Spring Solstice, on this day the daylight hours will be the exact same as the nighttime hours. It also marks the beginning of when the days will become longer and the nights shorter. People will start to spend more time outside because winter is finally over, and the weather will begin to warm. This is the true beginning of the year, the vernal equinox. This is Spring.
Mother Nature has been showing us the way for centuries. However somewhere along the way, we as humans tried to forge our own path. New inventions over the years have made it even easier to navigate away from where we as a species once were.
Winter is a time of hibernation and rest. It’s cold; the skies are grey and dreary. The days are terribly short, (I really wish we could do away with daylight savings time, but I won’t get into that.) and we tend to sleep more. We eat more comforting foods, such as fatty meats and root vegetables. We want to spend more time inside. The evidence is right under our noses if we really take the time to pay attention.
Think about animals in nature. I watch the squirrels all autumn long hunting around in my backyard for nuts to store for the winter season. Bears hide in caves, and sleep all winter long. They don’t have clocks to tell them when to come out of hiding. They just follow Mother Nature. No one tells the birds to fly south for the winter. They just follow Mother Nature.
Natures Signals
Armed with all of these signals from Mother Nature, my question is, why in the hell do we start New Year Resolutions on January 1 every year? Why are we trying to make big sweeping changes to our lives when Mother Nature is telling us we need to rest?
Eckhart Tolle
Time isn’t precious at all, because it is an illusion.
The answer, because we as a people made an arbitrary calendar, and thus it was so. (Time change was Sunday, March 10. If you missed it, I congratulate you on your lack of technology.) We literally made it up.
Julius Caesar (a politician, mind you) deemed January 1 the start of the new year by edict. In the Roman calendar, which eventually was morphed into our current Gregorian calendar, January was a time for tidying and preparation. Agrarian societies used to use this time to sharpen their tools.
If you go back even further than that, archaeologists have found evidence of the original calendars being based on the lunar and solar phases. I have been reading Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown, and the different Indian tribes used the moon combined with nature as a guide to the changing seasons. They spoke of the Moon of the Wild Rice (September) and the Strawberry Moon (July).
So, now it’s springtime, and we have lost interest in the myriad of New Year Resolutions that we may have attempted to begin. Of course we are getting discouraged! Mother Nature is literally against us.
Go with the Flow
Another fun fact: the astrological season for the sign Pisces, which is from February 18 to March 20, marks the end of the Zodiac calendar and the onset of the vernal equinox. AKA Spring!
Pisces is a water sign. (Hello fish!) Water is one of the four elements, and is symbolic of intuition and emotions. Phlegm, one of the four humors in ancient Greek philosophy, was the symbol of water, both being cold and wet.
Even if you aren’t a Pisces, you can definitely feel the ultra-sensitive energy. Think about it this way: we already know that the moon controls the tide of the ocean. The OCEAN! That’s fucking huge! We are so small in comparison to the ocean, so you better believe that the moon has some effect on us. (Remember that woo woo train?) But seriously, it just makes sense.
From the ashes, a fire shall be woken, A light from the shadows shall spring…
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
The Ram, Aries, marks the beginning of the Zodiac calendar. Aries is a Fire sign, and they are passionate and confident. Aries is all about rebirth. Just take a look at the holidays celebrated during the Aries season (March 21 to April 19), Passover and Easter, liberation and resurrection. This sounds like a much better season to start a New Year Resolution. Let’s do that instead.
Consider this my formal invitation for you to not beat yourself up over the fact that you may have slipped on your New Year Resolutions. Guess what? The manmade calendar was lying to you all along. This is your official second chance to do whatever it is that you need to do for you. I hope you enjoy my Spotify playlist Spring Forward.
Mad love – Jenna
