Welcoming the Return of Spring

Writes Edward Hays in his classic spiritual manual, Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim.

As the sun’s rays strike our planet more directly, the earth responds with newness and freshness. [Our spiritual ancestors] set this day apart as sacred, as a feast to celebrate the resurrection of the earth. The sun, radiant and healing, revitalizes the dark and dormant, as days and nights are again of equal length on the day of the equinox.

May the eternal experience of spring prepare each of us for a personal rebirth and resurrection. May it be a pledge-sign that life rises out of death.

A true planetary pilgrim experiences this feast not as a spectator but as a concelebrant with the earth and all creation. This day is both holy and magical, filled with hidden spirits and sounds.

May our ears, eyes, and nose be attentive to the rebirth of green life pushing up through the earth, even if it is still hidden from view. May we feel in our bodies the energy of the sun calling for newness and life.

The ancient ones danced to the mystery of new life and sprouting vegetation. They lit fires to banish the tired, aged spirits of winter and darkness. They built their bonfires to ward off the half-hidden fears that perhaps this time, this year, winter would not leave and they would die in the barren, icy darkness.

With reverence, let us be touched by this hidden memory as we respond to the tidal-gravitational tug of the planet Earth on this feast. Rejoice with all the Web of Life, woven so tightly, as the season of spring begins.

– Edward Hays
Excerpted from "A Spring Equinox Ritual"
in Prayers for a Planetary Pilgrim
(Forest of Peace Books, 1989)

Related Off-site Links:
First Day of Spring 2019: The Spring Equinox – Catherine Boeckmann (The Old Farmer's Almanac, March 20, 2019).
Spring Equinox 2019: Ancient Traditions Echo in Our Modern World – Forrest Brown (CNN, March 20, 2019).
See the First Supermoon on the Spring Equinox in 19 Years – Andrew Fazekas (National Geographic, March 19, 2019).

See also the previous posts:
• Welcoming the Spring Equinox
• A Time of Balance
• Eostre at Spring Equinox
• Remembering Eostre
• Burgeoning Life Force
• Sacred

Image: Subject and photographer unknown.