Welcome Spring!

Ostara Special Edition

Mar 20, 2025

I’m posting Sunday’s post a few days early in honor of Ostara

At 5:01 this morning, eastern standard time, spring arrived. Today, the length of day and night are equal, and from tomorrow on every day will be a little bit longer, and every night a little bit shorter.

Our snow here is mostly melted, and we hit the high sixties yesterday, but now we’re looking at and I’m beginning to see hints of green returning to the grass. I have snowdrops, but it’s still too early for much else here on the hilltops of Cortland County N.Y.

The spring brings renewal. The energy is of rebirth. The death part, the winter part, repost and reflection, that’s over now. It’s the time of awakening.

The fresh energy of the east and the element of air* blows fresh, clearing away outdated ways of understanding. The mind is refreshed and fresh ideas flow.

In some traditions East is fire. If that’s so for yours, then fire burns way outmoded understanding, clearing and fertilizing the soil in an instant, allowing for fresh new growth.

Spring is the time when that growth begins.

All we have to do is look outside to know this. Everything is coming to life in nature, all around us. The migrating birds have returned, and they’re gathering up twigs and stray dog hairs to line their nests. Our English mastiff Roxanne provides plenty.

As above, so below. As within, so without.

We can latch onto this energy of renewal by trying to find the same energy in ourselves and in our lives, which becomes our surfboard, on which we ride this energy wave. And we have to find it physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Physically is the most obvious way to renew. In family, spring cleaning not optional. I do a pretty thorough house cleaning, cleansing, and blessing every spring and fall, and this is the perfect timing to dive into that.

Here’s a post on how to add a magical kick to your spring cleaning.

Also, physically, you can take a spiritual shower or bath, to ritually cleanse the winter blahs away. Set the mood with dim lighting and candles. Add some special oil or burn a cleansing incense while you bathe. Rosemary and sage, or sandalwood. Visualize negativity and old, stale energy seeping out through your pores, and then down the drain with the water. In a bath, stay in the tub until all the water has drained, while absorbing the beauty of the candlelight, the scents, the warmth of the water, the joy you experience from the music.

When we clear negative energy it creates a vacuum that’s filled instantly. That’s why we surround ourselves with beauty during any cleansing ritual, so that’s what rushes in.

Spring’s a great time to try new looks, new clothes, new hairstyles. It’s all about rebirth, recreating ourselves and fleshing out our 2025 versions.

A close-up of tiny white flowers called snowdrops, with their three-petaled heads drooping. — Snowdrops in my front yard

Mentally, we should experience something new at this time. Do something we’ve never done before, read a new author or a new subject or genre, listen to a new idea we might’ve heard of but know nothing about. This is all about new ways of thinking.

It’s a time get a fresh perspective on everything, and to evolve what we already know and feel.

Spiritually, it’s the perfect energy for renewing and updating your spiritual practice. Last week we discussed the importance of having a spiritual practice. But I feel like I should add to that, that our spirituality isn’t a separate thing from our lives. It’s woven around and throughout every aspect of our lives.

But still, this is the perfect time to begin a new practice, to add an element to or replace an element in your existing practice, give everything a fresh look and a general update.

Start a new habit!

Spring is the time to start something new, and we can add springs energy to help empower whatever we begin now. A week from now, on the 29th, we can add the power of the new moon in Taurus to our own, another boost of energy. Kick things up a notch that day.

I’m planning a larger than usual garden this year, and I’m also planning to get out a protest, something I’ve never done before. There will be a natural stone patio out back too, by summer, and that will provide a fresh new outdoor writing space for summer creating.

On a larger scale

As above, so below. As within, so without.

Awakening. Stale ideas being blown away. New ways of thinking and understanding abound. Different perspectives are offered and received.

The energy of spring can only help the situation.

But while that’s unfolding, our job is to make our own surroundings as beautiful and pleasant as we can, and to fill our lives with things that bring us joy.

Our task, no matter what is happening in the world outside, is to live our lives deliciously!