Vernal Equinox – Happy First Day of Spring!

I woke up at dawn to watch the arrival of the sun and the sky was spectacular! The birds are singing and my resident hawks are nest building. All around me, I see evidence of rebirth.

This year’s Spring Equinox on March 20 corresponds with Venus retrograde, Mercury retrograde, eclipse season, and Neptune’s entry into Aries for the first time in nearly 165 years.

The vernal equinox marks the astronomical start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, when the sun crosses the celestial equator, resulting in equal day and night hours. 

This event symbolizes rejuvenation, new beginnings, and spiritual awakening — the perfect opportunity to embrace change and harmony between light and dark.

Many pagans today celebrate the spring equinox as ‘Ostara’, which is a Latin variation of the Anglo-Saxon goddess of dawn, spring, fertility, and rebirth — Oestra (or Eostre) with roots in Germanic cultures.

New ideas are calling out to us. The animal world is buzzing with new life. This month is about trying new things out: What excites you right now? What are you interested in? What are you drawn toward?

Just like we plant seeds in the ground to watch them grow and eventually harvest fruit, flowers, or vegetables, which seeds will we plant in our minds and hearts? What will we manifest? What will WE grow?

Image curated from Pinterest. Credit to the artist.

Another Vernal Equinox

Our meager rain over the weekend was absolutely welcomed but everything is already dry. The forecast calls for eighty degree temperatures by midweek.

The equinox marks the precise moment the sun’s rays shine directly on the Earth’s equator.

Last week’s full moon is now a waning gibbous. I didn’t get any full moon photos but when I looked outside last night, I saw a colorfully glowing moon and snapped some pics.

Vernal Equinox/Spring is Here!

It began at 2:37 a.m. Pacific Time.

The sun crosses the celestial equator south to north. It’s called the “celestial equator” because it’s an imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator.

If you were standing on the equator, the sun would pass directly overhead on its way north. 

Can you feel it?

How will you celebrate? We’re going to plant a lemon tree and some blueberries to add to the peach, plum, apple, pomegranate, grapefruit, and orange trees already in the ground.

Sadly, I had inadvertently killed my favorite lime tree and was disappointed to learn that no one in my area has any lime trees for sale. According to the nursery, the pandemic caused an explosion in home gardening and it’ll be quite some time before they’ll be back in stock, an interesting phenomenon directly related to Covid.

Those old poets sure knew how to describe the ethereal affirmations of an ephemeral season.

Lines Written in Early Spring

I heard a thousand blended notes,
While in a grove I sate reclined,
In that sweet mood when pleasant thoughts
Bring sad thoughts to the mind.

To her fair works did Nature link
The human soul that through me ran;
And much it grieved my heart to think
What man has made of man.

Through primrose tufts, in that green bower,
The periwinkle trailed its wreaths;
And ’tis my faith that every flower
Enjoys the air it breathes.

The birds around me hopped and played,
Their thoughts I cannot measure:—
But the least motion which they made
It seemed a thrill of pleasure.

The budding twigs spread out their fan,
To catch the breezy air;
And I must think, do all I can,
That there was pleasure there.

If this belief from heaven be sent,
If such be Nature’s holy plan,
Have I not reason to lament
What man has made of man?

William Wordsworth