I had originally been thinking about death as a theme for this piece, but I then went on to consider forest bathing in relation to other topics like childhood, trauma, AI, the ‘pathologisation’ of our differences and the control mechanisms of a culture that seeks to subdue us and prevent our true connection to Nature from being actualised, but in the end I circled back round to death – and life, and an image of intertwined black and white circles and heads came to me.
It feels as though the Spring Equinox (equal days, equal nights) is that tugging point or pivot between two evenly balanced forces with the weight of momentum towards the light thanks to Blackbird and Lesser Celandine, aided and abetted by Primrose and Frogspawn. It can feel as if the scales have finally tipped towards the welcome return of the light, and warmth.
We may sense that we have moved beyond the clutches of death, or maybe by being out in Nature every week we have observed the diurnal cycles and simply moved with what is, we may have witnessed the colossal revolutions of celestial mechanics within the humble shadows on the unclothed soil, we may have felt deep inside our animal instincts the fire of life growing, echoing out into sidereal time and space. Sidereal time is how astronomers measure our position relative to the stars, which is different from Solar time – our position relative to the sun. Celestial or sidereal time and solar time come into alignment on the Vernal (Spring) Equinox. This is the exact point (March 20th 9.02) when the sun appears to leave the Southern Hemisphere, cross the celestial equator and be perpendicular to the Earth in the Northern Hemisphere. The sun rises on the horizon in the East and sets 12hrs later in the West. For this reason, the Spring Equinox has been of great importance for many cultures and calendars right across the globe.
This fulcrum or balance point can be wrestled back in favour of winter at any point we become complacent and bring out the shorts and sandals; At the start of the astrological year (Aries) we have both the death of the previous year and the life of the new year in either hand. I realized whilst writing this that my own birthday falls close to the equinox and is framed on either side by the anniversaries of the deaths of my younger brother in February, and my mother in April.
Life comes and goes, new life is born, new souls enter as others depart, the wheel keeps turning, we gaze up at the same stars our ancestors used to plot the movement of time and the celestial spheres, we are a small but unique part of this vast living, breathing dynamic universe, making our unique contribution to the whole, circles within circles, yin within yang, the dark and light forever joined as one. Nature’s wisdom and abundance crucially offers us guidance, structure, pathways to understand the value of life and death cycles free from the cultural biases that manipulate or disfigure our perceptions. New life in Spring is the manifestation of pure joy and it seeps into our animate, awakening hearts, but it emanates from the composting rich humus of past lives and events. Happy Equinox – enjoy the Spring.
