The Spiritual Significance of Spring Equinox

When is Spring Equinox this year?

On Tuesday March 19, 2024 the Northern Hemisphere will welcome spring with the arrival of the vernal equinox. Spring Equinox 2024 will be at 11:06pm (EDT) on the east coast of North America.

Understanding Vernal Equinox: A turning point toward the light and Spring’s renewal

Vernal meaning “of the spring”, “new” and “fresh,” and equinox derived from the Latin aequus meaning equal and nox meaning night. On the Vernal Equinox we experience a balance of the day and the night, equal amounts of light and dark on the same day. Essentially, the hours of daylight — the period of time each day between sunrise and sunset — have been growing slightly longer each day since the Winter Solstice in December, which is the shortest day of the year, in terms of light experienced. Even after three months of lengthening days, we still see less light than darkness over the course of a day. The vernal equinox marks the turning point when daylight begins to over take the darkness and the North Pole begins to lean toward the sun again. This is the time of year when we begin to experience more life force creative energy within our minds and bodies. So what does that mean?

As the darkness diminishes and the light increases you may feel a building of imaginative and creative energy, perhaps a lifting of the fog and a dropping of the sleepy blanket that you have been curled up in for the past few months of winter. In the darkest months of the year we are encouraged by the energies to go within and be in the silence of inner darkness or death. Where we go wrong is in fearing that our inner world has gone dark and that the light will not return. Just as the world turns on its axis and brings about the return of the light turn after turn, we can rely on the return of our own light & energy and richness of our internal garden.

It’s difficult to trust that your life has purpose and meaning even when you are not being productive, but it is the rhythms and cycles of Earth that show us and encourage us to rest in darkness and allow for the light to unfold us and help us blossom without forcing or making things happen.

Imagine you have internal tides just like the sea. We do live on Earth after all and are made up of 75% water, so imagine that you are influenced by all the amazing forces at work here in our Universe, even the ones we have yet to understand or have the awareness to see. You experience cycles just like the Earth and the Sun and the Moon, though most of us do not realize how our internal states of being are influenced by the energies at hand. Often we feel confused, restless, stuck, or even powerless to change our mindset and state of being. The return of the light presents us with an opportunity to take the time to release our fears and surrender into new intentions for ourselves.

Most of us, live our lives so disconnected from our internal guidance that when the pull of our hearts becomes so strong, and the voice inside has been muffled for so long, the feeling that arises within us feels more like a life crisis than an emergence into something more beautiful.

Now is a time of celebrating the freshness of life and of taking the time to raise our energy to regenerate abundance and manifest our dreams. Physically we are experiencing more light right now and since the beginning of time, our ancestors have marked this period with ritual and celebration. As you know, there are thousands of ancient sites created around solstices and equinoxes that were built to honor our connection to the Sun as the source of our light and life force.

I would invite you to do something symbolic to honor your life in the next few days, perhaps, light a candle and say a blessing for your life and the life force living in your body. Make a commitment to go within and be silent each day to let your internal guidance know that you are listening and intend to have open lines of communication from here on out. Let your Inner Voice know that she in fact has a very important role in your life and you're going to be listening a lot more and intend to be in joy.  

When we shift into wonder and curiosity, there is an opening to a deeper wisdom. Our power, is a shift from the perspective, where not knowing could be seen as weakness or being powerless, to a new way of being, where wonder and curiosity are the ultimate source of power and strength.

Connecting with our deeper desires, does not involve knowing the answers to all of our questions, because it's only in not knowing that we can be truly receptive and it's only in being receptive that we can truly discover, learn, and evolve.

In becoming truly honest with ourselves, and learning the practice of unknowing and non-attachment to the outcome we are inviting new possibility and natural flow into our lives.

Knowing yourself is the the beginning of all wisdom.

You may find yourself asking "Where do I start? How do I begin?" Begin with answering the call within, listening to the voice of your Inner Guidance.

Fear of change is normal, but there are ways to learn to overcome your fears and start acting on the guidance within that will lead you to your happiest life and natural way of being in the world.

As our planet stands upon a precipice of enormous change and transformation, each one of us has a choice to make. How will you participate in the great turning of our times?

Invite in your own Divine Spirit to come a play for a while.

Your Way

No-one has marked out the road
you are to take
out in the unknown
out in the blue.

This is your road.
Only you
will take it. And there's no
turning back.

And you haven't marked your road
either.
And the wind smoothes out your tracks
on desolate hills.

— Olav Hauge

Translated by Robin Fulton

Wisdom of the Four Directions Apprenticeship 2024

BEGINS ON THE SPRING EQUINOX MARCH 2024

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