Modern Paganism often romanticizes the agricultural cycle – we forget that farming is a lot of hard work. But there is perhaps no better time than the Spring Equinox to take our cues from agriculture.
At Imbolc we cleansed ourselves, our lives, and our world. We come into the Spring Equinox clean, fresh, and ready to begin again.
But what shall we begin?
Under the Ancient Oaks Spring Equinox Ritual
Friday, March 19
8:00 PM CDT
YouTube Premiere
The Ritual
The ritual follows the same basic liturgy as the other UTAO and Denton CUUPS rituals online rituals over the past year. In December I finally got around to writing about the evolution of my Pagan liturgy. If you wonder why I do this or why I don’t do that, this post explains it.
The Deity of the Occasion is Danu. While the Germanic Goddess Ostara is often associated with the Spring Equinox, that connection is rather tenuous. More importantly, I have no relationship with Ostara. Danu has been part of my life since my early days on this path.
Danu is a very old Goddess and like many old, primal deities there are very few stories about Her. Her name is connected to several rivers in central Europe, most notably the Danube. Scholars disagree as to Her origins and functions, but I know Her as a Mother Goddess and as the Lady of the Waters. It is in that understanding that we honor Her in this ritual.
What you need to participate where you are
As usual, if you’d like to participate where you are, you’ll need a candle and something to light it with, something for offerings and something to pour them into. I’m offering wine – you offer what seems right to you. When we’re done with the main working, we’ll share a drink among ourselves.
The main working is a planting ritual. Now, I’ve been to a lot of Spring Equinox rituals where the main working was planting seeds. But let’s remember that we never plant “seeds.” We plant tomato seeds or cucumber seeds or geranium seeds. Folk wisdom in many religions reminds us that we reap what we sow – Spring is the time to make a conscious decision on what we will sow.
What do you wish to grow this year? What will it take to grow it?
If you have seeds and a planter, plant them with me. If you don’t, just follow along, and then when you get them do your own planting ritual.
The ritual runs right at 23 minutes.
Daylight Saving Time change
For those of us in North America, Daylight Saving Time begins today. For most of the rest of the world, it doesn’t start till the last Sunday in March. So the time difference between “here” and “there” for the Spring Equinox ritual will be an hour less than it usually is.
You can sign up for a reminder on YouTube and it will do the time shift for you.
The future of online rituals
I began the pandemic with a rather abbreviated online Spring Equinox ritual last year. This ritual begins the second cycle through the Wheel of the Year. With the lower infection and hospitalization rates, and with the rollout of vaccines, I’m optimistic that we can begin celebrating in person again before too much longer. But I do not think that will be possible by Beltane.
So there will be an Under the Ancient Oaks Online Beltane ritual, probably on Beltane itself: May 1. At this point I have no idea what it will look like, just that it will be.
And after that we’ll see how things go.
For now, let’s enjoy the Equinox and the return of Spring.
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