March 21st – SPRING EQUINOX; also known as ALBAN EILER, ASTORA, and the vernal equinox, takes place when the Sun crosses the celestial equator – the imaginary line in the sky above the Earth’s equator – from south to north. This marks the beginning of astrological spring. For three days, the world stands still as we reach this balance of star and stone.
As day begins to dominate night, and the weather grows warmer and lighter, we turn our thoughts to the progress we make through our lives. As birds return to mate and build their nests, and the first flowers of the year grace our gardens, as the crops are being sown, we can thing about decisions of the past and present and how they effect the pathways of our life. Now is a time to take stock, take a moment, to consolidate the pathways we have chosen to be on.
Working with the goddess Demeter, and experiencing her daughter's journey into the Underworld of Hades, is a useful way to think about what is happening during the equinox, and how it can relate to our lives.
First, listen to Demeter's story:
I am a mild Goddess; I have a gentle soul. I aim to do no harm to any being. My delight is to care for the land. When I am happy, the earth is happy. When I am ready to enjoy the fruits of nature, they blossom, flower and fruit for everyone. In my youth, I was always happy and the earth was always fruitful; every day way a day of bounty, of harvest, where each had what they needed, and more.
Every part of the land had a cornocopia of plenty and no creature went without. Everyone was warm, sheltered, fed to fullness...and so they had time to turn to thoughts of love.
It was my role to show you timid humans how to truly love each other; how to give pleasure in the showing of your love. I was not immune from my own counsel, I became inflamed with the nectar of love on occasion...too many occasions, perhaps. I lay upon the couch of love with my own brother, Zeus, and from this heady union came my dear and beautiful daughter, a goddess in her own right. Persephone. She is as fresh as a spring dawn.
Her hair is as golden as ripened corn; her face is as clear as the spring moon. When she was still a maiden, she loved to run with her friends in the meadows among the flowers; I often did not know whither she had run, but trusted her to return to me, as a mother should.
One glorious spring day, my brother, Hades, saw Persephone. She was kneeling close to a fast-running brook, and the glitter of the water shone fair upon her face. She was picking the flowers that grew along its bank, the pale lemon flowers of spring. As she plucked them, she took in their scent, and the look of wonder upon her young face was so radiant, that Hades fell in love with her on that instant.
He knew, should he ask me for her hand in marriage, I would refuse. So he simply took her. He went to her in the meadow and abducted her. He forced her into his black carriage and drove the horses full speed down into the dark drear of his underworld. Who can blame him? He lived alone down there, amid the dead, with no companion and no sight of the light of the day or living beings.
You see...I am a mild and forgiving Goddess. I can understand. I can forgive. But that does not lessen the pain of losing your daughter. I wandered far in search of Persephone, not understand why she did not run back to me, laughing. I called her name, I asked those I passed if they had see her. I wept for the loss of her. Food did not pass my lips as I searched. And, as I am the fruitfulness of the earth, as I did not eat, neither did it. It wasted away as I went upon my quest, neither seeding or fruiting. The rivers dried. The corn withered before it ripened. And the crops, once gathered, did not grow again.
Finally, I came upon old Hecate, my sister in Olympus, who told me her story. She had been walking early one morning when she’d heard a young girl crying RApe! Rape! She’d run to help her but found nothing. Together we approached Helius, for, as he makes his daily circuit of the earth, he sees everything. Finally, he admitted he had seen Hades take my daughter through a gaping hole in the earth. Now, we had our evidence, we approach Zeus. His pronouncement was that Hades should restore Persephone to me and to the light and the living...so long as she had not eaten the food of the dead.
This gave me such hope; Persephone is a bright girl and would have taken care to do no such thing. But she had, without knowledge of it, consumed just seven pomegranate seeds.
I was consumed with rage. I am not a vengeful or wrathful goddess, but I spoke then, I cried out to heaven that I would never remove my curse from the earth if my daughter was not returned to me. It would continue to wither and die and there would be no harvest from now on.
And so, a compromise was reached. It was the time of the equinox, a time of balance and arbitration. Six months I was to have Persephone with me, her slight frame running with joy through the warm air, her nose buried into the scent of flowers. But for six months also, she would belong to Hades, and return to the underworld. And for that time, I would mourn and the earth would whither and die.
And so it does. Every winter it remains in this dormant state while my daughter goes to do her duty to her so-called husband. And every spring, she returns to life and the to world and to me. Then, the earth begins to warm, the rains come, the soil bursts with life, the animals give birth and the corn grows tall, ripens, and before winter is upon us, it is cut down for the bread of life...
NOW IT IS YOUR TIME to experience Persephone’s journey into the Underworld. By making this journey, we have the opportunity to meditate upon the things that make up our own underworlds; the things that lie most deep and dark in our hearts and in our conscious and subconscious minds.
Place on your alter a posy of spring flowers, narcissi, crocuses, snowdrops, almond blossom....whatever you chose and can find locally. Also have to hand somewhere comfortable to sit, and a pen and notebook.
Bury your face into the delicate scents of spring and breath in the perfume. Take in their scent and think about their own journey through the winter, in darkness deep below the earth's cold surface. Allow their perfume to slightly alter your perceptions of the moment and trigger a slight shifting of the veil of the underworld.
Visualise Persephone, walking through the meadow, gathering flowers, in innocence and delight.
Do not be concerned in passing through it; your time there will be but a brief moment. Return to your places immediately, find a comfortable position in which to meditate. Six months will become six minutes; time to explore your own Hades and perhaps, at this time of the equinox, to find restorative balance therein.
What you find in your journey to the Underworld, may not reflect Persephone's journey. It is your own time here, in which you will be able to contemplate your decisions of the past and present and how they effect the future pathways of your life. The spring equinox is a time to take stock, take a moment, to consolidate the pathways we have chosen to be on, and to think about action; as the seeds are scattered on the fertile soil, think about your hopes and desires, your goals and ambitions, and how they might germinate and grow as the sun continues to warm the earth.
At the end of this time, it is time to return, from the underworld. Come back into the room quietly and slowly, feel the floor beneath you again and watch the flickering candles. Now rise up from the underworld and pass, each of you, through the veil that will take you into the real world. Bring with you only the memories of your mediation and any resolves you have reached through this process.
Gaze once more on the posy of spring flowers you've gathered. Write of your journey in the underworld, and allow the experience to grow and consolidate in your mind as you do so. You don't have to share this writing with anyone, but if you wish you can share it with me and my followers by leaving a comment to the blogpost.
Happy Spring Equinox to everyone!
If you'd like to use a ritual to enjoy the Vernal Equinox, look here
