Nature Notebook: Spring Equinox

How to celebrate & journal prompts

Next week is Spring Equinox (or Ostara) - it’ll happen on 20 March at 3:06am (or, I believe, on 19 March 10:06pm CDT if you are in the Eastern Time Zone or further west).

Spring Equinox marks the first day of astrological spring (meteorological spring starts on 1 March). It happens between the summer and winter solstices and marks the moment the sun positions itself exactly above the Earth’s equator before it heads northward. Day and night are roughly the same length at Spring Equinox and the Northern and Southern Hemispheres share the sun’s rays equally.

To me, Spring Equinox feels like a much more suitable time than 1 January to celebrate, take stock and look ahead, so I always like to create a spread in my nature journal to mark the change in the season or, or at the very least, get some of my thoughts down on paper.

Here’s my Spring Equinox spread, which includes some prompts for your own journals:

Here’s some info and some prompts to help you fill a page or two of your journal…

Ways to celebrate Spring Equinox

• Spend time outside and enjoy the elements.

• Plant seeds (both literal and metaphorical).

• Make or decorate flags/kites and fly them.

• Decorate eggs or plant pots.

• Make a ‘shrine to spring’ and make a wish for the coming season.

• Forage for spring greens and give thanks to the earth.

• Spring clean!

  

Spring Equinox Symbols

• Eggs (and baskets of eggs carried by women).

• Dragons.

• Oestre, the ‘Goddess of Light’ who brings fertility with the spring.

• Spring flowers and blossoms.

• Spring greens - nettles, cleavers etc.

• Butterflies.

• Rabbits and hares.

“Everything in nature is coming alive. The sun is gaining strength and the days are longer and warmer. It is the time to throw off the restraints of winter and reach forth for what we want, make plans, journey forth, take risks. The Earth’s energies are now bended. Celebrate the Dance of Life, of Gaia - interdependent complementary parts of one energy system which we can embrace on our journey to become whole.”

- ‘Underlying Energy’ by Glennie Kindred from The Earths Cycle of Celebration

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Spring Equinox Journal Prompts:

• What are you most looking forward to this spring?

• What do you want to ‘spring clean’ in your life, or leave behind in winter?

• What seeds are you hoping to plant and grow (literal and metaphorical)?

• What would you like to ‘awaken’ in yourself this spring? How can you make that happen?

• What risks would you really like to take if there were no consequences?

• What is likely to bring you energy in the coming months? How can you tap into and embrace that?

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  Sources and further reading:

• The Earths Cycle of Celebration by Glennie Kindred

• BBC Science Focus: Spring equinox 2024: What and when is it?

• The Goddess and the Green Man: Ostara/Spring Equinox / Vernal Equinox Symbols

• Canton Public Library: Ways to Celebrate Spring Equinox/Ostara

• Royal Museums Greenwich: When does spring start?

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