2011 Spring Equinox Packs a Wallop

Who can resist spring? The sun’s shining, flowers are blooming, and right now all of us in the Northern Hemisphere feel that zesty tingle that makes us want to scramble out of our well-worn ruts and do something!

Farmers, gardeners, astrologers, wiccans and pagans – and anyone else who’s aware of the effect of the sun’s migration and the earth’s seasonal cycles – know that in many ways the Spring Equinox is the true New Year. Astrologers will point out that the Equinox begins at the moment the Sun enters vigorous Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. Wiccans and pagans will tell you that each Equinox is the balance point between the goddess and the god (feminine and masculine, or yin/yang energies), and the Spring Equinox is the moment when the masculine force, emerging as Aries, takes over.

In fact, this is an ideal time to hunt up those New Year’s resolutions that have probably been gathering dust in a quiet corner since mid-January. Although the inwardly focused Winter Solstice is the perfect time to create your resolutions, this season of rebirth is the moment to act on them.

Grounding and Nurturing Your Dreams

Ceremonial seed planting is a lovely, traditional ritual that can really help you gather the inner and outer forces that you need to make your resolutions a reality, as well as give yourself a target time for completion.

Get the freshest possible seeds for something that grows aboveground during the summer for fall harvest, such as sunflowers, wheat or some other grain. Sunflowers are particularly good, because they’re large enough for you to actually write a one-word description of each resolution on each seed before planting… and because the effort you put into tending them yields really big, impressive results, exactly what you want your resolutions to yield, too. If you choose a grain, then write your resolution on a tiny piece of paper and bury in your rich soil near or beneath the seed itself.

When you plant the seeds, do it in a sacred way, either on the Solstice day itself, or within three days after the first New Moon following (which in 2011 is at 7:32 am PDT on April 3). Create sacred space by burning sage or incense, calling in the spirits of the four elements/directions, and asking your higher power, angels, spirit guides, power animals or saints for assistance. For extra pizzazz, prepare some special supercharged water by putting it outside during the Full Moon tonight (2011) with a favorite crystal or stone inside, and save it for your New Moon ritual. Plant and water the seeds and paper mindfully, asking for assistance with each. Thank your helpers when you’re done, and release the energy.

Each time you tend to your plant, make a brief ritual out of it, perhaps making fresh Full Moon water each month. And each time you tend to your resolutions, do the same. You’d be amazed at how these simple steps add power, focus and effectiveness to what you’re doing.

The Wallop

This year the typical Spring Equinox drive for achievement and change will be doubly strong thanks to shake-it-all-up influence of planet Uranus which, after a brief visit during May through August of last year, has now returned to Aries for a 7-year stay. What we have here is a world-changing partnership between freedom-loving, disruptive Uranus and warrior Aries.

This has both personal and global implications. People with points in their astrological charts in very early Aries, Cancer, Libra and Capricorn will feel this shift especially strongly, and will probably find themselves dealing with issues which surfaced briefly between May and August of 2010.

On a grander scale, this begins the second stage of a long-term (up to 140 years’) dance between transformational planetary heavyweights Uranus and Pluto. The first stage happened with their conjunction in 1965 and ’66, triggering revolutionary anti-war and human rights movements. Shortly before Uranus re-entered Aries a few weeks ago democratic movements sprang up in the Middle East and Africa, igniting a new phase of challenging old forms of business and government which will peak as Uranus conjuncts Pluto in 2012.

You can put this transformational energy to work in your own life now by honoring your own need for freedom and change, and working mindfully with these explosive energies to create new forms which benefit not only you, but everyone whose lives are impacted by your actions.