March Equinox

Equinox ~~

[from Latin, meaning 'equal night']

1: either of the two points on the celestial sphere where the celestial equator intersects the ecliptic
2: either of the two times each year (as about March 21 and September 23) when the sun crosses the equator and day and night are everywhere on earth of approximately equal length.

~ Merriam-Webster online dictionary 

The wheel of the year is divided into either four or eight segments, depending on how often you want to recognize, ritualize or otherwise celebrate the changing of the seasons. Since as far back as we can figure recorded time, humans have noticed and marked the passages we call the Equinox. Stonehenge, Chichen Itza, Angkor Wat and the Sphinx are all equinoctial markers.

Besides its delineation of daylight's increasing or decreasing, the Equinox is a balance point for the Earth's axis pointing neither toward nor away from the sun. For me, it is a spiritual time as well, revealing how everything finds balance on the eternal journey through the cosmos. My reflection on this Equinox is directly informed by the notion of balance.

At this time of season's change, poised astride a sliver of time where all rests balanced, I pause. In this place of balance, I dream of the direction the coming season will take. Allowing the dreamtime its intuitive flow, I breathe in the creative energy and breathe out what no longer serves. With my dreams and discoveries in heart, I adjust my movements into the season to come.

What does the Equinox mean to you? How do you define your balance point? How does it define you? What dreams are the Equinox presenting to you? How will you open to its creative change? What form is the new season taking for you? What support will you need as you move forward?

Magical Reality

He knew what he knew: that the real world was full of magic, so magical worlds could easily be real.

~ Salman Rushdie

Another quote from Rushdie ~ Who knew I'd find snippets of his work so beautiful? I'm thrilled to have found that out!

The world around us is so incredible! It bubbles and snarls, sighs and honks. Every passing minute exudes beauty. If we look for it, or even if we don't, the magic is so amazingly abundant that we trip over it if we aren't careful.

Seeing the magic in the world around us is not the same as being aware of it. Or the same as truly knowing it. Or acknowledging it ~ which is what the speaker in Rushdie's statement does: he acknowledges "that the real world was full of magic."

I've seen a fairy ring in Ireland, a burning bush in the Sinai, a holy well in Israel, a street of sphinxes in Egypt, petroglyphs of a goddess in the Columbia Gorge ~ all considered places of power and magic. Not to mention the simple beauty of the headwaters of a river or the striated stone of a canyon or the graceful flow of sand dunes. If all of those incredible, magical places exist on our planet, why not magical worlds themselves? More to the point, if we recognize the magic on Earth, why would we need the magical worlds?

What kind of beauty and magic do you see in your everyday world? If you had the opportunity, where on Earth would you go to find a magical place? With whom would you share your magical place?