by Nancy Robbins
SPRING EQUINOX – March 19, 2024 
The Spring Equinox is also known as the Vernal Equinox and the Wiccan Sabbat Ostara. The word “Spring Equinox” comes from the Old English word “spryng” or “spring” referring to the new growth springing up, and the Latin words “equi” (equal) “nox” (night). The Latin word “ver” means “Spring”.
The Spring Equinox is one of the four great solar festivals of the year. Day and night are equal, poised, and balanced, but about to tip over on the side of light. The Spring Equinox represents the season of Spring, the East, the element Air, dawn, youth, the morning star, new beginnings, rebirth, resurrection from the death of the previous year (at harvest time), illumination and inspiration, and the gentle feminine energy of creativity and birth.
This is the time the sun enters the sign of Aries signifying action, movement, and initiation. Days are becoming warmer with increasing light activating growth in budding trees and blooming flowers. It is a time of expansion, optimism, new beginnings, a fresh start, and the excitement of youth. Eggs, rabbits, and flowers all represent fertility and new growth. The earth is renewing and becoming greener and livelier in comparison to the previous dreary winter months. It is a great time for spring cleaning – in ourselves and in our homes. It is a good time to look at what keeps us in balance physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually. It is a time of newness of mind and spirit – a time to let go of old energy and make space for the new.
The Saxon goddess, Eostre (from whose name we get the direction East and the holiday Easter) is a dawn goddess, like Aurora and Eos. Just as the dawn is the time of new light, so the Vernal Equinox is the time of new life. The month of March contains holidays dedicated to all the great mother goddesses: Astarte, Isis, Aphrodite, Cybele, and the Virgin Mary. The spring season shows herself in the blossoms, the leaves on the trees, the sprouting of the crops, the mating of birds, the birth of young animals. In the agricultural cycle, it is time for planting. We are assured that life will continue.
Ostara – New Growth
Ostara is a Wiccan Sabbat on the Spring Equinox. It is also known as Eostre’s Day and the beginning of the Spring season. Ostara (Os-tah-rah) is a Germanic goddess of spring whose name is also Eostre, where the word Easter comes from. In the past, pagans held a huge festival to honor Eostre on the same day that Easter falls today–on the first Sunday after the first full moon that falls after the spring equinox, which is still the date chosen to be “Easter” to this very day! Ostara works with the energy of new beginnings – the fertile impulse of a new creation. Her active energy brings new growth, new ideas, rebirth, and fertility. Ostara represents the beginning of the season of Spring, fertility, renewal, and rebirth, and the qualities of the dawn in the East and the Air element that brings inspiration in the form of new ideas, new perspectives, and enlightenment.
The Maiden – Spring is also associated with the Maiden of the Triple Goddess (Maiden-Mother-Crone). The Maiden represents youth, newness, beginnings, brilliance, simplicity, springtime, sunrise, innocence, raw energy, and potential. Some of the maiden goddesses are: Diana, Artemis, Brigid, Persephone, Ostara, and Flora.
Spring Equinox Meditation: A Seed in the Heart
Sit in relaxed stillness, calming your mind and emotions. Imagine a bubble of divine white light is hovering over the top of your head. It is about to descend through your chakras clearing any blocks and energizing your chakra as it passes through it. Allow the white light bubble to descend through your Crown chakra…your Brow chakra…your Well of Dreams chakra in the back of your neck…your Throat chakra…your Higher Heart chakra near your thyroid…your Heart chakra…your Lower Heart chakra in your diaphragm area…your Solar Plexus chakra…your Sacral chakra…your Root chakra…down through your Earth Star chakra below your feet.
Shift your focus to your heart and see the light of your heart shining there. Expand this light until you are in a bubble of heart light. Ask your heart what you most desire in one word. Visualize in detail what it looks like as a seed. Place intention in the seed of the desired goal. Send gold and green energy to it to help it grow. Is it responding to the light? Does it wish for another color of light? Test its response to these divine rays of color – Blue, Yellow, Pink, White, Purple, Violet, Gold, or Diamond? Imagine a time lapse camera on the seed as it moves in growth forward in time. What has it become? If you feel it is strong and flourishing, it can be taken to the New Earth to be planted ( or continue to nurture it.)
Imagine a white light trail is before you that leads to the New Earth. Follow this trail to a white light door. Open the door, and step through onto the New Earth. Plant your flourishing creation in the New Earth. Come here often to shower the creation with the light it favors. You are a Creator of the New Earth. Plant more seeds from your heart and soul and nurture them with divine light.
Spring Equinox Activities
- Get outside in nature and take some time to celebrate the new life that is beginning. Go on a scavenger hunt to see the first signs of Spring. Ask yourself how you can nourish this growth?
- Plant new life or design a garden for when it is time to plant.
- Decorate eggs – real or wooden.
- Bring spring flowers into your home for refreshment and renewal. You can also use essential oils and a diffuser.
- Spring-clean your home and refresh your home décor to prepare for new growth. Clutter blocks energy flow.
- Add touches of spring to your altar with symbols of eggs, spring flowers, and feathers.
- Begin something new – make a list of everything you’ve been wanting to do and pick the top three choices. Make an action plan.
- Meditate with a Green Aventurine stone. The Spring Equinox is a time of optimism and a zest for life. Green Aventurine has the “Spring Energy” that bolsters your confidence during change to embark on a new beginning.
- Create a Mandala – During the winter you have reflected on what you would like to create, and now is the time. Create a mandala with images, colors, and words that represent what you would like to manifest, and add some sacred geometry that will energetically enhance your creation. Paint your mandala on a canvas board. Once it is complete you can place a candle, images, or crystals on it to enhance its energy. Energy follows intention. When meditating with your mandala you can say: Ostara blessings fall on me, abundance and fertility. As light and dark a balance find, joyful thoughts do fill my mind. Help my creations come to be, filled with light and vitality.