Happy equinox, friends! Today, the light and the dark stand in equal balance, in cosmic harmony. The sun rises directly due East and sets due West. The sun appears to travel across the sky in a straight line rather than a curve. The Earth’s poles point neither towards nor away from the sun.
Today is the tipping point when the hours of day begin to rule over the hours of night. From now until the Summer Solstice, the light will grow ever longer and the dark will recede, all part of the wheel of the year and the grand astrological cycle that causes our Earthly seasons.
Pagans and neopagans call today the festival of Ostara, named for the Germanic goddess Eostre whose dominion was fertility, renewal, and the bringing of the dawn. Her symbols were the rabbit and the egg, ancient symbols of fertility (fucking like rabbits) and rebirth (egg, obviously) which were co-opted by the early Christians for their Easter holiday that marks the rising (rebirth) of Jesus Christ from the tomb. Way before Easter was a thing, these symbols were alive and magical, and, like all symbols, they helped humans connect to universal forces: in this case to the goddess Eostre and the vibrant, virile, transformative energy of Spring.
Today, look outside. Watch the movement of the sun, the shadows. Notice the first signs of spring in the budding trees, the shoots of purple crocuses, the thickening grass, the lush pink camellia bloom. Listen for the birds as they return from their migration. Can you feel the shifting seasons? The plants do, the birds and animals do, the Earth itself does. You do, too. We’re all, every one of us, tapped into this unconscious and fundamental knowledge, this cosmic energy, the ever-turning wheel of the year.
Today, we can connect to these energies to understand our own place in the cycle. What is awakening in you under the growing sunlight? What has been waiting in you all winter, growing, gestating, that is now ready to be born? Today and as we move forward into Spring, we come ALIVE again. I offer this spread, rooted in the Ostara symbol of the egg, to help you tap into the stirrings within you, to help you expand and unfold in all your awakening glory in the warmth of the dawning sun.
Happy Ostara, friends.
OSTARA (SPRING EQUINOX)
TAROT SPREAD
THE YOLK: What has been gestating all winter, ready to be born?
THE SHELL: What limiting beliefs or old structures am I ready to break through & leave behind?
THE CRACK: How do I break through the shell and open to transformation & rebirth?
THE SUN: What awakens & nourishes me this season?
THE SONG: How to speak my truth & embody my light this season.
THE WING: What new journey or opportunity invites me this Spring?
