Spring Equinox Meditation

Easter is the only festival whose date is dictated by the movements of the sun and the moon. This offers us a great opportunity to interlink the mysteries of Pagan, Jewish and Christian understanding.

As the Earth reaches its equinoctial point in its rotation around the sun we find ourselves connected with a multitude of ancient traditions and beliefs that celebrate this spring time festival as one of new life and re-birth. The opportunity to recognise our dependence and interconnectedness with the whole, while celebrating the power of the risen Christ offers a great place for real dialogue and a deeper appreciation of the meaning of this season.

As Jesus offers Himself as the consummation of the Jewish Passover, we can also see Him as the consummation of all Equinoctial traditions.

The Pagan traditions of the world have always celebrated this joyful time of re-birth; as new life emerges from the egg, the seed, the bud or the dark, dusty hole of hibernation. The Jewish tradition celebrates deliverance from a place of misery and domination, and a leading towards a place of Divine dependence and abundant living.

Within the Pagan tradition we have recognition of the reality that death comes before, and makes way for new life. In the Jewish tradition we have recognition of relationship with the Divine and the need to make sacrifices for that relationship to be sustained.

Jesus, staying in relationship with the Divine, by His own choice becomes the sacrifice, He takes on Death itself, and then breaks free, emerging fully alive at dawn - thus taking the reality of New Life to a different level. How we work this New Life out in ourselves is up to us, but we can begin to believe in a dimension where death no longer has the powerful hold over us that the finite world dictates, and we can break free from dark and dingy memories and move towards a place where relationship with the Divine is real and potent.

Meditation

As new life emerges from the warm earth, so may new life fill our hearts and lives.

This meditation asks us to focus on one symbol of new life that we associate with the Spring time/Easter season. It will really help to have an image or even better the real thing in view while you do the meditation. Having read the meditation through, look out for some images or symbols of new life that mean most to you, for example hares boxing, chickens hatching, blossoms opening from bud, lambs skipping or creatures emerging from hibernation. Whatever you choose, it will help for you to focus you mind if you can see what you are thinking about, the real thing, a photo from a book or the internet, or even a simple drawing of your own will all be helpful.

Sit quietly in a place where you feel safe. If it is warm and you feel comfortable doing so, then it will be ideal to be outside where you might feel the warmth of the sun on your face, hear birds singing and smell the fragrance of blossom in the air.

Whether you are inside or outside allow yourself to feel the spring energy that is rising in the Earth and manifesting itself in gardens, parks and open countryside around us. Allow your breathing to become relaxed and deep, and as you breath in; breath in warmth, spring time fragrance and the exuberance of the birds singing, and as you breath out; breath out the old, the stale, and the now unnecessary ways of Winter.

Keep up a steady breath – breathing in spring and breathing out winter until you feel that you have become relaxed and in touch with the Earth’s spring time energies.

Now bring to mind those things that you connect with the spring equinox/ Easter. There are plenty of traditional images – budding flowers, birds hatching, creatures emerging from hibernation, lambs skipping and the Easter Bunny (the hare) boxing in the fields.

Choose one of these images or an alternative image that works for you.

Whatever you have chosen it’s now time to focus your mind on your chosen symbol of spring. Trace out the shape of it, watch (or imagine) the movement of it, touch ( or imagine what it would be like to touch) it, listen to any sound

that it makes, smell (or imagine the smell, or a smell you might associate with it).

Now step back and allow your chosen symbol to simply be itself, to express its natural spring like exuberance.

Let go as you enjoy all that this being has to offer.

In time you might like to let the question come into your mind as to why you chose this being as your symbol of spring. What special thing about life/new life and this season does your chosen symbol say to you?

Allow your thoughts their freedom and if there are any new realisations rising in your mind at this time you may like to make a note of them before moving on.

Likewise if you have any sense of blockage at this point make a note to yourself to deal with this issue in the coming weeks before Easter, and if necessary take steps towards forgiveness and the letting go that will open the door to all that life has to offer you.

Having made a note of any emerging thoughts, return to the exuberance and joy in front of you, and if you haven’t already, let yourself feel some of that exuberance and joy within your own being. We are all one in this spring time experience – Enjoy!

Whatever exuberance and joy you can feel at this point, prepare yourself now to make an offering of this joy to the Divine (Jesus/God or your personal sense of a higher being).

As the joy of the Spring Equinox courses through your veins, so you can, through your own choice offer this joy back to the Creator and Sustainer of all things, whose joy it is to give us all that we need in both body and soul. As we offer to God all that we experience at this moment we may well experience a joy even greater than all that we associate with this wonderful season.

Let us thank God for all that we have received at this time.

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