When Life
Bursts Forth

Ivo Dominguez Jr.

Although many people focus on the equal length of day and night as the defining feature for the Spring Equinox, for me it is the entry of the Sun into Aries. From the perspective of astrology, Aries is the beginning of the zodiac, of the story arc that is the journey through the year and symbolically through all cycles. Incidentally, astronomers measure the start of the earth’s orbit each year at the Spring Equinox. Aries is the first and most primal fire that lit the stars, that shone on the first day, and sparked the magic called life. The Spring Equinox is the dawn and birth of the year. If you keep this in mind, you’ll always find your way to the focal point for all the ideas related to this sabbat.

In the path I follow, the wheels of time, the cycles of nature, are all nested within each other. In a sense, daybreak in the diurnal cycle, the first quarter moon in the lunar cycle, and the Spring Equinox are all in the same station but at different levels. There is a similarity and resonance between each of these as if they were different hues of the same color. There is a practical use to understanding these connections as well. If you can start your celebration or rituals for the Spring Equinox near dawn, you will feel its power more clearly. If your schedule doesn’t let you celebrate on the day of the Spring Equinox, you could use the first quarter moon nearest to Ostara as an alternative date. Another possibility is to observe the Spring Equinox at dawn on the closest date that fits your schedule.

You’ve probably noticed that I have alternated between using the terms “Spring Equinox” and “Ostara” in this article. Ostara is the most common designation for this holiday in the Pagan community and I use it frequently, but it is also one of the names of a Germanic goddess of spring for which we have very limited recorded history and lore. However, the imagery of hares, eggs, flowers, and a goddess surrounded by an awakened earth has gained in power over the last few centuries as the fitting representation of the coming of spring. In years where my observances and rituals include the goddess Ostara or make extensive use of this symbolism, I tend to call the holiday Ostara. In years when that is not the case, it feels more respectful to not use her name, and so I default to calling it the Spring Equinox or sometimes Aries Ingress. If you are a Druid, it may be that you call this holiday Alban Eilir: Light of the Earth. There are many names for this holiday in various Pagan traditions.

Here is a chant that I wrote in 2007 that has served well in our Ostara celebrations and rituals (Assembly of the Sacred Wheel).

“Sweet Water, Warm Sun”

Sweet water and warm sun bless us

Sweet water and warm sun bless us

Oh, spring comes hope—begins in us

Oh, spring comes hope—begins in us

Out come the leaves,

Up comes the grass

Oh, seeds and eggs, oh Ostara

Oh, seeds and eggs, oh Ostara

The association of seeds and eggs with this sabbat goes deeper than the symbolism of new life. Seeds and eggs are like little universes unto themselves and are a great representation of a microcosm. I like to imagine that seeds contain a miniature world tree. I like to imagine the bright yellow yolk in an egg as a sun shining within. They both wait balanced on the edge of beginning until the conditions of the outer world, the macrocosm, trigger the cascade into life. The seed awaits the sun’s warmth, the spring rains, and the touch of soil that announce that it is time to start. When a chicken lays a fertilized egg, it cools down and the spark of life within hovers and hangs waiting for more eggs to be laid each day. When there are enough eggs, the hen sits on her clutch. The eggs warm back up and the magic of life begins.

The Spring Equinox is also a time to open your senses, both physical and intuitive. It is a time for spring cleaning of the soul so that you will be affected by the beauty of the season. Also, becoming more open and more present will allow you to hear and feel the message that it is time to begin. You are a part of your world and are called to awaken and grow just like the seeds, the buds, and the eggs. It will happen whether or not you are aware of it, but if you are a conscious participant in the process, you will gain so much more.

The March Equinox is also World Storytelling Day, International Astrology Day, Mother’s Day in several Middle Eastern and African nations, New Years for some Eastern nations, and many other celebrations as well throughout the globe. Anthropologist Margaret Mead advocated that Earth Day, which was founded by John McConnell, be held on the March equinox rather than the April 22 date that most people use. I encourage you to research other holidays that are on or adjacent to Ostara, especially local or regional festivals and observances. You may find some inspiration in these parallel holidays in planning your Spring Equinox festivities. For example, you could have a day of stories, songs, and poems about springtime. We’ve included offerings to our mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers, and so on at some of our Spring Equinox rituals.

Unless you live at the equator, the equinoxes are the only two days of the year when the sun truly rises in the east and sets in the west. The rest of the year, the sunrises and sunsets are offset either to the north or to the south of the cardinal points. In all the places I’ve lived since I became a witch, I’ve made a point of identifying the windows that most closely align with the east and the west. I place flowers or seeds on their windowsills or other objects to honor the sun’s journey from east to west on the equinoxes. If you have a garden or an outdoor ritual space, the Spring Equinox is an excellent time to place stones, posts, or other durable markers in the east and west as determined by the sun’s position. Using a square, you can infer north and south. These cardinal points will be true rather than the magnetic directions given by a compass, which deviate from true depending upon your location.

Day and night are of equal duration at the equinox because the sun’s path across the sky equally honors the light and the dark in its steady course from east to west. It is about more than just day and night; the equinox is about balancing any and all qualities that seem to be opposites, antonyms, complementary, or contrasted with each other. During the two equinoxes, the tilt of the earth’s axis is perpendicular to the sun’s rays. This means that at noon at the equator during the equinoxes, the sun is directly overhead. Magically and symbolically, this means that the force of the sun reaches to the core of the earth. The whole earth shares in this illumination equally.

The Spring Equinox is about the birth of new life and the growth and reinvigoration of all that is perennial. Think about how these qualities and energies work separately and in tandem as you dream up their best uses for your purposes. Initiations and self-dedications are special kinds of new beginnings, and the Spring Equinox favors and blesses these and similar actions. Healing work, meditation, or practices that bring about greater self-integration also benefit from the harmonizing properties of the Spring Equinox.

Coming into balance and maintaining balance is a dynamic process that requires both effort and finesse. When the Wheel of the Year turns to the Spring Equinox, the power of poise builds so that the runner can explode into action, the diver can leap from the board in their flight to the water, and the bud can swell and unfurl. The current that flows through this holiday can be used to remove obstacles, to break a stalemate, to make a long-postponed decision, to open new roads, or liberate you from the chill of a wintry heart. Although many people tend to focus more on the devotional or the celebratory aspects of the eight sabbats, they are also a time for magic applied to purposes.

In your quest to learn more about Ostara, the Spring Equinox, you are likely to find lore and customs that describe cultures, plants, animals, landscapes, and weather conditions that may be quite different than the ones you experience. Some may suggest to you that it is better to ignore all that and focus on what is present in your locale. Others may suggest, especially if you are a part of a formal group, that it is better to look to the roots of the traditions. Either approach can be made to work well, but you can also find a middle way between the two.

Ask yourself what parts of the lore that you uncovered in your research were particularly compelling and stirred you? Look to see if there is a plant, an animal, a custom, and so on that is local to you but has a similarity of energy and meaning. Then test your hunch by adapting it and adding it to your celebration. It may need to be refined for the coming year or it may need to be tossed out so something else can be tested. Think about the qualitative changes that occur in your life and the lives of your community in the spring. Is there a story, a song, a poem, a recipe for a feast, a seasonal decoration, or so on that needs to be created to express the nature of spring where you live? Let intuition, trial and error, and fresh insights guide you to creating a local and authentic way to work the sabbats.

The glyph, the symbol for Aries () contains some of the mysteries of this sabbat. The first thing that comes to mind is that the glyph is a simple representation of a ram’s horns. It is a fitting emblem for the animal will to live, to move, and to push away whatever blocks its path. It is the red force of life, the instinctive drive to survive, to thrive, and become abundant. If you look again, the glyph can be interpreted as the two leaves of a seedling breaching the surface of the soil. It is the green force of life that adapts, that is tenacious, and enriches the earth. This glyph also symbolizes a third thing that requires a closer look with a quiet mind. The Aries energy is also the light, the fire, at the beginning of things both in linear time and in eternity. The glyph can be seen as the one becoming the many as spirit enters into the physical realm. It is the radiant force of spirit, a geyser of light, a vortex of possibilities, the enduring, endless life that does not fade. The ritual for the Spring Equinox included at the end of the Ostara section uses the threefold pattern of the green, red, and silver flames of Aries as its basis.

Ostara, the Spring Equinox, the Aries Ingress, or whatever name you may use for this sabbat, brings hope and the reassurance that life always triumphs. This sabbat also shows us the pragmatism and wisdom of nature in the wild exuberance of growth and fertility during this season. Not all the flowers will produce seeds, not all those seeds will sprout and grow to maturity, but enough will. Spring will always provide a new beginning, one that is the same yet different than all that came before and will come again. Blessings of the spring upon you and yours.

Reference

Assembly of the Sacred Wheel. “Sweet Water, Warm Sun.” March 23, 2015. YouTube video, 2:03. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U60MnCH3yIQ.