Lessons from the Spring Equinox
Embracing the Balance of Light and Dark
The Spring Equinox is the meeting of the dark and the light, two vast tides that extend beyond time, merging at their edges in a far-off galaxy that is also the air you breathe, and the light you witness. At the Equinox intersection, the Feminine weakens while the Masculine turns his bronzed body to the sun and readies his weapons. The quickening is upon us.
The Spring Equinox: A Time of Balance
In this Equinox space of equal day and night, we honour and recognize the balance of the masculine and the feminine and so the interdependency of life. How polarity and dualism are essential, and how we live and evolve through highs and lows, consolidation and separation.
Through Springs's lens, we are neither darkness NOR light instead, we are darkness AND light. We are at the cross-over point of the figure 8 of the Lemniscate, where the Spring winds come to collect their seed cargo and gather themselves for the work ahead.
Dandelion as a Symbol of Spring’s Renewal
El Dandilero, the god of Spring is always the first to rise, heralding the end of the Water cycle, his joyous gold the first colour to break winter’s spell. The Spirit of Dandelion as harbinger of the light holds the medicine of renewal and rebirth in its roots, leaves and flowers. Healing and detoxing the Liver organ of its old stories and its heavy *metals, teaching us how to be light, swift and adaptable to the present moment. Opening in us a particular responsiveness to the subtle messages of nature that are best translated through the Hun or Spirit that resides in the Liver.
This call to lightness is why we traditionally detox or Spring clean in the Spring season. A powerful and alchemic aid as we shrug off the dark mantle of the feminine and her brooding witchery that picks things to their bones, and instead looks to grow in brightness and strength toward the sun and the masculine principle of creativity.
The powerful (Dandi)Lion archetype must scatter the seeds he has nourished all winter in order to claim his true power. To harness the Spring wind in the pursuit of his regeneration is the only option if his lineage (and so himself) is to survive. Nature’s reminder to prepare ourselves, for we too must share our winter seeds without boundary or attachment to where or how they will grow.
Courage and the Threshold of Growth
When we are in flow with the seasons, winter is the most precious gift, a window through which we see our potential, and grow in our singularity. This is our feminine archetype, dark, deep and mysterious. In the summer we cast that same light over the world, through creativity and contribution to our families and communities. This is our masculine archetype, bright, warm and strong. In Spring, however, we must summon the courage to turn once again to the light, to ready ourselves for another round even if the wound of the last still smarts. This is the crossover, and both past and present are in operation. El Dandilero may remember the blade of every lawnmower who has cut him down but he courageously returns and casts his whole yield to the unknowable wind.
We too sit on this precipice, and there is a polarity here in the churning of the tides that offers great insight. What the feminine has given us is wisdom, the layer that sits below and below and below the fear. Our work now is to alchemise and integrate her final message, and then cross the threshold and let go the yield to our own uncertain future. If we miss the call because we are busy holding onto last year, or convincing ourselves we are separate, then our seeds remain closed and close to our chests. In fear that we are not enough, denying our diversity, and so depriving the world of our gift.
The sublime complexity of nature creates communities where each species thrives in each other’s presence. Herbivores need plants, carnivores depend on herbivores, and predation keeps a natural balance. Without scavengers like bacteria, waste could not be regenerated into plants. Without the carbon-consuming oceans and rainforests, we would be deprived of oxygen. At the same time that life is broken up through the experiences of Winter, it is also regenerated through reuniting in the Spring.
“My Way has one string which threads it all together."- I Ching
This Equinox I invite you to observe the tapestry of nourishment that reveals nature as our teacher and our redeemer. At the Vernal threshold, like the Dandelion himself, open to the ways you are connected to others and to the planet through the knowledge you cultivated in your separation. Be relentlessly unafraid to share all of who you are, to take a deep breath and scatter all your seeds because here in the manifestation energy of the Spring Equinox, the dispersion of our winter Selves is the only way home.
Yolande x
*Metals references both the heavy metals that accumulate in the body through urban life, pesticide exposure and constant low-level radiation as well as the Metal Element qualities of grief, loss and hopelessness that we experience when living in times of rapid change.
