The Spring Equinox

Image: Blackthorn blossoming in the Avon Gorge

The Spring Equinox brings us one of the two “balance” moments in the Wheel of the Year, where the light and dark are in balance, where we sit between the threshold of the dark half of the year (what is behind us) and the light half of the year (what is in front of us). As a balance point, but also as a time of  year that is “gaining” energy, I find that the Spring Equinox is my favourite time of year for a pause, a chance to step on our path around the cycle of the year, and simply taking in where we have been, and taking a chance to think about where we are heading next. Many gardeners have started to think about what seedlings they wish to grow, what harvest they wish to reap this year, what will be food for us and what will simply be decorative.

So in this time, I am going to create a ritual of taking a moment to pause and reflect back on my spiritual journey, and what’s to come.

Reflection is when we consider, ponder, and look back upon things we have previously experienced. Reflection helps us understand where we have come from and helps us, to an extent, to figure out where we are going. It also helps us to take stock on a yearly basis where we were 12 months ago, in the cycle, where we were last Spring equinox. What has changed for us, what has happened that must be helped to heal.

In March 2020, we first encountered Covid properly and lockdown. Was it significant that the first lockdown was at almost the exact time of the Spring Equinox, when we all started to celebrate the new light half of the year? The year 2020/2021 was our global arrested development, our national year of isolation and insulation.

In March 2021 our schools returned to work. Our children would resume their ‘normal activities’ without there being any real spiritual support for them at school to understand and ‘heal’ their disrupted development. Only now do we see the impact this enforced isolation has had on a large number of children.

March 2022, Russia bombs the Ukraine, especially the major city of Kyiv. Around the world the shock waves of this action brings forward new fears of global warfare, mentions of the 3rd WW are in the media. The world mourns for the loss of life, freedom and culture. I don’t want to dwell on all the horror and terror we have seen in such short a time. This year we have so far witnessed the dreadful losses of the Turkey/Syria earthquake. We certainly live in interesting times and for many of us, waiting for the next shoe to drop, it may feel a little incongruous to be speaking of spiritual awakening, and good harvests.

I myself find a place in me that rejoices at the new greening of the willow tree, the blossoming of the Blackthorn, the whisper of a warmer breeze and the flowering of the apple blossoms on the Orchard trees. All this I have seen come and go year on year. There is no change in the natural world that seems to reflect the challenges we are facing in so many places.  When I walk into the Abbey, tranquillity surrounds me. I sit my granddaughter on my lap and reflect that not two years ago, this would have been my first grandson. I reflect on the good that has some with its own challenges.

As a Priestess I am often the first to be called in when trouble occurs in other people’s life. I hear about sudden death, acrimonious divorces, dirty knuckle-scraping fighting for custody, loneliness, deprivation. Those who know me well, know that I cherish the confidence that people have in me to help them in their hour of need. Helping people to pick up their life from a place of devastation is what we do as spiritual leaders in our community, and I am proud to say, there are ever more of us that take up the call. I no longer feel alone in this work.

This Spring is about counting our blessings. New beginnings in life. Thinking where we wish to be next Spring Equinox and what we wish to do with this season of light.

Six months for you to resource, to recover, to find your physical peak of health, to slough off the winter skin, bring forward your inner radiance for all to see. Treat your body to good food, detox medicines, teas and tinctures you make from the natural world right next to you.

Celebrate the Greening, communicate and commune with and in Nature.

The fire of the Spring Equinox, may it warm you heart and soul, may it give you confidence and make you whole.

As She wills it, so will it be.

Blessings of Cerridwen upon all of you.

Bee

 

Bee Helygen

Adoratrix of Cerridwen

Priestess of the Llwyth

Avalon

Website: cerridwen.co.uk

Bee is the creatrix and course tutor for the Priestess of Cerridwen training which has been running as part of the Glastonbury Goddess Temple since 2015. She also runs the Death Priestess training and is a celebrant and Avalon Soul Healer. Full bio