Explore Your Dreams: Spring Equinox

©iStockphoto.com/CostinT

    Spring Equinox, the day the Sun crosses over the Equator into the Northern Hemisphere, occurs this leap year on Monday, March 19 at 10:15pm PDT and on Tuesday, March 20 at 1:15am EDT and 5:15 am GMT.  In the Southern Hemisphere, people are celebrating the Autumn Equinox and the harvest. 

    Both the Spring and the Autumn Equinox bring us to a balance of day and night as the Sun sits on the Earth’s equator.  Now the days will grow longer north of the equator, and shorter south of it.  Spring Equinox begins with the Sun’s entry into the sign of Aries.  Our western, tropical astrology is earth-based and so we work with the symbolism of Aries starting the astrological year at Spring Equinox.   In sidereal astrology, based on the constellations, Spring Equinox changes with whatever constellation rises on Spring Equinox.  Right now the early degrees of Pisces are rising, due to the earth’s wobble and the precession of the equinoxes.  Soon, the stars of the constellation of Aquarius will be rising at Spring Equinox, heralding the dawning Age of Aquarius.  The easiest way to think of the discrepancy is to understand that Pisces is the backdrop to our tropical zodiac.  There is a more Piscean flavor to our Arian warriors than back when Aries was rising at Spring Equinox.

    Spring Equinox is a rebirth of life and energy, and is often a time of religious celebrations, such as Easter and Passover.  Spring Equinox is the celebration of the return of Persephone from the Underworld.  Most of our religious celebrations are related to the changing position of the Sun as reflected in the Wheel of the Year: the solstices, equinoxes and cross-quarter holidays of Imbolc, Beltaine, Lammas and Samhain.   In Mexico, we can see one of the most beautiful examples of the return of the light at the famous main pyramid at Chichen Itza, where along the sides of the staircases, an enormous snake of sunlight appears to slither down the stairs at the precise moment of the equinox.

     We begin the astrological new year with the Sun going into Aries at the Spring Equinox.  Springtime is a season of renewal - new life bursts forth in Nature, sending up crocuses, tulips, daffodils and hyacinths and unfurling new leaves and blossoms on trees.  It is a time of hope and optimism, of renewed confidence that life will go on with good times to come. 

    Until next time,
         Sweet Dreams!