Or it’s like ‘yeah the mental body you need that churning it out talking with a therapist’. That needs to be fed or it’s actually like a combination of them all.
Or if somebody comes, you know if you think of when I experienced burnout it wasn’t just like oh let’s just meditate that away or let’s just get healings and energy healing that will just pump you right back up. I had to address every aspect like physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and then I had to address every point in the wheel within myself – my relationships, my work, my family, my partnership, my finances. Everything, everything had to be looked at ‘okay what was unharmonious’. I was going to say what was out of sync, what was out of harmony, out of balance because that allowed that to happen within me.
It takes some sense of self-responsibility and accountability which is beautiful but hard. So to me that’s the balance. It’s that beautiful dynamic thing. So take the pressure off at having to be perfect, of having to achieve it every day because it’ll ebb and flow depend on what life sometimes throws at you too. So just notice where you’re swaying too far in any one direction and what you gain from maybe staying that far in that direction too.
You know the programming, the wounding that takes us to those spaces. And then to consider when you’ve maybe landed on – what is out of sync, what is out of balance. Think about what do you need to maybe let go off so you can bring in some harmony. You know I need to let go off, if you think ‘I need to let go of people pleasing’ or I need to really work on ‘nobody else going to do this. I’m going to have to do it’ or well ‘if you want it done right, do it yourself’.
Maybe I need to let go of that there, but then also opening up space to like ‘what do I want to bring into that space, what could I maybe add that would actually help’.
We’ve got to meet these edge points within ourselves like ‘how can I bring in this balance now myself’ and when I say how can I bring it on myself, it may be that other support and help and information is needed in that space too.
Embracing New Beginnings at Spring Equinox
So on another little aspect I think I mentioned it earlier turn: to face the sun, the rise in sun. Take a little space in the coming days to maybe even if I dare say it get up at sunrise and actually meet the rise in sun. It’s a different energy at each point of the year, like just like the sunsets are different. The light at this time of the year is so beautiful in the morning so allow yourself to maybe get up and just receive that there and see how it inspires you. How it feels to in essence draw it into your body and let it like be that little heating system that invites you to let the seeds within you begin to crack open and begin to emerge.
It’s to remember that we can start afresh at any stage. I’ve chatted about this in a few my newsletters like recently about beginnings like. As we stand at this time of spring like and we can start afresh any time and not let the stories we tell ourselves or the story society tells us about timelines about what we should achieve by whatever age and what life should look like at a certain age.
We can hit refresh at any time and the beauty of beginnings is that they do involve a risk and when we’re starting something, stepping into something we never fully know what we’re going to get. Even with the best business plan in the world, you’ll never know what you fully get. Even if you have the background information of whoever you’re seeing and hanging out with you never fully know what you get.
We don’t know what will happen next and that’s the point of beginnings is that they require that leap of faith, that little step out of this little cocoon, off this beautiful shell step out towards the light and see what’s coming next.
Step into what is there at that moment. We don’t know where it’ll lead and we don’t know the outcome and that requires trust and faith. Just like when I sow seeds physically it requires trust and faith that they will emerge. If I look after them like and if the ground is right, if the soil is right. I have planted stuff on our yard over the last two years and nothing has taken and it’s the soil like our soil isn’t great out here so I’m trying to find other ways so I know okay I need to change the soil.
Engaging with Beginnings or walking the middle path
The same with ourselves. Sometimes we blame ourselves rather than looking at the bigger picture of all the different layers. If I’m starting something – to know it’s not going to bloom straight away. When we look at other people and go ‘oh god that just worked for them straight away’, we have not seen the toil and struggle that maybe has gone into that in the background.
We don’t know with new beginnings what the final destination is. It’s kind of like hopping in your car and just driving seeing where it will take you. But learning to enjoy the experience of beginnings, learning to be in the beginning, to not rush forward because you’ll never get to begin something again.
If you think of maybe when you first met your partner or someone you love or a really good
friendship – the beginning stages they’re very different and it’s not that you can’t have them again but you can’t. Because they’re the beginning.
Do you know like you can bring freshness and aliveness and you can renew it but you’ll never get that ‘I know nothing about this person’ or ‘oh my god I get a sense of this about this person’ or ‘I’m really excited to know what else goes on within this person’.
There’s all this beauty and beginnings that if we try and rush through it we’ve missed the medicine that’s there.
We’re also learning a lot about ourselves. About how do I begin things. Are you someone who enjoys that beginning process, do you research everything to the ninth degree and never actually start it because you’re always thinking ‘no I just need to figure this out’. But then I will need to figure this out.
Be aware of how we begin things, how we engage those beginnings because how I begin a project tends often speak to me about how I begin in friendships, how I begin in relationships, how I begin in other aspects of my life. So if you are beginning something notice how you engage with it. Notice what comes up, what blocks it, what gets in the way of it.
Maybe where it flows what you find easy. Then you begin to learn about your personal engagement with beginnings. We have to move forward just like walking that tight rope you can’t stand still on a tight rope, you have to keep moving for the person to actually walk it. Do you know I can keep their balance, they have to have that movement.
So it’s like if you think of the middle path – if I just stay in the middle path of life and don’t even bother trying anything it’ll be dull, boring, monotonous and it’ll be another day, same old story whereas when we let ourselves begin things or even end things, try things, experience things or be curious about things – we’re gaining fodder, we’re gaining information, we’re gaining life force or an experience just by doing that.
Of course there’s always you know – for me it’s, I’m always sort of moving between the dynamics but it’s to know when to move forward, when to stand still, when to begin, when to end, when the pause, when to rest. And we only learn when not to begin, when to overdo things, when to tire ourselves out, and all the opposites so we only get to experience one sometimes with the other.
So let yourself you know be the little explorer in life tasting all the different flavors off ice cream so you can find out which ones you really actually enjoy knowing too that that may change as time passes.
Meeting your edges at Spring Equinox
So another little aspect of this time of year when I think about it and coincides with beginnings but at any stage in the cycle really is that we have to meet our edges. If the little seed just decides ‘I’m just like just gonna stay here’ or if the little chick inside the egg just goes ‘yeah I’m just gonna hang out here’. They miss the beauty of life. And it’s in their nature to crack open and emerge, like it’s in our nature to crack open and emerge. So it’s in our nature to be able to meet these edges within ourselves to move beyond our comfort zones, to crack open, let the light in and to take that risk. To risk to go after what is calling us.
You know there is a place where like ‘oh I can be in the feminine and just let myself receive it’, it’ll come to me but we also need the other side, the opposite to actually go out and go ‘I want that and I’m going to work towards that’. There it’s both, it’s neither this or that, it’s this and.
You know sometimes like as I said we go too far in one direction. The whole business modality
itself ‘I’m just gonna like you know think it and it’ll come’. Build it and it will come. I might not even build it, I might just think it’ll come. And it’s like if that works please god share the details.
But we have to bring in the other side of like ‘yeah I want this to work so I’m going to do xyz to make that happen. I’m going to get the support’. I’m going to do whatever it is you feel like you need to do to get things moving in that direction so it’s both. So sometimes we need to put the stick in the ground as I call it and claim ourselves and what we want rather than waiting for it to come at our door.
So think about in the coming days what edges are you meeting within yourself. What do you need in order to move beyond them? Do you need to connect to what’s on the other side and let it call you forth, let it guide you forward? Do you actually need to work with the block. Maybe it’s time, maybe you’re going ‘god I’m really sick of that. I’m really sick of whatever it may be. I’m really sick of this anger. I’m really sick of this frustration and I know that it’s oh it’s actually a family pattern and I really need to deal with this now. Because seriously I’ve been dancing around it for however long so I’m going to take the bull by the horns and meet this edge that does not want to admit that I’m angry because you know it’s just not appropriate’ or whatever story we’re telling ourselves.
Spring equinox is showing us the promise of growth and abundance that is yet to come. And to me abundance – yes it can be the money and all of that there. But it’s the abundance of life force, vitality within yourself – of joy, excitement, aliveness. So if it’s this promise of growth and abundance – what gets in the way of that? What prevents me from growing in the direction that I want to go in and what really is the time to nip in the bud at this stage.
Reflection on your inner spring
And in that there I’m going to begin to wrap up even though I could continue on. Say we’ve looked at our balance, considering what am I calling in, what am I leaving behind so I can cultivate that balance within me. Do you know you get those life coaching wheels of your life, I think they’re called wheel of life. Look at the wheel and even go okay I don’t need to get 50 50 balance. Balance might not look like that – what would balance look like for me at this moment? What would feel really good in my system? You might find it only as one thing or one area that needs a little bit of tweaking.
Often it’s just to remember enough ‘oh yeah I used to, I used to be out there walking during the summer and it’s been so cold I stopped. That action used to feel really good’. I’ve been wondering why I’ve been feeling a little bit bleh and it’s like ‘oh okay I’ll start back walking 10 minutes a day for now’. I don’t need to go back to what I was – I can start now fresh.
If your balance meet your growth edges, ponder on those – what is the comfort zone I’m in at this minute time? We’re safe and there’s nothing wrong with safety when we need it. But where’s the safe balance where we ‘I’m just going to pretend , like I’m gonna cod myself’ as we’d say as ‘I don’t just, don’t want to go there’. Really think about what is on the other side. Like really tune into what is it that I want to be experiencing, how is it I want to be living, and that can be whatever way you wish it to be – the feeds and nourishes you.
And then just be outside. The invitation is to stand at your doorway look outside and see how nature is speaking to you as if she was your own personal teacher. What is the message that she carries for you for spring equinox? It might not be about any of the themes I mentioned because it’ll be personal to you
Final Blessings & Closing
So I hope this episode has helped you ponder some things in life. So let yourself crack your little seed coat and stretch out towards the light, stretch in towards your inner light but it’ll give yourself permission to grow, to expand, to be more of who you are.
So many blessings to you all for spring equinox and if you want to join in on any celebrations
I’m holding a ceremony with all details on the website www.thirstysoul.com. Otherwise many blessings to you, thank you for taking the time to listen and I look forward to catching up with you later. And if anybody wants to share how spring equinox is chatting to them teaching them or reflecting to them please just drop me an email. bye
Where to find Roseleen:
Website: www.thethirstysoul.com
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Email: info@thethirstysoul.com